X-Industry

FortiGuard Labs has identified a Linux backdoor that exploits known vulnerabilities in internet-facing devices and converts infected systems into remotely controlled proxy nodes.

Hacking& Cracking - Called ClingSTUN, the malware supports remote command execution, maintains access after a reboot and uses legitimate public STUN servers to communicate through network address translation.[1]

Known Vulnerabilities Used for Initial Access - According to the company’s report shared with Hackread.com ah

When a factory robot governed by a generative AI model swings an arm toward a target, its path can respond to environmental conditions.  It may not hit a person. The same constraint appears in other less dramatic applications that fail in the same way.  An edited portrait may change the light or the expression; it may not become someone else.  A simulated physical field may take an unexpected shape; it may not leave the envelope the equipment was designed for.  In each case, the generator is fre

The notorious extortion group ShinyHunters announced that it had breached the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and stolen records on current and former employees.  In a statement on its dark-web site, the group said it targeted the agency after a May 2026 advisory that outlined its methods and urged victims not to pay. It claimed to have taken data on almost all FBI agents and individuals who applied for jobs there. The announcement followed a brief appearance of the group’s banner on the F

Microsoft Threat Intelligence has detailed new phishing and malware delivery activity from Star Blizzard, a Russian state threat group.  The group, also known as Callisto Group and SEABORGIUM, is associated with Centre 18 of Russia’s Federal  Security Service, according to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Hacking & Cracking - Since January 2026, Microsoft has identified at least 13 large-scale phishing campaigns targeting organizations worldwide. The activity affec

For years now, Red Sky Alliance has been reporting on vessel name spoofing, using fake email addresses to lure companies in the maritime arena to click on infected emails.  Now Georgia Tech has revealed vessel GPS spoofing, which produced a study showing 367,000 ships affected by global GPS spoofing.  This research included the Red Sea activity detected months before the MSC Antonia grounding in May 2025.  Researchers analyzing global ship-tracking data have identified 31 persistent areas of abn

Kiteworks is a provider of secure file-transfer and data-sharing software. Its products are used by organizations to exchange sensitive information with employees, customers, and various other outside organizations. As we've seen in recent months, services sitting at the boundaries between organizations and outside parties are attractive targets for attackers seeking large amounts of data.

On September 25th, Kiteworks took a bit of an unusual approach and advised their customers to shut down the

Hackread.com posted a great example of cyber security in action.  A long-running supply-chain campaign has used malicious npm packages to deliver a remote access trojan (RAT), steal credentials and maintain access to compromised Windows systems.  CloudSEK’s Global Threat Intelligence team called the operation MALFEX and linked it to a single operator active since August 2023.[1]

Hacking& Cracking - The operator used multiple npm accounts containing the Malfex name, along with a GitHub account ca

• Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) represent successive stages beyond today’s narrow AI systems.
• Narrow AI (the present)
• Current AI (also called Artificial Narrow Intelligence or ANI) is specialized. Systems like large language models, image generators, recommendation engines, or game-playing agents excel at specific tasks but cannot flexibly transfer knowledge or solve novel problems outside their training distribution the way a human can. They lack a

A bank creating an encryption key, a state drawing a lottery, and a hospital assigning patients to a trial all need the same thing: a random number that nobody in the room, and nobody who built the machine generating random output, could have known in advance. Ordinary computers aren’t optimized for randomness. They follow recipes. Left alone, they cycle, repeat, or leak the rhythm of their own clocks. As a result, modern systems keep asking for fresh and increasing volumes of unpredictability.

