The safety penalty: Reclaiming operational sovereignty in the age of AI

As frontier models advance in cyber capability, their guardrails also become more restrictive. Defenders relying on these models to power core SOC processes cannot afford to pay the "safety penalty" of being blocked by these safeguards. Organizations should monitor model refusal rates and use the...

Black Hat special: Rewind and revisit

Cybersecurity is rarely a straight line. In this special Black Hat edition of Humans of Talos, Amy looks back at the incredible journeys that brought past guests to the world of threat intelligence. From forensic labs and newsrooms to the kitchen line, we're revisiting the stories and lessons tha...

The serpent’s tongue: Luring the Python out of its den

Python's popularity, readable syntax, and extensive third-party library ecosystem make it an attractive target for threat actors seeking to compromise developer devices and infrastructure. Malicious packages and supply-chain attacks are increasingly common, exploiting the trust built into Python'...

Catan and Mouse

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. " I do not know everything; still many things I understand." ― Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time " Don't try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition." ― Madeleine L'Engle, A Wind in the Door T...

The time of much patching is coming

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Many solutions have been proposed to reduce software bugs: zero-defect mandates, pair programming, formal methods, and mathematical software proofs. The reality is that software engineering is hard. Identifying and fixing bugs before...

AI-powered honeypots: Turning the tables on malicious AI agents

Generative AI allows defenders to instantly create diverse honeypots, like Linux shells or Internet of Things IoT devices, using simple text prompts. This makes deploying complex, convincing deceptive environments much easier and more scalable than traditional methods. AI-driven attacks often...

Five defender priorities from the Talos Year in Review

A familiar theme in security right now is that the barrier to entry for attackers is at an all-time low. AI tools can spin up websites within minutes that can easily direct data to disposable external data stores and send alerts for new captures -- all without code. One such case was recently...

UAT-10608: Inside a large-scale automated credential harvesting operation targeting web applications

Cisco Talos is disclosing a large-scale automated credential harvesting campaign carried out by a threat cluster we are tracking as "UAT-10608." Post-compromise, UAT-10608 leverages automated scripts for extracting and exfiltrating credentials from a variety of applications, that are then posted ...

Inside the Talos 2025 Year in Review: A discussion on what the data means for defenders

Every year, the Cisco Talos Year in Review captures the patterns shaping the threat landscape. The 2025 report paints a clear picture: Attackers are moving faster than ever, while using identity-related attacks as the primary battleground. To unpack the biggest takeaways and what they mean for...

DirectX, OpenFOAM, Libbiosig vulnerabilities

Cisco Talos' Vulnerability Discovery & Research team recently disclosed vulnerabilities in the BioSig Project Libbiosig library and OpenCFD OpenFOAM, as well as an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft DirectX. The vulnerabilities mentioned in this blog post have been patched by their respective...

Patch, track, repeat: The 2025 CVE retrospective

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. It's time to look back at a year that pushed the vulnerability landscape to new heights. I'll admit this retrospective is arriving a bit later than planned. With 48,196 CVEs in 2025 a stunning 132 vulnerabilities per day, the analysi...

Using AI to defeat AI

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Generative AI and agentic AI are here to stay. Although I believe that the advantages that AI brings to bad guys may be overstated, these new technologies allow threat actors to conduct attacks at a faster rate than before. One...

“Good enough” emulation: Fuzzing a single thread to uncover vulnerabilities

A Cisco Talos researcher worked around the limitations of hardware-level Code Read-out Protection RDP on the Socomec DIRIS M-70 gateway by pivoting from physical debugging to a "good enough" emulation approach. By focusing on emulating only the single thread responsible for Modbus protocol handli...

Hand over the keys for Shannon’s shenanigans

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Last week, yet another security AI tool made the rounds on social media: Shannon, a fully autonomous AI penetration testing tool created by Keygraph. It "autonomously hunts for attack vectors in your code, then uses its built-in...

Ryan Liles, master of technical diplomacy

Cisco Talos is back with another inside look at the people who keep the internet safe. This time, Amy chats with Ryan Liles, who bridges the gap between Cisco's product teams and the third-party testing labs that put Cisco products through their paces. Ryan pulls back the curtain on the delicate...

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...

