All news in category “Incidents and Data Breaches”

🔎 Hexastrike warns of a regionally focused campaign targeting Chinese-speaking users through typosquatted sites that impersonate trusted software brands to deliver a previously undocumented remote access trojan. The malware, AtlasCross RAT, is deployed via ZIP lures that drop a trojanized Autodesk installer which loads a second-stage payload and executes in memory. Installers were signed with a stolen EV certificate tied to DUC FABULOUS CO.,LTD, and the operation is attributed to Silver Fox, affecting multiple Asian countries.

🔒 New analysis from law firm Nockolds shows employee data breaches reported to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office reached 3,872 incidents in 2025, a 5% year‑on‑year increase and about 29% above the 2019 baseline of 3,010. The report highlights a divergence in incident types: cyber-related breaches fell 6% to 1,568, while non-cyber incidents rose 15% to 2,304. Nockolds principal associate Joanna Sutton attributes the shift to hybrid working and gaps in physical and procedural safeguards, and urges closer collaboration between HR and security teams to improve training, policies and risk controls.

🔒 U.S. prosecutors have charged 36-year-old Jonathan Spalletta, known online as 'Cthulhon' and 'Jspalletta', with stealing more than $53 million after hacking the Uranium Finance crypto exchange twice and laundering proceeds through a cryptocurrency mixer. The indictment alleges he abused multiple smart contract coding flaws in April 2021 to drain liquidity pools and extorted a sham bug bounty. A 2025 search recovered high-value collectibles and about $31 million in cryptocurrency; Spalletta faces computer fraud and money laundering counts that carry substantial prison terms.

🔒The Dutch Ministry of Finance has taken several systems offline, including its digital portal for treasury banking, while investigating a security breach first detected on March 19. Around 1,600 public institutions are currently unable to view treasury balances or use portal services, though participants retain full access to funds and incoming/outgoing payments continue through regular banking channels. The ministry is working with the NCSC, external forensic specialists, and the national police; no data theft or responsible threat actor has been publicly confirmed.

⚠️ The FBI confirmed that Iran-linked hackers accessed the personal email account of FBI Director Kash Patel and published private photos and what appears to be his CV. The pro-Iranian hacktivist group Handala posted a selection of personal and work correspondence, with reporters verifying some items from Patel's Gmail account. The FBI said no classified or government systems were compromised and has taken steps to mitigate risks; strong, unique passwords and multi-factor authentication are advised.

🔎 Investigators have launched a worldwide manhunt for two suspects believed to be central figures in ransomware campaigns that hit 130 companies and institutions in Germany between 2019 and 2021. Authorities at the Cybercrime Center of the Karlsruhe Public Prosecutor's Office and the State Criminal Police Office of Baden-Württemberg say the men include an alleged group leader and the suspected programmer of the malware. Victims paid about €1.8 million in 25 cases, with estimated overall damage of around €35 million.

⚠️ The popular HTTP client Axios was compromised after attackers published poisoned npm releases that introduced a malicious dependency, plain-crypto-js@4.2.1. The injected package executes an obfuscated postinstall dropper that fetches platform-specific RAT payloads for macOS, Windows and Linux. The actor used a compromised maintainer account to push axios@1.14.1 and axios@0.30.4, bypassing CI/CD. Users who installed those releases should assume compromise and follow remediation guidance.

🔒 CareCloud disclosed a cybersecurity incident on March 16 that caused a temporary network disruption and limited access to one of its six electronic health record (EHR) environments for approximately eight hours. The company engaged its cyber insurance carrier and a Big Four cyber response advisory team to perform forensic work and secure the environment. CareCloud says the attacker no longer has access, but the scope of exposed patient data and the number of impacted individuals remain under investigation.

🔒 ReliaQuest researchers detail a new malware loader, DeepLoad, distributed via an ClickFix social-engineering lure that tricks users into pasting PowerShell commands into the Windows Run dialog. The chain leverages mshta.exe to execute an obfuscated PowerShell loader that likely uses AI-assisted obfuscation and conceals its payload in a LockAppHost.exe process while disabling PowerShell history to reduce traces. DeepLoad compiles transient C# DLLs in Temp, uses APC injection to run shellcode in suspended trusted processes without writing decoded payloads to disk, steals browser credentials and sessions, drops a persistent malicious browser extension, copies itself to USB devices via deceptive shortcuts, and employs WMI event subscriptions to reinfect cleaned systems.

⚠️ A software defect introduced during a routine overnight update on 12 March at Lloyds Banking Group briefly exposed transactions and account information belonging to as many as 447,936 customers across Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland mobile apps. Approximately 114,182 users clicked transactions that displayed other customers' details, which could include payment references and national insurance numbers. The bank reported the issue to regulators within required timeframes, paid £139,000 to 3,625 customers in compensation, and said it found no evidence of financial loss or fraud.

