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The Recent discoveries of dangerous variants of the Android banking Trojan families, including Faketoken , Svpeng , and BankBot , present a significant threat to online users who may have their login credentials and valuable personal data stolen. Security researchers from SfyLabs have now discovered a new Android banking Trojan that is being rented on many dark websites for $500 per month, SfyLabs' researcher Han Sahin told The Hacker News. Dubbed Red Alert 2.0 , the Android banking malware has been fully written from scratch, unlike other banking trojans, such as BankBot and ExoBot, which were evolved from the leaked source code of older trojans. The Red Alert banking malware has been distributed via many online hacking forums since last few months, and its creators have continuously been updating the malware to add new functionalities in an effort to make it a dangerous threat to potential victims. Malware Blocks Incoming Calls from Banks Like most other Android b...

The North Korea-affiliated threat actor known as Konni (aka Earth Imp, Opal Sleet, Osmium, TA406, and Vedalia) has been attributed to a new set of attacks targeting both Android and Windows devices for data theft and remote control. "Attackers impersonated psychological counselors and North Korean human rights activists, distributing malware disguised as stress-relief programs," the Genians Security Center (GSC) said in a technical report. What's notable about the attacks targeting Android devices is also the destructive ability of the threat actors to exploit Google's asset tracking service, Find Hub (formerly Find My Device), to remotely reset victim devices, thereby leading to the unauthorized deletion of personal data. The activity was detected in early September 2025. The development marks the first time the hacking group has weaponized legitimate management functions to remotely reset mobile devices. The activity is also preceded by an attack chain in whi...

Even after so many efforts by Google for making its Play Store away from malware, shady apps somehow managed to fool its anti-malware protections and infect people with malicious software. A team of researchers from several security firms has uncovered two new malware campaigns targeting Google Play Store users, of which one spreads a new version of BankBot , a persistent family of banking Trojan that imitates real banking applications in efforts to steal users' login details. BankBot has been designed to display fake overlays on legitimate bank apps from major banks around the world, including Citibank, WellsFargo, Chase, and DiBa, to steal sensitive information, including logins and credit card details. With its primary purpose of displaying fake overlays, BankBot has the ability to perform a broad range of tasks, such as sending and intercepting SMS messages, making calls, tracking infected devices, and stealing contacts. Google removed at least four previous versions...

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new Android banking malware called Crocodilus that's primarily designed to target users in Spain and Turkey. "Crocodilus enters the scene not as a simple clone, but as a fully-fledged threat from the outset, equipped with modern techniques such as remote control, black screen overlays, and advanced data harvesting via accessibility logging," ThreatFabric said . As with other banking trojans of its kind, the malware is designed to facilitate device takeover ( DTO ) and ultimately conduct fraudulent transactions. An analysis of the source code and the debug messages reveals that the malware author is Turkish-speaking. The Crocodilus artifacts analyzed by the Dutch mobile security company masquerade as Google Chrome (package name: "quizzical.washbowl.calamity"), which act as a dropper capable of  bypassing Android 13+ restrictions .  Once installed and launched, the app requests permission to Android's access...

Over the past few years, Google has increasingly improved the online security and protections of its Gmail users. Besides two-factor authentication and HTTPS, Google has added new tools and features to Gmail that ensures users security and privacy, preventing cyber criminals and intelligence agencies to hack email accounts . 1. Enhanced State-Sponsored Attack Warnings Apple vs. FBI case urged every company to beef up the security parameters to prevent their services from not just hackers but also the law enforcement. Google for a while now has the capability to identify government-backed hackers , and notify potentially affected Gmail users so they can take action as soon as possible. Google recently announced on its blog post that it will alert Gmail users about the possibility of any state-sponsored attack by showing them a full-page warning with instructions about how to stay safe — very hard to miss or neglect. Meanwhile, the company revealed that ove...

