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Antino Backdoor Uses Outlook and OneDrive for C2 in China-Nexus Espionage Campaign

Government and policy organizations across Asia have become the target of a new campaign orchestrated by a China-nexus threat actor. The activity, which has targeted government and policy organizations in Taiwan, India, the Philippines, Cambodia, Pakistan, Thailand, and Myanmar, involves the deployment of a previously undocumented backdoor codenamed Antino. Cisco Talos is tracking the cluster

Warlock Ransomware Hits Large Spanish, Portuguese Orgs

A year-old Chinese threat actor looks like a cybercrime gang, acts like a state-associated APT, and attacks organizations in unexpected places.

Russia's Star Blizzard Ditches ClickFix to Widen Phishing Net

The APT actor is using a new tactic, dubbed "RedFlick," against Ukrainian-linked targets such as NGOs, think tanks, and journalists to deploy its CosmicPulse backdoor.

Russian APT Star Blizzard Uses ‘RedFlick’ Infection Chain in Recent Attacks

The state-sponsored group has launched larger-scale phishing campaigns to deploy the CosmicPulse backdoor. The post Russian APT Star Blizzard Uses ‘RedFlick’ Infection Chain in Recent Attacks appeared first on SecurityWeek.

17,000 URLs Reveal How ClickFix Turns Trusted Websites Into Malware Traps: Report by CTM360

ClickFix has become the most common way attackers get into enterprise networks, and it does it without an exploit, an attachment, or a file on disk. Our new global threat report traces the technique from a novelty in late 2023 to a subscription product with on-chain infrastructure and a state-sponsored user base, and explains why blocking malicious domains is no longer a useful defense. Read

DarkMe RAT: A VB6 APT Trojan Turned Conventional Infostealer

DarkMe, an APT-linked VB6 RAT known for using zero day exploits, turned up in two Huntress incidents stripped down to a plain .pif infostealer malware.

Transparent Tribe Deploys New Rust Backdoor Using Private GitHub Repositories for C2

The Pakistan-aligned threat group tracked as Transparent Tribe (aka APT36 and Earth Karkaddan) has been attributed to a fresh set of cyber attacks targeting government and defense entities in India and Afghanistan. The attacks, per Zscaler ThreatLabz, involve the use of previously undocumented tools called RUSTYSHADE, RUSTYMOVE, PSNATCH, and BASHNATCH. The activity has been codenamed Operation

China's FamousSparrow APT Spies on US Politics in Latin America

Amid the US and China's fight for eco-colonial influence in Latin America, a stealthy backdoor has taken flight.

China-Aligned FamousSparrow Deploys SparroWocky Backdoor Across Latin America

The China-aligned state-sponsored threat actor known as FamousSparrow has been observed deploying a previously unreported backdoor called SparroWocky in attacks targeting multiple countries in Latin America since at least August 2025. "SparroWocky is a modular, C++ backdoor," ESET security researchers Alexandre Côté Cyr and Romain Dumont said in a technical report shared with The Hacker News

Chinese hackers use SparroWocky malware in govt espionage attacks

The China-linked espionage group FamousSparrow has been using a new backdoor named SparroWocky in attacks on government organizations in Latin America. [...]

Beware the SparroWock: The backdoor that bites, the commands that catch

ESET researchers document SparroWocky, the new flagship backdoor of the FamousSparrow APT group

Three Threat Groups Target Russian Enterprises With Backdoors, Ransomware, and Wipers

Enterprises in Russia have emerged as the target of three threat activity clusters tracked as NightEagle, Hacking Cat, and Toy Ghouls, according to multiple reports from Kaspersky. The cybersecurity vendor said it has identified attacks mounted by NightEagle (aka APT-Q-95), a threat actor known to be active since at least 2023, that involve new techniques for persistence and lateral movement.

Cyber Op Targets South Korean Media & Automotive Sectors

A likely North Korean advanced persistent threat (APT) group used a previously undocumented Linux espionage toolkit to compromise load balancers, gain access to communications, and further exploit networks.

