The Download: cyberscammers’ banking bypasses, and carbon removal troubles
Scammers use illicit Telegram services to trick facial recognition, while Microsoft's 80% market share pause sends shockwaves.
Cybercriminals are exploiting a critical weakness in banking security by purchasing illicit hacking services on Telegram. These services are designed to bypass 'Know Your Customer' (KYC) facial recognition scans, a cornerstone of modern digital identity verification. MIT Technology Review's investigation found 22 channels and groups advertising these tools, which allow scammers to gain unauthorized access to accounts using simple static images, undermining a key fraud prevention layer trusted by financial institutions worldwide.
In a separate but significant tech sector development, Microsoft has reportedly paused its purchases of carbon removal credits. This decision sends shockwaves through the climate tech industry, as Microsoft has been the dominant market force, single-handedly contracting around 80% of all carbon removal. The pause raises urgent questions about the financial sustainability and scaling of carbon removal technologies, which rely heavily on corporate offtake agreements from tech giants to fund research and deployment.
- Scammers use Telegram-sold services to bypass bank facial recognition (KYC) with static images, per MIT Tech Review investigation.
- Microsoft, which buys ~80% of the carbon removal market, has paused purchases, threatening the sector's funding.
- The dual stories expose fragility in two critical systems: digital financial security and emerging climate tech economics.
Why It Matters
These events reveal systemic risks where security protocols and green tech markets depend on single points of failure.