Latest Cybersecurity News and Articles

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AI Could Generate 10,000 Malware Variants, Evading Detection in 88% of Case

Cybersecurity researchers have found that it's possible to use large language models (LLMs) to generate new variants of malicious JavaScript code at scale in a manner that can better evade detection. "Although LLMs struggle to create malware from scratch, criminals can easily use them to rewrite or obfuscate existing malware, making it harder to detect," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers

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⚡ THN Weekly Recap: Top Cybersecurity Threats, Tools and Tips

The online world never takes a break, and this week shows why. From ransomware creators being caught to hackers backed by governments trying new tricks, the message is clear: cybercriminals are always changing how they attack, and we need to keep up. Hackers are using everyday tools in harmful ways, hiding spyware in trusted apps, and finding new ways to take advantage of old security gaps.

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‘Security through obscurity’: the Swedish cabin on the frontline of a possible hybrid war

Amid claims of sabotage of undersea cables, a small wooden structure houses a key cog in Europe’s digital connectivityAt the end of an unmarked path on a tiny island at the edge of Stockholm’s extensive Baltic Sea archipelago lies an inconspicuous little wooden cabin, painted a deep shade of red. Water gently laps the snow-dusted rocks, and the smell of pine fills the air.The site offers few clues to the geopolitical drama that has gripped Scandinavia in recent months, driven by accusations of infrastructure sabotage. But in fact the cabin houses a key cog in Europe’s digital connectivity, and a point of vulnerability in a potential hybrid war: a datacentre that amplifies the signal from a 1,615-mile fibre-optic cable running from northern Sweden to Berlin. Continue reading...

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Rockstar2FA Collapse Fuels Expansion of FlowerStorm Phishing-as-a-Service

An interruption to the phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) toolkit called Rockstar 2FA has led to a rapid uptick in activity from another nascent offering named FlowerStorm. "It appears that the [Rockstar2FA] group running the service experienced at least a partial collapse of its infrastructure, with pages associated with the service no longer reachable," Sophos said in a new report published last

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Top 10 Cybersecurity Trends to Expect in 2025

The 2025 cybersecurity landscape is increasingly complex, driven by sophisticated cyber threats, increased regulation, and rapidly evolving technology. In 2025, organizations will be challenged with protecting sensitive information for their customers while continuing to provide seamless and easy user experiences. Here’s a closer look at ten emerging challenges and threats set to shape the

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U.S. Judge Rules Against NSO Group in WhatsApp Pegasus Spyware Case

Meta Platforms-owned WhatsApp scored a major legal victory in its fight against Israeli commercial spyware vendor NSO Group after a federal judge in the U.S. state of California ruled in favor of the messaging giant for exploiting a security vulnerability to deliver Pegasus. "The limited evidentiary record before the court does show that defendants' Pegasus code was sent through plaintiffs'

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Italy Fines OpenAI €15 Million for ChatGPT GDPR Data Privacy Violations

Italy's data protection authority has fined ChatGPT maker OpenAI a fine of €15 million ($15.66 million) over how the generative artificial intelligence application handles personal data. The fine comes nearly a year after the Garante found that ChatGPT processed users' information to train its service in violation of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The authority

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LockBit Developer Rostislav Panev Charged for Billions in Global Ransomware Damages

A dual Russian and Israeli national has been charged in the United States for allegedly being the developer of the now-defunct LockBit ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation since its inception in or around 2019 through at least February 2024. Rostislav Panev, 51, was arrested in Israel earlier this August and is currently awaiting extradition, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said in a

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Lazarus Group Spotted Targeting Nuclear Engineers with CookiePlus Malware

The Lazarus Group, an infamous threat actor linked to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has been observed leveraging a "complex infection chain" targeting at least two employees belonging to an unnamed nuclear-related organization within the span of one month in January 2024. The attacks, which culminated in the deployment of a new modular backdoor referred to as CookiePlus, are