⚠️ DeepLoad is a newly detailed malware campaign combining the ClickFix social-engineering trick with AI-assisted code padding to hide credential-stealing payloads and evade file-based scanners. ReliaQuest, on March 30, warned the campaign targets enterprise accounts, hides inside the Windows lock screen process, and can persist via a WMI-based reactivation three days after removal. Researchers also observed USB propagation and recommend enabling PowerShell Script Block Logging, auditing WMI subscriptions, and changing affected user passwords.

⚠️F5 Networks has reclassified a previously patched BIG-IP APM denial-of-service flaw (CVE-2025-53521) as a critical remote code execution vulnerability after evidence of active exploitation. Attackers are deploying webshells on unpatched devices that have access policies configured on virtual servers. F5 and CISA have published advisories and IOCs and are urging immediate patching, forensic checks of disks, logs, and terminal history, and adherence to incident-handling policies.

🛡️ Censys researchers uncovered a Russian-origin remote access toolkit called CTRL that is distributed via weaponized Windows shortcut (LNK) files disguised as private key folders. The multi-stage PowerShell dropper decodes and loads payloads in memory, modifies firewall rules, creates scheduled tasks and backdoor local users, and establishes FRP reverse tunnels for RDP access. Components include a .NET loader, a WPF credential-phishing UI that mimics the Windows PIN prompt, a persistent keylogger, and FRP/RDP wrapper binaries that enable an operator to interact with victims over tunneled RDP while minimizing visible network beaconing.

🔐The European Commission has confirmed a cyber-attack affecting cloud infrastructure that hosts the Europa.eu platform and says early findings indicate data were taken. The incident was detected on March 24 and announced on March 27; containment and forensic measures were deployed while internal systems reportedly remained unaffected. Screenshots and claims from ShinyHunters allege a roughly 350GB haul including mail servers, databases, NextCloud content and employee PII, and researchers warn the compromise could expose DKIM keys, SSO directories and other sensitive assets.

🔒 Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 reports three China-aligned activity clusters targeted a Southeast Asian government organization in 2025, executing a sustained, well-resourced operation aimed at persistent access. The campaigns deployed multiple loaders and backdoors, notably HIUPAN (USBFect), PUBLOAD, EggStremeFuel/EggStremeLoader, MASOL RAT, TrackBak, and FluffyGh0st, alongside components such as Claimloader and Hypnosis Loader. Unit 42 notes significant TTP overlap with known groups including Mustang Panda and clusters linked to Earth Estries, Crimson Palace, and Unfading Sea Haze.

🔒 The European Commission has confirmed a data breach after its Europa.eu web platform was compromised in an attack claimed by the ShinyHunters extortion group. The intruders reportedly accessed at least one AWS account and exfiltrated hundreds of gigabytes, though the Commission says its internal systems were not affected. Authorities have been notified and an investigation is ongoing to determine the full impact.

📧 The FBI confirmed that the Iran-linked Handala group breached the personal Gmail account of Director Kash Patel and published watermarked photos, documents, and email correspondence. The bureau said the material appears historical, is not recent, and does not include government information. The FBI added it has taken precautions to mitigate potential fallout. Handala claimed the attack was retaliation after domain seizures and a $10 million reward.

🔒 Threat actors linked to Iran's MOIS claimed they breached the personal email account of FBI Director Kash Patel and published a cache of photos and historical emails. The FBI confirmed Patel's emails were targeted, said necessary mitigations were enacted, and characterized the released material as historical and not government information. Security firms attribute the campaign to the Handala Hack persona, which relies on compromised VPN accounts, RDP lateral movement, and destructive wipers, prompting Microsoft and CISA guidance to harden Intune and enforce phishing‑resistant MFA.

⚠️Researchers at Malwarebytes detail a macOS info-stealing campaign that uses a Python payload compiled into a native binary with Nuitka, delivered via a ClickFix page impersonating Cloudflare. Victims are tricked into pasting a base64-obfuscated curl command into Terminal, which boots a staged installer that removes quarantine flags and launches a Nuitka loader. The loader contains a compressed payload and performs anti-analysis checks before harvesting browser credentials, Keychain entries, cryptocurrency wallets and developer secrets.

🔒 Proofpoint disclosed a targeted email campaign by Russia-linked TA446 that leverages the leaked DarkSword iOS exploit kit to target iPhones. The group used spoofed "discussion invitation" messages impersonating the Atlantic Council to deliver the GHOSTBLADE dataminer and, in some instances, the MAYBEROBOT backdoor via password-protected ZIPs. Proofpoint noted sharply increased message volume and server-side filtering that routes only iPhone browsers to the exploit chain. Apple has issued lock-screen warnings urging immediate updates to block the threat.