Cybercriminals are now weaponizing artificial intelligence (AI) to create potentially devastating off-the-shelf ransomware. Researchers at cybersecurity company ESET have discovered what they called “the first known AI-powered ransomware”. The malware, which ESET has named PromptLock, has the ability to exfiltrate, encrypt, and possibly even destroy data, though this last functionality appears not to have been implemented in the malware as yet.
George Patsis is the founder and CEO of Obrela and has a proven track record in developing large-scale innovative security programs for major Global 500 companies. In an exclusive interview with Cyber Intelligence, he explains why a global approach is needed to fight cybercrime.
This is a philosophical discussion shaped by the evolving changes in the human and society conditions. Ten years ago, digital communications and laptops were supplementary tools in people’s lives and perceived as an extension of our natural world. Today, we are witnessing the evolution of a full-scale digital transformation leading to an entirely new domain: cyberspace. Much like the air travel leading to partitioning of the skies, or the British Empire’s domination of the seas or the space quest. Whenever humankind discovers new domains and frontiers, the absence of clear leadership and authority often leads to conflict and crime. In the American Old West, every town had its own safe, and criminals tried to rob it. In the same way, the new digital frontier of cyberspace is driving demand for companies like OBRELA to protect their digital assets. But we need more than just individual Cybersecurity companies to protect us across the new threats in cyberspace. In the absence of a central cybersecurity authority, cybercriminals operate with near impunity—facing little resistance, no clear attribution, and a remarkably low risk of consequences.
Cybersecurity professionals are restless, with over 60% planning to switch jobs in the next year. A new study by IANS Research and Artico Search highlights career stagnation as a major reason, while salaries remain high across the industry.
The report finds senior professionals are the most eager to leave, frustrated by limited growth opportunities. Specialists in cloud security, application security, and threat intelligence, however, continue to command the highest salaries.
A vast botnet of over 130,000 compromised devices is now attacking Microsoft 365 accounts worldwide. A botnet is a network of computing devices that have been surreptitiously taken over by hackers and are being controlled remotely without the owners’ knowledge.
Microsoft 365 accounts are suffering from ‘password spray attacks’ by the botnet. This involves mass attempts to use large numbers of common passwords to infiltrate users’ Microsoft accounts, targeting basic authentication procedures and thereby bypassing multi-factor authentication.
Most organizations have no clear idea of the value of the data they hold on themselves and their customers. According to technology research and consulting firm Gartner, 30 percent of chief data and analytics officers (CDAOs) say that their top challenge is the inability to measure data, analytics, and AI’s impact on business outcomes. Gartner also reports that only 22 percent of organizations surveyed have defined, tracked, and communicated business impact metrics for the bulk of their data and analytics (D&A) use cases.
“There is a massive value vibe around data, where many organizations talk about the value of data, desire to be data-driven, etc., but there are few who can substantiate it,” said Michael Gabbard, senior director analyst at Gartner.
On January 31, Texas became the first US state to ban the Chinese-owned generative artificial intelligence (AI) application, DeepSeek, on state-owned devices and networks. New York swiftly followed suit on February 10 with Virginia imposing a ban on February 11.
The Texas state governor’s office stated: “Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps. State agencies and employees responsible for handling critical infrastructure, intellectual property, and personal information must be protected from malicious espionage operations by the Chinese Communist Party. Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign actors.”
Search engine giant’s Google Threat Intelligence Group reports that cybercriminal and state-backed cyber-attacks on the healthcare sector in countries such as the US and UK have escalated to a level where they are actually costing lives.
“Healthcare’s share of posts on data leak sites has doubled over the past three years, even as the number of data leak sites tracked by Google Threat Intelligence Group has increased by nearly 50% year over year. The impact of these attacks means that they must be taken seriously as a national security threat, no matter the motivation of the actors behind it,” says Google.
