CYBER-CRIME

Swapping legal work for malware development ended in extradition and a guilty plea

A Ukrainian lawyer who wound up coding malware for the Conti ransomware gang has been sentenced to four years in a US prison.

Oleksii Oleksiyovych Lytvynenko, 44, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit wire fraud over his role in Conti, the Russia-linked ransomware operation associated with more than 1,000 victims and at least $150 million in ransom payments.

Lytvynenko took an unusual route into the ransomware business. The Ukrainian national, who later lived in Cork, Ireland, trained as a lawyer before joining Conti as an intruder and developer.

According to his plea agreement [PDF], Lytvynenko operated under the handle “henry” and joined a team run by another Conti conspirator known as “silver” or “buza.” He was recruited to help with coding and directed to work on a malware loader – software designed to get other malicious code running on a victim’s machine.

Prosecutors said his Google account showed he had also been doing some homework. Investigators found books and videos about malware and hacking alongside Conti malware, ransom notes, and stolen victim data. Prosecutors said he also used Google and ZoomInfo to research potential targets.

Lytvynenko wasn’t confined to writing code, according to the filing. Evidence from his online accounts showed that he possessed data stolen from eight US victims and four overseas, with the eight American victims reporting more than $1.5 million in losses.

Court documents identify several Bitcoin transfers tied to his Conti work, including 0.4 BTC worth $25,042 that prosecutors traced back to one of his victims. He has been ordered to forfeit the same amount.

Conti disbanded in 2022 after its internal chats and source code were leaked following the gang’s public support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Lytvynenko apparently didn’t take that as his cue to find another line of work.

When Gardaí turned up at his County Cork home in July 2023, they said they found his laptop open, Cobalt Strike running and a Rocket.Chat session connected over Tor. Prosecutors said evidence recovered from the machine showed that his involvement in ransomware activity had continued after Conti disbanded.

Lytvynenko was extradited from Ireland to the US in October 2025.

The Justice Department says Conti attacked organizations across 47 US states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 31 foreign countries between 2020 and 2022. By January 2022, the FBI estimated that victim payouts associated with Conti exceeded $150 million.

Lytvynenko will now have four years to contemplate a career change. ®

At IFA Berlin 2026, ARBREST put a chair through movements that office furniture often treats as exceptions. COVE is the new brand’s first product, made its world debut with an IFA Best of Design award. At Hall 2.2, Stand 141, visitors leaned toward a desk, shifted their shoulders, turned and reclined. The demonstration made a larger point: working is not a single posture, and support should not disappear when the body changes direction.

COVE is ARBREST’s first product and first expression of that idea in the ergonomic chair category. The new smart lifestyle technology brand focuses on real needs that remain poorly addressed in work and everyday life. Its aim is to let technology recede into the background. COVE is the brand’s first step, not a claim that ARBREST will only make ergonomic chairs.

The reason for developing the chair is closely connected to the limits of standard office furniture. Many chairs are built around a standardized reference body, with differences addressed later through adjustments. That approach can leave smaller users compensating for a seat that is too deep, a lumbar support out of reach, armrests too far apart or feet that do not land securely. Women’s bodies are not identical, but the category has often treated their proportions as an afterthought. ARBREST decided to make them an initial design reference.

COVE starts with a 7-Point Fit Calibration. Seat height, width and depth, lumbar support, armrests, headrest and footrest are considered together. The recommended user height is 150 to 175 centimetres; seat height ranges from 46 to 54 centimetres and seat depth from 43 to 49 centimetres. The idea is to establish a better fit from the start, rather than relying on adjustment to compensate for the wrong proportions.

The seat has its own logic. A firmer sit-bone zone provides a stable base. A contoured pelvic area follows the body’s shape, and a flexible front edge is intended to reduce pressure under the thighs. The dual-tier active footrest helps bridge the gap between leg length and seat height. Together, these details address a familiar problem: when the legs, pelvis and lower back do not share a stable base, the user keeps moving in search of one.

COVE’s other details are similarly grounded in ordinary habits. The 3D Winged Headrest creates clearance for ponytails and styled hair during recline. Wide-surface touch controls are intended to be easier with longer nails. The 5D armrests follow the elbows as the user types, reads, browses or turns to communicate. None of these features changes the category alone. Together, they suggest that the chair was designed around a person’s routine rather than an abstract diagram of correct sitting.

