Five Plead Guilty in U.S. for Helping North Korean IT Workers Infiltrate 136 Companies

The U.S. Department of Justice DoJ on Friday announced that five individuals have pleaded guilty to assisting North Korea's illicit revenue generation schemes by enabling information technology IT worker fraud in violation of international sanctions. The five individuals are listed below - Audric...

North Korean Hackers Turn JSON Services into Covert Malware Delivery Channels

The North Korean threat actors behind the Contagious Interview campaign have once again tweaked their tactics by using JSON storage services to stage malicious payloads. "The threat actors have recently resorted to utilizing JSON storage services like JSON Keeper, JSONsilo, and npoint.io to host...

Researchers Find Serious AI Bugs Exposing Meta, Nvidia, and Microsoft Inference Frameworks

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered critical remote code execution vulnerabilities impacting major artificial intelligence AI inference engines, including those from Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft, and open-source PyTorch projects such as vLLM and SGLang. "These vulnerabilities all traced back to t...

Iranian Hackers Launch 'SpearSpecter' Spy Operation on Defense & Government Targets

The Iranian state-sponsored threat actor known as APT42 has been observed targeting individuals and organizations that are of interest to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC as part of a new espionage-focused campaign. The activity, detected in early September 2025 and assessed to be...

Ransomware's Fragmentation Reaches a Breaking Point While LockBit Returns

Key Takeaways: 85 active ransomware and extortion groups observed in Q3 2025, reflecting the most decentralized ransomware ecosystem to date. 1,590 victims disclosed across 85 leak sites, showing high, sustained activity despite law-enforcement pressure. 14 new ransomware brands launched this...

Chinese Hackers Use Anthropic's AI to Launch Automated Cyber Espionage Campaign

State-sponsored threat actors from China used artificial intelligence AI technology developed by Anthropic to orchestrate automated cyber attacks as part of a "highly sophisticated espionage campaign" in mid-September 2025. "The attackers used AI's 'agentic' capabilities to an unprecedented degre...

Now-Patched Fortinet FortiWeb Flaw Exploited in Attacks to Create Admin Accounts

Cybersecurity researchers are sounding the alert about an authentication bypass vulnerability in Fortinet FortiWeb Web Application Firewall WAF that could allow an attacker to take over admin accounts and completely compromise a device. "The watchTowr team is seeing active, indiscriminate...

Russian Hackers Create 4,300 Fake Travel Sites to Steal Hotel Guests' Payment Data

A Russian-speaking threat behind an ongoing, mass phishing campaign has registered more than 4,300 domain names since the start of the year. The activity, per Netcraft security researcher Andrew Brandt, is designed to target customers of the hospitality industry, specifically hotel guests who may...

Fake Chrome Extension "Safery" Steals Ethereum Wallet Seed Phrases Using Sui Blockchain

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a malicious Chrome extension that poses as a legitimate Ethereum wallet but harbors functionality to exfiltrate users' seed phrases. The name of the extension is "Safery: Ethereum Wallet," with the threat actor describing it as a "secure wallet for managin...

When Attacks Come Faster Than Patches: Why 2026 Will be the Year of Machine-Speed Security

The Race for Every New CVE Based on multiple 2025 industry reports: roughly 50 to 61 percent of newly disclosed vulnerabilities saw exploit code weaponized within 48 hours. Using the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog as a reference, hundreds of software flaws are now confirmed as...

Operation Endgame Dismantles Rhadamanthys, Venom RAT, and Elysium Botnet in Global Crackdown

Malware families like Rhadamanthys Stealer, Venom RAT, and the Elysium botnet have been disrupted as part of a coordinated law enforcement operation led by Europol and Eurojust. The activity, which took place between November 10 and 13, 2025, marks Please remove image compression the latest phase...

ThreatsDay Bulletin: Cisco 0-Days, AI Bug Bounties, Crypto Heists, State-Linked Leaks and 20 More Stories

Behind every click, there’s a risk waiting to be tested. A simple ad, email, or link can now hide something dangerous. Hackers are getting smarter, using new tools to sneak past filters and turn trusted systems against us. But security teams are fighting back. They’re building faster defenses,...