Research published by Chainalysis shows that nation-state cyber actors are leading an unprecedented expansion in the use of public distributed ledgers to orchestrate cyberattacks.  Analysts recorded a 440% year-on-year surge in what the industry terms "blockchain dead drop" (BDD) techniques. In these schemes, threat actors insert malicious commands and routing instructions straight into public ledger records and automated smart contracts.[1]

Conventional attack infrastructure relies on centraliz

Google’s artificial intelligence model Gemini has accessed protected systems belonging to three external companies during a cybersecurity evaluation.  The incident occurred after a configuration error exposed the autonomous agent to the live internet. Gemini was participating in a 'capture-the-flag' challenge to locate hidden data within a simulated target environment. Directed to investigate software belonging to a fictional business, the model encountered a scope failure when the fictional ent

The phone rings and it is a relative or friend's voice on the line.  There has been an accident, they say, and they need money urgently.  It is not really them, as technology has copied their voice.  For years, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity concerns have focused on corporate networks and government systems.  Those threats remain real, but the FBI's fraud data shows that huge sums are now being lost from household accounts.[1]

The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Repor

The escalating dispute between ShinyHunters and the Cl0p ransomware gang has taken another turn, with Cl0p apparently regaining the ability to publish on its compromised dark web site and posting a message asking ShinyHunters to make contact.

Hackread.com observed the latest change on 21 September 2026.  Cl0p’s onion address, previously taken over and repurposed by ShinyHunters, displayed a short message from the ransomware gang directed at ShinyHunters.

BookSecurity Audits - “Shiny Hunters, we'

Security researchers at Checkmarx Zero have identified a malware campaign that circumvents npm's recent crackdown on lifecycle scripts, one of the package manager's key defensive measures against supply chain attacks. npm (short for Node Package Manager) is the default package manager for the Node.js JavaScript runtime environment.  It helps developers install, share, and manage reusable code libraries (called packages) in their projects.  The discovery signals that attackers are adapting quickl

Over a hundred tech companies, including OpenAI; Anthropic; Google; and Microsoft have signed an open letter urging both the private and public sectors to work together to defend themselves from AI-related cyber threats.  The letter, which was also signed by prominent cyber firms like Crowdstrike, Okta, and Fortinet, as well as prominent financial institutions and internet infrastructure firms, calls for the adoption of new forms of cyber defense, while also encouraging governments at the “local

Nearly a third (29%) of organizations globally have been hit by at least one successful cyber-attack in the past 12 months, with incidents having substantial financial, operational and human impacts on victims.  The Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report 2026 found that those affected by cyber-attacks reported an average of four incidents over the period.

UK-based firms were most likely to experience an incident with successful attacks reported by 38% of organizations.  US organizations were least likely

The Counter Threat Unit at Sophos has published original research detailing Luciferus, an uncensored artificial intelligence subscription service being advertised on the Exploit underground forum.  The tool is marketed as able to answer requests without moral or ethical limitations, raising new concerns about how criminal groups are adapting generative AI for illicit purposes.  The findings point to a broader shift within the cybercriminal economy, as threat actors move beyond traditional offeri

Grand Theft Auto VI is due to arrive worldwide on 19 November 2026 after more than a decade of waiting, with official pre-orders already open since 25 June 2026.  That long build-up has created a perfect opportunity for fraudsters.   Security researchers at McAfee have found criminals riding the wave of excitement around this autumn’s major titles by building fraudulent websites, fake downloads, unofficial mobile apps, counterfeit storefronts, phishing pages and cheating tools.  The goal is simp

Imagine a padlock hanging on a public fence.  Anyone can walk up and study it.  Today, staring at the lock does not give a thief a working key. That is the bargain behind the cryptography that secures most cryptocurrencies.  A future quantum computer could look at the lock already sitting on the blockchain and cut a key that gives an unauthorized third-party access to someone else’s coins.

That lock is elliptic curve public key cryptography (ECC).  Cryptocurrency networks such as Bitcoin, Ethere

Back in July, FortiGuard Labs observed several malicious samples that were sending malformed DNS queries.  After conducting an in-depth analysis, it was determined that these samples are TrickBot variants that use DNS tunneling to communicate with their command-and-control (C2) servers.

TrickBot is a modular malware family that FortiGuard Labs has repeatedly captured over the past decade.  Its modular architecture enables it to extend its capabilities by downloading and executing additional modu