Grinex, a Kyrgyzstan-registered cryptocurrency exchange under US sanctions, announced it is suspending operations after suffering a $13 million theft attributed to “western special services” hackers.

Researchers at TRM, which has validated the breach, estimated the stolen assets at $15 million after identifying roughly 70 emptied addresses — about 16 more than Grinex reported. Neither TRM nor fellow blockchain analytics firm Elliptic have explained how the attackers evaded Grinex’s security. Grinex said it has faced near-continuous attack attempts since its incorporation 16 months ago, and that the most recent incidents targeted Russian users of the platform.

Undermining “Russia’s financial sovereignty”

“The digital footprints and nature of the attack indicate an unprecedented level of resources and technology available exclusively to the structures of unfriendly states,” Grinex said. “According to preliminary data, the attack was coordinated with the aim of causing direct damage to Russia’s financial sovereignty.”

“Because of the attack, the Grinex exchange is compelled to suspend operations,” Grinex added. “All available information has been handed over to law enforcement agencies. An application has been filed at the infrastructure’s location to initiate a criminal case.”

TRM said that TokenSpot, another Kyrgyzstan-based exchange, was also compromised. Two of that exchange’s addresses sent funds to the same consolidation address used by the affected wallets linked to Grinex. Moreover, both exchanges went offline on Wednesday, suggesting they were targeted by the same attacker.

TRM said TokenSpot was a front for Grinex, which the US Treasury Department sanctioned last year. The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control stated that Grinex was a rebrand of Garantex, an exchange it had sanctioned in 2022. At that time the department said Ganantex had “directly facilitated notorious ransomware actors and other cybercriminals by processing over $100 million in transactions linked to illicit activities since 2019.” Last year’s sanctions against Grinex came months after TRM said the exchange was likely a front for Ganantex.

According to a government court filing, Moore deliberately accessed the Supreme Court’s electronic filing system without authorization by using the stolen credentials of an authorized user (“GS”) on 25 separate days, at times returning to the site multiple times in a single day. Through that access, Moore obtained GS’s full name, email address, phone number, home address, date of birth, and the private answers GS had provided to three security questions.

The filing states that on July 29, August 18, and November 28, 2023, Moore posted screenshots of GS’s home page on the Supreme Court electronic filing system to his Instagram account, which used the handle “@ihackedthegovernment.” The screenshots, visible to the public, showed GS’s name and a list of all of GS’s current and past electronic filing records.

The government said Moore likewise used stolen credentials to access a My AmeriCorps account. He publicly posted that user’s name, date of birth, email address, home address, phone number, citizenship status, veteran status, service history, and the last four digits of the user’s Social Security number.

Moore posted Marine veteran’s personal info

Prosecutors say Moore also used stolen login credentials belonging to a U.S. Marine Corps veteran identified as “HW” to access the Department of Veterans Affairs’ My HealtheVet platform on five separate days. There he obtained HW’s personal information, including prescribed medications and blood type.

The government said that on October 13, 2023, Moore disclosed HW’s individually identifiable health information when he sent an associate a screenshot from HW’s MyHealtheVet account that identified HW and displayed the medications he had been prescribed. Moore then used his Instagram account to publicly post HW’s personal information, including his full name, home address, service branch, email address, phone number, and blood type.

“We witnessed what happened with Susan,” Debra Houry, the CDC’s former chief medical officer who resigned in protest over Kennedy’s political meddling, told Stat News. “She was unable to make staffing or policy choices. What’s different now? Kennedy hasn’t changed.”

“A disaster”

Reporting by The Washington Post said that during the search for a new CDC director, several well-qualified contenders demanded guarantees of independence — including authority to hire and fire staff and protections to keep science free from political interference. Sources told the Post those candidates were passed over.

Trump revealed Schwartz’s nomination in a social media post on Wednesday, calling her “a STAR,” and announced nominees for three other agency roles. “These Highly Respected Doctors of Medicine have the knowledge, experience, and TOP degrees to restore the GOLD STANDARD OF SCIENCE at the CDC,” he wrote.

Kennedy replied with a more tempered statement, writing: “I congratulate Dr. Schwartz and the new CDC leadership team. I look forward to working together to restore trust, accountability, and scientific integrity at the CDC so we can return it to its core mission and Make America Healthy Again.”

Kennedy’s close anti-vaccine ally and former personal lawyer, Aaron Siri, meanwhile, was blunt, predicting Schwartz’s tenure at the CDC would “likely be a disaster.”

Siri accused Schwartz of overseeing the nationwide Covid-19 vaccine rollout and, he said, having a long history of imposing what he described as rights-eroding civilian and military vaccine mandates — including ordering smallpox, anthrax, and flu shots for US forces and disciplining those who declined — which, he argued, demonstrates she lacks the basic ethics and morals to lead the CDC.

He added that her previous promotion, and even mandates, of nearly a dozen vaccines leaves little reason to expect she will impartially oversee the CDC’s vaccine program.

Whether rising fuel costs or concern about the climate are motivating you, there’s arguably never been a better moment to buy a used electric vehicle — even though the Trump administration eliminated the used clean vehicle tax credit last year. When we launched this ongoing series on secondhand EVs, the goal was to find the cheapest options. Now we’re examining the $20,000–$25,000 range, which is well above bargain-basement territory and offers thousands of EVs nationwide.

If you’re only allocating $5,000 for an electric car, you’ll be limited to much older cars with smaller batteries and limited range even when new. At four or five times that amount, though, your choices expand dramatically. Shoppers can afford to be selective here, especially as a wave of ex-lease vehicles starts arriving at dealer lots this year.

It’s helpful for buyers that EVs tend to have lower resale values than comparable gasoline cars. Incentives and advantages that went to the first owner are effectively transferred to subsequent buyers, but Deloitte reports that EV residuals are falling short of expectations. “Many US consumers remain cautious about range, charge time, price, battery replacement cost, and public charging access,” Deloitte notes. Automakers and sales teams will need to do a better job communicating battery life and realistic range to change that perception, the consulting firm says.

That trend isn’t ideal if you’re trying to sell an EV, but it’s advantageous if you’re buying: for the same budget you can often get a higher-spec model, a newer year, or fewer miles than you would with an equivalent gas-powered car.

With a $25,000 cap, you can also start to be choosier about the badge on the nose: do you want a mainstream model with low miles, or something a bit more luxurious or premium?