Let's be honest: if you're one of the first (or the first) security hires at a small or midsize business, chances are you're also the unofficial CISO, SOC, IT Help Desk, and whatever additional roles need filling. You're not running a security department. You are THE security department. You're getting pinged about RFPs in one area, and reviewing phishing alerts in another, all while sifting through endless FP alerts across the board. The tools meant to help are often creating more work than they solve. Security teams end up choosing between letting things slip or becoming the "Department of No." Chances are you inherited your company's Google Workspace. Thankfully, Google handles the infrastructure, the uptime, and the spam filtering. But while Google takes care of a lot, it doesn't cover everything, and it can be difficult for security teams to operationalize all of Google's underlying capabilities without significant engineering work. It's your job to se...

Millions of Android smartphones are at serious risk of "screen hijack" vulnerability that allows hackers to steal your passwords, bank details, as well as helps ransomware apps extort money from victims. The worse thing is that Google says it won't be patched until the release of 'Android O' version, which is scheduled for release in the 3rd quarter this year. And the worse, worse, worse thing is that millions of users are still waiting for Android N update from their device manufacturers (OEMs), which apparently means that majority of smartphone users will continue to be victimized by ransomware, adware and banking Trojans for at least next one year. According to CheckPoint security researchers, who discovered this critical flaw, the problem originates due to a new permission called " SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW ," which allows apps to overlap on a device's screen and top of other apps. This is the same feature that lets Facebook Messenger float...

Google has revealed that bad actors are leveraging techniques like landing page cloaking to conduct scams by impersonating legitimate sites. "Cloaking is specifically designed to prevent moderation systems and teams from reviewing policy-violating content which enables them to deploy the scam directly to users," Laurie Richardson, VP and Head of Trust and Safety at Google, said . "The landing pages often mimic well-known sites and create a sense of urgency to manipulate users into purchasing counterfeit products or unrealistic products." Cloaking refers to the practice of serving different content to search engines like Google and users with the ultimate goal of manipulating search rankings and deceiving users. The tech giant said it has also observed a cloaking trend wherein users clicking on ads are redirected via tracking templates to scareware sites that claim their devices are compromised with malware and lead them to other phony customer support sites, w...

Behind every security alert is a bigger story. Sometimes it's a system being tested. Sometimes it's trust being lost in quiet ways—through delays, odd behavior, or subtle gaps in control. This week, we're looking beyond the surface to spot what really matters. Whether it's poor design, hidden access, or silent misuse, knowing where to look can make all the difference. If you're responsible for protecting systems, data, or people—these updates aren't optional. They're essential. These stories reveal how attackers think—and where we're still leaving doors open. ⚡ Threat of the Week Google Releases Patches for Actively Exploited Chrome 0-Day — Google has released Google Chrome versions 137.0.7151.68/.69 for Windows and macOS, and version 137.0.7151.68 for Linux to address a high-severity out-of-bounds read and write vulnerability in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine that it said has been exploited in the wild. Google credited Clement Lecigne and Benoît Sevens of Google T...

As part of its active efforts to protect billions of online users, Google identified and warned over 12,000 of its users who were targeted by a government-backed hacking attempt in the third quarter of this year. According to a report published by Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG), more than 90 percent of the targeted users were hit with " credential phishing emails " that tried to trick victims into handing over access to their Google account. Google's TAG tracks over 270 government-backed hacking groups from over 50 countries that are involved in intelligence collection, stealing intellectual property, destructive cyber attacks, targeting dissidents, journalists, and activists, or spreading coordinated disinformation. The alerts were sent to targeted users between July and September 2019, which is consistent within a +/-10 percent range of the number of phishing email warnings sent in the same period of 2018 and 2017, the company said. These warnings u...

Security teams at agile, fast-growing companies often have the same mandate: secure the business without slowing it down. Most teams inherit a tech stack optimized for breakneck growth, not resilience. In these environments, the security team is the helpdesk, the compliance expert, and the incident response team all rolled into one. Securing the cloud office in this scenario is all about finding leverage: identifying the strategic control points that drive the most resilience without adding operational overhead. Google Workspace provides an excellent security foundation, but its native tooling has inherent limitations, and relying on the default configurations can cause headaches. To build a truly resilient program, there are some common-sense first steps teams can take to secure Workspace natively, before intelligently augmenting the platform where its capabilities fall short. Secure email, the primary attack vector and largest archive Email remains the most reliable target for ...

