ransomware | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

A U.S. government entity paid about $1 million to keep stolen files from being leaked, according to a new  case study by Rakesh Krishnan for Ransom-ISAC , built on a leaked negotiation chat and the blockchain trail the payment left. The odd part: the group that took the money calls itself Kairos , but it may not be a ransomware gang at all. Krishnan found no sign that it ever locked a single machine: no encryptor, no locker, no demand for a decryption key. The threat was simpler. Steal the files, then charge the victim not to publish them. Krishnan does not name the victim, but the chat points to Union County, Ohio. The proof-of-theft files carry names like Union.xlsx, 1 union co psi template.doc, and a final archive called union.rar. The victim calls itself a small county with limited resources. The attacker leans on one folder in particular, marked "prosecutors office," warning that leaking it would help criminals dodge charges. The clues fit a real case. I...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a previously undocumented modular malware framework codenamed Avalon that's distributed by means of a multi-stage phishing chain capable of bypassing traditional security controls. Avalon combines credential collection, lateral movement, remote access, recovery disruption, and ransomware execution, bringing together diverse functions under one umbrella. The ransomware component has been internally named CrownX.  "The attack began with a spoofed legal document email directing recipients to a password protected archive on Proton Drive," Blackpoint Cyber researchers Nevan Beal and Sam Decker said . "Malicious content was embedded inside an ISO image rather than attached directly, reducing the likelihood of detection at the email layer." Should the email recipient interact with a document-themed Windows Shortcut ("Secure Document CA-283505.pdf.lnk") inside the mounted image, it triggers a staged malware s...

Threat actors associated with the Anubis ransomware operation have been observed exploiting the Citrix Bleed 2 (CVE-2025-5777) vulnerability to obtain initial access. "Although tactics differ between affiliates, common patterns emerged in tradecraft through use of legitimate Remote Management and Monitoring (RMM) tooling, credential access, and hands-on-keyboard procedures used for lateral movement," Arctic Wolf said in a report published this week. "Anubis affiliates repeatedly abused legitimate remote access and administration tools, including ScreenConnect, Zoho Assist, MeshAgent, Remotely, UltraVNC, and Total Software Deployment, to blend in with normal IT activity while maintaining control of victim systems." Anubis is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group that first emerged in late 2024 as a rebrand of Sphinx ransomware. The ransomware operation was formally announced on the Ransomware and Advanced Malware Protection (RAMP) underground forum in Febr...

This week’s security news is mostly about weak spots. Browsers, bots, sandboxes, AI systems, and email flows all show the same problem in different ways. Everything looks normal until someone tests a small gap and finds a way through. This is not one big break. It is small permissions, weak checks, open systems, and normal tools doing things they were allowed to do. That same pattern runs through the stories below.

Security firm Sysdig says it has found what it believes is the first ransomware attack run from start to finish by an AI agent. Its Threat Research Team calls the operator JADEPUFFER and says a large language model handled the whole job: breaking in, stealing credentials, moving deeper into the network, then encrypting and wiping a company's production database. Ransomware has always needed a skilled person somewhere in the loop, either at the keyboard or writing the script the malware follows. If a model can chain those steps on its own, the skill needed to run an attack drops to whatever it costs to rent an AI agent. The way in was an old, already-patched bug. JADEPUFFER exploited  CVE-2025-3248 , a missing-authentication flaw in  Langflow , an open-source tool for building AI apps and agent workflows. The flaw lets anyone who can reach the server run their own Python code on it, no login needed. Langflow boxes are a tempting target because they often sit ...