Cyber Defense Advisors

Month: February 2025

Fake Google Chrome Sites Distribute ValleyRAT Malware via DLL Hijacking

Bogus websites advertising Google Chrome have been used to distribute malicious installers for a remote access trojan called ValleyRAT. The malware, first detected in 2023, is attributed to a threat actor tracked as Silver Fox, with prior attack campaigns primarily targeting Chinese-speaking regions like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China. “This actor has increasingly targeted […]

Cyber News

Ransomware Extortion Drops to $813.5M in 2024, Down from $1.25B in 2023

Ransomware attacks netted cybercrime groups a total of $813.5 million in 2024, a decline from $1.25 billion in 2023. The total amount extorted during the first half of 2024 stood at $459.8 million, blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis said, adding payment activity slumped after July 2024 by about 3.94%. “The number of ransomware events increased into […]

Cyber News

Thailand cuts power and internet to areas of Myanmar to disrupt scam gangs

Graham CLULEY February 06, 2025 Promo Protect all your devices, without slowing them down. Free 30-day trial The government of Thailand has cut the power supply to areas near its border with Myanmar that are known to host brutal scam compounds. These heavily-guarded fraud factories house armies of people, coerced into defrauding innocent people through […]

Cyber News

AIs and Robots Should Sound Robotic

Most people know that robots no longer sound like tinny trash cans. They sound like Siri, Alexa, and Gemini. They sound like the voices in labyrinthine customer support phone trees. And even those robot voices are being made obsolete by new AI-generated voices that can mimic every vocal nuance and tic of human speech, down […]

Cyber News

SparkCat Malware Uses OCR to Extract Crypto Wallet Recovery Phrases from Images

A new malware campaign dubbed SparkCat has leveraged a suit of bogus apps on both Apple’s and Google’s respective app stores to steal victims’ mnemonic phrases associated with cryptocurrency wallets. The attacks leverage an optical character recognition (OCR) model to exfiltrate select images containing wallet recovery phrases from photo libraries to a command-and-control (C2) server, […]

Cyber News

The Evolving Role of PAM in Cybersecurity Leadership Agendas for 2025

Privileged Access Management (PAM) has emerged as a cornerstone of modern cybersecurity strategies, shifting from a technical necessity to a critical pillar in leadership agendas. With the PAM market projected to reach $42.96 billion by 2037 (according to Research Nester), organizations invest heavily in PAM solutions. Why is PAM climbing the ranks of leadership priorities? […]

Cyber News

North Korean APT Kimsuky Uses forceCopy Malware to Steal Browser-Stored Credentials

The North Korea-linked nation-state hacking group known as Kimsuky has been observed conducting spear-phishing attacks to deliver an information stealer malware named forceCopy, according to new findings from the AhnLab Security Intelligence Center (ASEC). The attacks commence with phishing emails containing a Windows shortcut (LNK) file that’s disguised as a Microsoft Office or PDF document. […]

Cyber News

Top 3 Ransomware Threats Active in 2025

You arrive at the office, power up your system, and panic sets in. Every file is locked, and every system is frozen. A ransom demand flashes on your screen: “Pay $2 million in Bitcoin within 48 hours or lose everything.” And the worst part is that even after paying, there’s no guarantee you’ll get your […]

Cyber News

Cisco Patches Critical ISE Vulnerabilities Enabling Root CmdExec and PrivEsc

Cisco has released updates to address two critical security flaws Identity Services Engine (ISE) that could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands and elevate privileges on susceptible devices. The vulnerabilities are listed below – CVE-2025-20124 (CVSS score: 9.9) – An insecure Java deserialization vulnerability in an API of Cisco ISE that could permit an […]

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