Movement becomes more visible in the mechanism. COVE’s multi-axis forward-tilt chassis reaches 16 degrees, allowing the user to move closer to the desk without perching on the seat edge. The footrest continues to support the legs. The point is not to demonstrate how much a chair can move, but to keep support present as the body leans forward, sits upright, turns or reclines.

The 12-Zone Micro-Motion Backrest distributes support across twelve independent units arranged along a flexible spine plate. A small turn of the shoulders, a change in weight or a shift in the lower back can be met by different areas of the backrest. This is a different answer to the familiar ergonomic instruction to “sit correctly.” Instead of holding the body still, the chair is designed to stay connected as the body moves.

COVE links that backrest to a 5-Point Synchronized Support system. The headrest, armrests, backrest, seat and footrest move as coordinated contact points. When fatigue appears, one touch activates the motorized lumbar support. As the backrest reclines, the support extends forward and the footrest continues to cradle the legs, creating a brief seated stretch.

The market value of this approach is not that COVE promises to solve every problem associated with desk work. It is that the chair gives a growing conversation about inclusive design a physical, testable form. Designing for women here means more than reducing dimensions. It means looking at where the pelvis settles, how the feet are supported, how hair and fingernails affect daily use, and how a person moves between concentration and rest.

After its IFA debut, ARBREST expects to move COVE into an initial launch or crowdfunding phase later in 2026. Launch details will be announced later. Its broader significance lies in its starting assumption: the user is not a fixed shape, and a chair should not require her to behave like one. COVE is the brand’s first product, and its first step toward further smart lifestyle products built around real user needs.

The report found that the gap in skills is leading to increased financial risk for organisations.

A new report from Ireland’s professional body for compliance professionals, the Compliance Institute, has found evidence of a growing skills gap within financial services. 

51pc of the 125 senior compliance experts who contributed to the research survey said that companies lack the skilled workforce needed to stay on top of financial crimes and meet growing regulatory obligations. 

82pc were of the opinion that financial services firms lacking the necessary skilled workforce are increasing their financial or operational risk, and more than half (56pc) believe Ireland is not developing enough talent in compliance and financial crime to meet future demand in the financial services sector.

Michael Kavanagh, the CEO of the Compliance Institute, said, “At a time when financial crime is becoming more complex, sophisticated and global, it’s concerning that the overwhelming majority of compliance experts believe that talent shortages in the areas of financial crime and compliance are increasing regulatory and operational risks for the Irish financial services sector.”

He added: “Financial crime is increasingly digital in nature, faster to execute and more complex to detect, and furthermore, AI has made the task of tackling financial crime even more challenging. 

“So, it’s crucial that financial services institutions have the right firepower to combat financial crime, and a key part of this is suitably qualified staff and well-resourced compliance teams.”

Kavanagh explained that it is critical that the financial services sector has consistent access to adequately skilled compliance staff, especially as the overwhelming volume and pace of regulatory changes puts pressure on compliance teams in the sector. 

“The sheer breadth of regulations demands a significant allocation of time, expertise and operational focus, often stretching teams to their limits. It has never been more important for the industry to have access to the right talent,” he said. 

He explained that companies should take the necessary steps to ensure that their staff are well-trained and possess the skills needed to meet regulatory and operational challenges. 

He added: “But there also needs to be a concerted effort by the Government and industry to invest more in talent so that the Irish financial services sector can truly prosper and navigate all the challenges that come its way.”

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Oracle co-founder and executive chairman Larry Ellison has canceled a planned sale of his Oracle stock, the company announced on Saturday.

Oracle had previously disclosed in a regulatory filing that Ellison planned to sell 50 million shares worth around $7.5 billion, according to Reuters. The company did not offer a reason for the change in plans.

“No Oracle stock was sold under that plan, and he has no other plans to sell any of his Oracle stock,” the company said.

Oracle stock is currently down 22% since the beginning of the year. The company has been spending heavily on data centers, and it recently became one of the major owners and security partners for TikTok’s U.S. operations.

Ellison has also used his wealth to back his son David’s acquisition of Warner Bros., which is currently being contested in court.

AI AND ML

Amodei, Altman, and Elon Musk agreen on how government can tame the monster they created

ANALYSIS The leaders of major AI labs spent the weekend agreeing on a plan to capture regulators, make more money, and avoid responsibility for their dangerous behaviour. They call it “pacing the frontier.”

