GoKawiil
Tech News
On September 12, Ukraine's Defense Intelligence spotted a Russian Orcan explosive drone boat in the Black Sea and sent a Sargan-3000 naval drone armed with a remote-controlled 12.7mm machine gun to intercept it. The Ukrainian vessel opened fire from about one kilometer away, knocking out the Russian drone's communications antenna before sinking it entirely, according to footage released by Ukraine's navy.
A Kremlin-released clip of Vladimir Putin casting an online ballot in Russia's State Duma elections shows an 'Activate Windows' watermark on his screen, indicating unlicensed software running on what appears to be a Dell computer. The footage has spread widely online, with observers noting both the software issue and Putin's apparent unfamiliarity with the mouse. State media confirmed the vote covered the 9th State Duma, including newly annexed Ukrainian territories.
Since the Strait of Hormuz closure sent Brent crude up 58% year-on-year, the European Commission has only trimmed its 2026 growth forecast from 1.5% to 1.1%, with unemployment steady near 6%. That resilience stems from a structural shift: Russian gas has dropped from 45% to 12% of EU imports while US LNG now supplies two-thirds of Europe's gas, backed by $750 billion in commitments through 2028, and EU output uses 44% less energy per euro than in 1995.
A federal grand jury in California indicted 40-year-old Searzhudin Tamirlanovich Aktulaev, extradited from Cyprus in May 2025, over a phishing scheme that used 255 fake accounts to send malicious Excel attachments to roughly 80,000 freelancers on an unnamed job platform between 2016 and 2017. The attachments deployed TVRAT and DarkVNC malware, giving the defendant remote access to victims' machines and letting him steal e-commerce credentials and personal data for fraud.
Nation-state hacking groups linked to Russia have shifted their phishing campaigns away from email and toward messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp to target European Union officials. In response, EU governments are reportedly working to move away from these popular consumer messaging platforms for sensitive communications.
OpenAI removed a network of ChatGPT accounts traced to Russia after investigating AI-generated social media posts that led to a wider covert influence operation. The campaign centered on a website featuring plagiarized academic content and a 'sovereignty index' favorable to Russia, with operators using VPNs to mask their location since OpenAI blocks access within Russia.
In March 2024, three Romanian nationals attacked Iran International presenter Pouria Zeraati outside his London home, stabbing him in the leg before fleeing to Bucharest via Geneva. Investigators say the assault is part of a broader Iranian strategy of paying foreign criminals—including Russian mobsters, Hells Angels members, and Swedish teenagers—to target dissidents and journalists abroad, allowing Tehran to deny direct involvement.
Slovak investigators reportedly discovered a hidden backdoor of Russian origin embedded in the country's traffic speed camera systems. The finding raises concerns that the compromised devices could have been used for surveillance or remote manipulation without operator knowledge.