November 30, 2025

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Ransomware group offers cyber gangs legal advice

A new cybercriminal group, Qilin, is rapidly establishing dominance in the murky world of ransomware by providing not just ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) but a full soup-to-nuts cybercrime service .In addition to the malware, Qilin also provides a full suite of legal guidance for criminals together with operational and storage features. According cybersecurity company, Cybereason, Qilin is positioning itself not just as a ransomware group, but as a full cybercrime service.

Arrest News Russia

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Russian Authorities Arrest FBI’s Most Wanted Hacker

The FBI’s most wanted hacker, Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev, dubbed the “Moriarty” of cybercrime, has finally been arrested by Russian authorities. Described by the FBI as a “prolific” cybercriminal, Matveev has had a $10 million bounty on his head for any information leading to his arrest since 2023.

The arrest is a turning point on the part of the Russian authorities, as cybercriminals have long seen Russia as a safe haven. According to intelligence sources, this could either represent an attempt to try and legitimize the Russian economy or an indication that the state is taking back control of cyber-attacks on Western economies.

News ransomware Russia

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It’s official…It definitely IS the Russians

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has laid the blame for escalating worldwide ransomware attacks squarely at Russia’s door.

Speaking at the 2024 Boston Conference on Cyber Security last week, FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran said: “Almost all of the criminals developing sophisticated malware to enable ransomware attacks are based in Russian-speaking countries and operate as organized crime syndicates, similar to traditional organized crime elements.”

He focused on the FBI’s earlier this year disruption of Dark Web ransomware gang LockBit, stressing that organized cybercriminal gangs, particularly Russian ones, are essentially the same as old-school mafia mobsters. They differ only in their methods and avenues of attack.

One Minute Roundup

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$10M Reward for LockBit Mastermind – June 10th

The U.S. Government launched a manhunt for the LockBit ransomware mastermind, Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, for a bounty worth $10M.

According to the Justice Department, LockBit is suspected to be behind attacks in almost 120 countries that have extorted nearly $1 billion.

Analysis cybercrime

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FBI takes down BreachForums -again!

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the criminal hacking forum BreachForums after taking down its website last week. This follows the announcement in February of the seizure of the LockBit ransomware gang’s extortion website.

“From June 2023 until May 2024, BreachForums (hosted at breachforums.st/.cx/.is/.vc and run by ShinyHunters) was operating as a clear-net marketplace for cybercriminals to buy, sell, and trade contraband, including stolen access devices, means of identification, hacking tools, breached databases, and other illegal services,” says an FBI advisory.

Business Email Compromise cybercrime News

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Millions of emails distributing LockBit ransomware

Affiliates of the infamous ransomware group LockBit have launched a potentially devastating new weaponized email tactic designed to cause maximum disruption to millions of companies in the US and around the world.

At the end of April this year, researchers at cybersecurity firm Proofpoint began to observe high-volume ransomware campaigns sending out millions of fraudulent emails over a one-week period, facilitated by the Phorpiex botnet. In all cases, email messages purported to come from “Jenny Green” with the email address Jenny@gsd[.]com. These contained an attached ZIP file capable of downloading the LockBit Black ransomware payload from Phorpiex botnet infrastructure.

News One Minute Roundup

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Boeing Discloses $200M Ransomware Attempt – May 13th

Boeing made a significant disclosure: The LockBit ransomware group targeted the company, which demanded a staggering $200M extortion payment.

Boeing did not pay LockBit a ransom despite 43 GB of company data leaked on the ransomware group’s website in November 2023. Boeing is now in contact with the FBI to mitigate the breach.

News One Minute Roundup

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Q1 2024 Ransomware Attacks See 22% Drop – April 10th

Cyberint released a report that discloses the 22% drop in ransomware cases from Q4 2023 to Q1 2024, or from 1,309 down to 1,048 cases.

The ‘Q1 Ransomware Report’ credits the decrease in ransomware attacks to a major uptick in law enforcement crackdowns on cyber criminal gangs, with notable major actions against LockBit and ALPHV.

