All news with #ransomware tag

🔒 The Hohen Neuendorf city administration reported a cyberattack detected on October 7 that forced an immediate shutdown of its IT systems and left municipal operations running in a limited capacity. Contracted cybersecurity experts found indications attackers temporarily accessed and encrypted parts of the city's data holdings, preventing immediate inspection. Authorities say it cannot yet be confirmed whether personal data were stolen and that the city will notify affected individuals under GDPR if a data outflow is verified. Preliminary investigation points to security gaps at an external IT service provider that allegedly failed to report vulnerabilities as contractually required.

🔒 Infostealers are fuelling today’s ransomware wave and the resulting stealer logs are widely available on the dark web, sometimes for as little as $10. At ISACA Europe 2025, Tony Gee of 3B Data Security urged security teams to adopt targeted technical controls in addition to baseline measures like zero trust and network segmentation. He recommended six practical defenses — including regular password rotation, FIDO2-enabled MFA, forced authentication, shorter session tokens, cookie replay detection and impossible-travel monitoring — to reduce the usefulness of stolen credentials and session data.

🔒 The Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2025 finds Germany was the most targeted EU country in the first half of 2025, receiving 3.3% of global cyberattacks. Attackers are driven more by profit than espionage, with ransomware used in 52% of incidents and pure espionage accounting for 4%. The report highlights threats linked to Russia, China, North Korea and Iran and recommends MFA—which can block 99.9% of credential-based attacks.

🔒 Ransomware attacks inflict both operational and deep personal harm, often devastating small businesses lacking cash reserves and cybersecurity expertise. Research underscores lasting trauma, exhaustion, and financial ruin that can outlast technical recovery. Organizations should pair an incident response plan with compassionate leadership and employee support. Cisco Talos also warns of evolving supply‑chain campaigns targeting developers and job seekers, reinforcing the need for layered defenses.

🔒 Microsoft's 2025 Digital Defense Report finds that most attacks aim to steal data for profit, with extortion and ransomware responsible for over 52% of incidents while espionage accounts for only about 4%. Covering July 2024–June 2025, the report highlights rising use of AI, automation, and off‑the‑shelf tools that enable scalable phishing, malware, and identity theft. Microsoft urges adoption of phishing‑resistant MFA, AI‑driven defenses, and strengthened cross‑sector collaboration to protect critical public services and build resilience.

🔔 This week’s ThreatsDay bulletin highlights a historic U.S. DOJ seizure of roughly $15 billion in cryptocurrency linked to an alleged transnational fraud network, alongside active commodity malware, phishing-as-a-service, and novel abuses of legitimate tools. Notable incidents include the Brazil-distributed Maverick banking trojan spread via a WhatsApp worm, consumer-grade interception of geostationary satellite traffic, and UEFI BombShell flaws enabling bootkit persistence. Priorities: identity resilience, patching, and monitoring of remote-access and cloud services.

🛡️ Minecraft mods can enhance gameplay but also serve as vectors for malware. This article explains how threat actors disguise Trojans, infostealers, ransomware and cryptominers as mods or cheat tools and distribute them via GitHub, mod repositories and forums. It outlines practical precautions — sourcing mods from trusted repositories, checking developer reputation and file types, using non-admin accounts, backups and security software — and steps to take if a mod is suspected malicious.

🔒 Markus Weber, founder and managing director of dokuworks, describes the immediate steps his team takes when called in after a cyberattack: isolate and secure affected systems so IT forensics can operate, preserve extortion correspondence to help identify perpetrators, assess operational impact, and initiate emergency operations. He warns that ransomware is the predominant threat and generally advises against paying ransoms, though there are rare exceptions. Many organizations are improving technically but still neglect documented emergency organization and trusted external partnerships, leaving them vulnerable.

🛡️ Google is adding an AI-powered defense in Google Workspace that monitors files synced by the Drive for desktop app on Windows and macOS, detecting mass file corruption characteristic of ransomware. Trained on millions of ransomware samples and using intelligence from VirusTotal, the model halts cloud sync to stop spread and enables simple file restoration. The feature rolls out now at no extra cost for most commercial plans and complements built-in Gmail and Chrome protections.

🔐 Unit 42 responded to a significant BlackSuit ransomware campaign after attackers obtained VPN credentials via a vishing call and immediately escalated privileges. The adversary executed DCSync, moved laterally with RDP/SMB using tools like Advanced IP Scanner and SMBExec, established persistence with AnyDesk and a custom RAT, and exfiltrated over 400 GB before deploying BlackSuit across ~60 ESXi hosts. Unit 42 expanded Cortex XDR visibility from 250 to over 17,000 endpoints and used Cortex XSOAR to automate containment while delivering prioritized remediation guidance.

