All news in category “Incidents and Data Breaches”

⚠️ Kaspersky has identified a previously undocumented file wiper named Lotus Wiper that was used in destructive attacks against Venezuela's energy and utilities sector in late 2025 and early 2026. The campaign relies on two coordinated batch scripts that weaken defenses, probe NETLOGON shares and legacy services, and prepare the environment to deploy a wiper that erases recovery mechanisms, overwrites drives and deletes files. The artifact contains no extortion demands, indicating a targeted, non-financially motivated destructive operation likely planned well in advance.

🔐 Symantec researchers describe a new Linux variant of the GoGra backdoor that abuses Microsoft Graph API and Outlook mailboxes for stealthy command-and-control. The malware uses hardcoded Azure AD credentials to obtain OAuth2 tokens and polls a mailbox folder named "Zomato Pizza" for base64-encoded, AES-CBC-encrypted commands. A Go-based dropper hides an i386 ELF payload as a PDF and establishes persistence via systemd and an XDG autostart entry mimicking the Conky monitor. Processed commands are encrypted and returned by reply email with the subject "Output," and the original command email is removed to limit forensic visibility.

🛡️ Acronis researchers have identified a new variant of LOTUSLITE, attributed with medium confidence to the Chinese-linked Mustang Panda, being distributed via a banking-themed lure focused on India. The backdoor uses a dynamic DNS HTTPS C2 and supports remote shell access, file operations, and session management, indicating espionage-focused intent rather than financial theft. The campaign begins with a Compiled HTML (CHM) file that embeds a legitimate executable with a rogue DLL and triggers JavaScript fetched from cosmosmusic[.]com to perform DLL side-loading. The implanted DLL, dnx.onecore.dll, communicates with editor.gleeze[.]com, and similar artifacts were found targeting South Korean and U.S. policy and diplomatic communities.

🛡️ France's government agency ANTS confirmed a data breach after a threat actor claimed to have stolen citizen records in an intrusion last week. The agency says exposed fields may include login IDs, full names, email addresses, dates of birth, unique account identifiers and, for some individuals, postal addresses, places of birth and phone numbers. ANTS has notified CNIL, the Paris prosecutor and involved ANSSI, is informing affected users and warns the data could be used for phishing and social engineering.

🔴 Kaspersky researchers analyzed a previously undocumented data-wiping malware, dubbed Lotus, uploaded from a Venezuelan host in mid-December and used in targeted attacks against energy and utility organizations in Venezuela. Before detonation the attacker runs two batch scripts that weaken defenses, change account passwords, log off users, disable network interfaces and run destructive tools like diskpart, robocopy and fsutil to overwrite and fill drives. The Lotus binary then performs low-level IOCTL operations, clears USN journals, deletes restore points and overwrites physical sectors to render systems unrecoverable. Administrators are advised to monitor these precursor activities and maintain offline, validated backups.

🔍Check Point researchers found a SystemBC C2 server linked to an affiliate of the The Gentlemen RaaS operation controlling a botnet of more than 1,570 compromised corporate hosts worldwide. SystemBC establishes SOCKS5 tunnels and communicates with its C2 using a custom RC4‑encrypted protocol, enabling payload download or in‑memory execution. The activity aligns with The Gentlemen’s multi‑platform double‑extortion campaigns that abuse GPOs, exposed services, and compromised credentials to escalate access and deploy ransomware.

📱 ESET has identified a new NGate variant that uses a trojanized version of the legitimate HandyPay NFC relay app to harvest payment card data and PINs. Distributed since November 2025 and focused on Brazil, the malicious app relays tapped NFC data to attacker-controlled devices to facilitate contactless fraud and ATM withdrawals. It requires minimal permissions by leveraging its role as the default payment application, helping it evade detection.

🔒 Tyler Robert Buchanan, a 24-year-old British national and senior member of the cybercrime group Scattered Spider, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft for his role in 2022 SMS-phishing attacks. He admitted launching tens of thousands of phishing texts that enabled intrusions at companies including Twilio, LastPass, DoorDash and Mailchimp. Prosecutors say the campaign fueled SIM-swap thefts that siphoned at least $8 million in cryptocurrency from U.S. investors. Buchanan faces a statutory maximum of 22 years; sentencing is set for August 21, 2026.

🔒 Angelo Martino, a former ransomware negotiator, pleaded guilty to conspiring with the BlackCat ransomware group to extort U.S. companies in 2023. From April through November 2023, he provided confidential negotiation details — including victims' insurance limits and internal bargaining positions — to maximize ransom demands in exchange for payment. Martino admitted collaborating with incident responders Ryan Goldberg and Kevin Martin while working at DigitalMint and Sygnia, and authorities say the defendants extorted at least $1.2 million in a single case. Investigators seized roughly $10 million in assets; Martino faces up to 20 years and is scheduled for sentencing on July 9, 2026.

🔐 Check Point researchers report that The Gentlemen, a ransomware-as-a-service operation first identified in mid-2025, has claimed over 320 victims with the majority of attacks occurring in early 2026. Affiliates are supplied with cross-platform ransomware written in Go for Windows, Linux, NAS and BSD, plus a C-based ESXi encryptor. The toolkit enables automated lateral movement, Group Policy deployment and credential reuse to achieve rapid, domain-wide encryption, and incidents frequently show defense evasion and post-exploitation tools such as SystemBC and Cobalt Strike.

