All news in category "Incidents and Data Breaches"

Allianz Life July Data Breach Affects Nearly 1.5 Million

🔐Allianz Life has completed its investigation into a July cyberattack and says 1,497,036 people were impacted. A malicious actor accessed a third-party cloud-based CRM on July 16, 2025, and obtained names, addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers. While some reporting linked the intrusion to a Salesforce-targeted wave attributed to ShinyHunters, Allianz Life has not confirmed that attribution. Notified individuals are offered two years of free identity monitoring from Kroll and guidance to enable credit monitoring or consider freezing credit.

Attackers Abuse Milesight Routers to Send Smishing SMS

📱 SEKOIA warns that unknown actors have been abusing Milesight industrial cellular routers to send phishing SMS messages across Europe since at least February 2022. The attackers exploited exposed SMS-related APIs — linked to a patched information disclosure flaw (CVE-2023-43261) — to dispatch typosquatted URLs impersonating government platforms, banks, postal and telecom providers. Of roughly 18,000 such routers visible on the public internet, SEKOIA identified about 572 potentially vulnerable devices, roughly half located in Europe. The campaigns used JavaScript-based mobile checks and domains that disabled debugging and logged visitors to a Telegram bot, indicating operational measures to hinder analysis.

Phantom Taurus: China-Aligned Hackers Target State, Telecom

🔍Phantom Taurus, newly designated by Unit 42, is a China-aligned cyber-espionage group that has targeted government and telecommunications organizations across Africa, the Middle East and Asia for at least two and a half years. Researchers traced the activity from earlier cluster tracking through a 2024 campaign codename, noting a 2025 elevation to a distinct group. Phantom Taurus has shifted from email-server exfiltration to directly querying SQL Server databases via a custom mssq.bat executed over WMI, and deploys a previously undocumented .NET IIS malware suite dubbed NET-STAR.

Klopatra Android Banking Trojan Hits 3,000+ Devices

🔒 Cleafy has uncovered Klopatra, a previously undocumented Android banking trojan that has infected over 3,000 devices—predominantly in Spain and Italy. The malware leverages Hidden VNC for remote device control and dynamic overlays to harvest credentials, while integrating the commercial Virbox protection suite and native libraries to evade detection and analysis. Operators distribute Klopatra via social-engineered IPTV droppers, abuse Android accessibility permissions to persist and perform actions, and use a black-screen VNC mode and stolen PINs or patterns to unlock devices and execute rapid fraudulent transfers.

Solicitors urged to curb payment diversion fraud losses

🔒 The National Crime Agency and The Law Society have warned that UK house buyers faced average losses of £82,000 from payment diversion fraud over the past year. This form of payment diversion fraud (PDF) — a type of business email compromise — relies on hijacked or spoofed emails and lookalike domains to alter bank transfer instructions. The campaign urges solicitors and conveyancers to tighten checks and advises clients to verify bank details, use strong passwords, avoid public Wi‑Fi and transfer small initial amounts to confirm receipt.

Ukraine Alerts to CABINETRAT Backdoor Delivered via XLLs

⚠ The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT‑UA) warns of targeted attacks using a new backdoor dubbed CABINETRAT distributed via malicious Excel add-ins (XLL) concealed inside ZIP archives shared over Signal. The XLL implants an EXE in Startup, places BasicExcelMath.xll in the Excel XLSTART folder and drops a PNG that hides shellcode. It employs registry persistence and robust anti-VM checks, and the C-based backdoor performs reconnaissance, remote command execution, file operations and data exfiltration over TCP.

Manufacturing Disruptions from Targeted Cyberattacks

⚠️Recent cyberattacks forced production halts at Jaguar Land Rover and Asahi, underscoring that operational disruption is now a primary objective for threat actors. JLR paused production after an August 31 compromise attributed to the Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters group, reportedly using vishing to obtain credentials, while Asahi halted orders and shipments following a systems failure. Experts emphasize that attackers exploit phishing, unpatched systems, and supply‑chain weaknesses, and urge layered defenses such as zero trust, MFA, PAM, micro‑segmentation, continuous monitoring, and air‑gapped backups to preserve business continuity.

INTERPOL Nets 260 Suspected Romance and Sextortion Scammers

🔍 INTERPOL announced the arrest of 260 alleged romance scammers, sextortionists, and online fraudsters across 14 African countries as part of Operation Contender 3.0. Authorities identified more than 1,400 victims and estimate total losses at almost US $2.8 million. Law enforcement seized 1,235 electronic devices, including USB drives and SIM cards, and say they dismantled the infrastructure of 81 criminal operations by taking control of websites and servers. Officials warn that while takedowns are important, public awareness and victim support remain the best defenses against these growing threats.

WestJet Confirms Breach Exposed Customers' Passports

🔒 WestJet has confirmed that a cybersecurity incident disclosed on June 13 exposed sensitive customer information, including passports and other government IDs, according to a notification shared with U.S. authorities. The airline said an investigation completed on September 15 found impacted records varied by individual and could include full name, date of birth, mailing address, travel documents, loyalty program details, and certain card account information. WestJet emphasized that no credit or debit card numbers, expiry dates, CVV codes, or user passwords were compromised and is offering free two-year identity theft protection to affected customers. The company said the FBI is involved in the probe and that it is still working to determine the full scope of the incident.

Phantom Taurus: China-linked APT Targets Diplomacy

🔍 Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 has attributed a two-and-a-half-year campaign of espionage to a previously undocumented China-aligned actor dubbed Phantom Taurus, which has targeted government and telecommunications organizations across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The group uses a bespoke .NET malware suite called NET-STAR to compromise Internet Information Services (IIS) web servers and maintain stealthy access. Observed techniques include exploitation of on-premises IIS and Microsoft Exchange flaws, in-memory payload execution, timestomping and AMSI/ETW bypasses, enabling persistent data collection tied to geopolitical events.

