All news in category “Incidents and Data Breaches”

🔒 Harrods has disclosed that some e-commerce customer data was stolen via a breach at a third-party provider, with the retailer notifying affected customers on Friday. The company says the exposed information is limited to basic personal identifiers such as names and contact details and does not include account passwords, payment details or order history. Harrods also said it was contacted by a threat actor but refused to engage, and that this incident is separate from attempts to access Harrods systems in May. Reports indicate as many as 430,000 customer records may have been impacted, in a broader environment of rising retail ransomware and supply-chain risk linked to groups such as Scattered Spider.

🛡️ Cybersecurity researchers at Koi Security reported the first observed malicious Model Context Protocol (MCP) server embedded in an npm package, a trojanized copy of the postmark-mcp library. The malicious change, introduced in version 1.0.16 in September 2025 by developer "phanpak", added a one-line backdoor that BCCs every outgoing email to phan@giftshop[.]club. Users who installed the package should remove it immediately, rotate any potentially exposed credentials, and review email logs for unauthorized BCC activity.

🔐Akira ransomware operators are successfully authenticating to SonicWall SSL VPN accounts even when one-time password (OTP) multi-factor authentication is enabled. Arctic Wolf links the logins to credentials and OTP seeds harvested via an improper access control flaw tracked as CVE-2024-40766, and notes attackers can reuse those secrets after devices are patched. Once inside, actors rapidly scan internal networks, harvest backup server credentials, and use techniques such as BYOVD to sideload vulnerable drivers and disable protections. Administrators are urged to install the latest SonicOS (recommended 7.3.0) and reset all SSL VPN credentials immediately.

⚠️ Blackpoint SOC observed a malvertising and SEO-poisoning campaign that directs searches for Teams downloads to a fake site at teams-install[.]top offering a malicious MSTeamsSetup.exe. The signed installer uses certificates from "4th State Oy" and "NRM NETWORK RISK MANAGEMENT INC" to appear legitimate, then drops CaptureService.dll into %APPDATA%\Roaming and creates a scheduled task CaptureService to run every 11 minutes. The payload installs the Oyster backdoor. Administrators should download software only from verified vendor domains and avoid clicking search ads.

🔍 Two Dutch 17-year-olds allegedly used a WiFi sniffer to spy near Europol, Eurojust, and the Canadian embassy in The Hague. They were reportedly recruited over Telegram and arrested after a tip from the national intelligence service, the AIVD. Europol says its systems show no signs of compromise. The suspects will remain in custody for at least two weeks while investigators probe the case.

🔍 Cisco Talos and Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 describe concurrent campaigns distributing a revised PlugX variant and the long‑running Bookworm RAT against telecommunications and manufacturing organizations across Central and South Asia and ASEAN countries. Talos found that the PlugX sample borrows RainyDay and Turian techniques — DLL side‑loading of a Mobile Popup Application, XOR‑RC4‑RtlDecompressBuffer payload processing and reuse of RC4 keys — and includes an embedded keylogger. Researchers note the PlugX configuration now mirrors RainyDay’s structure, suggesting links to Lotus Panda/Naikon or shared tooling, while Unit 42 highlights Bookworm’s modular leader/DLL architecture, UUID-encoded shellcode variants, and use of legitimate-looking C2 domains to blend with normal traffic.

🔒 LockBit 5.0 introduces faster ESXi drive encryption and enhanced evasion techniques, according to Trend Micro. The release includes Windows, Linux and VMware ESXi variants featuring heavy obfuscation, ETW patching, DLL reflection and hypervisor-targeted encryption designed to amplify impact. Researcher Jon DiMaggio describes the update as largely incremental fine-tuning and self-branding aimed at restoring affiliate trust after Operation Cronos.

📧 Fortinet FortiGuard Labs and other researchers detailed phishing campaigns that weaponize malicious SVG attachments to initiate downloads of password-protected ZIP archives and Compiled HTML Help (CHM) files. Those CHM files activate loader chains that deliver CountLoader as a distribution stage for Amatera Stealer and the stealthy .NET miner PureMiner, both run filelessly via .NET AOT and memory-loading techniques. Separately, Huntress attributes a Vietnamese-speaking operator using copyright-themed lures that escalate from PXA Stealer to the modular backdoor PureRAT.

🔓 UpGuard discovered a publicly accessible Amazon S3 bucket containing over 273,000 PDFs documenting individual bank transfers in India, many with unredacted account numbers, amounts, and personal contact details. Aye Finance was disproportionately represented in the sample, and researchers observed roughly 3,000 new files added daily before the bucket was secured following notifications to AyeFin, NPCI, and CERT‑IN. The exposure poses an immediate risk of large‑scale fraud and targeted abuse across dozens of banks.

