All news in category “Threat and Trends Reports”

🔒 Researchers disclosed linked phishing campaigns delivering a banking malware-turned-RAT called MostereRAT and a ClickFix-style chain distributing MetaStealer. Attackers use an obscure Easy Programming Language (EPL), mutual TLS for C2, and techniques to disable Windows security and run as TrustedInstaller to evade detection. One campaign drops remote-access tools like AnyDesk and VNC variants; another uses fake Cloudflare Turnstile pages, LNK tricks, and a prompt overdose method to manipulate AI summarizers.

🛡️ Organizations face escalating operational risk as threat actors leverage optimized supply chains, pre-packaged services and AI to accelerate attacks and social engineering. Managed detection and response (MDR) is promoted as a prevention-first approach that prioritizes speed of detection, containment and response. Best-in-class MDR combines 24/7 monitoring, proactive threat hunting and automated compliance and forensic reporting to reduce downtime and support recovery.

🔒 Security leaders are entering budget season facing skepticism; success now requires translating technical needs into clear business impact. Presentations that tie investments to revenue protection, uptime, regulatory compliance, and quantified loss avoidance resonate with boards. Adopt a risk-focused framework, define measurable KPIs such as time to detect and remediate, and employ continuous validation to expose exploitable weaknesses and track remediation velocity. Use standards like ISO 27001 and NIST as familiar anchors while showing real-world validation to avoid shelfware.

🔒 A recent survey by SecurityScorecard found 71% of organizations experienced at least one material third‑party cybersecurity incident in the past year, with 5% reporting ten or more. Rising third‑party involvement — echoed in the 2025 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report — and sprawling supplier ecosystems expand attackers’ avenues. Experts warn SaaS platforms, open‑source packages, and CI/CD pipelines are increasingly exploited, often via abused OAuth, stolen credentials, or over‑permissioned integrations.

🔎 Security researchers observed a large surge in network scans probing Cisco ASA login portals and Cisco IOS Telnet/SSH endpoints, with GreyNoise recording two major spikes in late August 2025. The second wave on August 26, 2025, was largely (about 80%) driven by a Brazilian botnet using roughly 17,000 IPs and overlapping Chrome-like user agents that suggest a common origin. Administrators are urged to apply the latest patches, enforce MFA for remote ASA logins, avoid exposing management pages and services directly, and use VPN concentrators, reverse proxies, geo-blocking, and rate limiting to reduce risk.

🔒 Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a sophisticated malvertising campaign that leverages paid search ads and manipulated GitHub commit URLs to redirect victims to attacker-controlled infrastructure. The first-stage dropper is a bloated 128 MB MSI that evades many online sandboxes and employs a GPU-gated decryption routine dubbed GPUGate, which aborts on systems lacking a real GPU or proper drivers. The campaign uses a lookalike domain (gitpage[.]app) and a VBScript-to-PowerShell chain that gains admin privileges, adds Microsoft Defender exclusions, establishes persistence, and stages secondary payloads for data theft.

🔒 Cisco Talos finds abuses of remote access software and services are the most common pre-ransomware indicator, with threat actors leveraging legitimate tools such as RDP, PsExec, PowerShell and remote-support apps like AnyDesk and Microsoft Quick Assist. The report highlights credential dumping (for example, Mimikatz) and network discovery as other frequent TTPs. It recommends rapid response, MFA, application allowlisting and enhanced endpoint monitoring to limit ransomware execution.

🔒 Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) combines networking and security into a unified, cloud-delivered platform designed for the realities of remote and hybrid work. With nearly half of knowledge workers operating remotely or in hybrid models and many organizations adopting cloud apps and distributed branches, traditional perimeter-based models are no longer sufficient. SASE addresses distributed access, policy consistency, and simplified management while reducing attack surface and operational complexity.

🛡️ FortiGuard Labs identified a sophisticated phishing campaign that chains an Easy Programming Language (EPL) runtime with multi-stage payloads to deploy MostereRAT. The initial dropper, based on a wxWidgets sample, creates SYSTEM services and decrypts modules that run in memory while presenting social‑engineering prompts. Operators use mTLS‑protected C2 channels, disable and block security tooling via WFP filters, and install legitimate remote access tools such as AnyDesk and TightVNC to secure covert, persistent full access.

🧭 The article argues that the modern CISO role has become unmanageable for many practitioners and often fails to deliver meaningful, long-term change. It traces causes to short tenures, technologist backgrounds, and siloed corporate governance, and advocates splitting responsibilities by creating a senior CSO focused on business protection while returning the CISO to a technical, execution-oriented remit. The author urges CISOs to rebuild trust through demonstrable delivery rather than constant demands, and suggests this structural change will improve governance, tenure, and recruitment.

