General News
Oil Prices: OPEC No Longer in Charge
The failure of the cartel partners in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to agree to a production cut that would put a brake on plummeting crude prices show that the cartel may have outlived its usefulness, NY Times has suggested
The greatest beneficiary is the United States where since the economically crippling oil embargo of 1973, every American president has pledged to seek and achieve energy independence.
On Friday, the benchmark American price for crude oil continued the free fall that began on Thursday, closing at $66.15, its lowest price in more than four years.
The inability or unwillingness of OPEC to act showed that the cartel was no longer the dominating producer whose decisions determine global supplies and prices. Suddenly, the United States — which is poised to surpass Saudi Arabia as the world’s top producer, possibly in a matter of months — is in that position, although the resiliency of that new command must still be tested.
“This is a historic turning point,” said Daniel Yergin, the energy historian. “The defining force now in world oil today is the growth of U.S. production. The outcome of the OPEC meeting is a clear indication that the oil exporters now recognize that this is a new market.”
For decades, the United States faced dwindling domestic production and rising demand, leading President George W. Bush to call on the country to get off its “addiction” to imported oil. But around eight years ago a few small oil companies began experimenting to produce oil from hard shale rocks in North Dakota and Texas, using hydraulic fracturing — fracking — and horizontal drilling techniques that proved effective in producing natural gas a few years earlier.
Domestic oil production has soared more 70 percent over the last six years, to roughly nine million barrels a day. The country is still a net importer, but with production growing by more than a million barrels a day every year, it is importing less and less almost every month.
Imports from OPEC producers have been cut by more than a half in recent years, forcing increasing competition among Saudi Arabia and other exporting countries seeking to replace the American market with Chinese and other Asian markets. That has produced more cracks in an organization in which competition between Saudi Arabia and Iran is already fierce.
That remarkable global turnaround has been a windfall for the United States, helping keep inflation in check, lower the trade deficit, strengthen the American dollar and bring relief to consumers.
On Friday, Americans paid an average of $2.79 a gallon for regular gasoline, according to the AAA motor club, nearly 50 cents less than a year ago.
For David Goldwyn, the State Department’s coordinator for international energy affairs in the first Obama administration, OPEC’s decision not to cut was “strategic .”
“What we have now is a yearlong game of chicken,” he said. “The Saudis are waiting to see how much U.S. production adjusts because of prices and they are waiting to see how much pain the other major oil producers can take before they are willing to make meaningful cuts.” Referring to the global oil benchmark, he added, “If Brent sinks below $60, I think you will see OPEC hit the panic button pretty fast.” That would mean an extraordinary OPEC meeting, and emergency cuts in production.
The Brent price has fallen more than a third since June and closed on Friday at $70.15 a barrel.
For OPEC producers like Venezuela and Iran, the tumbling price in oil has produced economic hardship and potential political problems.
Venezuela and Algeria contend that OPEC needed to band to together to cut production and raise prices. But Saudi Arabia has by far the most sway in OPEC, since the kingdom produces roughly one-third of OPEC output alone. It also has the financial muscle and spare capacity to lower or raise production whenever the Saudi royal family deems necessary.
Saudi Arabia resisted calls for lower production mainly because the countries that were most vociferous in calling for cuts would be the countries least able to actually cut their production since their cash-short governments are dependent on more, not less oil revenue.
And there was no guarantee that a cut in OPEC production would raise prices. Even if it did, that would only encourage more American output. So far, United States oil production has proved resilient no matter the price.
Even as prices slid in October, production in the Bakken shale field in North Dakota and the Eagle Ford field in Texas — the two primary promoters of the American oil production boom — increased more than 3 percent over the month before.
That is because American producers keep improving the efficiency and output of their wells with new technology, and because in the short run, lower prices can actually encourage companies to produce more to pay debts and dividends.