CISA Flags Critical WatchGuard Fireware Flaw Exposing 54,000 Fireboxes to No-Login Attacks

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA on Wednesday added a critical security flaw impacting WatchGuard Fireware to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities KEV catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-9242 CVSS score: 9.3, an...

Over 67,000 Fake npm Packages Flood Registry in Worm-Like Spam Attack

Cybersecurity researchers are calling attention to a large-scale spam campaign that has flooded the npm registry with thousands of fake packages since early 2024 as part of a likely financially motivated effort. "The packages were systematically published over an extended period, flooding the npm...

Google Sues China-Based Hackers Behind $1 Billion Lighthouse Phishing Platform

Google has filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York SDNY against China-based hackers who are behind a massive Phishing-as-a-Service PhaaS platform called Lighthouse that has ensnared over 1 million users across 120 countries. The PhaaS kit is used to...

Amazon Uncovers Attacks Exploited Cisco ISE and Citrix NetScaler as Zero-Day Flaws

Amazon's threat intelligence team on Wednesday disclosed that it observed an advanced threat actor exploiting two then-zero-day security flaws in Cisco Identity Service Engine ISE and Citrix NetScaler ADC products as part of attacks designed to deliver custom malware. "This discovery highlights t...

[Webinar] Learn How Leading Security Teams Reduce Attack Surface Exposure with DASR

Every day, security teams face the same problem—too many risks, too many alerts, and not enough time. You fix one issue, and three more show up. It feels like you're always one step behind. But what if there was a smarter way to stay ahead—without adding more work or stress? Join The Hacker News...

Active Directory Under Siege: Why Critical Infrastructure Needs Stronger Security

Active Directory remains the authentication backbone for over 90% of Fortune 1000 companies. AD's importance has grown as companies adopt hybrid and cloud infrastructure, but so has its complexity. Every application, user, and device traces back to AD for authentication and authorization, making ...

Microsoft Fixes 63 Security Flaws, Including a Windows Kernel Zero-Day Under Active Attack

Microsoft on Tuesday released patches for 63 new security vulnerabilities identified in its software, including one that has come under active exploitation in the wild. Of the 63 flaws, four are rated Critical and 59 are rated Important in severity. Twenty-nine of these vulnerabilities are relate...

Google Launches 'Private AI Compute' — Secure AI Processing with On-Device-Level Privacy

Google on Tuesday unveiled a new privacy-enhancing technology called Private AI Compute to process artificial intelligence AI queries in a secure platform in the cloud. The company said it has built Private AI Compute to "unlock the full speed and power of Gemini cloud models for AI experiences,...

WhatsApp Malware 'Maverick' Hijacks Browser Sessions to Target Brazil's Biggest Banks

Threat hunters have uncovered similarities between a banking malware called Coyote and a newly disclosed malicious program dubbed Maverick that has been propagated via WhatsApp. According to a report from CyberProof, both malware strains are written in .NET, target Brazilian users and banks, and...

GootLoader Is Back, Using a New Font Trick to Hide Malware on WordPress Sites

The malware known as GootLoader has resurfaced yet again after a brief spike in activity earlier this March, according to new findings from Huntress. The cybersecurity company said it observed three GootLoader infections since October 27, 2025, out of which two resulted in hands-on keyboard...

CISO's Expert Guide To AI Supply Chain Attacks

AI-enabled supply chain attacks jumped 156% last year. Discover why traditional defenses are failing and what CISOs must do now to protect their organizations. Download the full CISO’s expert guide to AI Supply chain attacks here. TL;DR AI-enabled supply chain attacks are exploding in scale and...

Npm Package Targeting GitHub-Owned Repositories Flagged as Red Team Exercise

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a malicious npm package named "@acitons/artifact" that typosquats the legitimate "@actions/artifact" package with the intent to target GitHub-owned repositories. "We think the intent was to have this script execute during a build of a GitHub-owned...

Android Trojan 'Fantasy Hub' Malware Service Turns Telegram Into a Hub for Hackers

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new Android remote access trojan RAT called Fantasy Hub that's sold on Russian-speaking Telegram channels under a Malware-as-a-Service MaaS model. According to its seller, the malware enables device control and espionage, allowing threat actor...

