Ravie LakshmananJan 16, 2026Malware / Cyber Espionage Security experts have disclosed details of a new campaign that has targeted U.S. government and policy entities using politically themed lures to deliver a backdoor known as LOTUSLITE. The targeted malware campaign leverages decoys related to the recent geopolitical developments between the U.S. and Venezuela to distribute a…
Jan 05, 2026Ravie LakshmananCryptocurrency / Financial Crime Ilya Lichtenstein, who was sentenced to prison last year for money laundering charges in connection with his role in the massive hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016, said he has been released early. In a post shared on X last week, the 38-year-old announced his release, crediting…
Dec 31, 2025Ravie LakshmananSpyware / Mobile Security The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tuesday removed three individuals linked to the Intellexa Consortium, the holding company behind a commercial spyware known as Predator, from the specially designated nationals list. The names of the individuals are as follows – Merom…
Dec 20, 2025Ravie LakshmananCybercrime / ATM Security The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) this week announced the indictment of 54 individuals in connection with a multi-million dollar ATM jackpotting scheme. The large-scale conspiracy involved deploying malware named Ploutus to hack into automated teller machines (ATMs) across the U.S. and force them to dispense cash. The…
Byju Raveendran, the embattled founder of Indian ed-tech giant Byju’s, has blasted a U.S. bankruptcy court’s order directing him to pay more than $1.07 billion. He is denying wrongdoing, accusing lenders of misleading the court, and vowing to appeal a ruling that marks a dramatic fall for a onetime poster boy of India’s startup boom….
Nov 05, 2025Ravie LakshmananCybersecurity / Cyber Espionage A never-before-seen threat activity cluster codenamed UNK_SmudgedSerpent has been attributed as behind a set of cyber attacks targeting academics and foreign policy experts between June and August 2025, coinciding with heightened geopolitical tensions between Iran and Israel. “UNK_SmudgedSerpent leveraged domestic political lures, including societal change in Iran and…
Sep 23, 2025Ravie LakshmananNational Security / Threat Intelligence The U.S. Secret Service on Tuesday said it took down a network of electronic devices located across the New York tri-state area that were used to threaten U.S. government officials and posed an imminent threat to national security. “This protective intelligence investigation led to the discovery of…