Energy experts caution that there is no guarantee that the United States will permanently keep its new powerful edge on world markets. Eventually, low oil prices will drive down production in higher-cost fields, drive marginal companies that are deeply in debt out of business and encourage major companies to slow down their investment in new wells. Several companies have already shaved their 2015 exploration budgets.
And OPEC has been weakened before, only to stage a comeback. The cartel is still able to produce about a third of the global oil market.
After the oil price spikes of the 1970s, the United States and other industrialized countries raised their strategic reserves, put into effect conservation policies and incentivized oil production. New output from places like Alaska and the North Sea in the 1980s helped produce a glut, sending oil prices plummeting. Saudi Arabia lobbied its OPEC partners for production quota cuts, and the kingdom cut its own production. When other OPEC members failed to comply with the new quotas, prices collapsed in 1986, and Saudi Arabia lost valuable markets for years to come.
OPEC has never completely regained the power it once had, but in the early 2000s, oil prices spiked again primarily because of the rapid growth in demand from China and other developing countries and increasing unrest in several oil-producing countries like Nigeria and Venezuela. With the oil market growing tighter, Saudi Arabia expanded its spare capacity and kept a lid on spiraling prices.
An equilibrium price of around $100 a barrel kept producing and consuming countries reasonably happy. But now the United States production, combined with slowing economic activity in China and Europe, have broken the balance.
“OPEC still has power in that they can still cut production and raise price if they choose to do so,” said Michael C. Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research and sometimes an adviser to OPEC. But he added, “They don’t have the same power they once did because so many of the members are in bad financial condition and so it’s harder for them to cut production and lose revenues in the short term to raise prices.”
In affirmation of its global standing, Cybervergent, a Pan-African technology company that leverages artificial intelligence to transform how organisations manage risk, governance, privacy, and cybersecurity, has been selected as one of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Technology Pioneers for 2025—a global cohort spotlighting companies transforming industries through breakthrough technologies and responsible innovation.
The WEF, an international organisation committed to improving the state of the world through public-private collaboration, brings together global leaders to shape economic, technological, and societal agendas. Cybervergent now joins this global community.
The company is recognized for its innovative approach to building digital trust, reimagining how organisations manage cybersecurity, risk, privacy and governance.
Commenting on the company’s milestone, Adetokunbo Omotosho, CEO of Cybervergent, said, “I am honoured that Cybervergent has been named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. This is more than an accolade — it’s a validation of our commitment to redefining cybersecurity, privacy, and risk management to build true digital trust.
“What makes this recognition even more meaningful is the fact that Cybervergent demonstrates innovation in AI and infrastructure can emerge from any region, challenging conventional perceptions.”
Some past recipients of the Technology Pioneer recognition, including Google, Spotify, and Airbnb have gone on to fundamentally reshape global industries.
As a member of the 2025 Technology Pioneers community, Cybervergent will be contributing to discussions shaping cybersecurity, AI, and cyber resilience across industries and the global digital economy.
Moove, an African mobility fintech startup, is on a quest to secure a $1.2 billion debt financing round to support the rollout of a fleet of autonomous vehicles.
This is in partnership with Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo in the United States, according to a Bloomberg report citing sources familiar with the matter.
The startup has since attracted backing, including from Uber Technologies Inc., and entered a strategic partnership with Waymo in December 2024 to provide financing for self-driving cars.
Ladi Delano, co-founder of Moove, noted that the company has a solid financial track record.
“Moove has built strong relationships with some of the world’s leading lenders. We have also fully repaid our first-ever debt facilities, which signals our maturity and marks a key milestone that demonstrates the strength of our platform as we enter the next phase of global autonomous-vehicle infrastructure deployment,” he said.
The round is reportedly oversubscribed, with strong participation from private credit firms and banks.
Waymo has also not made any official statement regarding the funding round. While final details are expected to be concluded in the coming weeks, the deal will mark a significant milestone for the firm as it ramps up its global ambitions.
