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The North Korean threat actor linked to the Contagious Interview campaign has been observed merging some of the functionality of two of its malware programs, indicating that the hacking group is actively refining its toolset. That's according to new findings from Cisco Talos, which said recent campaigns undertaken by the hacking group have seen the functions of BeaverTail and OtterCookie coming closer to each other more than ever, even as the latter has been fitted with a new module for keylogging and taking screenshots.  The activity is attributed to a threat cluster that's tracked by the cybersecurity community under the monikers CL-STA-0240, DeceptiveDevelopment, DEV#POPPER, Famous Chollima, Gwisin Gang, PurpleBravo, Tenacious Pungsan, UNC5342, and Void Dokkaebi. The development comes as Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) and Mandiant revealed the threat actor's use of a stealthy technique known as EtherHiding to fetch next-stage payloads from the BNB Smart ...

The danger isn't that AI agents have bad days — it's that they never do. They execute faithfully, even when what they're executing is a mistake. A single misstep in logic or access can turn flawless automation into a flawless catastrophe. This isn't some dystopian fantasy—it's Tuesday at the office now. We've entered a new phase where autonomous AI agents act with serious system privileges. They execute code, handle complex tasks, and access sensitive data with unprecedented autonomy. They don't sleep, don't ask questions, and don't always wait for permission. That's powerful. That's also risky. Because today's enterprise threats go way beyond your garden-variety phishing scams and malware. The modern security perimeter? It's all about identity management. Here's the million-dollar question every CISO should be asking: Who or what has access to your critical systems, can you secure and govern that access, and can you actually prove it? Ho...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a recently patched critical security flaw in WatchGuard Fireware that could allow unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-9242 (CVSS score: 9.3), is described as an out-of-bounds write vulnerability affecting Fireware OS 11.10.2 up to and including 11.12.4_Update1, 12.0 up to and including 12.11.3 and 2025.1. "An out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the WatchGuard Fireware OS iked process may allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code," WatchGuard said in an advisory released last month. "This vulnerability affects both the mobile user VPN with IKEv2 and the branch office VPN using IKEv2 when configured with a dynamic gateway peer." It has been addressed in the following versions - 2025.1 - Fixed in 2025.1.1 12.x - Fixed in 12.11.4 12.3.1 (FIPS-certified release) - Fixed in 12.3.1_Update3 (B722811) 12.5.x (T15 & T35 models) -...

Microsoft on Thursday disclosed that it revoked more than 200 certificates used by a threat actor it tracks as Vanilla Tempest to fraudulently sign malicious binaries in ransomware attacks. The certificates were "used in fake Teams setup files to deliver the Oyster backdoor and ultimately deploy Rhysida ransomware," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said in a post shared on X. The tech giant said it disrupted the activity earlier this month after it was detected in late September 2025. In addition to revoking the certificates, its security solutions have been updated to flag the signatures associated with the fake setup files, Oyster backdoor, and Rhysida ransomware. Vanilla Tempest (formerly Storm-0832) is the name given to a financially motivated threat actor also called Vice Society and Vice Spider that's assessed to be active since at least July 2022, delivering various ransomware strains such as BlackCat, Quantum Locker, Zeppelin, and Rhysida over the year...

A threat actor with ties to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (aka North Korea) has been observed leveraging the EtherHiding technique to distribute malware and enable cryptocurrency theft, marking the first time a state-sponsored hacking group has embraced the method. The activity has been attributed by Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) to a threat cluster it tracks as UNC5342 , which is also known as CL-STA-0240 (Palo Alto Networks Unit 42), DeceptiveDevelopment (ESET), DEV#POPPER (Securonix), Famous Chollima (CrowdStrike), Gwisin Gang (DTEX), Tenacious Pungsan (Datadog), and Void Dokkaebi (Trend Micro). The attack wave is part of a long-running campaign codenamed Contagious Interview , wherein the attackers approach potential targets on LinkedIn by posing as recruiters or hiring managers, and trick them into running malicious code under the pretext of a job assessment after shifting the conversation to Telegram or Discord. The end goal of these efforts is to ...

A financially motivated threat actor codenamed UNC5142 has been observed abusing blockchain smart contracts as a way to facilitate the distribution of information stealers, such as Atomic (AMOS), Lumma, Rhadamanthys (aka RADTHIEF), and Vidar, targeting both Windows and Apple macOS systems. "UNC5142 is characterized by its use of compromised WordPress websites and 'EtherHiding,' a technique used to obscure malicious code or data by placing it on a public blockchain, such as the BNB Smart Chain," Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) said in a report shared with The Hacker News. As of June 2025, Google said it flagged about 14,000 web pages containing injected JavaScript that exhibit behavior associated with an UNC5142, indicating indiscriminate targeting of vulnerable WordPress sites. However, the tech giant noted that it has not spotted any UNC5142 activity since July 23, 2025, either signaling a pause or an operational pivot. EtherHiding was first documented ...

