Ukrainian women fleeing war exploited in multimillion-dollar gambling fraud scheme

Roundup: Europol says a Spanish criminal network exploited dozens of displaced Ukrainian women to run a multimillion-dollar gambling fraud operation. The alleged leader of the Phobos ransomware gang (Ptitsyn) pleaded guilty and faces up to 20 years for attacks that targeted over 1,000 organizations. Google Threat Intelligence reported 90 zero-day vulnerabilities were exploited in 2025, up from 78 in 2024, noting growth in activity by commercial spyware/zero‑day vendors. The FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection chief signaled a shift toward age verification and stronger data-privacy enforcement.