data breach | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

When people think of cybersecurity threats, they often picture external hackers breaking into networks. However, some of the most damaging breaches stem from within organizations. Whether through negligence or malicious intent, insiders can expose your organization to significant cybersecurity risks. According to Verizon's 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report , 57% of companies experience over 20 insider-related security incidents a year, with human error involved in 68% of data breaches. With that, insider attacks result in the highest costs, averaging USD 4.99 million per attack, as per the 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report by IBM Security.  What are insider threats? An insider threat originates from within an organization – it's the potential for anyone with authorized access to your critical systems to misuse their access, harming your organization. The worst part is that insiders are already within your IT perimeter and are familiar with your internal security prot...

Threat actors are leveraging an e-crime tool called Atlantis AIO Multi-Checker to automate credential stuffing attacks, according to findings from Abnormal Security. Atlantis AIO "has emerged as a powerful weapon in the cybercriminal arsenal, enabling attackers to test millions of stolen credentials in rapid succession," the cybersecurity company said in an analysis. Credential stuffing is a type of cyber attack in which an adversary collects stolen account credentials, typically consisting of lists of usernames or email addresses and passwords, and then uses them to gain unauthorized access to user accounts on unrelated systems through large-scale automated login requests. Such credentials could be obtained from a data breach of a social media service or be acquired from underground forums where they are advertised for sale by other threat actors. Credential stuffing is also different from brute-force attacks, which revolve around cracking passwords, login credential...

Cybersecurity isn't just another checkbox on your business agenda. It's a fundamental pillar of survival. As organizations increasingly migrate their operations to the cloud, understanding how to protect your digital assets becomes crucial. The shared responsibility model , exemplified through Microsoft 365's approach, offers a framework for comprehending and implementing effective cybersecurity measures.  The Essence of Shared Responsibility  Think of cloud security like a well-maintained building: the property manager handles structural integrity and common areas, while tenants secure their individual units. Similarly, the shared responsibility model creates a clear division of security duties between cloud providers and their users. This partnership approach ensures comprehensive protection through clearly defined roles and responsibilities.  What Your Cloud Provider Handles  Microsoft maintains comprehensive responsibility for securing the foundational eleme...

A major telecommunications company located in Asia was allegedly breached by Chinese state-sponsored hackers who spent over four years inside its systems, according to a new report from incident response firm Sygnia. The cybersecurity company is tracking the activity under the name Weaver Ant , describing the threat actor as stealthy and highly persistent. The name of the telecom provider was not disclosed. "Using web shells and tunneling, the attackers maintained persistence and facilitated cyber espionage," Sygnia said . "The group behind this intrusion [...] aimed to gain and maintain continuous access to telecommunication providers and facilitate cyber espionage by collecting sensitive information." Oren Biderman, Incident Response and Digital Forensic Team Leader at Sygnia, told The Hacker News that Weaver Ant exploited a misconfiguration in a public-facing application to obtain an initial foothold into the target environment. The attack chain is said to h...

A ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation called VanHelsing has already claimed three victims since it launched on March 7, 2025, demanding ransoms as high as $500,000. "The RaaS model allows a wide range of participants, from experienced hackers to newcomers, to get involved with a $5,000 deposit. Affiliates keep 80% of the ransom payments, while the core operators earn 20%," Check Point said in a report published over the weekend. "The only rule is not to target the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)." As with any affiliate-backed ransomware program, VanHelsing claims to offer the ability to target a wide range of operating systems, including Windows, Linux, BSD, Arm, and ESXi. It also employs what's called the double extortion model of stealing data prior to encryption and threatening to leak the information unless the victim pays up. The RaaS operators have also revealed that the scheme offers a control panel that works "seamlessly" o...

Threat hunters have uncovered a new threat actor named UAT-5918 that has been attacking critical infrastructure entities in Taiwan since at least 2023. "UAT-5918, a threat actor believed to be motivated by establishing long-term access for information theft, uses a combination of web shells and open-sourced tooling to conduct post-compromise activities to establish persistence in victim environments for information theft and credential harvesting," Cisco Talos researchers Jungsoo An, Asheer Malhotra, Brandon White, and Vitor Ventura said . Besides critical infrastructure, some of the other targeted verticals include information technology, telecommunications, academia, and healthcare. Assessed to be an advanced persistent threat (APT) group looking to establish long-term persistent access in victim environments, UAT-5918 is said to share tactical overlaps with several Chinese hacking crews tracked as Volt Typhoon , Flax Typhoon , Tropic Trooper , Earth Estries , and Dalb...

