cyber espionage | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated two individuals and a VPN service provider for enabling ransomware actors' and other cybercriminals' malicious activities, including ransomware attacks against Americans. The VPN, named First VPN Service ( 1VPNS ), has been accused of offering its tools to ransomware groups, along with its 45-year-old Ukrainian administrator, Dmytro Rashevskyi. The department has also sanctioned Yegeniy Vladimirovich Silayev, a Belarusian national, for selling cryptors to help conceal ransomware and other malware as safe programs to avoid being detected by security tools. First VPN was dismantled in May 2026 as part of a joint law enforcement operation by European and North American authorities for assisting criminal actors to obscure the origins of ransomware attacks, data theft, scanning, and denial-of-service attacks. The service had been operational since 2014, advertising that it neither keeps...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of sustained cyber espionage activity against several Pakistani law enforcement organizations undertaken by suspected China- and India-aligned threat actors between February 2024 and April 2026. "At Balochistan Police, the compromised assets included servers hosting web applications that manage police and citizen data, such as criminal and biometric records," Aleksandar Milenkoski, principal threat researcher at SentinelOne SentinelLABS, said in a report published this week. The activity targeted network appliances and servers hosting web applications that manage biometric records, hotel and tenant registrations linked to national identity records, criminal case files, and personnel records. The China-nexus threat actor is also said to have compromised one of these web applications to deploy a custom implant masquerading as a portal update. The application in question, named Complaint Management System (CMS), serves pol...

Microsoft has taken apart a destructive Windows backdoor it calls GigaWiper . What stands out is how it is built: not one tool but three older destructive programs bolted into one, offered as commands the operator can choose from. Each is a different way to break a machine: wipe the whole disk, overwrite the Windows drive, or run fake "ransomware" that scrambles files with a key it never saves. Because this is malware and not a single flaw, there is no patch to chase; GigaWiper is what an attacker runs after they are already inside, which makes early detection and clean, offline backups the real defense. The same malicious files show up in a second report under another name: BLUERABBIT , a backdoor Binary Defense flagged last month . Microsoft lists four hashes for the GigaWiper backdoor ; Binary Defense lists the same four for BLUERABBIT , and both command servers match. Binary Defense, citing Google's Threat Intelligence Group, ties the malware to a likely Ir...

A Chinese threat actor tracked as UAT-7810 is actively refining its bespoke malware to expand its Operational Relay Box (ORB) network by breaking into internet-facing networking devices. According to findings from Cisco Talos, UAT-7810 is an advanced persistent threat (APT) actor that's responsible for maintaining and proliferating LapDogs , an ORB network that first came to light in June 2025. "UAT-7810 is most likely tasked with establishing Operational Relay Box (ORB) networks that can then be leveraged by associated secondary threat actors to conduct their own malicious attacks against high value targets," researchers Jungsoo An, Asheer Malhotra, Vanja Svajcer, and Brandon White said . One such China-nexus threat actor that has leveraged the infrastructure in its own attacks is UAT-5918 , which has been linked to cyber attacks targeting critical infrastructure entities in Taiwan since at least 2023 with an aim to establish persistent access within victim envir...

An Iranian hacking group affiliated with Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) has been wielding a previously undocumented modular command-and-control (C2) framework dubbed Cavern (aka Cav3rn) targeting Israeli organizations. The activity, which has primarily singled out IT providers and government sectors, has been attributed to a threat cluster tracked by Check Point Research under the moniker Cavern Manticore , which it said shares some level of tactical overlaps with MuddyWater and Lyceum , the latter of which is assessed to be a subgroup within OilRig . "The framework reflects a mature and adaptable toolset built around a shared .NET foundation, while using multiple compilation formats across different components, including .NET Framework, .NET Mixed-Mode C++/CLI, and .NET Native AOT ," the cybersecurity company said . "The compilation format itself becomes the anti-analysis layer that forces reverse engineers into multiple toolsets and me...

