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Cisco is urging customers to patch two security flaws impacting the VPN web server of Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software, which it said have been exploited in the wild. The zero-day vulnerabilities in question are listed below - CVE-2025-20333 (CVSS score: 9.9) - An improper validation of user-supplied input in HTTP(S) requests vulnerability that could allow an authenticated, remote attacker with valid VPN user credentials to execute arbitrary code as root on an affected device by sending crafted HTTP requests CVE-2025-20362 (CVSS score: 6.5) - An improper validation of user-supplied input in HTTP(S) requests vulnerability that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to access restricted URL endpoints without authentication by sending crafted HTTP requests Cisco said it's aware of "attempted exploitation" of both vulnerabilities, but did not reveal who may be behind it, ...

The latest Gcore Radar report analyzing attack data from Q1–Q2 2025, reveals a 41% year-on-year increase in total attack volume. The largest attack peaked at 2.2 Tbps, surpassing the 2 Tbps record in late 2024. Attacks are growing not only in scale but in sophistication, with longer durations, multi-layered strategies, and a shift in target industries. Technology now overtakes gaming as the most attacked sector, while the financial services industry continues to face heightened risks. Key takeaways: the evolving DDoS landscape Here are five key insights from the Q1–Q2 2025 Gcore Radar report: Attack volumes are rising. Total attacks climbed from 969,000 in H2 2024 to 1.17 million in H1 2025, a 21% increase over the previous two quarters and 41% YoY growth. Attack size continues to grow. The peak attack of 2.2 Tbps demonstrates the increasing scale and destructive potential of modern DDoS campaigns. Attacks are becoming longer and more sophisticated. Extended durations and mu...

Cisco has warned of a high-severity security flaw in IOS Software and IOS XE Software that could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code or trigger a denial-of-service (DoS) condition under specific circumstances. The company said the vulnerability, CVE-2025-20352 (CVSS score: 7.7), has been exploited in the wild, adding it became aware of it "after local Administrator credentials were compromised." The issue, per the networking equipment major, is rooted in the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) subsystem, arising as a result of a stack overflow condition. An authenticated, remote attacker could exploit the flaw by sending a crafted SNMP packet to an affected device over IPv4 or IPv6 networks, resulting in DoS if they have low privileges or arbitrary code execution as root if they have high privileges and ultimately take control of the susceptible system. However, Cisco noted that for this to happen, the following conditions need to be met - To caus...

A suspected cyber espionage activity cluster that was previously found targeting global government and private sector organizations spanning Africa, Asia, North America, South America, and Oceania has been assessed to be a Chinese state-sponsored threat actor. Recorded Future, which was tracking the activity under the moniker TAG-100 , has now graduated it to a hacking group dubbed RedNovember . It's also tracked by Microsoft as Storm-2077 . "Between June 2024 and July 2025, RedNovember (which overlaps with Storm-2077) targeted perimeter appliances of high-profile organizations globally and used the Go-based backdoor Pantegana and Cobalt Strike as part of its intrusions," the Mastercard-owned company said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "The group has expanded its targeting remit across government and private sector organizations, including defense and aerospace organizations, space organizations, and law firms." Some of the likely new victims of...

A proxy network known as REM Proxy is powered by malware known as SystemBC , offering about 80% of the botnet to its users, according to new findings from the Black Lotus Labs team at Lumen Technologies. "REM Proxy is a sizeable network, which also markets a pool of 20,000 Mikrotik routers and a variety of open proxies it finds freely available online," the company said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "This service has been a favorite for several actors such as those behind TransferLoader , which has ties to the Morpheus ransomware group." SystemBC is a C-based malware that turns infected computers into SOCKS5 proxies, allowing infected hosts to communicate with a command-and-control (C2) server and download additional payloads. First documented by Proofpoint in 2019, it's capable of targeting both Windows and Linux systems . In a report earlier this January, ANY.RUN revealed that the Linux variant of SystemBC proxy implant is potentially desi...

