- ‘Pig butchering’ scams have stolen billions from people around the world.
July 14, 2025
At the beginning of 2025, panic about fraud and human trafficking erupted on Chinese social media. It started when a Chinese actor called Wang Xing was tricked into travelling to Thailand for an audition, where he was abducted by criminals and taken to a scam centre in Myanmar. Wang was reported missing and, within three days, ...
- GoldMelody’s Hidden Chords: Initial Access Broker In-Memory IIS Modules Revealed
July 8, 2025
Unit 42 researchers uncovered a campaign by an initial access broker (IAB) to exploit leaked Machine Keys — cryptographic keys used on ASP.NET sites — to gain access to targeted organizations. IABs breach organizations and then sell that access to other threat actors. This report analyzes the tools used in these attacks. Palo Alto track this ...
- NFC fraud threatens Philippines digital payments security
July 8, 2025
As contactless payments and digital wallets grow quickly in the Philippines, cyber-criminals are now targeting the country by abusing Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies. Resecurity, a global leader in cyber threat intelligence, issued a stark warning, urging Philippine regulators and financial institutions to heighten their defenses amid an alarming increase in NFC-enabled fraud, particularly from ...
- FBI: Fraudsters Target US Stock Investors through Investment Clubs Accessed on Social Media and Messaging Applications
July 3, 2025
The FBI warns the public about criminals targeting US stock investors through social media platforms and messaging service applications (apps). The scheme, known as a “ramp-and-dump” stock manipulation, targets US investors through online engagement, often via social media advertisements or messages promoting an “investment club” of fellow investors, some of which may be bots or ...
- Cyberattack on Brazil tech provider affects reserve accounts of some financial institutions
July 2, 2025
Brazil’s central bank said on Wednesday that technology services provider C&M Software, which serves financial institutions lacking connectivity infrastructure, had reported a cyberattack on its systems. The bank did not provide further details of the attack, but said in a statement that it ordered C&M to shut down financial institutions’ access to the infrastructure it operates. ...
- Cybercriminals breach Aflac as part of hacking spree against US insurance industry
June 20, 2025
Cybercriminals have breached insurance giant Aflac, potentially stealing Social Security numbers, insurance claims and health information, the company said Friday, the latest in a spree of hacks against the insurance industry. With billions of dollars in annual revenue and tens of millions of customers, Aflac is the biggest victim yet in the ongoing digital assault on ...
- UBS bank reports data leak after attack on its external supplier
June 18, 2025
Zurich-based banking giant UBS Group has confirmed that company information was stolen during a cyberattack on one of its external suppliers, though it assured that no client data was compromised. The bank said the breach was part of a larger cyber incident affecting multiple companies, including former UBS affiliate Chain IQ and Swiss private bank Pictet. ...
- Hackers steal and destroy millions from Iran’s largest crypto exchange
June 18, 2025
Iran’s largest crypto exchange, Nobitex, said Wednesday that it was hacked and funds have been drained from its hot wallet. In a statement on its website translated by TechCrunch, Nobitex said it detected unauthorized access to its infrastructure and hot wallet, in which the company stores a portion of its customers’ cryptocurrency. The company said it ...
- Melbourne-based financial services and advice firm hit with cyber attack
May 30, 2025
Financial services aggregate 3P Corporation has denied its data was breached in an April attack; however, hackers have published more than 200 gigabytes of internal documents and customer data online. The Space Bears ransomware gang listed Victorian financial services firm 3P Corporation as a victim on its darknet leak site in early April, and has since ...
- A third of UK fintechs put customers data at risk of cyber attack
May 29, 2025
UK fintechs are putting thousands of customers in jeopardy by leaving themselves vulnerable to a cyber attack, shocking new research reveals. Nearly 800 firms’ digital presence was analysed by the ethical hacking platform Ethiack as it scrutinised their cybersecurity. Four in ten fintechs were found to be giving hackers a “powerful headstart” by revealing software details ...