Ransomware attacks on the healthcare sector have risen by a third in 2024 with the US the prime target. Cybersecurity company Black Kite reports 374 incidents in the past year, a 32.16 percent rise in the number of attacks on the industry over 2023. Healthcare is now among the top targets for ransomware, surpassed only by manufacturing and professional services.
The rapid rise in ransomware attacks on the healthcare sector is the result of increasing ruthlessness on the part of ransomware gangs. Until relatively recently, some sectors, such as healthcare and education, were considered off-limits. According to Black Kite, if an affiliated criminal gang attacked a healthcare organization, the core ransomware group would frequently step in, apologizing to the victim organization -sometimes even decrypting the ransomed data for free.
In an exclusive interview with Cyber Intelligence, Patrick Harding, chief product architect at digital identity security company, Ping Identity, outlines the growing threat of identity theft and fraud, explaining how it evolved and what can be done to counter it.
Everybody is forced into digital transactions and relationships and identity management is fundamental to knowing who you are interacting with. The problem goes back to the beginning of the internet in the 1990s and a cartoon of a dog in front of a computer with the caption, “On the internet no-one knows you’re a dog!” That really illustrates the core problem of identifying online users and customers. The extent to which this is carried out largely depends on the sensitivity of the activity concerned. There is a big difference between buying a pair of jeans online and opening a bank account. In both cases, there is a significant series of steps which could include requesting passport ID for financial services.
Researchers have revealed current vulnerabilities in Amazon’s data storage services, the knock-on effect of which could potentially result in the biggest supply-chain attack in the internet’s history.
In November 2024, watchTowr Labs decided to show how a significant Internet-wide supply-chain attack could be caused by abandoned infrastructure left unattended and forgotten on the internet. The researchers chose to focus on an Amazon business data storage service, known as ‘S3 buckets’.
A ransomware gang, Hellcat, that emerged in 2024 is being seen as representative of a new type of threat actor using off-the-shelf malware and innovative extortion techniques.
According to cybersecurity company Cato Networks: “Hellcat’s emergence in 2024 marks a troubling shift in the landscape of cybercrime. By leveraging a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model and utilizing double extortion tactics, Hellcat has not only increased the accessibility of ransomware but also heightened the psychological impact on its victims.”
In an exclusive interview with Cyber Intelligence, CEO and co-founder of cybersecurity firm EyeR, Sean Tsvik, explains what small-to-medium-sized organizations (SMEs) can do to protect their systems and customers’ critical data from increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks.
They should start by using a managed detection and response (MDR) service. That allows medium-sized organizations to protect themselves against increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks without paying high salaries to in-house cyber experts. MDR services work out costing only a couple of dollars per endpoint and are by far the best starting point for small-to-medium-sized companies looking to strengthen their cyber defenses. Small organizations can also benefit from moving to the cloud as this leaves even fewer endpoints to secure.
A man alleged to be behind the recent Salt Typhoon US telecoms network and US Treasury department breaches has been sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Yin Kecheng “has been a cyber actor for over a decade and is affiliated with the People’s Republic of China Ministry of State Security (MSS)”, says the Treasury Office. Yin is alleged to have had direct and associated involvement in both breaches.
Two key individuals in President Donald Trump’s new administration, Elon Musk, and the president’s nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, have specifically cited the two devastating breaches as the prime examples of why the nation’s cybersecurity strategy is in pressingly urgent need of being overhauled.
The European Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which came into force on Friday, January 17, is already having unforeseen costs for organizations right across the financial sector. Although the act is the brainchild of the European Union (EU), the financial services industry has been global for some years, and firms in the US and the UK are also impacted. As of Friday, the new regulations now also apply to US companies providing financial services within the EU or catering to EU customers.
California-based cybersecurity company Rubrik has commissioned research that almost half of UK financial businesses report spending over €1 million each over the last two years in trying to comply with the new EU regulation. DORA mandates key provisions such as contractual safeguards and contingency plans to mitigate risks from partners and third parties. DORA compliance also requires regular testing of digital resilience and attack simulations.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2025 reports that several compounding factors are creating an increasingly complex and risky business environment. These include the growing complexity of supply chains, rising geopolitical tensions, cybercriminal’s increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI), and the entry of traditional organized crime groups into cybercrime.