SonicWall is urging customers to reset credentials after their firewall configuration backup files were exposed in a security breach impacting MySonicWall accounts. The company said it recently detected suspicious activity targeting the cloud backup service for firewalls, and that unknown threat actors accessed backup firewall preference files stored in the cloud for less than 5% of its customers. "While credentials within the files were encrypted, the files also included information that could make it easier for attackers to potentially exploit the related firewall," the company said . The network security company said it's not aware of any of these files being leaked online by the threat actors, adding it was not a ransomware event targeting its network. "Rather this was a series of brute-force attacks aimed at gaining access to the preference files stored in backup for potential further use by threat actors," it noted. It's currently not known who is...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new malware loader codenamed CountLoader that has been put to use by Russian ransomware gangs to deliver post-exploitation tools like Cobalt Strike and AdaptixC2 , and a remote access trojan known as PureHVNC RAT. "CountLoader is being used either as part of an Initial Access Broker's (IAB) toolset or by a ransomware affiliate with ties to the LockBit, Black Basta, and Qilin ransomware groups," Silent Push said in an analysis. Appearing in three different versions – .NET, PowerShell, and JavaScript – the emerging threat has been observed in a campaign targeting individuals in Ukraine using PDF-based phishing lures and impersonating the National Police of Ukraine. Silent Push told The Hacker News that it does not have any insight into the nature of malware that was dropped using CountLoader. It's worth noting that the PowerShell version of the malware was previously flagged by Kaspersky as being distributed using DeepSe...

The China-aligned threat actor known as Mustang Panda has been observed using an updated version of a backdoor called TONESHELL and a previously undocumented USB worm called SnakeDisk. "The worm only executes on devices with Thailand-based IP addresses and drops the Yokai backdoor," IBM X-Force researchers Golo Mühr and Joshua Chung said in an analysis published last week. The tech giant's cybersecurity division is tracking the cluster under the name Hive0154, which is also broadly referred to as BASIN, Bronze President, Camaro Dragon, Earth Preta, HoneyMyte, Polaris, RedDelta, Stately Taurus, and Twill Typhoon. The state-sponsored threat actor is believed to have been active since at least 2012. TONESHELL was first publicly documented by Trend Micro way back in November 2022 as part of cyber attacks targeting Myanmar, Australia, the Philippines, Japan, and Taiwan between May and October. Typically executed via DLL side-loading, its primary responsibility is to d...

Threat actors affiliated with the Akira ransomware group have continued to target SonicWall devices for initial access. Cybersecurity firm Rapid7 said it observed a spike in intrusions involving SonicWall appliances over the past month, particularly following reports about renewed Akira ransomware activity since late July 2025. SonicWall subsequently revealed the SSL VPN activity aimed at its firewalls involved a year-old security flaw ( CVE-2024-40766 , CVSS score: 9.3) where local user passwords were carried over during the migration and not reset. "We are observing increased threat activity from actors attempting to brute-force user credentials," the company noted . "To mitigate risk, customers should enable Botnet Filtering to block known threat actors and ensure Account Lockout policies are enabled." SonicWall has also urged users to review LDAP SSL VPN Default User Groups, describing it as a "critical weak point" if misconfigured in the con...

Story teaser text: Cybersecurity leaders face mounting pressure to stop attacks before they start, and the best defense may come down to the settings you choose on day one. In this piece, Yuriy Tsibere explores how default policies like deny-by-default, MFA enforcement, and application Ringfencing ™ can eliminate entire categories of risk. From disabling Office macros to blocking outbound server traffic, these simple but strategic moves create a hardened environment that attackers can't easily penetrate. Whether you're securing endpoints or overseeing policy rollouts, adopting a security-by-default mindset can reduce complexity, shrink your attack surface, and help you stay ahead of evolving threats. Cybersecurity has changed dramatically since the days of the "Love Bug" virus in 2001. What was once an annoyance is now a profit-driven criminal enterprise worth billions. This shift demands proactive defense strategies that don't just respond to threats—they prevent t...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Wednesday added two security flaws impacting TP-Link wireless routers to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, noting that there is evidence of them being exploited in the wild. The vulnerabilities in question are listed below - CVE-2023-50224 (CVSS score: 6.5) - An authentication bypass by spoofing vulnerability within the httpd service of TP-Link TL-WR841N, which listens on TCP port 80 by default, leading to the disclosure of stored credentials in "/tmp/dropbear/dropbearpwd" CVE-2025-9377 (CVSS score: 8.6) - An operating system command injection vulnerability in TP-Link Archer C7(EU) V2 and TL-WR841N/ND(MS) V9 that could lead to remote code execution According to information listed on the company's website, the following router models have reached end-of-life (EoL) status - TL-WR841N (versions 10.0 and 11.0) TL-WR841ND (version 10.0) Archer C7 (versions 2.0 and 3.0) Howe...

