insider threat | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Malware isn't just trying to hide anymore—it's trying to belong. We're seeing code that talks like us, logs like us, even documents itself like a helpful teammate. Some threats now look more like developer tools than exploits. Others borrow trust from open-source platforms, or quietly build themselves out of AI-written snippets. It's not just about being malicious—it's about being believable. In this week's cybersecurity recap, we explore how today's threats are becoming more social, more automated, and far too sophisticated for yesterday's instincts to catch. ⚡ Threat of the Week Secret Blizzard Conduct ISP-Level AitM Attacks to Deploy ApolloShadow — Russian cyberspies are abusing local internet service providers' networks to target foreign embassies in Moscow and likely collect intelligence from diplomats' devices. The activity has been attributed to the Russian advanced persistent threat (APT) known as Secret Blizzard (aka Turla). It likely involves using an adversary-...

Everyone's an IT decision-maker now. The employees in your organization can install a plugin with just one click, and they don't need to clear it with your team first. It's great for productivity, but it's a serious problem for your security posture. When the floodgates of SaaS and AI opened, IT didn't just get democratized, its security got outpaced. Employees are onboarding apps faster than security teams can say, "We need to check this out first." The result is a sprawling mess of shadow IT, embedded AI, and OAuth permissions that would make any CISO break into a cold sweat. Here are five ways IT democratization can undermine your organization's security posture and how to prevent it from doing so. 1. You can't secure what you can't see Remember when IT security used to control what was allowed to pass the firewall? Good times. Today, anyone can find an app to do the heavy lifting for them. They won't notice or care when the app requires access to your company's Google Drive or...

The North Korea-linked threat actor known as UNC4899 has been attributed to attacks targeting two different organizations by approaching their employees via LinkedIn and Telegram. "Under the guise of freelance opportunities for software development work, UNC4899 leveraged social engineering techniques to successfully convince the targeted employees to execute malicious Docker containers in their respective workstations," Google's cloud division said [PDF] in its Cloud Threat Horizons Report for H2 2025. UNC4899 overlaps with activity tracked under the monikers Jade Sleet, PUKCHONG, Slow Pisces, and TraderTraitor. Active since at least 2020, the state-sponsored actor is known for its targeting of cryptocurrency and blockchain industries. Notably, the hacking group has been implicated in significant cryptocurrency heists , including that of Axie Infinity in March 2022 ($625 million), DMM Bitcoin in May 2024 ($308 million), and Bybit in February 2025 ($1.4 billion). ...

Chinese companies linked to the state-sponsored hacking group known as Silk Typhoon (aka Hafnium) have been identified as behind over a dozen technology patents, shedding light on the shadowy cyber contracting ecosystem and its offensive capabilities. The patents cover forensics and intrusion tools that enable encrypted endpoint data collection, Apple device forensics, and remote access to routers and smart home devices, SentinelOne said in a new report shared with The Hacker News. "This new insight into the Hafnium-affiliated firms' capabilities highlights an important deficiency in the threat actor attribution space: threat actor tracking typically links campaigns and clusters of activity to a named actor," Dakota Cary, China-focused strategic advisor for SentinelLabs, said . "Our research demonstrates the strength in identifying not only the individuals behind attacks, but the companies they work for, the capabilities those companies have, and how those capa...

Google Cloud's Mandiant Consulting has revealed that it has witnessed a drop in activity from the notorious Scattered Spider group, but emphasized the need for organizations to take advantage of the lull to shore up their defenses. "Since the recent arrests tied to the alleged Scattered Spider (UNC3944) members in the U.K., Mandiant Consulting hasn't observed any new intrusions directly attributable to this specific threat actor," Charles Carmakal, CTO of Mandiant Consulting at Google Cloud, told The Hacker News in a statement. "This presents a critical window of opportunity that organizations must capitalize on to thoroughly study the tactics UNC3944 wielded so effectively, assess their systems, and reinforce their security posture accordingly." Carmakal also warned businesses not to "let their guard down entirely," as other threat actors like UNC6040 are employing similar social engineering tactics as Scattered Spider to breach target netwo...

Some risks don't breach the perimeter—they arrive through signed software, clean resumes, or sanctioned vendors still hiding in plain sight. This week, the clearest threats weren't the loudest—they were the most legitimate-looking. In an environment where identity, trust, and tooling are all interlinked, the strongest attack path is often the one that looks like it belongs. Security teams are now challenged to defend systems not just from intrusions—but from trust itself being turned into a weapon. ⚡ Threat of the Week Microsoft SharePoint Attacks Traced to China — The fallout from an attack spree targeting defects in on-premises Microsoft SharePoint servers continues to spread a week after the discovery of the zero-day exploits, with more than 400 organizations globally compromised. The attacks have been attributed to two known Chinese hacking groups tracked as Linen Typhoon (aka APT27), Violet Typhoon (aka APT31), and a suspected China-based threat actor codenamed Storm-2603 t...

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a North Korean front company and three associated individuals for their involvement in the fraudulent remote information technology (IT) worker scheme designed to generate illicit revenues for Pyongyang. The sanctions target Korea Sobaeksu Trading Company (aka Sobaeksu United Corporation), and Kim Se Un, Jo Kyong Hun, and Myong Chol Min for evading sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the United Nations against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) government.  "Our commitment is clear: Treasury, as part of a whole-of-government effort, will continue to hold accountable those who seek to infiltrate global supply chains and enable the sanctions evasion activities that further the Kim regime's destabilizing agenda," said Director of OFAC Bradley T. Smith. The latest action marks the U.S. government's continued efforts to dismantle North Korea's wide-ranging r...

