All news in category "Incidents and Data Breaches"

Attackers Abuse Velociraptor to Tunnel C2 via VS Code

🔍 In a recent Sophos report, unknown actors abused the open-source forensic tool Velociraptor to download and execute Visual Studio Code, enabling an encrypted tunnel to an attacker-controlled command-and-control server. The intruders used the Windows msiexec utility to fetch MSI installers hosted on Cloudflare Workers, staged additional tooling including a tunneling proxy and Radmin, and invoked an encoded PowerShell command to enable VS Code's tunnel option. Sophos warns that misuse of incident response tools can precede ransomware and recommends deploying EDR, monitoring for unauthorized Velociraptor activity, and hardening backup and monitoring processes.

Salt Typhoon APT Expands to Netherlands, Targets Routers

🔒 Salt Typhoon, a persistent Chinese-aligned threat actor, has expanded operations into the Netherlands by compromising routers at smaller ISPs and hosting providers. Intelligence agencies report the group exploits known flaws in Ivanti, Palo Alto Networks, and Cisco devices to obtain long-term access and pivot through trusted provider links. Authorities urge organizations to audit configurations, disable management access, enforce public-key administrative authentication, remove default credentials, and keep vendor-recommended OS versions up to date to reduce exposure.

Ransomware Attack on Swedish Supplier Exposes Worker Data

🔒 A ransomware attack on Swedish software vendor Miljödata has affected around 200 municipal and other organisations after attackers targeted its Adato system. Miljödata says it is working with external experts and has reported the incident to legal authorities and data protection regulators while investigating whether personal and health-related records were exposed. Police say extortionists demanded 1.5 bitcoins (about SEK 1.5M / US$165,000) and national agencies are coordinating the response.

APT37 Spear-Phishing Campaign Targets South Korean Officials

🛡️ Seqrite attributes a large-scale spear-phishing operation, dubbed Operation HanKook Phantom, to APT37, a North Korea–linked group targeting South Korean government and intelligence personnel. Attackers distributed malicious LNK shortcuts disguised as a legitimate National Intelligence Research Society newsletter and a statement from Kim Yo-jong, which triggered downloads and execution of payloads including RokRAT. The campaign employed in-memory execution, fileless PowerShell, XOR decryption, LOLBins and covert exfiltration techniques to blend with normal traffic and evade detection.

Amazon Disrupts APT29 Watering-Hole Device Code Scam

🛡️ Amazon says its security team detected and disrupted an opportunistic watering-hole campaign attributed to APT29 that redirected visitors from compromised sites to attacker-controlled domains mimicking Cloudflare verification pages. The threat used the Microsoft device code authentication flow to trick users into authorizing attacker-controlled devices. Amazon observed multiple evasion techniques and continued tracking as the actor migrated infrastructure.

Abandoned Sogou Zhuyin Update Server Used in Espionage

📡 Trend Micro reports that threat actors leveraged an abandoned Sogou Zhuyin update server to distribute multiple malware families, including C6DOOR, GTELAM, DESFY, and TOSHIS. The campaign, tracked as TAOTH and identified in June 2025, used hijacked automatic updates, spear-phishing, and fake cloud/login pages to target dissidents, journalists, researchers, and business figures across East Asia. The adversary registered the lapsed domain sogouzhuyin[.]com in October 2024 and exploited third-party cloud services like Google Drive to conceal callbacks and exfiltrate data.

Nx npm Package Hijacked to Exfiltrate Data via AI Toolchain

🛡️ Malicious updates to the Nx npm package were published on 26 August, briefly delivering AI-assisted data‑stealing malware to developer systems. The infected releases injected crafted prompts into local AI CLIs (Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, Amazon Q) to locate GitHub/npm tokens, SSH keys, .env secrets and cryptocurrency wallets, then encoded and uploaded the harvest by creating public repositories under victims' accounts. StepSecurity says eight compromised versions were live for five hours and 20 minutes and that attackers subsequently weaponized stolen GitHub CLI OAuth tokens to expose and fork private organization repositories. Recommended mitigation includes revoking tokens and SSH/GPG keys, making exposed repos private, disconnecting affected users and following a full remediation plan.

Amazon Disrupts APT29 Watering Hole Campaign Targeting Users

🔒 Amazon's threat intelligence team identified and disrupted a watering hole campaign conducted by APT29, a group linked to Russia’s SVR. The actor compromised legitimate websites and injected obfuscated JavaScript to redirect a subset of visitors to attacker-controlled pages that mimicked Cloudflare verification. The campaign aimed to abuse Microsoft's device code authentication flow to trick users into authorizing attacker-controlled devices; Amazon isolated affected EC2 instances and coordinated with partners to disrupt infrastructure and share intelligence.

Feds Seize VerifTools Marketplace Selling Fake IDs

🚨 U.S. and Dutch authorities dismantled VerifTools, an illicit marketplace that produced and sold counterfeit driver's licenses, passports, and other identity documents used to bypass verification systems and facilitate fraud. Two domains and a blog were seized and redirected to an FBI splash page after servers in Amsterdam were confiscated. The FBI linked roughly $6.4 million in illicit proceeds to the service, which offered forged documents for as little as $9. Operators have since signaled a relaunch on a new domain.

TransUnion Breach Exposes Data of 4.5 Million US Consumers

🔐 TransUnion has disclosed unauthorized access to a third-party application serving its US consumer support operations, affecting nearly 4.5 million Americans. The company says the incident exposed specific personal data elements but did not include credit reports or core credit information. Detected July 30 after an intrusion on July 28, TransUnion is offering free credit monitoring and proactive fraud assistance while it enhances security controls.

