Fortinet has revealed that threat actors have found a way to maintain read-only access to vulnerable FortiGate devices even after the initial access vector used to breach the devices was patched. The attackers are believed to have leveraged known and now-patched security flaws, including, but not limited to, CVE-2022-42475, CVE-2023-27997, and CVE-2024-21762. “A threat actor…
The threat actor known as Paper Werewolf has been observed exclusively targeting Russian entities with a new implant called PowerModul. The activity, which took place between July and December 2024, singled out organizations in the mass media, telecommunications, construction, government entities, and energy sectors, Kaspersky said in a new report published Thursday. Paper Werewolf, also…
What are IABs? Initial Access Brokers (IABs) specialize in gaining unauthorized entry into computer systems and networks, then selling that access to other cybercriminals. This division of labor allows IABs to concentrate on their core expertise: exploiting vulnerabilities through methods like social engineering and brute-force attacks. By selling access, they significantly mitigate the risks associated…
Law enforcement authorities have announced that they tracked down the customers of the SmokeLoader malware and detained at least five individuals. “In a coordinated series of actions, customers of the Smokeloader pay-per-install botnet, operated by the actor known as ‘Superstar,’ faced consequences such as arrests, house searches, arrest warrants or ‘knock and talks,’” Europol said…
GitGuardian’s State of Secrets Sprawl report for 2025 reveals the alarming scale of secrets exposure in modern software environments. Driving this is the rapid growth of non-human identities (NHIs), which have been outnumbering human users for years. We need to get ahead of it and prepare security measures and governance for these machine identities as…
Security Operations Centers (SOCs) today face unprecedented alert volumes and increasingly sophisticated threats. Triaging and investigating these alerts are costly, cumbersome, and increases analyst fatigue, burnout, and attrition. While artificial intelligence has emerged as a go-to solution, the term “AI” often blurs crucial distinctions. Not all AI is built equal, especially in the SOC. Many…
After more than 25 years of mitigating risks, ensuring compliance, and building robust security programs for Fortune 500 companies, I’ve learned that looking busy isn’t the same as being secure. It’s an easy trap for busy cybersecurity leaders to fall into. We rely on metrics that tell a story of the tremendous efforts we’re expending…
A likely lone wolf actor behind the EncryptHub persona was acknowledged by Microsoft for discovering and reporting two security flaws in Windows last month, painting a picture of a “conflicted” individual straddling a legitimate career in cybersecurity and pursuing cybercrime. In a new extensive analysis published by Outpost24 KrakenLabs, the Swedish security company unmasked the…
Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered malicious libraries in the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that are designed to steal sensitive information. Two of the packages, bitcoinlibdbfix and bitcoinlib-dev, masquerade as fixes for recent issues detected in a legitimate Python module called bitcoinlib, according to ReversingLabs. A third package discovered by Socket, disgrasya, contained a fully automated…
Ivanti has disclosed details of a now-patched critical security vulnerability impacting its Connect Secure that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-22457 (CVSS score: 9.0), concerns a case of a stack-based buffer overflow that could be exploited to execute arbitrary code on affected systems. “A stack-based buffer overflow in…
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new vulnerability impacting Google’s Quick Share data transfer utility for Windows that could be exploited to achieve a denial-of-service (DoS) or send arbitrary files to a target’s device without their approval. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2024-10668 (CVSS score: 5.9), is a bypass for two of the 10 shortcomings…
The financially motivated threat actor known as FIN7 has been linked to a Python-based backdoor called Anubis (not to be confused with an Android banking trojan of the same name) that can grant them remote access to compromised Windows systems. “This malware allows attackers to execute remote shell commands and other system operations, giving them…
