X-Industry

A prolific cybercriminal group that calls itself “Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters” has dominated headlines this year by regularly stealing data from and publicly mass extorting dozens of major corporations.  But the tables seem to have turned somewhat for “Rey,” the moniker chosen by the technical operator and public face of the hacker group:  Last week, Rey confirmed his real life identity and agreed to an interview after KrebsOnSecurity tracked him down and contacted his father.

Scattered LAPSUS$ Hu

eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter) is a very interesting kernel technology that lets users load tiny, sandboxed programs into the Linux kernel to inspect or modify network packets, system calls, and more.  The technology was introduced in 2015 to replace the “old” BPF technology of 1992, which was no longer compatible with modern computer architectures (e.g., 64-bit).  As usual, the technology was quickly noticed by malware authors, leading to the Bvp47 malware in 2015 and a collection of ro

In the modern digital ecosystem, subscribing to a calendar series has become a routine convenience.  Whether it is a retailer sharing dates for upcoming sales, a sports association like FIFA publishing match schedules, or a government body listing public holidays, the standard ‘ICS’ web calendar format, also known as iCalendars, allows third parties to integrate events directly into a user’s device.  A new report indicates that this functionality is being weaponized by cybercriminals to distribu

A series of big-game hunting incidents and double extortion attacks carried out by Kraken, a Russian-speaking operation that has emerged from the ashes of the HelloKitty cartel, was observed in August 2025 by Cisco Talos and detailed in an advisory published recently.  The group has been linked to intrusions where Server Message Block (SMB) flaws were abused for entry, followed using Cloudflare for persistence and SSH Filesystem (SSHFS) for data theft before encryption.  Kraken’s toolkit spans W

Zorin OS experienced a significant increase in downloads following the release of Windows 10.  Within a two-day stretch, Zorin OS had over 100,000 downloads, which was a record for the distribution.  Meanwhile, Linux Mint has been one of the most popular distributions for some time.  Given that both of these distributions are enjoying a continued rise in popularity, along with the end of Windows 10 support, you might be looking at one or the other to serve as either your first or your next Linux

After years of quiet escalation, business leaders are finally beginning to grasp just how serious the threat of fraud has become.  Today, almost half of all fraud attempts (41%) involve artificial intelligence.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the payments industry.  Fraudsters can use AI to generate convincing fake invoices, purchase orders, and payment instructions that mirror legitimate business documents.  I’ve seen examples that are indistinguishable from the real thing, which is a tre

What is a “honeypot” in the context of cybersecurity?  The term first appeared in the 1980s and 1990s, when it was used to describe precisely that, a honey trap that lured in unsuspecting hackers, putting them on the back foot.  Clifford Stoll’s 1989 book The Cuckoo’s Egg is the first official documentation of a honeypot in the cyber world. Stoll tells the story of using what he called a “honeypot” to find a German hacker who had infiltrated U.S. military computers.  Now the term is used in cybe

Every year, the holiday season brings a predictable spike in online activity.  But in 2025, the volume of newly created malicious infrastructure, account compromise activity, and targeted exploitation of e-commerce systems is markedly higher.  Attackers began preparing months in advance, leveraging industrialized tools and services that enable them to scale attacks across multiple platforms, geographies, and merchant categories.

For retailers, financial institutions, and any business operating a

Get advice and information to help protect your children from dangers lurking in both the online and offline worlds.  Learn how to contact us and report child abductions and sexual exploitation. 

How to report a missing child or online child exploitation - The FBI has jurisdiction to immediately investigate any reported mysterious disappearance or kidnapping involving a child.  Do not wait to report a missing child.  Call your local law enforcement and FBI field office or the closest internation

OpenAI is alerting some ChatGPT API customers that limited personally identifiable information (PII) was exposed after its third-party analytics provider, Mixpanel, was breached. The compromise, stemming from a smishing campaign detected on 8 November, affected “limited analytics data related to some users of the API”, but did not compromise ChatGPT or other OpenAI products.[1]

While OpenAI confirmed that sensitive information such as credentials, API keys, requests, and usage data, payment and

Any car dealership is a significant investment.  Not just in terms of financial capital, but also in toil and sweat from the Sales floor to the Dealer Principal’s office.  All of the effort that makes these businesses successful can be neutralized by a single cyber-attack.

CDK has surveyed dealership leadership for five years to understand their approach to cybersecurity and where they see the industry addressing this integral threat to their business.  This year, there are clear indicators that

As consumers took advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, historical analysis from TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) and found that 4.6% of attempted ecommerce transactions globally were suspected of being digital fraud from this Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.  Based on insights from TransUnion’s intelligence network, TransUnion found that the global suspected Digital Fraud rate “was down from 6.0% during the same period in 2023.”[1]

For attempted ecommerce transactions where the consumer was in t

The automobile dealership sector continues to evolve digitally with connected vehicles, cloud-based dealership management systems (DMS), online financing, and electronic sales workflows. But the newly released CDK State of Dealership Cybersecurity 2025 report shows a sector still struggling to keep pace with threat actors who increasingly target these high-value, high-data retail environments.   Despite gains in awareness and investment, dealerships face widening gaps in employee readiness, thir

The cyber threat landscape is constantly evolving, but few threats demand immediate, sector-wide attention like the latest joint advisory on the Akira ransomware.    The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and international partners recently issued a crucial advisory (AA24-109A) detailing the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of the Akira ransomware group.  Their accompanying press release highlighted the need for decisi

On the surface, the Superbox media streaming devices for sale at retailers like BestBuy and Walmart may seem like a steal: They offer unlimited access to more than 2,200 pay-per-view and streaming services like Netflix, ESPN and Hulu, all for a one-time fee of around $400. But security experts warn these TV boxes require intrusive software that forces the user’s network to relay Internet traffic for others, traffic that is often tied to cybercrime activity such as advertising fraud and account t

A China-linked hacking group known as APT31 has infiltrated Russia’s technology sector for years and quietly exfiltrated data from companies involved in government contracting and systems integration, according to a new report.  The campaign, which ran into this year, was “well-planned” and allowed intruders to remain undetected, Russian cybersecurity firm Positive Technologies said in research published on last week. 

Public reports of Chinese cyber operations against Russia are rare, given the

If you manage Facebook advertising for a small or medium-sized business, open your inbox with suspicion, because attackers have been sending highly convincing invites that appear to come straight from Meta.

Researchers at Check Point found that the attackers used Facebook Business pages and the platform’s invitation feature to send messages that appear to come from the real @facebookmail.com domain, making them much harder to spot with automated filters and human instincts alike.[1]

The campaign

For cybersecurity professionals in the financial services sector, the pressure is relentless.  It is not just the external threat actors; it is the mounting, overlapping demands from regulators that are taxing resources, draining budgets, and leading to what is now officially recognized as compliance fatigue.  The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is, understandably, under pressure and stressed.

The new Omega Systems Regulatory Pressure & Compliance Fatigue in Financial Services report offers a cruc

A data broker that is owned by major airlines will stop selling hundreds of millions of customer travel records to government agencies in the coming weeks.  News that the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) will shut down its controversial Travel Intelligence Program (TIP) surfaced in a letter ARC CEO Lauri Reishus recently sent to a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

The Travel Intelligence Program (TIP) was a data initiative operated by ARC, a company owned by major airlines.  Through TIP, ARC ag