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Srsly Risky Biz: Data Theft Extortion Is Booming! Hooray!
Google's Threat Intelligence Group reports data theft extortion is surging, with Silent Ransom extracting $10M and $18M from two law firms and BlackFile taking $10M.
Risky Business News, citing Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG), reports that cybercriminals are shifting from encrypting ransomware to data theft extortion. Law firms Goodwin Procter and WilmerHale paid Silent Ransom (Luna Moth) ransoms of $10 million and $18 million respectively; GTIG says the group often completes contact-to-extortion in a single day, now sometimes compromising systems in person posing as IT staff. BlackFile, now calling itself Redact, used high-volume vishing to steal credentials and pivot through OneDrive, SharePoint and other SaaS apps, collecting more than $10 million between February and mid-May with an average ransom of $750,000, including attempted attacks on Wall Street hedge funds and private equity firms. The piece argues governments should keep pressure on encrypting ransomware gangs while lower-impact extortion absorbs criminal energy.
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China's AI-Enabled APT Operations Are Getting Interesting
Bitdefender links seven RAT families, five previously undocumented, to China-nexus espionage actor SilkParasite using AI-assisted malware development against Central Asian governments.
A Bitdefender report attributes seven remote access tool families to a single actor dubbed SilkParasite, with medium confidence a China-nexus group targeting governments in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. The RATs are written in .NET, C++, Go and JavaScript, use C2 via Google Drive and protocols like HTTP, DNS and TCP, and employ modular plugin architectures with regular rotation of infrastructure, encryption material and persistence artifacts. Evidence of AI-assisted development includes leftover test functions, placeholder encryption keys, and GoginRAT and NomadRAT sharing a high-level architecture despite different languages, suggesting a specification implemented twice with AI. The newsletter also covers the US Operation Economic Outcast sanctioning six MOIS-linked Iranian hackers, including hands-on-keyboard operators who targeted US critical infrastructure.
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Hackers Are Hiding Espionage Infrastructure Inside Ordinary-Looking Casino Websites
Infoblox links China-aligned APT PeckBirdy C2 infrastructure hidden in casino and adult websites targeting Asian government, finance, IT, and education sectors.
Infoblox researchers report that China-aligned APT groups have used casino and adult websites as cover for PeckBirdy, a JavaScript command-and-control framework active since 2023. The sites embed C2 servers, register service workers for persistence, and serve fake browser-update prompts delivering backdoors capable of running commands, stealing credentials, and providing remote access. Targeted sectors across Asia include education, IT, banking, financial services, and government. Just over 3% of Infoblox enterprise customers resolved at least one PeckBirdy C2 domain, with detection coverage on VirusTotal ranging from 13 detections to none.
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NCSC and Allies Warn of Iranian Spyware Campaign
NCSC, FBI and AIVD warn Iranian-backed actors deliver Chosen Brick spyware to regime critics via social engineering; stolen data has surfaced on pro-Iranian leak sites.
NCSC, the FBI and the Netherlands' AIVD published a joint advisory warning that a Tehran-backed campaign, active since at least 2025, targets dissidents, activists and journalists with Chosen Brick spyware. The malware persists via Windows registry keys, adds Microsoft Defender exclusions, uses Telegram for C2, and captures screens, audio, emails and Telegram or WhatsApp messages. Stolen data has surfaced on pro-Iranian leak sites in some cases, raising risks to victims' personal safety.
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Low-quality casino sites conceal highly dangerous threat actors
Infoblox reveals China-aligned APT groups hiding PeckBirdy malware C2 domains inside roughly 1.7 million Chinese-language illegal casino websites.
An Infoblox report says it tracks about 1.7 million Chinese-language casino sites enabling illegal gambling, some of which double as command-and-control infrastructure. China-aligned APT groups have hidden PeckBirdy framework C2 domains inside these low-quality casino sites since 2023, injecting scripts that display fake software update pages to deliver malware. Over 3 percent of Infoblox enterprise customers resolved at least one PeckBirdy C2 domain, and some sites rely on US cloud providers via 'infrastructure laundering.' Infoblox urges defenders not to dismiss casino-domain alerts as mere employee browsing violations.
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Thai Broadband Provider Hacked via Fortinet Vulnerability
Hackers exploited Fortinet CVE-2024-21762 RCE to breach Thai broadband provider 3BB, deploying MeshCentral backdoors and credential-harvesting tools across its network.
