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A “takedown” without an arrest is often just a pause, episode [bigNumber].

Magento online stores are being targeted using a recently patched vulnerability known as PolyShell. According to Sansec, attacks have entered the mass-exploitation phase, with hundreds of stores being hacked every hour. sansec.io/research/pol...

Surcharges for international network traffic and pressure on Russian retailers to refuse service to Russian customers who use foreign IPs are two new ways the Russian government will attempt to reduce use of VPNs. Russian Forbes says that these measures come from an order from Putin himself.

Российские власти обсуждают введение платы и штрафов за использование VPN-сервисов для обхода блокировок. Глава Минцифры Максут Шадаев подтвердил, что с 1 мая операторы связи могут ввести плату за трафик свыше 15 Гб, а цифровым платформам поручено ограничить доступ для пользователей VPN.

The statue

Fun fact: UAE’s spymaster has directed billions to Trump’s World Liberty Financial. He’s also invested in it.

Will be fascinating to see the impact of impending crypto regulations in Russia now that the government has approved the Ministry of Finance’s bill which will regulate crypto as tightly as the traditional financial sector, maybe even more so. KYC, AML, registration for all participants, 1/

Years ago, we've published an investigation into one core member of REvil, together with @maxzierer.bsky.social and @kaibiermann.bsky.social Now, german authorities put out a Wanted poster for Mr. Shchukin www.bka.de/DE/IhreSiche... Here's our reporting from back then www.zeit.de/digital/inte...

1/ Without Telegram, which is now fully banned for Russian military use, Russian soldiers in Ukraine are finding it harder – or impossible – to do previously everyday tasks. A brief summary by a Russian signalman highlights specific problems:

Recent internet blackouts in Moscow and St Petersburg are not just reactive responses to Ukrainian drones. They are early-stage tests of a Kremlin equivalent to China’s ‘Great Firewall'.

Initial reports are that at least two of the young people arrested in Moscow in connection with the failed protests against Internet shutdowns were beaten in police custody. The Russian security state really knows how to reach the youth and address their concerns.

This is something many of us have known for a while, but it’s weird to see it stated aloud in, as @zackwhittaker.com said, “an unusually candid” interview (boy, that’s an understatement). Via @semafor.com

Today, an unapproved rally was supposed to take place in Moscow against blocking the Internet and social media in Russia. Police cars and special law enforcement agents appeared at the location. Eight people detained already. Looks like not many people joined anyway.

If only we had seen direct examples of asymmetric warfare some time over the past 60 years or so.

A review of independent media suggests that not a single protest against Internet shutdowns in Russia scheduled for this weekend was allowed by the authorities. There were several more arrests beyond these Moscow arrests, and other organizers were visited by police for a “prophylactic discussion.”

I knew it would be bad, but this is just ridiculous www.atomic.computer/blog/white-h...

good lord www.politico.com/newsletters/...

This is fairly big. TA446 (aka COLDRIVER, Star Blizzard, Callisto) is a lower tier Russian APT group. They have now repurposed the recently leaked iOS exploit kit.

Today, the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee released a new report on foreign disinfo as “the new warfare," with evidence from me & @americansunlight.org cited throughout. It's gratifying to see a government take this threat seriously. committees.parliament.uk/committee/78...

Members of the “Scarlet Swan” youth movement who had been trying to organize protests against Internet shutdowns in Russia have a choice: be arrested or flee the country. Wrongthink will not be tolerated. verstka.media/v-moskve-are...

🚨‼️ BREAKING: The SQL database of BreachForums v5 has been leaked by Shiny. Usernames, emails, passwords, and more exposed.

Ryan Moran has published profiles on members of the Cl0p (former ransomware) data extortion gang This includes j0nny, AELS, Baddie, Rastafareye, and orlylyly rmoskovy.github.io/posts/who-ru...

1/ An experiment by Russia's FSB has indicated that thousands of Russians are likely to be willing to carry out sabotage attacks on behalf of Ukraine or other foreign actors. In only three hours, the FSB recruited ten would-be saboteurs via Telegram. ⬇️

Puerto Rico government agency cancels driver’s license appointments after cyberattack therecord.media/puerto-rico-...

At least 40% of Russia's oil export capacity is at a halt following Ukrainian drone attacks, a disputed attack on a major pipeline, and the seizure of tankers. - Reuters

Meanwhile, the Belarus Cyber Partisans @cpartisans_chat have posted today about their attack on Khimvolokno, Russia’s largest producer of nylon fabrics used for helmets and protective vests. Sounds like they severely damaged the firm’s network.

