Espionage
Canada says Salt Typhoon hacked telecom firm via Cisco flaw
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and the FBI confirm that the Chinese state-sponsored ‘Salt Typhoon’ hacking group is also targeting Canadian telecommunication firms, breaching a telecom provider in February. During the February 2025 incident, Salt Typhoon exploited the CVE-2023-20198 flaw, a critical Cisco IOS XE vulnerability allowing remote, unauthenticated attackers to create arbitrary accounts and gain admin-level privileges. The flaw […]
Washington Post’s email system hacked, journalists’ accounts compromised
Email accounts of several Washington Post journalists were compromised in a cyberattack believed to have been carried out by a foreign government. The incident was discovered on Thursday evening and the publication started an investigation. On Sunday, June 15, an internal memo was sent to employees, informing them of a “possible targeted unauthorized intrusion into their […]
Hackers exploited Windows WebDav zero-day to drop malware
An APT hacking group known as ‘Stealth Falcon’ exploited a Windows WebDav RCE vulnerability in zero-day attacks since March 2025 against defense and government organizations in Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, and Yemen. Stealth Falcon (aka ‘FruityArmor’) is an advanced persistent threat (APT) group known for conducting cyberespionage attacks against Middle East organizations. The flaw, tracked under CVE-2025-33053, […]
Government webmail hacked via XSS bugs in global spy campaign
Hackers are running a worldwide cyberespionage campaign dubbed ‘RoundPress,’ leveraging zero-day and n-day flaws in webmail servers to steal email from high-value government organizations. ESET researchers who uncovered the operation attribute it with medium confidence to the Russian state-sponsored hackers APT28 (aka “Fancy Bear” or “Sednit”). The campaign started in 2023 and continued with the adoption of new exploits […]
North Korea ramps up cyberspying in Ukraine to assess war risk
The state-backed North Korean threat group Konni (Opal Sleet, TA406) was observed targeting Ukrainian government entities in intelligence collection operations. The attackers use phishing emails that impersonate think tanks, referencing important political events or military developments to lure their targets. Proofpoint researchers who discovered the activity in February 2025 suggest that it’s likely an effort […]
Midnight Blizzard deploys new GrapeLoader malware in embassy phishing
Russian state-sponsored espionage group Midnight Blizzard is behind a new spear-phishing campaign targeting diplomatic entities in Europe, including embassies. Midnight Blizzard, aka ‘Cozy Bear’ or ‘APT29,’ is a state-sponsored cyberespionage group linked to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). According to Check Point Research, the new campaign introduces a previously unseen malware loader called ‘GrapeLoader,’ and a […]
RedCurl cyberspies create ransomware to encrypt Hyper-V servers
A threat actor named ‘RedCurl,’ known for stealthy corporate espionage operations since 2018, is now using a ransomware encryptor designed to target Hyper-V virtual machines. Previously, RedCurl was spotted by Group-IB targeting corporate entities worldwide, later expanding its operations and increasing the victim count. However, as Bitdefender Labs researchers report, the threat actors have started deploying ransomware […]
Chinese Weaver Ant hackers spied on telco network for 4 years
A China-linked advanced threat group named Weaver Ant spent more than four years in the network of a telecommunications services provider, hiding traffic and infrastructure with the help of compromised Zyxel CPE routers. Researchers investigating the intrusion found multiple variants of the China Chopper backdoor and a previously undocumented custom web-shell called ‘INMemory’ that executes payloads […]
Silk Typhoon hackers now target IT supply chains to breach networks
Microsoft warns that Chinese cyber-espionage threat group ‘Silk Typhoon’ has shifted its tactics, now targeting remote management tools and cloud services in supply chain attacks that give them access to downstream customers. The tech giant has confirmed breaches across multiple industries, including government, IT services, healthcare, defense, education, NGOs, and energy. “They [Silk Typhoon] exploit […]
Chinese hackers use custom malware to spy on US telecom networks
The Chinese state-sponsored Salt Typhoon hacking group uses a custom utility called JumbledPath to stealthily monitor network traffic and potentially capture sensitive data in cyberattacks on U.S. telecommunication providers. Salt Typhoon (aka Earth Estries, GhostEmperor, and UNC2286) is a sophisticated hacking group active since at least 2019, primarily focusing on breaching government entities and telecommunications companies. […]