Predicting 2026

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. It's become traditional at this time of year to make predictions about cybersecurity for the coming year. Obviously, no one has a crystal ball to predict the future, and if they did, they would be quietly making a fortune rather than...

Adios 2025, you won’t be missed

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. For us in America, we're in the holiday doldrums and things slow and/or shut down until the new year. At Cisco, we shut down the last week of the year to reset and recharge, and I've grown to be quite fond of it. I've worked plenty o...

Reducing abuse of Microsoft 365 Exchange Online’s Direct Send

Overview Microsoft 365 Exchange Online's Direct Send is designed to solve an enterprise-scale operational challenge: certain devices and legacy applications such as multifunction printers, scanners, building systems, and older line‑of‑business apps, need to send email into the tenant but lack the...

Stopping ransomware before it starts: Lessons from Cisco Talos Incident Response

Over the past two and a half years January 2023 through June 2025, Cisco Talos Incident Response Talos IR has responded to numerous engagements that we classified as pre-ransomware incidents. Talos looked back to analyze what key security measures were credited with deterring ransomware deploymen...

Cherry pie, Douglas firs and the last trip of the summer

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Diane, 2:01 p.m., August 21st. I've just returned from a remarkable journey through Seattle and the misty roads of the Olympic Peninsula. If you ever find yourself driving beneath those towering Douglas firs or dragged by your partne...

Bloomberg Comdb2 null pointer dereference and denial-of-service vulnerabilities

Cisco Talos' Vulnerability Discovery & Research team recently disclosed five vulnerabilities in Bloomberg Comdb2. Comdb2 is an open source, high-availability database developed by Bloomberg. It supports features such as clustering, transactions, snapshots, and isolation. The implementation of the...

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 ...

Asus and Adobe vulnerabilities

Cisco Talos' Vulnerability Discovery & Research team recently disclosed two vulnerabilities each in Asus Armoury Crate and Adobe Acrobat products. The vulnerabilities mentioned in this blog post have been patched by their respective vendors, all in adherence to Cisco 's third-party vulnerability...

Everyone's on the cyber target list

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. I've discovered that being a rent guarantor for someone is an involved experience. While I'm glad that I can help out a loved one secure a better rental property, the process of verifying my identity and ability to cover any missed...

The IT help desk kindly requests you read this newsletter

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Authority bias is one of the many things that shape how we think. Taking the advice of someone with recognized authority is often far easier and usually leads to a better outcome than spending time and effort in researching the...

Care what you share

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. As we navigate our daily routines, certain tasks become second nature to us, especially if they are integral to our professions. However, what feels instinctive to one person might be foreign to another. This disparity is akin to a...

One mighty fine-looking report

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. They say art is subjective, but have you ever seen a well-formatted bar chart? Van Gogh had Starry Night , but Talos' 2024 Year in Review available now! has color-coded data with perfect labels. True beauty. If you haven't yet had a...

Changing the tide: Reflections on threat data from 2024

"Enough Ripples, And You Change The Tide. For The Future Is Never Truly Set." X-Men: Days of Future Past In January, I dedicated some time to examine threat data from 2024, comparing it with the previous years to identify anomalies, spikes, and changes. As anticipated, the number of Common...

Something to Read When You Are On Call and Everyone Else is at the Office Party

Welcome to this week's edition of the Threat Source newsletter. The new head of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, Richard Horne, recently remarked that there is a "clearly widening gap between, on the one hand, the threat and our exposure to it and, on the other, the defences that are in...

Threat actor abuses Gophish to deliver new PowerRAT and DCRAT

Cisco Talos recently discovered a phishing campaign using an open-source phishing toolkit called Gophish by an unknown threat actor. The campaign involves modular infection chains that are either Maldoc or HTML-based infections and require the victim's intervention to trigger the infection chain...

Where to find Talos at BlackHat 2024

With Black Hat just a week away, Cisco Talos is gearing up for another year of heading to Las Vegas to share in some of the latest major cybersecurity announcements, research and news. This year marks the 10th anniversary of Cisco Talos, as the Talos brand was officially launched in August 2014 a...