Hackers backed by Iran and Hezbollah staged cyber attacks designed to undercut public support for the Israel-Hamas war after October 2023. This includes destructive attacks against key Israeli organizations, hack-and-leak operations targeting entities in Israel and the U.S., phishing campaigns designed to steal intelligence, and information operations to turn public opinion against Israel. Iran accounted for nearly 80% of all government-backed phishing activity targeting Israel in the six months leading up to the October 7 attacks, Google said in a new report. "Hack-and-leak and information operations remain a key component in these and related threat actors' efforts to telegraph intent and capability throughout the war, both to their adversaries and to other audiences that they seek to influence," the tech giant  said . But what's also notable about the Israel-Hamas conflict is that the cyber operations appear to be executed independently of the kinetic and batt...

Mac users need to beware of a newly discovered piece of malware that steals their web browser cookies and credentials in an attempt to withdraw funds from their cryptocurrency exchange accounts. Dubbed CookieMiner due to its capability of stealing cookies-related to cryptocurrency exchanges, the malware has specifically been designed to target Mac users and is believed to be based on DarthMiner, another Mac malware that was detected in December last year. Uncovered by Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 security research team, CookieMiner also covertly installs coin mining software onto the infected Mac machines to secretly mine for additional cryptocurrency by consuming the targeted Mac's system resources. In the case of CookieMiner, the software is apparently geared toward mining "Koto," a lesser-known, privacy-oriented cryptocurrency which is mostly used in Japan. However, the most interesting capabilities of the new Mac malware is to steal: Both Google Chro...

Google has introduced a new security feature in its search engine to flag more web pages that might have been compromised by hackers. This new feature expands Google's long-standing program that marks websites hosting malicious software with a "This site may harm your computer" warning. Now, a new notation, "This site may be compromised," will indicate pages that may not be malicious but show signs that the site might not be fully controlled by its legitimate owner. This often happens when spammers add invisible links or redirects to unrelated websites, such as pharmacy sites. Additionally, Google will identify sites that have had phishing pages added by hackers. According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, between 75% and 80% of phishing sites are legitimate sites that have been hacked and seeded with phishing kits to mimic trusted e-commerce and banking sites. It remains to be seen if Google can speed up the process of re-vetting sites flagged as compromised after th...

Researchers have warned users of Android devices to avoid app downloads from particularly unauthorized sources, since a new and sophisticated piece of malware is targeting Android users through phishing emails . The malware, dubbed SandroRAT , is currently being used by cybercriminals to target Android users in Poland via a widely spread email spam campaign that delivers a new variant of an Android remote access tool (RAT). The emails masquerade itself as a bank alert that warns users of the malware infection in their mobile device and offers a fake mobile security solution in order to get rid of the malware infection. The mobile security solution poses as a Kaspersky Mobile Security , but in real, it is a version of SandroRAT, a remote access tool devised for Android devices, whose source code has been put on sale on underground Hack Forums since December last year. A mobile malware researcher at McAfee, Carlos Castillo, detailed the new variant of Android remot...

If you use a smartphone, browse the web, or unzip files on your computer, you are in the crosshairs this week. Hackers are currently exploiting critical flaws in the daily software we all rely on—and in some cases, they started attacking before a fix was even ready. Below, we list the urgent updates you need to install right now to stop these active threats. ⚡ Threat of the Week Apple and Google Release Fixes for Actively Exploited Flaws — Apple released security updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, visionOS, and Safari web browser to address two zero-days that the company said have been exploited in highly targeted attacks. CVE-2025-14174 has been described as a memory corruption issue, while the second, CVE-2025-43529, is a use-after-free bug. They can both be exploited using maliciously crafted web content to execute arbitrary code. CVE-2025-14174 was also addressed by Google in its Chrome browser since it resides in its open-source Almost Native Graphics Layer Engi...