Dancho Danchev

Dancho Danchev (Данчо Данчев) (born November 22 1983) in Sofia is a cybersecurity researcher journalist and a blogger based in Bulgaria. He lives in Troyan.
==Early Life==
Dancho Danchev has been an active security blogger since 2007. He is a cybersecurity researcher and a WhoisXML API threat researcher.. He runs one of the security industry's most popular security publications with over 5.6M page views Dancho Danchev's Blog - Mind Streams of Information Security Knowledge. He is known for reporting first on the Chinese hacktivist” attack on CNN.com in 2008, the Operation Ababil attack on Wells Fargo U.S. Bank and PNC Bank and the New York Times advertisement attack in 2009.
He has been associated with ZDNet’s Zero Day blog, where he co-wrote articles and analyses on East European criminal activity and online scams. Danchev’s research often focused on cyber terrorism activities of terrorist groups and monitoring the activities of the Koobface worm which targeted users of social networking sites, including Facebook.
Danchev went missing in 2011, according to reports, after his blog post on the collection of his research on terrorist organisations' use of the internet for jihad.
==Education==
Dancho have studied in Vasil Levski Secondary School in Troyan Bulgaria and later on studied at Hogeschool Zuyd in Sittard The Netherlands and then at Hogeschool InHolland in Rotterdam The Netherlands. He holds a TOEFL certificate.
==Events==
* Dancho is known to have presented at the Netherlands Intelligence Studies Association (NISA):
* Dancho is known to have presented the Keynote presentation at CyberCamp 2016 event in Spain.
* Dancho is known to have presented at Cybersecurity Talks Bulgaria.
==Work Career==
Dancho is known to have been moderating DiamondCS's Trojan Defense Suite newsletter in 1999. Dancho is known to have been running Astalavista Security Group's Astalavista.com in 2003 Web site and Astalavista.box.sk Web site in 2021.
==Interviews==
* Dancho gave an interview to Deutsche Welle on the Koobface botnet
* Dancho gave an interview to LinuxSecurity.com
* Dancho participated in a WhoisXML API Podcast
* Dancho gave an interview to Russian OSINT
==Dissapearance==
In September 2010, Danchev went missing under mysterious circumstances amid concerns about his safety. Prior to his disappearance, he had expressed concerns about surveillance by Bulgarian law enforcement and intelligence services. Despite efforts to contact him through various means, including phone and email, he could not be reached. ZDNet published a letter and photos he had sent, seeking information on his whereabouts. While anonymous sources indicated he was alive but facing difficulties, the exact details of his disappearance remain unknown.
==Major Achievements==
* Dancho is known to have participated in a Top Secret GCHQ Program to monitor hackers online based on a document part of Edward Snowden's archive.
* Dancho is known to have discovered that PaloAlto Networks is part of the SolarWinds supply chain malicious software attack
* Dancho is known to have discovered that the Web site of Flashpoint has been compromised and was redirecting to malware
* Dancho is also known to have contributed to research involving the Avalanche and the Mumba botnets
* Dancho is known to have heavily contributed to various scareware related research
* Dancho is known to have contributed to the use of search engines by cybercriminals in the context of blackhat SEO (search engine optimization) and malicious search engine results poisoning research
* Dancho is known to have contributed research on the Luthuanian cyber attacks and the Russia vs Georgia cyber attacks
* Dancho is known to have been running and maintaining the "Diverse Portfolio of Fake Security Software" blog posts on scareware blog posts series
* Dancho Danchev has been quoted on India's CAPTCHA solving economy
* Dancho is known to lead the threat intelligence market segment according to a comparative market study
==Awards==
* Dancho won a Jessy H. Neal Award for Best Blog for ZDNet's Zero Day Blog in 2010.
* Dancho also won a SCMagazine Social Media Award for "Five to Follow on Twitter" in 2011.
==Book Citations==
* Dancho has been cited in Cyber Security Essentials
* Dancho has been cited in Security Awareness: Applying Practical Security in Your World
* Dancho has been cited in CompTIA Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals
* Dancho has been cited in Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals
Category:1983 births
Category:People from Sofia
Category:Researchers
Category:Journalists
Category:Bloggers