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Also: AI Benchmark Hype, Trump's Cybersecurity Shake-Up, Musk's Growing InfluenceIn this week's update, ISMG editors analyze motives behind Russia's sudden crackdown on ransomware gangs and discuss whether AI benchmark scores are more hype than reality and whether President Donald Trump's policies and Elon Musk's influence pose security risks - or just more political theater.

'He Is an Idiot,' Dissatisfied Hacker Writes of BossTwo hundred thousand internal chat messages from the Russian ransomware group Black Basta have been leaked online, supposedly in reprisal for the operation targeting Russian banks. The partial logs, spanning 13 months, detail negotiations with victims, ransoms paid, internal disagreements and more.

Researchers say there's dissent in the ranks. Plus: An AI tool lets you have a go yourself at analysing the data Hundreds of thousands of internal messages from the Black Basta ransomware gang were leaked by a Telegram user, prompting security researchers to bust out their best Russian translations post haste.…

These sorts of attacks reveal growing adversary interest in secure messaging apps used by high-value targets for communication, Google says.

Multiple Russia-aligned threat actors have been observed targeting individuals of interest via the privacy-focused messaging app Signal to gain unauthorized access to their accounts

Google Expects Tactics to Spread; Global Targets and Other Services at RiskRussian nation-state hackers are using phishing attacks to target Ukrainian users of the chat app Signal, say security researchers. Rather than circumventing Signal's end-to-end encryption via a cryptographic attack, attackers use malicious prompting to prod victims into exposing messages.

Russian threat actors have been launching phishing campaigns that exploit the legitimate "Linked Devices" feature in the Signal messaging app to gain unauthorized access to accounts of interest. [...]

Google has warned that Russian state-backed hackers are targeting Signal to eavesdrop on persons of interest in Ukraine

Users who are on the lookout for popular games were lured into downloading trojanized installers that led to the deployment of a cryptocurrency miner on compromised Windows hosts

Carding -- the underground business of stealing, selling and swiping stolen payment card data -- has long been the dominion of Russia-based hackers. Happily, the broad deployment of more secure chip-based payment cards in the United States has weakened the carding market. But a flurry of innovation from cybercrime groups in China is breathing new life into the carding industry, by turning phished card data into mobile wallets that can be used online and at main street stores.

Flurry of Arrests a Potential Prelude to Russia-Ukraine Peace NegotiationsEven before Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, there were signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered cybercriminals operating inside his country's borders to be reined in, potentially as a bargaining chip in negotiations over Russia's stalemated war of conquest against Ukraine.

Pro-Russia hackers NoName057(16) has targeted Italian banks, airports and ports in a series of DDoS attacks

Welcome to this week’s Cybersecurity News Recap. Discover how cyber attackers are using clever tricks like fake codes and sneaky emails to gain access to sensitive data. We cover everything from device code phishing to cloud exploits, breaking down the technical details into simple, easy-to-follow insights

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a new Golang-based backdoor that uses Telegram as a mechanism for command-and-control (C2) communications