Threat Roundup for June 10 to June 17

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between June 10 and June 17. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

Threat Roundup for May 27 to June 3

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between May 27 and June 3. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics,...

The BlackByte ransomware group is striking users all over the globe

News summary Cisco Talos has been monitoring the BlackByte Ransomware Group for several months, infecting victims all over the world, from North America to Colombia, Netherlands, China, Mexico and Vietnam.The FBI released a joint cybersecurity advisory in February 2022 warning about this group,...

Ransomware: How executives should prepare given the current threat landscape

By Nate Pors. Top executives are increasingly dreading the phone call from their fellow employees notifying them that their company has been hit by a cyber attack. Nearly every week in 2021 and early 2022, a prominent organization has been in the media spotlight as their public relations team...

Threat Source newsletter (May 12, 2022) — Mandatory MFA adoption is great, but is it too late?

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Mandatory multi-factor authentication is all the rage nowadays. GitHub just announced that all contributors would have to enroll in MFA by 2023 to log into their accounts. And Google announced as part of... This is on...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Two vulnerabilities in Accusoft ImageGear could lead to DoS, arbitrary free

Emmanuel Tacheau of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered two new vulnerabilities in Accusoft ImageGear. The ImageGear library is a document-imaging developer toolkit that allows users to create, edit, annotate and convert... This is on...

Threat Roundup for April 8 to April 15

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between April 8 and April 15. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

Threat Source newsletter (April 7, 2022) — More money for cybersecurity still doesn't solve the skills gap problem

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposed budget would include an 11 percent increase in the federal government’s IT budget, including a total of $10.9 billion for cybersecurity. On the surface — this is all... This is only...

Microsoft Patch Tuesday includes most vulnerabilities since Sept. 2020

By Jon Munshaw and Nick Biasini. Microsoft released its latest security update Tuesday, disclosing more than 140 vulnerabilities across its array of products. This is a departure from past Patch Tuesdays this year, which have only featured a few dozen vulnerabilities, and is the largest... This i...

Beers with Talos, Ep. #119: If it walks like a BlackCat, smells like a BlackCat...

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 119 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify StitcherRecorded March 25, 2022. If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. We're... This is only the beginning! Please visi...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Vulnerabilities in Lansweeper could lead to JavaScript, SQL injections

Marcin “Icewall” Noga of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered multiple vulnerabilities in the Lansweeper IT asset management solution that could allow an attacker to inject JavaScript or SQL code on the targeted... This is only the...

Threat Roundup for February 11 to February 18

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Feb. 11 and Feb. 18. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

Threat Roundup for February 4 to February 11

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Feb. 4 and Feb. 11. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

Ukraine Campaign Delivers Defacement and Wipers, in Continued Escalation

Authored by Nick Biasini, Michael Chen, Chris Neal, and Matt Olney with Contributions from Dmytro Korzhevin. Several cyber attacks against Ukrainian government websites — including website defacements and destructive wiper malware — have made headlines over the past few weeks as military... This ...

Threat Roundup for January 14 to January 21

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Jan. 14 and Jan. 21. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

Threat Roundup for November 26 to December 3

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Nov. 26 and Dec. 3. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

An Azure Sphere kernel exploit — or how I learned to stop worrying and love the IoT

By Claudio Bozzato and Lilith ^.^;. As part of our continued research into Microsoft Azure Sphere, there are two vulnerabilities we discovered that we feel are particularly dangerous. For a full rundown of the 31 vulnerabilities we’ve discovered over the past year, check out our full recap... Thi...

Attackers exploiting zero-day vulnerability in Windows Installer — Here’s what you need to know and Talos’ coverage

Cisco Talos is releasing new SNORTⓇ rules to protect against the exploitation of a zero-day elevation of privilege vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Installer. This vulnerability allows an attacker with a limited user account to elevate their privileges to become an administrator. This... This i...

Threat Roundup for November 12 to November 19

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Nov. 12 and Nov. 19. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Use-after-free vulnerability in Google Chrome could lead to code execution

Marcin Towalski of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered an exploitable use-after-free vulnerability in Google Chrome. Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser — and Chromium is the open-source version of the... This is only the...

