All news with #data exfiltration tag

🔐 ReliaQuest analysis shows ransomware data leaks rose sharply in Q4 2025, with posts on leak sites up 50% quarter-on-quarter and 40% year-on-year. The researchers found fewer active ransomware groups overall, but top-tier RaaS operators increased their output and speed of execution. Qilin, Akira and Sinobi were the most prolific, with Qilin claiming 450+ victims. ReliaQuest urges stronger controls such as MFA and improved data-exfiltration monitoring to reduce impact.

🚨 Kaspersky reports that China-linked Mustang Panda used an updated COOLCLIENT backdoor in 2025 to exfiltrate data from government targets across Myanmar, Mongolia, Malaysia, and Russia. The implant was deployed as a secondary backdoor alongside PlugX and LuminousMoth, delivered via encrypted loaders and abusing DLL side-loading of legitimately signed binaries. COOLCLIENT harvests keystrokes, clipboard data, files, and HTTP proxy credentials, can establish reverse tunnels, and loads in-memory plugins; recent waves also incorporated browser credential stealers and a previously unseen rootkit.

🧾 Cybersecurity researchers uncovered a phishing campaign impersonating India's Income Tax Department that delivers a multi-stage backdoor to targeted users. The attackers distribute a ZIP containing an executable that sideloads a malicious DLL, performs anti-analysis checks, and fetches further payloads, ultimately deploying a Blackmoon variant alongside a repurposed SyncFuture TSM RMM tool. The operation employs UAC bypass, process masquerading, antivirus exclusion manipulation, and numerous helper scripts to establish persistent, covert access for long-term monitoring and data exfiltration.

⚠️ Koi Security researchers uncovered two malicious Microsoft Visual Studio Code extensions marketed as AI coding assistants that also exfiltrate developer files to China-based servers. The extensions — ChatGPT - 中文版 (whensunset.chatgpt-china, 1,340,869 installs) and ChatGPT - ChatMoss（CodeMoss） (zhukunpeng.chat-moss, 151,751 installs) — function normally while encoding every opened file and edits in Base64 and sending them to aihao123[.]cn. The campaign, dubbed MaliciousCorgi, includes remote-triggered bulk exfiltration and a hidden zero-pixel iframe that loads Chinese analytics SDKs to fingerprint users. Remove suspicious extensions, audit workspaces, and follow supply-chain hardening guidance.

⚠️ Researchers from Koi found two malicious AI-style extensions on the VSCode Marketplace — ChatGPT – 中文版 and ChatMoss — that together have 1.5 million installs and silently transmit developer files to China-based servers. The extensions implement three distinct data-collection methods: real-time file reads and Base64 exfiltration via hidden webviews, a server-controlled file-harvest command that can steal up to 50 files, and a zero-pixel iframe that loads commercial analytics SDKs for fingerprinting and behavioral tracking. At publication both extensions were still available and Microsoft had not responded to inquiries.

🔒 Removable media remains a persistent enterprise risk, enabling both data exfiltration and device-borne intrusion whenever USB drives connect to endpoints. The article highlights evolving threats — including MUSTANG PANDA’s USBFect campaigns (2023–2025) and late-2025 coinminer infections — and high-profile insider exfiltration cases. CrowdStrike recommends a dual approach using Falcon Data Protection to stop sensitive data from leaving endpoints and Falcon Device Control to block or restrict untrusted devices, both delivered via the single Falcon sensor to simplify deployment and reduce operational overhead.

⚠️ Researchers at Miggo Security demonstrated that Google Gemini can be manipulated via malicious Calendar invites to exfiltrate private event data. By embedding natural-language prompt-injection payloads in an event description, attackers can cause Gemini to summarize private meetings and write that summary into a new event visible to participants. Miggo reported the issue and Google has implemented mitigations.

⚠️ Researchers disclosed an indirect prompt-injection flaw that allowed Google Gemini to bypass calendar privacy controls and exfiltrate meeting data. A crafted Google Calendar invite could hide a natural-language payload that Gemini later parsed, summarized, and wrote into new events whose descriptions leaked private meeting content. Miggo Security reported the issue and said it has been responsibly disclosed and addressed, highlighting how AI-native features increase the attack surface when assistants can read, summarize, and write into productivity services.

🔒 Resecurity researchers have identified a sophisticated backdoor called PDFSIDER, delivered via DLL side-loading from a trojanized, digitally signed PDF utility. The malware embeds the Botan crypto library and uses AES-256-GCM for an encrypted C2 channel, executing commands via cmd.exe entirely in memory and returning output over anonymous pipes. It performs anti-VM and debugger checks, exfiltrates data (including over DNS/53), and is assessed as targeted tradecraft that evades many AV and EDR products.

🔐 Researchers at Varonis Threat Labs uncovered 'Reprompt', a one-click attack that abuses Microsoft Copilot Personal by embedding prompts in URLs and using follow-up server requests to exfiltrate data. It combines a URL 'q' parameter injection, a double-request bypass of initial sanitization, and chained server instructions to siphon conversation history and files without further user interaction. Microsoft issued a patch; organizations should treat prefilled prompts as untrusted and enforce continuous authentication, least privilege, prompt hygiene, auditing, and anomaly detection.