A suspected China-nexus threat activity cluster has been observed targeting Indian taxpayers, tax professionals, and corporate finance teams to deliver a remote access trojan designed to steal sensitive data from compromised hosts. The multi-stage campaign, codenamed Operation DragonReturn by Seqrite Labs, involves sending spear-phishing emails impersonating the Income Tax Department of India. It was first observed on May 18, 2026. The activity, per the cybersecurity company, coincides with the annual income tax filing season in the country. "It is not opportunistic – the precision of the lure document, the use of real legal citations, bilingual content, and active payload rotation indicate a deliberate, resourced, and sustained threat operation focused exclusively on the Indian taxpayer ecosystem," security researchers Dixit Panchal and Soumen Burma said . The end goal of the campaign is assessed to be the deployment of malware for financial gain or sensitive data the...

Researchers at  Shandong University  have shown a fast new way to pull data off computers that are cut off from every network. The technique, called  TrojPix , tweaks on-screen pixels in ways the eye cannot see, so that the video cable carrying them radiates a faint radio signal a nearby receiver can decode. But TrojPix works only once malware is already on the target machine, so it is a way for stolen data to get out, not a way in. In the researchers' tests, TrojPix hit a peak throughput of 8.1 Mbps and reached as far as 208 meters, the two measured separately rather than together. Most air-gap covert channels crawl along at bits or kilobits per second; at 8.1 megabits, roughly a megabyte a second, TrojPix could move a 100 MB file in under two minutes. That turns the threat from leaking a password into moving whole files while the monitor looks switched off. Real-world range is another matter: a receiver still has to fight through walls, shielding, and noise. Th...

A previously undocumented threat actor known as Armored Likho has been attributed to cyber attacks targeting government agencies and the electric power sector across Russia, Brazil, and Kazakhstan. "Armored Likho blends financially motivated campaigns targeting private individuals with targeted cyber espionage aimed at organizations," Kaspersky said in a technical analysis published today. "Their toolkit features obfuscated, modular RATs and infostealers specifically engineered to bypass dynamic analysis." The attacks are also characterized by the use of tools like Go2Tunnel for remote access and network tunneling. The wide variety of tools in its arsenal allows the threat actor to maintain persistent access to compromised hosts, steal credentials and sensitive data, and dynamically deliver modules tailored to the victim's profile. The Russian cybersecurity vendor said Armored Likho shares possible overlaps with a threat cluster tracked by BI.ZONE under...

The China-aligned espionage group  Mustang Panda  is running two campaigns against the Indian government and hydropower targets, deploying new malware and turning a legitimate cloud service into its command channel. Acronis Threat Research Unit  found active compromises inside Indian government networks, including machines used by senior administrative staff, and worked with  CERT-In  on notification and cleanup. The malware abuses  Zoho WorkDrive , a cloud storage platform common in India's government sector, to pass commands and exfiltrate data. That is the whole idea: the traffic looks like ordinary cloud activity, so it hides inside the network it is stealing from. Acronis names three new tools. SHARDLOADER is a loader that runs by sideloading a malicious DLL through a legitimately signed binary, a Solid PDF Creator executable in one campaign, and a Citrix Receiver binary in the other. It deploys one of two implants. MINIRECON is a rewor...

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) said it, together with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), uncovered a long-running campaign orchestrated by Russian intelligence services to break into the messaging accounts of government officials, military personnel, politicians, and activists in Ukraine, Europe, and the U.S. The systematic cyber attacks aimed at stealing sensitive information from the victims, the agency added. "The goal of these 'hacks' is to gain access to sensitive military, political, and economic information exchanged by users, as well as to steal their personal data," the agency warned in a post shared on Telegram. To pull off the operation, the attackers send SMS messages that masquerade as the messaging platform's support bot and urge users to disclose their account credentials.  The SSU noted that these attacks include not only organizations, officials or public figures, but also personal accounts belonging to Ukrainian nati...

