Search: “north-america”

Smart search ranks by meaning as well as keywords (one row per story, last 45 days).

Ransomware Threats in the Americas H1 2026: Dissecting the Regional Attack Patterns and Dominant Actors

Cyble's H1 2026 report attributes 2,188 of 3,836 global ransomware attacks (57%) to the Americas, with North America absorbing 1,981 incidents.

Cyble Research and Intelligence Labs tracked 3,836 ransomware incidents worldwide in the first half of 2026, with North and South America combining for 2,188 attacks, more than 57% of the global total. North America alone accounted for 1,981 attacks, driven by a mature multi-group Ransomware-as-a-Service economy competing for market share. The report dissects regional attack patterns and profiles the dominant ransomware actors across the two sub-regions.

Cyble·Aug 14, 14:22 UTC · Aug 14, 2026Research

42

'Lake America' makes one thing clear: We can't trust U.S. tech companies

TVO opinion analysis argues the 'Lake America' dynamic shows foreign organizations can no longer trust US tech companies.

An opinion analysis argues that US tech companies can no longer be trusted by foreign customers, coining the framing 'Lake America'. The piece reflects growing concerns around data sovereignty and dependence on US cloud and software providers. No specific incident, breach, or vulnerability is described.

Hacker News · security·Sep 8, 20:40 UTC · 8d agoIndustryHN 23↑ · 8 comments

18

A Single Canadian Tax Lure Spread into a 46-Country, US-First RMM Campaign

A phishing campaign using fake Canada Revenue Agency tax documents has expanded to 46 countries, with 45% of activity targeting the US via RMM tools.

ANY.RUN analysis traced a campaign that began with fake Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) T4 tax documents and grew into a broader remote-access operation spanning 46 countries. The United States accounts for 45% of observed activity. Attackers impersonate trusted organizations and document types to trick victims into installing remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools.

ANY.RUN·Aug 25, 10:40 UTC · 23d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

45

Grandoreiro Resurfaces in Mexico With New DLL Sideloading Campaign

Banking trojan Grandoreiro resurfaces in Mexico using DLL sideloading, now accounting for 40% of detections after its 2024 disruption.

Grandoreiro, a banking trojan disrupted in 2024, is active again with a new DLL sideloading technique. Mexico now accounts for 40% of the malware's detections. The resurgence signals renewed targeting of banking customers in Latin America.

Infosecurity Magazine·Aug 19, 14:00 UTC · 28d agoMalware

38

Trump Targets Foreign Technology in New U.S. Power Grid Security Order

Trump's Executive Order 14420 declares a national emergency to restrict foreign-made bulk-power grid equipment over cyber, sabotage and supply-chain risks.

Executive Order 14420, signed August 26, declares a national emergency regarding the foreign supply of bulk-power system electric equipment to the United States. It empowers the Energy Secretary to restrict transactions with designated Covered Foreign Entities involving equipment, software, firmware, digital services, maintenance services, and remote-access capabilities. Covered equipment includes transformers, generators, inverters, RTUs, PLCs, intelligent electronic devices, and protective relays, with transmission rated 69 kV or higher in scope while local distribution is excluded. Already-installed foreign equipment may be subject to identification, isolation, monitoring, or replacement requirements, with phased compliance and pre-qualified vendor exemptions permitted.

Security Affairs·Aug 28, 18:00 UTC · 19d agoPolicy & legal

65

US Becomes Top Target in RMM Phishing Campaign Spanning 46 Countries

ANY.RUN linked 601 RMM-tool phishing cases across 46 countries, with the US the top target at 45% of observed activity.

A phishing campaign that tricks victims into installing legitimate remote monitoring and management (RMM) software spans 46 countries, with around 45% of observed activity targeting the United States, according to ANY.RUN. Lures include Canada Revenue Agency tax forms, UPS shipping notices, Adobe PDF pages, Social Security Administration themes and invoices, delivered through rapidly rotated Vercel, GitHub Pages and Netlify infrastructure. Researchers identified 425 kit URLs across 240 hosts, 94% of which appeared for only a single day, while stable kit indicators such as font1.woff2 and the secure.html to project/*.zip chain tie the infrastructure together.

