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.
Cyberattack on UK Airport Operator MAG Exposes Data of 8.7 Million Customers Across Three Airports
Manchester Airports Group breach exposed email addresses, phone numbers and vehicle registrations of about 8.7 million customers across three UK airports.
Manchester Airports Group (MAG) disclosed that an unauthorized third party accessed customer data for roughly 8.7 million people across Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports. Exposed data covers car park, lounge and fast-track bookings and Wi-Fi sign-ups, including email addresses, phone numbers, vehicle registration numbers and postcodes; no bank or payment details were stored and no flight operations were disrupted. MAG learned of the incident on August 25 after attackers breached the system over the weekend, contained it, hired external security experts and suspended its Manage My Booking service as a precaution. The breach lands during peak summer travel and adds pressure on UK infrastructure operators after recent incidents at Jaguar Land Rover, M&S, Harrods, Co-op and a UK power plant.
Srsly Risky Biz: Data Theft Extortion Is Booming! Hooray!
Google's Threat Intelligence Group reports data theft extortion is surging, with Silent Ransom extracting $10M and $18M from two law firms and BlackFile taking $10M.
Risky Business News, citing Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG), reports that cybercriminals are shifting from encrypting ransomware to data theft extortion. Law firms Goodwin Procter and WilmerHale paid Silent Ransom (Luna Moth) ransoms of $10 million and $18 million respectively; GTIG says the group often completes contact-to-extortion in a single day, now sometimes compromising systems in person posing as IT staff. BlackFile, now calling itself Redact, used high-volume vishing to steal credentials and pivot through OneDrive, SharePoint and other SaaS apps, collecting more than $10 million between February and mid-May with an average ransom of $750,000, including attempted attacks on Wall Street hedge funds and private equity firms. The piece argues governments should keep pressure on encrypting ransomware gangs while lower-impact extortion absorbs criminal energy.