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At least two different cybercrime groups BianLian and RansomExx are said to have exploited a recently disclosed security flaw in SAP NetWeaver tracked as CVE-2025-31324 , indicating that multiple threat actors are taking advantage of the bug. Cybersecurity firm ReliaQuest, in a new update published today, said it uncovered evidence suggesting involvement from the BianLian data extortion crew and the RansomExx ransomware family, which is traced by Microsoft under the moniker Storm-2460. BianLian is assessed to be involved in at least one incident based on infrastructure links to IP addresses previously identified as attributed to the e-crime group. "We identified a server at 184[.]174[.]96[.]74 hosting reverse proxy services initiated by the rs64.exe executable," the company said. "This server is related to another IP, 184[.]174[.]96[.]70, operated by the same hosting provider. The second IP had previously been flagged as a command-and-control (C2) server associat...

Moldovan law enforcement authorities have arrested a 45-year-old foreign man suspected of involvement in a series of ransomware attacks targeting Dutch companies in 2021. "He is wanted internationally for committing several cybercrimes (ransomware attacks, blackmail, and money laundering) against companies based in the Netherlands," officials said in a statement Monday. In conjunction with the arrest, police seized over €84,000 ($93,000) in cash, an electronic wallet, two laptops, a mobile phone, a tablet, six bank cards, two data storage devices, and six memory cards. The suspect's name was not disclosed. But he is said to have been detained after a search of his residence in Moldova. In at least one instance, the individual conducted a ransomware attack on the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), causing material damage worth approximately €4.5 million. The attack took place in February 2021, resulting in the leak of internal documents after th...

What do a source code editor, a smart billboard, and a web server have in common? They've all become launchpads for attacks—because cybercriminals are rethinking what counts as "infrastructure." Instead of chasing high-value targets directly, threat actors are now quietly taking over the overlooked: outdated software, unpatched IoT devices, and open-source packages. It's not just clever—it's reshaping how intrusion, persistence, and evasion happen at scale. ⚡ Threat of the Week 5Socks Proxy Using IoT, EoL Systems Dismantled in Law Enforcement Operation — A joint law enforcement operation undertaken by Dutch and U.S. authorities dismantled a criminal proxy network, known as anyproxy[.]net and 5socks[.]net, that was powered by thousands of infected Internet of Things (IoT) and end-of-life (EoL) devices, enlisting them into a botnet for providing anonymity to malicious actors. The illicit platform, active since 2004, advertised more than 7,000 online proxies daily, with infected ...

Threat actors with ties to the Qilin ransomware family have leveraged malware known as SmokeLoader along with a previously undocumented .NET compiled loader codenamed NETXLOADER as part of a campaign observed in November 2024. "NETXLOADER is a new .NET-based loader that plays a critical role in cyber attacks," Trend Micro researchers Jacob Santos, Raymart Yambot, John Rainier Navato, Sarah Pearl Camiling, and Neljorn Nathaniel Aguas said in a Wednesday analysis. "While hidden, it stealthily deploys additional malicious payloads, such as Agenda ransomware and SmokeLoader. Protected by .NET Reactor 6, NETXLOADER is difficult to analyze." Qilin , also called Agenda, has been an active ransomware threat since it surfaced in the threat landscape in July 2022. Last year, cybersecurity company Halcyon discovered an improved version of the ransomware that it named Qilin.B. Recent data shared by Group-IB shows that disclosures on Qilin's data leak site have mo...

The Russia-linked threat actor known as COLDRIVER has been observed distributing a new malware called LOSTKEYS as part of an espionage-focused campaign using ClickFix-like social engineering lures. "LOSTKEYS is capable of stealing files from a hard-coded list of extensions and directories, along with sending system information and running processes to the attacker," the Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) said . The malware, the company said, was observed in January, March, and April 2025 in attacks on current and former advisors to Western governments and militaries, as well as journalists, think tanks, and NGOs. In addition, individuals connected to Ukraine have also been singled out. LOSTKEYS is the second custom malware attributed to COLDRIVER after SPICA , marking a continued departure from the credential phishing campaigns the threat actor has been known for. The hacking group is also tracked under the names Callisto, Star Blizzard, and UNC4057. "They ar...