Ransomware remains the top organizational cyber risk year on year, with 45 percent of respondents ranking it as a top concern in this year’s survey. Over half of the large organizations surveyed worldwide, 54 percent, identified supply chain challenges as the most challenging barrier to achieving cyber resilience, citing the increasing complexity of supply chains, coupled with a lack of visibility and oversight into the security levels of suppliers.
In an exclusive interview with Cyber Intelligence, Brian Buiwe, Technology Specialist at Sage, explains how SMEs and other smaller organizations urgently need to re-address their approach to cybersecurity.
There is a huge knowledge gap among C-suite executives of small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as among other professionals such as senior doctors and lawyers, where cybersecurity is concerned. Many do not yet grasp the urgent need for cybersecurity. The mainstream media has actually done a very poor job of keeping them informed of the growing threat facing all sectors.
The latest US security breach attributed to systematic attempts by China to compromise US institutions and critical infrastructure has impacted the US Treasury. The intrusion is being billed as “a major cybersecurity incident”.
According to a letter from the US Department of the Treasury: “The threat actor was able to override the service’s security, remotely access certain Treasury Departmental Office user workstations, and access certain unclassified documents maintained by those users… Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor.”
The latest threat for companies using large language (LLM) AI software to replace human staff is the software’s innate gullibility. LLM software can be likened to some cowardly bank clerk in an old Western hold-up who not only willingly opens a back door for the bad guys but also willingly tells them the combination of the safe.
The methods for persuading LLMs into naively disclosing the keys to the corporate kingdom are known as ‘LLM Jailbreak’ techniques. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers have named one such LLM Jailbreak, “Bad Likert Judge”.
In an exclusive interview with Cyber Intelligence, Gadi Bashvitz, CEO of cybersecurity testing firm, Bright Security warns of the security challenges facing organizations in the wake of widespread adoption of GenAI.
Cyber Intelligence: Are there any specific dangers of which companies using GenAI to generate new code should be particularly aware?
Gadi Bashvitz: There are multiple considerations here. On one hand, any solution developed leveraging LLMs is prone to LLM-specific vulnerabilities such as Insecure Output Handling and Broken Access Control and it is critical to make sure organizations are aware and can detect such vulnerabilities before releasing LLM-based solutions.
Corporations are not only amassing huge amounts of personal data on their customers as never before but also trading that data, frequently without the customer’s knowledge. As yet, the general public is largely unaware of the uses to which their personal information is being put or whose hands it ends up in. At the same time, companies holding the data must tread an increasingly complex regulatory minefield.
According to Chris Diebler, Security VP at cybersecurity company DataGrail: “Companies are all terrified of not having enough data as data is the new currency. However, companies need to think seriously about reducing these vast mountains of data. The value of data must be balanced against the cost and security risk of maintaining it.”
Companies that fail to secure personal data effectively or trade customer data with third parties face considerable potential brand damage when the details are obtained by bad actors and they suffer identity theft or financial fraud as a consequence.
German authorities have made arrests linked to drug-selling platform Crimenetwork, seizing over $1 million in crypto assets. Crimenetwork is alleged to be the largest darkweb marketplace in the country and enabled users to buy and sell drugs, and offered illicit services such as the forging of documents and trading of stolen data.
Sanjaya Kumar, MD, is the CEO of cybersecurity company SureShield, Inc. Dr. Kumar has more than 25 years of healthcare compliance, risk management, and security experience. In an exclusive interview with Cyber Intelligence, he outlines the challenge presented by the current environment of data overload and some of the steps organizations should take to mitigate the associated risks from it.
The Walt Disney Company, which has long had a history of troubled labor relations, recently found itself the victim of a disgruntled former employee. According to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint against the former employee, Michael Scheuer, Disney discovered a security breach allegedly used to make its menus unusable, together with the redirection of QR codes to direct Disney customers to a website calling for a boycott of Israel.
