In the high-stakes arena of global cybercrime, few entities have ascended the ladder of infamy as rapidly as "The Gentlemen." Emerging from the shadows in mid-2025, this ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) syndicate has rapidly carved out a position as the second most active ransomware group by victim count. According to recent intelligence from Check Point Software, the…
By PYMNTS | July 12, 2026 In a chilling breach of professional ethics that has sent shockwaves through the cybersecurity industry, a former ransomware negotiator has been sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for orchestrating a duplicitous scheme. Angelo Martino, 41, once a trusted consultant tasked with defending organizations during their darkest hours, instead…
For the past four years, a sprawling, shadow-like infrastructure known as "Popa" has quietly co-opted millions of consumer Android-based TV boxes. Rather than launching the headline-grabbing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks typically associated with botnets, Popa operates with a more subtle, persistent objective: transforming living-room streaming devices into a global relay network for commercial residential proxies….
In a decisive strike against the illicit residential proxy ecosystem, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), supported by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation division and a coalition of global technology partners, has seized hundreds of domains associated with NetNut. The service, a sprawling residential proxy network operated by the publicly traded Israeli firm…
In a sweeping operation that marks a significant escalation in the European Union’s battle against hybrid warfare, Dutch financial crime authorities have dismantled a sprawling network of internet infrastructure allegedly utilized by Russian intelligence agencies. The operation, conducted by the Tax Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD), resulted in the arrest of two prominent figures within…
In an alarming incident that underscores the growing risks associated with integrating artificial intelligence into sensitive administrative workflows, the Instagram accounts of the Obama White House and the Chief Master Sergeant of the U.S. Space Force were compromised over the weekend. The breach was not the result of a traditional brute-force attack or sophisticated malware;…
In the high-stakes, hyper-competitive world of cybersecurity, the acquisition of “zero-day” vulnerabilities—previously unknown security flaws in software—is a multi-billion dollar industry. It is a market that typically demands extreme discretion, rigorous technical pedigree, and deep-seated institutional trust. However, a new player has emerged in McLean, Virginia, that is shattering the industry’s norms: IRIS C2. The…
In a landmark development for international cybersecurity, two core members of the notorious cybercrime collective "Scattered Spider" have pleaded guilty in a United Kingdom court. The pair, Thalha Jubair and Owen Flowers, stood at the center of a criminal enterprise that brought major infrastructure to its knees and orchestrated some of the most sophisticated phishing…
In what security analysts are calling one of the most egregious data exposures in recent federal history, a public GitHub repository maintained by a contractor for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has laid bare a treasure trove of sensitive credentials. For months, the repository, aptly named “Private-CISA,” functioned as an open door into…
In a landmark victory for international law enforcement, a 23-year-old Ottawa resident, Jacob Butler—known in the shadowy corners of the internet by the handle "Dort"—was arrested this week on charges of masterminding "Kimwolf," a formidable Internet-of-Things (IoT) botnet responsible for a wave of record-breaking cyberattacks that have plagued global networks for the past six months….
