All news in category “Incidents and Data Breaches”

⚠️ Koi Security disclosed a coordinated campaign by a group dubbed TigerJack that published malicious extensions to the Visual Studio Code Marketplace and the OpenVSX registry to exfiltrate source code, deploy cryptominers, and maintain remote access. Two popular packages — C++ Payground and HTTP Format — accumulated over 17,000 downloads before removal from Microsoft's store, yet variants remain active on OpenVSX. Researchers warn that the most advanced builds fetch and execute remote JavaScript, allowing attackers to push new payloads without republishing and evading static scanners.

🔒 Spanish fashion retailer MANGO has alerted customers to a data breach that originated at an external marketing service, not within the company's own systems. The exposed fields include first names, countries, postal codes, email addresses and phone numbers. The company is notifying affected individuals and appears to be reviewing the vendor relationship and communications. Some recipients report receiving the notice in Spanish despite not being customers.

🔒 The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) confirmed Capita will not appeal a £14m penalty for security failings that led to a March 2023 breach affecting nearly seven million people. The fine was reduced from an initial £45m after the ICO considered post-incident remediation, support to affected individuals and engagement with the NCSC. The regulator cited delayed SOC response, absence of a tiered privileged-access model and siloed pen testing that allowed a threat actor linked to Black Basta to escalate privileges and deploy ransomware.

🛡️ The German federal procurement portal was rendered inaccessible for almost a week by a sustained DDoS campaign; the service was restored Tuesday afternoon. Security analysts attribute the disruption to the pro‑Russian hacker group NoName057(16), which has previously targeted critical infrastructure, authorities and companies in Western countries. The attacks, confirmed as DDoS by observers, overwhelmed servers with a flood of requests. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) said it was informed of the incident. The portal, dtvp.de, is a central nationwide platform for electronic Q&A and bid submissions in public tenders.

🔐 Unit 42 responded to a significant BlackSuit ransomware campaign after attackers obtained VPN credentials via a vishing call and immediately escalated privileges. The adversary executed DCSync, moved laterally with RDP/SMB using tools like Advanced IP Scanner and SMBExec, established persistence with AnyDesk and a custom RAT, and exfiltrated over 400 GB before deploying BlackSuit across ~60 ESXi hosts. Unit 42 expanded Cortex XDR visibility from 250 to over 17,000 endpoints and used Cortex XSOAR to automate containment while delivering prioritized remediation guidance.

⚠️ Researchers at Koi Security warn that a threat actor known as TigerJack is distributing malicious Visual Studio Code extensions on both the official marketplace and the community-maintained OpenVSX registry. Two extensions, C++ Playground and HTTP Format, were removed from the VSCode marketplace after roughly 17,000 downloads but remain available on OpenVSX, and the actor repeatedly republishes variants under new accounts. The malicious code exfiltrates source code, deploys a CoinIMP cryptominer with no resource limits, or fetches remote JavaScript to enable arbitrary code execution, creating significant risks to developer machines and corporate networks.

🔒 Police seized several domains tied to the Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters extortion network, but one dark‑web mirror remained briefly accessible and was used to publish alleged data on October 10. The site listed victims including Qantas, Vietnam Airlines, Albertsons, GAP, Fujifilm, and Engie Resources, with claimed volumes from millions to hundreds of thousands of records. Authorities caution that domain seizures are tactical wins: actors often resurrect forums from backups or migrate to platforms such as Telegram, and the group has even promised a 2026 return with a subscription-based extortion-as-a-service model.

💰 The U.S. Department of Justice has seized $15 billion in bitcoin tied to Chen Zhi, leader of the Prince Group, a transnational criminal network that ran large-scale “pig butchering” cryptocurrency investment and romance scams. Unsealed court documents describe fortified forced-labor compounds in Cambodia, automated call centers, and over 100 shell companies spanning 30+ countries. The Treasury’s OFAC also sanctioned Chen Zhi and 146 associates as part of the coordinated action.

🛡️ReliaQuest attributes a campaign to China-linked group Flax Typhoon that compromised a public-facing ArcGIS server by converting a Java Server Object Extension (SOE) into a gated web shell, maintaining access for over a year. The attackers embedded a hard-coded key and hid the backdoor in system backups to survive full system recovery. They uploaded a renamed SoftEther executable (bridge.exe), created a "SysBridge" service to persist, and used an outbound HTTPS VPN bridge to extend the victim network for covert lateral movement. Investigators observed credential theft, admin account resets, and extensive living-off-the-land activity to evade detection.

🔒 Researchers say a Chinese state-linked actor, likely Flax Typhoon, exploited a component of the ArcGIS geo-mapping platform to maintain undetected access for over a year. Using valid admin credentials, the attackers uploaded a malicious Java SOE that acted as a web shell, accepting base64-encoded commands via a REST parameter protected by a hardcoded secret. They then installed SoftEther VPN as a Windows service to create an outbound HTTPS tunnel to 172.86.113[.]142 on port 443, enabling persistent lateral movement and credential harvesting even if the SOE were removed.

