cyber espionage | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Three distinct threat activity clusters with shared infrastructure and malware code similarities have been observed targeting telecommunications providers, government organizations, military entities, research institutions, and critical infrastructure across Latin America, Asia, and Europe over the past year. Check Point Research is tracking the clusters under the names SilentDelivery , OceanGate , and DarkWire . Although initially assumed to be independent sets of attacks, each with its own backdoors and post-exploitation tooling, they have all been linked through a malware ecosystem called Sparrow. The entity behind the Sparrow framework has been codenamed CopperDragon , and is assessed to be a digital quartermaster developing tools for China-nexus threat actors, including FamousSparrow , Earth Estries , Tropic Trooper , UAT-9244 , and UAT-8302 . "Each cluster employed a different toolset and different initial access techniques, including compromising internet-facing inf...

The threat actor known as Blind Eagle has resurfaced with a new campaign targeting organizations in Latin America through judicial and administrative-themed phishing lures to deliver a remote access trojan (RAT) that shares its lineage with AsyncRAT and DCRat. "The campaign uses Portuguese and Spanish lures that resemble court notifications, fiscalía notices, tutela proceedings , and administrative documents," Zenox said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Assessed to be a Spanish-speaking group and active since 2018, Blind Eagle (aka APT-C-36) has a track record of using spear-phishing lures to distribute commodity RATs like AsyncRAT, BitRAT, Lime RAT, NjRAT, Quasar RAT, and Remcos RAT. Attack chains begin with phishing emails targeting individuals who handle cases, contracts, judicial, or institutional service requests to trick them into opening a malware-laced attachment. One email containing a Colombian judicial-themed XHTML file has been identified as ...

The Russia-aligned state-sponsored threat actor known as Turla (aka Snake) is wielding a previously undocumented cyber espionage toolset called Cereal that's used to break into victims' Microsoft Exchange servers with an aim to surreptitiously collect emails. According to an ESET report shared with The Hacker News ahead of publication, the sophisticated and modular tool is designed for long-term intelligence gathering and has been observed against two governmental entities in Kazakhstan and Romania in late 2025. "The Cereal toolset is a carefully constructed instrument for long-term, stealthy cyber espionage," the Slovakian cybersecurity company said . "It leaves little on disk, avoids external infrastructure that could be discovered and blocked, and conceals itself within legitimate Exchange processes." "The Cereal toolset demonstrates that, for Turla, Exchange servers are not just mail servers – they are durable collection points, internal e...

An October cyberattack on refrigeration controllers at about 700 French retail sites was carried out by a cyber unit of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the French government said yesterday. The attackers broke into controllers on the night of October 11 and changed their defrost settings to high temperatures. That caused food losses and, in at least 15 cases, fires. The unit is called Shahid Kaveh . It is known mainly through hacktivist personas, such as CyberAveng3rs and Cyber Isnaad Front , that publicly claim some of its attacks, France says. France's Foreign Ministry plans to summon Iran's ambassador and to ask its European partners to adopt new sanctions against Iranian organizations and individuals involved in the attack. The Paris prosecutor's office opened a judicial investigation yesterday against the unit's head, the head's two deputies and anyone else identified. It has asked for international arrest warrants. The offenses u...

The South Asian cyber espionage group known as Bitter (aka APT-C-08, APT-Q-37, Hazy Tiger, Orange Yali, T-APT-17, and TA397) has been observed targeting South Asian organizations with a previously unreported remote access trojan called PapRAT. "PapRAT has both C++ and Rust implementations," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher Cara Lin said . "Its capabilities include command execution, file uploads and downloads, file deletion, directory and drive enumeration, and screenshot capture. The Rust variant adds PowerShell execution and other commands." The campaign is notable for making use of three different infection chains - A Windows Shortcut (LNK) file that abuses the native "ftp.exe" utility to run scripts and create scheduled tasks designed to maintain contact with a command-and-control (C2) server. A VHDX disk image containing a LNK file that launches a lure Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, while running an MSI installer in the background to d...

A single attacker using AI agents pulled emergency dispatch records covering seven Taipei districts, researchers at Acronis's Threat Research Unit said last week. The agents also found a Taipei fire department platform exposing patient data from 2018, including ECG readings and ambulance video footage, without a login. The researchers are highly confident that the attacker is a single person based in Hualien City, Taiwan. He aimed the agents at hundreds of organizations in at least 11 countries, including emergency services, banks, universities and military systems. The agents collected data or accessed systems at about 10 of them in Taiwan, Mexico and Thailand. The evidence comes from the attacker's own server, which initially appeared to be a misconfigured development system. It turned out to be his operational attack platform, containing more than 90,000 files, including the agents' conversations, his command history, hacking tools, credentials, and victims' d...

