APT

Pierluigi Paganini August 27, 2026
OpenAI banned Russian ChatGPT accounts backing covert influence operation

OpenAI banned Russian ChatGPT accounts backing a fake think tank, IBI, that used AI posts and a fake “sovereignty” index to push pro‑Russia narratives. OpenAI says it has banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts that likely originated in Russia and were used to support a covert influence operation. The campaign promoted an organisation called the […]

Pierluigi Paganini August 13, 2026
Storm-1175 Replaces Medusa With New StormEncryptor Ransomware

Microsoft says China-linked Storm-1175 is using a new ransomware called StormEncryptor, replacing Medusa in its latest attacks. Microsoft says China-linked, financially motivated threat actor Storm-1175 has begun using a new ransomware strain called StormEncryptor. The group previously relied on Medusa ransomware. StormEncryptor is written in C++ and encrypts files and adds the .encrypted extension, then […]

Pierluigi Paganini August 13, 2026
North Korean Lazarus Group Uses Windows Zero-Day in Operation Dream Job

Lazarus targets defense professionals with fake Lockheed Martin jobs, exploiting a Windows zero-day to deploy backdoors and evade security controls. Check Point Research has uncovered a new wave of Operation Dream Job, the long-running North Korean campaign that lures defense and aerospace professionals with convincing fake job offers. This iteration is more dangerous than previous […]

Pierluigi Paganini August 12, 2026
China-Linked Hackers Use AI Agents in Autonomous Attack on Taiwan

China-linked hackers reportedly used eight AI agents to breach a government network, steal data and compromise accounts with minimal human oversight. Israeli cybersecurity firm Dream documented what looks like the first fully autonomous, end-to-end AI hacking operation against a government target. Over four days at the start of July, according to the Financial Times, suspected […]

Pierluigi Paganini July 31, 2026
SilverFox Targets Japanese Manufacturer With Advanced ValleyRAT Campaign

SilverFox targeted a Japanese manufacturer with new DLL sideloading techniques, kernel drivers, and resilient ValleyRAT persistence mechanisms. Cato CTRL documented a new SilverFox campaign targeting a Japanese industrial manufacturer. The attack chain adds two previously undocumented DLL-sideloading hosts, two kernel drivers not previously associated with SilverFox, and a dual-layer recovery architecture that keeps ValleyRAT running […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 26, 2026
Chinese APT CL-STA-1062 Expands Attacks on Southeast Asian Critical Infrastructure With Custom Malware

Chinese-speaking APT CL-STA-1062 targeted Southeast Asian government and energy networks open-source tools, and a new TinyRCT backdoor. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers published a detailed report on a Chinese-speaking threat actor, tracked as CL-STA-1062, that has been running persistent operations across East Asia since at least March 2022 and shifted focus to Southeast Asian […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 17, 2026
China-Linked FishMonger Ports SprySOCKS to Windows With Kernel-Level Stealth and UEFI Bootkit Hints

China-linked FishMonger used two SprySOCKS Windows variants that leveraged kernel drivers and the Print Spooler to target governments in four countries. ESET researchers have found two previously undocumented Windows versions of SprySOCKS, a backdoor that the security community had until now treated as Linux-only. Trend Micro first documented the Linux variant in September 2023 and […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 16, 2026
China-linked actor spent two years inside medical research networks

China’s UNC6508 hid in North American medical research networks for 2 years, stealing credentials and forwarding emails to Gmail Google’s Threat Intelligence Group published a report this week on UNC6508, a China-linked cyberespionage group that breached North American medical and military research organizations and stayed hidden for more than two years. The earliest confirmed intrusion […]

Pierluigi Paganini June 11, 2026
JDY Botnet Evolves After KV Takedown, Targets Military Networks

JDY botnet scans SOHO/IoT devices globally to map services and targets, especially US military networks. Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs reported the resurgence of the JDY botnet, a covert reconnaissance network tied to Chinese state-sponsored hacking groups including Volt Typhoon. The network was first spotted in late 2023 as a cluster inside KV-botnet. The U.S. government […]

Pierluigi Paganini May 23, 2026
Ghostwriter Is Back, Using a Ukrainian Learning Platform as Bait to Hit Government Targets

Ghostwriter targeted Ukrainian government agencies with phishing emails delivering malware and Cobalt Strike payloads. The Belarus-nexus APT group Ghostwriter (also tracked as UAC-0057 and UNC1151) has resurfaced with a new phishing campaign targeting Ukrainian government organizations. This time the lure is Prometheus, a legitimate Ukrainian online learning platform that many government employees actually use. Using […]