Search: “nso-group”

Nonprofit that tracks meteors taken down by "critical blow" from a cyberattack

The International Meteor Organization says a cyberattack dealt a critical blow to its infrastructure, taking much of its site offline for weeks.

The International Meteor Organization (IMO), a nonprofit coordinating amateur and professional meteor observations since 1988, reported a cyberattack that took much of its website offline. The organization expects several weeks of partial downtime while transitioning to new infrastructure and is prioritizing fireball reporting through alternate channels. The attack vector and whether any data was accessed remain undisclosed; the IMO's observation databases and WGN journal are widely used in the field.

Ars Technica · Security·Sep 16, 21:08 UTC · 7h agoData breach in the wild 2 sources

National Life Group CISO expects more vulnerabilities in six months than in thirty years

National Life Group CISO Becky Palmer says agentic AI resolves four of five SOC investigations and urges AI-speed patching practices.

In a Help Net Security interview, National Life Group CISO Becky Palmer argues frontier AI will uncover more vulnerabilities in the next six months than in the last thirty years, compressing time from disclosure to weaponized exploit from weeks to hours. She reports agentic AI in her SOC resolves 4 of 5 investigations without human escalation, saving hours daily on enrichment and summarization. She also details compensating controls such as virtual patching, least-privilege restrictions, and heightened monitoring, plus procurement questions to separate working AI products from wrappers.

Help Net Security·Sep 2, 00:00 UTC · 15d agoIndustry

Stop playing with the CISO role. Fix cybersecurity leadership

Op-ed argues the CISO role is overloaded and advocates elevating a business-first Chief Security Officer above it.

The author contends that business-alignment failures in cybersecurity are structural rather than communication problems, with CISOs expected to act simultaneously as technologists, strategists, risk executives, and board advisers. The piece proposes a distinct Chief Security Officer role focused on enterprise protection, business continuity, and cross-functional decision authority, with the CISO retaining technical cybersecurity responsibility and potentially reporting to the CSO. It argues this model would give executive ownership of business protection while preserving technical depth.

CSO Online·Sep 3, 09:00 UTC · 13d agoIndustry

North Korean IT Workers Scheme: Detection IOCs and Tactics for Government and Corporate SOCs

ANY.RUN details the expanding North Korean IT worker infiltration scheme using forged identities and AI-assisted workflows, sharing detection IOCs for SOCs.

ANY.RUN describes how North Korean IT workers infiltrate American and European organizations using forged identities and AI-assisted workflows to become trusted insiders. The operation bypasses traditional security perimeters and has expanded beyond the private sector to government targets. The post provides detection IOCs and tactics for government and corporate SOCs.

ANY.RUN·Aug 20, 07:58 UTC · 27d agoThreat actor

Cybersecurity jobs available right now: September 8, 2026

Help Net Security's September 8 job roundup lists open cybersecurity roles at AudioCodes, Garmin, Scotiabank, GDIT, Subway and others across seven countries.

The listing includes a CISO role at AudioCodes in Israel, a Combat Systems Cyber Engineer at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, cloud security engineering at Garmin, and an IAM Architect at Scotiabank. Other openings span penetration testing for NATO exercises at Spektrum in Belgium, SOC analyst at Orro Group in Australia, threat hunting at GDIT, and security operations at Subway in the USA. Roles range from CISO and architect to SOC analyst and penetration tester.

Help Net Security·Sep 8, 00:00 UTC · 9d agoIndustry

Smishing Triad Hackers Use JWR Phishing Kit to Steal Cards, OTPs and Bank Credentials

Group-IB attributes large-scale smishing using the JWR real-time phishing kit to the Smishing Triad's Outsider cluster, harvesting card data, OTPs, and bank credentials.

Group-IB attributes a large-scale SMS phishing campaign to Outsider, an operator sub-cluster within the Smishing Triad phishing-as-a-service ecosystem, using a kit dubbed JWR. The Vue 2-based platform maintains real-time WebSocket communication with operators, enabling them to adapt pages live and harvest roughly 70 PII fields, card data, PINs, OTPs, identity document images, and digital wallet credentials via a dedicated PayPal sub-funnel. Unit 42 previously tied 194,345 malicious domains across 136,933 root domains to the broader operation since January 2024. Defenders can hunt for /api/open/ endpoints, /webSocket/QT/ paths, JWR-prefixed storage artifacts, and a hard-coded WebSocket token.

