Telegram Removed from App Store After Extortionist Plants AI-Modified CSAM in Archived Message
Telegram and its experimental client Telegram X disappeared from the App Store on the morning of August 4 in several countries, including Russia, Turkey, and the United States. The removal lasted roughly ninety minutes and temporarily disrupted push notifications for some iOS users, while macOS and Android versions were unaffected.
Founder Pavel Durov attributed the incident to an extortionist who modified an archived message in a public group. The attacker inserted material depicting child sexual abuse (CSAM) that had been altered with artificial intelligence, making the post invisible to active participants and preventing normal user reports. The same account then submitted a complaint directly to Apple, which detected the prohibited content and removed the applications.
According to Durov, the perpetrator belongs to a group that targets owners of public channels and groups. The extortionists demand payment under threat of planting illegal material and filing complaints with Apple. Automated accounts and technical bypasses are used to evade standard moderation filters.
Apple confirmed that the applications were reinstated after Telegram removed the prohibited material and blocked the distributing account. Durov expressed concern that Apple had activated the removal process without first contacting Telegram administrators, describing the approach as dangerous for any platform hosting user-generated content.
Telegram called on Apple to apply consistent and thorough verification to all reports across every application rather than acting on isolated complaints that can be engineered to trigger sudden delisting.
Related articles
International Law Enforcement Operation Dismantles KillSec Ransomware Group and Seizes 110 TB of Stolen Data
An international operation coordinated by Eurojust with support from Europol has dismantled the infrastructure of the KillSec ransomware group. Authorities seized five servers containing at least 110 terabytes of data stolen from victims and took control of the group's leak site domains. Three individuals were arrested, including a 16-year-old identified as the group's primary administrator and operator. The coordinated action involved law enforcement from nine countries and included eight searches across Spain, Greece, the United Kingdom, and Romania. KillSec has been active since 2024 and is linked to nearly one thousand ransomware incidents worldwide, primarily using a double-extortion model that combines data encryption with threats to publish stolen information. The seized data volume highlights the scale of the group's operations, which frequently targeted healthcare environments where system downtime directly impacts patient care.
ShinyHunters Claims Breach of FBI Recruitment Portal and Demands Eight-Figure Ransom
The hacker group ShinyHunters has publicly claimed responsibility for compromising the FBI's official recruitment website, FBIjobs.gov, asserting access to sensitive data belonging to nearly all FBI agents as well as job applicants. According to the group, the intrusion extended to multiple internal systems including criminal justice databases, human resources platforms, and Medlink. The attackers stated they exploited a zero-day vulnerability in Oracle PeopleSoft to achieve remote code execution and subsequently defaced the careers site with a fabricated seizure notice. The FBI has acknowledged awareness of unauthorized activity on the portal but has not confirmed any data theft or the scope of the intrusion. ShinyHunters is now demanding an eight-figure ransom payment, framing the amount as a minor fraction of its own resources and warning that time is limited. The operation appears to be retaliation for an FBI public statement issued in May regarding the group's prior activities. Independent verification of the claims remains unavailable, and experts note that extortion groups routinely exaggerate the value of stolen data to increase pressure on victims.
PAYLOAD Ransomware Seizes Active Directory GPO to Disrupt Entire Windows Domain Without Encryption
Researchers at Kaspersky have documented an attack by the PAYLOAD ransomware that paralyzes an entire Windows domain without encrypting a single file. Instead of encryption, the operators leverage native Windows policy mechanisms to enforce disruption across the environment. The core of the attack is a malicious Group Policy Object named PAYLOAD linked directly to the root of the Active Directory domain. This placement allows the policy to reach virtually every connected device, turning it into a corporate-wide disruption tool. Through the GPO, the group distributes ransom notes from SYSVOL, replaces wallpapers and lock screens with extortion images displaying the message Welcome to Payload, and disables local administrator accounts on affected machines. A second policy object named win Firewall Off disables the Windows firewall across the entire fleet, increasing exposure during the operation. Initial access occurred in April 2026 via a compromised legitimate domain account on a FortiGate SSL VPN, with possible entry vectors including phishing, password spraying, and credential stuffing. The victim is a manufacturing company in the Middle East. The extortion model combines data theft with operational shutdown, delivering effects similar to traditional ransomware but without any decryption key to negotiate.
Ransomware Operators Hijack Active Directory via GPO to Lock Companies Without Encryption
Kaspersky researchers have uncovered a new extortion campaign called Payload that targets manufacturing companies by compromising privileged accounts and seizing control of Active Directory. Instead of deploying traditional ransomware encryptors, the attackers created a Group Policy Object named Payload linked to the domain root. This GPO automatically changed desktop wallpapers and lock screens across all systems, displayed ransom demands, and disabled administrative accounts after policy refresh. The group also exfiltrated valuable corporate data before the lockdown and later published it on the dark web to increase pressure on victims. Because the attack relied entirely on legitimate Windows mechanisms such as VPN access and Group Policy, conventional antivirus solutions proved ineffective. Experts recommend monitoring GPO changes, enforcing phishing-resistant MFA on VPN and admin systems, and applying least-privilege principles to limit the impact of credential compromise.