🔒 Utrecht-based Eurail BV has confirmed that an unauthorized party accessed its customer database, potentially exposing a range of personal information for Interrail pass holders and some DiscoverEU participants. Affected items may include identification data (first and last name, date of birth, gender), contact details (email, home address, telephone) and passport details (number, issuing country, expiry). The company says the investigation is ongoing and that there is currently no indication the data have been misused or publicly shared; it is advising customers to remain vigilant, change passwords for Rail Planner and related accounts, and consult the provider’s FAQ for guidance.

🔒 Grubhub confirmed unauthorized actors downloaded data from certain systems and said it investigated, halted the activity, and is taking steps to strengthen its security posture. The company stated that financial information and order histories were not affected but declined to answer further questions about timing, affected users, or extortion. Grubhub said it is working with a third-party cybersecurity firm and law enforcement, while sources tell BleepingComputer that threat actors are demanding payment.

🚨 New research from Symantec and Carbon Black shows cybercriminals increasingly favour data theft and extortion over file encryption. While counts of traditional ransomware incidents remained broadly stable in 2025, attacks that rely solely on stolen data rose sharply. Threat actors exploit unpatched zero‑days, software supply‑chain weaknesses and credential theft, prompting firms to prioritise patching, robust credential hygiene and MFA.

🔒 Spanish energy provider Endesa and its operator Energía XXI disclosed unauthorized access to their commercial platform that exposed customer contract-related data. The company says the intruder accessed basic identification, contact details, national ID numbers (DNI), contract records, and payment information such as IBANs, while account passwords were not affected. Endesa says it blocked compromised internal accounts, preserved logs for forensic analysis, notified relevant authorities including the Spanish Data Protection Agency, and increased monitoring. Threat actors claim to be offering roughly 1TB of SQL data—allegedly ~20 million records—for sale; the investigation is ongoing and affected customers are being notified.

🛑 A Texas district court briefly issued a temporary restraining order barring Samsung from collecting audio and visual data from Texas smart TVs under its Automated Content Recognition (ACR) program, citing deceptive enrollment practices and allegations that the Chinese Communist Party could access the information. The TRO, signed Jan. 5, said users were subjected to confusing disclosures and 'dark patterns' that defeat meaningful opt-out and claimed screenshots could be captured roughly every 500 milliseconds. The order initially blocked ACR activity relating to Texas consumers until Jan. 19, but the judge vacated the TRO the next day; the underlying lawsuit remains pending and a hearing is scheduled for Jan. 9.

🔓 Radware researcher Zvika Babo disclosed ZombieAgent, a prompt-injection technique that coerced ChatGPT into leaking sensitive data from connected services such as Gmail, Outlook, Google Drive and GitHub. The attack leverages OpenAI’s new Connectors and browsing features by providing a set of static, character-indexed URLs that the model opens in sequence to exfiltrate data one character at a time. OpenAI patched the issue in mid-December after Babo reported it in September 2025; Radware published a detailed report on January 8.

🔒 Brightspeed is investigating claims that the hacking group Crimson Collective obtained personally identifiable information for over one million customers and disrupted connectivity. The group posted a sample of the data on Telegram in early January and later said it had disconnected many users' home internet, although Brightspeed has not confirmed outages or the breach. The purported dataset includes account records, geolocation details, payment histories and masked card data. The ISP is probing the incident while the authenticity and scope of the claims remain unclear.

🔍 OX Security researchers uncovered two malicious Chrome extensions — Chat GPT for Chrome with GPT-5, Claude Sonnet & DeepSeek AI and AI Sidebar with Deepseek, ChatGPT, Claude, and more — installed by over 900,000 users. The add-ons scrape ChatGPT and DeepSeek conversation content and all open tab URLs, then batch-upload harvested data to attacker-controlled servers. Operators used hosted privacy pages and impersonation to obscure activity; users should remove these extensions and audit exposed data immediately.

🔎 Cybersecurity researchers have identified a modified strain of the Shai Hulud npm worm inside the package "@vietmoney/react-big-calendar," updated on December 28, 2025. Aikido and researcher Charlie Eriksen say the code appears obfuscated and likely derived from the original worm source rather than a simple copy. The variant changes filenames and GitHub leakage descriptors, improves error handling and OS-aware publishing, and so far shows limited spread, suggesting the payload may be in testing.

🔒 The European Space Agency (ESA) confirmed a cybersecurity incident affecting a small number of servers located outside its corporate network that supported unclassified collaborative engineering activities. Threat actors claim they accessed JIRA and Bitbucket instances for about a week and exfiltrated over 200GB of data, including source code, CI/CD pipelines, tokens, and configuration files. ESA has initiated forensic analysis, notified relevant stakeholders, and implemented measures to secure potentially affected devices while the investigation continues.