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The year opened without a reset. The same pressure carried over, and in some places it tightened. Systems people assume are boring or stable are showing up in the wrong places. Attacks moved quietly, reused familiar paths, and kept working longer than anyone wants to admit. This week's stories share one pattern. Nothing flashy. No single moment. Just steady abuse of trust — updates, extensions, logins, messages — the things people click without thinking. That's where damage starts now. This recap pulls those signals together. Not to overwhelm, but to show where attention slipped and why it matters early in the year. ⚡ Threat of the Week RondoDox Botnet Exploits React2Shell Flaw — A persistent nine-month-long campaign has targeted Internet of Things (IoT) devices and web applications to enroll them into a botnet known as RondoDox. As of December 2025, the activity has been observed leveraging the recently disclosed React2Shell (CVE-2025-55182, CVSS score: 10.0) flaw as an initial...

Featuring: Cybersecurity is being reshaped by forces that extend beyond individual threats or tools. As organizations operate across cloud infrastructure, distributed endpoints, and complex supply chains, security has shifted from a collection of point solutions to a question of architecture, trust, and execution speed. This report examines how core areas of cybersecurity are evolving in response to that shift. Across authentication, endpoint security, software supply chain protection, network visibility, and human risk, it explores how defenders are adapting to adversaries that move faster, blend technical and social techniques, and exploit gaps between systems rather than weaknesses in any single control. Download the Full Report Here: https://papryon.live/report Authentication — Yubico Authentication is evolving from password-based verification to cryptographic proof of possession. As phishing and AI-driven impersonation scale, identity has become the primary control point ...

Ilya Lichtenstein, who was sentenced to prison last year for money laundering charges in connection with his role in the massive hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016, said he has been released early. In a post shared on X last week, the 38-year-old announced his release, crediting U.S. President Donald Trump's First Step Act. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons' inmate locator , Lichtenstein is scheduled for release on February 9, 2026. "I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can," Lichtenstein added. "To the supporters, thank you for everything. To the haters, I look forward to proving you wrong." The First Step Act , passed by the Trump administration in 2018, is a bipartisan legislation that aims to improve criminal justice outcomes and reduce the federal prison population through a series of reforms, including by establishing a "risk and needs assessment system" to determine the rec...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new Python-based information stealer called VVS Stealer (also styled as VVS $tealer) that's capable of harvesting Discord credentials and tokens. The stealer is said to have been on sale on Telegram as far back as April 2025, according to a report from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42. "VVS stealer's code is obfuscated by Pyarmor," researchers Pranay Kumar Chhaparwal and Lee Wei Yeong said . "This tool is used to obfuscate Python scripts to hinder static analysis and signature-based detection. Pyarmor can be used for legitimate purposes and also leveraged to build stealthy malware." Advertised on Telegram as the "ultimate stealer," it's available for €10 ($11.69) for a weekly subscription. It can also be purchased at different pricing tiers: €20 ($23) for a month, €40 ($47) for three months, €90 ($105) for a year, and €199 ($232) for a lifetime license, making it one of the cheapest stealers ...

The threat actor known as Transparent Tribe has been attributed to a fresh set of attacks targeting Indian governmental, academic, and strategic entities with a remote access trojan (RAT) that grants them persistent control over compromised hosts. "The campaign employs deceptive delivery techniques, including a weaponized Windows shortcut (LNK) file masquerading as a legitimate PDF document and embedded with full PDF content to evade user suspicion," CYFIRMA said in a technical report. Transparent Tribe, also called APT36, is a hacking group that's known for mounting cyber espionage campaigns against Indian organizations. Assessed to be of Indian origin, the state-sponsored adversary has been active since at least 2013. The threat actor boasts of an ever-evolving arsenal of RATs to realize its goals. Some of the trojans put to use by Transparent Tribe in recent years include CapraRAT , Crimson RAT , ElizaRAT , and DeskRAT . The latest set of attacks began with a s...

Attack Surface Management (ASM) tools promise reduced risk. What they usually deliver is more information.  Security teams deploy ASM, asset inventories grow, alerts start flowing, and dashboards fill up. There is visible activity and measurable output. But when leadership asks a simple question, " Is this reducing incidents? " the answer is often unclear.  This gap between effort and outcome is the core ROI problem in attack surface management, especially when ROI is measured primarily through asset counts instead of risk reduction.  The Promise vs. The Proof Most ASM programs are built around a reasonable idea: you can't protect what you don't know exists. As a result, teams focus on discovery: domains and subdomains, IPs and cloud resources, third-party infrastructure, and transient or short-lived assets.  Over time, counts increase. Dashboards are trending upward. Coverage improves.  But none of those metrics directly answer whether the organization i...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a phishing campaign that involves the attackers impersonating legitimate Google-generated messages by abusing Google Cloud's Application Integration service to distribute emails. The activity, Check Point said, takes advantage of the trust associated with Google Cloud infrastructure to send the messages from a legitimate email address ("noreply-application-integration@google[.]com") so that they can bypass traditional email security filters and have a better chance of landing in users' inboxes. "The emails mimic routine enterprise notifications such as voicemail alerts and file access or permission requests, making them appear normal and trustworthy to recipients," the cybersecurity company said . Attackers have been observed sending 9,394 phishing emails targeting approximately 3,200 customers over a 14-day period observed in December 2025, with the affected organizations located in the U.S., Asia-Pac...

