Investigations

Published research into the persistent operators, infrastructure, and financial networks that enable sanctions evasion, cybercrime, and organized criminal finance.

Published
April 9, 2026 Domain Intelligence Crisis Response

1,435 Domains in 30 Days: How Fraud Actors Weaponized the 2026 Oil Shock

Within weeks of the Strait of Hormuz closure, threat actors registered 1,435 crisis-themed domains — impersonating government subsidies from Pakistan to the UK, spinning up fake oil trading platforms, and squatting on Hormuz-related keywords. Infrastructure analysis reveals 33 coordinated clusters and a 48-hour activation lag tied to relief program announcements.

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March 26, 2026 Blockchain Forensics Incident Response

From Ransom Note to Binance: Tracing a 3-Year Elasticsearch Extortion Operation Across Two Blockchains

A single Bitcoin address from an automated database ransom attack is traced through 14 investigative phases across Bitcoin and Ethereum, uncovering a 3-year criminal operation with 307 victim-facing multisig wallets, cross-chain laundering via Polygon, and a Binance-centric circular financial loop processing 107+ BTC.

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March 19, 2026 Threat Intelligence Smishing

From Lighthouse to Landfall: A Billion-Dollar Chinese Smishing Syndicate Still Hitting American Inboxes

Three smishing specimens received over nine days reveal real-time template evolution and operational diversification by the Lighthouse phishing kit, a Phishing-as-a-Service platform operated by the China-based Smishing Triad.

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March 8, 2026 Threat Intelligence Phishing

Inside a 5-Hop Phishing Chain That Landed in My Primary Inbox

A Starbucks Yeti Rambler lure, five layered anti-spam evasion techniques, three Namecheap broker domains, and an affiliate scareware operation — all deobfuscated from a single email that Gmail trusted enough to put front and center.

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June 19, 2025 Sanctions Evasion Blockchain Forensics

Crypto Underground: State-Enabled Financial Crime in the Digital Age

How cryptocurrency, underground banking, and state-sponsored illicit finance converge — from Russia's crypto laundromats and Chinese money brokers laundering for North Korea, to an FSB spy paid in Bitcoin and a U.S.-based crypto firm funneling $530 million for sanctioned Russian banks. Updated May 2026.

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