All news in category "Incidents and Data Breaches"

Langflow Misconfiguration Exposes Data of Pakistani Insurers

🔓 UpGuard secured a misconfigured Langflow instance that exposed data for roughly 97,000 insurance customers in Pakistan, including 945 individuals marked as politically exposed persons. The instance was used by Pakistan-based Workcycle Technologies to build AI chatbots for clients such as TPL Insurance and the Federal Board of Revenue. Exposed materials included PII, confidential business documents and credentials; access was removed after notification and UpGuard found no evidence of exploitation.

US Seizes $1.09M in Bitcoin From BlackSuit Gang Takedown

💰 The US Department of Justice announced it seized US $1,091,453 in cryptocurrency linked to the Russian-operated BlackSuit ransomware group following an international takedown of servers, domains and the gang's dark web extortion site. The recovered funds derive from a 49.3120227 Bitcoin ransom payment on or about April 4, 2023; that payment was originally worth US $1,445,454.86. Law enforcement partners in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Ireland and France collaborated on the operation that seized four servers and nine domains on July 24, and the frozen funds were identified after repeated deposits and withdrawals that ended with an exchange freeze in January 2024.

Full PowerShell RAT Campaign Targets Israeli Organizations

🔒 The FortiMail Workspace Security team uncovered a targeted intrusion campaign that abused compromised internal email to deliver a multi-stage, fully PowerShell-based Remote Access Trojan targeting Israeli organizations. Phishing links redirected users to a spoofed Microsoft Teams page that instructed victims to press Windows+R, paste an obfuscated Base64 loader, and execute a PowerShell IEX fetch from a hard-coded C2 (hxxps[:]//pharmacynod[.]com), which in turn staged scripts and a compressed, in-memory RAT. The operation uses layered obfuscation, native Windows APIs, and living-off-the-land techniques to enable remote access, surveillance, persistence, lateral movement, and data exfiltration; Fortinet protections detect and block this activity.

KrebsOnSecurity Featured in HBO Max 'Most Wanted' Series

📰 The HBO Max documentary Most Wanted: Teen Hacker features interviews with Brian Krebs and examines the criminal trajectory of Julius Kivimäki, a Finnish hacker convicted for extensive data breaches and later mass extortion. The four-part series traces his early role in the Lizard Squad, high-profile DDoS attacks, swatting incidents, and the Vastaamo psychotherapy breach and patient extortion. Directed by Sami Kieski and co-written by Joni Soila, episodes will stream weekly on Fridays throughout September.

TeaOnHer App Replicates Tea's Functionality and Breaches

🛡️ TeaOnHer, a recent iOS knock‑off of the controversial dating app Tea, has been found exposing sensitive user data. TechCrunch reported government IDs, driving licences and selfies accessible via a public web endpoint with no authentication, and the app appears to copy wording and features from the original. Newville Media did not respond to disclosure attempts, and an exposed admin credential pair was found on the company server. Until these failures are addressed, users should avoid Tea-related apps.

Ransomware Forces German Insurance Firm into Bankruptcy

⚠ A ransomware attack attributed to the Royal group forced German insurer Einhaus Gruppe into insolvency after encrypted systems and locked servers halted operations. The spring 2023 incident left printers displaying a takeover message, prevented staff access to critical data, and generated a mid-seven-figure business disruption. Einhaus paid a ransom of roughly US $230,000, but prosecutors later seized cryptocurrency allegedly tied to the perpetrators, and the withheld funds impeded restructuring efforts and helped drive the company into bankruptcy.

Ukraine Claims Hack of Russia's New Nuclear Submarine

🔐 Ukraine's Defence Intelligence agency (HUR) says its hackers exfiltrated classified files and technical documentation related to the newly commissioned Russian nuclear ballistic missile submarine Knyaz Pozharsky. Leaked materials, posted on Telegram, reportedly include combat manuals, schematics of combat and survivability systems, crew lists with qualifications, and operational schedules. Russian authorities have not commented and independent verification by Western intelligence or cybersecurity experts is still pending.

Arrest in Raid on XSS Forum: Who Was Detained and Why

🔍 Europol and Ukrainian authorities announced the arrest of a 38-year-old suspect tied to the Russian-language XSS crime forum after a July 22, 2025 operation led by French investigators. Authorities say the detainee served as a trusted third party, arbitrating disputes and assuring transaction security for members linked to multiple ransomware groups. Reporting traces forum activity and multiple domain registrations tied to the handle 'Toha', but investigation suggests the arrested man is likely Anton Medvedovskiy rather than alternate identities circulated online. The takedown yielded Jabber server logs and forum backups, prompting a wary, contested relaunch.

Thai Hospital Fined After Patient Records Used as Wrappers

📄 A Thai hospital was fined after more than 1,000 patient records, sent for destruction, were found being used as street-food wrappers for crispy crepes. Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Committee (PDPC) determined the documents leaked following handling by a contracted disposal firm that stored them at a private residence. The hospital was fined 1.21 million baht and the disposal business owner received a separate penalty. The episode highlights failures in secure disposal and vendor oversight.

Project AK47 Linked to SharePoint ToolShell Exploits

🔍Unit 42 links a modular malware suite dubbed Project AK47 to SharePoint exploitation activity observed alongside Microsoft’s ToolShell reporting. The toolset includes a dual-protocol backdoor (AK47C2 with dnsclient and httpclient), a ransomware family (AK47 / X2ANYLOCK), and DLL side‑loading loaders. Analysts found high-confidence overlaps with Microsoft’s Storm-2603 indicators, evidence of LockBit 3.0 artifacts in an evidence archive, and a matching Tox ID on a Warlock leak site. Recommended actions include applying patches for the referenced SharePoint CVEs and enabling updated protections from endpoint, URL, and DNS defenses.

