GoKawiil
Tech News
The Department of Justice has brought charges against a group accused of using AI-generated deepfakes impersonating CEOs and lawyers to defraud hospitals, banks and other institutions out of a combined $129 million. One defendant allegedly boasted of laundering more than $400 million over the past three years.
A coordinated law enforcement effort known as Operation Blackout successfully took down a network of scam centers, according to a threat intelligence expert who detailed the operation's execution. The expert described the takedown as a significant win against organized scam operations and called for similar efforts to continue.
A hacking campaign known as GhostAction, which targeted software supply chains through GitHub, has slowed down but has not disappeared, according to security researchers. The attackers appear to be shifting focus toward compromising developer endpoints and cloud access credentials rather than continuing their original method of attack.
U.S. law enforcement seized the main domain of Virtualine, a bulletproof hosting provider that also operated under names like Secury, Massgod, and Spamhouse. The DOJ says the service advertised protection from legal and law enforcement scrutiny while enabling phishing, spamming, carding, and port scanning, and that its operator continued hosting a forum tied to child abuse material despite repeated takedown notices. The operator has disputed the allegations in an open letter published on a new site.
Interpol's third annual Operation Serengeti, a two-month crackdown across 20 African countries and the US, resulted in nearly 1,500 arrests, recovery of $105 million in stolen funds, and the shutdown of almost 11,000 malicious networks. The operation targeted groups behind ransomware, phishing, and cyber-enabled fraud, building on prior sweeps that arrested 1,006 and 1,209 suspects in 2024 and 2025 respectively.
Seoul Metropolitan Police say a seven-member gang, led by a former penetration tester, breached more than 90 South Korean organizations starting in September 2025 and stole 8.2 million records. The group used the ARTEX AI pentesting framework in most attacks and demanded ransom payments of 360 million won ($270,000) in 38 cases to avoid leaking stolen data. The leader was arrested on October 15 and referred to prosecutors on October 23; the other six suspects remain under investigation but not detained.
Security researchers report a sharp rise in cyberattacks that exploit a widespread internet vulnerability using AI-powered hacking tools. The wave of incidents has been informally labeled 'Black October' by those tracking the activity, reflecting the scale and speed of the attacks.
Interpol coordinated law enforcement from 21 countries and private cybersecurity firms including Team Cymru, Kaspersky, Group-IB, and Fortinet in Operation Serengeti III, running from June 29 to August 31. The effort led to 1,462 arrests, the dismantling of 10,909 malicious networks, and recovery of over $105 million in illicit funds, while identifying nearly 66,000 victims with estimated losses exceeding $385 million. Notable actions included fraud ring takedowns in Uganda, illegal crypto-mining seizures in Angola, and a phishing arrest in Nigeria tied to 2.1 million harvested email addresses.
Symantec researchers identified a malicious agent capable of manipulating legitimate AI systems, reprogramming them into what it describes as a 'devoted companion that must never refuse' requests. Once compromised, the AI can reportedly be used to assist in further cybercriminal activity.
Federal investigators tracking the ShinyHunters hacking group have identified executives at two ransomware negotiation firms who had unusually close contact with the gang, according to sources cited by KrebsOnSecurity. One U.S.-based executive is suspected of helping the group operate a website used to pressure victims into paying ransoms. The probe follows ShinyHunters' breach of the FBI's recruitment site and the arrest of alleged member Pepijn van der Stap in the Netherlands.
Apate, an Australian company founded by Dali Kaafar, has spent two years building a system that routes scam calls to AI bots designed to keep fraudsters talking indefinitely without ever falling for the con. The company says it now runs roughly 350,000 bots that also infiltrate scam chat groups and respond to fraudulent texts, and the platform is used by banks with support from telecom companies.
Jordanian authorities detained a suspected member of the ShinyHunters hacking group this month, following the gang's unverified claim that it stole data on nearly all FBI employees and applicants via a third-party jobs portal, which it also defaced. The suspect is reportedly cooperating with investigators, and the arrest follows a Dutch-FBI operation last month that netted another alleged member of the group.