One Exploit Chain, Two Espionage Campaigns: Chrome and Windows Under Fire

Two China-linked groups ran identical Chrome/Windows zero-day exploits against NGOs, before Chrome’s patch shipped, deploying different backdoors each. Two China-linked threat actors used the same Chrome/Windows zero-day against NGOs starting September 1, 2026, Volexity’s new report lays out the whole chain in detail. On September 1, Volexity detected a spear-phishing campaign by UTA0560 targeting several […]

⚡ Weekly Recap: Rogue AI Agents, WeChat Worm, PaperCut Attacks, AI Espionage, and Rootkits

AI keeps showing up in the wrong places. Attackers are using it to speed up exploits, test defenses, and automate more of the job. Some models are also crossing lines on their own. That is not a great combination. The rest of the week is more familiar: old bugs still working, fresh exploit chains, exposed systems, weak defaults, and simple paths that should have been harder to abuse. A few of

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 114

Security Affairs Malware newsletter includes a collection of the best articles and research on malware in the international landscape Malware Newsletter REVSTEALER ramps up Breaking the Seal: Static Deobfuscation of JSCeal’s Compiled V8 Bytecode GuardBreaker: Derailing AI-assisted malware analysis with a code comment DPRK APTs: Ted backdoor and curlRAT target South Korean media and automotive […]

Hackers exploit Tencent app flaw to deploy GrayRabbit malware

Threat actors linked to a China-aligned espionage group are exploiting a critical vulnerability (CVE-2026-51990) in Tencent's Sogou Input Method for Windows to deploy the GrayRabbit backdoor. [...]

BlueMoon Exploit Kit Chains Recent Chrome, Windows Zero-Days

Multiple espionage-motivated threat actors have adopted BlueMoon in opportunistic, rushed deployments. The post BlueMoon Exploit Kit Chains Recent Chrome, Windows Zero-Days appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Hackers abused Claude to extract secrets from 1.8M Android apps

Anthropic says multiple threat groups, including the financially motivated and state-sponsored espionage groups linked to Russia and China, tried to abuse its Claude AI model for malicious purposes. [...]

Claude Used to Automate Exploitation and Data Theft Across Multiple Victims

Anthropic has warned that cybercriminals and state-sponsored hackers alike are using its Claude models for cyber attacks, weapons design, propaganda, and mass surveillance between December 2025 and August 2026. The threat actors, which the artificial intelligence (AI) company has branded Generative Threat Groups (GTGs), span state-sponsored groups, financially motivated criminals, commercial

Russian State-Sponsored Hackers Use Claude to Rebuild Malware After Detection

Anthropic on Thursday revealed it disrupted a campaign mounted by a Russian state-sponsored threat actor that abused Claude for developing an AI-assisted workflow to get ahead of the detection curve. The operation has been attributed to a cyber espionage group it calls GTG-20006 (where "GTG" stands for Generative Threat Group), which aligns with broader reporting linking the cluster to Midnight

Anthropic caught Russia-linked spies using Claude in hacking operations

Anthropic detected and disrupted a Russia-linked cyber-espionage group that used its AI tool Claude in a hacking campaign targeting more than 20 government, intelligence, diplomatic and defense organizations.

Cisco FMC Flaws Exploited to Steal Credentials and Deploy Qilin Ransomware

Cisco has revealed that three distinct threat clusters linked to ransomware and state-sponsored attacks have been exploiting two recently patched Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) vulnerabilities. The attacks leverage CVE-2026-20079 (CVSS score: 10.0), an authentication bypass vulnerability in the web interface of FMC software that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass

Cisco FMC flaws exploited by ransomware gang, state-sponsored hackers

Cisco Talos says two recently patched Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) vulnerabilities have been exploited by three separate threat clusters linked to ransomware and state-sponsored attacks. [...]

New 'BlueMoon' kit exploited Windows and Chrome zero-day flaws

Multiple cyber-espionage groups deployed an exploit kit dubbed "BlueMoon" that leveraged zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows and Google Chrome. [...]

Four Nation-State Actors Used the Same Chrome Zero-Day Exploit Kit Within 12 Days

Four espionage groups used the BlueMoon Chrome+Windows exploit kit within 12 days. Researchers suspect AI development. Proofpoint published a detailed analysis of a Chrome-and-Windows exploit kit it tracks as BlueMoon that four nation-state actors adopted within roughly two weeks of the first observed use. Google’s Threat Intelligence Group, Microsoft’s MSTIC, and Volexity all contributed to […]

Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

AI Is Giving Lesser-Resourced Attackers Nation-State-Level Reach, Google Warns

Criminal and state-sponsored adversaries are increasingly using AI to automate and scale their attacks, according to GTIG. The post AI Is Giving Lesser-Resourced Attackers Nation-State-Level Reach, Google Warns appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Four Spy Groups Used the Same Chrome and Windows Exploit Kit Within a Week

Multiple espionage-motivated threat activity clusters have been found deploying a previously undocumented exploit kit called BlueMoon that chains together multiple vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows and Google Chrome. The first in-the-wild use of BlueMoon has been attributed to the China-aligned state-sponsored group tracked as APT31 (aka Bronze Vinewood, Judgement Panda, JungleBamboo,