Stop running security in passive mode

As we begin a new year, we wanted to address one of the biggest issues we consistently see in our investigations: passive security. Incident response engagements are an important part of our work and the intelligence-gathering process and their associated reports can be a treasure trove of tactic...

Undocumented driver-based browser hijacker RedDriver targets Chinese speakers and internet cafes

Cisco Talos has identified multiple versions of an undocumented malicious driver named "RedDriver," a driver-based browser hijacker that uses the Windows Filtering Platform WFP to intercept browser traffic. RedDriver has been active since at least 2021. RedDriver utilizes HookSignTool to forge it...

Legislation alone isn’t enough to stop spyware

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. The use of spyware continues to make headlines across the globe. While primarily used by authoritarian regimes to track potentially sensitive subjects like political opponents or activists, governments from all over the world are guil...

Researcher Spotlight: Jacob Finn creates his own public-private partnership at Talos

After working in government for several years, this Talos threat hunter is diving into the dark web Growing up, Jacob Finn says he wanted to be a detective or maybe a veterinarian, but theres still plenty of time for that. Today with Talos, hes a detective. And while hes still hunting for bad...

Threat Source newsletter (Feb. 2, 2023): I bid you all adieu

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. If you havent noticed yet weve had a few guest writers on this newsletter over the last few months. Alas my time covering the newsletter has ended and I leave you with one final edition. Have no fear, William Largent will be rounding...

Threat Source newsletter (Oct. 20, 2022) — Shields Up! No seriously, Shields Waaaaay Up

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this weeks edition of the Threat Source newsletter. Im very excited about this video -- its a project Ive been working on with my team for a while now. Building off what Ive written about in the past regarding fake news, this video examines what essentially equates to t...

Threat Source newsletter (July 7, 2022) — Teamwork makes the dream work

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the pros and cons of the way we publicize our threat research. I had a few conversations at Cisco Live with people — who are more generally IT-focused than... This is only the...

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 April 22 to April 29

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between April 22 and April 29. 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...

Researcher Spotlight: Liz Waddell, CTIR practice lead

How this Talos team member’s love of true crime led to a life in cybersecurity By Jon Munshaw. Liz Waddell is usually there on someone’s worst day of their professional lives. Chief technology officers and chief information security officers can hope all they want that the... This is only the...

Threat Source newsletter (April 14, 2022) — It's Tax Day, and you know what that means

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. The deadline to file taxes in the United States is Monday. That means a few things: everyone should probably make sure their liquor cabinet is fully stocked, your spam filters are all turned on in your email... This i...

Threat Source newsletter (March 31, 2022) — Is "Fortnite" a Metaverse?

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. By now, anyone on the internet has pondered the question: “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” My two cents: Yes, absolutely. Now as we move into the new internet age and onto Web 3.0 and NFTs instead of... This is only the...

Threat Source newsletter (March 24, 2022) — Of course the deepfake videos are here

By Jon Munshaw. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. The war in Ukraine has involved misinformation since before Russia’s ground forces invaded the country. So, it’s not really a shock that we’ve reached the stage of information warfare where deepfake... This is only th...

On the Radar: Securing Web 3.0, the Metaverse and beyond

By Jaeson Schultz. Internet technology evolves rapidly, and the World Wide Web WWW or Web is currently experiencing a transition into what many are calling "Web 3.0". Web 3.0 is a nebulous term. If you spend enough time Googling it, you'll find many interpretations regarding what Web 3.0... This ...

Threat Roundup for March 4 to March 11

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between March 4 and March 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...

Iranian linked conglomerate MuddyWater comprised of regionally focused subgroups

By Asheer Malhotra, Vitor Ventura and Arnaud Zobec. Cisco Talos has observed new cyber attacks targeting Turkey and other Asian countries we believe with high confidence are from groups operating under the MuddyWater umbrella of APT groups. U.S. Cyber Command recently connected MuddyWater to...

Vulnerability Spotlight: Vulnerabilities in Gerbv could lead to code execution, information disclosure

Claudio Bozzato of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Blog by Jon Munshaw. Cisco Talos recently discovered multiple vulnerabilities in the Gerbv file viewing software that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary remote code or disclose sensitive information. Gerbv is an... This is...

Threat Roundup for February 18 to February 25

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Feb. 18 and Feb. 25. 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...