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Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

Researchers confirmed the first 2026 Pegasus infection and a new NoviSpy variant on 14 Serbian activists, likely surveillance by Serbian authorities ahead of elections.

Citizen Lab confirmed with high probability the first forensically confirmed Pegasus infection of 2026, on a Serbian student activist hacked via a zero-click exploit between December of last year and January. Amnesty International confirmed two devices infected with a new NoviSpy variant, and the SHARE Foundation documented 14 targets including a member of parliament and a local government official, the largest documented spyware wave in Serbia to date. Evidence points to Serbian police or intelligence services, with NoviSpy infections occurring around police detention ahead of key local and parliamentary elections. Apple threat notifications preceded the findings, and updated iOS versions break the exploit chain.

CyberScoop · 14d agoThreat actor in the wild

Large group of Serbian opposition, activist figures targeted with spyware

Researchers found at least 14 Serbian opposition figures and student protesters targeted with Pegasus and NoviSpy spyware around elections; 11 more phones under investigation.

The SHARE Foundation, with Citizen Lab confirmation and Amnesty International peer review, found at least 14 Serbian opposition and civil society figures targeted with advanced spyware since December, including a member of Parliament, a local politician and student protesters. Citizen Lab confirmed zero-click Pegasus on a student protester's iPhone between December 2025 and January 2026, while Amnesty confirmed a new detection-evading NoviSpy Android variant in at least two cases. Targeting coincided with March 2026 local elections; Serbia's BIA intelligence agency denied the claims, and 11 additional alerted phones remain under forensic investigation.

The Record · 13d agoThreat actor in the wild

Pegasus and NoviSpy Used Against Serbian Protesters

Citizen Lab confirmed zero-click Pegasus infected a Serbian student activist's iPhone, part of the largest documented Serbian spyware wave targeting at least 14 people.

The Citizen Lab, with the SHARE Foundation, confirmed a Serbian student protest movement member's iPhone was infected with NSO Group's Pegasus via an iMessage zero-click exploit between December 2025 and January 2026; Apple patched the exploit in iOS 18.4.1. SHARE Foundation has documented at least 14 targeted individuals since early 2026, including student activists, civil society figures, an opposition MP and a local councilor, coinciding with the March 2026 local elections. SHARE and Amnesty Tech also found a new NoviSpy variant on a student activist's Android phone after Serbian authorities seized it during police questioning.

Security Affairs · 13d agoThreat actor in the wild

Pegasus Zero-Click Spyware Exploit Infects Serbian Student Movement Member's iPhone

Citizen Lab confirms Pegasus zero-click iMessage spyware infected a Serbian student activist's iPhone amid at least 14 spyware targets in Serbia during 2026.

The Citizen Lab, with the SHARE Foundation, confirmed an iMessage zero-click exploit infected a Serbian student protest movement member's iPhone with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, with high-confidence indicators from December 2025 to January 2026. The exploit was addressed by Apple in iOS 18.4.1, released April 2025. At least 14 people in Serbia, including students, activists, an MP, and a councilor, were targeted with advanced spyware since the start of 2026, coinciding with March 29, 2026 local elections; a new Android spyware similar to NoviSpy was also found on a confiscated device.

The Hacker News · 14d agoThreat actor in the wild

Pegasus Zero-Click Exploit Infects Serbian Student Activist's iPhone

Citizen Lab and SHARE Foundation confirm a Serbian student activist's iPhone was infected with NSO Group Pegasus via a zero-click iMessage exploit.

Forensic analysis found high-confidence infection indicators on the activist's iPhone during December 2025 and January 2026, using an iMessage zero-click exploit the Citizen Lab believes was patched as of iOS 18.4.1, released April 2025. The target was among at least 14 Apple Threat Notification recipients in Serbia's student movement, civil society, and opposition politics documented by the SHARE Foundation. Targeting occurred ahead of key 2026 election cycles; Amnesty Tech also confirmed a new NoviSpy version on another student movement member's device.

Infosecurity Magazine · 13d agoThreat actor in the wild

AI lets small actors run state-level hacking campaigns, Anthropic report finds

Anthropic's threat report finds AI let a Russian-aligned espionage campaign, a Chinese student-run exploit foundry and ShinyHunters operators run state-grade operations.

Anthropic's report covering December 2025 to August 2026 details a Russian-aligned espionage campaign by actor 'JackPoterz' — matching Midnight Blizzard behaviors — against more than 20 government and defense organizations across Ukraine and Europe, with AI agents autonomously rebuilding Windows implants to evade detections. Chinese undergraduates ran an automated vulnerability-research foundry using Claude agent swarms, yielding more than a dozen potential zero-days in one month. ShinyHunters-affiliated operators used AI to dump over 2,100 Azure access tokens across 40 corporate tenants in 34 hours. Seven Chinese labs including Alibaba, DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Xiaomi and Zhipu distilled Claude outputs; Alibaba peaked at nearly 3 million exchanges per day from more than 3,500 fraudulent accounts to train its Qwen systems.

