Month: May 2024

A lawsuit alleging that Morgan Stanley assisted Elon Musk in secretly acquiring a stake of over 9% ownership in Twitter… Continue reading Elon Musk faces lawsuit for ‘secret’ Twitter stock purchases
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A lawsuit alleging that Morgan Stanley assisted Elon Musk in secretly acquiring a stake of over 9% ownership in Twitter (now X) has been filed as an amended suit in Manhattan, brought by the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System.

The lawsuit alleges that a Morgan Stanley banker advised the Tesla owner on how to continue to acquire stocks in Twitter without alerting the wider market, reports Bloomberg.

According to the suit, Musk’s failure to disclose his ownership of over 5% of the platform artificially kept share prices low and allowed Musk to acquire over 9% of Twitter without a market response. The stock price eventually saw a major hike when the degree of Musk’s ownership became public.

There was a March 24 deadline to disclose his ownership of over 5% of the social media site, which he failed to meet, instead reporting his over 9% ownership on April 4. Share prices rose by 27% on April 4.

Elon Musk’s defense

Elon Musk argued last year that the suit is frivolous and should be thrown out, suggesting that it is simply designed to “harness the spectacle” of his $4 billion dollar purchase of the site. However, in September, a judge ruled that an amended suit could proceed.

Msuk has worked with Morgan Stanley on several ventures previously and the suit alleges that they earned nearly $1.5 million in commissions when they executed the billionaire’s “secret Twitter stock acquisition scheme.”

The unnamed Morgan Stanley banker worked directly with Musk and his business manager Jared Birchall (also CEO of Musk-owned Neuralink) to obfuscate the stock acquisitions Musk was undertaking. The suit cites the banker providing updates on “trading strategies to avoid public detection” and “‘money saved’ by hiding these trades from the market”.

Musk is under scrutiny over the purchase from multiple sources and has been ordered to answer questions from a federal judge concerning his purchase of Twitter after previously refusing to attend an interview.

Featured image credit: Midjourney

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The United States Justice Department (DOJ) has made a significant stride in cybersecurity by announcing the dismantling of one of… Continue reading 911 S5 Botnet: One of largest botnets taken down by US
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The United States Justice Department (DOJ) has made a significant stride in cybersecurity by announcing the dismantling of one of the world’s biggest botnets – 911 S5 Botnet.

The digital cabal was a hotbed of fraudulent activity, child exploitation, cyber-attacks, and bomb threats, says the DOJ.

YunHe Wang, a People’s Republic of China national and St. Kitts and Nevis citizen-by-investment was arrested as the ringleader of the operation.

DOJ cracks down on botnet

Wang is charged with the creation, operation, and maintenance of the illegal residential proxy service that would come to be known as “911 S5,” the court-authorized international law enforcement operation found.

An indictment unsealed on May 24 placed the timeline of activities from 2014 through July 2022. In this period, Wang and his accomplices are alleged to have compromised millions of Windows computers via the deployment of malware.

This included 19 million unique IP addresses, including 613,841 United States-based IP addresses. Once infiltrated by the malware, Wang and the group are alleged to have sold the information of these compromised IP addresses to the highest bidder.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said of the takedown, “As a result of this operation, YunHe Wang was arrested on charges that he created and operated the botnet and deployed malware. This case makes clear that the long arm of the law stretches across borders and into the deepest shadows of the dark web, and the Justice Department will never stop fighting to hold cybercriminals to account.”

Pirated versions of seemingly legitimate software were used as the proxy entry point. Wang and his group used Virtual Private Network (VPN) programs to smuggle the malware inside as a bundle with other program files.

Once deployed, Wang operated a spider web of 150 servers worldwide. With 76 of the flagged servers being leased from U.S. vendors. Through this lattice of digital corruption, Wang could give access to paying customers looking for compromised IPs and their data.

Illegal IPs used to commit mass cybercrime

The IPs were used in a plethora of illegal activities. These included child exploitation, bomb threats, and mass fraud. Criminals used the IPs to mask their origin points and locations to give law enforcement a trail of smoke and mirrors, which included billions of dollars in fraud from financial institutions, lenders, and federal lending systems.

According to United States sources, 560,000 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims were generated as part of the IPs purchased via 911 S5. This would total $5.9 billion in pandemic relief garnered by the illegal IPs.

Moreover, Wang would stand to gain $99 million, according to the unsealed indictment and would go on to purchase real estate in the United States, St. Kitts and Nevis, China, Singapore, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Chinese national is now staring down the barrel of a possible 65-year stint in prison for conspiracy to commit computer fraud, substantive computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said, “As alleged in the indictment, Wang created malware that compromised millions of residential computers around the world and then sold access to the infected computers to cybercriminals.”

Image: Ideogram.

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It’s getting tough to keep up with all the Star Wars shenanigans – new movies, new games such as Star… Continue reading Star Wars Hunters – everything you need to know about the free arena shooter, release date, platforms, characters, and more
The post Star Wars Hunters – everything you need to know about the free arena shooter, release date, platforms, characters, and more appeared first on ReadWrite.

It’s getting tough to keep up with all the Star Wars shenanigans – new movies, new games such as Star Wars Outlaws, and new TV shows like Star Wars: Acolyte. It is certainly a good time to like Star Wars.

Here’s another one for you in the shape of the soon-to-be-with us Star Wars: Hunters, an Arena shooter from Zynga. But what do we know about it so far? Is it free, and, is it really free? Let’s have a look.

What is Star Wars: Hunters?

This third-person arena shooter is going up against some pretty tough competition at the moment, but none obviously have the draw of the Star Wars badge. The ability to set your maps in locations you will recognize from the films is a big deal, and if the devs can pull it off, this is going to be super-popular.

Teams of four will play games that will be familiar to anybody who plays Call of Duty or Xdefiant with modes resembling the likes of Hardpoint present, alongside a couple of newer-looking ideas we are interested in trying out such as Huttball.

Star Wars: Hunters release date and platforms

Not long to wait now with the game slated to be released on 4th June. It has already had a soft launch in Australia but the first time the global audience will get to play is coming right up.

You will be able to play Star Wars: Hunters on mobile and Nintendo Switch. There is no console or PC version planned which is a shame so you will have to make do with iOS, Google Play, or the Nintendo Store to get your fix of this one.

Is Star Wars Hunters free?

It is indeed free to download and play. With that caveat, there is obviously an item shop where you can go and spend your real money on skins, weapons, and skins for weapons.

We imagine some of the more popular characters will end up in the shop because the devs have gotta eat.

Star Wars: Hunters characters

The Hunters website lists the following characters and their classes available at launch.

Tank

Charr (Trandoshan Trapper)
Sentinel (Imperial Heavy Gunner)
Grozz (Wookie Juggernaut)
Slingshot (Droideka Speedster)

Damage

Diago (Miraluka Sharpshooter)
Imara Vex (Unrelenting Bounty Hunter)
Rieve (Dark Side Assasin)
J-3DI (Jedi droid)
Utooni (Jawa Scavenger}
Aran Tal {Mandalorian Vanguard)

Support

Sprocket (Mon Calamari Prodigy)
Skora (Rodian Sawbones)
Zaina (Rebel War Hero)

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