🔐 ReliaQuest linked the campaign to the Flax Typhoon APT, which converted a legitimate public-facing ArcGIS Java server object extension (SOE) into a stealthy web shell. The group activated the SOE through a standard ArcGIS REST extension, embedding a base64-encoded payload and a hardcoded key to trigger command execution while hiding activity behind normal portal operations. Attackers uploaded a renamed SoftEther VPN binary to preserve access and targeted IT workstations, and the SOE was later found in backups, enabling persistence after remediation. ReliaQuest warns organisations to go beyond IOC detection, proactively hunt for anomalous behaviour in trusted tools, and treat every public-facing application as a high-risk asset.

🔒 Huntress reports a fresh wave of compromises targeting SonicWall SSLVPN appliances in early October, affecting at least 16 organizations and more than 100 accounts. Attackers are authenticating with valid credentials rather than brute forcing, often from recurring attacker-controlled IPs. Some sessions involved internal reconnaissance and attempts against Windows administrative accounts, but Huntress says it has no evidence linking the activity to September’s MySonicWall cloud backup disclosure. It urges administrators to reset credentials, restrict remote management, review SSLVPN logs, and enable MFA.

⚠️ Researchers at a software supply chain security firm found multiple malicious packages across npm, PyPI, and RubyGems that use Discord webhooks as a command-and-control channel to exfiltrate developer secrets. Examples include npm packages that siphon config files and a Ruby gem that sends host files like /etc/passwd to a hard-coded webhook. The investigators warn that webhook-based C2 is cheap, fast, and blends into normal traffic, enabling early-stage compromise via install-time hooks and build scripts. The disclosure also links a large North Korean campaign that published hundreds of malicious packages to deliver stealers and backdoors.

🔒 In a coordinated operation, eight suspects attempted to hijack unemployment payments by accessing roughly 20,000 accounts of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) between late January and mid‑March. Investigators report about 1,000 accounts were accessed and bank details altered in 150 cases; early intervention limited losses to under €1,000. Searches across several states recovered devices, cash, weapons and narcotics, and two suspects are currently detained.

🔎 Proofpoint researchers detailed a previously undocumented actor, TA585, observed delivering the off‑the‑shelf malware MonsterV2 through tailored phishing chains. The actor appears to manage its entire operation — infrastructure, delivery, and payload installation — employing web injections, CAPTCHA overlays and ClickFix social engineering to trigger PowerShell or Run commands. MonsterV2 functions as a RAT, stealer and loader with HVNC, keylogging, clipboard clippers and a C++ crypter (SonicCrypt) to evade detection. Proofpoint also links parts of the infrastructure to other stealer campaigns and highlights commercialized pricing and geographic filtering in its monetization.

🔒 SimonMed Imaging is notifying more than 1.2 million individuals that attackers accessed its network between January 21 and February 5, 2025. The company says hackers stole data and the Medusa ransomware group claimed a 212 GB exfiltration and published proof files including ID scans, medical reports, payment details and raw scans. SimonMed reset passwords, implemented multifactor authentication, deployed EDR, removed vendor access, restricted traffic, notified law enforcement and is offering affected people free Experian identity monitoring.

🔍 Researchers at GreyNoise have identified a large-scale, multi-country botnet that began targeting Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) services in the United States on October 8. The campaign uses over 100,000 IP addresses and employs two RDP-specific techniques: RD Web Access timing attacks to infer valid usernames and RDP Web Client login enumeration to observe differing server behaviors. Nearly all sources share a common TCP fingerprint, indicating coordinated clusters. Administrators should block attacking IPs, review RDP logs, and avoid exposing remote desktop services to the public internet—use VPNs and enable multi-factor authentication.

🛡️ Researchers report that threat actors have compromised more than a hundred SonicWall SSLVPN accounts in a large-scale campaign that began on October 4 and persisted through at least October 10. The attackers appear to be using valid, stolen credentials rather than brute-force methods, and many malicious requests originated from IP 202.155.8[.]73. After authenticating, actors conducted reconnaissance and attempted lateral movement to access numerous local Windows accounts; investigators recommend immediate secret rotation, strict access restrictions, and multi-factor authentication for all admin and remote accounts.

🚨 Spanish authorities have arrested a 25-year-old Brazilian national accused of leading the GXC Team, a Crime-as-a-Service operation that sold phishing kits, Android malware and AI-based tools to cybercriminals. The Guardia Civil detained the suspect known as "GoogleXcoder" after a year-long investigation and six coordinated raids across Spain. Investigators seized devices containing source code, client communications and cryptocurrency records, and identified six suspected accomplices. The probe, supported by Group-IB and Brazil's Federal Police, remains ongoing as authorities disable the group's online infrastructure.

🛡️ FortiGuard Labs has identified a campaign distributing the Stealit infostealer via disguised game and VPN installers shared on file‑hosting sites and platforms like Discord. Attackers use Node.js Single Executable Apps (SEA) and PyInstaller bundles, heavy obfuscation and multiple anti‑analysis techniques to avoid detection. Once executed, Stealit harvests data from browsers, game clients, messaging apps and cryptocurrency wallets, and its operators rotate C2 domains while marketing the toolkit commercially.