Hello. At a major cryptocurrency conference last fall, members purporting to work at a new quantitative trading firm approached representatives of Drift Protocol, a major player in the world of so-called decentralized finance with roughly half a billion dollars in assets. The two parties then spent months discussing a commercial partnership, both in person and over Telegram.

The relationship ended with the heist of roughly $285 million, according to TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company that tracks crypto movements and analyzed the hacking episode. Read more from WSJ. 

Also today: 

• ShinyHunters claims a hack on Amtrak
• AI labor supplier Mercor says 40,000 contractors breached
• Netgear gets exception to U.S. router ban
• Sweden blames Russia for attempted hack of heating provider
• How Trump sees FBI hack attributed to China
• Scammers are stealing recruiters’ identities to target job seekers

Mercor quantifies breach: Mercor, which runs a marketplace to connect AI, legal and other specialized workers with employers, said more than 40,000 contractors had their data breached in a March 25 cyberattack. Names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, driver license and other government-issued identification numbers and dates of birth were compromised, the startup said in a notification to state regulators. 

• Mercor, which has supplied workers to OpenAI and Anthropic, among others, disclosed the attack March 31. 

Pro-Russia hackers last year attempted to break into a major heating supplier in Sweden, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, the country's foreign minister said Wednesday. Bohlin said the incident appeared to be part of a concerted effort to hack into critical infrastructure in Europe since late 2025. Hacks in December of Polish heating and power operators, including wind and solar farms, were linked to Russia. (Associated Press)

Netgear won an exception to a U.S. ban of foreign-made routers. The Federal Communications Commission in March banned routers made outside the U.S., citing cybersecurity and national security risks. Hackers have used vulnerable routers to run botnets and imposter-worker schemes and enable cyberattacks. Netgear routers are made in Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam. (Cybersecurity Dive)

• The FCC didn't say why it made the exemption. 

Cybercriminals are stealing recruiters’ identities to hustle job seekers out of money or personal data. These ploys can be convincing because they involve a lot of genuine information and avoid many of the red flags we’re used to looking for. (WSJ)

The WSJ Pro Cybersecurity team is Deputy Bureau Chief Kim S. Nash and reporters Angus Loten and James Rundle. Follow us on X @WSJCyber. Reach the team by replying to any newsletter you receive or by emailing Kim at kim.nash@wsj.com.