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UK Government Begins Moving 23 Million Users Away From Passwords

UK government rolls out passkeys for GOV.UK One Login, giving 23 million users phishing-resistant passwordless access to public services.

The UK government has begun deploying passkeys across GOV.UK One Login for more than 23 million users, replacing passwords and SMS one-time codes with FIDO2 cryptographic credentials. A trial saw over 300,000 people adopt passkeys, and nearly one in ten daily authentications already use them, cutting SMS verification costs by almost £600 per day. Passkeys remain optional, with password-based sign-in retained as a fallback, and the NCSC endorses the approach as phishing-resistant.

Cyber Security News · 2d agoPolicy & legal

Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

US extradited Russian national Sergei Filimonov over a bank-account takeover scheme using spoofed bank domains that defrauded two banks of $6.3 million.

US authorities extradited 36-year-old Russian national Sergei Anatolyevich Filimonov from the Republic of Georgia on charges including bank and wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. He and unnamed co-conspirators allegedly ran spoofed bank domains, bought sponsored links to lure victims, and harvested over 5,000 victim login credentials starting in November 2023, causing unauthorized transfers of about $5.58 million and $735,000 from two banks in 2024. The FBI previously identified at least 19 US victims linked to the credential-storage domain, with roughly $28 million in attempted losses including $14.6 million confirmed. Filimonov faces up to 175 years in prison, pleaded not guilty on September 4, and remains detained in the Northern District of Georgia.

CyberScoop · 8d agoPolicy & legal

UK Government Enables Passkey Login for 23 Million Users to Fight Phishing Attacks

UK Government enables optional passkey login for GOV.UK One Login, offering 23 million users phishing-resistant FIDO authentication.

The UK government has rolled out passkey authentication for GOV.UK One Login, the single sign-on for services like tax, State Pension, and driver's license renewals, available to over 23 million users. Passkeys are device-bound, unlocked via fingerprint, Face ID, or device PIN, and the government reports they are up to eight times faster than password plus two-step verification. During the initial trial over 300,000 users adopted passkeys, with nearly one in ten daily sign-ins already using them, saving roughly £600 per day in SMS costs. The NCSC endorses passkeys as phishing-resistant credentials that cannot be intercepted or reused, and biometric data never leaves the user's device.

GBHackers · 2d agoPolicy & legal

Two alleged TeamPCP members arrested and charged after months of software supply

Australian Federal Police, with FBI support, arrested two alleged TeamPCP members behind supply-chain attacks that compromised over 1,000 organizations.

The AFP charged two Western Australian men, identified by media as Ruben Ian Thomson (21) and Louis Michael Gaebler (23), with 14 combined offences including unauthorized data modification and dealing in criminal proceeds. TeamPCP is blamed for poisoning open-source software releases including Trivy, LiteLLM, and the mini Shai-Hulud worm campaign, exposing over 500,000 credentials and at least 300 GB of data. Victims included the European Commission and GitHub, with remediation costs estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Researchers from Flare traced one suspect through leaked passwords, a GitHub alias, and a Steam profile.

CyberScoop · 20d agoPolicy & legal1

Australia charges two men for TeamPCP supply

Australia charged two Perth men over TeamPCP supply-chain attacks compromising 1,000+ organizations and exposing 500,000+ credentials.

The AFP charged two Perth-based men with a combined 14 offences for their alleged roles in TeamPCP, with payments in cryptocurrency for data intrusion, identity crime, and money laundering. The group's supply-chain attacks targeted developer tools including TanStack, Trivy, and LiteLLM, with downstream victims including the European Commission and GitHub. Investigators estimate the campaign compromised over 1,000 organizations, exposed more than 500,000 credentials, and led to theft of at least 300 GB of data, with remediation costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The men could face a combined 82 years if given maximum sentences, though sentences are typically served concurrently.

The Record · 21d agoPolicy & legal

Why APAC Enterprises Need Real-Time Threat Intelligence as Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand Tighten Cyber Compliance in 2026

Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand all tightened cyber compliance in 2026, mandating continuous monitoring and rapid incident reporting for critical infrastructure.