More seriously, it alleged that the threat actor manipulated allergen information on Disney menus, indicating that certain menu items were safe for people with peanut allergies when, in fact, they could have been potentially deadly for some diners. Scheuer is also alleged to have conducted denial of service attacks on four former colleagues and to have paid visits outside the home of one of them.
The US is the top target for cyber-attacks focusing on mobile devices and those connected by the Internet of Things (IoT) plus the operational technology (OT) systems than run facilities such as power plants.
According to cybersecurity firm Zscaler’s ThreatLabz 2024 Mobile, IoT, and OT Threat Report, mobile remains a top threat vector, with 111% growth in spyware and 29% growth in banking malware. Technology (18 percent), education (18 percent) and manufacturing (14 percent) continue to be the sectors most targeted by mobile malware. The education sector saw the most dramatic rise in blocked transactions, with a 136 percent increase on the previous year.
Cybercriminals are now using social engineering techniques developed to crack passwords to break through multi-factor authentication (MFA) defenses, such as sending a code to another device, such as the user’s smartphone.
According to the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) report, Not all types of MFA are created equal…: “Attackers have realized that many of the same social engineering techniques that tricked us into handing over passwords can also be updated to overcome some methods of MFA. We’ve seen the success of attacks against MFA-protected accounts increasing over the past couple of years.”
Insider attacks, where staff either deliberately or accidently compromise an organization’s security, are rising steeply. According to Cybersecurity firm, Gurucul, almost half of organizations, 48 percent, report that insider attacks have become increasingly common over the last 12 months. Just over half, 51 percent, experienced six or more such attacks in the past year.
Gurucul’s 2024 Insider Threat report identifies the major causes for the sudden spike in insider attacks: “The top three drivers behind the surge in insider attacks are complex IT environments (39 percent), the adoption of new technologies (37 percent), and inadequate security measures (33 percent).”
A cyber-attack on the London transport system earlier this month was far more serious than initially reported and is rapidly spreading across the UK. It is also now ringing loud alarm bells on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly in light of the upcoming US elections in November.
Transport for London (TfL) has now admitted that over 5,000 customers’ personal details and, in many cases, their financial details have been stolen. TfL added that the breach is also rapidly starting to affect services outside London.
The London Underground, the UK capital’s vast underground rail network, like most European metros, has a touchpad automatic electronic payment system using prepaid plastic cards. London also allows travelers simply to use their visa or MasterCard on the touchpads at the London underground barriers. This means that organizations such as TfL have become repositories of millions of commuters’ financial details, making them a tempting target for small-time cyber crooks.
The EU has bared its cyber teeth for the second time in a week. Hard on the heels of the arrest of Telegram founder and owner, Pavel Kurov, Uber has been slapped with a $290 million fine for allegedly violating the European Union (EU)’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by failing to protect personal data of European taxi drivers held on servers located in the US.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) enforced the regulation by imposing a fine on Uber, which transmitted European drivers’ personal data to the US, including drivers’ account details, taxi licenses, location data, photos, payment details, identity documents and, in some cases, even criminal records and medical data.
In an exclusive interview with Cyber Intelligence, Andy Sheldon, North American VP of US-based ID fraud specialist Deduce reveals how banks are now struggling to combat armies of fake account holders currently being generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
The European Union (EU) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, which came into effect earlier this month, is now set to act as a template for other regions, such as the US. The American government has already drafted an AI Bill of Rights, which aims to create a similar framework regulating AI.
However, while governments are rightly concerned about the personal privacy aspect of the universal adoption of AI, some have a dangerously bullish view of the new technology’s potential. Despite a deluge of hilarious howlers, such as Google’s AI-driven images of African Vikings and American founding fathers, politicians anxious not to be left behind in the tech race swallowed Silicon Valley’s AI hype hook, line, and sinker.
