North Korea | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The North Korea-affiliated threat actor known as Konni (aka Earth Imp, Opal Sleet, Osmium, TA406, and Vedalia) has been attributed to a new set of attacks targeting both Android and Windows devices for data theft and remote control. "Attackers impersonated psychological counselors and North Korean human rights activists, distributing malware disguised as stress-relief programs," the Genians Security Center (GSC) said in a technical report. What's notable about the attacks targeting Android devices is also the destructive ability of the threat actors to exploit Google's asset tracking services Find Hub (formerly Find My Device) to remotely reset victim devices, thereby leading to the unauthorized deletion of personal data. The activity was detected in early September 2025. The development marks the first time the hacking group has weaponized legitimate management functions to remotely reset mobile devices. The activity is also preceded by an attack chain in whic...

Cyber threats didn't slow down last week—and attackers are getting smarter. We're seeing malware hidden in virtual machines, side-channel leaks exposing AI chats, and spyware quietly targeting Android devices in the wild. But that's just the surface. From sleeper logic bombs to a fresh alliance between major threat groups, this week's roundup highlights a clear shift: cybercrime is evolving fast, and the lines between technical stealth and strategic coordination are blurring. It's worth your time. Every story here is about real risks that your team needs to know about right now. Read the whole recap. ⚡ Threat of the Week Curly COMrades Abuses Hyper-V to Hide Malware in Linux VMs — Curly COMrades, a threat actor supporting Russia's geopolitical interests, has been observed abusing Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor in compromised Windows machines to create a hidden Alpine Linux-based virtual machine and deploy malicious payloads. This method allows the malware to run completel...

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions against eight individuals and two entities within North Korea's global financial network for laundering money for various illicit schemes , including cybercrime and information technology (IT) worker fraud . "North Korean state-sponsored hackers steal and launder money to fund the regime's nuclear weapons program," said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley. "By generating revenue for Pyongyang's weapons development, these actors directly threaten U.S. and global security. The Treasury will continue to pursue the facilitators and enablers behind these schemes to cut off the DPRK's illicit revenue streams." The names of sanctioned individuals and entities are listed below - Jang Kuk Chol (Jang) and Ho Jong Son , who are said to have helped manage funds, including $5.3 million in cryptocurrency, on behalf of First Credit Bank (aka Cheil ...

Cyberattacks are getting smarter and harder to stop. This week, hackers used sneaky tools, tricked trusted systems, and quickly took advantage of new security problems—some just hours after being found. No system was fully safe. From spying and fake job scams to strong ransomware and tricky phishing, the attacks came from all sides. Even encrypted backups and secure areas were put to the test. Keep reading for the full list of the biggest cyber news from this week—clearly explained and easy to follow. ⚡ Threat of the Week Motex Lanscope Flaw Exploited to Drop Gokcpdoor — A suspected Chinese cyber espionage actor known as Tick has been attributed to a target campaign that has leveraged a recently disclosed critical security flaw in Motex Lanscope Endpoint Manager (CVE-2025-61932, CVSS score: 9.3) to infiltrate target networks and deploy a backdoor called Gokcpdoor. Sophos, which disclosed details of the activity, said it was "limited to sectors aligned with their intelligence...

Threat actors tied to North Korea have been observed targeting the Web3 and blockchain sectors as part of twin campaigns tracked as GhostCall and GhostHire . According to Kaspersky, the campaigns are part of a broader operation called SnatchCrypto that has been underway since at least 2017. The activity is attributed to a Lazarus Group sub-cluster called BlueNoroff , which is also known as APT38, CageyChameleon, CryptoCore, Genie Spider, Nickel Gladstone, Sapphire Sleet (formerly Copernicium), and Stardust Chollima. Victims of the GhostCall campaign span several infected macOS hosts located in Japan, Italy, France, Singapore, Turkey, Spain, Sweden, India, and Hong Kong, whereas Japan and Australia have been identified as the major hunting grounds for the GhostHire campaign. "GhostCall heavily targets the macOS devices of executives at tech companies and in the venture capital sector by directly approaching targets via platforms like Telegram, and inviting potential victims t...

Security, trust, and stability — once the pillars of our digital world — are now the tools attackers turn against us. From stolen accounts to fake job offers, cybercriminals keep finding new ways to exploit both system flaws and human behavior. Each new breach proves a harsh truth: in cybersecurity, feeling safe can be far more dangerous than being alert. Here's how that false sense of security was broken again this week. ⚡ Threat of the Week Newly Patched Critical Microsoft WSUS Flaw Comes Under Attack — Microsoft released out-of-band security updates to patch a critical-severity Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) vulnerability that has since come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-59287 (CVSS score: 9.8), a remote code execution flaw in WSUS that was originally fixed by the tech giant as part of its Patch Tuesday update published last week. According to Eye Security and Huntress, the security flaw is being weaponized to drop a .N...

