Here’s the Challenge, Do Accept It?
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month and this month we’ll share tips on how to make life difficult for cybercriminals. Every week in October we will investigate real cybercriminals. While some of them have been arrested, more are following in their footsteps, and we want to give you tips to prevent them from striking again.
Alright, crew, we managed to scrape together the rap sheets on our three main players. They’ve left digital fingerprints all over the web. Here’s their files—study them and be prepared to make their lives difficult.
The Perps…
Dariy Pankov
Alias: dpxaker
Weakness: Long, unique passwords
Dariy Pankov, known among hackers as “dpxaker,” paid for his lavish lifestyle by selling password-cracking software to criminals for just $250 – no subscription required. Powered by his program, hackers don’t have to sit in a dark room guessing passwords one at a time – dpxaker’s software and AI tests thousands of password combinations every second. He has a soft spot for pet names and birthdays and he really loves short passwords and reused passwords!
Giant Company
Location: Myanmar
Strength: Large in numbers and excellent actors
Giant Company was one name for a massive scam operation targeting Americans. Almost 300 people were arrested in connection with the Giant Company, and 9 scam centers were disrupted as part of the crackdown. But Giant Company is a drop in an ocean of scams. Scammers and phishing attackers impersonate your bank, your boss, a delivery company, customer support, or even a family member.
Zestix
Government Identity: unknown
Weakness: multifactor authentication (MFA)
Zestix invaded more than 50 multinational companies because a few people never turned on MFA. And if some of the biggest companies in the world can go down, it would be very easy for Zestix to hijack any account if it’s solely protect with a password. After swooping up stolen passwords on the Dark Web, criminals can break into many accounts that don’t enable MFA. They can also get their hands on passwords lost in data breaches and spray them all over the internet with automated software.
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Attributes: Portions of the written content from this blog was adapted from the Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2026 Toolkit published by Stay Safe Online National Cybersecurity Alliance. All images were designed by the IS Digital Solutions Administrator, Katrina Naoko Frank.