Malware

Pierluigi Paganini September 03, 2026
Pegasus and NoviSpy Used Against Serbian Protesters

Serbian activists were targeted with zero-click Pegasus and NoviSpy spyware, exposing a major surveillance campaign ahead of elections. A member of Serbia’s student protest movement had their iPhone infected with NSO Group‘s Pegasus spyware without ever clicking a link or opening a file. The Citizen Lab confirmed the infection in collaboration with the SHARE Foundation, […]

Pierluigi Paganini September 02, 2026
$536 and 8 Hours: AI Learns to Attack a Different PLC

Experts got Claude to port a PLC exploit, but it cost $536 and 8 hours, and a later AI-generated payload accidentally destroyed the hardware. Forescout researchers just answered a question that’s been hanging over industrial security for a while: can AI actually port a working exploit from one PLC to a different model with no […]

Pierluigi Paganini September 01, 2026
Five Venezuelan Nationals Plead Guilty in Kansas ATM Jackpotting Attempt

Five Venezuelan nationals pleaded guilty after failed ATM jackpotting attempts in Kansas. The FBI recorded 700+ cases in 2025, causing $20M in losses. Five Venezuelan nationals have pleaded guilty after trying to steal cash from ATMs in Kansas using the popular ATM jackpotting technique. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the case on August 31, […]

Pierluigi Paganini August 31, 2026
ValleyRAT: When Legitimate Software Becomes a Malware Delivery Tool

ValleyRAT hides behind legitimate adware, using DLL sideloading to evade detection, steal data and give Silver Fox control of infected systems. ValleyRAT doesn’t always need to disguise itself as a cracked game or a fake browser update. It can also hide behind something much more ordinary: an application that looks like adware and appears to […]

Pierluigi Paganini August 31, 2026
China-linked Fire Ant Hides Inside Trusted Infrastructure

Fire Ant hijacked Cisco routers, stole credentials and altered logs to hide its tracks, using trusted infrastructure to reach high-value networks. Chinese-linked cyber espionage group Fire Ant has spent the past year quietly graduating from hacking individual computers to hacking the infrastructure that connects them. Sygnia’s new report traces how the group expanded from compromising […]

Pierluigi Paganini August 30, 2026
SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 112

Security Affairs Malware newsletter includes a collection of the best articles and research on malware in the international landscape Malware Newsletter Operation QUICSILVER: China-Nexus Actor Targets Myanmar Diplomats via VHD-Delivered Go Backdoor       FTP Banners: The New Dead Drop Resolver Delivering Novel RATs The State of AI-Enabled Malware August 2026: From Brand Abuse to Agentic […]

Pierluigi Paganini August 29, 2026
Rhysida Ransomware Group Targets Berlin Government Ahead of Vote

Berlin ‘s government faces a Rhysida ransomware attack weeks before elections, with officials refusing to pay despite a claimed 5.79 TB data theft. Berlin’s state government confirmed this week it’s dealing with an extortion attempt following an August cyberattack on the city-state’s administrative network, and officials have already refused the requested ransom. The ransomware group […]

Pierluigi Paganini August 28, 2026
Russian APT BlueDelta Uses HOOKEDGE to Target Defense and Diplomatic Organizations

BlueDelta (APT28) uses webhook.site and Microsoft Edge to hide HOOKEDGE espionage traffic targeting European governments. Recorded Future’s Insikt Group documented a campaign by BlueDelta, the Russian GRU-linked group that overlaps with the group APT28, running an entire espionage operation against European government targets using webhook.site, a service built for developers to test HTTP requests, as […]

Pierluigi Paganini August 27, 2026
Dark Caracal Deploys New Go Malware With Ethereum-Based C2 Fallback

Dark Caracal targets Venezuela with GoCaracal, an upgraded Bandook toolkit and an Ethereum fallback for resilient C2 communications. Dark Caracal is back with new malware and the same hunting grounds. Arctic Wolf Labs researchers link a June 2026 intrusion against a communications organisation in Venezuela to the Lebanon‑linked espionage group, and says it deployed a […]

Pierluigi Paganini August 25, 2026
Fake Minecraft Sites Are Still Spreading WeedHack After C2 Takedown

WeedHack Minecraft Malware Survives C2 Takedown: Fake Client Sites Still Active, SEO Poisoning Puts Malicious Downloads at the Top of Google McAfee Labs published a follow-up report on the WeedHack Malware-as-a-Service campaign this week, documenting ten active malicious sites and multiple file-hosting accounts that are still spreading the infostealer despite a disruption to its command-and-control […]