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Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) are a top cause of cloud breaches.  Organizations often fail to patch or mitigate these known vulnerabilities.  Sometimes, it is due to gaps in visibility regarding the presence of CVEs in their cloud environments.  Often, organizations struggle to keep up with the constant stream of vulnerabilities and prioritize their remediation.  Gaps in patching both offer a foothold for targeted attacks and also empower untargeted, large-scale exploitation attemp

The analysis from Fortinet below is part of an incident investigation led by their Incident Response Team.  Their researchers discovered malware that had been running on a compromised machine for several weeks.  The threat actor had executed a batch of scripts and PowerShell to run the malware in a Windows process.  Although obtaining the original malware executable was difficult, a memory dump of the running malware process and a full memory dump of the compromised machine (the “fullout” file,

Artificial intelligence researchers have warned that OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT model ignores basic instructions to turn itself off and even sabotaged a shutdown mechanism to keep itself running.  Remember HAL from the 2001 Space Odyssey movie?  HAL (Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer) was an onboard spacecraft computer, who would not allow astronauts David Bowman and Frank Poole to disable its operation.  That was a very forward-learning look in 1968 that examined the future perils of a

It is hard to believe that the infamous attack on the Maersk was eight (8) years ago.  This attack was one of the most notable incidents underscoring the importance of cyber security in the maritime industry is the 2017 Maersk cyber-attack. The shipping giant fell victim to the NotPetya ransomware, which essentially stopped its global operations.  The attack resulted in an estimated financial loss of $300 million and temporarily disrupted the company's ability to process shipping logistics and c

The FBI has issued a critical alert regarding a sophisticated cyber campaign in which malicious actors are impersonating senior US officials using AI-generated voice and text messages.  According to an FBI alert, the campaign, which has been active since April 2025, primarily targets current and former federal and state government officials, as well as their contacts.

Attackers use Smishing (SMS phishing) and Vishing (voice phishing) techniques, now augmented with AI-generated content, to deceiv

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 associate

Dutch intelligence agencies and Microsoft report that a novel Russian state intelligence hacking group is likely purchasing stolen credentials from criminal marketplaces to gain entry to North American and European networks.   In coordinated disclosure recently, the Dutch government and Microsoft stated this group of government-linked hackers has been active since 2024 and has "a specific interest in European Union and NATO member states."  Dutch agencies said the group, which they named "Laundr

In an era defined by accelerating cyberthreats and technological disruption, founders face a complex, evolving landscape.  Regardless of industry, this is a reality for startups, whether they’re developing a first prototype, fine-tuning a go-to-market strategy or preparing to go public.  The same advances in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and automation that enhance companies’ defenses are simultaneously exploited by adversaries.  On the horizon, quantum computing promises to resh

Nearly 50% of consumers on both sides of the Atlantic have been targeted by social media advertising promoting retail fraud guides and services, and thinly disguised ‘refund hacks,’ according to new research from Netacea.  The UK-based cybersecurity specialist polled over 2000 consumers in the UK and US to compile its 2025 Cyberfraud in Retail report.  The study warned that fraud is increasingly normalized via high-profile ads on the surface web, designed to encourage consumers to participate in

Hackers stole more than $12 million worth of cryptocurrency from the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Cork Protocol this past week.  Company co-founder Phil Fogel said all activity on the platform has been paused.  “There was a security incident affecting the wstETH:weETH market at 11:23 UTC today.  All other Cork markets have been paused as a precaution, and no other markets have been impacted,” the company later said in a statement.  “We are actively investigating the situation and will c

Chinese authorities have accused a hacker group allegedly backed by Taiwan of carrying out a cyberattack on a local technology company and targeting sensitive infrastructure across the mainland, state media reported.  According to police in Guangzhou, the group, allegedly linked to Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has targeted more than 1,000 key networks in over 10 Chinese provinces, including military, energy, transportation and government systems.

Chinese authorities said t

Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler has discovered a misconfigured and unprotected database containing over 184 million unique login names and passwords.  According to Fowler’s research, shared with Hackread.com, this exposed collection amounted to approximately. 47.42 gigabytes of data.

A Massive Data Leak - The database, which lacked password protection or encryption, stored credentials for numerous online services.  These included popular email providers, major tech platforms such as Mic

Attackers continue to exploit insecure DNS configurations to hijack domain names and redirect users to malicious sites for scams, malware distribution, and other nefarious activities.  Recently, a threat actor tracked by Infoblox as "Hazy Hawk" has been leveraging a different version of the attack vector to seize control of abandoned cloud resources, such as S3 buckets and Azure endpoints, linked to prominent organizations.  Infoblox observed the threat actor using the hijacked domains to host a

This US cyber security advisory sent through CISA highlights a Russian state-sponsored cyber campaign targeting Western logistics entities and technology companies. This includes those involved in the coordination, transport, and delivery of foreign assistance to Ukraine. Since 2022, Western logistics entities and IT companies have faced an elevated risk of targeting by the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) 85th Main Special Service Center (85th GTsSS), military unit 2616

Conservative activist Robby Starbuck has filed a defamation lawsuit against Meta alleging that the social media giant’s artificial intelligence chatbot spread false statements about him, including that he participated in the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.  Starbuck, known for targeting corporate DEI programs, said he discovered the claims made by Meta’s AI in August 2024, when he was going after “woke DEI” policies at motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson.[1]  “One dealership was unhappy w

A third-party data breach has compromised the personal information of more than 200,000 Harbin Clinic patients.  The breach stems from a cyber-attack in July 2024 targeting Nationwide Recovery Services (NRS), a debt collection agency contracted by the Georgia-based healthcare provider.  The incident came to light following unusual activity on NRS systems, which led to a network outage.  Investigations revealed that threat actors accessed the NRS network between July 5 and 11, 2024, during which

New estimates suggest that international criminal outfits are stealing hundreds of billions of dollars from the US government every year.  One of the major goals of the second Trump administration has been to cut what it perceives as government waste thousands of jobs or federal funding programs, for example.  It has not gone so smoothly, and it has caused a lot of furors, but there is one non-partisan area the government might consider applying its resources, if the goal is to save money.  In A

Improved satellite connectivity has made vessels more efficient at sea, but it has also left their operations and network systems more vulnerable to cyber-attacks.  That is one of the main takeaways from a newly released report, which lays out threats to the Marine Transportation System (MTS) that Coast Guard Cyber identified in 2024, as well as ways operators can strengthen their cyber defenses against them. 

The fourth annual Cyber Trends and Insights in the Marine Environment (CTIME) report i

VanHelsing Ransomware Overview—In mid-March 2025, the first sample of the VanHelsing ransomware was made available on a publicly accessible file-scanning site. Like other ransomware attacks, VanHelsing demands a ransom to decrypt files via dropped ransom notes. 

Infection Vector - Information on the infection vector used by the VanHelsing ransomware threat actor is unavailable.  However, it is not likely to differ significantly from other ransomware groups.[1]

Attack Method - When run, the VanHe

It is hard to believe that ten years have gone by since the devastating hack of the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM).  OPM handles all personnel matters for government employees, including all associated government documents.  BTW - I was a federal employee for 20 years and I am quite confident the CCP has all my personal information.  Ten years ago, that was big news.  Today, the threat remains high. 

US Senator Mark Warner warned the OPM last week that it should not end government contr