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei set the ball rolling with a post in which he professed alarm at how quickly AI is improving and suggested the attack on Hugging Face caused by rogue agents run by his rival OpenAI as a warning (which he referred to as ‘OAI-HF’) represented a moment that proved something needs to change at so-called “frontier” AI companies – essentially the big US model-makers.

“It’s also easy to dismiss OAI-HF as the failure of one company, but I believe that would be a mistake,” he wrote. “I believe it’s incumbent on every frontier AI company to act as if OAI-HF had happened to them,” he added, because he worries that OAI-HF shows that a swarm of agents “could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet.”

Amodei therefore suggested “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain.”

The CEO proposed a three-point plan to regulate AI:

• Requiring AI labs to host “embedded evaluators” whose job is to “verify adherence to safety practices and commitments, report incidents, and help assess the alignment of not just completed AI models but training pipelines and processes.”

• Frontier AI companies that operate in democratic countries collaborating “to establish common safety standards as well as limits on the rate of unchecked AI progress,” with undefined “forms of coordination” that would be “legally challenging” and “require government support.”

• A vague call for democratic governments “to coordinate with authoritarian governments, to the extent this is possible, while taking seriously the challenges of verifying compliance.”

OpenAI boss Sam Altman endorsed Amodei’s ideas. So did Elon Musk.

And just like that, three billionaires all signed up to the same set of rules they think the world’s governments should adopt to regulate their activities. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella signed up, too.

Amodei even gave democracies a threat/villain to unite against – authoritarians willing to use AI unethically.

This new consensus comes after years during which Big AI argued for light oversight and used that time to build tech that generates child sexual abuse material, dispenses terrible health advice, and made the OAI-HF incident possible.

Big AI has also argued it will deliver a productivity revolution. Daryl Plummer, chief of research at analyst firm Gartner, used his keynote speech at the company’s annual Symposium in Australia today to cite research that found software vendors are pitching 50 percent productivity gains from AI, but customers report a 16 percent lift.

Plummer also doubted that Amodei’s promise to slow development is real.

“I will believe that when I see it,” he said in the keynote.

Write your own rules

Amodei’s ideas therefore read like an attempt at “regulatory capture” – the situation in which vested interests find a way to define the rules their regulators impose. Those supine regulators then make decisions that benefit the entities they oversee more than they benefit the rest of us.

In this case, Anthropic, SpaceX, and OpenAI get regulations that amount to a cease fire during which they don’t need to compete so fiercely.

OpenAI boss Sam Altman also all-but-admitted that regulation will be good for investors when he used a weekend interview with the billionaires’ bible Fortune to reveal his company won’t seek a public listing this year because it is inopportune to do so while AI safety concerns are unresolved.

“We got a lot of stuff to do, like meeting this moment of what is going to be required for safety and alignment, and how the industry and governments can work together,” he said.

Or in other words: Our investors will get a better return if we pause our IPO until confidence is higher, and regulatory capture is the way to get that.

Amodei, meanwhile, outlined some very specific things he wants from Washington: stop selling Nvidia chips to China so its AI companies can’t build better models, and a crackdown on model distillation.

“If we execute these measures well, I believe they would slow China’s progress enough to widen America’s lead significantly over the next 3–5 years — the window when AI becomes geopolitically most important,” he wrote.

This plan would, of course, also mean that Chinese companies’ AI services would be inferior to Anthropic’s for a longer period – at a time when Chinese clouds are pushing into the rapidly growing middle eastern and southeast Asian markets.

Pacing the frontier landed badly in Washington. Speaker Mike Johnson warned Amodei’s plan could “smother innovation” and see China dominate global AI. President Trump dismissed warnings that AI can have deleterious effects and said the USA must lead the world in AI.

Such responses may reflect the fact that vast spending on AI infrastructure is delivering GDP growth in otherwise stagnant economies. Or perhaps they prove, yet again, that lawmakers are nearly always late to understand technology companies’ ambitions and the means they use to achieve them. ®

Why it matters: Although not foolproof, password managers are one of the most secure ways to generate, store, and use passwords. However, switching between them can be tedious and, in some cases, open users to security risks. A new feature for Android devices simplifies the process while removing a crucial vulnerability.

Android users can now transfer passwords and passkeys between password managers via a new procedure managed by the operating system. The feature already supports most major password managers on Android 8 or later, with more to follow.

To start, download the password manager you intend to transfer your information to. Then, choose the option to import or copy data from another manager. Android will automatically detect other installed password managers and display which ones support the transfer. After tapping “Continue,” you can review the information being moved before authorizing the transfer.

