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   BrianKrebs (briankrebs@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 23-Feb-2026 22:46:17 JST BrianKrebs

   Really enjoyed this scoop from the Financial Times, where a team of reporters identified 48 seemingly independent companies working from different physical addresses that appear to be operating together to disguise the origin of Russian oil, particularly from Kremlin-controlled Rosneft. The kicker: The network was discovered because they all share a single private email server.

   From the (paywalled) story:

   "The FT was able to identify 442 web domains whose public registrations show they all use a single private server for their email, “mx.phoenixtrading.ltd”, showing that they share back-office functions."

   "The FT was then able to identify companies by comparing the names in the domain to those of entities that appear in Russian and Indian customs records as involved in carrying Russian oil."

   "For example, Foxton FZCO, a Dubai-based entity listed as the buyer of $5.6bn of oil in Russian export filings, matches “foxton-fzco.com”. Similarly, Advan Alliance, an entity listed in Indian filings as having sold $1.5bn of Russian oil into the country, can be linked to “advanalliance.ltd”. "

   "Filings linked by the FT to the domain list show oil exports from Russia amounting to more than $90bn."

   https://www.ft.com/content/4310f010-2b3c-493e-ba0a-26dc6d156b2e

   • NeonPurpleStar :heart_bi: likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 23-Feb-2026 23:06:46 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • Erik Ableson
     • Wendy Nather

     @erik @wendynather @briankrebs Lovely how they'll enforce sanctions against ICC officials but not Russian oil smugglers.

   • Embed this notice
     Erik Ableson (erik@mastodon.infrageeks.social)'s status on Monday, 23-Feb-2026 23:06:48 JST Erik Ableson

     in reply to

     • Wendy Nather

     @wendynather @briankrebs Amusingly it seems that they have migrated all of their mail services to Microsoft Office since the article came out.

     So if some government wanted to apply sanctions, all they need to do is knock at Microsoft's door and ask nicely (with court order in hand)

   • Embed this notice
     Wendy Nather (wendynather@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 23-Feb-2026 23:06:49 JST Wendy Nather

     in reply to

     @briankrebs That’s amazing sleuth work.