News One Minute Roundup

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Google’s Gemini AI Restricted to Answer Global Election Questions – March 13th

Google announced that the Gemini AI chatbot will be restricted to answering any global election-related questions to avoid any potential missteps.

Users have found political questions toward Gemini to result in the answer “I’m still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search.”

News One Minute Roundup

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LockBit Resurfaces After Takedown – February 26th

Arriving days after law enforcement agencies took down LockBit’s servers, the ransomware gang resurfaces with a new data leak portal on the dark web.

On a public announcement of their re-launch, a LockBit administrator disclosed that their websites were confiscated, however, their operations recovered due to backup servers.

News One Minute Roundup

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FTC Fines Avast $16.5M for Selling User Data – February 23rd

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint against Avast for selling user data, along with a $16.5M fine.

The FTC’s complaint claims “Avast unfairly collected consumers’ browsing information through the company’s browser extensions and antivirus software, stored it indefinitely, and sold it without adequate notice and consumer consent.”

News One Minute Roundup

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International Law Enforcement Seizes LockBit’s Website – February 20th

U.S. and U.K. authorities announced the seizure of the LockBit ransomware gang’s extortion website.

The “Operation Cronos” campaign was led by the UK’s National Crime Agency, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Europol, in collaboration with a coalition of police agencies from 9 countries globally. However, LockBit posted messages on an encrypted messaging app saying its backup servers were unaffected.

News One Minute Roundup

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DDoS Attack on Pennsylvania Fails to Halt City Government – February 6th

Officials from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts announced their website was hit by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, which the city says did not compromise data or halt government operations.

The attack is now being investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to uncover the hackers behind the attack and to ensure it is not a symptom of a larger-scale ransomware attack.

Analysis Cyber Media cybercrime

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Cyber-gangs to launch media offensive in 2024

Cybercrime, which has become a multi-trillion-dollar industry over recent decades, became increasingly sophisticated during 2023, with criminal groups now adopting many of the business practices used by legitimate enterprises. According to a new report from cybersecurity firm, Sophos, leading ransomware gangs now increasingly employ their own internal HR and PR departments.

Far from shying away from the media, as criminals always have in the past, some ransomware gangs have been swift to seize the opportunities it affords them. Some regularly issue press releases and take great pains to forge relationships with individual journalists using the same PR methods as those employed by legitimate corporations. Threat actors also offer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and answers for journalists visiting their leak sites, encouraging reporters to get in touch, give in-depth interviews, and recruit writers, reports Sophos.

News One Minute Roundup

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LockBit Keeps Role as Biggest Global Ransomware Threat in 2023 – December 7th

According to a report by ZeroFox, LockBit was involved in more than a quarter of global ransomware and digital extortion (R&DE) attacks in 2023.

The report found 30% of LockBit’s attacks target Europe and 25% in North America. Despite remaining the global leader in ransomware, ZeroFox notes there to be a downward trajectory in the number of LockBit’s attacks compared to 2022.

News One Minute Roundup

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EU Cybersecurity Drill Tests Readiness for 2024 Elections – November 22nd

In preparation for the 2024 elections, the European Parliament’s services, the European Commission, and the EU Agency for Cybersecurity conducted a cybersecurity exercise. The drill, held in the European Parliament, involved national and EU partners testing crisis plans and responses to potential cybersecurity incidents. Representatives from electoral and cybersecurity authorities participated, aiming to enhance their capacity to address cybersecurity issues and update protocols for securing election technology.

The exercise addressed risks such as information manipulation and cyber-attacks, crucial for safeguarding the integrity of the upcoming European Parliament election scheduled for June 6-9, 2024.

News One Minute Roundup

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CISA Signs Cybersecurity MoU with the Republic of Korea – November 10th

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Republic of Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) to establish collaboration efforts under the bilateral Cyber Framework between the US and the Republic of Korea signed in April.

The framework between the Republic of Korea and the US includes sharing technical and operational cyber threat information and best practices in cyber crisis management.