Hunt.io uncovered an intrusion staging directory in Thailand containing 298 files of custom tooling built for Triple T Broadband (3BB) and its former owner Jasmine. Initial access came via fingerprinting a FortiGate SSL-VPN appliance and exploiting CVE-2024-21762 for remote code execution, after probing CVE-2018-13379, CVE-2022-42475, and CVE-2023-27997. The actor also probed F5 BIG-IP for CVE-2021-22986, CVE-2022-1388, and CVE-2023-46747, escalated privileges with PwnKit and Dirty COW, used MeshCentral as a C2 backdoor, harvested SSH/database/SNMP/Radius credentials, deployed PHP web shells, and ran cleanup scripts to hide the intrusion.
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Pro-Ukraine Hacking Cat group deploying new malware against Russian targets
Kaspersky links pro-Ukraine hacktivist group Hacking Cat to Gorilla RAT and Monkey Ransomware in destructive attacks on Russian targets.
Kaspersky reports that pro-Ukraine group Hacking Cat, active since February 2024, has shifted from defacements to destructive encryption attacks, using a previously undocumented Gorilla RAT remote-access tool and Monkey Ransomware, which appends the .monkey extension to files. Initial access in some attacks came from exploited Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities, and rapid multi-language malware variants suggest possible generative AI assistance. Shared tools like Nemo Wiper across groups including Ukrainian Cyber Alliance complicate attribution, and targets include Rosatom contractor and heating provider Donbassteploenergo.
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AI Coding Tools Now a Prime Target for Threat Actors, Google Warns
Google Threat Intelligence Group warns threat actors increasingly target AI coding tools and proprietary AI data, with UNC6780's Dustmaker enabling large-scale supply chain compromises.
Google Threat Intelligence Group's September 8 report says AI-assisted coding tools have become prime targets, contributing to large-scale software supply chain compromises in 2025 and early 2026. Financially motivated group UNC6780 used its Dustmaker credential stealer to extract tokens from GitHub Actions runner memory and compromise packages across PyPI, npm, and Docker Hub, then sold harvested AI tool credentials to other criminals. Chinese nation-state actor UNC6508 conducted espionage against proprietary AI research at North American academic, medical, and military institutions, while extortion gangs stole models, prompts, and source code in Q2 2026. GTIG also documented agentic attacker experimentation, including an autonomous multi-agent credential harvesting campaign built in under six hours and a 'Recon' C2 framework managing over 23,800 harvested secrets.
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North Korean Hackers Deploy New Linux Espionage Toolkit
Rapid7 says North Korea-aligned actors use a new Linux espionage toolkit (ted HAProxy backdoor, CurlRAT) against South Korean automotive and media targets.
Rapid7 reports a stealthy Linux framework comprising a custom HAProxy backdoor ('ted'), trojanized system binaries (agetty, atd, crond, polkitd, sshd), an SSH keylogger, and CurlRAT that polls C&C every 12 hours. Initial access came via a Groupware login portal flaw, with credential harvesting enabling lateral movement to internal systems. The toolkit supports long-term surveillance, HTTP traffic interception/injection, and drive-by downloads, likely in use since late 2024. Infrastructure and artifacts overlap Operation SyncHole, suggesting Lazarus or APT37 involvement.
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Srsly Risky Biz: China's Private Sector Botnets Are Worth Disrupting
DoJ seized domains of Chinese espionage botnet platforms QScan and QTRouter, run by private firm QTFY for MSS and PLA targeting.
The US Department of Justice disrupted QScan, a distributed vulnerability scanning system with nearly a decade of internet scanning data, and QTRouter, a covert communications platform routing traffic through compromised IoT devices, operated by QTFY under Chinese company Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology. FBI and NSA advisories say QTFY customers include China's Ministry of State Security and the People's Liberation Army, targeting federal agencies, the US Senate, hospitals, telecoms and financial institutions. This is the third Chinese state-backed botnet disrupted since December 2023, following the KV botnet (Volt Typhoon) and Raptor Train (Flax Typhoon), and a sister network, JDY, has more than doubled since the KV disruption. Separately, the Qilin ransomware group claimed a breach of the ATF's CALEA system, briefly publishing 6.3 GB of case folders and forensic data.
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