Hackers Exploiting Triofox Flaw to Install Remote Access Tools via Antivirus Feature

Google's Mandiant Threat Defense on Monday said it discovered n-day exploitation of a now-patched security flaw in Gladinet's Triofox file-sharing and remote access platform. The critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-12480 CVSS score: 9.1, allows an attacker to bypass authentication and...

Konni Hackers Turn Google's Find Hub into a Remote Data-Wiping Weapon

The North Korea-affiliated threat actor known as Konni aka Earth Imp, Opal Sleet, Osmium, TA406, and Vedalia has been attributed to a new set of attacks targeting both Android and Windows devices for data theft and remote control. "Attackers impersonated psychological counselors and North Korean...

⚡ Weekly Recap: Hyper-V Malware, Malicious AI Bots, RDP Exploits, WhatsApp Lockdown and More

Cyber threats didn't slow down last week—and attackers are getting smarter. We're seeing malware hidden in virtual machines, side-channel leaks exposing AI chats, and spyware quietly targeting Android devices in the wild. But that's just the surface. From sleeper logic bombs to a fresh alliance...

New Browser Security Report Reveals Emerging Threats for Enterprises

According to the new Browser Security Report 2025 , security leaders are discovering that most identity, SaaS, and AI-related risks converge in a single place, the user's browser. Yet traditional controls like DLP, EDR, and SSE still operate one layer too low. What's emerging isn't just a...

Large-Scale ClickFix Phishing Attacks Target Hotel Systems with PureRAT Malware

Cybersecurity researchers have called attention to a massive phishing campaign targeting the hospitality industry that lures hotel managers to ClickFix-style pages and harvest their credentials by deploying malware like PureRAT. "The attacker's modus operandi involved using a compromised email...

GlassWorm Malware Discovered in Three VS Code Extensions with Thousands of Installs

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a new set of three extensions associated with the GlassWorm campaign, indicating continued attempts on part of threat actors to target the Visual Studio Code VS Code ecosystem. The extensions in question, which are still available for download, are listed...

Microsoft Uncovers 'Whisper Leak' Attack That Identifies AI Chat Topics in Encrypted Traffic

Microsoft has disclosed details of a novel side-channel attack targeting remote language models that could enable a passive adversary with capabilities to observe network traffic to glean details about model conversation topics despite encryption protections under certain circumstances. This...

Samsung Mobile Flaw Exploited as Zero-Day to Deploy LANDFALL Android Spyware

A now-patched security flaw in Samsung Galaxy Android devices was exploited as a zero-day to deliver a "commercial-grade" Android spyware dubbed LANDFALL in targeted attacks in the Middle East. The activity involved the exploitation of CVE-2025-21042 CVSS score: 8.8, an out-of-bounds write flaw i...

From Log4j to IIS, China's Hackers Turn Legacy Bugs into Global Espionage Tools

A China-linked threat actor has been attributed to a cyber attack targeting an U.S. non-profit organization with an aim to establish long-term persistence, as part of broader activity aimed at U.S. entities that are linked to or involved in policy issues. The organization, according to a report...

Hidden Logic Bombs in Malware-Laced NuGet Packages Set to Detonate Years After Installation

A set of nine malicious NuGet packages has been identified as capable of dropping time-delayed payloads to sabotage database operations and corrupt industrial control systems. According to software supply chain security company Socket, the packages were published in 2023 and 2024 by a user named...

Enterprise Credentials at Risk – Same Old, Same Old?

Imagine this: Sarah from accounting gets what looks like a routine password reset email from your organization’s cloud provider. She clicks the link, types in her credentials, and goes back to her spreadsheet. But unknown to her, she’s just made a big mistake. Sarah just accidentally handed over...

Google Launches New Maps Feature to Help Businesses Report Review-Based Extortion Attempts

Google on Thursday said it's rolling out a dedicated form to allow businesses listed on Google Maps to report extortion attempts made by threat actors who post inauthentic bad reviews on the platform and demand ransoms to remove the negative comments. The approach is designed to tackle a common...

