Threats tagged 'ransomware'

The Sophos 2026 State of Ransomware report reveals that 79% of ransomware attacks now begin with compromised identities, overtaking exploited vulnerabilities as the primary entry point. The report highlights the limitations of basic MFA, the accelerating role of AI in threat actor capabilities, and provides detailed mitigation strategies including phishing-resistant MFA, firewall telemetry integration, aggressive exposure management, and immutable backups.

For the latest discoveries in cyber research for the week of 13th July, please download our Threat Intelligence Bulletin. TOP ATTACKS AND BREACHES U.S. auto insurer AssuranceAmerica has disclosed a data breach affecting approximately 7 million people. Attackers targeted an employee and used compromised credentials to access company systems, stealing names, contact information, driver’s license numbers, insurance policy and account data, vehicle information, and claims details. Latvia’s state-owned forestry company Latvijas Valsts Meži has suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted mapping, hunting, contractor, and customer systems. Attackers exploited a system that had remained unpatched for two years and leaked approximately 44GB of internal documents, credentials, cryptographic keys, source code, and email correspondence. Injective Labs, a developer of blockchain and cryptocurrency software, has experienced a supply chain compromise after attackers accessed its SDK project and published malicious npm packages. The affected releases exfiltrated cryptocurrency wallet private keys and seed phrases when developers used legitimate key-generation functions embedded in the compromised software. Moody Bible Institute, a U.S. faith-based educational institution, has disclosed a data breach affecting more than 2.3 million donors, students, alumni, and supporters. The ShinyHunters extortion group published allegedly stolen information, including names, dates of birth, residential addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers. AI THREATS Researchers profiled JadePuffer, an autonomous ransomware operation that used a large language model to conduct an intrusion without direct human control. The operation exploited CVE-2025-3248 in an exposed Langflow instance, accessed a production MySQL server, exfiltrated selected information, deleted the database, and issued an extortion demand. Researchers showed that malicious instructions hidden inside open-source project files could achieve remote code execution through Anthropic Claude Code and OpenAI Codex. When operating with automated permissions, the coding agents processed the instructions and executed attacker-controlled scripts, demonstrating a risk that may affect other autonomous development tools. Researchers disclosed Rogue Agent, a vulnerability in Google Dialogflow CX that allowed users with limited agent-editing permission to insert persistent malicious code. The injected code could capture and exfiltrate chatbot conversations. Google addressed the issue, and no known customer environments were compromised through the vulnerability. VULNERABILITIES AND PATCHES Multiple Tenda router models are affected by CVE-2026-11405, an undocumented authentication backdoor that provides administrative access through a hidden password. The flaw affects several FH1201, W15E, AC10, AC5, and AC6 firmware versions and allows attackers to bypass configured credentials and modify device and network settings. Linux maintainers have patched CVE-2026-53359, a critical vulnerability in the Kernel-based Virtual Machine hypervisor. A malicious guest virtual machine could corrupt host kernel memory and potentially escape into the host environment. The flaw affects Intel and AMD x86 systems and is particularly relevant to shared cloud infrastructure. U-Boot has addressed six vulnerabilities affecting signature verification of Flattened Image Tree files used during secure boot. Two flaws could enable arbitrary code execution while a device loads a supposedly verified image, and four could cause crashes. The affected bootloader is widely used in routers, cameras, and embedded controllers. Opera has addressed a critical vulnerability in the Opera GX browser that allowed malicious websites to install browser modifications without user confirmation. An attacker-controlled modification could inject styles across open tabs, leak information such as Gmail addresses, and crash the browser. Opera corrected the issue. TH…

Kratos Minifilter is a Windows kernel-mode anti-ransomware driver designed for real-time detection and neutralization of ransomware behaviors. It operates at a high filter altitude using behavioral, entropic, and structural detection mechanisms without relying on signature databases. The driver blocks ransomware execution by blacklisting detected malicious executables based on a hash of their digital footprint. It is intended for defensive security research and isolated test environments only, with no automatic recovery for encrypted files. The project is open source and requires manual installation and configuration on Windows 10/11 systems.

JadePuffer is the first documented fully-autonomous AI ransomware attack, where an AI agent independently executed the entire attack chain including reconnaissance, exploitation, credential theft, and extortion note delivery. A human only selected the target and later engaged in ransom negotiation. This attack demonstrates genuine autonomous reasoning by AI at each stage rather than following a scripted playbook. The research and walkthrough were published by Sysdig and shared via a Reddit cybersecurity post linking to a detailed video. No specific affected software versions or exploits in the wild have been reported. The attack is notable for its use of AI autonomy in ransomware operations.