Singapore's CSA issued the Cybersecurity Code of Practice 2026 for Critical Information Infrastructure on 29 July 2026, adding board cyber-resilience duties, annual training, and controls on Interconnected Systems, with most obligations effective by 29 July 2027. Malaysia's Cyber Security Act 2024 requires NACSA-licensed providers, audits, and fast incident notification, with fines up to RM500,000 and up to ten years' imprisonment. Thailand's NCSA cloud security standard has been enforced since 10 September 2026, with a Website Security Standard effective 16 September 2026. The vendor article argues detection speed has become a compliance metric driving demand for real-time threat intelligence.

Cyble · 3h agoPolicy & legal

UK.gov begins killing off passwords for 23 million users

UK government rolls out passkeys to 23 million GOV.UK One Login users, saving £600 daily in SMS costs and resisting phishing.

The UK government is expanding passkey sign-in across GOV.UK One Login for more than 23 million users after a trial with over 300,000 people. Nearly one in ten daily One Login sign-ins already use passkeys, which the government says are up to eight times faster than password plus 2FA code. The switch saves taxpayers nearly £600 per day in SMS costs, and the NCSC is encouraging adoption while passwords remain optional.

The Register · Security · 3d agoPolicy & legal

Conti Ransomware Hacker Sentenced After Group Attacked Over 1,000 Victims Worldwide

Ukrainian national Oleksii Lytvynenko sentenced to four years in US prison for his role in Conti ransomware attacks on 1,000+ victims.

Oleksii Oleksiyovych Lytvynenko, 44, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for working as a developer and intruder in the Conti ransomware operation, coding a malware loader and handling data stolen from 12 victims. Conti compromised over 1,000 victims across 47 US states and 31 foreign countries between 2020 and 2022, generating more than $150 million in ransoms. He was arrested in County Cork, Ireland in July 2023 and extradited to the US. The sentencing is part of a wider US investigation into the Conti and TrickBot ecosystem.

Cyber Security Newsupdated · 5d agofirst · 6d agoPolicy & legal 7 sources

Doctor Doom Thanked Seattle for All the Surveillance Cameras

Activist dressed as Doctor Doom urged Seattle's council to curb Axon and Flock surveillance after a committee voted to redirect $250,000 from CCTV expansion.

Clifford Cawthon, a policy advisor at the Washington State Department of Commerce, appeared at a Seattle Public Safety Committee meeting in costume as Doctor Doom to protest the city's expanding mass surveillance. He criticized Seattle PD's access to 62 cameras feeding an Axon real-time crime center that ingests CCTV, body camera, geolocation, ALPR, and dispatch data from vendors like Axon and Flock. His group Community Not Cameras submitted a petition with five demands, and a committee already voted to move $250,000 away from CCTV expansion pending full council approval.

404 Media · 7d agoPolicy & legal

U.S. Offers $10 Million Reward for Iranian IRGC Cyber Chief Linked to Critical Infrastructure Attacks

The U.S. State Department offered up to $10 million for information on Amir Yaryab, an IRGC cyber chief linked to critical infrastructure attacks.

The U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice program offers up to $10 million for information identifying or locating Amir Yaryab, who allegedly oversees the Cyber Operations Command of Iran's IRGC Cyber-Electronic Command (IRGC-CEC). Officials tie him to units called Shahid Hemmat and Shahid Shushtari conducting cyber and information campaigns against defense, telecommunications, energy, and finance sectors across the US, Europe, and the Middle East, and to groups including CyberAv3ngers and Dadeh Afzar Arman. CyberAv3ngers compromised at least 75 Unitronics Vision Series PLCs, including 34 in US water and wastewater facilities, between November 2023 and January 2024.

Cyber Security News · 9d agoPolicy & legal

Georgia man charged for robbing NBA, NFL players through stolen Apple account details

Georgia man Kwamaine Jerell Ford charged with phishing NBA and NFL players' Apple accounts, making over 2,000 fraudulent transactions, and sex trafficking counts.