A newly discovered cyber attack campaign has been observed delivering a previously undocumented malware family called SharkLoader that acts as a loader for deploying Cobalt Strike Beacon on compromised hosts. Kaspersky, which is tracking the activity under the moniker StrikeShark , said the campaign has targeted a diplomatic organization in Indonesia, government organizations in Taiwan, software development companies across multiple countries, and entities associated with other sectors located in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Syria, Colombia, North Macedonia, Nepal, and Serbia.  "The observed victimology suggests a campaign with broad geographic reach and a diverse target set rather than a narrow focus on a specific industry or region," the Russian cybersecurity vendor said . The campaign does not exhibit direct links to any known threat actor or group, although the operators have utilized several open-source post-compromise tools like FScan and Pillager , which are commonly p...

A Chinese-speaking advanced persistent threat (APT) actor has been linked to a new custom backdoor called TinyRCT as part of cyber attacks aimed at government entities and critical infrastructure in Southeast Asia. The activity, particularly aimed at state-owned enterprises in the energy and government sectors, has been attributed to a threat actor called CL-STA-1062 , which Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 said shares overlaps with UAT-7237 , a hacking group that was first flagged by Cisco Talos in August 2025 in relation to a campaign directed against web infrastructure entities in Taiwan. Unit 42 said it also observed CL-STA-1062 campaigns in prior operations targeting strategic sectors in East Asia since March 2022, suggesting a broader but sustained focus in the region. "From a technical standpoint, the attackers behind CL-STA-1062 rely on a hybrid toolkit," Unit 42 said in a technical report. "While they frequently use common open-source tools such as SoftEther ...

The Russian state-sponsored threat actor known as Turla has been attributed to a previously undocumented .NET backdoor called STOCKSTAY that has been deployed against government and military organizations in Ukraine, and entities that have an interest in Italian foreign policy. Describing the Windows backdoor as continually developed by the hacking group, Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) said the cyber espionage tool shares significant code and functional overlaps with Kazuar , a staple implant put to use by the adversary since 2017. Suspected development activity of malware dates back to December 2022. "STOCKSTAY is a multi-component backdoor written in .NET, using the Windows Forms framework, which communicates with its command-and-control (C2) via a secure WebSocket connection, utilizing the open-source websocket-sharp library," GTIG said . "STOCKSTAY consists of several distinct components that communicate with one another via an inter-process commu...

Canada's spy service got a judge's permission to reach into infected servers, home routers, and IoT gear sitting on Canadian soil and neutralize two foreign-run botnets. The Federal Court released a public version of the ruling on June 15. It is the first time the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has used its threat reduction warrant powers this way. The warrant let CSIS alter, degrade, and destroy botnet data on the infected machines and cut the devices loose from the networks. The targets were Canada-based servers, small office and home office (SOHO) routers, and Internet of Things devices: Ring doorbells, security cameras, TVs, and other Wi-Fi-enabled appliances. Justice Catherine Kane granted the warrant on May 1, 2024, renewed it that August, and issued the confidential reasons in February 2026. The warrant stayed out of public view for more than two years, until this month's redacted release. CSIS needed the order because the cleanup would likely hav...

Cybersecurity researchers have flagged two previously undocumented Windows variants of what was believed to be a Linux-only backdoor called SprySOCKS . "The Windows variants discovered are internally marked as WIN_DRV and WIN_PLUS," ESET said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Both come with a hard-coded C&C [command-and-control] configuration and support communication over TCP, UDP, and WebSocket protocols." Like its Linux counterpart, the Windows versions support more than 30 commands to facilitate system information collection, process enumeration, service management, and file system operations. WIN_DRV has also been found to utilize kernel drivers to conceal the malware's network connections, processes, files, and registry keys. In addition, the variant enables TCP traffic diversion that allows the malware operators to send commands to the backdoor through a random TCP port on the victim's device without exposing the backdoor's act...