Threat actors with links to the Play ransomware family exploited a recently patched security flaw in Microsoft Windows as a zero-day as part of an attack targeting an unnamed organization in the United States. The attack, per the Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom, leveraged CVE-2025-29824 , a privilege escalation flaw in the Common Log File System (CLFS) driver. It was patched by Microsoft last month. Play , also called Balloonfly and PlayCrypt, is known for its double extortion tactics, wherein sensitive data is exfiltrated prior to encryption in exchange for a ransom. It's active since at least mid-2022. In the activity observed by Symantec, the threat actors are said to have likely leveraged a public-facing Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) as an entry point, taking advantage of an as-yet-undetermined method to move to another Windows machine on the target network. The attack is notable for the use of Grixba , a bespoke information stealer previously attr...

It wasn't ransomware headlines or zero-day exploits that stood out most in this year's Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) — it was what fueled them. Quietly, yet consistently, two underlying factors played a role in some of the worst breaches: third-party exposure and machine credential abuse . According to the 2025 DBIR, third-party involvement in breaches doubled year-over-year, jumping from 15% to 30% . In parallel, attackers increasingly exploited machine credentials and ungoverned machine accounts to gain access, escalate privileges, and exfiltrate sensitive data. The message is clear: it's no longer enough to protect your employee users alone. To truly defend against modern threats, organizations must govern all identities — human, non-employee, and machine — within a unified security strategy. Third-Party Risk: Expanding Faster Than Organizations Can Control Today's enterprise is a patchwork of partnerships: contractors, vendors, business p...

Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) is the backbone of modern identity management, enabling secure access to the applications, data, and services your business relies on. As hybrid work and cloud adoption accelerate, Entra ID plays an even more central role — managing authentication, enforcing policy, and connecting users across distributed environments. That prominence also makes it a prime target. Microsoft reports over 600 million attacks on Entra ID every day. These aren't just random attempts, but include coordinated, persistent, and increasingly automated campaigns designed to exploit even small vulnerabilities. Which brings us to the core question: Are Entra ID's native protections enough? Where do they fall short — and what steps should you take to close the gaps and ensure you're covered? Understanding Entra ID At its core, Microsoft Entra ID is your enterprise identity and access management system. It defines how users prove who they are, what resources...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Thursday announced charges against a 36-year-old Yemeni national for allegedly deploying the Black Kingdom ransomware against global targets, including businesses, schools, and hospitals in the United States. Rami Khaled Ahmed of Sana'a, Yemen, has been charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of intentional damage to a protected computer, and one count of threatening damage to a protected computer. Ahmed is assessed to be currently living in Yemen. "From March 2021 to June 2023, Ahmed and others infected computer networks of several U.S.-based victims, including a medical billing services company in Encino, a ski resort in Oregon, a school district in Pennsylvania, and a health clinic in Wisconsin," the DoJ said in a statement. Ahmed is accused of developing and deploying the ransomware by exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange Server known as ProxyLogon. The ransomware worked by either encrypting data from ...

Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a Russian-speaking cyber espionage group called Nebulous Mantis that has deployed a remote access trojan called RomCom RAT since mid-2022. RomCom "employs advanced evasion techniques, including living-off-the-land (LOTL) tactics and encrypted command and control (C2) communications, while continuously evolving its infrastructure – leveraging bulletproof hosting to maintain persistence and evade detection," Swiss cybersecurity company PRODAFT said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Nebulous Mantis, also tracked by the cybersecurity community under the names CIGAR , Cuba , Storm-0978, Tropical Scorpius, UAC-0180, UNC2596 , and Void Rabisu , is known to target critical infrastructure, government agencies, political leaders, and NATO-related defense organizations. Attack chains mounted by the group typically involve the use of spear-phishing emails with weaponized document links to distribute RomCom RAT. The domains and com...

Cybersecurity researchers have revealed that RansomHub 's online infrastructure has "inexplicably" gone offline as of April 1, 2025, prompting concerns among affiliates of the ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation. Singaporean cybersecurity company Group-IB said that this may have caused affiliates to migrate to Qilin, given that "disclosures on its DLS [data leak site] have doubled since February."  RansomHub, which first emerged in February 2024, is estimated to have stolen data from over 200 victims. It replaced two high-profile RaaS groups, LockBit and BlackCat, to become a frontrunner, courting their affiliates, including Scattered Spider and Evil Corp , with lucrative payment splits. "Following a possible acquisition of the web application and ransomware source code of Knight (formerly Cyclops), RansomHub quickly rose in the ransomware scene, thanks to the dynamic features of its multi-platform encryptor and an aggressive, affiliate-friendly ...