An investigation into the compromise of an Amazon Web Services (AWS)-hosted infrastructure has led to the discovery of a new GNU/Linux rootkit dubbed LinkPro , according to findings from Synacktiv. "This backdoor features functionalities relying on the installation of two eBPF [extended Berkeley Packet Filter] modules, on the one hand to conceal itself, and on the other hand to be remotely activated upon receiving a 'magic packet,'" security researcher Théo Letailleur said . The infection, per the French cybersecurity company, involved the attackers exploiting an exposed Jenkins server vulnerable to CVE-2024-23897 (CVSS score: 9.8) as the starting point, following which a malicious Docker Hub image named "kvlnt/vv" (now removed) was deployed on several Kubernetes clusters. The Docker image consists of a Kali Linux base along with a folder called "app" containing three files - start.sh, a shell script to start the SSH service and execute the...

Scaling the SOC with AI - Why now?  Security Operations Centers (SOCs) are under unprecedented pressure. According to SACR's AI-SOC Market Landscape 2025 , the average organization now faces around 960 alerts per day , while large enterprises manage more than 3,000 alerts daily from an average of 28 different tools . Nearly 40% of those alerts go uninvestigated , and 61% of security teams admit to overlooking alerts that later proved critical. The takeaway is clear: the traditional SOC model can't keep up. AI has now moved from experimentation to execution inside the SOC. 88% of organizations that don't yet run an AI-driven SOC plan to evaluate or deploy one within the next year. But as more vendors promote "AI-powered SOC automation," the challenge for security leaders has shifted from awareness to evaluation. The key question is no longer whether AI belongs in the SOC, but how to measure its real impact and select a platform that delivers value without introducing signi...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new campaign that exploited a recently disclosed security flaw impacting Cisco IOS Software and IOS XE Software to deploy Linux rootkits on older, unprotected systems. The activity, codenamed Operation Zero Disco by Trend Micro, involves the weaponization of CVE-2025-20352 (CVSS score: 7.7), a stack overflow vulnerability in the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) subsystem that could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code by sending crafted SNMP packets to a susceptible device. The intrusions have not been attributed to any known threat actor or group. The shortcoming was patched by Cisco late last month, but not before it was exploited as a zero-day in real-world attacks. "The operation primarily impacted Cisco 9400, 9300, and legacy 3750G series devices, with additional attempts to exploit a modified Telnet vulnerability (based on CVE-2017-3881 ) to enable memory access," research...

Penetration testing helps organizations ensure IT systems are secure, but it should never be treated in a one-size-fits-all approach. Traditional approaches can be rigid and cost your organization time and money – while producing inferior results.  The benefits of pen testing are clear. By empowering "white hat" hackers to attempt to breach your system using similar tools and techniques to an adversary, pen testing can provide reassurance that your IT set-up is secure. Perhaps more importantly, it can also flag areas for improvement.  As the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) notes, it's comparable to a financial audit . "Your finance team tracks expenditure and income day to day. An audit by an external group ensures that your internal team's processes are sufficient." While the advantages are obvious, it's vital to understand the true cost of the process: indeed, the classic approach can often demand significant time and effort from your team. You need to get yo...

The online world is changing fast. Every week, new scams, hacks, and tricks show how easy it's become to turn everyday technology into a weapon. Tools made to help us work, connect, and stay safe are now being used to steal, spy, and deceive. Hackers don't always break systems anymore — they use them. They hide inside trusted apps, copy real websites, and trick people into giving up control without even knowing it. It's no longer just about stealing data — it's about power, money, and control over how people live and communicate. This week's ThreatsDay issue looks at how that battle is unfolding — where criminals are getting smarter, where defenses are failing, and what that means for anyone living in a connected world. Crypto empire built on slavery Historic Operation Targets SE Asian Scam Networks with $15B Seizure The U.S. government has seized $15 billion (approximately 127,271 bitcoin) worth of cryptocurrency assets from one of the world's largest operators ...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Wednesday added a critical security flaw impacting Adobe Experience Manager to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-54253 (CVSS score: 10.0), a maximum-severity misconfiguration bug that could result in arbitrary code execution. According to Adobe, the shortcoming impacts Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Forms on JEE versions 6.5.23.0 and earlier. It was addressed in version 6.5.0-0108 released early August 2025, alongside CVE-2025-54254 (CVSS score: 8.6). Details of the two vulnerabilities were disclosed by Searchlight Cyber researchers Adam Kues and Shubham Shah in July 2025, describing CVE-2025-54253 as an "authentication bypass to [remote code execution] chain via Struts2 devmode" and CVE-2025-54254 as an XML external entity (XXE) injection within AEM Forms web services. The flaw results from the dan...