Hackers tried to frame security blogger Brian Krebs in heroin plot

Cybercriminals don’t send gutsy security blogger rockstar Brian Krebs birthday cards.

Instead, they try to frame him by sending a dozen bags of heroin to his home in Northern Virginia.

The hackers plan? To use Bitcoins to purchase heroin in Krebs’s name and address from a seller on the Silk Road online darknet market. Then, once the drugs were delivered, to fake a phone call from one of Krebs’s neighbours reporting him to the police.

Fortunately, Krebs was one step ahead and saw the criminals hatch their plan on a Russian-language underground forum, and was able to tip off the authorities in advance.

Sure enough, the drugs did arrive at Krebs’s home (as you can see in the picture above), but the plan was foiled.

You can read the whole astonishing story on the Krebs On Security website.

Found this article interesting? Follow Graham Cluley on Twitter or Mastodon to read more of the exclusive content we post.

Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.