The OpenAI engineer who was arrested and charged last month for planting a covert audio recording device in the company's office has pleaded not guilty. According to reports from Bloomberg and CNBC , Saudi national Abdulrahman Alfozan made an appearance in San Francisco federal court on Friday, where he entered the plea. His next hearing is scheduled for November 17, 2026. If proven guilty, the 35-year-old faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, followed by three years of supervised release. He has been held without bail since his arrest on October 9, 2026. Late last month, a grand jury indicted Alfozan on a single count of interception of oral communications. Prosecutors allege that the former OpenAI employee placed a "sophisticated recording device" in an executive OpenAI conference room in what has been described as an attempt to unlawfully record sensitive conversations. He was arrested three days before he, along with his wife and s...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Wednesday added a medium-severity security flaw impacting multiple Apple operating systems to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, following reports of active exploitation. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2024-27834 (CVSS score: 5.5), a case of improper authentication that could allow an attacker with arbitrary read and write capability to bypass Pointer Authentication. It was addressed by Apple in May 2024 with improved checks in iOS 16.7.8 and iPadOS 16.7.8, iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5, macOS Sonoma 14.5, tvOS 17.5, watchOS 10.5, and Safari 17.5. The vulnerability was demonstrated as a zero-day at the Pwn2Own Vancouver hacking contest held in March that year. The addition of CVE-2024-27834 to the KEV catalog follows a report from Sekoia that threat actors possibly linked to Russia exploited previously patched vulnerabilities in Safari and Google Chrome to deliver malware capable of harves...

The Russia-linked threat actor known as APT29 is presumed to be behind a large-scale watering hole campaign targeting iOS and Android users through compromised websites, fake domains, and a supply chain attack involving a Ukrainian web analytics service called Plerdy SEO Tracker. "The injected JavaScript code collects browser and device attributes," Sekoia researchers Amaury-Jacques Garçon and Félix Aime said in a technical report shared with The Hacker News. "Then, the delivery infrastructure delivers a platform-specific N-day exploit chain targeting either iOS or Android." The end goal of the attacks is to serve payloads capable of stealing browser cookies, and in some cases, Wi-Fi passwords or full mobile device data. The activity, codenamed Poisoned Source , was discovered by the French cybersecurity company in mid-October 2026. A defining aspect of the campaign is the use of three infection vectors - Compromise of legitimate websites to inject mal...

A China-aligned threat actor known as SlippyNunchucks has been attributed to a Domain Name System (DNS) hijacking operation abusing insecure HTTP communications in Windows versions of Sogou Input Method as part of a surveillance campaign designed to deploy an implant called DarkVigil (aka FDMTP). The campaign, observed starting July 1, 2026, is assessed to have targeted organizations and Chinese-speaking individuals in Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, Oman, and Sri Lanka, according to ESET. "DarkVigil implants are typically deployed through popular Chinese applications," ESET researcher Anh Ho said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "By abusing these applications, the SlippyNunchucks threat actor has been able to reach Chinese-speaking users across Asia and Europe." Some of the applications abused by the adversary include Sogou Input Method, QuickFox, QingTalk, MiYunChat, SoftCam, and tawk.to. Active since at least September 15, 2023, SlippyNunc...

Russian authorities have arrested three suspected members of a threat group known as VasyGrek and dismantled its criminal infrastructure. Also known as Fluffy Wolf, the threat actor has a history of targeting Russian and international companies since 2016. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (MVD) said members of the group are "suspected of embezzling funds from the accounts of organizations, as well as creating, distributing, and using malicious software." In one September 2025 case highlighted by the ministry, the attackers are said to have sent a phishing email to an unnamed organization, masquerading it as business correspondence and instructing recipients to open a reconciliation report that triggered the execution of malware. The incident resulted in losses of 660,000 rubles ($8,000) from the organization's bank account, with the attackers transferring the funds to accounts under their control. "The attacks utilized a vast ...

A Russia-aligned threat actor known as Gorbag has been observed using simple information stealer malware in attacks targeting Ukrainian organizations. "Active since at least February 2025, the group has focused exclusively on Ukrainian targets, with a clear preference for law enforcement and justice entities, local administrations near the front line, and the defense sector," ESET researcher Damien Schaeffer said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The activity shares overlaps with a cluster tracked by the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) under the moniker UAC-0226 and by Trend Micro as SHADOW-EARTH-066 . Gorbag is known to be active since at least February 2025. A key tool in the threat actor's malware arsenal is GIFTEDCROOK, a C/C++ stealer that facilitates the theft of sensitive data from web browsers like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox, such as cookies, browsing history, and authentication data. Earlier this Ju...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a cyber espionage campaign targeting Israel and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq by an Iran state-aligned threat actor between August and October 2026. According to a report published by Dream Research Labs, the campaign has led to the compromise of a high-profile individual in Israel, along with additional compromises affecting a government cloud environment in the Kurdistan Region. The activity has been attributed to a threat actor known as DarkBlinders , an Iran-nexus group assessed to be active since at least September 2024 and linked to attacks aimed at aviation infrastructure and telecommunications in the U.A.E. and Iraq. It exhibits no technical overlap with other known hacking groups. Attacks mounted by the group are known to rely on spear-phishing as an initial access pathway to lure recipients into opening trojanized utilities or clicking on attacker-controlled websites that host similar tools as direct downloads. Prev...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a cyber espionage campaign specifically targeting Linux infrastructure associated with government entities and state-affiliated infrastructure. The activity, observed by Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 between October 2025 and April 2026, has been tracked under the moniker CL-UNK-1211 , where "CL" refers to cluster and "UNK" stands for unknown motivation. A notable aspect of the campaign concerns the use of large language models (LLMs) and/or automated artificial intelligence (AI) agents to generate payloads and execute malicious code. "The attackers behind this cluster of activity focused on Linux environments to conduct extensive reconnaissance and maintain persistent network access to support intelligence-gathering," researchers Roey Porat and Tom Fakterman said . "The attackers attempted to dump sensitive databases and exfiltrate government mailboxes to access social media accounts." T...

