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Ukraine prosecutor general steps down amid scam call center bribery probe

Ukraine's prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko resigned amid a probe into officials who allegedly took bribes to protect fraudulent call centers.

Ukraine's prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko resigned over an anti-corruption probe into officials who allegedly took bribes since mid-2025 to protect fraudulent call centers; he has not been charged. NABU named five suspects, including senior prosecutor Serhii Kropyva, who was remanded with bail of 120 million hryvnias (about $2.7 million) on suspicion of laundering over 89 million hryvnias (roughly $2 million). The scam centers targeted victims in Ukraine and abroad; Ukrainian authorities reported shutting about 340 call centers over the past year, including 94 in a single week during a nationwide crackdown.

The Record · 7d agoPolicy & legal

Risky Bulletin: Ukraine's top prosecutor resigns amid scam call center scandal

Ukraine's top prosecutor Ruslan Kravchenko resigned after NABU arrested a deputy for taking bribes protecting scam call centers running fake investment platforms.

Ukraine's anti-corruption bureau NABU arrested Serhiy Kropyva, Deputy Head of International Cooperation at the Prosecutor General's Office, alleging officials took monthly protection fees from a network of 100-500 scam call centers luring victims into fake investment platforms, with bribes reportedly growing from $700,000 to $3.5 million per month. Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko resigned on Monday, calling it a political decision, while Kropyva was fired with bail set at 120 million hryvnias ($2.7 million) and over 100 call centers shut down in the past month. The newsletter also briefly covers a cyberattack crippling more than 80 Luxembourg medical practices via payment vendor BMS Engineering, ShinyHunters' claimed theft of 200,000 Florida DMV driver records, a cyberattack on the American Meteor Society, and school closures in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Risky Business News · 7d agoPhishing & fraud

French prosecutors confirm arrest of suspected ZeroBytes hacker behind tax cyberattack

French prosecutors arrested an 18-year-old suspected ZeroBytes member tied to a tax authority breach exposing data of 600,000 people.

French authorities arrested an 18-year-old, alias 'ChatNoir,' in the Paris region on Aug. 18 and placed him in pretrial detention two days later over ZeroBytes attacks; a second suspect under 16 was arrested Aug. 26 and released. ZeroBytes claimed attacks on French government agencies, schools and companies starting July 16, including the DGFiP tax authority, which disclosed an August breach affecting data of more than 600,000 people. The suspect was previously under formal investigation for the 2024 Free telecom breach affecting over 19 million customers and for X account takeovers of BFM-TV and RMC linked to the Epsilon collective. Charged offenses carry up to 10 years in prison and a 300,000-euro fine.

The Record · 8d agoPolicy & legal

Ukrainian software developer faces 12 years in Swiss ransomware trial

Swiss prosecutors seek a 12-year sentence for a Ukrainian developer accused in LockerGoga, MegaCortex and Nefilim ransomware attacks causing roughly $160 million in losses.

A 52-year-old Ukrainian software developer went on trial at Zurich District Court over alleged involvement in ransomware attacks using LockerGoga, MegaCortex and Nefilim, with victims including Stadler Rail, Crealogix and Meier Tobler. Prosecutors allege he participated in attacks on 10 companies between December 2018 and May 2020, causing more than 130 million Swiss francs (~$160 million) in losses, and seek a 12-year sentence plus 1.8 million Swiss francs in proceeds. He denies developing malware, and his defense challenges digital evidence handling. The case ties to Oleksandr Ieremenko, who allegedly directed the attacks, was said to have FSB protection, and died falling from a Moscow window in 2022.

The Record · 29d agoPolicy & legal in the wild1

The County Prosecutors Who Became ICE Informants

Illinois county prosecutors shared defendants' personal data with federal ICE agents without warrants, disclosure, or oversight, WIRED reports.

WIRED reports that county prosecutors in Illinois effectively became informants for federal immigration agents. Defendants' personal data was shared without criminal warrants, public disclosure, or legislative oversight. The story raises privacy and accountability concerns around government handling of personal data.

WIRED · Security · 22d agoPolicy & legal

Ukraine moves to crack down on scam call centers after corruption scandal

Ukraine's parliament passed legislation criminalizing fraudulent call centers with 7-12 year prison terms after a bribery scandal implicating prosecutors.

Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada passed legislation making electronic-communications fraud and organizing or working for fraudulent call centers separate crimes punishable by 7-12 years, awaiting President Zelensky's signature. The bill advanced after NABU alleged prosecutors took bribes since mid-2025 to shield scam call centers; five suspects were named and Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, who denies wrongdoing, was dismissed by parliament and presidential decree. Ukrainian authorities previously reported 411 searches and 94 suspected call centers shut down in one week, including a Kyiv operation that stole over $500,000 from dozens of Americans.

The Record · 2h agoPolicy & legal

Party’s Over for Crypto Scammers Who Went on a Spending Spree After a $240 Million Bitcoin Theft

Malone Lam's plea hearing approaches in the $240 million bitcoin social engineering theft; the case highlights surging crypto fraud and limited enforcement.

Malone Lam, accused of organizing a social engineering attack that stole over $240 million in bitcoin (4,100+ BTC) from a Washington, D.C. resident in August 2024, has a plea agreement hearing set. Callers impersonating Google and Gemini staff tricked the victim into revealing security codes. Lam and 17 co-defendants spent lavishly before FBI arrests; crypto investment fraud complaints to the FBI rose nearly 50% in 2025 while DOJ disbanded its crypto crimes unit.

SecurityWeek · 8d 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 · 8d agoPolicy & legal in the wild

Paris Prosecutors Raid Elon Musk X

Paris prosecutors raided the offices of Elon Musk's social platform X as part of a judicial investigation in France.

Infosecurity Magazine reports that Paris prosecutors carried out a raid at the French offices of X, the social platform owned by Elon Musk. Such raids typically accompany French judicial investigations, and this action places the platform's operations in Europe under legal scrutiny. The full scope of the warrant and any charges were not detailed in the available information.

Infosecurity Magazine · 28d agoPolicy & legal

Three Ukrainians to face charges for alleged hack of 610,000 Roblox accountsnew

Ukrainian prosecutors charged three men for stealing session tokens from over 610,000 Roblox accounts and selling them for an estimated $480,000.

Prosecutors in Ukraine's Lviv region said a 19-year-old organizer from Drohobych and two 22-year-old associates operated from May 2025 to April 2026, harvesting Roblox session tokens via infostealer malware disguised as game cheats and bonus software. They used software to validate stolen cookies and inventory virtual currency and rare items, then sold accounts via Russian platforms for as little as $0.80 each, advertising through Telegram channels and receiving crypto payments. All three are in custody facing charges of theft, money laundering, unauthorized computer interference, and illegal sale of restricted information, carrying up to 12 years in prison.

The Record · 59m agoPolicy & legal in the wild

Five plead guilty in latest federal ATM jackpotting case

Five Venezuelan nationals pleaded guilty to ATM jackpotting conspiracy tied to Ploutus malware, as FBI tallies $58 million in losses since 2021.

Five Venezuelan nationals pleaded guilty in Kansas federal court to conspiracy to commit bank larceny for attempted ATM jackpotting attacks in Wamego and Manhattan in December 2025; Luis Velasquez-Artigas was sentenced to nine months. The FBI says jackpotting has caused over $58 million in losses since 2021, with more than 1,900 incidents tracked since 2020 and over 700 in 2025. Separately, Juan Manuel Gouveia-Aguilera was sentenced to eight years and ordered to pay restitution for using Ploutus malware to steal more than $3.5 million from hundreds of ATMs. Prosecutors link the schemes to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and say at least 119 people have been charged.

The Record · 15d agoPolicy & legal

Russian national facing 20 years for malware campaign that infected 80,000 freelancers

US prosecutors indicted Russian national Searzhudin Aktulaev for a 2016 TVRAT malware campaign that infected 80,000 freelance platform users, carrying up to 20 years.

Searzhudin Tamirlanovich Aktulaev was arrested in Cyprus in May 2025, extradited to the US, and appeared in a San Francisco federal court on charges including conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, and damaging protected computers. Between June 2016 and November 2017 he spread a TVRAT (TVSPY/TeamSpy) variant via malicious Microsoft Excel attachments sent from 255 fake accounts on a freelance employment platform's messaging system, infecting about 80,000 users. TVRAT exploited a TeamViewer vulnerability and DarkVNC exploited a bug in VNC Viewer to take over devices; he used the access to steal data and commit fraud, maintained C2 domains, and stored stolen e-commerce credentials for hundreds of victims. About half the victims were in the US, mostly California; the charges carry a maximum 20-year sentence and his next hearing is October 5.