Vibe-Coded Malicious VS Code Extension Found with Built-In Ransomware Capabilities

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a malicious Visual Studio Code VS Code extension with basic ransomware capabilities that appears to be created with the help of artificial intelligence – in other words, vibe-coded. Secure Annex researcher John Tuckner, who flagged the extension "susvsex,"...

Trojanized ESET Installers Drop Kalambur Backdoor in Phishing Attacks on Ukraine

A previously unknown threat activity cluster has been observed impersonating Slovak cybersecurity company ESET as part of phishing attacks targeting Ukrainian entities. The campaign, detected in May 2025, is tracked by the security outfit under the moniker InedibleOchotense , describing it as...

Cisco Warns of New Firewall Attack Exploiting CVE-2025-20333 and CVE-2025-20362

Cisco on Wednesday disclosed that it became aware of a new attack variant that's designed to target devices running Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance ASA Software and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense FTD Software releases that are susceptible to CVE-2025-20333 and...

From Tabletop to Turnkey: Building Cyber Resilience in Financial Services

Introduction Financial institutions are facing a new reality: cyber-resilience has passed from being a best practice to an operational necessity to a prescriptive regulatory requirement. Crisis management or Tabletop exercises, for a long time relatively rare in the context of cybersecurity, have...

ThreatsDay Bulletin: AI Tools in Malware, Botnets, GDI Flaws, Election Attacks & More

Cybercrime has stopped being a problem of just the internet — it's becoming a problem of the real world. Online scams now fund organized crime, hackers rent violence like a service, and even trusted apps or social platforms are turning into attack vectors. The result is a global system where ever...

Bitdefender Named a Representative Vendor in the 2025 Gartner® Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response

Bitdefender has once again been recognized as a Representative Vendor in the Gartner® Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response MDR — marking the fourth consecutive year of inclusion. According to Gartner, more than 600 providers globally claim to deliver MDR services, yet only a select few...

Hackers Weaponize Windows Hyper-V to Hide Linux VM and Evade EDR Detection

The threat actor known as Curly COMrades has been observed exploiting virtualization technologies as a way to bypass security solutions and execute custom malware. According to a new report from Bitdefender, the adversary is said to have enabled the Hyper-V role on selected victim systems to depl...

SonicWall Confirms State-Sponsored Hackers Behind September Cloud Backup Breach

SonicWall has formally implicated state-sponsored threat actors as behind the September security breach that led to the unauthorized exposure of firewall configuration backup files. "The malicious activity – carried out by a state-sponsored threat actor – was isolated to the unauthorized access o...

Google Uncovers PROMPTFLUX Malware That Uses Gemini AI to Rewrite Its Code Hourly

Google on Wednesday said it discovered an unknown threat actor using an experimental Visual Basic Script VB Script malware dubbed PROMPTFLUX that interacts with its Gemini artificial intelligence AI model API to write its own source code for improved obfuscation and evasion. "PROMPTFLUX is writte...

Researchers Find ChatGPT Vulnerabilities That Let Attackers Trick AI Into Leaking Data

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a new set of vulnerabilities impacting OpenAI's ChatGPT artificial intelligence AI chatbot that could be exploited by an attacker to steal personal information from users' memories and chat histories without their knowledge. The seven vulnerabilities and...

Securing the Open Android Ecosystem with Samsung Knox

Raise your hand if you've heard the myth, "Android isn't secure." Android phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy, unlock new ways of working. But, as an IT admin, you may worry about the security—after all, work data is critical. However, outdated concerns can hold your business back from unlocking i...

Mysterious 'SmudgedSerpent' Hackers Target U.S. Policy Experts Amid Iran–Israel Tensions

A never-before-seen threat activity cluster codenamed UNKSmudgedSerpent has been attributed as behind a set of cyber attacks targeting academics and foreign policy experts between June and August 2025, coinciding with heightened geopolitical tensions between Iran and Israel. "UNKSmudgedSerpent...

U.S. Sanctions 10 North Korean Entities for Laundering $12.7M in Crypto and IT Fraud

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions against eight individuals and two entities within North Korea's global financial network for laundering money for various illicit schemes, including cybercrime and information technology IT worker fraud. "North Korean state-sponsored hacke...