The crooks have trust problems of their own. One ransomware affiliate decided to keep the profits for himself. Elsewhere, an attacker left a server exposed, complete with tools and traces of an intrusion. Apparently, keeping things secure is a problem on both sides of the fence. The rest of the week isn't much more reassuring. Malicious code turned up in developer packages and extensions that
Phishing kits are no longer limited to copying a familiar login page and waiting for a victim to enter credentials. Attackers are increasingly building filtering, session management, and traffic controls into the infrastructure that delivers the phishing page itself. ANY.RUN has identified Wazza, a new phishkit targeting banking, manufacturing, and government organizations across the US, Europe
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Wednesday announced charges against a 50-year-old U.S. and Israeli national for allegedly defrauding ransomware victims by secretly paying the attackers to obtain decryptors while claiming to use proprietary tools to recover their data. Zohar Pinhasi (aka Zack Silver and Zack Green) has been charged with two counts of wire fraud and one count of wire
A suspected ShinyHunters member arrested in Jordan is reportedly cooperating with the FBI, helping investigators track down the group. A suspected member of ShinyHunters, the group that claims to have stolen data on every FBI employee, was picked up in Jordan this week. The man is Saif al-Din Khader, detained by Jordanian authorities, with two sources placing the arrest on Tuesday. Reuters couldn’t confirm the exact circumstances or where he’s being held. “A suspected member of the ShinyHunters hacking group, which says it stole data on every FBI employee, was detained in Jordan this week and is cooperating with the FBI, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.” the Reuters states. Two sources said he’s now helping the FBI and international law enforcement track down the rest of the group. One source told Reuters that Khader is showing investigators his own devices and digital communications to help identify former associates. That gives investigators real access to potential evidence, not just a general promise to cooperate. “The FBI declined to comment on any specific arrest or activity abroad but said that the bureau “continues to aggressively investigate the recent cyber incident allegedly involving ShinyHunters, having already worked with partners to arrest multiple subjects — and we will spare no resource in bringing each of the responsible individuals to justice.”” Reuters continues. The case matters beyond Khader’s arrest. ShinyHunters claims to have stolen personal data on FBI employees, and Reuters’ earlier analysis found that the leaked sample included detailed personal information, sensitive job-related data, and psychiatric and medical records. Some have compared the incident to the 2015 OPM breach, in which a China-linked attack exposed security clearance data belonging to millions of Americans. If the ShinyHunters claims are even partly confirmed, that comparison would be justified. Dutch police confirmed this week that the 24-year-old man from Amsterdam was arrested earlier this month as part of an investigation into the cybercrime group ShinyHunters. The suspect appears before Rotterdam District Court today, September 29. Multiple sources, including KrebsOnSecurity, have identified him as Pepijn van der Stap, a Dutch hacker previously known online as “Umbreon.” The connection to ShinyHunters runs through the “Umbreon” alias. Van der Stap used that handle and Pokémon imagery on BreachForums as early as 2021. Source KrebsOnSecurity Then the FBI jobs site defacement that ShinyHunters left after the FBIjobs.gov breach prominently featured an ASCII art version of the same Pokémon character, and the image appears identical to one used in a 2020 HackForums defacement attributed to ShinyHunters, a year before Van der Stap created his Umbreon account. That last detail cuts both ways: either the alias predates him in this context, or the timing coincidence is genuinely awkward. KrebsOnSecurity adds a more pointed interpretation: sources familiar with the investigation say the Umbreon imagery in the FBI defacement may have been a deliberate attempt by ShinyHunters’ current leader, a teenager from Amman, Jordan known as Rey, to pin the hack on Van der Stap. The two reportedly had ongoing bad blood over control of the ShinyHunters brand and data. FBI Director Kash Patel had already hinted that more arrests were coming. “FBI teams are working new leads RIGHT NOW. More arrests are on the table.” Patel wrote on X. NO SAFE HAVEN. Working with our Dutch National Police partners, the FBI helped put an alleged leader of ShinyHunters—a global cybercrime threat actor—behind bars. And we’re not done. FBI teams are working new leads RIGHT NOW. More arrests are on the table. If you attack… pic.twitter.com/T7CK4KIKl9 — FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 30, 2026 ShinyHunters’ own infrastructure has been wobbling since this week started. Reuters lost contact with the group’s usual communication account on Tuesday, the