Netherlands, France, and Germany lead ‘largest ever’ botnet sting
Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com:
Four people have been arrested in the “largest ever operation against botnets,” EU police force Europol announced on Thursday.
The Netherlands, Germany, and France led the sting, dubbed “Operation Endgame.” According to Dutch police, their investigation uncovered financial damages totalling “hundreds of millions” of euros. They also estimate that the malware has infected millions of systems.
The botnets’ primary purpose was deploying ransomware. One suspect alone earned an estimated €69mn in cryptocurrency from the scheme.
Operation Endgame struck the network between May 27 and 29, Europol said. Officers conducted searches in 16 locations: 11 in Ukraine, one in Armenia, three in Portugal, and one in the Netherlands. They targeted evidence of “droppers,” a type of Trojan horse designed to install malware.
The sting led to three arrests in Ukraine and one in Armenia. Police said they also took down over 100 servers and seized control of more than 2,000 domain names.
Investigators have also promised further takedowns. On a flashy website available in English and Russian, they posted a warning:
The European sting surfaced just hours after another major botnet takedown.
On Wednesday, US authorities announced that they had disrupted a network accused of stealing $5.9bn (€5.45bn). They said the operators had deployed the botnet for cyber attacks, large-scale fraud, child exploitation, harassment, bomb threats, and export violations.
Police arrested Chinese national YunHe Wang, 35, for his role in the scheme. They also seized assets including 21 properties, one Ferrari, two BMWs, a Rolls Royce, and several luxury watches, as well as over a dozen bank accounts, and two dozen cryptocurrency wallets.
Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor at Slovakian firm ESET, was struck by the sophistication of the botnets.
“Collaborative efforts increase the chances of identifying those responsible but the sheer length of time this botnet has been in operation highlights the skills and tools available to threat actors and how they can successfully operate for so long whilst hidden in the digital shadows,” he said.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson describes himself as a Christian before anything else. He has said his “faith informs everything I do.” He has told people curious about his views to “pick up a Bible.” His wife reportedly runs a counseling service whose operating agreement, which he himself notarized, states, “We believe and the Bible teaches that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery…is sinful and offensive to God.” He has said he and his son use a software program called Covenant Eyes to ensure neither is looking at porn.
Given all this, you may think that Johnson would not be comfortable showing up to a criminal trial to defend a guy who allegedly had an affair with an adult film star (according to the adult film star, Trump denies it), paid her to stay quiet about the alleged affair, and then was accused of covering up said payment. But you would think wrong!
On Tuesday, Johnson attended Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan, where—prior to the proceedings getting underway—the congressional leader nodded approvingly at Trump from behind a metal barrier, like a groupie at his favorite band’s concert:
Later, Johnson told reporters, “President Trump is a friend, and I wanted to be here to support him. I’m here speaking with you outside because the court won’t allow us to speak inside the building. That’s just one of the many things that are wrong here. This is the fifth week that President Trump has been in court for this sham of a trial. They are doing this intentionally to keep him here and keep him off of the campaign trail, and I think everyone in the country can see that for what it is. I’m an attorney, I’m a former litigator myself. I am disgusted by what is happening here, what is being done here to our entire system of justice overall.”
As The New York Times has noted, before he was House Speaker, Johnson wrote in a 2015 Facebook post that Trump “lacks the character and the moral center we desperately need again in the White House.” Since then, he has of course become a loyal footstool to Trump, a gig that has included, among other things, helping Trump try to overturn the 2020 election.
On Tuesday, former GOP representative Liz Cheney ripped Johnson for his blatant hypocrisy, writing on X, “Have to admit I’m surprised that Speaker Johnson wants to be in the ‘I cheated on my wife with a porn star’ club. I guess he’s not that concerned with teaching morality to our young people after all.”
VP hopeful Doug Burgum says no one pressured him to attack the Trump trial judge’s daughter, it was completely his idea
NASA and its world companions are sending scientific investigations to the International Dwelling Pickle on Northrop Grumman’s Twenty first commercial resupply companies mission. Flying aboard the company’s Cygnus spacecraft are tests of water restoration technology and a job to develop stem cells in microgravity, studies of the implications of spaceflight on microorganism DNA and liver tissue bellow, and stay science demonstrations for students. The mission is scheduled to beginning from Cape Canaveral Dwelling Force Pickle in Florida by early August.
