🚨🇩🇪 Hackers exploited payment provider flaw to steal millions from German banking customers

German investigators say an international hacking group exploited a vulnerability introduced by a faulty software update at an unnamed payment service provider in November 2023.

The hackers allegedly discovered the flaw quickly and used it to carry out numerous unauthorized debits from German online banking customers during a four-day window, causing millions of euros in losses.

Most of the stolen funds were routed through a criminal network to Brazil, where they were eventually cashed out after attempts to conceal the money trail.

On August 13, Brazilian authorities, supported by Germany’s BKA, arrested four suspected members and searched 21 locations across seven cities.

Three additional suspects have been identified in Europe and are being prosecuted in Spain and Bulgaria.

Source: https://www.bka.de/DE/Presse/Listenseite_Pressemitteilungen/2026/Presse2026/260814_PM_Ermittlungserfolge_Computerbetrug.html

I adore vampires, so this is hopefully the first #vampire #painting of many to come. 🧛‍♀️

This is my second ever #gouache piece! I wanted to challenge myself to create something original, rather than doing a study from a royalty-free reference like I did before.

I used 6 references for different elements of the painting, the pose and dress were mostly from a photo I took of myself specifically for this piece.

I also decided to call her Brenda. I don’t know why, it doesn’t really matter. But that’s her name.

#art #Artist #artistsOfMastodon #paintings #artwork #traditionalArt

I spent the past few days going down various fascinating rabbit holes using a nifty new service called Decryptads.com, which scrapes a metric ton of adtech data from websites and apps about who they allow to collect data and serve ads.

A search in DecryptAds for the hugely popular sports network espn.com, e.g. reveals 143 ad partners and 19 registered data broker domains are listed within its ads.txt and app-ads.txt files. That data broker information is gradually becoming available because four states — California, Oregon, Texas and Vermont — have recently passed laws requiring data brokers to register if they buy or sell data on consumers from those states. DecryptAds reports that almost half of those data brokers are collecting geolocation data from espn.com visitors who aren’t blocking ads, while another three disclose that they collect device fingerprints and sensitive personal information.

DecryptAds also makes it easy to learn the beneficiaries and national origins of the advertising firms lurking in apps and websites, displaying a conspicuous warning when adtech partners of an app or website are based in “geo-risk” areas like China and Russia, or in countries with strong financial and political ties to both — such as Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

According to DecryptAds, espn.com works with four different advertising entities that are based in either Russia, China or the UAE, including the adtech firm Between Digital, which lists a New York address. However, the dossier on Between Digital flags them as a Russian firm, showing that their publisher offers (PDF) are processed through Alfa Bank, Russia’s largest private commercial bank and one of several financial institutions placed under U.S. sanctions in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine.

A search for several top U.S. military news websites — including armytimes.com, airforcetimes.com, defensenews.com, navytimes.com, marinecorpstimes.com and federaltimes.com — shows they all allow Between Digital to serve ads and track users, as well as two entities in the UAE and another in the ownership secrecy haven of Panama. DecryptAds reports that Between Digital is collecting ad data on approximately 55,000 partner websites.

This service is a gold mine for security researchers, journalists and anyone interested in privacy, adtech, AI slop sites, residential proxies, malvertising, etc. Want to read more? Check out today's story:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/08/whos-tracking-you-use-this-new-service-to-find-out/

Whether it is Meta AI glasses used to harass & covertly film women, Apple AirTags used to track women, Meta algorithms that push sexist ads, Grok AI tools that nudify women's images, tech companies continue to create harassment by design instead of privacy by design.
https://www.irishtimes.com/technology/2026/08/13/women-continue-to-bear-the-brunt-of-bad-tech-decisions/

This is why we don't use cats to herd sheep ...