An Analysis of AI Overview Brand Visibility Factors (75K Brands Studied)
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An Analysis of AI Overview Brand Visibility Factors (75K Brands Studied)

With Google’s AI mode developments, we’re heading toward a future where search results could eventually roll up into one big AI Overview. Soon it won’t be a case of “Should I, or shouldn’t I optimize for AI Overviews?” If you want any chance of search visibility, you’ll need to understand how to rank in Google’s…

Hackers Use Fake VPN and Browser NSIS Installers to Deliver Winos 4.0 Malware

Hackers Use Fake VPN and Browser NSIS Installers to Deliver Winos 4.0 Malware

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a malware campaign that uses fake software installers masquerading as popular tools like LetsVPN and QQ Browser to deliver the Winos 4.0 framework. The campaign, first detected by Rapid7 in February 2025, involves the use of a multi-stage, memory-resident loader called Catena. “Catena uses embedded shellcode and configuration switching logic to…

Hackers Use TikTok Videos to Distribute Vidar and StealC Malware via ClickFix Technique

Hackers Use TikTok Videos to Distribute Vidar and StealC Malware via ClickFix Technique

The malware known as Latrodectus has become the latest to embrace the widely-used social engineering technique called ClickFix as a distribution vector. “The ClickFix technique is particularly risky because it allows the malware to execute in memory rather than being written to disk,” Expel said in a report shared with The Hacker News. “This removes…

ViciousTrap Uses Cisco Flaw to Build Global Honeypot from 5,300 Compromised Devices

ViciousTrap Uses Cisco Flaw to Build Global Honeypot from 5,300 Compromised Devices

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed that a threat actor codenamed ViciousTrap has compromised nearly 5,300 unique network edge devices across 84 countries and turned them into a honeypot-like network. The threat actor has been observed exploiting a critical security flaw impacting Cisco Small Business RV016, RV042, RV042G, RV082, RV320, and RV325 Routers (CVE-2023-20118) to corral them…

CISA Warns of Suspected Broader SaaS Attacks Exploiting App Secrets and Cloud Misconfigs

CISA Warns of Suspected Broader SaaS Attacks Exploiting App Secrets and Cloud Misconfigs

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday revealed that Commvault is monitoring cyber threat activity targeting applications hosted in their Microsoft Azure cloud environment. “Threat actors may have accessed client secrets for Commvault’s (Metallic) Microsoft 365 (M365) backup software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, hosted in Azure,” the agency said. “This provided the threat actors…

Russian Hackers Exploit Email and VPN Vulnerabilities to Spy on Ukraine Aid Logistics

Russian Hackers Exploit Email and VPN Vulnerabilities to Spy on Ukraine Aid Logistics

Russian cyber threat actors have been attributed to a state-sponsored campaign targeting Western logistics entities and technology companies since 2022. The activity has been assessed to be orchestrated by APT28 (aka BlueDelta, Fancy Bear, or Forest Blizzard), which is linked to the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 85th Main Special Service Center, Military…

Do Higher Content Scores Mean Higher Google Rankings? We Studied It (So You Don’t Have To)
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Do Higher Content Scores Mean Higher Google Rankings? We Studied It (So You Don’t Have To)

Built within these scores is an implicit assumption that the higher your score, the higher you’ll likely rank on Google. But is that actually true? To find out, I studied the correlation between rankings and content scores from five content optimization tools: Surfer, Frase, NeuronWriter, Clearscope, and our own AI Content Helper. We found weak…

The AI Bots That ~140 Million Websites Block the Most
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The AI Bots That ~140 Million Websites Block the Most

AI bots power some of the most advanced technologies we use today, from search engines to AI assistants. However, their increasing presence has led to a growing number of websites blocking them. There’s a cost to bots crawling your websites and there’s a social contract between search engines and website owners, where search engines add…

Hazy Hawk Exploits DNS Records to Hijack CDC, Corporate Domains for Malware Delivery

Hazy Hawk Exploits DNS Records to Hijack CDC, Corporate Domains for Malware Delivery

A threat actor known as Hazy Hawk has been observed hijacking abandoned cloud resources of high-profile organizations, including Amazon S3 buckets and Microsoft Azure endpoints, by leveraging misconfigurations in the Domain Name System (DNS) records. The hijacked domains are then used to host URLs that direct users to scams and malware via traffic distribution systems…