- FBI: Infrastructure Used to Manage Domains Related to Cryptocurrency Investment Fraud Scams between October 2023 and April 2025
May 29, 2025
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is releasing this FLASH to disseminate indicators of compromise (IOCs) associated with malicious cyber activities linked to Funnull Technology Inc. (Funnull). Funnull is a Philippines-based company which provides computer infrastructure for thousands of websites associated with cryptocurrency investment fraud (CIF) scams, commonly referred to as “pig butchering,” and other illicit ...
- Zanubis in motion: Tracing the active evolution of the Android banking malware
May 28, 2025
Zanubis is a banking Trojan for Android that emerged in mid-2022. Since its inception, it has targeted banks and financial entities in Peru, before expanding its objectives to virtual cards and crypto wallets. The main infection vector of Zanubis is impersonating legitimate Peruvian Android applications and then misleading the user into enabling the accessibility permissions. Once ...
- Scattered Spider snared financial orgs before targeting shops in Britain, America
May 21, 2025
Scattered Spider snared financial services organizations in its web before its recent spate of retail attacks in the UK and US, according to Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42. “We saw several instances in the financial services space, and now we’re starting to see instances in the retail-oriented, customer-facing space,” Unit 42 principal threat researcher Kristopher Russo ...
- Ransomware Is Changing Financial Services – Are You Ready?
May 16, 2025
Whenever cybercriminals successfully target financial services (FinServ), we’re reminded all too well that money makes the world go round. A fruitful attack can lock customers out of their bank accounts, expose sensitive data and fuel theft, fraud and a worrying distrust in financial institutions. The stakes are clearly high, and unfortunately attacks are still soaring. Between ...
- Trump’s sanctions on ICC prosecutor have halted tribunal’s work
May 15, 2025
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has lost access to his email, and his bank accounts have been frozen. The Hague-based court’s American staffers have been told that if they travel to the U.S. they risk arrest. Some non-governmental organizations have stopped working with the ICC and the leaders of one won’t even reply to emails ...
- Coinbase warns of $400m hit after data breach
May 15, 2025
Crypto exchange Coinbase has disclosed a significant cyber attack that could cost the company between $180m (£135m) and $400m (£300m), after hackers breached account data belonging to a “small subset” of its users. The news sent shares down three per cent in pre-market trading on Thursday. Coinbase said it received an email from an unknown threat ...
- Russia: Damage from phone scammers in Russia exceeded $2.1 bln in 2024
May 7, 2025
More than 640,000 cases of remote fraud were reported in Russia in 2024, while the damage they caused exceeded 170 billion rubles ($2.1 bln), the Public Relations Center of the Federal Security Service (FSB), reported. According to the FSB, “the measures taken stopped the functioning of the illicit virtual communications center, seized more than 1,200 SIM ...
- Lampion Is Back With ClickFix Lures
May 6, 2025
Unit 42 researchers recently uncovered a highly focused malicious campaign targeting dozens of Portuguese organizations, particularly in the government, finance and transportation sectors. This campaign was orchestrated by the threat actors behind Lampion malware, an infostealer that focuses on sensitive banking information. This malware family has been active since at least 2019. During our investigation, we ...
- A major power outage is reported in Spain and Portugal, including their capitals
April 28, 2025
A major power outage hit Spain and Portugal on Monday, including their capitals, knocking out subway networks, phone lines, traffic lights and ATM machines. It is rare to have such a widespread outage there. Spanish generator Red Eléctrica said it affected the Iberian peninsula and the incident is being assessed. The countries have a combined population ...
- Android malware turns phones into malicious tap-to-pay machines
April 24, 2025
Got an Android phone? Got a tap-to-pay card? Then you’re like millions of other users now at risk from a new form of cybercrime – malware that can read your credit or debit card and hand its data over to an attacker. A newly discovered malicious program effectively turns Android phones into malicious tap machines that ...