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Rspack npm Packages Compromised with Crypto Mining Malware in Supply Chain Attack

The developers of Rspack have revealed that two of their npm packages, @rspack/core and @rspack/cli, were compromised in a software supply chain attack that allowed a malicious actor to publish malicious versions to the official package registry with cryptocurrency mining malware. Following the discovery, versions 1.1.7 of both libraries have been unpublished from the npm registry. The latest

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Sophos Issues Hotfixes for Critical Firewall Flaws: Update to Prevent Exploitation

Sophos has released hotfixes to address three security flaws in Sophos Firewall products that could be exploited to achieve remote code execution and allow privileged system access under certain conditions. Of the three, two are rated Critical in severity. There is currently no evidence that the shortcomings have been exploited in the wild. The list of vulnerabilities is as follows -

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Hackers Exploiting Critical Fortinet EMS Vulnerability to Deploy Remote Access Tools

A now-patched critical security flaw impacting Fortinet FortiClient EMS is being exploited by malicious actors as part of a cyber campaign that installed remote desktop software such as AnyDesk and ScreenConnect.  The vulnerability in question is CVE-2023-48788 (CVSS score: 9.3), an SQL injection bug that allows attackers to execute unauthorized code or commands by sending specially crafted

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Executives targeted in mobile spearphishing attacks

Executives are targeted in mobile spearphishing attacks, and security leaders share their insights. 

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CISA Adds Critical Flaw in BeyondTrust Software to Exploited Vulnerabilities List

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday added a critical security flaw impacting BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access (PRA) and Remote Support (RS) products to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-12356 (CVSS score: 9.8), is a command injection flaw that

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Web Hacking Service ‘Araneida’ Tied to Turkish IT Firm

Cybercriminals are selling hundreds of thousands of credential sets stolen with the help of a cracked version of Acunetix, a powerful commercial web app vulnerability scanner, new research finds. The cracked software is being resold as a cloud-based attack tool by at least two different services, one of which KrebsOnSecurity traced to an information technology firm based in Turkey.

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Thousands Download Malicious npm Libraries Impersonating Legitimate Tools

Threat actors have been observed uploading malicious typosquats of legitimate npm packages such as typescript-eslint and @types/node that have racked up thousands of downloads on the package registry. The counterfeit versions, named @typescript_eslinter/eslint and types-node, are engineered to download a trojan and retrieve second-stage payloads, respectively. "While typosquatting attacks are

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Juniper Warns of Mirai Botnet Targeting SSR Devices with Default Passwords

Juniper Networks is warning that Session Smart Router (SSR) products with default passwords are being targeted as part of a malicious campaign that deploys the Mirai botnet malware. The company said it's issuing the advisory after "several customers" reported anomalous behavior on their Session Smart Network (SSN) platforms on December 11, 2024. "These systems have been infected with the Mirai

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Fortinet Warns of Critical FortiWLM Flaw That Could Lead to Admin Access Exploits

Fortinet has issued an advisory for a now-patched critical security flaw impacting Wireless LAN Manager (FortiWLM) that could lead to disclosure of sensitive information. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-34990, carries a CVSS score of 9.6 out of a maximum of 10.0. "A relative path traversal [CWE-23] in FortiWLM may allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to read sensitive files," the

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CISA Mandates Cloud Security for Federal Agencies by 2025 Under Binding Directive 25-01

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 25-01, ordering federal civilian agencies to secure their cloud environments and abide by Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) secure configuration baselines. "Recent cybersecurity incidents highlight the significant risks posed by misconfigurations and weak security controls,

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Dutch DPA Fines Netflix €4.75 Million for GDPR Violations Over Data Transparency

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) on Wednesday fined video on-demand streaming service Netflix €4.75 million ($4.93 million) for not giving consumers enough information about how it used their data between 2018 and 2020. An investigation launched by the DPA in 2019 found that the tech giant did not inform customers clearly enough in its privacy statement about what it does with the data