Germany
German authorities identify REvil and GandCrab ransomware bosses
The Federal Police in Germany (BKA) has identified two Russian nationals as the leaders of GandCrab and REvil ransomware operations between 2019 and 2021. According to BKA’s disclosure, 31-year-old Daniil Maksimovich Shchukin and 43-year-old Anatoly Sergeevitsch Kravchuk acted as the heads of the two ransomware groups “from at least the beginning of 2019 until at least July 2021.” Shchukin hid behind the […]
Die Linke German political party confirms data stolen by Qilin ransomware
The Qilin ransomware group has stolen data from Die Linke, a German democratic socialist political party, and is threatening to leak it. On March 27, a day after the threat actor compromised its network, the party disclosed a cyber incident but stopped short of confirming a data breach. Founded in 2007, the Die Linke (Left […]
PTC warns of imminent threat from critical Windchill, FlexPLM RCE bug
PTC Inc. is warning of a critical vulnerability in Windchill and FlexPLM, widely used product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions, that could allow remote code execution. The security issue, identified as CVE-2026-4681, could be leveraged through the deserialization of trusted data. Its severity has prompted emergency action from German authorities, with the federal police (BKA) reportedly […]
Police take down 373,000 fake CSAM sites in Operation Alice
An international law enforcement action called Operation Alice has shut down over 373,000 dark web sites that offered fake CSAM packages. The investigation, led by Germany and supported by Europol, began in mid-2021 and focused on a platform called “Alice with Violence CP,” operated by a 35-year-old suspect based in China. These sites advertised child sexual […]
Germany warns of Signal account hijacking targeting senior figures
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency is warning of suspected state-sponsored threat actors targeting high-ranking individuals in phishing attacks via messaging apps like Signal. The attacks combine social engineering with legitimate features to steal data from politicians, military officers, diplomats, and investigative journalists in Germany and across Europe. The security advisory is based on intelligence collected by the Federal […]
Police busts credit card fraud rings with 4.3 million victims
International authorities have dismantled three massive credit card fraud and money laundering networks, linked to losses exceeding €300 million ($344 million) and affecting over 4.3 million cardholders across 193 countries. The November 4th joint action, dubbed “Operation Chargeback,” included investigators from Germany, the USA, Canada, Singapore, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. The operation […]
Mozilla warns Germany could soon declare ad blockers illegal
A recent ruling from Germany’s Federal Supreme Court (BGH) has revived a legal battle over whether browser-based ad blockers infringe copyright, raising fears about a potential ban of the tools in the country. The case stems from online media company Axel Springer’s lawsuit against Eyeo – the maker of the popular Adblock Plus browser extension. Axel Springer […]
Germany asks Google, Apple to remove DeepSeek AI from app stores
The Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection has formally requested Google and Apple to remove the DeepSeek AI application from the application stores due to GDPR violations. The commissioner, Meike Kamp, alleges that DeepSeek’s owner, Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, based in Beijing, unlawfully collects data from German users and transfers them for processing in servers in China. […]
Hacker steals 1 million Cock.li user records in webmail data breach
Email hosting provider Cock.li has confirmed it suffered a data breach after threat actors exploited flaws in its now-retired Roundcube webmail platform to steal over a million user records. The incident exposed all users who had logged in to the mail service since 2016, estimated at 1,023,800 people, along with contact entries for an additional […]
Germany fines Vodafone $51 million for privacy, security breaches
The German data protection authority (BfDI) has fined Vodafone GmbH, the telecommunications company’s German subsidiary, €45 million ($51.4 million) for privacy and security violations. “Due to malicious employees in partner agencies who broker contracts to customers on behalf of Vodafone, there had been fraud cases due to fictitious contracts or contract changes at the expense of […]