AI Government News

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United States to regulate AI

US President Joe Biden has issued an executive order aimed at regulating artificial intelligence (AI), urging Congress to pass the necessary legislation as swiftly as possible. The announcement was made only 48 hours before tomorrow’s Global AI Summit in the UK, which US Vice President Kamala Harris will attend. The push to swiftly legislate indicates that the threat of AI is being taken seriously globally, with governments taking a coordinated approach. A mass of legislation and backroom deals with IT companies is surely set to follow.

News ransomware Trends

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Ransomware gangs start to fight dirty

According to cybersecurity company SecureWorks’ annual State of the Threat Report, over the last 12 months, attackers have shortened the time between the initial penetration of the corporate network to the ransomware demand itself from 4.5 days to less than one day. This period, known in the cybersecurity industry as ‘dwell time’, offers well-equipped cybercriminals a leisurely opportunity to drain the company of funds and its most sensitive secrets. In 10 percent of cases, ransomware was even deployed within five hours of initial access.

News One Minute Roundup

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LockBit threatens another major data leakage – October 11th

The LockBit ransomware gang has threatened to release data stolen from CDW Corp, a major IT reseller and services provider in the US, UK, and Canada after discussions over the ransom fee for the data commenced.

The notorious ransomware gang demanded $80 million, with CDW offering just $1.1 million as their ransom counteroffer.

Breaking News Data Leak News

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Millions of individuals’ DNA selling for a dollar a piece

At least seven million customers of San Francisco-based DNA company, 23andMe, are now seeing their confidential and highly personal genetic data up for sale on the internet. The hackers are also offering the millions of victims’ personal email addresses for good measure and to best assist potential blackmailers and fraudsters.

News One Minute Roundup

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HTX falls victim to crypto thieves – September 27th

Cryptocurrency is being increasingly targeted by hackers, with $7.9 million recently stolen in a hack targeting cryptocurrency exchange HTX. The hack attack was identified as soon as it occurred, with HTX authorities stepping up promptly in an innovative way to recover losses.

Following the attack, HTX offered a ‘white hat’ ethical hacker a 5% bonus to return the stolen cryptocurrency, amounting to a total bonus of $400,000.

News One Minute Roundup

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US fleet management systems impacted in ransomware attack – September 19th

ORBCOMM, the US trucking and fleet management software provider, has linked recent service outages across freight transportation firms throughout the US to a ransomware attack.

These outages prevented the Blue Tree Electronic Logging Device usage and inventory tracking capabilities of the fleet management software. Investigations continue into the identity of the threat actors.

News One Minute Roundup

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Russian Threat Actors Target Ukrainian Military – September 5th

In today’s roundup; Russian threat actors target the Ukranian Military, browser-hacking malware found on the phones of Xiaomi users, and a LockBit data leak.

News One Minute Roundup

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Biggest malware culprits of 2023 – August 29th

New updated KmsdBot now targets Internet of Things (IoT) An updated version of KmsdBot now includes support for Telnet scanning and more CPU architectures, making it more destructive than before. As a result of its increased capabilities, the updated botnet malware is now targeting the Internet of Things (IoT). Main 2023 malware culprits identified Malware […]

Cybercrime LockBit News

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BlackCat sharpens its claws

Cybersecurity firm Coalfire reports that the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware gang has been causing mayhem over the past year using a failsafe delivery system. The group suspects that the leaders of BlackCat are affiliated with the top ransomware gang, the infamous LockBit.

Hildegard Johnson

Analysis Threat Intelligence Trends

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Companies slow to take the fight to cybercriminals

According to a study conducted in June, “Threat intelligence: Eyes on the enemy,” by threat intelligence firm Cyber Risk Analytics (CRA), vulnerability priority is the chief use of threat intelligence for 70 percent of the study’s respondents; 65 percent of those respondents also stated that they are starting to use threat intelligence to aid them with reactive incident response. By contrast, proactive measures still rank low on the list of primary uses for threat intelligence where most organizations are concerned, with 50 percent of respondents using threat intelligence for threat hunting and 46 percent, fewer than half, using actionable threat intelligence providing advanced warning against future attacks.