Outside of speed, the feature’s main new benefit is that it requires no file downloads. Moving passwords between managers sometimes involves downloading an unencrypted text file that could be intercepted. Furthermore, transferring passkeys usually requires reassigning them one by one, which the new process handles automatically.

Also Read: Essential Apps to Install on Windows and macOS (Including Password Managers)

Google confirmed that Android password transfers currently support Google Password Manager, 1Password, Bitwarden, and Dashlane. More managers are expected to add support soon.

Security experts generally recommend password managers as the best way to generate strong, unique passwords, something many users still struggle with. As recently as last year, “123456” and “password” still ranked among the most popular passwords.

However, password managers do have vulnerabilities and have suffered breaches, which might prompt users to switch between them. Earlier this year, researchers found vulnerabilities in Bitwarden, LastPass, and Dashlane. Password managers tied to web browsers can be even riskier, as Microsoft Edge was found to be storing saved passwords unencrypted in memory. Furthermore, Dashlane fell to brute-force attacks in June, and hackers stole LastPass subscriber information (but not passwords) later that month.

Passkeys, which tie authentication to specific devices via PINs and biometrics without revealing sensitive information to servers, are considered more secure than passwords, but not perfect. In August, researchers published a method for stealing passkeys from Google Chrome’s memory, and they can also be stolen along with browser sessions.

Lanterns episode 5 has landed on HBO Max — and it’s not only the DC Universe (DCU) TV show’s most devastating chapter so far for myriad reasons, but it also wraps up its 2016 storyline. From here on out, then, we’ll be back in 2026, aka the DCU‘s current timeline.

Its present-day plot will have to wait another week, though, because we need to dissect all the hugely significant events that happened in Lanterns‘ fifth episode. Consider this your one and only warning: full spoilers immediately follow for Lanterns chapter 5, titled ‘Lights Out’. If you haven’t seen it yet, bookmark this page for later and return once you’re caught up.

Who dies in Lanterns episode 5?

Frankly, lots and lots of people die. Innocent Rushville civilians caught in the crossfire and foot soldiers in Will Macon’s militia and Antaan’s extraterrestrial forces all bite the dust in the HBO Max show’s latest installment.

• Sony corrected reports claiming its disc production would collapse by 90%
• The company’s final disc plant will reduce output by 10%
• Sony still plans to stop producing new physical games in 2028

Sony has denied reports suggesting it plans to abandon physical disc manufacturing entirely, despite widespread speculation surrounding its future operations.

The company instead confirmed that its sole remaining disc-making plant will simply reduce output by 10%, not the previously reported 90%.

The takeaway: A homemade computer built with 460 vacuum tubes puts early computing technology to work in a modern project. The wall-mounted 8-bit system runs custom software, accepts user input, and drives a flip-digit display without a microprocessor, microcontroller, or modern integrated circuit. Its design highlights both the capabilities of tube-based computing and the limitations that led the industry to adopt semiconductor technology.

The project, called The Tube Computer MK3, was built by Mike, a self-taught electronics tinkerer who recently documented the machine on Hackaday. It is the third vacuum-tube computer he has developed this decade.

Vacuum tubes powered early electronic computers before transistors and integrated circuits replaced them. Tubes are large and fragile, generate heat, and have shorter working lives than semiconductor components. Mike’s computer shows why the industry moved on from them, while also proving they can still power a working computer.

Mike describes the system as “a modern 8-bit design, built with recycled 1950s vacuum tubes.” It is not a replica of a particular historic computer. Instead, it applies older electronic components to a contemporary 8-bit design built from discrete logic.

The wall-mounted system uses 460 recycled Soviet-era 6N3P double-triode vacuum tubes dating to the 1950s, along with germanium diodes. The tubes are arranged on 46 circuit boards, with 10 tubes per board, and linked by five backplane PCBs. The boards sit on a 190-centimeter-by-130-centimeter acrylic panel supported by an aluminum box-section frame.

Its logic is deliberately limited. The arithmetic logic design carries out five operations used by the instruction set: sum, carry, NOT, increment, and XNOR. The computer has no pipelining. Each instruction goes through a six-step fetch cycle followed by one execute cycle.

