Cybersecurity researchers have discovered malicious Google Chrome extensions that come with capabilities to hijack affiliate links, steal data, and collect OpenAI ChatGPT authentication tokens. One of the extensions in question is Amazon Ads Blocker (ID: pnpchphmplpdimbllknjoiopmfphellj), which claims to be a tool to browse Amazon without any sponsored content. It was uploaded to the Chrome
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new campaign attributed to a China-linked threat actor known as UAT-8099 that took place between late 2025 and early 2026. The activity, discovered by Cisco Talos, has targeted vulnerable Internet Information Services (IIS) servers located across Asia, but with a specific focus on targets in Thailand and Vietnam. The scale of the campaign is currently
Behind the scenes of law enforcement in cyber: what do we know about caught cybercriminals? What brought them in, where do they come from and what was their function in the crimescape?
Introduction: One view on the scattered fight against cybercrime The growing sophistication and diversification of cybercrime have compelled law enforcement agencies worldwide to respond through increasingly
A former Google engineer accused of stealing thousands of the company’s confidential documents to build a startup in China has been convicted in the U.S., the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced Thursday. Linwei Ding (aka Leon Ding), 38, was convicted by a federal jury on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets for taking over 2,000 documents containing
SmarterTools has addressed two more security flaws in SmarterMail email software, including one critical security flaw that could result in arbitrary code execution. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-24423, carries a CVSS score of 9.3 out of 10.0. “SmarterTools SmarterMail versions prior to build 9511 contain an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in the ConnectToHub API
Ivanti has rolled out security updates to address two security flaws impacting Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM) that have been exploited in zero-day attacks, one of which has been added by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. The critical-severity vulnerabilities are listed below -
CVE-2026-1281 (CVSS score:
A new joint investigation by SentinelOne SentinelLABS, and Censys has revealed that the open-source artificial intelligence (AI) deployment has created a vast “unmanaged, publicly accessible layer of AI compute infrastructure” that spans 175,000 unique Ollama hosts across 130 countries. These systems, which span both cloud and residential networks across the world, operate outside the
This weeks updates show how small changes can create real problems. Not loud incidents, but quiet shifts that are easy to miss until they add up. The kind that affects systems people rely on every day. Many of the stories point to the same trend: familiar tools being used in unexpected ways. Security controls are being worked on. Trusted platforms turning into weak spots. What looks routine on
WIRED asked an active military officer to break down immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis and elsewhere.
A study by OMICRON has revealed widespread cybersecurity gaps in the operational technology (OT) networks of substations, power plants, and control centers worldwide. Drawing on data from more than 100 installations, the analysis highlights recurring technical, organizational, and functional issues that leave critical energy infrastructure vulnerable to cyber threats. The findings are based on
AI chat toy company Bondu left its web console almost entirely unprotected. Researchers who accessed it found nearly all the conversations children had with the company’s stuffed animals.
Beyond the direct impact of cyberattacks, enterprises suffer from a secondary but potentially even more costly risk: operational downtime, any amount of which translates into very real damage. Thats why for CISOs, its key to prioritize decisions that reduce dwell time and protect their company from risk. Three strategic steps you can take this year for better results:
On January 20, Kaspersky solutions detected malware used in eScan antivirus supply chain attack. In this article we provide available information on the threat: indicators of compromise, threat hunting and mitigating tips, etc.
SolarWinds has released security updates to address multiple security vulnerabilities impacting SolarWinds Web Help Desk, including four critical vulnerabilities that could result in authentication bypass and remote code execution (RCE). The list of vulnerabilities is as follows -
CVE-2025-40536 (CVSS score: 8.1) - A security control bypass vulnerability that could allow an unauthenticated
Google on Wednesday announced that it worked together with other partners to disrupt IPIDEA, which it described as one of the largest residential proxy networks in the world. To that end, the company said it took legal action to take down dozens of domains used to control devices and proxy traffic through them. As of writing, IPIDEA’s website (“www.ipidea.io”) is no longer accessible. It
Cybersecurity researchers have flagged a new malicious Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VS Code) extension for Moltbot (formerly Clawdbot) on the official Extension Marketplace that claims to be a free artificial intelligence (AI) coding assistant, but stealthily drops a malicious payload on compromised hosts. The extension, named “ClawdBot Agent - AI Coding Assistant” (“clawdbot.clawdbot-agent”)
ICE has been using an AI-powered Palantir system to summarize tips sent to its tip line since last spring, according to a newly released Homeland Security document.
