Latest coverage for Swatting

Canadian authorities on Wednesday arrested a 23-year-old Ottawa man on suspicion of building and operating Kimwolf, a fast spreading Internet-of-Things botnet that enslaved millions of devices for use in a series of massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks over the past six months. KrebsOnSecurity publicly named the suspect in February 2026 after the accused launched a volley of DDoS, doxing and swatting campaigns against this author and a security researcher. He now faces criminal hacking charges in both Canada and the United States.

A Romanian national who led an online swatting ring that targeted more than 75 public officials, multiple journalists, and four religious institutions was sentenced to 4 years in federal prison. [...]

Discovery is getting cheaper. Validation and patching aren’t What good is finding a hole if you can't fix it? Anthropic last week talked up Claude Code's improved ability to find software vulnerabilities and propose patches. But security researchers say that's not enough.…

Right on cue, petulant hacktivists attempt to disrupt yet another global sporting event Italy's foreign minister says the country has already started swatting away cyberattacks from Russia targeting the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.…

A prolific data ransom gang that calls itself Scattered Lapsus ShinyHunters (SLSH) has a distinctive playbook when it seeks to extort payment from victim firms: Harassing, threatening and even swatting executives and their families, all while notifying journalists and regulators… Read More »

Also, Crypter Takedown, Threat Intel Naming Accord and Regulators Ping CrowdStrikeThis week, Ukraine hacked Tupelov, Russian hacking, crypter sites seized and the U.S. will seize North Korean IT worker crypto. Regulators probed CrowdStrike. A Rosetta Stone for intel. A Romanian man admitted to swatting, Lee Enterprises hack exposed data and an FBI vet joined the private sector.

Some Patients Threatened Directly by Hackers; Center to Spend $13.5M on SecurityA Seattle cancer center has agreed to pay $11.5 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit involving a 2023 double-extortion ransomware attack that affected 2.1 million people, with some patients directly threatened by hackers with swatting attacks if they didn't pay a ransom.

UK starts prosecution days after FBI vowed to clamp down on the crime Three young Brits are accused of stateside swatting offences and will appear in a UK court today to face their charges after a joint investigation by the FBI and Merseyside cops.…

No specific law against it yet, but that's set to change A spate of high-profile swatting incidents in the US recently forced the FBI into action with its latest awareness campaign about the occasionally deadly practice.…

Targeted elected officials and others with over 100 fake crime reports and threats The US government has indicted two men for allegedly reporting almost 120 fake emergencies or crimes in the hope of provoking action by armed law enforcement agencies.…

US Cyber Agency Director Is Latest High-Profile Target of Dangerous Swatting AttackThe director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed she was the apparent target of a swatting attack in which police responded to false calls of a shooting at her Virginia residence on Dec. 30, 2023. In a statement, Easterly described the experience as "harrowing."

Election officials, judges, politicians, and gamers are in swatters' crosshairs CISA Director Jen Easterly has confirmed she was the subject of a swatting attempt on December 30 after a bogus report of a shooting at her home.…

A phone call to authorities claimed that a shooting had taken place on Easterly's block.

Netflix has a new documentary series airing next week -- "Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies & the Internet" -- in which Yours Truly apparently has a decent amount of screen time. The debut episode explores the far-too-common harassment tactic of "swatting" -- wherein fake bomb threats or hostage situations are phoned in to police as part of a scheme to trick them into visiting potentially deadly force on a target’s address.