All news in category “Incidents and Data Breaches”

🔒 OpenAI confirmed a customer data exposure after its analytics partner Mixpanel suffered a smishing attack on November 8, which allowed attackers to access profile metadata tied to platform.openai.com accounts. Stolen fields included names, email addresses, approximate location, OS/browser details, referrers, and organization or user IDs. OpenAI says ChatGPT and core systems were not breached and that no API keys, passwords, payment data, or model payloads were exposed. The company has terminated its use of Mixpanel and is notifying impacted customers directly.

🔒 According to an OpenAI statement, cybercriminals accessed analytics provider Mixpanel's systems in early November, and data tied to some API users may have been exposed. Potentially affected fields include account names, associated email addresses, approximate browser-derived location (city, state, country), operating system and browser details, referring websites, and organization or user IDs. OpenAI said its own systems and products such as ChatGPT were not impacted, that sensitive items like chat histories, API requests, API usage data, passwords, credentials, API keys, payment details, and government IDs were not compromised, and that it has removed Mixpanel from its systems while working with the vendor to investigate.

🔒 Asahi Group Holdings has confirmed that personal data for approximately 1.914 million people, including 1.525 million customers, may have been exposed after a September ransomware incident that forced temporary suspension of operations. The company spent two months on containment, integrity checks and system restoration, and says credit card details were not affected. Qilin has claimed responsibility; Asahi warns customers to monitor for unsolicited communications and anticipates ongoing operational impacts.

🔒 Kaspersky researchers report that ToddyCat updated its toolkit in late 2024 and early 2025 to target Outlook email data and Microsoft 365 access via OAuth 2.0 tokens. Previously known for compromising internet-facing Microsoft Exchange servers, the group now uses a C++ utility, TCSectorCopy, to copy OST files and parses them with XstReader to read full email archives. When browser-based token extraction was blocked, attackers deployed ProcDump to dump tokens from Outlook memory. Kaspersky released IOCs and technical details to support detection and response.

🔒 OpenAI has notified some ChatGPT API customers that limited identifying information was exposed following a breach at its third‑party analytics vendor, Mixpanel. Mixpanel says the incident resulted from a smishing campaign detected on November 8, and OpenAI received details of the affected dataset on November 25. Exposed fields may include names, emails, coarse location, device and browser metadata, referring websites, and account IDs, but OpenAI says no chats, API requests, usage data, passwords, API keys, payment details, or government IDs were exposed. OpenAI has removed Mixpanel from production, begun notifying affected parties, and is warning users to watch for phishing attempts and enable 2FA.

⚠️ OpenAI has warned that some data from users of its platform.openai.com API may have been exposed after an attacker gained unauthorized access to part of analytics vendor Mixpanel and exported a dataset. The incident began on November 9 and Mixpanel shared the dataset with OpenAI on November 25. Potentially affected fields include account names, email addresses, coarse location, browser/OS, referrers and organization or user IDs. OpenAI says its systems, chats, API keys, credentials, payment details and chat content were not compromised, and it has removed Mixpanel from production while notifying affected users and expanding vendor security reviews.

🚨 ReliaQuest has uncovered a campaign attributed to the Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters that leverages more than 40 typosquatted domains impersonating Zendesk portals, including deceptive SSO pages designed to harvest credentials. The actors have also been observed submitting fraudulent helpdesk tickets to target support staff, aiming to deploy remote access trojans and other malware. Organizations are advised to enforce MFA with hardware keys, implement IP allowlisting and session timeouts, monitor domains and DNS, and harden chat controls and content filtering to mitigate the risk.

🛡️ CISA has warned that cybercriminals and state-backed actors are using spyware to target users of encrypted messaging apps including Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram. Rather than breaking end-to-end encryption, attackers compromise devices to access messages, files, contacts, call history, and location data. Techniques include fake QR codes that link accounts to attacker-controlled devices, malicious updates, and zero-click exploits that trigger on receipt of a malformed image or file. Users are urged to keep devices and apps updated, avoid installing software from untrusted sources, and treat unexpected messages or files with suspicion.

🔒 Gainsight disclosed that suspicious activity affecting its Salesforce-connected applications has expanded beyond an initial three-customer list provided by Salesforce, with the company saying it presently knows of "only a handful" of customers whose data were affected. Salesforce revoked access and refreshed tokens for impacted Gainsight-published apps after detecting "unusual activity" claimed by the ShinyHunters group. Several vendors suspended integrations while investigations continue; Gainsight advised rotating credentials, resetting non‑SSO passwords, and reauthorizing connectors as preventive measures.

🛡️ A Reliaquest analysis of June–October incidents links multiple Akira ransomware intrusions to compromised SonicWall SSL VPNs that were inherited through acquisitions. In nearly every case, acquiring organizations did not know the devices remained on their networks and attackers leveraged legacy administrative credentials. The report warns that routine financial due diligence misses such cyber risks, and urges early security-led inventory, segmentation, and credential rotation during M&A onboarding.

