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Threat Brief: Maze Ransomware

Unit 42 issued a threat brief on Maze ransomware, noting an uptick across industries and exploitation of Pulse VPN and IE flaws for initial access.

Palo Alto Networks detected an uptick in Maze ransomware samples across finance, healthcare, government, and other sectors. Maze, a variant of ChaCha ransomware first seen in May 2019, is distributed via weaponized Word/Excel attachments and the Spelevo exploit kit leveraging CVE-2018-15982 and CVE-2018-4878, and has used CVE-2019-11510 (Pulse VPN) and CVE-2018-8174 (Internet Explorer). Operators establish a foothold, escalate privileges, move laterally, and exfiltrate files before encryption for extortion leverage.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · Aug 17, 2026Ransomware in the wildCVE-2018-15982CVE-2018-4878CVE-2019-11510+1 CVEs

Ransomware incidents in Japan in the first half of 2026: Investigation of The Gentlemen’s infrastructure and evidence of Qilin's AI use

Cisco Talos reports 90 ransomware incidents hit Japanese organizations in H1 2026, led by The Gentlemen, with Qilin using AI for efficiency.

Cisco Talos observed 90 ransomware incidents against Japanese organizations from January to July 2026, up about 4.7% year over year, with manufacturing accounting for 34% of victims. The Gentlemen was the most active group with 14 incidents; its leak-site listings grew from 48 in January to 105 in July. Qilin and SafePay followed with seven incidents each, and Talos notes Qilin is leveraging AI to improve operational efficiency.

Cisco Talos · 2h agoRansomware in the wild

Panzer Ransomware Targets Italian Manufacturers and Telecom Firms With ESXi-Ready RaaS

New Panzer ransomware-as-a-service operation lists Italian firms Doimo Cucine and NTE Italia as victims, offering encryptors for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and ESXi.

Panzer, a ransomware-as-a-service operation that surfaced August 5, listed a kitchen manufacturer in Treviso (Doimo Cucine) and a telecommunications engineering firm in Catanzaro (NTE Italia) among alleged victims, claiming 30 GB and 16 GB of stolen data respectively. The group advertises encryptors for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and VMware ESXi, a Tox-based affiliate recruitment process with screening, an affiliate dashboard, and an 80/20 revenue split. Neither victim had publicly confirmed the incidents when researcher Andrea Fortuna's report was published, and the group's first access method and payload have not been independently analyzed. Panzer posted victims across 11 countries as claimed Italian ransomware incidents reached 212 by September 6, already above 2025's full-year total of 169.

Cyber Security News · 9d agoRansomware in the wild

Threat Assessment: Ryuk Ransomware

Unit 42 assesses Ryuk ransomware amid a CISA/FBI/HHS alert on threats to U.S. healthcare, including the UHS attack that disrupted hospital operations.

A joint CISA, FBI, and HHS alert on October 28, 2020 warned of an imminent threat to U.S. healthcare from operators deploying Trickbot and Ryuk ransomware. Universal Health Services reported a Ryuk attack that disrupted all U.S. UHS sites for weeks, with similar incidents at hospitals in Oregon and New York. Ryuk typically arrives after Trickbot or BazaLoader infections delivered via malicious email, and operators enumerate networks with PowerShell and WMI before encryption. The Trickbot Anchor_DNS module performs DNS tunneling for C2, using connectivity checks to benign domains like ipinfo.io and checkip.amazonaws.com.

Palo Alto Unit 42 · Aug 17, 2026Ransomware in the wild

Florida water agency latest to confirm cyber incident as feds warn of nation

A ransomware gang hit Florida's St. Johns River Water Management District as CISA warned of IRGC-linked CyberAv3ngers attacks on exposed Unitronics water-sector PLCs.

The St. Johns River Water Management District, which oversees Florida drinking-water supply planning, confirmed suspicious activity in its IT environment and said containment measures were implemented; a ransomware gang claimed the attack and shared samples of stolen data. Separately, CISA, FBI, NSA, EPA and Israel's INCD warned that IRGC-affiliated CyberAv3ngers are actively compromising Israeli-made Unitronics Vision Series PLCs in the water sector using default credentials since at least November 22. The group, motivated by opposition to Israel-linked products, defaces controller interfaces and could cause deeper cyber-physical effects. Shadowserver found at least 539 Unitronics PLC instances still exposed online, and CNN reported fewer than 10 US water facilities faced recent attacks.

The Record · 9d agoRansomware in the wild 3 sources

Pharmaceutical giant McKesson warns of 'service degradation' following cyberattack

Pharmaceutical giant McKesson disclosed a cyberattack on a third-party application that exfiltrated customer data, claimed by ShinyHunters.

McKesson reported a cybersecurity incident involving an unnamed third-party application, with attackers exfiltrating data tied to its oncology and surgical business units. The company filed with the SEC, offered credit monitoring, and said it had received reasonable assurance the attackers were no longer inside its systems. The ShinyHunters group claimed responsibility and threatened leaks; McKesson reported $106 billion in revenue last quarter and distributes about one-third of North American prescriptions.

The Record · 16d agoRansomware in the wild

Berlin Refuses to Pay Hackers Who Stole Data From the City's State Network

Berlin refuses ransom demands after Rhysida claimed stealing 5.79 TB from the city-state network, including mobility department data on 12,076 individuals.

Berlin's state government confirmed an extortion attempt following the August compromise of its state administrative network and said it will not pay. Forensics found data exfiltrated from the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and Environment between August 7 and 12, 2026; Rhysida's leak site claims 5.79 TB, 1.44 million files, and personal data on 12,076 individuals. State criminal police, prosecutors, and federal authorities are investigating, and officials say the September 20 Abgeordnetenhaus election environment remains unaffected. Separately, Manchester Airports Group confirmed theft of customer data including emails, phone numbers, and vehicle registrations across three airports.

The Hacker News · 19d agoRansomware in the wildCVE-2020-1472