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The Russian advanced persistent threat (APT) group known as COLDRIVER has been attributed to a fresh round of ClickFix-style attacks designed to deliver two new "lightweight" malware families tracked as BAITSWITCH and SIMPLEFIX. Zscaler ThreatLabz, which detected the new multi-stage ClickFix campaign earlier this month, described BAITSWITCH as a downloader that ultimately drops SIMPLEFIX, a PowerShell backdoor. COLDRIVER , also tracked as Callisto, Star Blizzard, and UNC4057, is the moniker assigned to a Russia-linked threat actor that's known to target a wide range of sectors since 2019. While early campaign waves were observed using spear-phishing lures to direct targets to credential harvesting pages, the group has been fleshing out its arsenal with custom tools like SPICA and LOSTKEYS , which underscores its technical sophistication. The adversary's use of ClickFix tactics was previously documented by the Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) back in May 2...

In a world where threats are persistent, the modern CISO's real job isn't just to secure technology—it's to preserve institutional trust and ensure business continuity. This week, we saw a clear pattern: adversaries are targeting the complex relationships that hold businesses together, from supply chains to strategic partnerships. With new regulations and the rise of AI-driven attacks, the decisions you make now will shape your organization's resilience for years to come. This isn't just a threat roundup; it's the strategic context you need to lead effectively. Here's your full weekly recap, packed with the intelligence to keep you ahead. ⚡ Threat of the Week New HybridPetya Ransomware Bypasses UEFI Secure Boot — A copycat version of the infamous Petya/NotPetya malware dubbed HybridPetya has been spotted. But no telemetry exists to suggest HybridPetya has been deployed in the wild yet. It also differs in one key respect: It can compromise the secure boot featu...

Cyberattacks are getting smarter and harder to stop. This week, hackers used sneaky tools, tricked trusted systems, and quickly took advantage of new security problems—some just hours after being found. No system was fully safe. From spying and fake job scams to strong ransomware and tricky phishing, the attacks came from all sides. Even encrypted backups and secure areas were put to the test. Keep reading for the full list of the biggest cyber news from this week—clearly explained and easy to follow. ⚡ Threat of the Week Motex Lanscope Flaw Exploited to Drop Gokcpdoor — A suspected Chinese cyber espionage actor known as Tick has been attributed to a target campaign that has leveraged a recently disclosed critical security flaw in Motex Lanscope Endpoint Manager (CVE-2025-61932, CVSS score: 9.3) to infiltrate target networks and deploy a backdoor called Gokcpdoor. Sophos, which disclosed details of the activity, said it was "limited to sectors aligned with their intelligence...

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 ...

Everything feels secure—until one small thing slips through. Even strong systems can break if a simple check is missed or a trusted tool is misused. Most threats don't start with alarms—they sneak in through the little things we overlook. A tiny bug, a reused password, a quiet connection—that's all it takes. Staying safe isn't just about reacting fast. It's about catching these early signs before they blow up into real problems. That's why this week's updates matter. From stealthy tactics to unexpected entry points, the stories ahead reveal how quickly risk can spread—and what smart teams are doing to stay ahead. Dive in. ⚡ Threat of the Week U.S. Disrupts N. Korea IT Worker Scheme — Prosecutors said they uncovered the North Korean IT staff working at over 100 U.S. companies using fictitious or stolen identities and not only drawing salaries, but also stealing secret data and plundering virtual currency more than $900,000 in one incident targeting an unnamed blockchain company in ...

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...

Dynamic malware analysis is a key part of any threat investigation. It involves executing a sample of a malicious program in the isolated environment of a malware sandbox to monitor its behavior and gather actionable indicators. Effective analysis must be fast, in-depth, and precise. These five tools will help you achieve it with ease. 1. Interactivity Having the ability to interact with the malware and the system in real-time is a great advantage when it comes to dynamic analysis. This way, you can not only observe its execution but also see how it responds to your inputs and triggers specific behaviors.  Plus, it saves time by allowing you to download samples hosted on file-sharing websites or open those packed inside an archive, which is a common way to deliver payloads to victims. The initial phishing email containing the malicious pdf and password for the archive Check out this sandbox session in the ANY.RUN sandbox that shows how interactivity is used for analyzing th...

