Weekend Wrap: Ransomware botnets taken down, Cruz starts mining and more

Europol leads ransomware takedown

The European Union’s top law enforcement agency has led an operation that arrested four and took down over 100 servers tied to a group of hackers and malware creators.

Europol said on May 30 it carried its “Operation Endgame” sting between May 27 and 29, calling it “the largest ever operation against botnets” — a system of linked computers that help deploy malicious software, including ransomware.

The now-offline botnets are IcedID, SystemBC, Pikabot, Smokeloader, Bumblebee and Trickbot, according to Europol.

These programs, known as “droppers,” enter systems through methods such as phishing links over email and then drop malicious code where an attacker can then carry out their activities.

In this case, the ring hacked the networks of “well-known companies” and sold access to the network to other hackers, according to the Security Service of Ukraine.

Law enforcement agencies from Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States took part in the operation.

Ted Cruz: Bitcoin miner

Texan Senator Ted Cruz said he purchased three Bitcoin BTCUSD miners seemingly in place at a facility in Iraan, Texas.

Cruz shared pictures of his purchase in a May 31 X post, saying he was “proud to join the ranks of Texas Bitcoin miners.”

The photo’s show three Bitmain Antminer S21 195T mining rigs which appear to be on a rack, assumedly at a hosted mining facility.

The Senator didn’t share how much he paid for the units, but the mining units sell for between $3,500 and $4,500 and earn about $10 worth of BTC a day—not including any other costs to run them.

Cruz is known for his pro-Bitcoin stance in Congress and has long pushed for Texas to become a crypto mining haven.

In January 2023, he also introduced a resolution to only allow vending machine and food service contractors that accept the option to pay in crypto within the U.S. Capitol.

The resolution has seen no action since it was introduced.

El Salvador airport hotel’s tokenized fund raise struggles

A hotel developer wanting to put a Hampton by Hilton near the El Salvador International Airport has struggled to raise the $6.25 million debt security target it set out through a tokenization offering.

As first reported by Protos, the hotel’s developer, Inversiones Laguardia S.A. de C.V. (HILSV), is now over halfway through the 30-day period during which it hoped to raise millions—it currently has raised just $342,000.

Bitfinex Securities El Salvador is hosting HILSV’s fund raising effort which hopes to use the funds to build an 80 room hotel with a pool, restaurant and gym.

The raise is through a five-year debt security—a bond in which an investor provides funds to a business in the hopes that the firm will pay the denoted yield.

In this case, HILSV claims investors can will see a 10% yearly return with a minimum investment of $1,000 — but to get a free stay all year round requires an investment of $1 million.

Gensler again under fire for Clinton ties

Donald Trump’s recent conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to pay a porn star to keep hush about an alleged affair has put Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler back under fire from some crypto and tech executives.

Gensler was adjacent to a scandal as chief financial officer of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, which, in 2022, paid a $133,000 fine with the Democratic National Committee to settle a Federal Election Commission investigation on if it misreported spending on research that became the Steele dossier.