A China-linked espionage group hid inside North American medical, academic, and military research networks for more than a year, quietly stealing sensitive research and defense email. The way in was a backdoor on their REDCap research servers that stole login credentials. The exfiltration was the unusual part: the attackers rewired the victims' own Google Workspace rules to copy any message matching their keywords to an inbox they controlled. Google's Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) laid out the campaign in a report published this week and attributes it with high confidence to a cluster it tracks as UNC6508. The actor and its REDCap backdoor are not new names; Google first surfaced both in February , in a wider report on state-backed attacks against the defense sector. It did not name the victims, describing them only as multiple organizations across the US and Canada: clinical providers, academic centers, military health institutions, advocacy groups, and health regul...

The Vietnam-aligned threat actor known as OceanLotus has been attributed to two distinct campaigns that targeted domestic entities and stock investors with a backdoor known as SPECTRALVIPER. The campaigns involve a prolonged cyber espionage operation aimed at a Vietnamese infrastructure and transport construction corporation between mid-2024 and February 2026, as well as a supply chain attack leveraging FireAnt Metakit, a popular software platform used by stock investors in Vietnam. The second activity cluster took place from October 2025 to March 2026. The two sets of attacks represent a shift in operational focus, per ESET, with the threat actor placing an increasing emphasis on domestic espionage rather than external targets. The group, active since 2012, also has a history of targeting China . "Whether the shift represents a temporary adjustment or a long-term strategic change remains unclear; however, this 15-year-old APT group continues to demonstrate aggressive tact...

Two Russia-aligned cyber attack campaigns have continued to exploit a security flaw in WinRAR to target Ukrainian organisations, almost a year after patches for the vulnerability were released. The activity has been attributed by Trend Micro to Earth Dahu (aka Gamaredon) and SHADOW-EARTH-066 (aka UAC-0226). It involves the exploitation of CVE-2025-8088 , a path traversal flaw that allows an attacker to write files outside the extraction directory via NTFS Alternate Data Streams (ADS). It was patched by WinRAR in July 2025. The findings show "how unmanaged software keeps an exploited entry point open long after the fix ships," Trend Micro researchers Hiroyuki Kakara and Feike Hacquebord said in an analysis published Monday. The WinRAR exploit chain exploited by SHADOW-EARTH-066 is a departure from Excel macro droppers previously used by the threat actor to deliver an information stealer called GIFTEDCROOK. The latest iteration makes use of crafted RAR archives featur...

A China-nexus cyber espionage group has been observed deploying a BSD variant of a known backdoor called BRICKSTORM, as well as two other malware families codenamed PLENET (aka GRIMBOLT ) and AGENTPSD to target Linux systems. The activity has been attributed by Volexity to a threat cluster it tracks as VerdantBamboo , which it said overlaps with hacking groups known as Clay Typhoon (Microsoft), UNC5221 (Google), and Warp Panda (CrowdStrike). The cybersecurity company said it discovered the intrusion during an incident response engagement in September 2025, when it emerged that the adversary had compromised an unnamed victim's Egnyte Storage Sync system by exploiting a local privilege escalation flaw to deploy BRICKSTORM. The issue was addressed in Storage Sync version 13.13 , released in March 2026.

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a previously unreported threat cluster dubbed OP-512 (where "OP" stands for "opponent") that has been observed targeting Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) servers to deploy a bespoke web shell framework. ReliaQuest has assessed with moderate to high confidence that the espionage-focused activity is linked to China. "OP-512 was highly likely conducting espionage through a compromised Internet Information Services (IIS) web server on an organization whose sector and geography align with China-linked intelligence priorities," the company said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Although no overlaps have been found between OP-512 and other known China-aligned adversaries, it's the fourth such threat group after CL-STA-0048 , DragonRank , and GhostRedirector to single out IIS web servers over the past 12 months. As recently as last month, Cisco Talos revealed that multiple Chinese-speaking...