The Golden Scale: ‘Tis the Season for Unwanted Gifts


In October 2025, we published two Insights blogs on threat activity affiliated with the cybercriminal alliance known as Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters (SLSH).

After a few weeks of apparent inactivity, the threat actors have returned with a vengeance based on open-source reporting and conversations obtained from a new Telegram channel (scattered LAPSUS$ hunters part 7). This latest Insights threat blog will detail several notable observations made by Unit 42 since mid-November, and prepares organizations as we head into the holiday season.

Read more…
Source: Palo Alto Unit 42


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • Mitigating large-scale credential attacks

    August 18, 2026

    Identity has effectively become the new perimeter, where cybercriminals are increasingly choosing to log in rather than break in. To accomplish this, attackers frequently gather previously leaked username and password pairs. Gathering these credentials can then allow them to pivot to password spraying against services exposed to the internet, gaining credentials for other products and ...

  • Hunting MacSync Stealer infrastructure through behavioral pivots

    August 18, 2026

    MacSync Stealer is a macOS-focused information stealer that relies on changing infrastructure to deliver payloads, communicate with compromised devices, and exfiltrate data. Earlier reporting by RST Cloud identified the threat through a limited set of domains and documented rapid command-and-control (C2) replacement after public disclosure. Microsoft Defender Experts expanded that view by correlating recurring endpoints and network behaviors ...

  • ‘Unprecedented’ number of Apple users received recent spyware alert, say investigators

    August 17, 2026

    An unprecedented number of Apple customers have reported receiving a recent threat notification alerting them to suspected spyware attacks targeting their devices, according to experts who investigate these types of incidents. Several people publicly and privately reported receiving Apple’s spyware alerts over the weekend, after Apple sent out a new wave of notifications on Friday alerting customers in ...

  • Operation ASTERIX: Anatomy of a Crypto Fraud Pipeline

    August 17, 2026

    Rapid7 researchers identified an exposed web directory on infrastructure used to support a cryptocurrency fraud operation. The server contained raw phone-number datasets, account-validation tools, enriched lead records, phishing panels, voice-dialing scripts, fake wallet applications, persistence mechanisms, and Telegram exfiltration code. Among the artifacts was evidence that the operator relied on AI coding assistants throughout the ...

  • ChainDrop worm crawls into npm supply chain, evades standard defenses

    August 15, 2026

    A new variant of the Shai-Hulud npm worm has poisoned hundreds of packages while adding propagation techniques that can leave little trace in the corresponding source repositories. In Frank Herbert’s Dune, Shai-Hulud was the name of the giant self-sustaining desert sandworms that moved silently beneath the surface of the planet Arrakis. So it made sense that when ...

  • Researchers find ultimate Windows kill switch which can disable antivirus with almost no user interaction

    August 14, 2026

    Microsoft has recently fixed a vulnerability that allowed threat actors to bypass advanced security measures, disable antivirus software, and expose the target device to full system takeover. All of this, it seems, could have been possible with a very simple script, and a single click from the victim’s side. Luckily, the vulnerability was discovered by white hat hackers, ...