All news with #ransomware gang tag

🔎 A 19-year-old dual US-Estonian citizen, Peter Stokes, was extradited from Finland to the United States to face charges alleging membership in the Scattered Spider hacking collective. He is accused of participating in multiple intrusions and extortion schemes, including a March 2023 breach and a May 2025 attack on a multibillion-dollar retailer that led to over $2 million in losses. Stokes faces charges of fraud, conspiracy, and computer intrusion and has appeared in federal court in Chicago.

📰 The US Justice Department announced the arrest and extradition of 19-year-old dual US-Estonian citizen Peter Stokes from Finland in April, with charges unsealed on June 30. He faces conspiracy, computer intrusion and fraud counts tied to alleged membership in the Scattered Spider hacking group. Authorities say the group conducted over 100 intrusions, netting $100m+ in ransoms and causing millions in damages. Stokes is accused of targeting a luxury jeweller and attempting an $8m extortion that resulted in $2m+ losses for the firm.

📰 The U.S. Department of Justice announced the seizure of a cloud computing account used by subsidiaries of Cambodia-based HuiOne Group, as the Treasury sanctioned individuals and entities tied to Prince Group. The account hosted backend infrastructure for illicit marketplaces, including HuiOne Guarantee, which facilitated large-scale crypto fraud, money laundering services, and the sale of crimeware and exploitative tools. Authorities say these platforms enabled conversion of stolen cryptocurrency into the legitimate banking sector and supported human trafficking and violent control measures at scam compounds.

📰 This week’s recap highlights recurring attack patterns: abused integrations, poisoned websites, fake tools, and ransomware groups disabling security products. Notable incidents include the large-scale FortiBleed campaign compromising FortiGate devices, the Gentlemen RaaS developing the GentleKiller EDR-killing suite, and active exploitation of a critical Splunk flaw. Mobile and crypto-related malware campaigns also featured prominently.

🔍 New research from ESET reveals that The Gentlemen ransomware-as-a-service platform now supplies affiliates with an advanced EDR killer framework called GentleKiller, alongside third-party tools like HexKiller, ThrottleBlood and HavocKiller. The leak shows affiliates can deploy bring-your-own vulnerable driver (BYOVD) techniques to gain kernel privileges and disable hundreds of EDR processes across many vendors. ESET warns this lowers the bar for less skilled attackers and urges organizations to enforce protections such as HVCI and KMCI, apply strict driver allow/block policies, and regularly audit drivers.

🛡️ ESET researchers say the Gentlemen ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation supplies affiliates with a standardized suite of EDR killers, centered on a framework named GentleKiller, to disable security tooling prior to encryption. The tooling mimics legitimate security products and leverages abused vulnerable drivers through a BYOVD technique, incorporating third-party killers like HexKiller and ThrottleBlood. The group rapidly operationalizes public proof-of-concept exploits, and ESET also found a Rust-based credential stealer called OxideHarvest in use.

🔎 ESET researchers detail the EDR-killing toolset used by the ransomware-as-a-service gang Gentlemen, which rose to prominence in early 2026. The group provides affiliates with an operator-maintained suite centered on an in-house framework dubbed GentleKiller plus integrated third-party tools like HexKiller and HavocKiller. A May 2026 internal leak and long-term incident visibility enabled deep linkage between leaked data, actual samples, and the gang’s TTPs.

🔒 Symantec warns that DragonForce ransomware used a custom Go-based backdoor, Backdoor.Turn, to hide command-and-control traffic by abusing Microsoft Teams' TURN relay infrastructure. The malware obtains anonymous Teams visitor tokens and tunnels C2 communications through legitimate TURN relays, making malicious traffic appear as normal Teams activity. The campaign, observed in December 2025, also used BYOVD drivers for kernel privileges and extensive post-exploitation tools to exfiltrate data and deploy ransomware.

🔎 The Council of Europe is investigating claims by the ShinyHunters extortion group that it exfiltrated hundreds of thousands of HR and payroll records. The organization, representing 46 member states, said it is assessing the situation and cannot provide further comment. ShinyHunters posted on a dark web leak site, threatening to publish alleged files containing extensive personal and financial data if demands are not met.

🔍 Check Point and other cyber intelligence firms have been tracking The Gentlemen, a fast-growing RaaS operation that offers affiliates a 90/10 revenue split and has become the second most active ransomware group by victim count. Researchers link the group’s administrator to the handles Hastalamuerte and Zeta88, and trace forum registrations, email addresses, Telegram IDs, and phone numbers to a likely real-world identity in Izhevsk, Russia. Open-source and breach data suggest the suspect may be Alexander Yapaev, who lists employment at Uralenergo Udmurtia; he did not respond to requests for comment.