By modern standards, the design is slow and unwieldy. But unlike a silicon chip, its computing logic is spread across hundreds of visible tubes and circuit boards. Getting the computer ready to run takes time. After power-on, the tubes need between 10 and 15 minutes to warm up. Mike then resets it to bring the components into a common operational state.

Reliability is an ongoing concern. The used and old-stock tubes have a working life of about 500 hours, so replacements and repairs are part of running the system. Because the computer is mounted on a wall, Mike sometimes needs a stepladder to reach a failed tube.

Heat is another challenge for the tube-based system. The tubes glow during operation and keep the computer room warm. Mike keeps a fire extinguisher nearby, and the running system leaves behind the smell of burning dust. Earlier tube-computer iterations have sometimes failed explosively.

The computer currently runs an Airship Simulator that lets users pilot a British R80 airship from Brighton to Paris. Membrane controls placed over an image of the R80’s bridge send commands directly to the computer’s input board.

“By pressing controls on the image of the bridge of the R80, you can direct the airship software,” Mike said. “These membrane buttons simply put 5 volts directly to the input board of The Tube Computer. You can control the ballast, gas release, engine power, elevators, rudder and the bow mooring gear, which is used to release the airship from the tower.”

Secure IP cameras and CCTV recorders by replacing default or reused credentials, installing supported updates, disabling remote-access features you do not need, removing unnecessary router exposure, enabling multi-factor authentication where available, and separating surveillance devices from everyday systems where practical. After making the changes, verify that recording and intended remote viewing still work without restoring unnecessary access paths.

Security is easier when it is considered during CCTV installation planning, but an existing system can still be hardened without replacing every camera. The first job is to understand how the cameras, recorder, router and any cloud account currently communicate.

Before You Change Anything: Identify How Remote Access Works

Do not start by disabling random router or camera settings. First identify which devices you have and how someone outside the property reaches them. Otherwise, you can break legitimate recording, alerts or remote viewing without removing the access path that created the risk.

An Internet Protocol camera, usually called an IP camera, sends video over a data network. A Network Video Recorder, or NVR, receives and stores streams from network cameras. Depending on the installation, remote viewing may pass through the recorder, a manufacturer’s cloud service, a router rule, a virtual private network or a combination of these.

Universal Plug and Play, or UPnP, can let compatible devices request network configuration automatically. Port forwarding is a router rule that directs specified incoming traffic to a device inside the local network. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre advises camera owners to consider whether UPnP and port forwarding are actually needed because they can increase the routes through which networked devices may be reached.

Verify That the Hardening Worked

Security changes are successful only when the system continues to perform its intended job while unnecessary access has been removed. Test recording locally and test only the remote-access methods you deliberately chose to retain.

Document the final configuration after testing. Record the remote-access method that remains enabled, administrator accounts, firmware versions, network segment and any intentional router rules. This gives you a known baseline against which later configuration changes can be compared.

If Remote Viewing Stops Working After Hardening

Removing unnecessary access can reveal hidden dependencies in an older CCTV installation. Restore only the specific function the system genuinely requires instead of reversing every security change at once.

When an Older Camera Should Be Replaced

“No update available” is not always reassuring. An older camera can be running the newest firmware ever released for that model while the manufacturer has stopped fixing newly discovered security problems.

CISA’s internet-exposure guidance recommends replacing software and devices that no longer receive security support when addressing assets that remain internet-accessible. Current NIST IoT lifecycle guidance also treats maintaining device security posture throughout the lifecycle as part of protecting IoT devices and the networks they join.

Replacement becomes the stronger option when a camera or recorder must remain remotely reachable but no longer receives security fixes, cannot use adequate authentication, relies on unsuitable legacy management interfaces, or cannot be separated sufficiently from more sensitive systems.

An unsupported camera with no direct internet exposure and tightly restricted communication to a controlled recorder presents a different risk from the same device exposed directly to remote access. Isolation does not repair vulnerabilities in the camera, but it can reduce the systems and networks from which those vulnerabilities are reachable. Whether that residual risk is acceptable depends on the environment and the consequences of a camera, recorder or network compromise.

Final Security Baseline

A hardened CCTV setup should have no known default or reused administrative credentials, supported software kept current, only necessary remote-access paths enabled and no unexplained router exposure. Use MFA where supported and separate surveillance equipment from unrelated devices where practical.

Most importantly, verify the finished configuration rather than assuming a changed setting improved security. Cameras must continue recording, authorized remote users must retain only the access they need, and unsupported equipment should have a documented isolation or replacement plan.