Executive Summary Since the release of our May 2026 report detailing adversarial misuse of artificial intelligence (AI), Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has observed forward leaning adversaries transition from basic prompting to agentic AI workflows and AI-enabled automation. In these operations, human-in-the-loop latency is dramatically reduced, compressing the traditional window for defenders to respond. In Q2 2026, GTIG observed threat actors compromise a cloud resource, then plan,…
Executive summary China-based artificial intelligence (AI) companies are conducting systematic extraction of proprietary functionalities and capabilities of U.S. AI companies’ models through industrial-scale knowledge distillation campaigns that form the core—not merely a supplement—of their AI development strategy. While “distillation” is recognized as a legitimate and useful technique in AI research, China-based AI companies are engaging in aggressive, malicious, and targeted distillation…
Cisco Talos began an investigation after observing a DLL named "verification.google" executing from WebDAV at a Ukrainian government organization. We assess with moderate confidence that the attacks are not targeted at a particular organization, but are a part of a cryptocurrency and credentials-stealing operation using the Amatera stealer as the primary payload. Pivoting around the similar WebDAV behavior led to a second loader named "pf.ch" and allowed us to reconstruct its earlier delivery…
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 ClickFix social engineering. Instead of convincing targets to run commands against the operating system, they convince targets to paste JavaScript into the Chrome address bar or install it into the…
A phishing-as-a-service framework called BigBear 2.0 has been used to bypass multi-factor authentication at 258 organizations and steal more than 5,000 Microsoft 365 credentials. [...]
Nacionalni CERT zaprimio je prijave o phishing (smishing) prijevari putem preuzetog WhatsApp računa te je prijavio prijevare izvorima incidenta i nadležnim CERT timovima. Primjer WhatsApp poruke: Sadržaj lažnih WhatsApp poruka je: “Glasajte za … dijete na natjecanju”Možete primiti poruku od poznate osobe s poveznicom za glasovanje na natjecanju. Nakon klika traži se unos broja mobitela te kôda – time prevarantu nesvjesno dajete pristup svom WhatsApp računu i omogućavate širenje lažnih poruka…
Another trove of data from Berlin's government has appeared online, authorities said. Germany's information security agency separately warned about the Rhysida cybercrime group.
In a recent post, we looked at reports of League of Legends players receiving suspicious friend requests shortly after matches. The accounts quickly steered the conversation toward Discord, where they promoted paid adult-content pages. At the time, one unanswered question was how much of those conversations was automated. Were people working from scripts behind the accounts? Were they conventional, rules-based chatbots following a limited decision tree? Or were they using generative AI to…
Threat actors have adopted the ASCII smuggling technique in phishing campaigns, using invisible Unicode characters to evade email security filters. [...]
A massive cybercriminal operation is leveraging thousands of compromised small-business websites to deliver ClickFix payloads stored in smart contracts on the BNB Smart Chain (BSC). [...]
X says attackers may be targeting accounts because its X Money payments service is now more widely available. The company is investigating a wave of unsolicited password-reset emails sent to users. While their arrival alongside the wider X Money rollout has fueled account-takeover concerns, X says it has found no evidence of a breach or successful account takeovers so far. X users began reporting unexpected password-reset emails and codes on September 1. In a public post, X product engineer…
OverviewA new Linux toolkit, identified by Rapid7 Labs, has been targeting organizations across South Korea’s automotive and media industries with minimal detection. The campaign made use of a HAProxy instance named “ted backdoor”, alongside trojanized versions of crond, agetty, atd, sshd, and polkitd. This previously undocumented framework enabled threat actors to execute remote commands on compromised servers, inject malicious scripts into web traffic, perform credential harvesting, and…
Introduction We continue tracking the activity of Toy Ghouls (also known as Bearlyfy, Laboo.boo, and Feral Wolf), a financially motivated group that has been targeting Russian organizations since 2025. The attackers initially relied exclusively on tools pulled from public GitHub repositories along with leaked Babuk and LockBit ransomware builders, later shifting to their own custom ransomware, GenieLocker. In early July 2026, we observed the group using a custom backdoor for the first time. We…
Národní úřad pro kybernetickou a informační bezpečnost (NÚKIB) upozorňuje na cílené phishingové kampaně zaměřené na uživatele komunikační aplikace Signal.