Cloudflare on Tuesday said it automatically mitigated a record-setting volumetric distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that peaked at 11.5 terabits per second (Tbps). "Over the past few weeks, we've autonomously blocked hundreds of hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks, with the largest reaching peaks of 5.1 Bpps and 11.5 Tbps," the web infrastructure and security company said in a post on X. "The 11.5 Tbps attack was a UDP flood that mainly came from Google Cloud." The entire attack lasted only about 35 seconds, with the company stating its "defenses have been working overtime." Volumetric DDoS attacks are designed to overwhelm a target with a tsunami of traffic, causing the server to slow down or even fail. These attacks typically result in network congestion, packet loss, and service disruptions. Such attacks are often conducted by sending the requests from botnets that are already under the control of the threat actors after having infected t...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a stealthy new backdoor called MystRodX that comes with a variety of features to capture sensitive data from compromised systems. "MystRodX is a typical backdoor implemented in C++, supporting features like file management, port forwarding, reverse shell, and socket management," QiAnXin XLab said in a report published last week. "Compared to typical backdoors, MystRodX stands out in terms of stealth and flexibility." MystRodX, also called ChronosRAT, was first documented by Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 last month in connection with a threat activity cluster called CL-STA-0969 that it said exhibits overlaps with a China-nexus cyber espionage group dubbed Liminal Panda. The malware's stealth stems from the use of various levels of encryption to obscure source code and payloads, while its flexibility allows it to dynamically enable different functions based on a configuration, such as choosing TCP or HTTP for network co...

Generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Claude are increasingly common in organizations. While these solutions improve efficiency across tasks, they also present new data leak prevention for generative AI challenges. Sensitive information may be shared through chat prompts, files uploaded for AI-driven summarization, or browser plugins that bypass familiar security controls. Standard DLP products often fail to register these events. Solutions such as Fidelis Network ® Detection and Response (NDR) introduce network-based data loss prevention that brings AI activity under control. This allows teams to monitor, enforce policies, and audit GenAI use as part of a broader data loss prevention strategy. Why Data Loss Prevention Must Evolve for GenAI Data loss prevention for generative AI requires shifting focus from endpoints and siloed channels to visibility across the entire traffic path. Unlike earlier tools that rely on scanning emails or storage shares, NDR technol...

The China-linked advanced persistent threat (APT) actor known as Salt Typhoon has continued its attacks targeting networks across the world, including organizations in the telecommunications, government, transportation, lodging, and military infrastructure sectors. "While these actors focus on large backbone routers of major telecommunications providers, as well as provider edge (PE) and customer edge (CE) routers, they also leverage compromised devices and trusted connections to pivot into other networks," according to a joint cybersecurity advisory published Wednesday. "These actors often modify routers to maintain persistent, long-term access to networks." The bulletin , courtesy of authorities from 13 countries, said the malicious activity has been linked to three Chinese entities, Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing Huanyu Tianqiong Information Technology Co., Ltd., and Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie Network Technology Co., Ltd. These companies,...

Anthropic on Wednesday revealed that it disrupted a sophisticated operation that weaponized its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot Claude to conduct large-scale theft and extortion of personal data in July 2025. "The actor targeted at least 17 distinct organizations, including in healthcare, the emergency services, and government, and religious institutions," the company said . "Rather than encrypt the stolen information with traditional ransomware, the actor threatened to expose the data publicly in order to attempt to extort victims into paying ransoms that sometimes exceeded $500,000." "The actor employed Claude Code on Kali Linux as a comprehensive attack platform, embedding operational instructions in a CLAUDE.md file that provided persistent context for every interaction." The unknown threat actor is said to have used AI to an "unprecedented degree," using Claude Code, Anthropic's agentic coding tool, to automate variou...

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems act as the primary tools for detecting suspicious activity in enterprise networks, helping organizations identify and respond to potential attacks in real time. However, the new Picus Blue Report 2025 , based on over 160 million real-world attack simulations , revealed that organizations are only detecting 1 out of 7 simulated attacks , showing a critical gap in threat detection and response. While many organizations believe they're doing everything they can to detect adversary actions, the reality is that a large number of threats are slipping through their defenses unnoticed, leaving their networks far too vulnerable to compromise. This gap in detection creates a false sense of security when attackers have already accessed your sensitive systems, escalated their privileges, or are actively exfiltrating your valuable data. Which begs the question: why, after all this time, money, and attention, are these systems still ...

Cybersecurity researchers are calling attention to multiple campaigns that are taking advantage of known security vulnerabilities and exposed Redis servers to various malicious activities, including leveraging the compromised devices as IoT botnets, residential proxies, or cryptocurrency mining infrastructure. The first set of attacks entails the exploitation of CVE-2024-36401 (CVSS score: 9.8), a critical remote code execution vulnerability impacting OSGeo GeoServer GeoTools that has been weaponized in cyber attacks since late last year. "Criminals have used the vulnerability to deploy legitimate software development kits (SDKs) or modified apps to gain passive income via network sharing or residential proxies," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers Zhibin Zhang, Yiheng An, Chao Lei, and Haozhe Zhang said in a technical report. "This method of generating passive income is particularly stealthy. It mimics a monetization strategy used by some legitimate app develo...