The Record · 13d agoPolicy & legal

Indian man who fled US arrested on charges he helped scammers siphon $7.5 million from the elderly

US prosecutors charged Indian national Jay Goswami as a money mule who collected $7.5 million from nine elderly scam victims, now facing extradition from Canada.

US prosecutors charged 21-year-old Indian national Jay Sunilbharthi Goswami with wire fraud and money laundering for working as a money mule for India-based scammers. The scammers posed as law enforcement or government officials by phone and email, convincing at least nine elderly victims in New York and New Jersey to hand over $7,559,185 in cash, gold bars, and gift cards. Goswami collected the money and shipped it to India, allegedly earning about $90,000 while on a student visa at Fairleigh Dickinson University. After fleeing to Canada across the Peace Bridge, he was arrested at Toronto's airport and is awaiting extradition to the US.

The Record · 22d agoPolicy & legal in the wild

America's Driver's License Breach Is a National Security Disaster

Dark web service Nexus sells 153 million US/Canadian driver's licenses linked to a breach of identity verifier IDScan.

Krebs on Security revealed a dark web service, Nexus, selling access to 153 million driver's licenses and 3 million travel documents from US and Canadian citizens, roughly 63 percent of all US licenses. Circumstantial evidence links the data to identity verification firm IDScan, which confirmed it is investigating a breach, and the FBI is probing the incident. Licenses belonging to senior US officials, including Pete Hegseth, an FBI assistant director, and Krebs's own contacts were verified as genuine. The exfiltration appears ongoing, with the database growing by nearly 400,000 licenses in a single day, and the data carries significant national security value for foreign intelligence services.

Hacker News · security · 23h agoData breachHN 26↑ · 4 comments3· 1 read

Members of ‘Black Axe’ cybercriminal group extradited from South Africa

Five Black Axe members extradited from South Africa face US wire fraud and money laundering charges over romance scams defrauding more than 100 victims.

Perry Osagiede, Franklyn Edosa Osagiede, Osariemen Eric Clement, Collins Owhofasa Otughwor and Musa Mudashiru, leaders of Black Axe's Cape Town branch, were extradited September 11 and appear before a federal judge in Trenton, New Jersey under a 2021 indictment. They ran romance scams from 2011 to 2021 that stole thousands of dollars from over 100 people, threatening to leak sensitive photos and laundering proceeds through South African companies; some funds also traced to business email compromise. Wire fraud and money laundering charges each carry up to 20 years. Treasury estimates $12.7 billion stolen from Americans since 2023 via overseas romance and investment scams.

The Recordupdated · 1d agofirst · 1d agoPolicy & legal 3 sources

Srsly Risky Biz: America's Drivers Licence Breach is a National Security Disaster

Dark web service Nexus sold 153 million US and Canadian driver's licenses, linked to identity verification firm IDScan under FBI investigation.

Krebs On Security reported that a dark web service called Nexus sold access to 153 million US and Canadian driver's licenses, claiming over a year of continuous exfiltration from a major identity verification company, with roughly 400,000 new licences added in a single day. Krebs verified the data as genuine and linked the incident via circumstantial evidence to identity verification firm IDScan, whose licences of senior US officials including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth appeared in the database; the FBI is investigating and IDScan has confirmed a breach inquiry. The article argues the data has national security implications, citing how Chinese APT espionage (Anthem, Equifax, Marriott, OPM) and Bellingcat investigations exploited leaked databases. Class action suits are being prepared, and the piece calls for stricter oversight of identity verification firms.

Risky Business News · 6d agoData breach in the wild

Scammer behind $245 million crypto heist pleads guilty to RICO charges

Malone Lam, leader of a social engineering ring that stole over $245 million in cryptocurrency, pleaded guilty to US RICO charges.

Singaporean national Malone Lam, 22, pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy charges for leading the 'Social Engineering Enterprise,' which stole more than $245 million in cryptocurrency. The group posed as Apple and Google customer support, tricked victims into installing remote desktop software, and even burgled homes to steal hardware wallets, including $263 million from a single Washington, D.C. victim. At least nine others have already pleaded guilty; Lam faces a December 8 sentencing hearing and a possible 7-to-20-year term.

The Record · 7d agoPhishing & fraud

US charges Iranians for sprawling hacking campaign on government agencies, universities

DOJ indicts 17 Iranians tied to Mabna Institute IRGC hacking-for-hire campaign that stole 31TB from universities, agencies, and UN organizations.