A malicious advertising campaign promoting a fake free TV-streaming service reached roughly 570,000 Meta users. The researchers who discovered the campaign found that its streaming-themed ads were aimed at Spanish-speaking users, with most observed victims located in Spain. One Meta campaign ran from June 11 through July 3, 2026, and the same banners were also used to distribute the malware through TikTok. The available data shows the ads’ reach, not the number of downloads or infections, but…
In this article What is ASCII smuggling?Writing a practical ASCII-smuggling signatureWhat we observed: ASCII smuggling repurposed for phishingWhat is known and what is newIs there a detection gap?Mitigation and protection guidanceReferencesLearn More Microsoft researchers observed a high-volume phishing campaign using invisible Unicode tag characters, a technique popularized in AI prompt injection research as ASCII Smuggling. Instead of using these characters to hide instructions from people…
A Nemzetbiztonsági Szakszolgálat Nemzeti Kiberbiztonsági Intézet (NBSZ NKI) riasztást ad ki Magyarország Ügyészségének nevével és arculati elemeivel visszaélő, zsarolóvírus fertőzéshez vezető adathalász üzenetekről. A bejelentések alapján a támadók hamis, hivatalos megkeresés látszatát keltő leveleket küldenek, amelyekben ügyészségi alkalmazottak nevével élnek vissza. A kampány célja az, hogy a felhasználó a levélben szereplő hivatkozásra kattintson, majd a […]
Explore how attackers targeting Latin American entities use AI for data exfiltration and how basic OpSec errors allow defenders to disrupt operations. The post Attackers Expose Ongoing AI Tool Use Targeting Organizations in Latin America appeared first on Unit 42.
Huntress is tracking a pattern across multiple customer environments where rogue ScreenConnect clients repeatedly spawn the Windows Script Host to execute a series of four VBScript files.
In this article Risk to enterprise environmentsAttack chain overviewMitigation and response recommendationsLearn more Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed a human-operated intrusion campaign that abuses Microsoft Teams external collaboration to impersonate IT or helpdesk personnel and socially engineer users into granting an interactive remote session. Once remote control is established via RMM tools, the threat actor uses PowerShell to download and silently install a malicious MSI…
Searzhudin Tamirlanovich Aktulaev appeared in a San Francisco federal court on Monday after being arrested in Cyprus in May 2025 and extradited to the U.S. last week.
In a tech support scam, criminals pretend to work for a trusted technology or security company. They claim there is a problem with your device, software, subscription, or account, then try to persuade you to pay them, share personal information, or give them remote access to your computer. These scams used to rely mainly on browser locks and fake virus warnings. Now, scammers use many more ways to reach people, including websites and platforms they trust. How tech support scams reach you As…
The group, which calls itself VantaCore, has targeted at least seven known victims, Russian cybersecurity firm F6 said in a report published this week.
Research by: Amit Yardeni Key Points A Chinese-speaking actor is now targeting Brazil. Check Point Research has uncovered a sustained campaign against Brazilian organizations, primarily government and educational institutions since mid-2025. We dubbed this group Gambling Goblin: a Chinese-speaking cybercrime cluster connected to a previously documented group, Earth Berberoka, that targeted gambling sites across Asia. It marks a shift from Brazil’s usual home-grown banking-trojan threats to a…
A California federal grand jury has indicted a Russian national for his role in a phishing campaign that infected thousands of freelancers with TVRAT and DarkVNC malware. [...]
Elastic Security Labs is tracking an emerging infostealer, REVSTEALER, under REF2859. This family has gained momentum in recent months, with higher distribution volume, and has emerged as a formidable threat, featuring a comprehensive credential harvester, an embedded sandbox scoring system, and a Polygon blockchain-based dead drop for resilience. Beyond credential theft, REVSTEALER targets gaming platforms for additional monetization; the developer clearly understands that victim accounts on…
In this article Attack chain overviewCampaign scope and targetingMitigation and protection guidanceReferencesLearn more Microsoft Defender Experts is tracking an active malware campaign that uses counterfeit software-download websites to impersonate trusted vendors and distribute malicious installers. The campaign has targeted users looking to download popular software and has resulted in compromises across multiple organizations and industries, primarily affecting China-based operations of…
Phishing actors are abusing the legitimate Faronics Deploy endpoint-management platform to gain remote administrative control over victim computers and install the ScreenConnect remote support software. [...]
We’ve seen scam sites built around Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6) targeting visitors in three different ways this year. In June, we looked at sites selling GTA 6 “early access” for hundreds of dollars in cryptocurrency. You paid, got nothing, and could not reverse the payment. In August, we found fake Extended Look and demo sites delivering an infostealer instead of a game. The site we examined this week looks like a GTA 6 fan countdown site but offers to sell a leaked copy of the game. It loads a…
In a report published Tuesday, Kaspersky said it first discovered NodeRabbit on a system in Afghanistan and later identified variants on systems in Egypt and Ethiopia.