Threat Roundup for October 8 to October 15

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Oct. 8 and Oct. 15. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral...

Threat Roundup for September 17 to September 24

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Sept. 17 and Sept. 24. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral... This is on...

Threat Source newsletter (Sept. 9, 2021)

Newsletter compiled by Jon Munshaw.Good afternoon, Talos readers. The biggest security news this week is no doubt another Microsoft zero-day. On the heels of PrintNightmare and multiple Exchange Server vulnerabilities comes a code execution vulnerability in MSHTML, the rendering engine... This is...

Beers with Talos, Ep. #109: We have not secured our society — Or, working out a conference talk in realtime

Beers with Talos BWT Podcast episode No. 109 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos:Apple Podcasts Google PodcastsSpotify StitcherIf iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here. Most of the Beers with Talos guys got a chance to take... This is only the...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Accusoft ImageGear vulnerabilities could lead to code execution

Marcin Towalski, Emmanuel Tacheau and another Cisco Talos team member discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Accusoft ImageGear contains two remote code execution vulnerabilities. ImageGear is a document and imaging library from Accusoft that developers can use to build their...

Threat Roundup for August 28 to September 4

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Aug. 28 and Sept. 4. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Information disclosure vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox

Marcin "Icewall" Noga of Cisco Talos discovered this vulnerability. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered an information disclosure vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox. An attacker can exploit this bug by tricking a user into visiting a specially crafted web page through the browser. ...

BWT EP6: Enter the Talos, But Please Use a Unique Password

LISTEN HERE:Listen via iTunesListen directly on the Talos Podcasts page.Episode Notes:The team discusses how to get into threat intel and join a team like Talos. There are many routes to enter the Talos, but no exits. Seriously, they won’t let me leave. Passwords, vaults, and other access control...

ClickFix moves into the browser: Cryptocurrency theft with Google-hosted C2

Cisco Talos is tracking a cryptocurrency-stealing campaign that abuses the Google Visualization API for command and control C2, retrieving obfuscated JavaScript from a publicly published Google Sheets document and injecting it into the victim's browser session. The actors use a variation on...

The story behind the intelligence

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Our goal is to get accurate threat intelligence to our audience as quickly as possible, with all the context you need to ask the right questions of your own environment: How at risk are we from this threat? Are we prepared for it? An...

“Sorry, I can’t help with that”: How your guardrails might become the attacker’s best friend

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Hello, everyone. Long time reader, first time writer here at the Threat Source newsletter! I wanted to start out by introducing myself. My colleague and friend Mick Baccio set the bar pretty high last week, so I was planning to tell...

You were onto something with “It’s the Climb,” Miley

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. For my fiancee's 30th birthday, I took her on a weekend trip to Shenandoah National Park - a favorite of ours since we went to a wedding there several years back. We've done several incredible hikes over the years, but one in...

Winning 54% of the time

Welcome to this week's Threat Source newsletter. There's a fairly cliche phrase in cybersecurity that I'm sure our audience is familiar with: Attackers only need to be right once, whereas defenders need to be right 100% of the time. I guess it captures the asymmetry of this industry, but I've nev...

The n8n n8mare: How threat actors are misusing AI workflow automation

Cisco Talos research has uncovered agentic AI workflow automation platform abuse in emails. Recently, we identified an increase in the number of emails that abuse n8n, one of these platforms, from as early as October 2025 through March 2026. In this blog, Talos provides concrete examples of how...

Talos Takes: 2025's ransomware trends and zombie vulnerabilities

Join Amy and Pierre Cadieux as they unpack the ransomware and vulnerability trends that defined 2025. From the persistent ransomware threats targeting the manufacturing sector to the rise of stealthy living-off-the-land tactics, we break down what these shifts mean for your defense strategy. Why...

Axios NPM supply chain incident

Cisco Talos is actively investigating the March 31, 2026 supply chain attack on the official Axios node package manager npm package during which two malicious versions v1.14.1 and v0.30.4 were deployed. Axios is one of the more popular JavaScript libraries with as many as 100 million downloads pe...