same day Khader was reportedly detained, and by Wednesday the group’s dark web leak site had gone offline entirely. The alleged leader of the group, Rey, told journalist Brian Krebs in November 2025 that he’d been quietly cooperating with law enforcement since June, well before any of this became public. In November 2025, security journalist Brian Krebs reported that Rey was Saif Al-Din Khader after analyzing information obtained from infostealer logs and speaking directly with Khader over Signal. What is new is what cooperation can look like when someone is in custody. An FBI Cyber Division official explained the situation last week: arrests can make people more willing to talk, while seized servers can reveal information about those who are still outside. Once someone’s laptop becomes evidence, loyalty can disappear very quickly. A new ShinyHunters leak site reportedly came back online on Thursday, so the group itself isn’t dead, just missing one more member. Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, ShinyHunters )
A new China-nexus cyber espionage group known as TA419 has been attributed to multiple credential phishing campaigns targeting artificial intelligence (AI) experts working for U.S. think tanks, universities, and legal sector organizations. The campaigns have impersonated prominent economists and AI policymakers, as well as a prominent Anthropic employee, to single out an AI policy expert at a
Google's Gemini could soon access any file on your macOS device, open apps, browse the web, and perform actions without asking for permission every time. As spotted by TestingCatalog on X, Google is testing desktop control for Gemini, and there are references to a new hidden "Additional sandbox options" setting in the Gemini Desktop app. The feature isn't live yet, and Google hasn't confirmed it either, but when enabled, Google Gemini could read, create, modify, or even delete files anywhere on your PC. That means Gemini will have access to files outside folders you have explicitly connected to Gemini. It's unclear how the feature will play out, as Apple is considering making it difficult for AI agents to access personal files and data on Mac. According to a pop-up within Gemini Desktop, Google's AI could also communicate with apps such as Mail, Safari, or Messages and perform actions through them.
Featuring: Cybersecurity is being reshaped by the expansion of cloud infrastructure, AI, distributed systems, and increasingly complex digital environments. As organizations manage more identities, devices, data, and internet-facing infrastructure, security is shifting toward continuous visibility, control, and the ability to respond to risk at scale. This report examines how core areas of
The suspected China-linked threat actor known as Warlock is still continuing to weaponize Microsoft SharePoint vulnerabilities, likely both old and new, in attacks targeting organizations in Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries. The activity, observed by the Symantec and Carbon Black Threat Hunter Team, has hit critical infrastructure, government, and education organizations. "In the
The China-linked ransomware group Warlock targeted a water utility, a telecom provider, a regional government body, and a university by exploiting SharePoint vulnerabilities to gain initial access. Over the past two months, the threat actor appears to have focused on countries speaking Portuguese and Spanish across Europe, Africa, and Latin America. The gang emerged in June 2025 and gained notoriety a month later after exploiting a chain of zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft SharePoint known as ToolShell (CVE-2025-49704, CVE-2025-49706, CVE-2025-53770, and CVE-2025-53771). By August, Microsoft observed state-backed hacking groups Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon using ToolShell exploits in attacks, along with a ransomware threat actor the company tracks as Storm-2603. Cybersecurity company Symantec identifies the same actor as Longlegs and attributes the development of the Warlock ransomware to the group.
On Thursday, unknown attackers hijacked the official Microsoft account on X, which has over 13 million followers, in what appeared to be a pump-and-dump scheme promoting a crypto token. The attack began when the Microsoft account (@Microsoft) followed and reposted a tweet from another now-suspended X account (@clippymsftcto) impersonating Microsoft's Clippy virtual assistant, The Verge first reported. While @clippymsftcto has been suspended, another X account (@ClippyMSFT) that reposted Microsoft's tweet is still promoting a $Clippy crypto token, claiming that it has "has a liquidity pool paired directly with $MSFT." Microsoft has since removed the attackers' posts and confirmed the incident, saying it's investigating the circumstances. "We have confirmed unauthorized access to our account on X including posts that did not come from Microsoft," a Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge. "The account has been secured and the unauthorized posts have been removed, and we are continuing to investigate the circumstances."
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