All news in category “Threat and Trends Reports”

🔍 A new Checkmarx report found that 95% of CISOs have been pressured to deprioritize or delay reporting security issues, and 75% acknowledged their organizations knowingly deployed vulnerable code to production. Respondents cited compensating controls, deadlines, late detection, and difficulty of fixes as reasons. The survey of 2,350 security professionals also flagged limited remediation rates and rising risks from AI-generated code.

🔍 Check Point Research reports that global cyber-attack volumes slightly eased in May 2026, averaging 2,055 weekly attacks per organization, a 2% year‑over‑year increase but a 7% month‑over‑month decline. While overall volumes moderated, ransomware rose sharply—698 incidents, a 48% increase year‑over‑year—and GenAI-related data exposure risks expanded as enterprises adopted more tools without adequate governance. The report highlights shifting sector targets and regional variations.

🔒 The 2026 Fortinet State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report examines how OT security has moved to board-level attention as connectivity increases risk. Based on a global survey of over 700 OT professionals, the report finds improved visibility and governance but uneven maturity across organizations. Key gaps remain in segmentation, secure remote access, incident response, and regulation readiness.

🧩 Researchers at the University of Toronto built and tested a proof-of-concept self-replicating worm driven by a locally hosted open-weight large language model. In isolated experiments on a deliberately vulnerable 33-host network, the agent identified dozens of vulnerabilities, gained elevated access across most targeted hosts, and autonomously replicated to a majority of the network without using any commercial AI API. The team highlights how runtime reasoning and ingestion of fresh advisories break single-CVE patching assumptions and argues containment must focus on host and network controls rather than vendor API measures.

🛡️ Researchers at Graz University of Technology describe FROST, a browser-based timing attack that uses the Origin Private File System (OPFS) to infer which sites a user visits and which apps they open. The exploit runs purely in JavaScript, requires no native code or permissions, and sharpens timer resolution via cross-origin isolation. On macOS it achieved high fingerprinting accuracy, while mitigations remain limited and browser vendors have not implemented firm fixes.

🛡️ Researchers at the University of Toronto built an AI-driven worm prototype that autonomously discovered and exploited vulnerabilities across a simulated enterprise network. Using a locally hosted, free LLM and a custom agentic harness, the worm self-replicated to multiple systems by chaining old and recent CVEs and common misconfigurations. Over several days it spread to most targets, demonstrating that attackers do not need cutting-edge models to mount damaging, adaptive attacks. The findings underscore the need for faster patching, AI-assisted defensive testing, and improved architecture such as segmentation and zero trust.

🔍 Normalcy bias leads organisations to assume “no news is good news” about security, delaying detection and response. This complacency lets cybercriminals effectively perform their own audits, exposing gaps between perceived and actual security. The article urges proactive testing, continuous monitoring, and investment in MDR/MXDR and awareness to prevent costly breaches.

🔍 TrendAI's year-long review of dark web forums, marketplaces, and ransomware leak sites reveals an organised underground market trading stolen healthcare data, system access, and extortion services. The study found ransomware-related data sales made up 36.3% of marketplace activity and highlights growing targeting of EHR/EMR vendors. Researchers warn that healthcare records are highly reusable and permanent, amplifying long-term risk to patients and providers.

🛡️ This Unit 42 report examines how threat actors use Microsoft Teams to impersonate IT staff, leveraging external chat and compromised or typosquatted accounts to phish employees. It outlines real-world incidents, explains how permissive federation and external chat settings widen the attack surface, and emphasizes that identity systems are the ultimate target. The article recommends tighter configuration, identity-centric controls, monitoring, and updated user training.

🛡️ Microsoft Threat Intelligence describes campaigns that impersonate popular AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Copilot, and Claude to lure victims via phishing, malvertising, and SEO abuse. These operations use trusted branding, redirect chains, and urgency-driven messaging to steal credentials, commit fraud, or deliver malware. The blog emphasizes abuse of brand names rather than service compromise and recommends leveraging AI-powered security for detection and response.

🛡️ Military cyber teams rehearse constantly using realistic, dynamic simulations while many enterprises treat security as a compliance exercise. The article contrasts rigorous military practices — continuous exercises, defined roles, and realistic cyber ranges — with corporate annual tabletop drills that fail to reflect daily adversary innovation. It urges businesses to adopt regular live simulations, AI Proving Grounds, clear decision-making hierarchies, and cross-industry intelligence sharing to build operational cyber resilience.