Threat actors associated with the Vice Society ransomware gang have been observed using a bespoke PowerShell-based tool to fly under the radar and automate the process of exfiltrating data from compromised networks. "Threat actors (TAs) using built-in  data exfiltration   methods  like [living off the land binaries and scripts] negate the need to bring in external tools that might be flagged by security software and/or human-based security detection mechanisms," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researcher Ryan Chapman  said . "These methods can also hide within the general operating environment, providing subversion to the threat actor." Vice Society , tracked by Microsoft under the name DEV-0832, is an extortion-focused hacking group that emerged on the scene in May 2021. It's known to rely on ransomware binaries sold on the criminal underground to meet its goals. In December 2022, SentinelOne detailed the group's use of a ransomware variant, dubbed  PolyVi...

This past week has been packed with unsettling developments in the world of cybersecurity. From silent but serious attacks on popular business tools to unexpected flaws lurking in everyday devices, there's a lot that might have flown under your radar. Attackers are adapting old tricks, uncovering new ones, and targeting systems both large and small. Meanwhile, law enforcement has scored wins against some shady online marketplaces, and technology giants are racing to patch problems before they become a full-blown crisis. If you've been too busy to keep track, now is the perfect time to catch up on what you may have missed. ⚡ Threat of the Week Cleo Vulnerability Comes Under Active Exploitation — A critical vulnerability (CVE-2024-50623) in Cleo's file transfer software—Harmony, VLTrader, and LexiCom—has been actively exploited by cybercriminals , creating major security risks for organizations worldwide. The flaw enables attackers to execute code remotely without authorization...

In this article, we will provide a brief overview of Silverfort's platform, the first (and currently only) unified identity protection platform on the market. Silverfort's patented technology aims to protect organizations from identity-based attacks by integrating with existing identity and access management solutions, such as AD (Active Directory) and cloud-based services, and extending secure access controls like Risk-Based Authentication and MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) to all their resources. This includes on-prem and cloud resources, legacy systems, command-line tools and service accounts. A recent report by Silverfort and Osterman Research revealed that  83% of organizations worldwide have experienced data breaches due to compromised credentials . Many organizations admit that they are underprotected against identity-based attacks, such as lateral movement and ransomware. Resources like command-line access tools and legacy systems, which are widely used, are particular...

A new Rust-based information stealer malware called Fickle Stealer has been observed being delivered via multiple attack chains with the goal of harvesting sensitive information from compromised hosts. Fortinet FortiGuard Labs said it's aware of four different distribution methods -- namely VBA dropper, VBA downloader, link downloader, and executable downloader -- with some of them using a PowerShell script to bypass User Account Control (UAC) and execute Fickle Stealer. The PowerShell script ("bypass.ps1" or "u.ps1") is also designed to periodically send information about the victim, including country, city, IP address, operating system version, computer name, and username to a Telegram bot controlled by the attacker. The stealer payload, which is protected using a packer, runs a series of anti-analysis checks to determine if it's running in a sandbox or a virtual machine environment, following which it beacons out to a remote server to exfiltrate da...

An unknown threat actor has been targeting Russian entities with a newly discovered remote access trojan called Woody RAT for at least a year as part of a spear-phishing campaign. The advanced custom backdoor is said to be delivered via either of two methods: archive files or Microsoft Office documents leveraging the now-patched "Follina" support diagnostic tool vulnerability ( CVE-2022-30190 ) in Windows. Like other implants engineered for espionage-oriented operations, Woody RAT sports a wide range of features that enables the threat actor to remotely commandeer and steal sensitive information from the infected systems. "The earliest versions of this RAT were typically archived into a ZIP file pretending to be a document specific to a Russian group," Malwarebytes researchers Ankur Saini and Hossein Jazi  said  in a Wednesday report. "When the Follina vulnerability became known to the world, the threat actor switched to it to distribute the payload....