Threat actors with ties to North Korea have been attributed to a new wave of attacks targeting European companies active in the defense industry as part of a long-running campaign known as Operation Dream Job . "Some of these [companies] are heavily involved in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sector, suggesting that the operation may be linked to North Korea's current efforts to scale up its drone program," ESET security researchers Peter Kálnai and Alexis Rapin said in a report shared with The Hacker News. It's assessed that the end goal of the campaign is to plunder proprietary information and manufacturing know-how using malware families such as ScoringMathTea and MISTPEN. The Slovak cybersecurity company said it observed the campaign starting in late March 2025. Some of the targeted entities include a metal engineering company in Southeastern Europe, a manufacturer of aircraft components in Central Europe, and a defense company in Central Europe. While Sc...

It's easy to think your defenses are solid — until you realize attackers have been inside them the whole time. The latest incidents show that long-term, silent breaches are becoming the norm. The best defense now isn't just patching fast, but watching smarter and staying alert for what you don't expect. Here's a quick look at this week's top threats, new tactics, and security stories shaping the landscape. ⚡ Threat of the Week F5 Exposed to Nation-State Breach — F5 disclosed that unidentified threat actors broke into its systems and stole files containing some of BIG-IP's source code and information related to undisclosed vulnerabilities in the product. The company said it learned of the incident on August 9, 2025, although it's believed that the attackers were in its network for at least 12 months. The attackers are said to have used a malware family called BRICKSTORM, which is attributed to a China-nexus espionage group dubbed UNC5221. GreyNoise said it observed elevat...

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, Void Dokkaebi, and WaterPlum. 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...

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 ...

Cybersecurity never stops—and neither do hackers. While you wrapped up last week, new attacks were already underway. From hidden software bugs to massive DDoS attacks and new ransomware tricks, this week's roundup gives you the biggest security moves to know. Whether you're protecting key systems or locking down cloud apps, these are the updates you need before making your next security decision. Take a quick look to start your week informed and one step ahead. ⚡ Threat of the Week Cisco 0-Day Flaws Under Attack — Cybersecurity agencies warned that threat actors have exploited two security flaws affecting Cisco firewalls as part of zero-day attacks to deliver previously undocumented malware families like RayInitiator and LINE VIPER. The RayInitiator and LINE VIPER malware represent a significant evolution on that used in the previous campaign, both in sophistication and its ability to evade detection. The activity involves the exploitation of CVE-2025-20362 (CVSS score: 6.5) a...

The North Korea-linked threat actors associated with the Contagious Interview campaign have been attributed to a previously undocumented backdoor called AkdoorTea, along with tools like TsunamiKit and Tropidoor. Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET, which is tracking the activity under the name DeceptiveDevelopment, said the campaign targets software developers across all operating systems, Windows, Linux, and macOS, particularly those involved in cryptocurrency and Web3 projects. It's also referred to as DEV#POPPER, Famous Chollima, Gwisin Gang, Tenacious Pungsan, UNC5342, and Void Dokkaebi. "DeceptiveDevelopment's toolset is mostly multi-platform and consists of initial obfuscated malicious scripts in Python and JavaScript, basic backdoors in Python and Go, and a dark web project in .NET," ESET researchers Peter Kálnai and Matěj Havránek said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The campaign essentially involves the impersonated recruiters offering what appear to...

The security landscape now moves at a pace no patch cycle can match. Attackers aren't waiting for quarterly updates or monthly fixes—they adapt within hours, blending fresh techniques with old, forgotten flaws to create new openings. A vulnerability closed yesterday can become the blueprint for tomorrow's breach. This week's recap explores the trends driving that constant churn: how threat actors reuse proven tactics in unexpected ways, how emerging technologies widen the attack surface, and what defenders can learn before the next pivot. Read on to see not just what happened, but what it means—so you can stay ahead instead of scrambling to catch up. ⚡ Threat of the Week Google Patches Actively Exploited Chrome 0-Day — Google released security updates for the Chrome web browser to address four vulnerabilities, including one that it said has been exploited in the wild. The zero-day vulnerability, CVE-2025-10585, has been described as a type confusion issue in the V8 JavaScript ...

Threat actors with ties to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (aka DPRK or North Korea) have been observed leveraging ClickFix-style lures to deliver a known malware called BeaverTail and InvisibleFerret. "The threat actor used ClickFix lures to target marketing and trader roles in cryptocurrency and retail sector organizations rather than targeting software development roles," GitLab Threat Intelligence researcher Oliver Smith said in a report published last week. First exposed by Palo Alto Networks in late 2023, BeaverTail and InvisibleFerret have been deployed by North Korean operatives as part of a long-running campaign dubbed Contagious Interview (aka Gwisin Gang), wherein the malware is distributed to software developers under the pretext of a job assessment. Assessed to be a subset of the umbrella group Lazarus , the cluster has been active since at least December 2022. Over the years, BeaverTail has also been propagated via bogus npm packages and f...

