All news in category “Incidents and Data Breaches”

🔒 ThreatFabric uncovered a new TrickMo Android banker variant that communicates with operators via The Open Network (TON) using .adnl identities and an embedded local TON proxy on infected devices. Disguised as TikTok or streaming apps, it targets banking and crypto wallets in France, Italy, and Austria. The modular malware adds several remote networking commands and proxying capabilities. Android users should restrict app sources and enable Play Protect.

🔒 A ShinyHunters campaign has compromised data for over 197,000 Zara customers, according to HaveIBeenPwned. Stolen items include unique email addresses, product SKUs, order IDs and support ticket data after stolen authentication tokens from analytics provider Anodot were used to access BigQuery and Snowflake instances; the group leaked a claimed 140GB trove. Inditex says no names, passwords or payment details were affected and operations remained unaffected. Other reported victims include Vimeo, Rockstar Games and McGraw Hill.

🔒 Spanish and German authorities have shut down a relaunch of Crimenetwork, arresting a 35-year-old German national in Mallorca after coordination with the Frankfurt prosecutors and the BKA. The rebuilt marketplace attracted over 22,000 users and 100+ vendors, trading stolen data, narcotics and forged documents while generating more than €3.6m in revenue. Police seized €194,000 and user transaction data to support further investigations.

🚨 A malicious Hugging Face repository impersonating OpenAI's Privacy Filter model reached #1 trending before being disabled after delivering a Rust-based information stealer to Windows users. The attacker typosquatted the legitimate release and copied its model card, instructing victims to run a loader.py or Windows start.bat to fetch payloads via a JSON Keeper dead drop. The multi-stage chain used PowerShell to download secondary loaders, set Defender exclusions, and install a one-shot scheduled task that launched a stealer collecting browser, wallet and app data for exfiltration.

⚠️ Attackers are using Google Ads to direct macOS users to malicious instructions hosted inside Claude.ai shared chats. The chats disguise themselves as official installation guides and prompt users to paste Terminal commands that download compressed shell scripts and execute them in memory. Some variants profile victims (including keyboard locale) before running a second-stage payload via osascript, while others immediately steal browser credentials, cookies, and Keychain items. Avoid pasting terminal commands and visit the official site directly.

🚨 German authorities dismantled a relaunch of the criminal marketplace Crimenetwork and arrested its alleged operator after the reboot reportedly generated more than €3.6 million. The new instance had attracted roughly 22,000 users and over 100 vendors before investigators seized user and transaction data along with about €194,000 in assets. The arrest of a 35-year-old German was executed in Mallorca under a European arrest warrant, following coordinated actions by the Public Prosecutor's Office in Frankfurt am Main, the Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT), and the BKA.

⚠ The official JDownloader website was compromised between May 6 and May 7, 2026, and attackers replaced alternative Windows and Linux installers with malicious payloads. The Windows binaries deploy a heavily obfuscated Python-based remote access trojan, while the Linux shell installer installs SUID-root components and persistence. Developers say the CMS was abused to alter download links without host-level access and have taken the site offline to investigate. Users who ran affected installers should treat systems as compromised, verify installers' digital signatures (AppWork GmbH) and consider reinstalling and rotating credentials.

⚠️A malicious Hugging Face repository impersonated OpenAI’s Privacy Filter and briefly reached #1, reportedly accumulating 244,000 downloads before removal. HiddenLayer found the repo used a typosquatted name and a loader.py that disabled SSL checks, decoded a base64 URL, and executed a PowerShell chain to deploy a Rust-based infostealer. The malware harvests browser credentials, tokens, wallets, SSH/FTP/VPN files and more, exfiltrating data to a C2 server. Users are urged to reimage affected machines, rotate credentials, and replace wallets and seed phrases.

🔒 NVIDIA confirmed that GeForce NOW user information was exposed in a breach limited to Armenia after a regional partner's infrastructure was compromised. The company said its own network and NVIDIA-operated services were not affected and it is assisting the partner. Regional operator GFN.am said the incident occurred March 20–26 and that impacted users will be notified. Exposed fields reportedly include names, emails, phone numbers, dates of birth and usernames; no passwords were exposed.

🔍 Cybersecurity researchers uncovered 28 fraudulent Android apps on the official Google Play Store that claimed to show call, SMS and WhatsApp histories for any number but instead pushed paid subscriptions that delivered fabricated, hard‑coded data. The apps, labeled CallPhantom by ESET, amassed over 7.3 million downloads—one exceeded 3 million—primarily targeting users in India and the Asia‑Pacific region before removal. Payments were processed via Google Play billing, UPI apps (including Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm), or in‑app card forms, limiting refund options for non‑Play transactions. The apps requested few permissions, used simple UIs and even displayed deceptive notifications to coerce payments.