The first ThreatsDay Bulletin of 2026 lands on a day that already feels symbolic — new year, new breaches, new tricks. If the past twelve months taught defenders anything, it's that threat actors don't pause for holidays or resolutions. They just evolve faster. This week's round-up shows how subtle shifts in behavior, from code tweaks to job scams, are rewriting what "cybercrime" looks like in practice. Across the landscape, big players are being tested, familiar threats are mutating, and smaller stories are quietly signaling bigger patterns ahead. The trend isn't about one big breach anymore; it's about many small openings that attackers exploit with precision. The pace of exploitation, deception, and persistence hasn't slowed; it's only become more calculated. Each update in this edition highlights how the line between normal operations and compromise is getting thinner by the week. Here's a sharp look at what's moving beneath the surface of the cybersecurity world as 2026 begin...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a persistent nine-month-long campaign that has targeted Internet of Things (IoT) devices and web applications to enroll them into a botnet known as RondoDox. As of December 2025, the activity has been observed leveraging the recently disclosed React2Shell (CVE-2025-55182, CVSS score: 10.0) flaw as an initial access vector, CloudSEK said in an analysis. React2Shell is the name assigned to a critical security vulnerability in React Server Components (RSC) and Next.js that could allow unauthenticated attackers to achieve remote code execution on susceptible devices. According to statistics from the Shadowserver Foundation, there are about 90,300 instances that remain susceptible to the vulnerability as of December 31, 2025, out of which 68,400 instances are located in the U.S., followed by Germany (4,300), France (2,800), and India (1,500). RondoDox, which emerged in early 2025, has broadened its scale by adding new N-day secur...

As web browsers evolve into all-purpose platforms, performance and productivity often suffer.  Feature overload, excessive background processes, and fragmented workflows can slow down browsing sessions and introduce unnecessary friction, especially for users who rely on the browser as a primary work environment. This article explores how adopting a lightweight, task-focused browser, like Adapt Browser , can help users browse faster, reduce distractions, and complete everyday tasks more efficiently, without relying on heavy extensions or complex configurations. The Productivity Problem With Modern Browsing For many professionals, the browser functions as a central hub for research, communication, content consumption, and operational work. However, common challenges persist: High CPU and memory usage caused by background services Excessive tab proliferation leading to loss of context Frequent switching between browser tabs and external applications Reliance on extensions t...

Trust Wallet on Tuesday revealed that the second iteration of the Shai-Hulud (aka Sha1-Hulud) supply chain outbreak in November 2025 was likely responsible for the hack of its Google Chrome extension , ultimately resulting in the theft of approximately $8.5 million in assets. "Our Developer GitHub secrets were exposed in the attack, which gave the attacker access to our browser extension source code and the Chrome Web Store (CWS) API key," the company said in a post-mortem published Tuesday. "The attacker obtained full CWS API access via the leaked key, allowing builds to be uploaded directly without Trust Wallet's standard release process, which requires internal approval/manual review." Subsequently, the attacker is said to have registered the domain "metrics-trustwallet[.]com" and pushed a trojanized version of the extension with a backdoor that's capable of harvesting users' wallet mnemonic phrases to the sub-domain "api.metrics...

The threat actor behind two malicious browser extension campaigns, ShadyPanda and GhostPoster , has been attributed to a third attack campaign codenamed DarkSpectre that has impacted 2.2 million users of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. The activity is assessed to be the work of a Chinese threat actor that Koi Security is tracking under the moniker DarkSpectre . In all, the campaigns have collectively affected over 8.8 million users spanning a period of more than seven years. ShadyPanda was first unmasked by the cybersecurity company earlier this month as targeting all three browser users to facilitate data theft, search query hijacking, and affiliate fraud. It has been found to affect 5.6 million users, including 1.3 newly identified victims stemming from over 100 extensions flagged as connected to the same cluster. This also includes an Edge add-on named "New Tab - Customized Dashboard" that features a logic bomb that waits for three days prior to t...

IBM has disclosed details of a critical security flaw in API Connect that could allow attackers to gain remote access to the application. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-13915 , is rated 9.8 out of a maximum of 10.0 on the CVSS scoring system. It has been described as an authentication bypass flaw. "IBM API Connect could allow a remote attacker to bypass authentication mechanisms and gain unauthorized access to the application," the tech giant said in a bulletin. The shortcoming affects the following versions of IBM API Connect - 10.0.8.0 through 10.0.8.5 10.0.11.0 Customers are advised to follow the steps outlined below - Download the fix from Fix Central Extract the files: Readme.md and ibm-apiconnect-<version>-ifix.13195.tar.gz Apply the fix based on the appropriate API Connect version "Customers unable to install the interim fix should disable self-service sign-up on their Developer Portal if enabled, which will help minimise their exp...