In the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threat actors, the lines between ideologically driven hacktivism and financially motivated cybercriminals have become increasingly blurred.
Originally fueled by political, social, or ethical causes, hacktivist groups have historically engaged in digital protest through website defacements, data leaks, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. However, in recent years, a noticeable trend has emerged. Some hacktivist groups are evolving into ransomware operations and even becoming ransomware affiliates. This transformation is driven by a mix of ideological fatigue, opportunity for financial gain, access to sophisticated tools, and the growing profitability of extortion-based attacks.
Read more…
Source: Rapid7
Sign up for our Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.
Related:
- Europol: 34 arrests in Spain during action against the ‘Black Axe’ criminal organisation
January 9, 2026
The Spanish National Police (Policía Nacional), in close cooperation with the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt) and with the support of Europol, has conducted an operation against the international criminal organisation ‘Black Axe’. The action resulted in 34 arrests and significant disruptions to the group’s activities. Black Axe is a highly structured, hierarchical group ...
- ‘ZombieAgent’ zero click vulnerability allows for silent account takeover
January 9, 2026
OpenAI recently introduced a new feature for ChatGPT which, unfortunately, also puts users at risk of data exfiltration and persistent access. In December 2025, a feature called Connectors finally moved out of beta and into general availability. This feature allows ChatGPT to connect to numerous other apps, such as calendars, cloud storage, email accounts, and similar ...
- 10 emergency directives retired as CISA declares them redundant
January 9, 2026
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) retired ten Emergency Directives (ED) it issued between 2019 and 2024, saying they achieved their purpose and are no longer needed. In a short announcement published on its website, CISA said the EDs have either been successfully implemented or are now encompassed through Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01, ...
- CVE-2026-21858: Maximum-severity n8n flaw lets randos run your automation server
January 8, 2026
A maximum-severity bug in the popular automation platform n8n has left an estimated 100,000 servers wide open to complete takeover, courtesy of a flaw so bad it doesn’t even require logging in. The vulnerability, uncovered by researchers at security outfit Cyera, carries a CVSS score of 10.0 and has been dubbed “ni8mare” for good reason. Tracked ...
- North Korean Kimsuky Actors Leverage Malicious QR Codes in Spearphishing Campaigns Targeting U.S. Entities
January 8, 2026
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is releasing this FLASH to alert NGOs, think tanks, academia, and other foreign policy experts with a nexus to North Korea of evolving tactics employed by the North Korean state-sponsored cyber threat group Kimsuky and to provide mitigation recommendations. As of 2025, Kimsuky actors have targeted think tanks, academic institutions, ...
- Patch Cisco ISE bug now before attackers abuse proof-of-concept exploit
January 8, 2026
Cisco patched a bug in its Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) products that allows remote attackers with admin-level privileges to access sensitive information – and warned that a public, proof-of-concept exploit for the flaw exists online. ISE is Cisco’s network access control and security policy platform, and companies use it to ...