⚡This weekly recap covers high-impact incidents and emerging trends shaping enterprise risk. Significant exploitation of an Oracle E-Business Suite zero-day (CVE-2025-61882) and linked payloads reportedly affected dozens of organizations, while a GoAnywhere MFT flaw (CVE-2025-10035) enabled multi-stage intrusions by Storm-1175. Other highlights include a WhatsApp worm, npm-based phishing chains, an emerging ransomware cartel, AI abuse, and a prioritized list of critical CVEs.

🔐 Ransomware intrusions increasingly begin with compromised identities: recent analyses attribute roughly three quarters of incidents to stolen or misused credentials. Defenses must shift from infrastructure-centric controls to identity-first models like Zero Trust, combining RBAC, MFA and context-aware authentication. Adaptive, risk-based access and passwordless methods reduce friction while improving detection and auditability. Regulatory regimes such as NIS2 and DORA further mandate auditable access controls.

🔒 Researchers report that the open-source DFIR tool Velociraptor was abused by threat actors to maintain stealthy persistent access while deploying multiple ransomware families, including Warlock, LockBit and Babuk. Cisco Talos observed the activity in August 2025 and attributed the multi-vector operation to a China-linked cluster tracked as Storm-2603. Attackers exploited a vulnerable agent (v0.73.4.0) via CVE-2025-6264 to escalate privileges and persist; defenders are urged to verify deployments and update to v0.73.5 or later.

🔒 Fortra disclosed its investigation into CVE-2025-10035, a deserialization vulnerability in the GoAnywhere License Servlet that has been exploited since September 11, 2025. The vendor issued a hotfix within 24 hours and published patched builds (7.6.3 and 7.8.4) on September 15, saying the risk is limited to admin consoles exposed to the public internet. Microsoft attributes observed exploitation to threat actor Storm-1175, which deployed Medusa ransomware; Fortra recommends restricting internet access to admin consoles, enabling monitoring, and keeping software up to date.

⚠️Researchers have observed threat actors leveraging the open-source DFIR tool Velociraptor to maintain persistent remote access and deploy ransomware families including LockBit and Babuk. Cisco Talos links the campaigns to a China-based group tracked as Storm-2603 and notes use of an outdated Velociraptor build vulnerable to CVE-2025-6264. Attackers synchronized local admin accounts to Entra ID, accessed vSphere consoles, disabled Defender via AD GPOs, and used fileless PowerShell encryptors with per-run AES keys and staged exfiltration prior to encryption.

🚨 Three major ransomware-as-a-service operators — LockBit, DragonForce, and Qilin — announced a coalition in early September aimed at coordinating attacks and stabilizing market conditions after recent law enforcement disruptions. The groups signaled intentions to reduce intra-group conflicts, share resources, and protect affiliate revenue, and LockBit explicitly authorized targeting certain critical infrastructure sectors. ReliaQuest researchers reviewed forum posts and communications but have not yet observed joint operations or a combined leak site.

🔍 In September 2025, global cyber-attack volumes eased modestly, with organizations facing an average of 1,900 attacks per organization per week — a 4% decline from August but a 1% increase year-over-year. Beneath this apparent stabilization, ransomware activity jumped sharply (up 46%), while emerging GenAI-related data risks expanded rapidly, changing attacker tactics. The report warns that evolving techniques and heightened data exposure are creating a more complex and consequential threat environment for organizations worldwide.

🔐 Cisco Talos confirmed ransomware operators abused Velociraptor, an open-source DFIR endpoint tool, to gain arbitrary command execution in August 2025 by deploying an outdated agent vulnerable to CVE-2025-6264. Talos links the activity with moderate confidence to Storm-2603 based on overlapping tooling and TTPs. Operators used the tool to stage lateral movement, deploy fileless PowerShell encryptors, and deliver multiple ransomware families, severely disrupting VMware ESXi and Windows servers.

🖱️ A recent episode of the Smashing Security podcast examines how commonplace devices and online behaviour can create unexpected security risks. Hosts discuss academic work that turns a standard computer mouse into an acoustic eavesdropping sensor, showing how a malicious webpage could exploit peripheral hardware. They also consider a ransomware crew’s reputation problems, and round out the episode with lighter items such as a quirky baked potato hack and a literary detour to Paraguay.

🔒 Two 17-year-old suspects were arrested in Bishop's Stortford on suspicion of blackmail and computer misuse after an investigation into the doxing of children following a ransomware attack on a chain of London nurseries. The incident aligns with a September 25 breach affecting Kido nurseries, where a group known as Radiant Group claimed to have stolen sensitive data and photos of over 1,000 children. Attackers posted some images and addresses on a dark web leak site and later removed the files on October 2 after failing to extort the company and making threatening calls to parents. Nursery software provider Famly said its infrastructure was not breached, while UK authorities described the case as deeply distressing and said investigations continue.