🔍 A joint investigation uncovered a covert faculty at Bauman Moscow State Technical University, known as Department 4, that appears to funnel students into GRU-linked hacking units. Leaked documents show the GRU controls admissions, curricula, and graduate postings, teaching malware development, penetration testing, and physical surveillance. The report highlights a state-run pipeline producing highly trained cyber operators.

🔒 RansomHouse has claimed responsibility for last week's intrusion into Trellix's source code repository, publishing a small set of images as proof of access to the vendor's appliance management system. Trellix confirmed unauthorized access on May 1 and said it immediately engaged leading forensic experts and notified law enforcement. The company reported no evidence so far that its source code release or distribution process was affected and continues to investigate.

🔒 Trend Micro researchers disclosed a previously undocumented Linux implant dubbed Quasar Linux RAT (QLNX) that targets developers and DevOps credentials to establish a stealthy foothold. The fileless loader masquerades as kernel threads, erases logs, and persists via seven or more mechanisms such as systemd, crontab and .bashrc injection. Its credential harvester extracts secrets from high-value files including .npmrc, .pypirc, .git-credentials, .aws/credentials, .kube/config, .docker/config.json and .env, enabling registry poisoning, cloud access or CI/CD pivoting. QLNX also installs PAM inline-hook backdoors, a userland LD_PRELOAD rootkit and an eBPF kernel component to hide artifacts while supporting 58 remote commands and data exfiltration.

🔓 Have I Been Pwned says hackers exfiltrated data tied to Zara affecting 197,400 unique email addresses and associated order SKUs, order IDs, market information, and support tickets. Inditex confirmed the compromised databases were hosted by a former technology provider but said attackers did not access names, phone numbers, postal addresses, credentials, or payment card data. The extortion group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility and posted a 140GB archive allegedly taken from BigQuery using compromised Anodot tokens.

🔍 Sri Lankan police arrested 37 people, all Chinese nationals, on 2 May after raiding a property in Talangama, a Colombo suburb, following a tip-off. Officers seized 35 tablets, 147 mobile phones and 100 SIM cards and say several occupants were working illegally or overstaying visas. Authorities suspect romance-baiting operations that groom victims online and funnel them into fake cryptocurrency investment platforms. The arrests follow earlier large detentions and deportations tied to similar scam centres.

🔒 Security researchers uncovered PCPJack, a credential‑theft framework that targets exposed cloud infrastructure and removes artifacts tied to TeamPCP. SentinelOne reports PCPJack worms through services to harvest credentials from Docker, Kubernetes, Redis, MongoDB, RayML and vulnerable web apps. Unlike many cloud campaigns it omits crypto‑mining and actively removes TeamPCP miner code, indicating monetization through credential theft, resale, fraud or extortion.

🔒 A jury found former federal contractor Sohaib Akhter guilty of conspiring to destroy dozens of government databases after being fired during a remote meeting in February 2025. Prosecutors say Akhter and his twin brother Muneeb ran write-protect commands and deleted roughly 96 databases hosting sensitive investigative and FOIA records for more than 45 agencies. They allegedly sought to hide their activity — even consulting an AI assistant about clearing system logs — and destroyed evidence; sentencing is set for September 9, 2026.

🔒 Instructure's Canvas platform was taken offline on May 7 after the cybercrime group ShinyHunters defaced login pages and posted a ransom demand claiming to hold data on 275 million students and faculty at nearly 9,000 institutions. Instructure had acknowledged a breach on May 6, saying the stolen records include names, email addresses, student ID numbers and user messages but not passwords or financial information. The outage, timed during many institutions' final exams, disrupted coursework while schools and the vendor evaluated exposure and potential extortion responses.

🔒 The ShinyHunters extortion group defaced Canvas login portals for roughly 330 colleges and universities, replacing standard pages with an extortion message that demanded payment by May 12, 2026. The same message also appeared in the Canvas app and was visible for about 30 minutes before being taken offline. Instructure has taken Canvas offline while confirming that data was stolen and continuing its investigation. BleepingComputer reports the group claims the theft includes extensive student and staff records.

🐛 PCPJack is a new worm that targets exposed cloud infrastructure to harvest credentials while actively removing traces of rival group TeamPCP. It infects Linux systems via a shell script (bootstrap.sh), establishes persistence (monitor.py), and propagates by scanning for exposed Docker, Kubernetes, Redis, MongoDB and RayML services. Stolen credentials are encrypted with X25519/ChaCha20-Poly1305 and exfiltrated to Telegram channels; researchers recommend MFA, IMDSv2 and least-privilege controls.