The threat actors behind the Medusa ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation have been observed using a malicious driver dubbed ABYSSWORKER as part of a bring your own vulnerable driver ( BYOVD ) attack designed to disable anti-malware tools. Elastic Security Labs said it observed a Medusa ransomware attack that delivered the encryptor by means of a loader packed using a packer-as-a-service (PaaS) called HeartCrypt. "This loader was deployed alongside a revoked certificate-signed driver from a Chinese vendor we named ABYSSWORKER, which it installs on the victim machine and then uses to target and silence different EDR vendors," the company said in a report. The driver in question, "smuol.sys," mimics a legitimate CrowdStrike Falcon driver ("CSAgent.sys"). Dozens of ABYSSWORKER artifacts have been detected on the VirusTotal platform dating from August 8, 2024, to February 25, 2025. All the identified samples are signed using likely stolen, revoked ce...

YouTube videos promoting game cheats are being used to deliver a previously undocumented stealer malware called Arcane likely targeting Russian-speaking users. "What's intriguing about this malware is how much it collects," Kaspersky said in an analysis. "It grabs account information from VPN and gaming clients, and all kinds of network utilities like ngrok, Playit, Cyberduck, FileZilla, and DynDNS." The attack chains involve sharing links to a password-protected archive on YouTube videos, which, when opened, unpacks a start.bat batch file that's responsible for retrieving another archive file via PowerShell. The batch file then utilizes PowerShell to launch two executables embedded within the newly downloaded archive, while also disabling Windows SmartScreen protections and every drive root folder to SmartScreen filter exceptions. Of the two binaries, one is a cryptocurrency miner and the other is a stealer dubbed VGS that's a variant of the Phe...

Regulatory compliance is no longer just a concern for large enterprises. Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are increasingly subject to strict data protection and security regulations, such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, CMMC, GDPR, and the FTC Safeguards Rule. However, many SMBs struggle to maintain compliance due to limited IT resources, evolving regulatory requirements, and complex security challenges. Recent data shows there are approximately 33.3 million SMBs in the U.S., and 60% or more are not fully compliant with at least one regulatory standard. That means nearly 20 million SMBs could be at risk of fines, security breaches, and reputational damage. For Managed Service Providers (MSPs), this presents a huge opportunity to expand your service offerings by providing continuous compliance monitoring—helping your clients stay compliant while strengthening their own business. The Role of Continuous Compliance Monitoring Traditional compliance audits have been conducted periodically—ofte...

An unpatched security flaw impacting Microsoft Windows has been exploited by 11 state-sponsored groups from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia as part of data theft, espionage, and financially motivated campaigns that date back to 2017. The zero-day vulnerability, tracked by Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) as ZDI-CAN-25373 , refers to an issue that allows bad actors to execute hidden malicious commands on a victim's machine by leveraging crafted Windows Shortcut or Shell Link (.LNK) files. "The attacks leverage hidden command line arguments within .LNK files to execute malicious payloads, complicating detection," security researchers Peter Girnus and Aliakbar Zahravi said in an analysis shared with The Hacker News. "The exploitation of ZDI-CAN-25373 exposes organizations to significant risks of data theft and cyber espionage." Specifically, this involves the padding of the arguments with Space (0x20), Horizontal Tab (0x09), Line Feed (0x0A),...

From sophisticated nation-state campaigns to stealthy malware lurking in unexpected places, this week's cybersecurity landscape is a reminder that attackers are always evolving. Advanced threat groups are exploiting outdated hardware, abusing legitimate tools for financial fraud, and finding new ways to bypass security defenses. Meanwhile, supply chain threats are on the rise, with open-source repositories becoming a playground for credential theft and hidden backdoors. But it's not all bad news—law enforcement is tightening its grip on cybercriminal networks, with key ransomware figures facing extradition and the security community making strides in uncovering and dismantling active threats. Ethical hackers continue to expose critical flaws, and new decryptors offer a fighting chance against ransomware operators. In this week's recap, we dive into the latest attack techniques, emerging vulnerabilities, and defensive strategies to keep you ahead of the curve. Stay informed, stay sec...