GoKawiil
Tech News
US authorities announced the arrest of a man accused of developing malware used to fraudulently empty ATMs, a technique known as 'jackpotting.' Officials say the suspect, tied to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, had been named to the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list, reportedly the first cybercriminal to receive that designation.
The US Department of Justice has charged Zohar Pinhasi, operating MonsterCloud, with fraud for allegedly deceiving clients by claiming to decrypt files without paying ransom. Instead, the company reportedly paid hackers a portion of the fees and kept the rest, charging over $19 million in total while paying just over $8 million in ransom payments. Evidence suggests MonsterCloud used samples from ransomware operators as proof of decryption ability, despite not having proprietary tools.
A Jordanian teenager known as 'Rey,' identified by KrebsOnSecurity as Saif Al-din Khader, was detained and is reportedly cooperating with the FBI to identify other members of the ShinyHunters hacking group. The detention occurred while ShinyHunters was extorting a business unit recently spun off from Boeing, and came weeks after Rey took over the group's operations following the arrest of another member in the Netherlands, boasting about breaching an FBI site and extorting the ransomware group Cl0p via an Oracle PeopleSoft vulnerability.
The Justice Department announced the arrest of Anibal Alexander Canelon Aguirre, 50, allegedly the developer of Ploutus ATM jackpotting malware and a leader of the criminal network behind it. Prosecutors say the scheme stole over $5.4 million from banks and credit unions between February 2024 and December 2025, with proceeds laundered through accounts linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. He was charged in Nebraska in December 2025 with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and money laundering.
Reuters reports that Saif al-Din Khader, a teenager suspected of leading the ShinyHunters hacking group, is being detained in Jordan. The group claimed in September it had breached the FBI's job recruitment portal, stealing personal and medical data on roughly 5,000 employees and defacing the agency's logo. Sources told Reuters Khader is cooperating with FBI and international investigators to help identify other members of the group.
Jordanian authorities reportedly detained Saif al-Din Khader, known online as "Rey" and suspected of belonging to the ShinyHunters hacking group, this week according to Reuters sources. Khader is said to be cooperating with the FBI and international law enforcement, helping investigators go through his devices and communications to identify other alleged members of the group.
The Department of Defense is notifying over 2 million current and former service members that hackers accessed personnel data through the Defense Manpower Data Center starting last October. The stolen records included Social Security numbers, names, addresses, sex, race and occupational specialty, affecting 2.8 million living individuals. This follows a separate breach last month in which the ransomware group ShinyHunters claimed to have stolen FBI employee records.
A new analysis of FBI data by Incogni found that 72% of elder fraud cases in 2024 were enabled by victims' personal information being exposed online, resulting in $4.2 billion in losses. The report details how scammers use publicly available data, family chat groups, and SIM-swapping techniques to impersonate relatives and bypass two-factor authentication.
Dutch authorities arrested Pepijn van der Stap, a Dutch man previously convicted of data theft and extortion in 2023, who reportedly joined cybersecurity firm Neo Security after his release last year. Krebs on Security and Reuters identify him as the suspect, though neither Dutch police nor the FBI officially named him, and ShinyHunters denies he has any association with the group. Dutch police say he is also suspected of incitement to commit two murders, while FBI officials describe him as one of the group's alleged leaders.
Dutch authorities arrested a 24-year-old Amsterdam man on September 15 on suspicion of participating in the ShinyHunters hacking group, which the FBI says has breached over 140 organizations including Pornhub, Ticketmaster and AT&T. Police say evidence found on his laptop also pointed to plans to have two murders carried out abroad, prompting a separate investigation into that alleged plot. He has been remanded in custody for at least 90 days.
Dutch police arrested a 24-year-old Amsterdam man on September 15, described by the FBI as an alleged leader of the ShinyHunters extortion group. Police say a laptop seized from him contained details of two planned murders abroad, and a Rotterdam court has ordered him held for at least 90 more days pending trial. The FBI says ShinyHunters and its associates have breached over 140 organizations and collected at least $70 million in extortion payments since last year.
Dutch authorities this month arrested Pepijn van der Stap, 23, a previously convicted cybercriminal from Almere and Lelystad, on suspicion of assisting ShinyHunters with data thefts and extortion schemes. Van der Stap was convicted in 2023 for hacks under the alias 'Umbreon' that prosecutors said netted between €1.5 million and €2.7 million, and he served part of a four-year sentence before his release in December 2025. He had since presented himself publicly as reformed, working in offensive security at the Dutch firm Neo Security.