North Korea’s IT worker scheme infiltrating US firms

🔍 Thousands of North Korean IT workers have used stolen and fabricated US identities to secure roles at Western companies, funneling hundreds of millions of dollars annually to Pyongyang’s military programs. They leverage AI for resumes and cultural coaching, faceswap and VPN tools for video calls, and remote-access setups tied to US-based "laptop farms" run by facilitators who launder paychecks and ship company-issued machines abroad. Recent DOJ raids and the 102-month sentence for Christina Marie Chapman highlight legal, financial and national security risks, including potential sanctions violations.

AggregateIQ Exposure Reveals Canadian Campaign Assets

🔒 The UpGuard Cyber Risk Team discovered an unsecured AggregateIQ (AIQ) code repository containing site backups, API keys, SSL private keys, and other sensitive assets tied to multiple Canadian campaigns and parties. Exposed files included WordPress backups, donation processor keys (Stripe), NationBuilder tokens, and PEM private keys that could enable impersonation or account takeover. The findings illustrate significant third‑party vendor risk and raise regulatory and public‑interest concerns about how AggregateIQ managed client credentials and campaign tooling.

Scammers Flood Social Platforms with Fake Gaming Sites

🔍 Fraudsters are promoting hundreds of polished fake gaming sites across Discord and other social platforms, falsely claiming partnerships with influencers and offering a $2,500 'promo code' to lure users. Visitors create free accounts to play sleek casino-style games (for example gamblerbeast[.]com's B-Ball Blitz), but cashouts are blocked and victims are prompted for a cryptocurrency 'verification deposit' and repeated payments. Investigators, including a Discord researcher and the threat-hunting firm Silent Push, linked a shared chat API key to at least 1,270 active domains and found centralized wallets, AI-assisted support, and network-wide tracking that make these scaled scams efficient and hard to report.

Misconfigured NICE Systems S3 Exposed Verizon Customer Data

🔒 A misconfigured Amazon S3 repository administered by NICE Systems exposed names, addresses, account details and PINs tied to Verizon customers; UpGuard estimated up to 14 million affected while Verizon disputed a 6 million figure. The publicly accessible bucket contained daily voice-log files and large text archives with unmasked fields such as PIN and CustCode, alongside call analytics metadata. UpGuard notified Verizon in June 2017 and remediation followed, but the incident underscores the severity of third-party cloud misconfigurations and vendor-managed data risk.

HR Data Exposure: How Employees and Clients Are Affected

🔒 UpGuard’s Cyber Risk Research team discovered and secured a public GitHub exposure containing sensitive employee and customer data belonging to OneHalf, a business process outsourcing firm in the APAC region. The principal artifact was the HRIS project, including a 1.2MB database dump (hrisdb-02012018.sql) with detailed personal records for roughly 250 employees, extensive medical histories, emergency contacts, and 300 usernames with plaintext passwords. A related repo, ohserviceform, listed 28 client companies and plaintext banking account numbers, increasing the risk of financial fraud. UpGuard notified OneHalf and the repositories were secured by August 22, 2018.

Robotics Vendor Exposed Sensitive Manufacturing Data

🔓 Level One Robotics left 157 GB of sensitive customer, employee, and corporate files accessible via an unrestricted rsync server, exposing CAD drawings, factory layouts, robotic configurations, NDAs, identity documents, and banking records for over 100 manufacturing clients. UpGuard discovered the exposure on July 1, 2018 and began outreach on July 5; after contact on July 9, Level One remediated the server by July 10. The incident underscores third- and fourth-party supply-chain risk and the need to restrict file-transfer services by IP and authentication, enforce vendor security standards, and maintain rapid exposure-response procedures.

Public S3 Exposure Reveals Sensitive Customer Data at NCF

🔓 On October 3, 2017 UpGuard researcher Chris Vickery discovered a publicly accessible Amazon S3 bucket belonging to National Credit Federation containing 111 GB of internal and customer records. The repository included scanned IDs, Social Security card images, full credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, personalized credit blueprints, and full bank and card numbers. National Credit Federation secured the bucket after notification and UpGuard found no evidence of theft in this report. The case underscores the necessity of validating cloud storage permissions and continuously monitoring third-party risk.

Election Systems & Software Exposed 1.8M Chicago Voters

🔓The database of Omaha-based voting machine vendor Election Systems & Software was left publicly accessible on an Amazon S3 bucket, exposing records for 1.864 million Chicago voters. The exposed MSSQL backups included names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. UpGuard discovered the open bucket on Aug 11, 2017 and notified ES&S, which closed access the next day.

Medcall S3 Misconfiguration Exposed Medical Records

🔓 UpGuard disclosed that an unsecured Medcall Healthcare Advisors Amazon S3 bucket exposed roughly 7 GB of sensitive information, including PDF intake forms, CSV files containing full Social Security numbers, and 715 recorded patient-doctor and operator calls. The bucket was publicly readable and writable with an 'Everyone - Full Control' ACL and was taken offline after UpGuard notified Medcall. The case underscores the danger of vendor misconfiguration and third-party exposure of protected health information.

AggregateIQ: Exposed Targeting Tools 'Monarch' and Saga

🔍 AggregateIQ's public repository exposed sophisticated ad and tracking tools linked to political campaigns. The Saga suite automates Facebook ad scraping, performance reconciliation, and asset backup, while Monarch provides pixel-based tracking (Jewel, Peasant) and a microservice stack (Peon) for event ingestion and enrichment. The codebase included credentials and configs enabling fine-grained targeting, though working user datasets were not present. The exposure raises significant privacy and electoral concerns.