CyberScoopupdated · 20h agofirst · 6d agoThreat actor in the wild 20 sources2· 1 read

Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

Four China-aligned espionage groups, starting with TA412/APT31, chained zero-days CVE-2026-85046, CVE-2026-87491 and CVE-2026-85880 to spy on targets since late August.

TA412 (Violet Typhoon/APT31) began exploiting the BlueMoon chain on Aug. 28, followed by UNK_LateNight (US aerospace, Sept. 2), UNK_DoubleCheck (Vietnamese manufacturing via a compromised Southeast Asian government account) and UNK_QuietRacket (Indonesia and Singapore government, consulting and finance, Sept. 3). The chain pairs Chromium JavaScript engine RCE flaws CVE-2026-85046 and CVE-2026-87491 with the Windows ALPC privilege-escalation zero-day CVE-2026-85880, enabling sandbox escape and system privileges. Delivery used phishing links installing a fake Google Gemini browser extension that surveilled browser activity and stole credentials; Proofpoint directly observed fewer than 20 organizations but expects wider proliferation as the kit spreads.

Officials disrupt Chinese espionage operation that hit multiple federal agencies

FBI and DOJ seized QTFY infrastructure, disrupting a Chinese state-sponsored group that compromised federal agencies and critical infrastructure since 2018.

Authorities seized three domains powering QScan and QTRouter, the hacking suite of QTFY, a Chinese government-funded group operating through front company Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology. Targets include the Departments of Energy, Justice, and Health and Human Services, the Federal Reserve, NASA, NIH, financial institutions, defense contractors, utilities, telecoms, and hospitals; the group exploited zero-days in Ivanti, Pulse Secure, Fortinet, Citrix, and others, intruding three DOE national labs in September 2024. QScan carried over 200 proof-of-concept exploits and processed more than two million scanning tasks in a single day in 2024.

CyberScoop · 21d agoThreat actor in the wild1

The long tail of Clop’s PTC hack is just beginning to emerge

Clop mass-exploited CVE-2026-12569 in PTC Windchill and FlexPLM in early June, claiming data theft from dozens of large organizations.

Clop began sending extortion emails in mid-July after exploiting CVE-2026-12569 in PTC Windchill and FlexPLM, likely as a zero-day in early June before PTC's June 17 disclosure and patch. Confirmed victims include Toast and Zebra, while GE, Philips and Shell are among claimed victims. CISA added the flaw, which allows unauthenticated remote code execution, to its KEV catalog on June 25. ReliaQuest said the group used a custom Windchill-specific web shell for credential theft and large-scale exfiltration, echoing its past MOVEit and Oracle E-Business Suite mass-exploitation campaigns.

CyberScoop · 28d agoThreat actor in the wildCVE-2026-125691

Details emerge on BlackFile's recent attacks on financial companies

BlackFile (UNC6671), a The Com-linked extortion crew, keeps hitting financial and med tech firms with voice-phishing IT-support scams and ~$3 million demands.

Google Threat Intelligence Group (tracking BlackFile as UNC6671, linked to The Com) reports the extortion group remains active, shifting focus to the financial sector and med tech organizations, with new Redact-brand extortion demands issued last week. The group impersonates IT support in voice-phishing attacks using hundreds of recruited callers, targets large firms in what researchers call big-game hunting, and processes an average of 1.5 new victims daily. Extortion demands start around $3 million and are typically negotiated below $1 million; Flashpoint observed infrastructure targeting Blackstone, Bain Capital, Moody's, CME, and Apollo, though compromise is unconfirmed. Mandiant has responded to more than two dozen BlackFile compromises since January, and victims face escalation tactics including swatting.

CyberScoop · Aug 17, 2026Threat actor in the wild

Researchers observe first ‘near-autonomous’ AI attack on government target in Taiwan

Dream researchers observed the first near-autonomous AI attack on a government target, with suspected Chinese hackers stealing 2,500+ Taiwan records.

Israeli firm Dream reported that suspected Chinese hackers used open-source AI models to run a near-autonomous cyberattack against Taiwan's government, extracting over 2,500 personnel records. The framework, built on Hermes and OpenClaw, adapted mid-operation without human intervention, ran autonomous 'Learning Cycles' researching applicable vulnerabilities, and expanded to supply chain vendors, a nuclear safety agency, a government email system, and seven-plus energy companies. Attackers bypassed safety guardrails by framing the work as authorized penetration testing. Dream discovered the operation via a 160MB online archive of nearly 1,400 files.

CyberScoop · Aug 12, 2026Threat actor in the wild