🔒Cisco Talos Incident Response (Talos IR) analyzed pre-ransomware engagements from January 2023 through June 2025 to determine which controls most often prevented ransomware deployment. Rapid engagement with incident responders and near-immediate action on EDR/MDR alerts were the two strongest correlates of stopping encryption. Talos found that aggressive blocking and quarantine settings, strict identity and privilege controls, improved logging, and early notifications from partners materially increased the chance of eviction before encryption. The guidance focuses on securing remote services, credential protection, application allowlisting, and network segmentation.

🔐 Attackers are increasingly bypassing email defenses by infiltrating organizations through the hiring process, as in the 'Jordan' example where a bogus hire gained broad access on day one. Remote recruiting, AI-generated profiles and deepfakes have turned identity into the new perimeter, undermining traditional vetting. Adopting zero standing privileges—with JIT/JEP, strict baselines and comprehensive auditing—and tools such as BeyondTrust Entitle can remove persistent access and automate time‑bound, auditable privilege grants.

🔒 Security leaders must avoid career-limiting behaviors that erode trust and effectiveness. The article outlines 10 common missteps — from failing to align security with business priorities and remaining purely technical to drawing inflexible red lines and mishandling AI — that stall advancement. It stresses practical shifts: become a business partner, balance risk with speed, improve asset visibility, foster relationships, and rehearse incident response to maintain credibility.

🔍 External Attack Surface Management (EASM) requires a continuous, automated approach to discover internet-facing assets, detect vulnerabilities and prioritize remediation. The article outlines a practical four-step process — identify and classify assets, risk detection, risk assessment, and prioritization and remediation — to reduce external cyber risk. A real-world Jenkins misconfiguration illustrates how shadow IT and configuration changes can expose sensitive data, and why centralized, recurrent EASM platforms that integrate with existing workflows and provide actionable guidance are essential. Effective defense combines fast MTTD from tools with responsive teams to achieve timely MTTR.

🔒 This practical guide helps parents reduce their children's digital footprint by identifying risky "hot spots"—from unsecured group chats and gaming voice channels to oversharing on social media, unsafe downloads, public Wi‑Fi and unvetted AI tools. It stresses open conversation over heavy-handed controls and recommends concrete measures: disable geolocation, vet links with anti‑phishing tools, use antivirus, a trusted VPN on public networks, and parental controls such as Kaspersky Safe Kids. The guide also encourages parents to watch and discuss online activity together and to teach habits like unique passwords and cautious AI use.

🛡️Social engineering remains the favoured vector as attackers combine psychological manipulation with accessible AI tools to target high-value corporate roles. Recent incidents show sophisticated pretexting, voice cloning and mass email flooding used to create urgency and extract funds or credentials. Fraudsters increasingly exploit collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams and legitimate utilities like Quick Assist to appear trustworthy and gain remote control. Organizations should harden collaboration settings, enforce conditional access and MFA, and reduce privilege scope to limit the blast radius of any compromise.

🔒 Researchers at Check Point report a 56% year-over-year increase in cyberattacks against German educational institutions as the new school year begins, well above the global average. Analysts observed targeted phishing campaigns, including an August 2025 scheme that redirected victims to fake university and Outlook login pages to harvest credentials. To mitigate risk, experts recommend targeted phishing awareness training, mandatory multi-factor authentication (MFA), early detection of suspicious domains, regular system updates and deployment of modern threat-prevention solutions as part of a preventive, multi-layered security strategy.

🔒 Encryption is a critical layer in modern data protection, safeguarding sensitive and business‑critical information both at rest and in transit. The article outlines key drivers — remote/hybrid work, explosive data growth, device loss, third‑party risks, ransomware and insider threats — that make encryption essential. It recommends robust algorithms such as AES-256, centralized management and solutions for disks, files, removable media and email, alongside minimal end‑user friction. The piece also warns that regulators and insurers increasingly expect strong encryption as part of compliance and underwriting.

📊 Nearly two-thirds (61%) of US firms experienced insider data breaches in the past two years, according to a new OPSWAT report conducted by the Ponemon Institute. Affected organizations reported an average of eight unauthorized file-access incidents and an average financial impact of $2.7m per organization. Respondents identified file storage and web file transfers as the riskiest environments for data loss. The study also found mixed approaches to generative AI—29% have banned it, 25% have formal policies, and 33% already include AI in file security strategies.

🛡️ Cybersecurity leaders say board engagement is essential, but many CISOs—particularly in small and mid‑market organizations—report minimal or no access to full boards, according to a 2025 report from IANS and Artico Search. That lack of access strongly correlates with job dissatisfaction and short tenures. Experts recommend strengthening C‑suite relationships and framing cyber risk in business terms to secure board support.