⚡ THN Weekly Recap: New Attacks, Old Tricks, Bigger Impact

Cyber threats today don't just evolve—they mutate rapidly, testing the resilience of everything from global financial systems to critical infrastructure. As cybersecurity confronts new battlegrounds—ranging from nation-state espionage and ransomware to manipulated AI chatbots—the landscape become...

U.S. Charges 12 Chinese Nationals in State-Backed Hacking Operations

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ has announced charges against 12 Chinese nationals for their alleged participation in a wide-ranging scheme designed to steal data and suppress free speech and dissent globally. The individuals include two officers of the People's Republic of China's PRC Ministr...

U.S. Soldier Charged in AT&T Hack Searched “Can Hacking Be Treason”

A U.S. Army soldier who pleaded guilty last week to leaking phone records for high-ranking U.S. government officials searched online for non-extradition countries and for an answer to the question "can hacking be treason?" prosecutors in the case said Wednesday. The government disclosed the detai...

Under The Hoodie: The Pen Test Diaries

Breaking In So You Don’t Have To Each year, Rapid7 penetration testers conduct over 1,000 security assessments, pushing boundaries to expose vulnerabilities before the bad guys do. The mission? Get in, escalate privileges, and own the environment—physically, digitally, or sometimes just by...

A Signal Update Fends Off a Phishing Technique Used in Russian Espionage

Google warns that hackers tied to Russia are tricking Ukrainian soldiers with fake QR codes for Signal group invites that let spies steal their messages. Signal has pushed out new safeguards...

China’s Salt Typhoon Spies Are Still Hacking Telecoms—Now by Exploiting Cisco Routers

Despite high-profile attention and even US sanctions, the group hasn’t stopped or even slowed its operation, including the breach of two more US telecoms...

Vector Command Opportunistic Phishing Blog

Gone Phishing with Vector Command During one of our customer engagements, our red team will continuously attack your network to see if we can exploit a vulnerability. One of the tactics, techniques and proceduresTTPs we use is “Opportunistic Phishing”. First, let’s share a quick reminder about...

Who’s Behind the Seized Forums ‘Cracked’ & ‘Nulled’?

The FBI joined authorities across Europe last week in seizing domain names for Cracked and Nulled , English-language cybercrime forums with millions of users that trafficked in stolen data, hacking tools and malware. An investigation into the history of these communities shows their apparent...

WhatsApp says Paragon is spying on specific users

WhatsApp has accused the professional spyware company Paragon of spying on a select group of users. WhatsApp, the Meta-owned, end-to-end encrypted messaging platform, said it has reliable information that nearly 100 journalists and other “members of civil society” were targets of a spyware campai...

Authorities Seize Domains of Popular Hacking Forums in Major Cybercrime Crackdown

An international law enforcement operation has dismantled the domains associated with various online platforms linked to cybercrime such as Cracked, Nulled, Sellix, and StarkRDP. The effort, which took place between January 28 and 30, 2025, targeted the following domains - www.cracked.io...

FBI Seizes Leading Hacking Forums Cracked.io and Nulled.to

Nulled.to, Cracked.to and Cracked.io, major hacking forums, appear seized by the FBI as DNS records point to FBI…...

ExxonMobil Lobbyist Caught Hacking Climate Activists

The Department of Justice is investigating a lobbying firm representing ExxonMobil for hacking the phones of climate activists: The hacking was allegedly commissioned by a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm, according to a lawyer representing the U.S. government. The firm, in turn, was allegedly...

HackGATE: Setting New Standards for Visibility and Control in Penetration Testing Projects

Imagine receiving a penetration test report that leaves you with more questions than answers. Questions like, "Were all functionalities of the web app tested?" or " Were there any security issues that could have been identified during testing?" often go unresolved, raising concerns about the...

FBI Deletes PlugX Malware from 4,250 Hacked Computers in Multi-Month Operation

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ on Tuesday disclosed that a court-authorized operation allowed the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI to delete PlugX malware from over 4,250 infected computers as part of a "multi-month law enforcement operation." PlugX, also known as Korplug, is a remote acce...

Microsoft Takes Legal Action Against AI “Hacking as a Service” Scheme

Not sure this will matter in the end, but it's a positive move: Microsoft is accusing three individuals of running a "hacking-as-a-service" scheme that was designed to allow the creation of harmful and illicit content using the company's platform for AI-generated content. The foreign-based...

Microsoft Sues Hacking Group Exploiting Azure AI for Harmful Content Creation

Microsoft has revealed that it's pursuing legal action against a "foreign-based threat–actor group" for operating a hacking-as-a-service infrastructure to intentionally get around the safety controls of its generative artificial intelligence AI services and produce offensive and harmful content...

U.S. Sanctions Chinese Cybersecurity Firm for State-Backed Hacking Campaigns

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC on Friday issued sanctions against a Beijing-based cybersecurity company known as Integrity Technology Group, Incorporated for orchestrating several cyber attacks against U.S. victims. These attacks have been publicly attributed...

Imperva’s Wildest 2025 AppSec Predictions

Humans are spectacularly bad at predicting the future. Which is why, when someone appears to be able to do it on a regular basis, they are hailed as visionaries, luminaries and celebrated with cool names like Nostradamus and The Amazing Kreskin. Nostradamus made his fame on predictions about the...

Salt Typhoon’s Reach Continues to Grow

The US government has identified a ninth telecom that was successfully hacked by Salt Typhoon...

Iran's Charming Kitten Deploys BellaCPP: A New C++ Variant of BellaCiao Malware

The Iranian nation-state hacking group known as Charming Kitten has been observed deploying a C++ variant of a known malware called BellaCiao. Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky, which dubbed the new version BellaCPP , said it discovered the artifact as part of a "recent" investigation into ...