X-Industry

FortiGuard Labs recently identified a multi-stage malware campaign primarily targeting users in Russia.  The attack begins with social engineering lures delivered via business-themed documents crafted to appear routine and benign.  These documents and accompanying scripts serve as visual distractions, diverting victims to fake tasks or status messages while malicious activity runs silently in the background.

As the attack chain progresses, it escalates into a full-system compromise that includes

military

In July 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin proudly added a new nuclear submarine, the Knyaz Pozharsky, to the country’s fleet. He celebrated it as proof that Russia could still build powerful weapons despite Western sanctions. But the celebration didn’t last long. Only days later, Ukrainian cyber experts managed to hack into Russian military networks. They stole and leaked secret documents that revealed the submarine’s technical details, including its design, systems, and crew infor

A new warning has been issued over continued disruptive cyber-attacks against UK organizations, with local government bodies and operators of critical national infrastructure remaining key targets.  Russian-aligned hacktivist groups are continuing to target UK and global organizations by attempting to disrupt operations, take websites offline and disable services.  The activity is largely focused on denial-of-service (DoS) attacks intended to overwhelm websites and online systems, preventing acc

A US House subcommittee was warned on 13 January that without federal action, the automotive aftermarket faces an existential threat that would lead to a vertically integrated industry, reduced competition, higher prices, diminished quality and fewer choices for consumers.[1]

In a hearing with the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade (CMT), Auto Care Association President and CEO Bill Hanvey emphasized that safe, affordable, an

AI coding assistants are no longer just autocompleting lines of code, they are quietly making decisions for you.  Tools like Claude Code are able to read projects, plan multi-step changes, install dependencies, and modify files with minimal human oversight.  To make this possible, these assistants rely on plugin marketplaces, where third-party developers can enable ‘skills’ that teach the agent how to manage infrastructure, testing, and dependencies.  Though powerful, the model requires a high d

Cybercriminals are increasingly proving they do not need software vulnerabilities to compromise organizations; they need convincing deception.  Researchers at Securonix are warning of a sophisticated phishing campaign targeting the hospitality sector that uses fake Booking.com reservation cancellations, deceptive CAPTCHA pages, and a panic-inducing fake Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) to deploy a remote access trojan (RAT).  The campaign, named PHALT#BLYX, highlights how attackers are blendi

Large language models have become the engines behind some of the most impressive feats in contemporary computing.  They write complex software, summarize scientific papers, and navigate intricate chains of reasoning.  Yet as a recent study shows, these same systems falter on a task that most ten-year-olds can perform with pencil and paper.  According to a new article from TechXplore and the accompanying research paper Why Can’t Transformers Learn Multiplication?  Reverse-Engineering Reveals Long

AI coding assistants are no longer just autocompleting lines of code, they are quietly making decisions for you.  Tools like Claude Code are able to read projects, plan multi-step changes, install dependencies, and modify files with minimal human oversight.  To make this possible, these assistants rely on plugin marketplaces, where third-party developers can enable ‘skills’ that teach the agent how to manage infrastructure, testing, and dependencies.  Though powerful, the model requires a high d

Amazon has prevented more than 1,800 suspected North Korean operatives from securing employment since April 2024, as the Pyongyang regime continues efforts to place IT workers in remote roles at Western companies to generate revenue for the regime.  Amazon's Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer, Stephen Schmidt, revealed the figures in a LinkedIn post, noting a 27% quarter-on-quarter increase in the number of detected DPRK-affiliated applications this year. The aim, he said, is for o

In a bold military exploit on 3 January 2026, US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, employing sophisticated cyber tactics to disable key infrastructure and facilitate the raid.  The operation, named Absolute Resolve, involved coordinated efforts across cyber, space, and conventional domains, resulting in Maduro's arrest on charges of drug-trafficking and terrorism.  President Donald Trump confirmed the use of cyber capabilities to induce a blackout in the capital, al