🧟 In episode 445 of the Smashing Security podcast, Graham Cluley and guest Dan Raywood review a decade of insecure broadcast infrastructure that has allowed attackers to hijack TV and radio, issue fake emergency alerts, and even replace sermons with explicit content. They also examine an alleged insider leak at a cybersecurity firm that raises urgent questions about trusted access and internal controls. The discussion highlights persistent vulnerabilities in broadcast hardware and the broader implications for public safety and incident response.

⚠️ Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs identified a Mirai-based botnet called ShadowV2 that exploited known vulnerabilities in routers and other IoT devices from D-Link, TP-Link, DD-WRT and others during a major AWS outage, appearing active only for the outage window and possibly a test run. The malware is delivered via a downloader (binary.sh) that fetches payloads from 81[.]88[.]18[.]108 and uses XOR-encoded configuration and Mirai-style strings. ShadowV2 supports UDP, TCP and HTTP DDoS floods and receives commands from a C2 at 198[.]199[.]72[.]27. Fortinet published IoCs and emphasizes keeping firmware updated, noting many affected models are end-of-life and will not be patched.

🔒 Comcast will pay $1.5 million to settle an FCC investigation after a February 2024 vendor breach at Financial Business and Consumer Solutions (FBCS) exposed the personal data of 273,703 current and former Xfinity customers. Under the consent decree Comcast must implement a compliance plan with enhanced vendor oversight, biennial risk assessments, and biannual reporting. Comcast says its network was not breached and has not conceded wrongdoing.

⚠️ The second wave of the Shai-Hulud supply-chain attack has moved from npm into the Maven ecosystem after researchers found org.mvnpm:posthog-node:4.18.1 embedding the same setup_bun.js loader and bun_environment.js payload. The artifact was rebundled via an automated mvnpm process and was not published by PostHog; mirrored copies were purged from Maven Central on Nov 25, 2025. The campaign steals API keys, cloud credentials and npm/GitHub tokens by backdooring developer environments and injecting malicious GitHub workflows, affecting thousands of repositories.

🔒 The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster City Council are experiencing widespread service disruptions after a cybersecurity incident that also affected the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Several systems including phone lines were taken offline and councils activated emergency plans to preserve critical services. Officials say they shut down affected systems as a precaution while working with specialist incident responders and the National Cyber Security Centre. Security researchers indicate the outage stems from a ransomware attack on a shared services provider; investigations and efforts to restore services are ongoing.

🔍 A prolific operator known as "Rey," one of three administrators of the Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters (SLSH) Telegram channel, has confirmed his real-world identity after investigative outreach. Rey is tied to the recent release of the group's new RaaS offering ShinySp1d3r, which he says is derived from Hellcat ransomware code modified with AI tools. Reporting shows Rey made multiple operational security mistakes that allowed analysts to link him to a shared family PC in Amman, Jordan, revealing his name as Saif Al‑Din Khader and that he is a mid‑teens minor who says he is cooperating with law enforcement.

⚠️ A cyber-attack on the OnSolve CodeRED platform disrupted emergency alerts used by state and local agencies across the US and exposed user data. Crisis24 shut down the legacy environment and is rebuilding the system in a new, isolated infrastructure. Investigators confirmed data theft — including names, addresses, emails, phone numbers and passwords — though there is no evidence the data has been posted online. The threat actor INC Ransom claims responsibility and has published screenshots and is selling samples of the files.

🛡️ South Korea's financial sector was struck by a coordinated supply-chain campaign that deployed Qilin ransomware via a compromised MSP, Bitdefender reports. The operation, self-styled as 'Korean Leaks', unfolded in three publication waves in September–October 2025 and resulted in the theft of over 1 million files (about 2 TB) from 28 victims. Analysis ties the clustered intrusions to a single upstream MSP compromise and notes possible involvement by North Korean-affiliated actors alongside Qilin affiliates operating under a RaaS model.

🔒 Since January 2025 the FBI reports account takeover (ATO) schemes have produced losses exceeding $262 million. Cybercriminals impersonate bank, payroll and health account providers and use phishing domains, SEO poisoning and social engineering to harvest credentials and one-time codes. The Bureau recommends enabling MFA, using unique complex passwords, monitoring accounts regularly, avoiding search ads and verifying unsolicited calls or messages before sharing any login information.

🛡️ Researchers at Huntress uncovered a ClickFix campaign that hides malware inside the RGB pixels of PNG images on a fake Windows Update page, tricking victims into pasting and running commands. The delivered payloads include the LummaC2 infostealer and the Rhadamanthys malware family, with active domains observed after a mid-November takedown. Huntress warns the steganographic technique and the realistic Windows Update motif increase the attack's stealth, and recommends disabling the Windows Run dialog and strengthening endpoint monitoring.