Cyber warfare | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

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...

An Iranian state-sponsored hacking group associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been linked to a spear-phishing campaign targeting journalists, high-profile cyber security experts, and computer science professors in Israel. "In some of those campaigns, Israeli technology and cyber security professionals were approached by attackers who posed as fictitious assistants to technology executives or researchers through emails and WhatsApp messages," Check Point said in a report published Wednesday. "The threat actors directed victims who engaged with them to fake Gmail login pages or Google Meet invitations." The cybersecurity company attributed the activity to a threat cluster it tracks as Educated Manticore , which overlaps with APT35 (and its sub-cluster APT42 ), CALANQUE, Charming Kitten, CharmingCypress, Cobalt Illusion, ITG18, Magic Hound, Mint Sandstorm (formerly Phosphorus), Newscaster, TA453, and Yellow Garuda. The advanced persist...

Thousands of personal records allegedly linked to athletes and visitors of the Saudi Games have been published online by a pro-Iranian hacktivist group called Cyber Fattah. Cybersecurity company Resecurity said the breach was announced on Telegram on June 22, 2025, in the form of SQL database dumps, characterizing it as an information operation "carried out by Iran and its proxies." "The actors gained unauthorized access to phpMyAdmin (backend) and exfiltrated stored records," Resecurity said . "This is an example of Iran using data breaches as part of a larger anti-U.S., anti-Israel, and anti-Saudi propaganda activity in cyberspace, targeting major sports and social events." It's believed that the data is likely pulled from the Saudi Games 2024 official website and then shared on DarkForums , a cybercrime forum that has gained attention in the wake of BreachForums' repeated takedowns. The information was published by a forum user named ZeroDay...

The United States government has warned of cyber attacks mounted by pro-Iranian groups after it launched airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites as part of the Iran–Israel war that commenced on June 13, 2025. Stating that the ongoing conflict has created a "heightened threat environment" in the country, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a bulletin that cyber actors are likely to target U.S. networks. "Low-level cyber attacks against U.S. networks by pro-Iranian hacktivists are likely, and cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian government may conduct attacks against U.S. networks," the DHS said . "Both hacktivists and Iranian government-affiliated actors routinely target poorly secured U.S. networks and Internet-connected devices for disruptive cyber attacks." The development comes after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military had conducted a bombing attack on three Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Natanz, and ...