The U.S. Justice Department unsealed a 14-count superseding indictment charging 17 people linked to the Mabna Institute, allegedly operating on behalf of the IRGC, in a campaign running since around 2013. The group breached 144 US universities, 42 US companies, 178 foreign universities, 11 foreign companies, and agencies including the Department of Labor, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Hawaii and Indiana state governments, plus UN organizations such as UNICEF, stealing at least 31 terabytes of academic and proprietary data and about 8,000 professor email accounts. The State Department offered a $10 million reward for five individuals including Behzad Mesri, previously indicted for the $6 million HBO extortion; universities spent roughly $20 million on investigation and remediation.

The Record · 8d agoPolicy & legal 2 sources

Your AI chats could be used in court

AI chatbot conversations from ChatGPT and Claude are increasingly obtained by prosecutors and litigants, with OpenAI disclosures quadrupling in 2025.

A Washington Post report found chatbot logs cited in 12 court cases over the past two years, and OpenAI disclosed the content of more than 80 user accounts in the second half of 2025, more than four times the figure for the second half of 2024. In The New York Times' copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, a judge ordered the company to preserve chat logs, including ones users had asked to delete, despite GDPR and California privacy commitments. Chatbot conversations lack attorney-client or medical privilege, and OpenAI's policy allows reviewers to refer conversations to law enforcement when there is an imminent, credible risk of harm.

Malwarebytes Labs · 14d agoAI policy

Finland appeals court revives case against Eagle S Officers over cable breaks

Finnish appeals court ruled Finland can prosecute Eagle S officers for 2024 Baltic Sea cable breaks, reviving the case and EUR 105M damages claims.

The Helsinki Court of Appeal ruled Finland has jurisdiction to prosecute three senior officers of the Eagle S, the Russia-linked tanker that severed multiple subsea cables on December 25, 2024, overturning a district court dismissal. The court found the crew's conduct after Finnish authorities made contact was not a 'maritime accident' under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, noting the ship dragged its anchor roughly 90 kilometers and cut four more cables. Owners of the Estlink 2 power cable, Fingrid and Elering, are seeking about EUR 105 million ($122 million), and the ruling will guide the related Fitburg anchor-dragging case. The decision can be appealed to Finland's Supreme Court until October 26, 2026.

The Record · 19d agoPolicy & legal

Black Axe Members Extradited to US Over Internet Fraud Claims

Five alleged Black Axe leaders were extradited from South Africa to the US over romance scam and money laundering charges.

Five Nigerian nationals who allegedly led Black Axe's Cape Town zone were extradited to the US on September 11 and appeared in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey on September 14. The superseding indictment alleges romance scams, advance-fee fraud, BEC, and money laundering via US bank accounts between 2011 and 2021, using social media, dating sites, and VoIP, with coercion via threats to distribute victims' intimate photos. Charges include wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy carrying up to 20 years each, plus aggravated identity theft for three defendants.

Infosecurity Magazine · 1d agoPolicy & legal

Swiss court sentences 52-year-old Ukrainian ransomware dev to nearly 13 years in the cooler

Zurich court sentences Ukrainian ransomware developer to 12 years, 9 months for LockerGoga, MegaCortex and Nefilim attacks including Stadler Rail.

Zurich District Court sentenced a 52-year-old Ukrainian to 12 years and 9 months for developing LockerGoga, MegaCortex, and Nefilim ransomware, plus a 10-year ban from Switzerland; the verdict can be appealed. The operations hit over 1,800 victims across 71 countries with losses of several hundred million Swiss francs, including Stadler Rail (2020, $6 million Nefilim demand), Meier Tobler, and Crealogix. Alleged mastermind Volodymyr Tymoshchuk, indicted in the US and tied to at least 250 companies including Norsk Hydro, remains at large with an $11 million FBI bounty.

The Register · Security · 1d agoPolicy & legal

Conti Hacker Who Built Malware and Attacked Victims Gets Four-Year Sentence

Ukrainian lawyer and Conti malware developer Oleksii Lytvynenko was sentenced to four years in U.S. prison for wire fraud conspiracy tied to Conti ransomware.

Lytvynenko, 44, admitted coding a loader for Conti and holding stolen data from eight U.S. and four overseas victims; prosecutors linked his actions to attacks on at least 12 companies. Conti infected more than 1,000 organizations across 47 U.S. states and 31 countries between 2020 and 2022, with victim payouts exceeding $150 million. Arrested in County Cork in July 2023 with Cobalt Strike running and an active Rocket.Chat session over Tor, forensic evidence showed his ransomware activity continued after Conti's 2022 collapse.