Microsoft has published details about a Windows malware campaign it calls TerminalFix. The social engineering used to infect people is very similar to what we’ve seen in ClickFix campaigns. A website visitor is presented with a fake Cloudflare CAPTCHA which, when clicked, secretly copies a malicious command to their clipboard. Then they receive instructions on what they need to do to “prove they are human,” when in reality they are being instructed to execute the malicious command. After…
Anthropic has warned some Claude users that criminals are using information stealers to take over their accounts. Rather than guessing passwords or intercepting two-factor authentication (2FA) codes, the attackers steal the browser sessions that prove a user is already logged in. According to a warning email shared publicly by an affected user, the attackers used common infostealer malware to copy Claude login sessions from victims’ computers. They then used those sessions to access the…
While monitoring Mirage Kitten activity, we uncovered a previously undocumented malware family that we dubbed NodeRabbit. We identified the first sample on a system in Afghanistan. Further threat hunting revealed two additional, more advanced, variants: one on a system in Egypt and another on a system in Ethiopia. NodeRabbit is a cross-platform remote access trojan (RAT) built with Node.js. It targets Windows, Linux, and macOS. Its operators deliver it through spear-phishing messages on…
Introduction Beginning in 2024 Mandiant investigated a string of compromises affecting Brazilian financial services, retail, and eCommerce organizations. Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) tracks this activity as BREEZE COMET (formerly UNC5669), a financially motivated threat actor specializing in manipulating payment systems and banking software in Brazil to conduct fraudulent transfers. This activity overlaps with operations publicly reported as Plump Spider and SHADOW-AETHER-064. In…
A new ClickFix variant dubbed TerminalFix uses fake Cloudflare CAPTCHA prompts on compromised websites to trick victims into running malicious PowerShell commands in Windows Terminal. [...]
The researchers discovered Fire Ant's new tactic after finding an active GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation) tunnel interface on a Cisco IOS XR router that could not be explained by a running configuration or commit history. [...]
Learn how the Spring Ring campaign abuses Microsoft Teams and voice phishing to deploy malware and target enterprise domain controllers. The post Spring Ring: An Inside Look at Voice Phishing Campaigns in Microsoft Teams appeared first on Unit 42.
In this article Attack chain overviewMitigation and protection guidanceLearn more Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed a TerminalFix campaign, a variant of ClickFix, targeting organizations across multiple industries. The campaign uses compromised websites to display a fake Cloudflare CAPTCHA verification overlay that tricks users into copying and executing a malicious PowerShell command. While traditional ClickFix campaigns direct victims to the Windows Run dialog, TerminalFix campaigns…
Uživatelé iPhonů se stávají terčem nového podvodu vydávajícího se za technickou podporu, který se je snaží oklamat pomocí falešného upozornění na platbu přes Apple Pay. Na podvodné webové stránce se zobrazí upozornění, které věrohodně napodobuje systémovou notifikaci telefonu a průběh platby přes Apple Pay, včetně údajného ověřování pomocí Face ID a dalších běžných bezpečnostních prvků. Následuje varování o zablokování Apple ID a výzva ke kontaktování falešné podpory Apple. Stránka navíc dokáže…
On August 28, starting at approximately 2000 UTC eight malicious versions of the @7nohe/openapi-react-query-codegen package were published on npm and were available for approximately three hours. These malicious versions were trojanized with an updated version of the miasma ma...
Recently, we found a listing on BuzzFeed from someone pretending to be Malwarebytes Support. It reminded us why we need to be cautious about content on platforms where anyone can create an entry. Based on the phone number, we suspect the people behind this listing are trying to draw callers into a tech support scam. The scammer may use social engineering to persuade victims to grant remote access to their devices. This is not Malwarebytes’ phone number At first glance, this kind of lure can…
Huntress analyzed several incidents involving DPRK remote workers (Famous Chollima) in partner environments. Learn key indicators to detect and prevent North Korean threats.
GreyNoise is observing automated scanners posing as the web crawlers of OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, and Fortune 500 companies, using forged user agents while requesting the files where misconfigured web servers frequently leak secrets and credentials.
Group-IB expone una operación mexicana de PhaaS dirigida a más de 20 instituciones financieras, con capacidades de phishing en tiempo real, vishing con IA y RAT para dispositivos móviles.
