Versus Killnet
Alex Holden
BSidesSF 2025 — Here Be Dragons · Day 1 · Main
Alex Holden of Hold Security delivered a gripping first-person account of how his firm infiltrated and dismantled the Russian hacktivist group Killnet by targeting its financial backer — a Moscow-based illegal drug cartel. The operation exposed Killnet's leadership, redirected the cartel's cryptocurrency revenues to Ukrainian humanitarian charities, and accelerated the group's internal collapse. The story is a masterclass in finding asymmetric leverage against a massive adversary. ---
AI review
This is the counterop story I've been waiting to hear in public. Holden and a small Ukrainian team found the Achilles' heel of a 100,000-member hacktivist collective — not through superior technical power, but through patient pre-positioned access to their drug cartel financier. Real ops, real results, real geopolitical consequences.