Ransomware in 2025: Blending in is the strategy

Ransomware attacks aren't smash-and-grab anymore. They're built on access that already looks legitimate -- closer to positioning chess pieces than breaking the door down. That's the big trend that comes through in the ransomware data from the Talos 2025 Year in Review. Once attackers have initial...

You have to invite them in

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. I found myself watching the Oscars ceremony in its entirety for the first time in a few years. I'm in the U.K., so I watched it the following day. With next week's Year in Review launch looming and several pieces of content still to...

Everyday tools, extraordinary crimes: the ransomware exfiltration playbook

Data exfiltration activity increasingly leverages legitimate native utilities, commonly deployed third-party tools, and cloud service clients, reducing the effectiveness of static indicators of compromise IOCs and tool-based blocking strategies. The Exfiltration Framework systematically normalize...

New threat actor, UAT-9921, leverages VoidLink framework in campaigns

Cisco Talos recently discovered a new threat actor, UAT-9921, leveraging VoidLink in campaigns. Their activities may go as far back as 2019, even without VoidLink. The VoidLink compile-on-demand feature lays down the foundations for AI-enabled attack frameworks, which can create tools on-demand f...

I'm locked in!

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. I've struggled a lot over the last few years with balance. I want to follow the news closely, but at the same time, I want to block everything out for self-preservation. Add in the fact that I love history and I'm an empath, and you'...

Microsoft releases update to address zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Office

Microsoft has published three out-of-band OOB updates so far in January 2026. One of these updates was released to address a vulnerability, CVE-2026-21509, affecting Microsoft Office that has been reportedly exploited in the wild. Additional OOB updates have been published to resolve operational...

How Cisco Talos powers the solutions protecting your organization

Cisco Talos is Cisco's threat intelligence and security research organization that powers Cisco's product portfolio with that intelligence. While we are well known for the security research in our blog, vulnerability discoveries, and our open-source software, you may not be aware of exactly how o...

Do robots dream of secure networking? Teaching cybersecurity to AI systems

This blog explores how to equip autonomous AI agents with cybersecurity knowledge, enabling them to make informed decisions about internet safety, such as identifying trustworthy links and websites. It demonstrates a proof of concept using LangChain and OpenAI, integrated with the Cisco Umbrella...

BeaverTail and OtterCookie evolve with a new Javascript module

Cisco Talos has uncovered a new attack linked to Famous Chollima, a threat group aligned with North Korea DPRK. This group is known for impersonating hiring organizations to target job seekers, tricking them into installing information-stealing malware to obtain cryptocurrency and user credential...

Too salty to handle: Exposing cases of CSS abuse for hidden text salting

Cisco Talos has been closely monitoring the abuse of cascading style sheets CSS properties to include irrelevant content or salt in different parts of messages, a technique known as hidden text salting. This blog is a follow-up to our previous reports in January and March 2025 on CSS abuse in...

How RainyDay, Turian and a new PlugX variant abuse DLL search order hijacking

Cisco Talos discovered a new campaign active since 2022, targeting the telecommunications and manufacturing sectors in Central and South Asian countries, delivering a new variant of PlugX. Talos discovered that the new variant's features overlap with both the RainyDay and Turian backdoors,...

JJ Cummings: The art of controlling information

Welcome to the second episode of Humans of Talos, our ongoing video interview series that celebrates the people powering Cisco's threat intelligence efforts. In each episode, we dive deep into the personal journeys, motivations and lessons learned from the team members who help keep the internet...

This is your sign to step away from the keyboard

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Burnout is a real issue for people in cybersecurity. We protect the systems that allow modern life to function. Our hours are long, our sense of responsibility real and occasionally heavy. Everyone notices when we have a bad day and ...

Talos IR ransomware engagements and the significance of timeliness in incident response

Cisco Talos routinely responds to ransomware engagements where the impact could have been mitigated or wholly prevented if the victim organization had initiated remediation efforts earlier in the attack lifecycle. The significance of early intervention in ransomware attacks is particularly...