Malware | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Someone built a tool to steal data, then decided it should scare the victim for fun. Yes, that’s an actual feature. And somehow, it fits right in with this week's security stories. The rest gets interesting in different ways. A small permission can lead to a big theft. A trusted login can hide the wrong person. Old bugs are finding new victims, familiar tools are being put to strange uses, and some flaws are so simple you wonder how nobody spotted them sooner. There's a lot more hiding in the details, including a few twists you probably wouldn't expect. Here's what made the list this week. The threats change every week. Subscribe, and we’ll alert you when each new ThreatsDay Bulletin is out.

Candiru, an Israeli maker of spyware sold to governments, infected devices at the news network Al Jazeera through ordinary online ads, in attacks that needed no click or other action from the user, researchers at  the Citizen Lab  said Thursday. The hidden attack code ran the moment an ad loaded on the screen, and in some cases the ad loaded out of sight, in the background. The Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of Toronto, said this is the first public, technical confirmation that mercenary spyware, meaning hacking tools sold to governments, has reached real devices through targeted ads. The method had been described before from leaked company documents, but not shown in a live attack. The researchers recovered the spyware itself from one device, but not the exploit that breaks into the browser or app to install it. That first break-in step is described from how the attack was set up, not from captured code. How the Attack Worked The ads were placed by...

The threat actor known as Silent Lynx has been attributed to a fresh set of attacks targeting government organizations across the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The activity, observed from June 2025 through August 2026, involves four different infection chains that make use of macro-enabled documents, PS2EXE downloaders, GitHub-hosted PowerShell, and crafted WinRAR archives exploiting CVE-2025-8088 . The attacks lead to the deployment of custom reverse shells like FoalShell, Chvost, Laplas, and PickleShell that facilitate interactive remote access to compromised hosts, according to Cisco Talos and Recorded Future Insikt Group, which are tracking the campaign under the monikers UAT-6275 and TAG-193.  "UAT-6275's targeting is concentrated in Central Asia, and the wider CIS region," security researcher Ashley Shen said . "Across the reviewed campaigns, observed victims and lure themes span nine countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenist...

A long-running Traffic Distribution System (TDS) known as Help TDS to a Russian-language affiliate program called Hotejka , which appears to be a rebrand of a traffic monetization operation dubbed ROI777. Help TDS is assessed to be active since at least 2017, offering PHP code templates to partners and affiliates that are installed into compromised websites with an aim to direct unsuspecting users to tech support scams. These scams make use of full-screen browser manipulation and exit prevention techniques to serve bogus Microsoft Windows security alert screens instructing victims to contact a Windows Support number to address the problem. "Help TDS delivers tech support scams (TSSs) that direct users to call centers, where social engineering is used to convince them to install remote desktop tools," Infoblox said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "It's not simple credit card fraud: it's remote access, living-off-the-land malware operations. Once in,...

Attackers are impersonating popular AI products to distribute malware, steal browser sessions, and compromise business accounts. ANY.RUN linked 1,258 public sandbox analyses to fake AI campaigns between April and October of 2026.  The campaigns also increase operational pressure on MSSPs serving US businesses, which accounted for 16% of country-attributed targets.  Similar attacks appearing across different customers can trigger repetitive investigations, consume analyst capacity, and extend response times, making it harder to maintain consistent service levels as threat activity grows. How Fake AI Attacks Are Reaching US Businesses Fake AI attacks pose a serious risk to business security The campaigns investigated by ANY.RUN use familiar AI brands to encourage employees to execute malicious commands, install compromised applications, or submit credentials through fraudulent authentication pages.