The number of publicly reported breach victims in the US has soared by 564% from the end of 2020 to the first three months of this year, according to the latest data from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).

The non-profit claimed that 51 million consumers were affected by incidents in Q1 2021, versus eight million in the final three months of 2020.

However, the volume of breaches only rose by 12%, or 363, over the same period. The ITRC claimed this disparity could be explained by the increase in supply chain attacks, where a single breach leads to the compromise of multiple organizations, and many more victims than would usually be expected.

A case-in-point here is the cyber-attack on organizations running Accellion’s legacy file transfer software. Although this was counted as a single breach, it actually affected scores of customers.

Supply chain attacks surged by 42% from Q4 2020 to the first quarter of 2021, with 27 such incidents affecting seven million people in Q1 2021, according to the ITRC.

Previously disclosed supply chain attacks continue to result in new breach notices: the infamous Blackbaud breach led to 62 new notices in Q1 2021, impacting around 146,000 new individuals. Over 12.8 million people and 555 organizations have now been affected by the attack first reported in mid-2020.

Phishing and ransomware continue to be the top sources of data compromise in the US, according to the report.

“While the number of data compromises is only up slightly, the rise in supply chain attacks is troubling,” said Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the ITRC.

“Supply chain, phishing and ransomware attacks reflect a broader trend that cyber-criminals want to exploit multiple organizations through a single point-of-attack. The most important action people can take to help protect themselves is to exercise good cyber-hygiene habits.” 

Europol has revealed the arrest of an Italian national suspected of paying for a hitman via a dedicated dark web site.

The unnamed suspect reportedly paid €10,000 in Bitcoin to have their ex-girlfriend murdered. They visited a website hosted on the TOR network which advertised assassination services.

Europol said its European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT) assisted the Italian Postal and Communication Police (Polizia Postale e delle Comunicazioni) in the operation.

Specifically, it was able to carry out “urgent, complex crypto-analysis” which unmasked the identity of the cryptocurrency service provider used by the suspect. The Italian police then followed-up with the provider to demand additional details on the individual.

The speed at which this phase of the investigation proceeded is said to have saved the life of the target.

The use of violence by organized crime groups has increased over the past few years, with gangs increasingly willing to deploy deadly violence, according to a Europol report from February.

It claimed that a growing prevalence of younger, more inexperienced hitmen are lowering the cost of contract killings across the region.

Costs now range between €10,000 and €100,000 depending on the country.

“Hired assassins often remain under the radar as they are not a part of the organized crime group,” the report added.

The use of dark web sites to advertise the services of killers-for-hire is nothing new, but arrests are few and far between.

Back in August 2020, a New Jersey man was charged with paying a hitman $20,000 in Bitcoin to murder a 14-year-old with whom he had exchanged sexually explicit images.

However, that plot was uncovered after the individual had already been arrested and charged with other offenses. In this case, it appears the murder-for-hire site he used was set up to extort ‘clients.’