The “coordinated” cyber attack targeting multiple sites across the Polish power grid has been attributed with medium confidence to a Russian state-sponsored hacking crew known as ELECTRUM. Operational technology (OT) cybersecurity company Dragos, in a new intelligence brief published Tuesday, described the late December 2025 activity as the first major cyber attack targeting distributed energy
Immigration agents have used Mobile Fortify to scan the faces of countless people in the USincluding many citizens.
A critical sandbox escape vulnerability has been disclosed in the popular vm2 Node.js library that, if successfully exploited, could allow attackers to run arbitrary code on the underlying operating system. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-22709, carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of 10.0 on the CVSS scoring system. “In vm2 for version 3.10.0, Promise.prototype.then Promise.prototype.catch
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed two new security flaws in the n8n workflow automation platform, including a crucial vulnerability that could result in remote code execution. The weaknesses, discovered by the JFrog Security Research team, are listed below -
CVE-2026-1470 (CVSS score: 9.9) - An eval injection vulnerability that could allow an authenticated user to bypass the Expression
If you work in security operations, the concept of the AI SOC agent is likely familiar. Early narratives promised total autonomy. Vendors seized on the idea of the “Autonomous SOC” and suggested a future where algorithms replaced analysts. That future has not arrived. We have not seen mass layoffs or empty security operations centers. We have instead seen the emergence of a practical reality.
Threat actors with ties to China have been observed using an updated version of a backdoor called COOLCLIENT in cyber espionage attacks in 2025 to facilitate comprehensive data theft from infected endpoints. The activity has been attributed to Mustang Panda (aka Earth Preta, Fireant, HoneyMyte, Polaris, and Twill Typhoon) with the intrusions primarily directed against government entities located
When security teams discuss credential-related risk, the focus typically falls on threats such as phishing, malware, or ransomware. These attack methods continue to evolve and rightly command attention. However, one of the most persistent and underestimated risks to organizational security remains far more ordinary. Near-identical password reuse continues to slip past security controls, often
Google on Tuesday revealed that multiple threat actors, including nation-state adversaries and financially motivated groups, are exploiting a now-patched critical security flaw in RARLAB WinRAR to establish initial access and deploy a diverse array of payloads. “Discovered and patched in July 2025, government-backed threat actors linked to Russia and China as well as financially motivated
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered two malicious packages in the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that masquerade as spellcheckers but contain functionality to deliver a remote access trojan (RAT). The packages, named spellcheckerpy and spellcheckpy, are no longer available for download, but not before they were collectively downloaded a little over 1,000 times. “Hidden inside the
Fortinet has begun releasing security updates to address a critical flaw impacting FortiOS that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2026-24858 (CVSS score: 9.4), has been described as an authentication bypass related to FortiOS single sign-on (SSO). The flaw also affects FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer. The company said it’s
ESET researchers discover an Android spyware campaign targeting users in Pakistan via romance scam tactics, revealing links to a broader spy operation
Meta on Tuesday announced it’s adding Strict Account Settings on WhatsApp to secure certain users against advanced cyber attacks because of who they are and what they do. The feature, similar to Lockdown Mode in Apple iOS and Advanced Protection in Android, aims to protect individuals, such as journalists or public-facing figures, from sophisticated spyware by trading some functionality for
Indian government entities have been targeted in two campaigns undertaken by a threat actor that operates in Pakistan using previously undocumented tradecraft. The campaigns have been codenamed Gopher Strike and Sheet Attack by Zscaler ThreatLabz, which identified them in September 2025. “While these campaigns share some similarities with the Pakistan-linked Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new campaign that combines ClickFix-style fake CAPTCHAs with a signed Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) script to distribute an information stealer called Amatera. “Instead of launching PowerShell directly, the attacker uses this script to control how execution begins and to avoid more common, easily recognized execution paths,”
Cybersecurity teams increasingly want to move beyond looking at threats and vulnerabilities in isolation. Its not only about what could go wrong (vulnerabilities) or who might attack (threats), but where they intersect in your actual environment to create real, exploitable exposure. Which exposures truly matter? Can attackers exploit them? Are our defenses effective? Continuous Threat Exposure
A critical security flaw has been disclosed in GristCore, an open-source, self-hosted version of the Grist relational spreadsheet-database, that could result in remote code execution. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-24002 (CVSS score: 9.1), has been codenamed Cellbreak by Cyera Research Labs. “One malicious formula can turn a spreadsheet into a Remote Code Execution (RCE) beachhead,”
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a JScript-based command-and-control (C2) framework called PeckBirdy that has been put to use by China-aligned APT actors since 2023 to target multiple environments. The flexible framework has been put to use against Chinese gambling industries and malicious activities targeting Asian government entities and private organizations, according to Trend Micro
Microsoft on Monday issued out-of-band security patches for a high-severity Microsoft Office zero-day vulnerability exploited in attacks. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-21509, carries a CVSS score of 7.8 out of 10.0. It has been described as a security feature bypass in Microsoft Office. “Reliance on untrusted inputs in a security decision in Microsoft Office allows an unauthorized
A source trapped inside an industrial-scale scamming operation contacted me, determined to expose his captors crimesand then escape. This is his story.
A whistleblower trapped inside a pig butchering scam compound gave WIRED a vast trove of its internal materialsincluding 4,200 pages of messages that lay out its operations in unprecedented detail.
Has your inbox recently been deluged with unwanted and even outright malicious messages? Here are 10 possible reasons and how to stem the tide.
Kaspersky researchers analyze updated CoolClient backdoor and new tools and scripts used in HoneyMyte (aka Mustang Panda or Bronze President) APT campaigns, including three variants of a browser data stealer.
A federal judge ordered a new briefing due Wednesday on whether DHS is using armed raids to pressure Minnesota into abandoning its sanctuary policies, leaving ICE operations in place for now.
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered an ongoing campaign that’s targeting Indian users with a multi-stage backdoor as part of a suspected cyber espionage campaign. The activity, per the eSentire Threat Response Unit (TRU), involves using phishing emails impersonating the Income Tax Department of India to trick victims into downloading a malicious archive, ultimately granting the threat
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered two malicious Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VS Code) extensions that are advertised as artificial intelligence (AI)-powered coding assistants, but also harbor covert functionality to siphon developer data to China-based servers. The extensions, which have 1.5 million combined installs and are still available for download from the official Visual Studio
Security failures rarely arrive loudly. They slip in through trusted tools, half-fixed problems, and habits people stop questioning. This weeks recap shows that pattern clearly. Attackers are moving faster than defenses, mixing old tricks with new paths. Patched no longer means safe, and every day, software keeps becoming the entry point. What follows is a set of small but telling signals.
If theres a constant in cybersecurity, its that adversaries are always innovating. The rise of offensive AI is transforming attack strategies and making them harder to detect. Googles Threat Intelligence Group, recently reported on adversaries using Large Language Models (LLMs) to both conceal code and generate malicious scripts on the fly, letting malware shape-shift in real-time to evade
The cybercriminals in control of Kimwolf – a disruptive botnet that has infected more than 2 million devices – recently shared a screenshot indicating they’d compromised the control panel for Badbox 2.0, a vast China-based botnet powered by malicious software that comes pre-installed on many Android TV streaming boxes. Both the FBI and Google say they are hunting for the people behind Badbox 2.0, and thanks to bragging by the Kimwolf botmasters we may now have a much clearer idea about that.
The North Korean threat actor known as Konni has been observed using PowerShell malware generated using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to target developers and engineering teams in the blockchain sector. The phishing campaign has targeted Japan, Australia, and India, highlighting the adversary’s expansion of the targeting scope beyond South Korea, Russia, Ukraine, and European nations, Check
Sexual deepfakes continue to get more sophisticated, capable, easy to access, and perilous for millions of women who are abused with the technology.
Within minutes of the shooting, the Trump administration and right-wing influencers began disparaged the man shot by a federal immigration officer on Saturday in Minneapolis.
A new federal filing from ICE demonstrates how commercial tools are increasingly being considered by the government for law enforcement and surveillance.
A new multi-stage phishing campaign has been observed targeting users in Russia with ransomware and a remote access trojan called Amnesia RAT. “The attack begins with social engineering lures delivered via business-themed documents crafted to appear routine and benign,” Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher Cara Lin said in a technical breakdown published this week. “These documents and
The Russian nation-state hacking group known as Sandworm has been attributed to what has been described as the “largest cyber attack” targeting Poland’s power system in the last week of December 2025. The attack was unsuccessful, the country’s energy minister, Milosz Motyka, said last week. “The command of the cyberspace forces has diagnosed in the last days of the year the strongest attack on
AI agents are accelerating how work gets done. They schedule meetings, access data, trigger workflows, write code, and take action in real time, pushing productivity beyond human speed across the enterprise. Then comes the moment every security team eventually hits: “Wait… who approved this?” Unlike users or applications, AI agents are often deployed quickly, shared broadly,
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday added a critical security flaw affecting Broadcom VMware vCenter Server that was patched in June 2024 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2024-37079 (CVSS score: 9.8), which refers to a heap overflow in the
Plus: The FAA blocks drones over DHS operations, Microsoft admits it hands over Bitlocker encryption keys to the cops, and more.
The ruling in federal court in Minnesota lands as Immigration and Customs Enforcement faces scrutiny over an internal memo claiming judge-signed warrants arent needed to enter homes without consent.