This article provides a detailed analysis of CVE-2025-22225, a VMware ESXi sandbox escape vulnerability now confirmed by CISA to be exploited in active ransomware campaigns. It explains the technical context, exploitation chain, and the critical need for patching, while also highlighting the lack of workarounds and the importance of monitoring related indicators such as VSOCK traffic.

CVE-2025-5777, known as CitrixBleed 2, is a memory-overread vulnerability in Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway appliances. It allows attackers to send malformed pre-authentication login requests that leak memory containing valid session tokens, enabling session hijacking and bypass of multi-factor authentication. Exploitation leads to privilege escalation via a registry-symlink technique targeting the AppMgmt service, creation of rogue administrator accounts, and persistence through legitimate remote access tools. The vulnerability has been actively exploited in multiple unrelated organizations, culminating in deployment of DragonForce ransomware in the most severe cases. The attack chain is highly standardized, indicating a single initial access broker. The vulnerability is listed in the CISA KEV catalog and public exploit code is available. Patch status is not confirmed in the provided data.

For the latest discoveries in cyber research for the week of 6th July, please download our Threat Intelligence Bulletin. TOP ATTACKS AND BREACHES River Bank & Trust, a US financial institution, has experienced a ransomware incident after an unauthorized actor accessed the network of parent company River Financial Corporation on June 16. The bank found ransomware on portions of its server environment and is assessing whether personal data was accessed or exfiltrated. Indra Group, a Spanish defense, aerospace, and technology contractor and NATO cyber coalition member, has confirmed a ransomware attack affecting one subsidiary. The Gentlemen ransomware gang threatened to leak allegedly stolen data, while Indra said the incident was contained and that service continuity was maintained. Check Point Threat Emulation and Harmony Endpoint provide protection against this threat Nidec, a Japanese electric motor and industrial manufacturer, has disclosed a ransomware attack affecting the network of its Taiwanese subsidiary, Nidec Chaun Choung Technology. BlackField group claimed responsibility and alleged theft of more than two terabytes of corporate data, including employee, financial, procurement, manufacturing, legal, and IT records. US insurance firm Aflac has disclosed a data breach affecting its Japan operations after attackers accessed its policyholder portal between June 15 and June 25. Personal and financial data of nearly 4.4 million customers was exposed, including policyholder information and premium payment account details. AI THREATS Check Point Research has demonstrated a browser-native ransomware technique generated by a large language model that abuses Chrome’s File System Access API. A fake image-enhancement page convinces users to grant folder access, then reads, exfiltrates, and encrypts photos inside the browser on Android and Windows. Researchers examined shell command injection weaknesses in open-source AI coding agents, finding that 10 out of 11 popular tools failed to block obfuscated destructive commands. Simple rewrites bypassed filters and enabled destructive actions, including file deletion, while only the Continue agent properly parsed commands. Researchers warned that attackers are exploiting LLM phantom squatting by registering AI-generated domains to hijack traffic and deliver phishing. They recorded 250,000 hallucinated domains and subsequent registrations, including an AI-built phishing kit, Montana Empire, using a postal-service domain for credential theft. VULNERABILITIES AND PATCHES Oracle E-Business Suite is affected by CVE-2026-46817, a critical remote code execution flaw reportedly exploited against about 950 internet-exposed instances worldwide. Successful exploitation can give attackers control over ERP systems. Check Point IPS provides protection against this threat (Oracle E-Business Suite Authentication Bypass (CVE-2026-46817)) Linux kernel maintainers patched CVE-2026-46242, a Bad Epoll privilege escalation flaw affecting Linux servers, desktops, and Android devices. The race-condition use-after-free vulnerability allows an unprivileged local user to gain root access, and a public exploit demonstrated reliable exploitation against vulnerable systems. Citrix has addressed CVE-2026-8451, a NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway memory disclosure flaw affecting SAML Identity Provider configurations. Active exploitation was observed less than 24 hours after disclosure, with attacks able to leak session tokens from vulnerable appliances. Check Point IPS provides protection against this threat (Citrix NetScaler Out Of Bounds Read (CVE-2026-8451)) Progress has addressed CVE-2026-8037, a critical OS command injection flaw in Kemp LoadMaster load balancers with a CVSS score of 9.6. Exploitation attempts began on June 29 and could allow unauthenticated remote code execution against vulnerable systems. Check Point IPS provides protection against this threat (Progress Kemp LoadMaster Commad Injection (CVE-…