The Hacker News·Sep 3, 11:58 UTC · 13d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

55

Thomson Reuters Court Software Breach May Have Exposed SSNs and Sealed Data

Unauthorized access to Thomson Reuters' C-Track court platform may have exposed SSNs and sealed records across 11 US states, USVI, and Ontario.

Thomson Reuters' West Publishing disclosed that an unauthorized party obtained files from the C-Track court case management platform starting in March 2026, with access to one environment running from March 1 through June 29, 2026 per Montana's account. Notices name roughly 24 court bodies across 11 US states, the US Virgin Islands, and Ontario, including appellate courts in Minnesota, Ohio, Montana, and Pennsylvania. Exposed data may include names, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, dates of birth, medical and health insurance information, and confidential or sealed court records. The company is offering 12 months of Experian or TransUnion monitoring, and courts disagree over whether the vendor's backup cloud environment or the production platform was accessed.

The Hacker News·Sep 3, 14:39 UTC · 13d agoData breach in the wild

78

Hackers Use LLMs to Generate Exploit Scripts and Automate Post-Exploitation Across Latin America

Unit 42 says Latin American attackers used LLMs to automate post-exploitation in campaigns hitting Mexican government, water utilities, and Brazilian financial firms.

Unit 42 identified two campaigns in Latin America whose operators used commercial LLMs (Claude, GPT-4.1) behind a self-hosted NextChat interface to generate and debug post-exploitation scripts. Cluster CL-CRI-1131 compromised a transportation organization, Mexican federal ministries, and water utilities in Mexico and Ecuador, using native Windows tools and Volume Shadow Copies to dump the SAM registry hive and NTDS.dit. Cluster CL-CRI-1163 targeted Brazilian financial organizations with job-themed phishing, custom RATs, and a Go-based reverse SOCKS5 tunneling utility called SockTz, with nine versions deployed within roughly two hours. Trend Micro tracks related AI-augmented activity as SHADOW-AETHER-040 and SHADOW-AETHER-064.

GBHackers·Sep 10, 06:02 UTC · 7d agoThreat actor in the wild1

58

Iran-Linked Hackers Target More US Water Infrastructure in New Jersey and Alabama

Iran-linked hackers hit water utilities in New Jersey and Alabama, bringing confirmed US water-infrastructure attacks to at least 12 states.

Iran-linked hackers attacked the Cape May Sewer Department and Woodbine Water Department in New Jersey and the Childersburg Water, Sewer and Gas system in Alabama on July 27, bringing confirmed US water-sector attacks to at least 12 states since late July. The intrusions targeted internet-exposed industrial control systems, including Rockwell Automation PLCs, with roughly 12 hours of impact in New Jersey and no impact on water quality or service. The FBI confirmed seven affected states by July 30, and CISA has urged utilities to remove PLCs from direct internet exposure. New York announced more than $9 million in grants to strengthen water-sector cybersecurity.

Security Affairs·Aug 11, 16:23 UTC · Aug 11, 2026Threat actor in the wild

78

Attackers Expose Ongoing AI Tool Use Targeting Organizations in Latin America

Unit 42 documents two AI-assisted intrusion campaigns against Latin American government, utility, and financial organizations using LLM-orchestrated tooling.

Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 tracks two ongoing intrusion clusters, CL-CRI-1131 (Mexican transportation, federal ministries, municipal water utilities) and CL-CRI-1163 (Brazilian financial sector), both using living-off-the-land techniques, SOCKS5 relays, and custom RATs. The attackers appear to orchestrate operations via commercial LLMs like Claude and GPT-4.1, evidenced by iterative batch scripts and AI-generated tunneling tool naming. The Mexican campaign (also reported as Operation Escaneo by CloudSEK) exfiltrated sensitive data via dynamic-DNS infrastructure with rotated multi-SAN TLS certificates between February and June 2026. This signals broader adoption of AI-enhanced operations by diverse threat groups in the region.

Palo Alto Unit 42·Sep 3, 10:00 UTC · 14d agoThreat actor in the wild1

72