In 2025, the cybersecurity landscape revealed a pattern of opportunistic attacks exploiting familiar weaknesses, from unpatched devices to misconfigured cloud services. Criminal groups fragmented under pressure from law enforcement, while state actors amplified their reach through emerging tools.  Geopolitical tensions fueled targeted operations, with Russia focusing on Europe and Ukraine, and China expanding influence in Africa and South America.  Overall, the year saw a shift towards data thef

A federal judge in New York has affirmed an order compelling OpenAI to produce 20 million anonymized ChatGPT interaction logs in a consolidated copyright infringement case, according to a Bloomberg report.  The decision, issued on 5 January 2026, marks a setback for the AI company amid ongoing litigation over the use of copyrighted material in its model training. The ruling stems from multidistrict litigation involving 16 lawsuits against OpenAI, brought by news organizations including The New Y

Krebs on Security first story of 2026 revealed how a destructive new botnet called Kimwolf has infected more than two million devices by mass-compromising a vast number of unofficial Android TV streaming boxes.[1]  Today, we’ll dig through digital clues left behind by the hackers, network operators and services that appear to have benefitted from Kimwolf’s spread.

On 17 December 2025, the Chinese security firm XLab published a deep dive on Kimwolf, which forces infected devices to participate in

Blockchain investigation firm TRM Labs says ongoing cryptocurrency thefts have been traced to the 2022 LastPass breach, with attackers draining wallets years after encrypted vaults were stolen and laundering the crypto through Russian exchanges.   In 2022, LastPass disclosed that attackers breached its systems by compromising a developer environment, stealing portions of the company's source code and proprietary technical information.[1]

In a later, but related security incident, the hackers bre

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, so too do the threats that organizations must contend with.  In this year's final Reporter's Notebook conversation, cybersecurity experts Rob Wright from Dark Reading, David Jones from Cybersecurity Dive, and Alissa Irei from Tech Target Search Security share their insights on what the future holds for cybersecurity in 2026.  Drawing from AI-summarized industry reports and expert opinions, the conversation highlights key trends, challenges, and oppor

2026 is a pivotal juncture for cyber security.  What was once considered an operational safety net and a business cost item is now a determinant of long-term competitiveness, market confidence, and organizational resilience.  The data unequivocally indicates that cyber danger is systemic rather than episodic.

Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that cybercrime lost $10.5 trillion in 2025, making it a major global economic driver.  Cybercrime To Cost The World $12.2 Trillion Annually By 2031. The av

Securonix threat researchers have been tracking a stealthy campaign targeting the hospitality sector that uses click-fix social engineering, fake captchas, and fake blue screens of death to trick users into pasting malicious code.  It leverages a trusted MSBuid.exe tool to bypass defenses and deploys a stealthy, Russian-linked DCRat payload for full remote access and the ability to drop secondary payloads.[1]

An ongoing malware campaign tracked as PHALT#BLYX has been identified as a multi-stage

Two US cybersecurity professionals, Ryan Goldberg and Kevin Martin, pleaded guilty to charges tied to their roles in BlackCat/Alphv ransomware attacks that occurred in 2023.  Court records show that Ryan Goldberg, Kevin Martin, and a co-conspirator deployed ALPHV BlackCat ransomware against US victims from April to December 2023, sharing 20% of the ransoms with the operators.  Despite working in cybersecurity, they extorted about $1.2M in Bitcoin from one victim, split the proceeds, and laundere

The job posts do not immediately raise alarms, even though they’re clearly not for tutoring or babysitting.   “Female candidates are a PRIORITY, even if you aren’t from US, if you do not have a clear accent please feel free to inquire,” a public Telegram channel post from 15 December.  “INEXPERIENCED people are OKAY, we can train you from scratch, but we expect you to absorb information and take in what you are learning.”  Those who are interested are expected to be available from 12 pm EST to 6

Red Sky Alliance monthly queries our backend databases, identifying all new data containing Motor Vessel (MV) and Motor Tanker (MT) in the subject line of malicious emails.  Malicious actors use emails with Motor Vessel (MV) or Motor Tanker (MT) in the subject line as a lure to entice users in the maritime industry to open emails containing malicious attachments.  Red Sky Alliance is providing this list of Motor Vessels in which we directly observed the vessel being impersonated, with associat