All news in category “Incidents and Data Breaches”

🛡️Security researchers have discovered an updated SparkCat trojan on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, hiding inside seemingly benign apps such as enterprise messengers and food delivery services. Kaspersky said it found two infected iOS apps and one Android app that primarily target cryptocurrency users in Asia. The iOS variant scans photo galleries for English wallet mnemonic phrases, while the Android version employs code virtualization, cross-platform languages and regional keyword scanning for Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Both samples use an OCR module to exfiltrate images containing recovery phrases to attacker-controlled servers, underscoring a rapidly evolving threat.

🔒 A former core infrastructure engineer pleaded guilty after remotely accessing his employer's network and scheduling tasks that deleted domain administrator accounts and changed hundreds of passwords. Prosecutors say Daniel Rhyne targeted an industrial company in Somerset County, New Jersey, altering passwords to TheFr0zenCrew! and scheduling shutdowns that affected 254 servers and 3,284 workstations. He emailed coworkers demanding 20 BTC (roughly $750,000) and threatened to shut down 40 servers daily; investigators found web searches and a hidden VM used to plan the extortion. Rhyne was arrested in August and faces charges carrying up to 15 years in prison.

🔐 Drift confirmed that attackers drained about $285 million from its Solana-based decentralized exchange on April 1, 2026, using pre-signed transactions tied to durable nonce accounts. The company says no smart-contract vulnerability or compromised seed phrases were involved; attackers instead obtained multisig approvals through sophisticated social engineering and pre-signed authorizations. Threat intelligence firms TRM Labs and Elliptic report on-chain indicators linking the heist to DPRK-associated actors, noting use of Tornado Cash, cross-chain bridging and rapid laundering. Drift is coordinating with security vendors, bridges, exchanges and law enforcement to trace and attempt to freeze funds.

🔍 Abnormal researchers uncovered a targeted credential theft campaign active from November 2025 to March 2026 that focused on C‑suite and senior personnel across more than 20 industry verticals. The operation was powered by a previously undocumented phishing-as-a-service platform, Venom, and used SharePoint-themed lures with embedded QR codes. The phishing emails employed randomized HTML, fabricated multi-message threads and persona spoofing to evade detection and isolate human targets. Attackers used both AiTM relays and Microsoft’s device code flow to bypass MFA and achieve persistent access.

🔐 CERT-EU attributed a cloud compromise of the European Commission to TeamPCP, saying attackers used a compromised AWS API key allegedly stolen in a Trivy supply‑chain incident to access the Commission’s cloud and harvest secrets. The intruders used TruffleHog to locate additional credentials, attached a new access key to an existing user to evade detection, and carried out reconnaissance before exfiltrating data. The stolen dataset was later posted by ShinyHunters as a 90GB archive (≈340GB uncompressed), and CERT-EU confirmed the theft includes tens of thousands of files with personal information. CERT-EU reported no websites were defaced and found no evidence of lateral movement between Commission AWS accounts.

⚠️ Threat actors are exploiting the recent Claude Code source-code leak to distribute the Vidar infostealer via fake GitHub repositories. Anthropic accidentally exposed a 59.8 MB JavaScript source map on March 31 that revealed 513,000 lines of TypeScript across 1,906 files, and copies rapidly proliferated on GitHub. Zscaler found a malicious repo optimized for search that lures users to download a 7‑Zip archive containing a Rust dropper, ClaudeCode_x64.exe, which deploys Vidar and the GhostSocks proxy. The archive is updated frequently and may carry additional payloads.

🔓 Cisco Talos has linked a large-scale credential harvesting campaign to a threat cluster tracked as UAT-10608 that exploited CVE-2025-55182 in React Server Components and the Next.js App Router to breach at least 766 hosts. The intruders deployed a multi-stage dropper that collected environment variables, SSH keys, cloud metadata credentials, API keys, and other secrets before aggregating them in a password-protected web GUI called NEXUS Listener. Researchers accessed an exposed instance and observed a broad array of stolen items, including Stripe keys, GitHub tokens, AI platform keys, webhook secrets, and database connection strings. Organizations are urged to patch vulnerable Next.js deployments, enforce least privilege, enable IMDSv2, rotate credentials, and implement secret scanning.

🔒 The Drift Protocol lost approximately $280 million after an attacker obtained administrative control of its Security Council by leveraging durable nonce accounts and pre-signed transactions to delay execution and strike at a chosen time. Drift stresses that no programs or smart contracts were exploited and no seed phrases were compromised. Protocol functions are largely frozen while the team coordinates with security firms, exchanges, and law enforcement.

🔒Drift Protocol lost at least $280 million after an attacker seized administrative control of its Security Council and drained protocol funds. Blockchain intelligence firms Elliptic and TRM Labs linked the operation to North Korean actors, citing on-chain tradecraft such as Tornado Cash use, CarbonVote timing, cross-chain bridging, and rapid laundering. Drift says no smart contract bugs or seed phrases were compromised; core functions are frozen while investigations continue.

🔔 The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned of an increase in targeted attacks against users of messaging apps including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Signal, attributing activity to Russia-based actors and noting similar prior activity by APT31 and IRGC-linked hackers. Attackers use malicious links, QR codes, account takeovers, group infiltration and impersonation to steal credentials or deliver malware. The NCSC advises high-risk users to enable multi-factor authentication, avoid sharing verification codes, regularly review linked devices and use corporately managed messaging services for work.