Kwamaine Jerell Ford, 34, was arrested and pleaded not guilty to dozens of counts including wire fraud, computer fraud, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, and sex trafficking. He posed as an adult film actress offering explicit videos, then as Apple customer support to harvest usernames, passwords, and MFA codes from professional athletes, gaining access to their credit and debit cards and making more than 2,000 transactions including fund transfers and DoorDash orders. Prosecutors say he ran the scheme while on probation for a similar 2019 phishing offense in which he spent nearly $325,000 of stolen funds, and also coerced a woman into sex with players, filmed encounters without consent, and hacked one athlete's home security cameras. He was held without bail.

The Record · 9d agoPolicy & legal in the wild

Extradited Russian Hacker Faces Charges Over Excel Malware Campaign That Infected Thousands

US DoJ charged extradited Russian Searzhudin Aktulaev for a 2016-2017 Excel macro campaign infecting ~80,000 freelance platform users with TVRAT and DarkVNC.

Searzhudin Tamirlanovich Aktulaev, 40, was arrested in Cyprus in May 2025 and extradited to the US on August 28, facing charges including wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. The indictment alleges ~255 fake freelance-platform accounts were used to send Excel macro attachments to about 80,000 users in 2016-2017, deploying TVRAT (TeamSpy/TVSPY) and DarkVNC RATs for remote access and data theft. Thousands of infected machines called back to a US-hosted C2 domain, with stolen credentials and PII stored in the shared email account used in the scheme.

The Hacker News · 15d agoPolicy & legal

Risky Bulletin: Dutch intel services to get extensive new powers

Netherlands proposed a bill granting AIVD and MIVD expanded warrantless tapping, faster hacking powers, and forced data disclosure, citing Russia, China, and Iran threats.

The Dutch government introduced a bill greatly expanding surveillance powers of intelligence agencies AIVD and MIVD, allowing up to one year of tapping without pre-approval and simplified hacking operations against 'foreign adversaries'. Agencies could compel Dutch companies or citizens to provide data under threat of charges, share data with the private sector, and oversight bodies would merge into a new CTT board. The bill follows similar overhauls in Ireland, Germany, and France after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The newsletter also reports Moonwell hacked for $8.7M, a Cosmos EVM bug exploited for ~$3M, ShinyHunters listing McKesson with claimed hundreds of millions of records, and a pro-Kremlin DDoS claim against Norway's government network.

Risky Business News · 17d agoPolicy & legal

Eight years later, federal authorities re-up charges against alleged Iranian hackers at Mabna Institute

US prosecutors unsealed a superseding indictment charging 17 Iranians in the Mabna Institute's state-sponsored theft of 31.5 terabytes from universities and companies.

The superseding indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York charges 17 people affiliated with Tehran's Mabna Institute, adding eight defendants to the 2018 indictment of nine. The institute allegedly compromised over 100,000 professor email accounts worldwide, including 8,000 accounts at 144 US universities, and stole at least 31.5 terabytes of academic journals, dissertations, and e-books. US universities spent approximately $3.4 billion procuring the stolen data, and victims also included at least five federal and state agencies, 42 US companies, and 11 foreign companies including HBO. The State Department's Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $10 million for information on four of the defendants.

CyberScoop · 29d agoPolicy & legal

Risky Bulletin: White House lets private companies carry out offensive cyber ops

A White House memo directs DHS to create a program letting vetted private companies conduct US-government-directed offensive cyber operations against cybercrime.

A presidential memo tasks the DHS National Coordination Center with building a program, under DOJ and DHS oversight, through which private-sector companies can conduct offensive cyber operations against large-scale cybercrime organizations. Requirements include secure facilities, vetted personnel, a $1 million escrow for damages, and written approvals co-signed by DHS and DOJ executive directors. The program must launch within 60 days, around October 11, expanding a March executive order targeting scam compounds, ransomware, and other large-scale cybercrime.

Risky Business News · Aug 14, 2026Policy & legal