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has officially attributed the theft of more than $6 billion in virtual assets from Binance to TraderTraitor , a North Korea-aligned elite hacking group also tracked as Jade Sleet, Pressure Chollima, PUKCHONG, Slow Pisces, and UNC4899. The FBI, along with the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), said it observed the threat actor converting stolen assets primarily into Ethereum (ETH). "It is expected these assets will then be further laundered by converting them using DeFi and instant swap services as they prepare them for further laundering stages," the FBI said in a statement. The agency has also provided a list of wallet addresses that the attackers are said to be using to launder the stolen assets. The development comes as Binance said it has resumed phase one of withdrawals starting today between 6 and 9 a.m. UTC after they were paused in the wake of the incide...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of what has been described as a "highly sophisticated infection chain" targeting government organizations in Asia. The activity, detailed by Kaspersky this week, targeted a custom Windows 10 build used exclusively by government entities in Asia and involves the deployment of a previously undocumented .NET assembly-loading framework codenamed NetamLoader . The attack has not been attributed to any known threat actor or group. Nor is it clear if the intrusion compromised more than one system and allowed the hackers to steal any sensitive information. The Russian cybersecurity company said the artifact was detected in the first half of 2026, packaged inside a Windows cabinet archive (CAB) file placed in a directory that stores Windows operating system update packages. It's suspected the operation involved a supply chain attack , in which bad actors compromised a trusted third-party vendor to gain access to downstrea...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday added two security flaws impacting Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, following active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerabilities are listed below - CVE-2026-111357 (CVSS score: 8.8) - A missing authentication for a critical function vulnerability that could allow a local authenticated attacker to escalate their privileges. CVE-2026-118527 (CVSS score: 4.3) - A generation of predictable numbers or identifiers vulnerability that could allow a remote authenticated attacker to upload files with attacker-controlled content to a known location on disk. It's worth noting that the security bugs are part of an exploit chain that was first documented by Volexity earlier this month as weaponized in conjunction with an authentication bypass flaw (CVE-2026-104935, CVSS score: 8.6) by a previously undocumented threat actor dubbed UTA0576. CVE-2026-10493...

Chinese state-sponsored threat actors have been observed using a Go-based artificial intelligence (AI)-powered penetration testing framework called ARTEX in attacks aimed at high-value targets simultaneously. The activity has been attributed by CrowdStrike to a China-based "targeted intrusion adversary" it tracks under the moniker Vapor Panda (previously VexatiousTemper). First identified in February 2021, the hacking group overlaps with a threat cluster detailed by Trend Micro as Earth Estries . "Agentic tooling like ARTEX enables this scale of expansion at speed, allowing a small team to pursue a wider target set than manual operations would support, rather than a wholesale shift away from the adversary's established access-development mission," CrowdStrike said in a Thursday analysis. Starting October 17, 2026, Vapor Panda is said to have used the AI tool against more than 200 distinct organizations across the world, including foreign ministries in ...

Ahmad Umar Agha , a Syrian Electronic Army hacker known online as " Th3Pr0 ," has been  sentenced by a U.S. federal court  to 42 months in prison for his role in a hacking conspiracy that targeted Western news outlets. The conspiracy was organized and led by members of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's inner circle, including the commander of Syria's General Intelligence Directorate, the U.S. Justice Department said on October 29. The pro-Assad Syrian Electronic Army began its attacks in 2011. Its members sent phishing emails to steal employees' passwords, then used those passwords to deface websites, redirect web traffic, and hijack social media accounts, according to a  2014 FBI affidavit . On April 23, 2013, the group hijacked the Associated Press's Twitter account and posted a false report that President Barack Obama had been injured in two explosions at the White House. Twitter's message confirming a password reset for that account w...

Hackers exploited a critical Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN flaw, fixed in February, to plant custom malware inside the systems that control an organization's SD-WAN network. The malware, called KeyDrift , is designed to copy the keys that encrypt traffic between sites and store them for later use,  Cisco Talos said  on October 28. Talos calls the attacks historical but does not specify when they occurred or whether any keys were sent. The flaw is tracked as  CVE-2026-20127  and has a CVSS score of 10.0. It allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to bypass authentication and gain administrative privileges on these control systems. On a Controller, the attacker can log in as a high-privileged internal account that is not root. When Cisco  disclosed the flaw in February , Talos tracked its exploitation as UAT-8616, a cluster of activity it said went back to at least 2023. In  Cisco's traditional key exchange , each SD-WAN router periodically generates an AE...