The FBI raided 40 Texas homes over a North Korean scheme that used fake IT workers to target 70 US companies and generate $3 million. The Justice Department (DoJ) announced coordinated enforcement actions this week targeting North Korea’s long-running scheme to place fake IT workers inside American companies. Two US nationals were arrested, 14 people charged across two separate indictments, and the FBI searched more than 40 residences in Texas, seizing approximately 187 laptops and KVM switch devices. The Texas operation, called Operation Lonestar Roundup, ran between September 21 and 25. The seized devices are the same laptops American companies shipped to their newly hired remote employees, not knowing those IT workers were North Korean intelligence agents using stolen US identities. “Today the Department of Justice announced coordinated actions against the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (DPRK) government’s schemes to fund its regime through remote information technology (IT) work for U.S. companies.” states DoJ. “These actions include an indictment, two arrests, searches of multiple known or suspected “laptop farms” in Texas pursuant to “Operation Lonestar Roundup,” and the seizure of approximately 187 computer devices used by DPRK IT workers.” The scheme was simple. North Korean IT workers applied for remote jobs using stolen or fake identities. They used VPNs and proxy servers to make it look like they were working from the United States. American helpers received the laptops provided by employers and installed remote access software so the North Korean workers could use them. These helpers were paid for their role, while the money earned from the jobs was sent back to North Korea through accounts controlled by the regime. According to an indictment from the Northern District of Ohio, the scheme ran from 2019 to mid-2025 and targeted more than 70 US companies across 17 states. The companies operated in sectors including healthcare, communications, cybersecurity support, retail, and manufacturing. “In total, the scheme impacted more than 70 U.S. company employers and generated approximately $3 million in revenue for IT workers.” SoJ states.”The revenue is believed to have been sent to sanctioned entities controlled by the DPRK. Victim employers included companies in the health care, communications, cyber support, retail, and manufacturing sectors across Ohio, sixteen additional states, and the District of Columbia.” The North Korean IT workers earned about $3 million, which prosecutors believe was sent to North Korean entities subject to international sanctions. The authorities warn the scheme is evolving in response to better detection. “Increasingly, North Korean IT workers are turning to recruiting American facilitators to counter improved private sector detections and law enforcement actions.” states DoJ. “These workers are hiring facilitators to complete a wider variety of tasks, and in some cases subcontracting entire jobs to third-party foreign nationals. “ That’s not just using Americans as props. It’s actively outsourcing parts of the operation to people inside the US, which makes attribution harder and interception more complicated. Some IT workers are now subcontracting entire jobs to third-party foreign nationals. Others are hiring facilitators to handle a wider range of tasks beyond just managing the laptops. CrowdStrike, which helped the FBI investigate, tracks the group behind this operation as Famous Chollima and describes the laptop farm infrastructure as vital to overcoming the physical and legal barriers of operating from outside the US. “These laptop farms enabled FAMOUS CHOLLIMA operatives to pose as legitimate remote workers and siphon illicit wages back to their regime while maintaining persistent access to victim organizations. Working alongside the FBI, CrowdStrike’s threat intelligence into the adversary and their operations, and technical analysis helped make these disruptions possible.” states CrowdStrike. “This operation marks the beginning of a broader U.S. law enforcement effort to dismantle FAMOUS CHOLLIMA’s U.S. infrastructure. CrowdStrike’s Counter Adversary Operations team intends to remain an integral part of that effort.” The FBI’s separate public service announcement puts the operation in broader context: “thousands of North Korean state-controlled IT workers” are currently embedded at Western companies, posing what the agency calls a significant national security and intellectual property theft insider threat. North Korean IT workers have individually earned up to $300,000 per year under these schemes, and the collective revenue is measured in hundreds of millions annually, flowing directly to designated entities including the North Korean Ministry of Defense. This is the fifth round of enforcement actions announced since June 2025 under the DOJ’s DPRK RevGen Domestic Enabler Initiative (June 2025, November 2025, April 2026, and May 2026). The initiative targets people in the United States who help North Korean IT workers carry out these schemes. According to CrowdStrike, North Korean hackers were responsible for about half of all documented hands-on cyber intrusions over the past year. The regime is also targeting cryptocurrency exchanges and open-source software projects. In 2025 alone, North Korean attackers stole at least $2 billion in cryptocurrency. The DOJ released a list of email addresses used in these operations, including accounts like randyryang@gmail.com and dev.jerryyang@gmail.com, which companies can add to their screening indicators. The FBI’s public service announcement includes detailed mitigation guidance on spotting DPRK IT worker applications. The red flags are consistent: inconsistencies in work history, reluctance to appear on video, requests to redirect laptop deliveries, and payment accounts that route through intermediaries. “Threats posed by nation-states like North Korea are a stark reminder that our adversaries will go to great measures to exploit our nation’s economic strength to further and fuel their own nefarious agendas,” said U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio. “We are thankful to FBI Cleveland for their incredible work and persistence to put a stop to these bad actors. These charges serve as an urgent alert to all U.S. companies to remain vigilant in their hiring practices.” Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, IT workers)
ConnectWise has shut down customer access to its Cloud Backup service (formerly SkyKick Cloud Backup) after hackers accessed application identities and compromised Microsoft 365 tenants. Reports of the malicious activity began emerging on Friday, with administrators observing unauthorized access to client data in Microsoft 365 tenants due to a potential “SkyKick/CW breach.” Later on the same day, managed cybersecurity and threat detection platform Huntress confirmed the worries, saying that it had identified at least 162 compromised tenants in its environment. In a post today, Microsoft also confirmed malicious activity involving ConnectWise’s Cloud Backup service, saying it identified unauthorized authentication attempts from an IP address on October 15. ConnectWise’s cloud backup solutions provide backup and recovery services that help managed service providers (MSPs) and IT teams protect and restore customer data, such as emails and files, in cloud environments including Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
Drupal has patched two critical vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to execute code remotely on websites running any supported version of the content management system. The security issues impact the software core's Field UI module and the contributed Entity List module. Drupal issued an advance warning at the beginning of the week, urging administrators to apply updates promptly because attackers could develop exploits shortly after the vulnerabilities’ disclosure. “The Drupal Security Team urges you to reserve time for core updates at that time because exploits might be developed within hours or days,” the project's security team warned. “We recommend updating to the latest supported patch (bugfix) release for your site's version of Drupal before October 14, so that you can address any other upgrade issues before the security window.”