Google: Salesloft Drift OAuth Breach Impacts Integrations

🔐 Google and Mandiant warn Salesloft Drift customers that OAuth tokens tied to the Drift platform should be treated as potentially compromised. Stolen tokens for the Drift Email integration were used to access email from a small number of Google Workspace accounts on August 9, 2025; Google stressed this is not a compromise of Workspace or Alphabet. Google revoked affected tokens, disabled the Workspace–Drift integration, and is urging customers to review, revoke, and rotate credentials across all Drift-connected integrations while investigations continue.

TamperedChef Malware Hidden in Fake PDF Editor Installers

🛡️ Cybersecurity researchers report a malvertising campaign that lures users to counterfeit sites offering a trojanized PDF installer for AppSuite PDF Editor, which drops an information stealer named TamperedChef. The installer presents a license prompt while covertly downloading the editor, setting persistence via Windows Registry autorun entries and scheduled tasks that pass --cm arguments. Analysts at Truesec and G DATA found the backdoor harvests credentials and cookies and can download additional payloads.

Google warns Salesloft breach hit some Workspace accounts

🔒 Google warns that the Salesloft Drift compromise is larger than first reported and included theft of OAuth tokens beyond the Salesforce integration. Threat actors used stolen tokens tied to the Drift Email integration to access a very small number of Google Workspace email accounts on August 9. Google says the tokens have been revoked, the Drift–Workspace integration is disabled, and affected customers were notified. Organizations using Drift should revoke and rotate all connected authentication tokens and review integrations for exposed secrets.

Supply-Chain Attacks on Nx and React Expose Dev Credentials

🔒 A coordinated supply-chain campaign compromised multiple npm packages — most notably the Nx build system — and used post-install scripts to harvest developer assets across enterprise environments. Wiz found the malware weaponized local AI CLI tools to exfiltrate filesystem contents, tokens, SSH keys, and environment variables. Separately, JFrog uncovered obfuscated malicious React packages designed to steal Chrome data. Vendors removed the packages and recommend rotating credentials, removing affected versions, and auditing developer and CI systems.

Fake IT Support Phishing Targets Microsoft Teams Users

🔒 Researchers at Permiso have uncovered phishing campaigns that abuse Microsoft Teams by impersonating IT support to trick employees into installing remote access tools like QuickAssist and AnyDesk. Attackers gain full control of compromised endpoints, deploy credential-stealing malware and establish persistence. Campaigns are linked to the financially motivated actor EncryptHub and use simple impersonation tactics that bypass email defences. Security teams should monitor unusual external Teams activity and verify unexpected support requests.

Salt Typhoon Exploits Router Flaws to Breach 600 Orgs

🔒Salt Typhoon, a China-linked APT, exploited vulnerabilities in Cisco, Ivanti, and Palo Alto Networks edge devices to compromise and persistently control routers worldwide. The actors modified device configurations, created GRE tunnels, and used on-box Linux containers to stage tools and exfiltrate data. Agencies from 13 countries linked the campaign to three Chinese firms and warned of espionage impacting telecoms, government, transport, lodging, and military sectors.

Netherlands Confirms Salt Typhoon Targeting Small Telcos

🔍 Dutch intelligence agencies MIVD and AIVD have independently confirmed parts of U.S. findings that the Chinese-sponsored group Salt Typhoon targeted organizations in the Netherlands. Investigations in late 2024 indicate the group accessed the routers of primarily small ISPs and hosting providers. There is no evidence the threat actors moved deeper into internal networks. The agencies and the NCSC have shared threat intelligence and stressed that risks can be reduced but not entirely eliminated.

VS Code Marketplace Name Reuse Enables Malware Campaign

🔍 ReversingLabs has exposed a campaign in which malicious Visual Studio Code extensions exploited a name-reuse loophole on the VS Code Marketplace. A downloader extension named ahbanC.shiba executed the command shiba.aowoo to fetch a second payload that encrypted files and demanded one Shiba Inu token, although no wallet address was provided. The vulnerability arises because removed extensions free their names for reuse, contrary to Marketplace guidance that names are unique. Researchers demonstrated the issue by republishing test extensions under previously used names and warned developers to exercise greater caution when installing Marketplace packages.

Nevada Confirms Ransomware Attack, Data Exfiltrated

🔒 Nevada has confirmed a ransomware attack that resulted in data being exfiltrated from state networks. Tim Galluzi, Nevada's chief information officer, said the incident was first detected on August 24 and was disclosed by the governor's office on August 25; he provided an update in a press conference on August 27. Systems and digital services were taken offline to prevent further intrusion, and a forensic investigation involving third-party specialists, the FBI and CISA is ongoing to determine the nature and scope of the stolen information. No criminal actor had claimed responsibility at the time of reporting.

Nx Build Supply-Chain Attack: Trojanized Packages Detected

🔐 The Nx package ecosystem was trojanized via a malicious post-install script, telemetry.js, which exfiltrated developer secrets from macOS and *nix environments. Stolen items included npm and GitHub tokens, SSH keys, crypto wallets, API keys and .env contents, uploaded to public GitHub repositories. Immediate actions include auditing Nx package versions, removing affected node_modules, rotating all potentially exposed secrets and monitoring repositories and Actions for misuse.