🔍 Security leaders outline 15 critical questions CISOs should ask to ensure security programs adapt to evolving threats and business needs. These prompts focus on demonstrating ROI, aligning defenses with critical business processes, measuring detection and response speed, and addressing AI-driven risks like nonhuman identities and automated attacks. The guidance also stresses vendor risk, shadow AI, application security for widespread coding, and preparing security for future business growth.

🛡️ Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister from 2020–2024, told Infosecurity Europe that pre-planning and contingency-driven resilience underpinned Ukraine’s survival after the 2022 full-scale invasion. He described a December 2023 attack that knocked KyivStar offline via a single compromised employee account, and praised rapid recovery and hardened defences thereafter. Kuleba advised organisations to rehearse crisis responses, understand systems intimately, and build instinctive survival practices. He warned that even benign third-party CRM tools can be weaponised for targeted intelligence, urging technological sovereignty and strict data security.

🛡️ depthfirst's autonomous agent discovered 21 previously unknown zero-day vulnerabilities in FFmpeg, producing reproducible PoC inputs for each at a reported cost of about $1,000 for the run. In the same week, Google released Chrome 149 with fixes for a record 429 security bugs, over 100 of which are critical or high severity, following an overhaul of its bounty program to cope with a surge of AI-generated reports. The findings illustrate how AI is accelerating vulnerability discovery and increasing pressure on triage and patching processes across widely used software.

🔒 Researchers have demonstrated a prototype AI-powered internet worm that autonomously propagates and carries its own local LLM to run on compromised machines. The prototype echoes early theoretical concepts of self-replicating code and shows how generative models can be embedded into malware to extend functionality. This proof-of-concept highlights evolving threats and the need for updated defensive strategies and policy responses.

🔎 The SOC-CMM 2026 report shows rapid AI adoption across SOCs but limited perceived value: only about 10% report excellent value while 71% report some or no value. The dominant deployment pattern is the taker model—off‑the‑shelf AI bolted into existing tools—creating fragmented workflows and weak handoffs. The report argues the next wave must be architectural: AI that operates across detection, hunting, investigation, remediation, and threat intel with built‑in governance and institutional knowledge.

🔍 Analysis by Halcyon shows a rapid rise in AI-based tools sold across Telegram channels, dark web forums, and underground markets, with posts increasing from 38 in December 2025 to 1,486 by February 2026. The offerings fall into four groups: weaponized LLMs, AI-enabled identity fraud, AI-augmented malware/infrastructure, and jailbroken or stolen AI services. Ransomware operations are professionalising with tiered services, automation and freemium models, lowering the skill barrier for new actors while law enforcement takedowns and better enterprise defenses remain critical.

🛡️ A forum tutorial by an actor named "Hercules" outlines a simple, practical workflow for scanning, validating, exploiting, and monetizing vulnerabilities, blending «legal» disclosure steps with clear illegal options. Flare researchers tracked the post and responses across multiple forums, noting demand for mentorship and the tutorial’s repeat reposting. The write-up highlights use of public tools like Nuclei, emphasizes accessibility for beginners, and explains monetization paths including direct extortion, underground sales, and asset resale. The analysis warns defenders that readable, motivational guides scale criminal capability and underscores the importance of effective vulnerability disclosure programs.

🛡️ Cisco patched a high-severity SSRF in Unified Communications Manager, while Russia reported large-scale mobile spyware targeting officials and ongoing investigations. Threat actors continue to distribute VIP Keylogger via layered social engineering and JavaScript loaders, and DriveSurge operates a widespread malware delivery network using ClickFix and FakeUpdates. U.S. sanctions hit major Iranian crypto exchanges; RMM and trusted tools are increasingly abused for persistence and privilege escalation.

🛡️ Check Point Research and Exposure Management tracked a year-long rise in coordinated cyber threats aimed at FIFA World Cup 2026. Attackers have pre-positioned infrastructure across finance, travel and hospitality, and gambling, with active domains, fake apps, and social schemes ready to scale. The report highlights escalating fraud, domain impersonation, mobile-app impersonation, B2B spoofing risks, and potential operational impacts like ransomware and DDoS.