Security Affairs · 3d agoPolicy & legal

Russian suspect in bank account takeovers is extradited to US

Russian web developer Sergei Filimonov was extradited from Georgia to the US to face charges in a multimillion-dollar bank account takeover fraud.

Sergei Anatolyevich Filimonov, 36, appeared in an Atlanta federal court on September 4 and pleaded not guilty to bank fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft charges. Prosecutors say that from November 2023 to October 2025 his group bought sponsored search-engine links that diverted online banking customers to spoofed login pages, stole their credentials, and initiated unauthorized wire transfers. The FBI linked the scheme to the December 2025 seizure of the domain web3adspanels.org, identifying at least 19 victims, roughly $14.6 million in confirmed losses, and about $28 million in attempted losses.

The Record · 7d agoPolicy & legal

US, Britain to coordinate on scam center takedowns

The US and UK signed an MOU to jointly investigate Southeast Asian scam compounds behind fraud that stole over $12 billion from Americans last year.

The DOJ and UK's National Crime Agency and Crown Prosecutor signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday for parallel investigations and information sharing on scam centers, largely run by Chinese gangs using human trafficking victims in compounds across Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. The Scam Center Strike Force, with more than 150 personnel from the FBI, IRS, and US Postal Inspection Service, leads the effort; the FBI says cyber-enabled fraud accounted for almost 85% of reported losses, with over $12 billion stolen from Americans last year. An in-person disruption event with private industry partners is planned in London in early October. The initiative follows sanctions on Prince Group and a roughly $15 billion bitcoin seizure linked to its CEO Chen Zhi.

The Record · 11d agoPolicy & legal

Russian man indicted for spreading malware to 80,000 freelancers

US prosecutors indicted a Russian national for infecting roughly 80,000 freelancers with TVRAT and DarkVNC malware via fake freelance-platform accounts.

Searzhudin Tamirlanovich Aktulaev, 40, was indicted in California for conspiracy, transmission of malicious code, and aggravated identity theft; he was arrested in Cyprus in May 2025 and extradited in August 2026. From June 2016 to November 2017, about 255 fake accounts on a Northern California freelance platform messaged roughly 80,000 users with malicious Excel attachments that ran macros to download malware. The campaign deployed TVRAT (also known as TeamSpy), which exploited a TeamViewer flaw, and DarkVNC via VNC Viewer, exfiltrating stolen data to US-hosted command-and-control servers. About half the victims were in the US, and stolen credentials were used for fraud.

Help Net Security · 13d agoPolicy & legal in the wild

Russian Man Extradited Over Malware Campaign Targeting Freelancers

A Russian national was extradited to the US for allegedly spreading TVRAT and DarkVNC malware to 80,000 freelance platform users via Excel attachments.

Searzhudin Tamirlanovich Aktulaev, 40, was arrested in Cyprus in May 2025, extradited on August 28, 2026, and indicted on conspiracy, computer damage, unauthorized access and aggravated identity theft charges. Prosecutors say he and co-conspirators used about 255 fake accounts on a freelance employment platform's messaging system to send macro-laden Excel attachments between June 2016 and November 2017, deploying TVRAT (TVSPY/TeamSpy) and DarkVNC remote access trojans. Thousands of victims were identified on a US-hosted C2 domain, with roughly half of the 80,000 affected users in the US; C2 infrastructure was paid for with virtual currency. If convicted he faces up to 20 years for wire fraud conspiracy plus additional terms and fines.

Infosecurity Magazine · 14d agoPolicy & legal in the wild1

US Indicts 17 Iranians Over Years

US unsealed superseding indictment charging 17 Mabna Institute Iranians for IRGC-linked espionage stealing 31TB from universities, companies, and government agencies.

The Justice Department unsealed a superseding indictment charging 17 members of the Iran-based Mabna Institute, which conducted hacking campaigns since at least 2013 on behalf of the IRGC and other Iranian clients. The group compromised 144 US and 178 foreign universities, at least 42 US companies, and multiple government agencies, stealing over 31 terabytes of academic data and IP plus employee email inboxes. Hackers breached roughly 8,000 of 100,000 targeted professor accounts across 24 countries, selling stolen research through Megapaper.ir and Gigapaper.ir. Behzad Mesri, tied to the HBO breach and $6 million Bitcoin extortion, is among eight new defendants, and five defendants carry State Department Rewards for Justice bounties up to $10 million.