In a world where threats are persistent, the modern CISO's real job isn't just to secure technology—it's to preserve institutional trust and ensure business continuity. This week, we saw a clear pattern: adversaries are targeting the complex relationships that hold businesses together, from supply chains to strategic partnerships. With new regulations and the rise of AI-driven attacks, the decisions you make now will shape your organization's resilience for years to come. This isn't just a threat roundup; it's the strategic context you need to lead effectively. Here's your full weekly recap, packed with the intelligence to keep you ahead. ⚡ Threat of the Week New HybridPetya Ransomware Bypasses UEFI Secure Boot — A copycat version of the infamous Petya/NotPetya malware dubbed HybridPetya has been spotted. But no telemetry exists to suggest HybridPetya has been deployed in the wild yet. It also differs in one key respect: It can compromise the secure boot featu...

Cybersecurity never slows down. Every week brings new threats, new vulnerabilities, and new lessons for defenders. For security and IT teams, the challenge is not just keeping up with the news—it's knowing which risks matter most right now. That's what this digest is here for: a clear, simple briefing to help you focus where it counts. This week, one story stands out above the rest: the Salesloft–Drift breach, where attackers stole OAuth tokens and accessed Salesforce data from some of the biggest names in tech. It's a sharp reminder of how fragile integrations can become the weak link in enterprise defenses. Alongside this, we'll also walk through several high-risk CVEs under active exploitation, the latest moves by advanced threat actors, and fresh insights on making security workflows smarter, not noisier. Each section is designed to give you the essentials—enough to stay informed and prepared, without getting lost in the noise. ⚡ Threat of the Week Salesloft to Take Drift Of...

When Attackers Get Hired: Today's New Identity Crisis What if the star engineer you just hired isn't actually an employee, but an attacker in disguise? This isn't phishing; it's infiltration by onboarding. Meet "Jordan from Colorado," who has a strong resume, convincing references, a clean background check, even a digital footprint that checks out. On day one, Jordan logs into email and attends the weekly standup, getting a warm welcome from the team. Within hours, they have access to repos, project folders, even some copy/pasted dev keys to use in their pipeline. A week later, tickets close faster, and everyone's impressed. Jordan makes insightful observations about the environment, the tech stack, which tools are misconfigured, and which approvals are rubber-stamped. But Jordan wasn't Jordan. And that red-carpet welcome the team rolled out was the equivalent to a golden key, handed straight to the adversary. From Phishing to Fake Hires The modern con isn't a malicious link in...

The North Korea-linked threat actor known as the Lazarus Group has been attributed to a social engineering campaign that distributes three different pieces of cross-platform malware called PondRAT, ThemeForestRAT, and RemotePE. The attack, observed by NCC Group's Fox-IT in 2024, targeted an organization in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, ultimately leading to the compromise of an employee's system. "From there, the actor performed discovery from inside the network using different RATs in combination with other tools, for example, to harvest credentials or proxy connections," Yun Zheng Hu and Mick Koomen said . "Afterwards, the actor moved to a stealthier RAT, likely signifying a next stage in the attack." The attack chain begins with the threat actor impersonating an existing employee of a trading company on Telegram and using fake websites masquerading as Calendly and Picktime to schedule a meeting with the victim. Although the exact initial ...

Cybersecurity today is less about single attacks and more about chains of small weaknesses that connect into big risks. One overlooked update, one misused account, or one hidden tool in the wrong hands can be enough to open the door. The news this week shows how attackers are mixing methods—combining stolen access, unpatched software, and clever tricks to move from small entry points to large consequences.  For defenders, the lesson is clear: the real danger often comes not from one major flaw, but from how different small flaws interact together. ⚡ Threat of the Week WhatsApp Patches Actively Exploited Flaw — WhatsApp addressed a security vulnerability in its messaging apps for Apple iOS and macOS that it said may have been exploited in the wild in conjunction with a recently disclosed Apple flaw in targeted zero-day attacks. The vulnerability, CVE-2025-55177 relates to a case of insufficient authorization of linked device synchronization messages. The Meta-owned company ...

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a fresh round of sanctions against two individuals and two entities for their role in the North Korean remote information technology (IT) worker scheme to generate illicit revenue for the regime's weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs. "The North Korean regime continues to target American businesses through fraud schemes involving its overseas IT workers, who steal data and demand ransom," said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley. "Under President Trump, Treasury is committed to protecting Americans from these schemes and holding the guilty accountable." The key players targeted include Vitaliy Sergeyevich Andreyev, Kim Ung Sun, Shenyang Geumpungri Network Technology Co., Ltd, and Korea Sinjin Trading Corporation. The latest effort expands the scope of sanctions imposed against Chinyong Informat...