Cyber warfare | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Threat actors with ties to Iran engaged in cyber warfare as part of efforts to facilitate and enhance physical, real-world attacks, a trend that Amazon has called cyber-enabled kinetic targeting. The development is a sign that the lines between state-sponsored cyber attacks and kinetic warfare are increasingly blurring, necessitating the need for a new category of warfare, the tech giant's threat intelligence team said in a report shared with The Hacker News. While traditional cybersecurity frameworks have treated digital and physical threats as separate domains, CJ Moses, CISO of Amazon Integrated Security, said these delineations are artificial and that nation-state threat actors are engaging in cyber reconnaissance activity to enable kinetic targeting. "These aren't just cyber attacks that happen to cause physical damage; they are coordinated campaigns where digital operations are specifically designed to support physical military objectives," Moses added. As an...

China on Sunday accused the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) of carrying out a "premeditated" cyber attack targeting the National Time Service Center ( NTSC ), as it described the U.S. as a "hacker empire" and the "greatest source of chaos in cyberspace." The Ministry of State Security (MSS), in a WeChat post , said it uncovered "irrefutable evidence" of the agency's involvement in the intrusion that dated back to March 25, 2022. The attack was ultimately foiled, it added. Established in 1966 under the jurisdiction of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), NTSC is responsible for generating, maintaining, and transmitting the national standard of time (Beijing Time). "Any cyberattack damaging these facilities would jeopardize the secure and stable operation of 'Beijing Time,' triggering severe consequences such as network communication failures, financial system disruptions, power supply interruptions, transportation paraly...

An international operation coordinated by Europol has disrupted the infrastructure of a pro-Russian hacktivist group known as NoName057(16) that has been linked to a string of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against Ukraine and its allies. The actions have led to the dismantling of a major part of the group's central server infrastructure and more than 100 systems across the world. The joint effort also included two arrests in France and Spain, searches of two dozen homes in Spain, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, France and Poland, and the issuance of arrest warrants for six Russian nationals. The effort, codenamed Operation Eastwood, took place between July 14 and 17, and involved authorities from Czechia, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United States. The investigation was also supported by Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Denmark, Latvia, Romania and Ukraine. NoName057(16) has been operatio...

An Iranian-backed ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) named Pay2Key has resurfaced in the wake of the Israel-Iran-U.S. conflict last month, offering bigger payouts to cybercriminals who launch attacks against Israel and the U.S. The financially motivated scheme, now operating under the moniker Pay2Key.I2P, is assessed to be linked to a hacking group tracked as Fox Kitten (aka Lemon Sandstorm). "Linked to the notorious Fox Kitten APT group and closely tied to the well-known Mimic ransomware, [...] Pay2Key.I2P appears to partner with or incorporate Mimic's capabilities," Morphisec security researcher Ilia Kulmin said . "Officially, the group offers an 80% profit share (up from 70%) to affiliates supporting Iran or participating in attacks against the enemies of Iran, signaling their ideological commitment." Last year, the U.S. government revealed the advanced persistent threat's (APT) modus operandi of carrying out ransomware attacks by covertly partnering wi...

The threat actor behind the GIFTEDCROOK malware has made significant updates to turn the malicious program from a basic browser data stealer to a potent intelligence-gathering tool. "Recent campaigns in June 2025 demonstrate GIFTEDCROOK's enhanced ability to exfiltrate a broad range of sensitive documents from the devices of targeted individuals, including potentially proprietary files and browser secrets," Arctic Wolf Labs said in a report published this week. "This shift in functionality, combined with the content of its phishing lures, [...] suggests a strategic focus on intelligence gathering from Ukrainian governmental and military entities." GIFTEDCROOK was first documented by the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) in early April 2025 in connection with a campaign targeting military entities, law enforcement agencies, and local self-government bodies. The activity, attributed to a hacking group it tracks as UAC-0226, involves th...