Read extra about some of the evaluation making the sprint to the orbiting laboratory:
Packed bed reactors are programs that consume offers comparable to pellets or beads “packed” internal a structure to develop contact between assorted phases of fluids, comparable to liquid and gasoline. These reactors are inclined for various capabilities including water restoration, thermal administration, and gasoline cells. Scientists previously tested the performance in build of glass beads, Teflon beads, a platinum catalyst, and other packing offers. Packed Mattress Reactor Experiment: Water Recovery Sequence evaluates gravity’s outcomes on eight extra test articles.
Outcomes may perhaps maybe perhaps abet optimize the plan and operation of packed bed reactors for water filtration and other programs in microgravity and on the Moon and Mars. Insights from the investigation also may perhaps maybe perhaps end result in improvements in this technology for capabilities on Earth comparable to water purification and heating and cooling programs.
STEMonstrations Screaming Balloon makes consume of a balloon, a penny, and a hexagonal nut (the form inclined to acquire a lumber) for a NASA STEMonstration performed and recorded by astronauts on the build build. The penny and the nut are whirled individually internal an inflated balloon to evaluation the sounds they assemble. Every STEMonstration illustrates a assorted scientific thought, comparable to centripetal force, and contains resources to abet academics further explore the issues with their students.
In-Dwelling Expansion of Hematopoietic Stem Cells for Clinical Application (InSPA-StemCellEX-H1) continues checking out a technology to develop human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in build. HSCs give upward thrust to blood and immune cells and are inclined in therapies for patients with sure blood ailments, autoimmune complications, and cancers.
The investigation makes consume of a machine known as BioServe In-build Cell Expansion Platform, or BICEP, which is designed to assemble larger HSCs three hundredfold with out the necessity to alternate or add original bellow media, in step with Louis Stodieck, notable investigator on the University of Colorado Boulder. “BICEP affords a streamlined operation to harvest and cryopreserve cells for return to Earth and birth to a designated scientific supplier and patient,” acknowledged Stodieck.
Somebody in the United States is diagnosed with a blood most cancers comparable to leukemia about every three minutes. Treating these patients with transplanted stem cells requires a donor-recipient match and long-term repopulation of transplanted stem cells. This investigation demonstrates whether expanding stem cells in microgravity may perhaps maybe perhaps generate a ways extra repeatedly renewing stem cells.
“Our work in the end may perhaps maybe perhaps end result in tidy-scale production facilities, with donor cells launched into orbit and mobile therapies returned to Earth,” acknowledged Stodieck.
Rotifer-B2, an ESA (European Dwelling Company) investigation, explores how spaceflight affects DNA repair mechanisms in a shrimp bdelloid rotifer, Adineta vaga. These miniature nonetheless advanced organisms are known for their skill to withstand harsh stipulations, including radiation doses 100 instances higher than human cells can continue to exist. The organisms are dried, exposed to excessive radiation ranges on Earth, and rehydrated and cultured in an incubator on the build.
“Outdated evaluation indicates that rotifers repair their DNA in build with the similar efficiency as on Earth, nonetheless that evaluation equipped handiest genetic knowledge,” acknowledged Boris Hespeels, co-investigator, of Belgium’s Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics and Ecology. “This experiment will present the major visible proof of survival and replica all over spaceflight,” acknowledged Hespeels
Outcomes may perhaps maybe perhaps present insights into how spaceflight affects the rotifer’s skill to repair sections of broken DNA in a microgravity ambiance, and may perhaps maybe perhaps improve the similar old figuring out of DNA danger and repair mechanisms for capabilities on Earth.
Maturation of Vascularized Liver Tissue Invent studies the advance in build of bioprinted liver tissue constructs that cling blood vessels. Constructs are tissue samples grown outside the physique using bioengineering solutions. Scientists inquire the microgravity ambiance to allow improved mobile distribution all over tissue constructs.
“We are notably interested in accelerating the advance of vascular networks,” acknowledged James Yoo, notable investigator, on the Wake Woodland Institute of Regenerative Medication. “The experimental knowledge from microgravity will present precious insights that will improve the biomanufacturing of vascularized tissues to support as constructing blocks to engineer functional organs for transplantation.”
This mission also delivers plant life for the APEX-09 investigation, which examines plant responses to disturbing environments and may perhaps maybe perhaps inform the plan of bio-regenerative pork up programs on future build missions.