U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds Fortinet Multiple Products and BeyondTrust Remote Support flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added the following vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog: CVE-2025-61624 Fortinet Multiple Products Path Traversal Vulnerability CVE-2026-102764 BeyondTrust Remote Support Authentication Bypass by Spoofing Vulnerability This week, Palo Alto Netwoks researchers reported that PEERSTITCH malware exploited FortiManager to expose 500+ firewalls, evade detection inside FortiOS memory, and maintain stealthy access. The attackers exploited CVE-2025-61624, a path traversal flaw in the FortiOS auto-script engine, to deploy a new implant called PEERSTITCH. The flaw CVE-2026-102764 is an input validation vulnerability in internal components of BeyondTrust Remote Support. BeyondTrust Remote Support is a remote technical support tool that allows IT help desks and support teams to securely access and troubleshoot users’ computers and other devices over a network. From a cybersecurity perspective, the software is important because it can provide privileged access to systems and allow technicians to perform sensitive operations. The components do not properly validate the origin of incoming messages, potentially allowing an attacker to perform file operations on the appliance under certain conditions. “CISA is aware of critical authentication bypass vulnerability CVE-2026-102764 , affecting BeyondTrust Remote Support (formerly Bomgar) versions 26.2.3 and earlier. Patches are available for supported versions (24.3.1 and later); organizations using older versions must upgrade first.” CISA warns. “Cyber threat actors are actively exploiting the vulnerability to gain initial access, then establishing persistence, escalating privileges, and moving laterally. “ According to Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities, FCEB agencies have to address the identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect their networks against attacks exploiting the flaws in the catalog. Experts also recommend that private organizations review the Catalog and address the vulnerabilities in their infrastructure. CISA orders federal agencies to fix the flaws by October 19, 2026. Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, CISA)
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a malicious npm package that's part of a recently disclosed software supply chain attack campaign dubbed MALFEX. The package, named "imgdecode," was uploaded to the package registry on September 30, 2026, by a user named "malfexteste8." It has been downloaded 979 times as of writing and is still available on npm as of writing. The latest version of
Cybersecurity researchers are sounding the alarm related to an active campaign in which unknown threat actors are abusing a compromised Microsoft 365 (M365) credential belonging to ConnectWise Cloud Backup (formerly SkyKick) to gain unauthorized access to customers' M365 environments. ConnectWise Cloud Backup is a cloud-based backup and recovery service built for managed service providers (MSPs
Unit 42 details the top initial access vectors adversaries use to breach organizations, led by edge exploits, credential abuse and phishing The post Top 5 Initial Access Threat Vectors Observed by Unit 42 in September 2026 appeared first on Unit 42.
Candiru spyware was delivered to devices at Al Jazeera Media Network via targeted online advertisements in a zero-click attack that required only rendering the malicious ads on the victim's device. Researchers at Citizen Labs investigating the attacks referred to this technique as AdFection, noting that their report is the first public technical confirmation of mercenary spyware delivered through targeted ads. A similar method was documented in late 2025 by Amnesty International, involving ads that infected targets with Predator spyware without them clicking anything. That infection mechanism was called Aladdin and surfaced due to a collection of marketing files and documents leaked from the Intellexa surveillance company that researchers studied and corroborated with technical details from forensic investigations.
Employees using personal ChatGPT accounts at work can expose sensitive company data, even when their organization provides an approved Enterprise workspace. NordLayer explains how IT teams can investigate unauthorized AI use and block sensitive information before it reaches personal accounts.
Burger King Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of global fast-food giant Burger King, disclosed a major data breach after attackers accessed a server containing 11.18 million customer records. Founded in 1953 in Florida, Burger King is now a multinational fast-food chain with nearly 20,000 locations worldwide, including 350 in Japan. In a Thursday press release, Burger King Japan said it concluded a follow-up investigation on October 13 and apologized to customers whose data was stolen in early October and leaked online. The breached servers stored the personal information for users of the company's official smartphone app, including their names, dates of birth, gender, email addresses, phone numbers, and order history. "We identified a potential unauthorized third-party access to the system that manages member information for our official app and conducted an investigation," Burger King Japan said.
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