Founded in 2020 by Nigerian entrepreneurs, Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove began by providing vehicle financing for ride-hailing drivers in Africa’s largest cities.
Kaspersky experts have revealed the inner workings of FunkSec — a ransomware group that illustrates the future of mass cybercrime: AI-powered, multifunctional, highly adaptive and operating on volume with ransoms as low as $10,000 to maximise profits.
Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) constantly monitors the ransomware threat landscape, where attacks continue to rise. According to the company’s latest State of Ransomware report, the share of users affected by ransomware attacks worldwide increased to 0.44% from 2023 to 2024, up by 0.02 percentage points.
While this percentage may appear modest compared to other cyber threats, it reflects the fact that attackers typically prioritise high-value targets rather than mass distribution, making each incident potentially devastating. Within this evolving landscape, FunkSec has emerged as a particularly concerning threat.
Active for less than a year since its emergence in late 2024, FunkSec has quickly surpassed many established actors by targeting government, technology, finance and education sectors. What sets FunkSec apart is its sophisticated technical architecture and AI-assisted development.
The group packages full-scale encryption and aggressive data exfiltration into a single Rust-based executable, capable of disabling over 50 processes on victim machines and equipped with self-cleanup features to evade defenses.
Beyond its core ransomware functionality, FunkSec has expanded its toolkit to include a password generator and a basic DDoS tool — both showing clear signs of code synthesis using large language models (LLMs).
FunkSec’s approach reflects the evolving landscape of mass cybercrime, combining advanced tools and tactics. Kaspersky’s GReAT experts highlight the key features that define their operations:
Password-Controlled functionality
GReAT experts discovered that FunkSec ransomware features a unique password-based mechanism that controls its operation modes. Without a password, the malware performs basic file encryption, while providing a password activates a more aggressive data exfiltration process in addition to encryption to steal sensitive data.
FunkSec packs full-scale encryption, local exfiltration and self-cleanup into a single Rust binary—without a side-loader or a companion script. That level of consolidation is uncommon and gives affiliates a plug-and-play tool they can deploy almost anywhere.
Use of AI in development
Code analysis shows that FunkSec is actively using generative artificial intelligence to create its tools. Many parts of the code seem to be automatically generated rather than manually written. Signs of this generic placeholder comments (such as “placeholder for actual check”) and technical inconsistencies, like commands for different operating systems that don’t align properly. Additionally, the presence of declared but unused functions—such as modules included upfront but never utilised — reflects how large language models combine multiple code snippets without pruning redundant elements.
“More and more, we see cybercriminals leveraging AI to develop malicious tools. Generative AI lowers barriers and accelerates malware creation, enabling cybercriminals to adapt their tactics faster.
By reducing the entry threshold, AI allows even less experienced attackers to quickly develop sophisticated malware at scale,” comments Marc Rivero, Lead Security Researcher at Kaspersky’s GReAT.
High-volume, low-ransom strategy
FunkSec demands unusually low ransom payments, sometimes as little as $10,000, and pairs this with the sale of stolen data at discounted prices to third parties. This strategy appears designed to enable a high volume of attacks, helping the group quickly establish its reputation within the cybercriminal underground. Unlike traditional ransomware groups that seek million-dollar ransoms, FunkSec employs a high-frequency, low-cost model — further underscoring its use of AI to streamline and scale operations.
Expands beyond ransomware
FunkSec has expanded its capabilities beyond the ransomware binary. Its dark leak site (DLS) hosts additional tools, including a Python-based password generator designed to support brute-force and password-spraying attacks, as well as a basic DDoS tool.
Advanced evasion
FunkSec employs advanced evasion techniques to avoid detection and complicate forensic analysis. The ransomware is capable of stopping over 50 processes and services to ensure thorough encryption of targeted files. Additionally, it includes a fallback mechanism to execute certain commands even if the user launching FunkSec lacks sufficient privileges.
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