Classification: Severe, Solution: Official Fix, Exploit Maturity: Proof-of-Concept, CVSSv3.1: 9.8, CVEs: CVE-2026-61979, CVE-2026-15981, Summary: The two vulnerabilities observed in exploitation attempts are tracked as CVE-2026-61979 and CVE-2026-15981 and can be chained together to bypass authentication. Because the miniOrange SAML SSO plugin accepts the signature algorithm from incoming SAML responses instead of enforcing the configured one, an attacker can leverage CVE-2026-61979 to select…
Key Takeaways The DFIR Report Offerings Check out our Products here and our Services here. Want a demo, more information on our services, pricing or just want to chat? Get in Touch Contact us today for pricing or a demo! Case Summary In March 2026, our team identified an SEO poisoning campaign leading to malware deployment […] The post BengalSEO Part 1: Anatomy of the Operation appeared first on The DFIR Report.
UAT-10147 is a highly capable Chinese-speaking intrusion actor operating a multi-platform post-exploitation ecosystem targeting IIS and Linux servers, combining search engine optimization (SEO) fraud monetization with advanced persistence and defense evasion techniques. The newly identified SPECTRE implant represents a significant evolution in commodity intrusion tooling, integrating cross-platform command-and-control (C2) operations, process injection, credential theft, anti-analysis…
On August 20, 2026, malicious versions of three Rust crates were published to crates.io from the account of their maintainer, droundy: arrayref@0.3.10, internment@0.8.7 and append-only-vec@0.1.9. The Rust Security Response Team does not believe the maintainer published them, a...
We identified a network of 41 websites impersonating popular games and Windows software, all designed to push visitors towards the same Download Studio installer. The sites advertise everything from Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Fallout, Roblox, PUBG, and The Witcher to VLC, 7-Zip, Paint.NET, VMware, Total Commander, and Foxit PDF. They go to surprising lengths to look convincing, using accurate product information, genuine developer resources, and even real download links. But the link you see…
Huntress researcher uncovers post-Black Hat & DEF CON phishing campaign using X DMs & malicious documents to deliver AMOS, NetSupport RAT, and other malware.
Scammers are creating fake crypto wallet-checking sites that promise to tell you whether a wallet is linked to suspicious activity. Instead, they try to trick you into giving them access to your crypto. What real AML checking looks like AML stands for anti-money laundering. These are rules that require banks and other regulated businesses to screen customers for ties to crime. It’s designed to prevent cybercriminals from hiding or moving illegally obtained money. In the crypto world, this…
Most wrong-number texts are harmless. Some are the first step in a carefully planned scam. By replying, you may be confirming that your number is active and that you’re willing to engage with strangers, making you a more valuable target for future fraud. Here’s why a polite response can be worth money to cybercriminals. The politeness trap Sunday night. You’re on the couch, half-watching Netflix, when your phone buzzes. “Hey! Are we still on for dinner tomorrow? Don’t forget the wine ” You…
<p>A year of MDR casework shows attackers repeatedly exploiting demand for AI tools</p>Categories: Threat ResearchTags: AI, malvertising, infostealer, Sophos X-Ops
In this article Activity overview Discovery of additional rotating infrastructure Attack chain overviewMitigation and protection guidanceReferencesLearn more MacSync Stealer is a macOS-focused information stealer that relies on changing infrastructure to deliver payloads, communicate with compromised devices, and exfiltrate data. Earlier reporting by RST Cloud identified the threat through a limited set of domains and documented rapid command-and-control (C2) replacement after public disclosure…
Research by: Jaromír Hořejší (@JaromirHorejsi) Key points StopAndProtect is a newly identified operation that combines file encryption with data theft. The criminals abuse thousands of hacked WordPress websites as their infrastructure – using them to spread the malware, control infected machines, and store stolen documents, screenshots, and activity logs (records created by malware to track its actions, progress, or status during execution). Operational security (OPSEC) failures by the…
Tenable’s Research Special Operations (RSO) team has been tracking a cluster of agentic AI threat activity since late July 2026. The Taiwan autonomous AI cyber attack confirmed what the cluster data already showed: near-autonomous offensive AI has crossed from theoretical risk to operational reality.Key TakeawaysTaiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs confirmed a near-autonomous AI cyber attack in July 2026 in which autonomous agents mapped 21 connected government systems, compromised 85 accounts,…
Researchers at Group-IB have discovered a new NFC relay malware family, purpose-built to capture live card data via NFC and forward it in real time to attackers. They dubbed it “WindRelay.” NFC (Near Field Communication) is wireless technology that allows devices such as smartphones, payment cards, and payment terminals to communicate when they’re very close together. So, instead of stealing your physical bank card, the attackers capture NFC activity on an infected mobile phone and relay it in…