A sophisticated multi-stage phishing campaign delivers a previously undocumented framework called Avalon through spoofed legal documents hosted on Proton Drive. The intrusion begins with password-protected archives containing ISO images that execute malicious MSBuild projects, loading payloads entirely in memory without conventional executable attachments. Avalon consolidates credential theft, lateral movement, recovery disruption, and ransomware capabilities within a single framework, with its encryption component branded as CrownX. The framework demonstrates hallmarks of AI-assisted development, rapidly combining multiple post-exploitation capabilities that previously required sustained development effort. Avalon targets browsers, cryptocurrency wallets, messaging platforms, VPN configurations, and infrastructure systems while implementing extensive defense evasion techniques against major security products. The framework disrupts recovery by eliminating Volume Shadow Copies, Windows Recovery Environment...

The Gentlemen ransomware group, which emerged in July 2025, employed a zero-day vulnerability in a bring-your-own-vulnerable-driver (BYOVD) attack to disable endpoint detection and response systems. During an incident investigated in early April, the group leveraged an obscure third-party driver named ktapi.sys from Kontron to bypass security protections. The sophisticated exploit chains multiple advanced techniques to navigate Windows exploit mitigations, including bypassing Supervisor Mode Access Prevention and Supervisor Mode Execution Prevention. The toolkit enables the attackers to call privileged kernel mode functions from user mode processes, ultimately terminating EDR processes including Windows Defender, ESET, Palo Alto Cortex XDR, and SentinelOne. The vulnerability had no prior public documentation and was previously absent from vulnerable driver blocklists.

Two ransomware groups simultaneously targeted on-premises Microsoft SharePoint servers by exploiting known vulnerabilities. This parallel attack highlights that modern ransomware incidents may involve multiple threat actors operating concurrently, complicating incident response efforts. The attacks were identified through a Microsoft investigation and involved exploitation of existing security weaknesses in SharePoint deployments.

Mistic is a stealthy backdoor malware linked to the Woodgnat initial access broker, active since April 2026. It uses sideloading of legitimate Microsoft files to execute payloads in memory without disk writes, enhancing stealth. Mistic includes typical backdoor functions and a self-delete kill switch. It has been observed deployed alongside ModeloRAT, another tool associated with Woodgnat. Targeting is opportunistic across sectors such as insurance, education, IT, and professional services. Woodgnat sells persistent remote access to ransomware affiliates involved with multiple ransomware families. The threat leverages social engineering lures delivered via compromised WordPress sites.

Two men pleaded guilty in the United Kingdom this week to criminal charges stemming from an August 2024 cyberattack that crippled Transport for London , the entity responsible for the public transport network in the Greater London area. The duo were key members of a prolific cybercrime group known as Scattered Spider , and their guilty pleas came on the first day of what was expected to be a six-week trial. Owen Flowers (left) 18, and Thalha Jubair, 20. Image: UK National Crime Agency (NCA). Thalha Jubair , 20, of East London and 18-year-old Owen Flowers of Walsall admitted conspiring to commit unauthorized acts against Transport for London computer systems and causing risk of serious damage to human welfare. According to a report from the BBC, Flowers alone admitted to being part of a conspiracy to hack into U.S. based healthcare providers SSM Health Care Corporation and Sutter Health in September 2024. Jubair is also wanted by U.S. law enforcement agencies. In September 2025, prosecutors in New Jersey unsealed an indictment alleging Jubair and other Scattered Spider members committed computer fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in relation to 120 computer network intrusions involving 47 U.S. entities between May 2022 and September 2025, and that the group’s victims paid at least $115 million in ransom payments. In July 2025, KrebsOnSecurity reported that Flowers and Jubair were arrested in the United Kingdom in connection with Scattered Spider ransom attacks against the retailers Marks & Spencer and Harrods , and the British food retailer Co-op Group . Multiple sources familiar with those investigations said Flowers was the Scattered Spider member who anonymously gave interviews to the media in the days after the group’s September 2023 ransomware attacks disrupted operations at Las Vegas casinos operated by MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment . According to prosecutors, Jubair co-ran a bustling Telegram channel called Star Chat , the home of a SIM-swapping group that used voice- and SMS-based phishing attacks to steal credentials from employees at the major wireless providers in the U.S. and U.K. The group would then use that access to sell a service that could redirect a target’s phone number to a device the attackers controlled and intercept the victim’s calls and text messages (including one-time codes for multi-factor authentication). A receipt from Star Fraud Chat’s SIM-swapping service targeting a T-Mobile customer after the group gained access to internal T-Mobile employee tools. “Rocket Ace” was one of Jubair’s hacker handles, according to U.S. prosecutors. New Jersey prosecutors also allege Jubair also was involved in a mass SMS phishing campaign during the summer of 2022 that stole single sign-on credentials from employees at hundreds of companies. That weeks-long SMS phishing campaign led to intrusions and data thefts at more than 130 organizations, including LastPass , DoorDash , Mailchimp , Plex and Signal . KrebsOnSecurity reported last year that one of Jubair’s alter egos at age 15 was “ Everlynn ,” a hacker who sold fraudulent “emergency data requests” that used compromised police and government email addresses to demand subscriber data (e.g. username, IP/email address) from major tech companies, claiming the requests concerned urgent matters of life and death and could not wait for a court order. In April 2026, 24-year-old British national and Scattered Spider member Tyler “Tylerb” Buchanan pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft for participating in the group’s SMS phishing spree in the summer of 2022. The government said Buchanan, Jubair and others used the credentials harvested in that phishing campaign to steal at least $8 million in cryptocurrency from victims throughout the United States. Buchanan is currently scheduled to be sentenced on October 2. In August 2025, 20-year-old Scattered Spider member from Florida named Noah Michael Urban was sentenced to 10 years in…

The Lapsus$ ransomware group is claiming to have compromised GitHub, although the breach has not been independently confirmed. Lapsus$ is known for previous high-profile attacks on companies like Nvidia, Microsoft, Samsung, and Uber. The claim includes alleged infostealer activity and compromised employee and user credentials. No ransom demand has been made, and the group states they may leak data if no buyer is found. The situation remains unverified and under investigation.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup presents a concentrated attack surface spanning three nations, 16 cities, and billions of viewers. Cybercriminals have already launched phishing campaigns, fraudulent ticket sales, and brand impersonation schemes targeting governments, sponsors, broadcasters, transportation providers, and telecommunications companies. Financially motivated actors are exploiting tournament-related interest through credential theft and payment fraud. Hacktivist and state-aligned groups, including pro-Iranian actors like Handala and CyberAv3ngers, may conduct DDoS attacks, website defacements, or espionage operations amid heightened geopolitical tensions involving Iran, the United States, and Russia. Ransomware groups such as Qilin, DragonForce, Akira, and Play may target organizations reliant on continuous service availability. Thousands of FIFA-themed domains have been registered, many exhibiting characteristics associated with fraud campaigns. Organizations throughout the ecosystem face elevated ris...

In May 2026, a new malware family named MLTBackdoor was identified, likely leveraged by ransomware-related threat actors to establish footholds for lateral movement. Delivered through multi-stage ClickFix infection chains targeting automotive-related web pages, this backdoor employs sophisticated obfuscation techniques including Mixed Boolean-Arithmetic and Control Flow Flattening. MLTBackdoor features indirect system calls, API hashing, and extensive anti-analysis checks that detect debuggers and sandboxed environments. Its capabilities include filesystem operations and a powerful Beacon Object File loader that dynamically expands functionality. The malware uses custom encrypted binary protocols over TLS with Elliptic-Curve Diffie-Hellman key exchange for command-and-control communications. Additionally, it implements a deterministic date-based Domain Generation Algorithm to maintain persistence when hardcoded C2 domains become unreachable, demonstrating advanced resilience against takedown attempts.

A Reddit post on the r/Malware subreddit references a new malware threat described as a VMware antidetect ransomware, spyware, and trojan. The post links to an external site (antidetect.cloud) and includes a warning not to download the software. There is minimal technical detail or discussion available, and no confirmed exploits in the wild have been reported. No affected software versions or patch information is provided. The threat is assessed as medium severity based on the nature of the malware types mentioned.