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has revealed that it has observed the notorious cybercrime group Scattered Spider broadening its targeting footprint to strike the airline sector. To that end, the agency said it's actively working with aviation and industry partners to combat the activity and help victims. "These actors rely on social engineering techniques, often impersonating employees or contractors to deceive IT help desks into granting access," the FBI said in a post on X. "These techniques frequently involve methods to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA), such as convincing help desk services to add unauthorized MFA devices to compromised accounts." Scattered Spider attacks are also known to target third-party IT providers to obtain access to large organizations, putting trusted vendors and contractors at risk of potential attacks. The attacks typically pave the way for data theft, extortion, and ransomware. In a statement shared ...

Google has revealed the various safety measures that are being incorporated into its generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems to mitigate emerging attack vectors like indirect prompt injections and improve the overall security posture for agentic AI systems. "Unlike direct prompt injections, where an attacker directly inputs malicious commands into a prompt, indirect prompt injections involve hidden malicious instructions within external data sources," Google's GenAI security team said . These external sources can take the form of email messages, documents, or even calendar invites that trick the AI systems into exfiltrating sensitive data or performing other malicious actions. The tech giant said it has implemented what it described as a "layered" defense strategy that is designed to increase the difficulty, expense, and complexity required to pull off an attack against its systems. These efforts span model hardening, introducing purpose-built mac...

A former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst has been sentenced to little more than three years in prison for unlawfully retaining and transmitting top secret National Defense Information (NDI) to people who were not entitled to receive them and for attempting to cover up the malicious activity. Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, has been sentenced today to 37 months on charges of stealing and divulging classified information. He was an employee of the CIA since 2016 and had Top Secret security clearance to access Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) until he was terminated from his job after he was arrested last November in Cambodia. Earlier this January, Rahman pleaded guilty to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to the national defense. As previously reported by The Hacker News, Rahman retained multiple Secret and Top Secret documents without authorization on October 17, 2024, took them to his place of residence...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said it has filed a civil forfeiture complaint in federal court that targets over $7.74 million in cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other digital assets allegedly linked to a global IT worker scheme orchestrated by North Korea. "For years, North Korea has exploited global remote IT contracting and cryptocurrency ecosystems to evade U.S. sanctions and bankroll its weapons programs," said Sue J. Bai, Head of the Justice Department's National Security Division. The Justice Department said the funds were originally restrained in connection with an April 2023 indictment against Sim Hyon-Sop, a North Korean Foreign Trade Bank (FTB) representative who is believed to have conspired with the IT workers. The IT workers, the department added, gained employment at U.S. cryptocurrency companies using fake identities and then laundered their ill-gotten gains through Sim to further Pyongyang's strategic objectives in violati...

Google has disclosed details of a financially motivated threat cluster that it said "specializes" in voice phishing (aka vishing ) campaigns designed to breach organizations' Salesforce instances for large-scale data theft and subsequent extortion. The tech giant's threat intelligence team is tracking the activity under the moniker UNC6040 , which it said exhibits characteristics that align with threat groups with ties to an online cybercrime collective known as The Com . "Over the past several months, UNC6040 has demonstrated repeated success in breaching networks by having its operators impersonate IT support personnel in convincing telephone-based social engineering engagements," the company said in a report shared with The Hacker News. This approach, Google's Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) added, has had the benefit of tricking English-speaking employees into performing actions that give the threat actors access or lead to the sharing of valua...

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment (CI/CD) refers to practices that automate how code is developed and released to different environments. CI/CD pipelines are fundamental in modern software development, ensuring code is consistently tested, built, and deployed quickly and efficiently. While CI/CD automation accelerates software delivery, it can also introduce security risks. Without proper security measures, CI/CD workflows can be vulnerable to supply chain attacks, insecure dependencies, and insider threats. To mitigate these risks, organizations must integrate measures for continuous monitoring and enforcing security best practices at every pipeline stage. Securing CI/CD workflows preserves the software delivery process's confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Security challenges and risks in CI/CD workflows While CI/CD workflows offer benefits in terms of automation and speed, they also bring unique security challenges that must be addressed to ...

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has disclosed that unknown cyber actors broke into its systems and stole account data for a small subset of its customers. "Criminals targeted our customer support agents overseas," the company said in a statement. "They used cash offers to convince a small group of insiders to copy data in our customer support tools for less than 1% of Coinbase monthly transacting users." The end goal of the campaign was to put together a list of customers who they contacted by masquerading as Coinbase and deceiving them into handing over their cryptocurrency assets. Coinbase said the threat actors then unsuccessfully attempted to extort the company for $20 million on May 11, 2025, by claiming to have information about certain customer accounts as well as internal documents. In a statement shared with Fortune, Coinbase said the compromised customer agents worked in India and have all been fired.  "No passwords, private keys, or funds w...

The North Korean threat actors behind the Contagious Interview campaign have been observed using updated versions of a cross-platform malware called OtterCookie with capabilities to steal credentials from web browsers and other files. NTT Security Holdings, which detailed the new findings, said the attackers have "actively and continuously" updated the malware, introducing versions v3 and v4 in February and April 2025, respectively. The Japanese cybersecurity company is tracking the cluster under the name WaterPlum , which is also known as CL-STA-0240, DeceptiveDevelopment, DEV#POPPER, Famous Chollima, PurpleBravo, and Tenacious Pungsan. OtterCookie was first documented by NTT last year after having observed it in attacks since September 2024. Delivered by means of a JavaScript payload via a malicious npm package, trojanized GitHub or Bitbucket repository, or a bogus videoconferencing app, it's designed to contact an external server to execute commands on compromis...