🔒 ESET researchers uncovered a NGate Android campaign that trojanized the HandyPay NFC relay app to steal contactless card data and capture PINs for fraudulent ATM withdrawals. The poisoned app, spread via fake Rio de Prêmios sites and a deceptive Play Store listing, asks to be set as the default payment app and prompts users to enter their card PIN before tapping their card. Artifacts including emoji-laden debug messages suggest parts of the injected code may have been generated or modified with a large language model.

🔒 41-year-old Angelo Martino, a former negotiator at DigitalMint, pleaded guilty to participating in BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware operations that targeted U.S. companies in 2023. Prosecutors say Martino shared confidential victim negotiation positions and insurance limits with the operators, enabling larger extortion demands, and worked with accomplices Ryan Goldberg and Kevin Martin. The trio operated as affiliates, paying administrators a 20% cut, and targeted at least five U.S. organizations, including firms and nonprofits that paid multimillion-dollar ransoms. DigitalMint condemned the conduct and said the employees were fired when the activity was discovered.

🔒 Vercel has confirmed a cyber incident in which a "highly sophisticated" attacker exploited the third-party tool Context.ai after an employee authorized the app. The adversary used that access to take over the employee's Vercel Google Workspace account and accessed several environments and environment variables not marked as sensitive; sensitive variables are stored unreadable and show no evidence of access. Vercel says npm packages and major projects like Next.js were not compromised, has engaged Mandiant to investigate, and is notifying affected customers while advising MFA, rotation of exposed variables, and strengthened deployment protections.

🔍 US authorities issued an April 7 advisory warning that Iranian-affiliated APTs could be conducting infrastructural cyberattacks, citing links to 2023 water and wastewater incidents attributed to CyberAv3ngers. The article examines two prominent groups — Handala Hack Team and CyberAv3ngers — and argues they function as proxy or false-flag operations likely tied to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. It describes a broader pattern of gray warfare, where state actors obscure involvement to retain plausible deniability while exerting persistent pressure on adversaries.

🔒 A new NGate variant is delivered inside a trojanized version of HandyPay, a legitimate NFC payments app, to steal payment card data from Android devices. Researchers at ESET say the campaign has been active since November 2025 and primarily targets users in Brazil, using fake Google Play pages and a malicious APK distribution chain. The trojan asks victims to set it as the default NFC payment app, collect card PINs and card taps, and exfiltrates data via a hardcoded email address.

🔒 ESET researchers discovered a new NGate malware variant that trojanized the legitimate HandyPay Android NFC-relay app, with injected code displaying artifacts consistent with GenAI-assisted development. The patched app silently forwards NFC payment card data and captures payment card PINs, exfiltrating them to attacker-controlled C&C infrastructure to enable contactless ATM cash-outs and unauthorized payments. Distribution targeted Android users in Brazil since November 2025 via a fake Rio de Prêmios lottery site and a counterfeit Google Play page; both samples were served from the same domain, indicating a single operator. ESET notified Google and the HandyPay developer; known samples are detected by Google Play Protect and ESET.

🔒 State-backed North Korean actors are the primary suspects in a roughly $293m theft from KelpDAO, which paused operations after detecting suspicious cross-chain activity involving rsETH. Attackers exploited LayerZero verifier infrastructure by poisoning downstream RPCs, swapping op-geth binaries and executing an RPC‑spoofing attack to forge a cross-chain message. They routed stolen funds through Tornado Cash, while Arbitrum's Security Council has frozen about 30,766 ETH (~$71m). LayerZero contends KelpDAO ran a single-DVN configuration against best practices; KelpDAO blames LayerZero's infrastructure.

🔒 KelpDAO reported a cross-chain exploit on April 18 that resulted in the theft of roughly 116,500 rsETH (about $293 million), funds which were then routed through Tornado Cash. The attacker compromised the verifier's RPC nodes in the DVN layer, feeding falsified chain data while DDoS-ing healthy nodes to force reliance on poisoned endpoints and accept a forged cross-chain message. LayerZero, Unichain and partners assisted in the investigation, which attributed the operation to the state-sponsored Lazarus Group, and KelpDAO paused rsETH contracts across Ethereum mainnet and L2s.

⚠️A cluster of 26 malicious apps on Apple's China App Store impersonated popular crypto wallets such as MetaMask, Coinbase, Trust Wallet, and OneKey to harvest recovery seed phrases and drain funds. The apps used typosquatting, fake branding, and were disguised as games or calculators to bypass local restrictions. They redirected victims to phishing pages that pushed trojanized wallets via abused iOS provisioning profiles; those trojans intercept mnemonics, encrypt them, and exfiltrate them. Kaspersky links the campaign, dubbed FakeWallet, to the ongoing SparkKitty operation, and Apple has removed the apps following disclosure.

🔒 Check Point Research uncovered a SystemBC proxy botnet of over 1,570 infected hosts tied to a Gentlemen ransomware affiliate, with telemetry indicating primarily corporate victims across the US, UK, Germany, Australia, and Romania. The discovery shows affiliates pairing SystemBC SOCKS5 tunneling with Cobalt Strike for covert payload delivery and lateral movement. Check Point published IoCs and a YARA signature to help defenders identify related activity.