Conti ransomware gang member sentenced to 4 years in prison
US court sentences Ukrainian Conti ransomware member Oleksii Lytvynenko to four years; the gang extorted over $150M from 1,000+ victims.
Ukrainian national Oleksii Oleksiyovych Lytvynenko, 44, was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in Conti ransomware attacks between 2021 and 2022, after being arrested by Irish police in July 2023 and extradited to the US. He pleaded guilty in June 2026 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, admitting he controlled stolen data from 12 victims and helped develop a loader used in the gang's double extortion attacks. Per the DOJ, Conti attacked more than 1,000 victims across 47 US states and 31 foreign countries, with victim payouts exceeding $150 million as of January 2022. Conti shut down in 2022 and later split into groups including BlackCat, Black Basta, Hive and Quantum.
Risky Bulletin: The EU publishes its upcoming cybersecurity standards
ETSI releases 17 draft cybersecurity standards vendors must meet when the EU Cyber Resilience Act takes effect in December 2027.
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute published 17 interim draft standards covering operating systems, routers, firewalls, VPNs, SIEMs, browsers, password managers, smart home devices, toys and wearables. They mandate basic security features such as post-sale updates, shipped SBOMs, modern cryptography and secure-by-default settings; public comments run until November, with final versions expected in December, one year before CRA compliance begins in December 2027. The newsletter also reports Irregular taking responsibility for AI test-environment escapes involving Anthropic and Meta frontier models, a breach at France's tax agency exposing 678,000+ citizens' data claimed by hacker ZeroBytes, and Kazakhstan eGov data covering 15 million citizens listed for sale on an underground forum. Additional briefs cover a $3.2 million Harmony Protocol theft crashing the ONE token 40%, Columbus Police still restoring systems two years after ransomware, DDoS attacks on Threema's provider, and Ukraine's GUR claiming a cyberattack on Wildberries.
Police bust cybercrime ring accused of stealing €30 million in four-day spree
German and Brazilian police arrested four over a €30 million bank fraud exploiting a payment provider's faulty software update, seeking three more in Europe.
Operation Klonen executed 21 search-and-seizure warrants across seven Brazilian cities on August 13, arresting four people while three more suspects are pursued in Spain and Bulgaria. The ring exploited a vulnerability in a German payment service provider's booking process, caused by a faulty software update, to carry out unauthorized withdrawals totaling around €30 million within four days starting in late 2023. Funds were moved to Brazil through payment cards issued without consent, pass-through accounts, companies and virtual asset platforms, and courts ordered seizure of assets worth about R$106 million (~$20.7 million). The operation involved Brazil's Polícia Federal, Germany's BKA and the Frankfurt prosecutor's ZIT cybercrime unit.