🔐 Stryker says it is fully operational three weeks after a March 11 cyberattack in which the Handala group claimed to have stolen roughly 50 TB of data and wiped nearly 80,000 devices. Investigators say attackers created a new Global Administrator account after compromising a Windows domain admin and used a malicious file to conceal activity. Stryker prioritized restoring systems for ordering, shipping and production and is working with third‑party cybersecurity experts and government agencies as the investigation continues.

🔒 A multi-stage malware campaign leveraging GitHub as a covert C2 channel has been observed targeting users in South Korea, according to an advisory from Fortinet. Attackers distribute malicious .LNK shortcut files that drop decoy PDFs while executing obfuscated PowerShell and VBScript payloads silently in the background. Recent variants embed decoding routines directly within LNK arguments, remove identifying metadata, and exfiltrate system information and logs to GitHub repositories using hardcoded tokens. The campaign exemplifies modern living-off-the-land tactics that abuse legitimate Windows utilities and developer infrastructure to evade detection.

🔒 FortiGuard Labs identified a multi-stage campaign using malicious LNK shortcut files that target Microsoft Windows users in South Korea. The attacker embeds decoding routines inside LNK arguments to drop a decoy PDF while executing hidden PowerShell payloads. Those scripts perform anti-analysis checks, establish persistence via Scheduled Tasks and VBScript, and use GitHub API calls as a covert C2 and exfiltration channel. Fortinet signatures detect these components and block the activity.

⚠️ Sekoia researchers uncovered a phishing-as-a-service toolkit named EvilTokens that abuses Microsoft's device code authentication flow to capture valid access tokens by tricking victims into entering device codes on official Microsoft login pages. The kit bundles phishing lures, AI-driven automation, inbox harvesting and post-compromise modules to weaponize access. Operators distribute the service through Telegram bots and channels, and Sekoia observed activity since at least mid-February targeting countries including the US, Australia, Canada, France, India, Switzerland and the UAE.

🔍Elastic Security Labs researchers documented a financially motivated operation, REF1695, active since November 2023 that uses fake ISO installers to deliver remote access trojans and cryptocurrency miners. Recent samples drop a .NET implant called CNB Bot via a .NET Reactor-protected loader and include explicit instructions to bypass Microsoft Defender SmartScreen. The loader invokes PowerShell to add broad Defender exclusions, launches CNB Bot in the background and displays a benign error message while facilitating further payload downloads. The actor hosts staged binaries on GitHub and abuses a signed vulnerable driver (WinRing0x64.sys) to tune CPU settings and boost mining performance.

🔓 Google researchers released a report describing Coruna, a sophisticated iPhone exploitation toolkit that chains 23 distinct iOS vulnerabilities into five full exploit techniques capable of bypassing device defenses and silently installing malware when a user visits a crafted website. Analysts note the code’s professional, English-language provenance and say it bears hallmarks of previously attributed US government modules. Reporting from TechCrunch cites former L3Harris employees who say the company’s Trenchant surveillance division helped develop parts of the toolkit and that an insider may have sold components to foreign actors, raising urgent questions about loss of control over offensive cyber capabilities.

🔍 Cisco Talos details a widespread automated credential-harvesting campaign by cluster UAT-10608 that exploited a pre-authentication RCE in React Server Components impacting Next.js applications. Post-exploit scripts collected environment secrets, SSH keys, cloud tokens and container data, exfiltrating results to a web-based C2 called NEXUS Listener. Talos observed at least 766 compromised hosts and over 10,000 files harvested within 24 hours, and found exposed frontends that revealed aggregated victim data.

⚠️ Meta-owned WhatsApp said it alerted about 200 users, largely in Italy, who were fooled into installing a counterfeit iOS app infected with spyware. The company logged affected accounts out, advised victims to uninstall the malicious app and reinstall the official WhatsApp client, and said it is taking action against Italian firm Asigint, an alleged SIO subsidiary. The alert follows earlier campaigns targeting users with Graphite and chained zero-day exploits in 2025, highlighting persistent misuse of surveillance tools in Europe.

🎣 In episode 461 of Smashing Security, host Graham Cluley and guest Danny Palmer discuss a remarkable Bitcoin mystery: an Irishman who converted drug proceeds into BTC in 2011 now allegedly controls $400 million, but the access codes were hidden in a fishing-rod case that disappeared — until one frozen wallet unexpectedly moved $35 million. The episode also covers a major data breach at Ajax Football Club that may have exposed the personal details of around 300,000 supporters, enabling ticket theft and manipulation of stadium ban lists. Additional topics include an Iran-linked compromise of the FBI director’s personal email, reliability differences between Windows and macOS, and a UK court case in which CCTV footage was used in a crypto theft claim.

⚠️ Check Point researchers report attackers exploited a TrueConf zero-day (CVE-2026-3502) to replace legitimate updates with malicious executables delivered from compromised on-premises servers. The vulnerability stems from a missing integrity check in the update mechanism and affected versions 8.1.0 through 8.5.2; TrueConf released a patch in 8.5.3 (March 2026). The campaign, tracked as TrueChaos, targeted government entities in Southeast Asia and likely leveraged Havoc C2, DLL sideloading, and a UAC bypass.