On their Telegram channel, the Ukrainian hacking group @hacking_cat claims to have attacked the Russian industrial firm ZESKMI and wiped 300TB of data from its network after months of dwell time in the company. If true, only the latest significant attack in the RU-UA cyberwar.

Other than the cringeworthy suggestion that Silk Road served as a model for Russian hacker forums (which were a huge phenomenon a decade before Silk Road), this is an interesting overview of the Russian cybercrime forums and relationships with law enforcement. youtu.be/XElUy6AENAI?...

The Bell reports that Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development wants to expand capacity on its Internet filtering system by 2.5 times in order to keep up all the content it’s blocking. Censorship is hard work and takes a lot of resources.

Russian MVD announces the arrest of the admin of a hacker forum, apparently Leakbase, for trafficking in stolen PII. Charges filed in Moscow, although suspect seems to have been from Taganrog. t.me/IrinaVolk_MVD/6763

Isn’t that pretty much “time served” at this point?

„Familismus“ als Fundament des russischen Machtsystems? #Investigativ-Recherchen zeigen, wie groß Putins „erweiterte #Familie” ist – und wie tief sie im russischen Machtapparat verankert ist. Allerdings nicht ganz ohne Einschränkungen. Eine Einordnung unseres dekoder-Redakteurs Dmitry Kartsev:

🇷🇺 🇪🇺 $500 and a trip abroad: How recruits end up in Russian sabotage training camps Court cases in Moldova are lifting the curtain on Russia’s transnational network to recruit, train and deploy spies and saboteurs. www.politico.eu/article/russ...

Russia has for the 1st time officially declared its commitment to maintaining human control over nuclear weapon use While AI is not explicitly mentioned, this is Russia's response to recent AI/nuclear debates & it aligns with the 2024 Biden-Xi statement docs-library.unoda.org/Treaty_on_th...

Russian companies failed 90% of AI-based projects in 2025, according to Vedomosti. About 40% of the projects were terminated at the pilot stage, as revealed by a survey of 50 large organizations from various sectors conducted by the consulting company "Intellectual Analytics". 1/2

Deputy head of Russia’s central bank warns the country’s numerous unlicensed crypto exchangers that they will face criminal and civil penalties if they don’t come out of the shadows and register with the government. Legislation looms on the horizon. Kommersant.ru/doc/8533966

So... rage-baiting rules the world these days? www.bbc.com/news/article...

New: We looked into the large-scale phishing campaign that's targeting Signal users and found digital evidence pointing to Russian involvement – and a connection to previous attacks in Ukraine and Moldova. Story with @alexejhock.bsky.social for @correctiv.org correctiv.org/en/fact-chec...

ISD & AFP co-investigated pro-Kremlin influence in Europe. We found evidence of targeted information operations, incl. efforts to launder narratives through distribution systems that enable "misleading narratives to travel farther than facts", said Zoe Manzi, ISD Senior Hate & Extremism Analyst 📽️ ⬇️

Yanluowang ransomware affiliate sentenced to 81 months www.justice.gov/opa/pr/russi...

The FCC today updated its list of products that can't be sold in the U.S. to include *all* consumer routers made in foreign countries. It's a big but potentially disruptive move to limit supply-chain security risks to U.S. networks. docs.fcc.gov/public/attac...

For decades, Russia has been helping Iran develop long-range missiles. Why Trump seems to be the only person who doesn't understand or acknowledge this military collaboration between two of our autocratic enemies is truly mysterious.

In today’s Izvestiia, the registrar for .RU/.РФ domains reports that complaints about malware sites in Jan-Feb 2026 were 7.7 times more common than in the same period of 2025. There’s a boom in malware. With the blocking of foreign sites, threat actors have to use domestic sites to infect victims?

The Dossier project with some incredible figures on KIA and other losses by the Russian 27th Guards Division, based on staffing documents provided by a deserting officer. Just staggering casualty rates. dossier.center/minus27/

Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a look at how censored information and ideas were spread in the Soviet Union. This look at Soviet samizdat includes how the government responded and reacted to underground publishing. youtu.be/TMx3iBf73_0

How can this go on for another 3 years?

So, um... this is bad. Really bad. I looked at the letters that were translated by the AI, and the very first one I found was almost entirely hallucination. Thread: