All news in category “Incidents and Data Breaches”

🚨 Kaspersky reports that China-linked Mustang Panda used an updated COOLCLIENT backdoor in 2025 to exfiltrate data from government targets across Myanmar, Mongolia, Malaysia, and Russia. The implant was deployed as a secondary backdoor alongside PlugX and LuminousMoth, delivered via encrypted loaders and abusing DLL side-loading of legitimately signed binaries. COOLCLIENT harvests keystrokes, clipboard data, files, and HTTP proxy credentials, can establish reverse tunnels, and loads in-memory plugins; recent waves also incorporated browser credential stealers and a previously unseen rootkit.

⚠️ Halcyon researchers report a Sicarii ransomware variant that generates a fresh RSA key pair on each execution and immediately discards the private key, leaving encrypted files unrecoverable even if victims pay or use a provided decryptor. Analysts attribute the defect to poor key management or immature development, possibly involving AI-assisted tooling. Affected organizations should prioritize containment, isolate systems, and restore only from known-good, offline, or immutable backups rather than relying on ransom-based recovery.

🔍 ESET researchers disclosed a targeted Android espionage campaign (published 28 Jan 2026) that used a fake dating app called GhostChat (detected as Android/Spy.GhostChat.A) to lure victims in Pakistan. The app, never on Google Play and requiring manual install from unknown sources, presents locked female profiles with hardcoded access codes and embedded WhatsApp numbers to drive victims into operator-controlled chats. Once executed it requests broad permissions, immediately exfiltrates device identifiers, contacts and a wide range of files, and continues to upload newly created images and documents on a scheduled basis. ESET linked related Windows activity using the same C2 infrastructure, published IoCs and sample hashes (for example SHA-1 B15B1F3F2227EBA4B69C85BDB638DF34B9D30B6A), and shared findings with Google; known variants are blocked by Play Protect on devices with Google Play Services.

⚠ Aikido researchers discovered two malicious PyPI packages, spellcheckerpy and spellcheckpy, that posed as spellcheckers but contained a Base64-encoded downloader and a Python remote access trojan (RAT). The payload was hidden inside the Basque dictionary archive resources/eu.json.gz and decoded when the package’s test_file() extraction was invoked. Early releases only decoded the payload; spellcheckpy v1.2.0 (published Jan 21, 2026) introduced an obfuscated trigger that executes the payload, and the packages were downloaded just over 1,000 times before removal.

⚠️ Security researchers have found at least 16 malicious Chrome extensions posing as productivity tools for ChatGPT, designed to harvest users' authentication tokens and hijack sessions. Rather than exploiting ChatGPT itself, the extensions hook into the browser to intercept requests with authorization headers and exfiltrate session tokens to attacker-controlled servers. Researchers reported about 900 downloads across the set when discovered; users should remove suspicious extensions, change passwords, and review account access.

🔐 Kaspersky researchers say Chinese espionage group Mustang Panda has updated its CoolClient backdoor to steal browser login data, monitor the clipboard, and sniff HTTP proxy credentials. The upgraded variant has been observed targeting government entities in Myanmar, Mongolia, Malaysia, Russia, and Pakistan and was distributed via legitimate Sangfor software. New plugins add a remote shell, enhanced file and service management, and in-memory plugin execution; researchers also noted a previously unseen rootkit used in some intrusions.

🔒 Nike is investigating a potential cyber security incident after the extortion group World Leaks published 1.4 TB of files it claims were stolen from the company. Nike said it takes consumer privacy and data security seriously and is actively assessing the situation. The group claimed nearly 190,000 corporate files but later removed Nike from its leak site, a step often seen during negotiations or after a ransom payment.

🛡️ Zscaler ThreatLabz identified two Pakistan-linked campaigns, codenamed Gopher Strike and Sheet Attack, that targeted Indian government entities in September 2025. Gopher Strike relied on tailored phishing PDFs that display a fake update prompt and selectively deliver an ISO payload only to requests originating from India and Windows User-Agents. Sheet Attack abused legitimate services such as Google Sheets, Firebase, and email for command-and-control. The intrusions deploy Golang tools — GOGITTER, GITSHELLPAD, and GOSHELL — to maintain persistence, execute commands, and stage a Cobalt Strike Beacon.

🔎 Zscaler ThreatLabz in September 2025 uncovered two Pakistan-linked campaigns, codenamed Gopher Strike and Sheet Attack, aimed at Indian government entities. Gopher Strike used phishing PDFs with a fake Adobe update that conditionally delivers an ISO to Indian Windows hosts, deploying a Golang downloader, GOGITTER, which establishes VBScript-based persistence and scheduled-task execution. Sheet Attack abused legitimate services such as Google Sheets, Firebase and email for command-and-control, while a lightweight backdoor, GITSHELLPAD, and a padded loader, GOSHELL, were used to ultimately deliver Cobalt Strike.

🔐 A Nebraska federal grand jury indicted 31 additional defendants accused of participating in an ATM jackpotting operation that used Ploutus malware to steal millions from U.S. ATMs. Authorities say many suspects are Venezuelan or Colombian nationals tied to the gang Tren de Aragua, an organization recently designated by OFAC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Investigators allege attackers opened ATM housings, swapped or connected drives to load malware, deleted evidence, and forced machines to dispense cash; the stolen proceeds were split and laundered. The Justice Department has charged 87 TdA members in related cases over the past six months.

🔍 PeckBirdy is a previously undocumented, JScript-based command-and-control framework active since 2023 that researchers have linked to China-aligned APT activity across Asia. Trend Micro observed the framework used in multiple roles — watering-hole controller, reverse shell and C2 server — deployed via living-off-the-land binaries and browser-based social engineering. Modular implants such as HOLODONUT and MKDOOR extend capabilities with in-memory execution and attempts to evade Microsoft Defender, complicating detection and response.

⚠️ The Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has observed widespread exploitation of WinRAR via the critical path traversal vulnerability CVE-2025-8088, which attackers use to drop payloads into the Windows Startup folder by abusing Alternate Data Streams (ADS). Adversaries—from government-backed Russian and Chinese groups to financially motivated operators—craft RAR archives that conceal decoy documents and hidden ADS entries to achieve persistence. Defenders should prioritize installing the WinRAR patch, enable Safe Browsing protections, and hunt for ADS extraction activity and newly created Startup-folder LNK/HTA/BAT artifacts.

🔒 SoundCloud confirmed unauthorized activity in December 2025 after users reported 403 errors and the company said it had activated incident response procedures; it indicated no passwords or financial data were accessed. Have I Been Pwned later disclosed the incident impacted 29.8 million accounts, exposing email addresses, names, usernames, avatars, follower/following counts and, in some cases, country. Sources and updates attribute the intrusion to the ShinyHunters extortion group, which attempted to extort SoundCloud and used email flooding to harass users, employees, and partners.

🔒 Nike has entered incident response after the World Leaks ransomware group posted a claimed 188,000+ files from the company to its leak site, with the countdown expiring last Sunday and the full dump now live. The firm said it is investigating a potential cybersecurity incident and actively assessing the situation. Leaked folders reviewed by reporters include development, tech packs and evaluations, and schematics, indicating design and supply-chain materials may be exposed.

🛡️ Trend Micro researchers uncovered PeckBirdy, a JScript-based command-and-control framework used by China-aligned APTs since 2023 to target gambling sites, government portals, and private organizations across Asia. The flexible framework executes via living-off-the-land binaries (LOLBins) and supports browsers, MSHTA, WScript, Classic ASP, Node.js, and .NET execution paths. Operators relied on watering‑hole injections and fake Google Chrome update pages to deliver staged scripts and deploy modular backdoors such as HOLODONUT and MKDOOR. Detection is complicated by dynamically generated, runtime-injected JavaScript and scarce persistent artifacts.

🔒 A recent campaign blends the ClickFix social-engineering method with a fake CAPTCHA and a signed Microsoft App-V script to deliver the Amatera infostealer. Attackers use the trusted SyncAppvPublishingServer.vbs executed via wscript.exe to proxy PowerShell and evade detection, then fetch configuration from a public Google Calendar. Later stages hide encrypted PowerShell payloads in PNGs via LSB steganography and execute Amatera in memory. Researchers recommend removing unused App-V components, restricting the Run dialog, enabling PowerShell logging, and monitoring outbound connection anomalies.

⚠️ ESET attributes a Dec. 29–30 cyberattack on Poland's electricity grid to Sandworm, a hacking group tied to Russia's GRU. The operation deployed Dynowiper, destructive malware that erases data and left systems at risk of prolonged outage, nearly knocking power out for hundreds of thousands of households. ESET links the incident to a longer campaign of disruptive attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure since 2014. Observers say the event highlights growing threats to industrial control systems and the need for stronger defenses and incident response.

🛡️ Morphisec Threat Labs has identified a critical supply-chain compromise of MicroWorld Technologies’ eScan antivirus discovered on 20 January 2026, in which malicious updates were delivered via the vendor's legitimate update infrastructure. The trojanized 32-bit executable, allegedly signed with a compromised certificate, deployed a downloader and a 64-bit backdoor, established persistence and implemented anti-remediation controls to block further updates. Morphisec reported blocking the activity on protected systems and urged immediate investigative and remediation actions for affected organizations.

⚠️ Cloudflare disclosed that a policy misconfiguration on a router caused a 25-minute Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) route leak for IPv6 traffic on January 22, producing congestion, packet loss, and roughly 12 Gbps of dropped traffic. The change removed specific prefix filters and made export rules overly permissive, redistributing internal IPv6 routes externally from Miami. Engineers detected and manually reverted the change, paused automation, and restored normal operations within 25 minutes. Cloudflare says it will add stricter export safeguards, CI/CD policy checks, improved detection, and promote RPKI ASPA adoption.

🧾 Cybersecurity researchers uncovered a phishing campaign impersonating India's Income Tax Department that delivers a multi-stage backdoor to targeted users. The attackers distribute a ZIP containing an executable that sideloads a malicious DLL, performs anti-analysis checks, and fetches further payloads, ultimately deploying a Blackmoon variant alongside a repurposed SyncFuture TSM RMM tool. The operation employs UAC bypass, process masquerading, antivirus exclusion manipulation, and numerous helper scripts to establish persistent, covert access for long-term monitoring and data exfiltration.