🔍 Zscaler details a new COLDRIVER ClickFix campaign that deploys two lightweight families: BAITSWITCH, a DLL downloader, and SIMPLEFIX, a PowerShell backdoor. Victims are lured to execute a malicious DLL via a fake CAPTCHA; BAITSWITCH fetches SIMPLEFIX while presenting a Google Drive decoy. The chain stores encrypted payloads in the Windows Registry, uses a PowerShell stager, and clears the Run dialog to erase traces. Zscaler notes the campaign targets NGOs, human-rights defenders, think tanks, and exiles connected to Russia.

🔒 A malicious npm package, postmark-mcp, was weaponized to stealthily copy outgoing emails by inserting a hidden BCC in version 1.0.16. The package impersonated an MCP Postmark connector and forwarded every message to an attacker-controlled address, exposing password resets, invoices, and internal correspondence. The backdoor was a single line of code and remained available through regular downloads before the package was removed. Koi Security advises immediate removal, credential rotation, and audits of all MCP connectors.

🔒 A malicious npm package named postmark-mcp was discovered inserting a hidden Bcc that forwarded copies of transactional emails to an attacker-controlled server. Koi Security identified the backdoor in version 1.0.16 after its risk engine flagged suspicious behavior, noting the package had been trusted across many prior releases. With roughly 1,500 weekly downloads, the single-line injection enabled broad exfiltration of password resets, invoices, and internal correspondence before the package was removed; Koi urges immediate removal, credential rotation, and audits of all MCP connectors.

🔒 Cisco has linked a renewed campaign exploiting Cisco ASA 5500-X devices to the espionage-focused ArcaneDoor threat actor. The operation leveraged zero-day flaws, notably CVE-2025-20333 and CVE-2025-20362, to implant malware, modify ROMMON for persistence and evade detection by disabling logging and intercepting CLI commands. Observed compromises affected older ASA models lacking Secure Boot/Trust Anchor protections; Cisco and national authorities urge immediate remediation. Temporary mitigations include disabling SSL/TLS VPN web services and IKEv2 client services while applying vendor fixes and conducting forensics.

🛡️ Interpol-led Operation Contender 3.0 swept through 14 African countries between 28 July and 11 August 2025, targeting romance scams and sextortion networks and resulting in 260 arrests. Law enforcement, aided by private firms Group-IB and Trend Micro, seized 1,235 electronic devices and took down 81 cybercrime infrastructures. Investigations in Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Angola identified 1,463 victims and estimated losses near $2.8 million.

🔁 JLR has begun a controlled, phased restart of digital and operational systems after the cyber-attack that halted production in early September. The company has increased IT processing capacity for invoicing and restored its financial wholesale system, allowing it to clear payment backlogs and resume sales and vehicle registrations. The Global Parts Logistics Centre is also returning to full operation as recovery work continues with support from the UK National Cyber Security Centre and law enforcement.

🔒 Trend Micro has identified a new LockBit variant, LockBit 5.0, which it calls significantly more dangerous than prior releases and has observed in the wild. The vendor confirmed Windows, Linux, and ESXi binaries featuring faster encryption, removal of infection markers, randomized 16-character extensions and enhanced evasion. The Windows build includes a cleaner affiliate UI with detailed execution options, while the ESXi variant represents a critical escalation by enabling encryption of multiple virtual machines from a single payload. Researchers note substantial code reuse from 4.0, suggesting an evolutionary update rather than a rebrand.

🔒 Qantas' board docked CEO Vanessa Hudson and other executives after a June 30 cyber incident that exposed the personally identifiable information of nearly 6 million passengers, deducting A$800,000 from bonuses and cutting annual payouts by 15 percentage points. The move is being compared to high-profile past actions, such as Yahoo's 2017 bonus denial. Security leaders say the decision reflects a broader trend of boards and regulators holding top executives personally and financially accountable for cybersecurity failures.

🔒 In its latest half-year report the Co-operative Group said it expects to lose about £120 million in profits this financial year after a cyberattack forced temporary shutdowns of parts of its IT estate. The company reported that personal data for roughly 6.5 million members was stolen, prompting operational disruption across its supermarkets as well as its financial and funeral services. The identity of the attackers remains unclear and investigations are ongoing.

🔓 UpGuard discovered a publicly accessible Amazon S3 bucket containing roughly 273,160 PDF documents formatted as NACH MANDATE records that documented bank transfers in India. The files exposed unredacted bank account numbers, transaction amounts and, in many cases, individuals’ names, phone numbers and email addresses. A 55K-file sample (~42 GB) showed 38 financial institutions represented, with AyeFin appearing in nearly 60% of sampled records. UpGuard notified AyeFin and NPCI, escalated to CERT‑IN when the bucket continued to grow, and verified the repository was secured on September 4.

📧 A malicious npm package posing as the official postmark-mcp project quietly added a single line of code to BCC all outgoing emails to an external address. Koi Security found the backdoor in version 1.0.16 after prior releases through 1.0.15 were verified clean. The tainted release was available for about a week and logged roughly 1,500 downloads. Users are advised to remove the package, rotate potentially exposed credentials, and run MCP servers in isolated containers before upgrading.