🔍 A California man received a 26-year federal prison sentence after trafficking fentanyl and methamphetamine through Nemesis Market. Darren Hughes, 39, was convicted in November 2025 and sentenced on May 26 for operating a dark web store that offered free samples and sold drugs to undercover agents for cryptocurrency. Authorities arrested Hughes on June 28, 2023, seizing 672 grams of methamphetamine and a loaded ghost gun during his arrest. The case was part of a broader international investigation that took down Nemesis Market in March 2024.

🔒 Over May 6–7, 2026, Canvas LMS users encountered a defaced login page claiming a ShinyHunters extortion of Instructure, alleging theft of 3.65TB of data affecting about 275 million students, faculty, and staff across nearly 9,000 institutions. Instructure identified an exploited support-ticket vulnerability in its Free for Teacher environment and temporarily disabled that service while investigating. The incident disrupted finals and highlighted risks from centralized SaaS platforms, third-party dependencies, communications breakdowns and the evolving economics of extortion.

🔒 7-Eleven disclosed that an unauthorized party accessed systems used to store franchisee documents on April 8, 2026, and began notifying affected individuals on May 1. The company has not provided details on the number of affected people or specific data types exposed. The extortion group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility on April 17, alleging the theft of over 600,000 records from the company's Salesforce environment and later leaking a 9.4GB archive after ransom talks failed. 7-Eleven said it launched an investigation but has not commented further.

🔒 INTERPOL's Operation Ramz led to more than 200 arrests and the seizure of 53 servers used for phishing, malware, and online fraud, affecting at least 3,867 confirmed victims from nearly 8,000 intelligence packages. Authorities identified another 382 suspects across 13 MENA countries. INTERPOL partnered with private firms including Kaspersky, Group-IB, The Shadowserver Foundation, Team Cymru, and TrendAI to track malicious infrastructure. The operation disrupted phishing-as-a-service platforms, dismantled investment scam rings, and disabled malware-infected servers.

🔍 Check Point Research details a May 2026 compromise of The Gentlemen's backend that exposed chat logs, rosters, negotiation transcripts and tooling discussions. The leak shows a compact operation of roughly nine operators centered on a single administrator (zeta88 / hastalamuerte) who built the RaaS panel with AI coding assistants and participated in attacks. Initial access is mostly via unpatched edge devices or purchased credentials, and chain-victimization was observed. Check Point has notified law enforcement.

🔒 A ShinyHunters “pay or leak” extortion campaign has targeted the education sector after the compromise of Instructure, operator of the Canvas LMS. The April 25 breach reportedly exposed around 275 million records and more than 3.65 TB of data via a vulnerability in the Free‑For‑Teacher Canvas version. After an initial ransom demand and a May 8 deadline, the group extended its timeline and began school‑by‑school extortion, defacing roughly 330 institutional login pages. Affected organizations are urged to change Canvas‑related passwords, enable multi‑factor authentication and heighten phishing awareness.

🔒 Spanish and German authorities have shut down a relaunch of Crimenetwork, arresting a 35-year-old German national in Mallorca after coordination with the Frankfurt prosecutors and the BKA. The rebuilt marketplace attracted over 22,000 users and 100+ vendors, trading stolen data, narcotics and forged documents while generating more than €3.6m in revenue. Police seized €194,000 and user transaction data to support further investigations.

🔒Deniss Zolotarjovs, a Latvian national extradited to the United States, was sentenced to 8.5 years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering for his role as a negotiator in the Karakurt extortion operation. Prosecutors say he handled "cold case" extortions, researching targets and using stolen personal and health data to pressure victims. He is the first Karakurt member sentenced in the U.S.

🔒 A coordinated international operation led by Dubai Police alongside the FBI and China's Ministry of Public Security arrested 276 suspects, shut nine crypto scam centers, and restrained more than $701 million in cryptocurrency tied to investment fraud. The schemes employed pig butchering and romance-baiting lures and relied on trafficked workers forced to run scam compounds. Authorities seized hundreds of fraudulent domains and a Telegram recruitment channel, sanctioned Cambodian actors, flagged an Android Malware-as-a-Service, and credited Operation Level Up with notifying nearly 9,000 victims and saving about $562 million.

🛡️ Halcyon reports a public feud between 0APT and newcomer KryBit after the rivals leaked each other's operational data online. 0APT initially published KryBit's administrator panel, operator details, affiliate information and victim negotiation files, prompting KryBit to retaliate by stealing and releasing 0APT's access logs, PHP source code and system files. The exchanges exposed fabricated victim claims, insecure infrastructure practices and forced both groups to consider rebuilding, rebranding and rotating infrastructure to remain viable.