Security Affairs · 27d agoThreat actor in the wild

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 · 28d agoPolicy & legal

Zelensky appoints former police chief to lead Ukraine’s cyber coordination center

Zelensky appoints former police chief Ihor Klymenko to head Ukraine's National Cybersecurity Coordination Center amid broader security leadership reshuffle.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Ihor Klymenko, former National Police head, interior minister, and NSDC secretary, to lead the National Cybersecurity Coordination Center (NCCC). The NCCC, created in 2016 under the National Security and Defense Council, coordinates government agencies' responses to major cyberthreats including Russian operations. The appointment comes amid a wider reshuffle of Ukraine's defense and security leadership.

The Record · 1d agoPolicy & legal

Suspected Black Axe gang leaders face cybercrime charges in the US

Five alleged Black Axe leaders extradited from South Africa to the US face wire fraud and money laundering charges over romance scams.

Perry Osagiede, Franklyn Osagiede, Osariemen Clement, Collins Otughwor, and Musa Mudashiru were extradited to the US on September 11, 2026, accused of running advance-fee and romance scams from Cape Town between 2011 and 2021. Victims were deceived via dating sites, aliases, and VoIP numbers, and coerced with threats to publish sensitive photos. The case follows Operation Jackal IV, which arrested 58 people across 22 countries; Black Axe is estimated to have 30,000 registered members.

BleepingComputer · 1d agoPolicy & legal

In Other News: InjectEave Attack, SIM Swapper Sentenced, Glasswing Findings Review

SecurityWeek weekly roundup covers exploited WordPress Super Forms flaw CVE-2026-14894, a $10M bounty on an Iranian cyber official, InjectEave attacks, and more.

SecurityWeek's weekly roundup aggregates short items across the threat landscape, including Microsoft's report of invisible Unicode tag characters used in financial phishing lures at up to 2.37 million messages per day, and active exploitation of critical WordPress Super Forms plugin flaw CVE-2026-14894 to deploy PHP webshells. Policy items include a $10 million US bounty for IRGC-CEC Cyber Operations Command lead Amir Yaryab, a 16-month prison sentence for ex-AT&T employee Kenneth Carter over SIM swaps with nearly $600,000 in intended losses, and the US arraignment of Russian Sergei Anatolyevich Filimonov over credential harvesting. Technical items include InjectEave electromagnetic side-channel attacks tested on 11 devices, an FBI warning on OAuth consent phishing, and VulnCheck's finding that only 202 of 26,153 Anthropic Project Glasswing findings were fixed.

SecurityWeek · 5d agoIndustry in the wildCVE-2026-148942

Russian State-Sponsored Hackers Use Claude to Rebuild Malware After Detection

Anthropic disrupted APT29-linked GTG-20006, which used Claude to autonomously rebuild malware, hijack hotel Wi-Fi DNS, and target 20-plus Ukrainian, European, and US-linked organizations.

Anthropic attributed the campaign to GTG-20006, aligned with Midnight Blizzard (APT29/Cozy Bear), which developed an AI-driven process that monitors its implants against security products and autonomously rebuilds and redeploys detected malware. Targets included military intelligence, diplomatic, and defense organizations in Ukraine and Europe, plus Middle East and Asian maritime agencies; the actor compromised at least three hotel Wi-Fi vendors via DNS hijacking and served ClickFix lures delivering Windows, Android, and iOS malware such as PowerChrome, GiftDrop, and DarkSword. Operations also included a North African breach exfiltrating over 300,000 national identity records and 500,000-plus company registry entries, an Embassy Kit device-code phishing campaign stealing Microsoft 365 tokens from at least eight organizations, and WhatsApp account takeover using headless browsers. The campaign overlaps with CaptiveCrunch reporting from ReliaQuest, Microsoft, Google, and Lumen Black Lotus Labs.

The Hacker Newsupdated · 4d agofirst · 5d agoThreat actor in the wild 15 sources2

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 · 4d agofirst · 5d agoPolicy & legal 7 sources

Multiple crypto companies warn customers of phishing emails after alleged provider breach

Attackers compromised 120 Brevo email accounts and sent convincing phishing emails to Trezor, BitBox, and CoinTracking newsletter subscribers.