Smishing Campaigns Abuse Milesight Cellular Routers

📩 Research from Sekoia.io’s TDR team reveals a wave of smishing attacks that abused APIs on Milesight Industrial Cellular Routers to send phishing SMS, primarily targeting Belgian users by impersonating government services such as CSAM and eBox. The activity was first detected on 22 July 2025 via honeypots, and investigators found messages in Dutch and French using Belgium’s +32 code. Sekoia noted over 19,000 devices are publicly accessible and at least 572 permit unauthenticated SMS access, enabling large-scale abuse. The campaigns used infrastructure linked to Podaon and domains often registered through NameSilo, with attackers testing compromised routers before launching mass waves.

Klopatra Android RAT Uses Commercial Protections in Europe

⚠️ Cleafy's Threat Intelligence team discovered a previously unknown Android Remote Access Trojan named Klopatra in late August 2025, actively targeting financial institutions across Spain and Italy. The malware leverages commercial-grade protection (notably Virbox) and shifts much of its functionality into native code to evade detection and frustrate reverse engineering. Operators use Hidden VNC, dynamic overlays and abuse of Accessibility Services to harvest credentials and perform unauthorized transactions while victims remain unaware.

Chinese Hackers Exploited VMware Zero-Day Since Oct 2024

🔒 Broadcom issued patches for a high-severity privilege escalation vulnerability in VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools that has been actively exploited since October 2024. European firm NVISO linked the in-the-wild abuse to the China-aligned group UNC5174 and published a proof-of-concept for CVE-2025-41244. The flaw allows an unprivileged local attacker to stage a malicious binary (commonly in /tmp/httpd), have it discovered by VMware service discovery, and escalate to root-level execution on vulnerable VMs.

Data Leak at Kido Kindergartens Exposes Children's Data

🚨 A ransomware group calling itself Randiant claims to have attacked UK childcare operator Kido, publishing names, photos, addresses and family contact details for ten children from one of Kido's London nurseries and threatening to release further data unless a ransom is paid. The attackers' leak page alleges data on more than 8,000 children was exfiltrated. Kido has not yet issued a public statement; London police say an investigation is ongoing. Kido also operates sites in the United States, India and China.

Inside a Convincing Phone Scam: Social Engineering Exposed

🔍 A reader recounts a sophisticated phone scam in which callers posed as bank employees and provided plausible details to build trust. The scammers supplied case numbers and 'cancellation codes,' then transferred the victim to a staged supervisor named Mike Wallace to legitimize their story. Even security-aware individuals can be deceived; the anecdote illustrates how social engineering exploits procedural expectations and authority. Independently verify any unexpected bank contact via official channels before taking action.

Dutch Teenagers Arrested Over Alleged Pro-Russian Spying

🔎 Two 17-year-olds in the Netherlands were arrested after allegedly being recruited via Telegram by pro‑Russian hackers to map Wi‑Fi networks near government targets. Reports say the youths walked areas of The Hague close to Europol, Eurojust and several embassies while using a Wi‑Fi sniffer; the Canadian embassy was reportedly targeted. The domestic intelligence service tipped off police, who carried out raids and seized evidence. One teenager remains in custody while the other has been electronically tagged and placed under house arrest as the probe continues.

Nationwide Internet Shutdown in Afghanistan Extended

🌐 Cloudflare observed a nationwide Internet shutdown in Afghanistan on 29 September 2025 that began with a brief fixed-line interruption around 11:30 UTC and escalated to a full fiber-optic cut shortly after 12:30 UTC. HTTP requests, DNS queries (1.1.1.1) and total bytes dropped to zero at a national level, while mobile providers showed brief, partial connectivity. The outage removed the majority of announced IPv4 and IPv6 prefixes and threatens banking, customs, emergency communications, television and radio services.

Phantom Taurus: NET-STAR .NET IIS Backdoor Revealed

🔍 Unit 42 documents a newly designated Chinese-aligned threat actor, Phantom Taurus, which uses a previously undocumented .NET malware suite called NET-STAR to target IIS web servers. The actor focuses on government and telecommunications organizations across the Middle East, Africa and Asia and has shifted from email theft to direct database exfiltration. The report outlines technical behaviors, in-memory fileless execution, and mitigation guidance for Palo Alto Networks protections.

Asahi Suspends Japan Operations After Cyber Attack

🔒 Asahi has halted order, shipment and call center operations across its Japanese group companies after reporting a system failure caused by a cyber-attack in a September 29 press release. The company said the outage is confined to Japan, offered no estimated recovery timeline and apologized to customers and business partners. It also stated there has been no confirmed leakage of personal or customer data at this time, while security experts caution that positions on compromised data may change as investigations continue.

Datzbro Android Trojan Targets Seniors for DTO Fraud

🛡️ThreatFabric disclosed a newly observed Android banking trojan named Datzbro that targets elderly users via Facebook groups promoting senior activities. Attackers lure victims to install purported community apps (Android APKs and placeholder iOS TestFlight links) via Messenger or WhatsApp; payloads either install Datzbro directly or use a Zombinder dropper to bypass Android 13+ protections. Datzbro abuses Android Accessibility services to perform device takeover, overlay attacks, keylogging and remote control, enabling credential theft and fraudulent transactions. The malware is tied to a Chinese-language desktop C2 and contains Chinese debug strings, suggesting origin and potential wider distribution.