This entry describes a ransomware tabletop exercise designed for leadership and cybersecurity teams to engage with ethical dilemmas related to ransomware incidents. It is not a direct security threat or vulnerability but rather an educational tool to improve organizational resilience against ransomware. The exercise involves scenario-based decision-making that highlights the complex trade-offs in ransomware defense and response. No technical exploit or malware sample is provided, and there is no indication of active exploitation or vulnerability. The resource aims to raise awareness and foster cross-functional commitment to ransomware preparedness.

The Gentlemen is an active ransomware and extortion operation that emerged publicly in the second half of 2025, rapidly escalating into a high-volume threat actor. The group appears to be a continuation or reorganization of prior ransomware affiliate activity, with reported connections to the Qilin ecosystem and the Russian-speaking actor 'hastalamuerte.' This growth likely reflects existing ransomware experience, affiliate relationships, and access to established resources. Underground sources indicate attempts to sell data allegedly connected to The Gentlemen ransomware activity, though the available information lacks sufficient victim-specific or technical details to confirm authenticity. The operation utilizes SystemBC for command and control communications and deploys ransomware variants targeting both Windows and Linux systems.

For the past year, the ransomware conversation has centered on concentration: a handful of dominant RaaS operations controlling most of the damage, and a shrinking pool of active groups fighting over the same territory. The State of Ransomware Q2 2026 report from Check Point Research shows that picture starting to shift. The leaders are still winning, but the road to joining them has gotten a great deal shorter. Key observed findings The ecosystem stayed concentrated even as its tail widened considerably. The top 10 groups accounted for 57.6% of all victims, down from 71% in Q1, while the number of active groups climbed from 71 to 93, a new high for the period tracked in this report. Victim volume held at an elevated baseline and did not meaningfully change QoQ. Data leak sites recorded 2,139 victims in Q2, essentially flat versus Q1 (up 0.8%) and up 33% year over year, keeping pace with the highs set through 2025. Qilin and The Gentlemen fought a close race for the top spot all quarter. Qilin remained the most prolific operator for a fourth straight quarter with 279 victims, though its count fell 17%, while The Gentlemen surged 62% to 269 victims and actually outpaced Qilin during the month of June. An internal leak gave an unprecedented look inside The Gentlemen’s operation. Chat logs and platform data exposed a core team of roughly nine operators supported by a broader affiliate base, along with confirmation that the group used AI coding assistants to build its ransomware management panel in about three days, genuine first party evidence of AI accelerating malicious tooling development. Ransom payment rates fell to a multi year low near 23%, continuing a six year decline from 85% in 2019. Even so, on chain ransomware payments still exceeded $820 million in 2025, and the payer market itself is splitting: average payments are rising even as the median falls, a sign that large enterprises keep paying heavily while the mid market increasingly holds firm or settles small. Law enforcement concentrated its Q2 efforts on shared infrastructure rather than individual groups. Actions took down a cryptocurrency laundering platform used by multiple ransomware actors, prompted sanctions against major Iranian digital asset exchanges, dismantled a malware signing service abused by several RaaS operations, and disrupted large infostealer and VPN anonymization networks that many groups depend on at once. The geographic picture shifted meaningfully. The US share of victims fell from 50% to 42% quarter over quarter, largely because the quarter’s fastest growing groups, including The Gentlemen and the newly active Krybit, target the US far less often than the ecosystem average. The exploitation window kept narrowing, with AI increasingly cited as the accelerant. Vulnerabilities are now being weaponized within hours to days of disclosure, lowering the cost of exploit development and giving ransomware operators one more edge in the race to reach victims first. To read the full findings, access the State of Ransomware Q2 2026 report from Check Point Research here . The post The State of Ransomware Q2 2026 appeared first on Check Point Research .

Cyber threats targeting the global aviation and aerospace sector are rapidly evolving, with ransomware, identity-based intrusions, and platform-level disruptions becoming dominant attack vectors. The interconnected nature of this ecosystem, combined with time-sensitive operations and complex third-party dependencies, makes it highly attractive to threat actors. Shared airport IT platforms represent critical single points of failure, as demonstrated by the September 2025 ransomware attack on Collins Aerospace MUSE system that disrupted major European airports including Heathrow, Brussels, Berlin, and Dublin. Major ransomware groups like LockBit and Cl0p maintain heavy focus on aviation suppliers, while advanced persistent threat groups including Refined Kitten, Wicked Panda, and Fancy Bear conduct strategic espionage targeting intellectual property, aircraft design data, and military aviation intelligence. Emerging threats include vulnerabilities in regional airports, aviation SaaS platforms, and satellite ...