Trezor, BitBox, and CoinTracking confirmed that phishing emails were sent to newsletter subscribers after a compromise of their shared email provider, which CoinTracking identified as Brevo. Brevo said an attacker accessed 120 customer accounts and used them to send phishing emails from legitimate company domains, including fake security alerts like 'Critical Security Alert: STM32 Entropy Vulnerability' and 'Data Breach Notice: Please refresh API Keys.' Trezor had already suffered a separate breach exposing details of 81,000 customers, and CertiK reports physical wrench attacks on crypto holders rose 33 percent year-over-year with $124 million in losses in 2026.

The Recordupdated · 5d agofirst · 6d agoData breach 6 sources

Novel Blue Moon kit targeting Chrome and Windows reflects new reality of AI-driven exploits

Proofpoint reports the BlueMoon exploit kit, chaining two Chrome V8 zero-days and a Windows ALPC bug, being shared across China-linked espionage groups.

Proofpoint identified a new exploit kit, BlueMoon, first observed on August 28 and used by TA412 (APT31/Violet Typhoon) against US NGOs, mining firms, and commodity trading companies. The kit chains a V8 type confusion RCE (CVE-2026-85046), a V8 sandbox escape, and a Windows Advanced Local Procedure Call privilege escalation (CVE-2026-85880), both patched flaws having been exploited in the wild. At least four espionage groups, most with suspected China nexus including UNK_LateNight, adopted the kit within days, targeting US aerospace firms with defense-sector lures. Fewer than 20 organizations were observed targeted, and researchers believe AI-assisted exploit development against upstream Chromium patches enabled the kit's rapid creation and sharing.

The Register · Securityupdated · 1d agofirst · 6d agoExploit / PoC in the wild 23 sourcesCVE-2026-85046CVE-2026-858801

$245 million in stolen crypto funded racketeering crew’s lavish lifestyle

Malone Lam pleaded guilty in D.C. federal court to a racketeering conspiracy that stole and laundered over $245 million in cryptocurrency via social engineering.

Malone Lam, a 22-year-old Singapore citizen, pleaded guilty in Washington D.C. federal court to running a racketeering conspiracy that stole and laundered more than $245 million in cryptocurrency. The operation ran from at least October 2023 through May 2025, grew out of online gaming platforms, and relied on social engineering to trick victims into surrendering wallet access, sometimes including break-ins to victims' homes. Lam was arrested on September 18, 2025 in Miami; prosecutors said members spent lavishly on nightclubs, private jets, and exotic cars priced from $100,000 to $3.8 million.

Help Net Security · 7d agoPhishing & fraud

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 · 7d agoPolicy & legal

Risky Bulletin: BEC campaign steals €35 million from French notaries

Hackers stole over €35 million from 500+ French notary offices in a four-year BEC campaign; ANSSI spent two years helping evict the attackers.

A business email compromise campaign breached more than 500 French notary offices — about 7% of all French notaries per the Conseil Supérieur du Notariat — over four years, stealing more than €35 million by phishing initial access and silently modifying wire transfer details. France's cybersecurity agency ANSSI worked for two years behind the scenes to help notaries remove the persistent attackers, who had deep access; officials also feared hackers could issue fake notarized acts such as marriage certificates or forged real estate deals. No forged documents have been found so far, but notaries have added two-factor authentication and in-person requirements for banking details, and banks added extra checks in 2024. The newsletter also notes other incidents, including a $320 million Bitcoin extraction from Blockstream's Liquid Network and a JetBrains Cadence breach via TeamCity servers.

Risky Business News · 9d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild1

Berlin refuses to be blackmailed after network breach

Rhysida extorts Berlin's state government after stealing 5.79 TB across 1.44 million files, demanding roughly 2 million euros in bitcoin.

Berlin's state government confirmed an extortion attempt after data theft from its administrative network between August 7 and 12, with affected departments disconnected only on August 14. The Rhysida ransomware gang lists 5.79 TB across 1.44 million files on its leak site, including HR files, contracts, 148 IBANs, personal data on 12,076 individuals, and plaintext credentials from internal systems including Berlin's leadership. Der Spiegel reports a 30 bitcoin demand of about 2 million euros; officials say the city will not pay and investigators include the State Criminal Police Office and federal agencies. Forensics revealed additional leaks in the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and the Environment, while the Berlin House of Representatives election environment is reported secure.

Help Net Security · 15d agoRansomware in the wild