Over 72,000 US consumers may have had their account details compromised following a cyber-attack on denim clothing giant Levi Strauss & Co. Almost two weeks ago, on June 13, Levi’s spotted an unusual spike in activity on its consumer-facing website and immediately realized its users were under threat.
“Our investigation showed characteristics associated with a “credential stuffing” attack where bad actor(s) who have obtained compromised account credentials from another source (such as a third-party data breach) then use a bot attack to test these credentials against another website – in this case www.levis.com,” said Levi’s in a published notice detailing the data breach.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has been breached by a cyber-attack that has compromised the personal information of over 200,000 private individuals. This is the latest breach in a series of major cyber-attacks on the healthcare sector.
As with so many breaches, the Los Angeles County breach was the result of a phishing attack aimed at unsuspecting staff. The attack enabled a hacker to gain the log-in credentials of 53 public health employees and subsequently compromised the personal information of 200,000 patients.
According to the LA County Department of Public Health: “The information identified in the potentially compromised e-mail accounts may have included DPH clients/employees/other individuals’ first and last name, date of birth, diagnosis, prescription, medical record number/patient ID, Medicare/Med-Cal number, health insurance information, Social Security Number, and other financial information.”
Bereft of fresh ideas or new products, Apple’s main offering at its long-awaited annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference in Cupertino, California, is a cobbled-together artificial intelligence (AI) offering.
While AI may be Silicon Valley’s latest buzzword and marketing tool, “Apple Intelligence,” as Apple AI is branded, is already attracting heavy criticism – even from other tech giants. By pairing Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT with Apple’s voice-activated assistant, Siri, Apple hopes to make AI mainstream. But its critics say that all Apple has done is create a cybersecurity nightmare for corporations while sounding a death knell for the personal privacy of Apple users.
“It’s patently absurd that Apple isn’t smart enough to make their own AI, yet is somehow capable of ensuring that OpenAI will protect your security & privacy!… Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They’re selling you down the river,” says Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX founder and the owner of X Corp, formerly Twitter.
According to a Cado Security report, 34% of organizations lack cloud cybersecurity skills.
The report also discloses that 23% of cloud alerts remain uninvestigated due to various challenges and complexities.
The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools by staff ahead of IT departments involvement has resulted in the growing problem of ‘shadow AI’.
“Similar to the early days of cloud adoption, workers are using AI tools before IT departments formally buy them. The result is “shadow AI,” employee usage of AI tools through personal accounts that are not sanctioned by – or even known to – the company,” says Silicon Valley-based data protection company Cyberhaven’s report: How Employees are Leading the Charge in AI Adoption and Putting Company Data at Risk.
Google agreed to remove billions of personal records amid the previously announced lawsuit, accusing the tech giant of illegal surveillance.
The personal records belong to approximately 136 million Google Chrome users. To add to the settlement, Google will add more disclosures of the terms for their ‘incognito mode’ feature.
In what is being seen by some on the Hill as a case of too little too late, Washington has this week finally blocked the sale of US citizens’ personal sensitive data to four hostile foreign powers: North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran.
Sensitive data includes ordinary people’s social security numbers, financial account numbers, biometric information, genetic information, precise geolocation information, and most of their private communications. Washington’s Energy and Commerce Committee top Democrat, Congressman Frank Pallone Jr, simultaneously issued a statement highlighting the massive threat foreign data sales present to ordinary people.
Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence arm issued a warning on the rise of new, sophisticated tax phishing scams that could lead to stolen personal and financial data.
These tax-related phishing scams are initiated by impersonating trusted employers, tax agencies, and payment processors. Victims click on a malicious attachment, which leads to a believable landing page designed to capture sensitive information.
Google announced major security-focused revamps to Chrome’s ‘Safe Browsing’ mode, which enables the service to work while checking against a server-side malware-site list in real-time.
The added safety feature to Google Chrome’s ‘Safe Browsing’ mode is a massive improvement compared to the browsing mode cross-checking against lists of malware-infected sites that were manually added every two hours.
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Tony Glover