GBHackers·updated Sep 16, 13:39 UTC · 15h ago·first Sep 16, 11:57 UTC · 16h agoPhishing & fraud in the wild 2 sources

NOKKI Almost Ties the Knot with DOGCALL: Reaper Group Uses New Malware to Deploy RAT

Unit 42 links NOKKI malware to North Korea's Reaper group, uncovering the Final1stspy dropper that deploys the DOGCALL RAT in politically motivated attacks.

Unit 42 analyzed the NOKKI malware family used in politically themed attacks against Russian and Cambodian speakers since July 2018. The researchers linked NOKKI to the Reaper group, publicly attributed to North Korea, whose custom DOGCALL RAT uses third-party hosting services to upload data and receive commands. A previously unreported family, Final1stspy, was found deploying DOGCALL, sharing a unique base64-to-hex deobfuscation routine with NOKKI droppers. Attacks used malicious Microsoft Word macros that download and execute payloads while opening decoy documents.

Palo Alto Unit 42·Aug 17, 12:23 UTC · Aug 17, 2026Malware

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·Sep 3, 15:25 UTC · 13d agoThreat actor in the wild

Operationalize CTEM with NodeZero®

Horizon3.ai publishes a factsheet on operationalizing Continuous Threat Exposure Management with NodeZero and its CTEM Operating Loop.

Horizon3.ai released a factsheet describing how its CTEM Operating Loop and NodeZero platform turn Continuous Threat Exposure Management into a repeatable process. The workflow covers discovering, validating, prioritizing, remediating, and verifying exploitable exposures. The item is vendor marketing material rather than new vulnerability disclosure or threat intelligence.

Horizon3.ai·Aug 24, 18:19 UTC · 23d agoTools

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·Sep 3, 20:17 UTC · 13d agoThreat actor in the wild

Patch Tuesday to Pentest Wednesday: How an Equipment Rental Company Is Turning Continuous Testing Into Continuous Exposure Management

An equipment rental company uses Horizon3 NodeZero for continuous exposure management, surfacing an SSH key exposure in eight hours versus annual pentesting.

The company moved from periodic penetration testing to continuous exposure management using the NodeZero Proactive Security Platform, feeding telemetry into a Splunk-based CTEM pipeline via Horizon3 APIs. NodeZero exposed SSH RSA key pairs from a PHP web server change about eight hours after introduction and found more findings in 12 hours than a third-party engagement found in roughly 30 days. An Active Directory password audit of 15,000 passwords found about 300 identical or similar compromised passwords, driving a banned-password list, 12-character minimums, service desk changes, and self-service reset rollout; users with similar passwords later dropped from 880 to 209. NodeZero also validated a suspected Cisco vulnerability as exploitable.

Horizon3.ai·Sep 9, 15:58 UTC · 7d agoIndustry

Cybersecurity jobs available right now: April 28, 2026

Help Net Security·Aug 6, 12:15 UTC · Aug 6, 2026Vulnerability

Cyber Op Targets South Korean Media & Automotive Sectors

Likely North Korean APT compromised load balancers at South Korean media and automotive firms using a previously undocumented Linux espionage toolkit.

A cyber operation attributed to a likely North Korean APT group targeted South Korean media and automotive sectors. The attackers deployed a previously undocumented Linux espionage toolkit to compromise load balancers, gaining access to communications and enabling further network exploitation. Specific victims, toolkit names, and indicators of compromise were not disclosed in the report summary.

Dark Reading·Sep 16, 01:00 UTC · 1d agoThreat actor in the wild

Researching Employment Scams

Schneier highlights research into North Korean fake-employment IT-worker scams that embed operatives in remote roles for long-term insider access.

The post discusses research into employment scams in which fabricated remote workers, associated with North Korean IT-worker schemes, embed in organizations for months or years to exfiltrate data or position for financial theft. Researchers used controlled sandbox environments to observe operatives syncing personal accounts and working under false identities. Commenters also note reverse scams targeting desperate job seekers through high-pressure MLM and door-to-door sales schemes.

Schneier on Security·Sep 3, 11:18 UTC · 13d agoPhishing & fraud

C2Looper: A New Backdoor Likely Tied To Ransomware With GitHub C2

Zscaler ThreatLabz identified C2Looper, a new Rust-based backdoor likely tied to ransomware actors and delivered via ClickFix chains, using GitHub for C2.

In July 2026, Zscaler ThreatLabz identified C2Looper, a new Rust-based backdoor family. The malware supports arbitrary command execution, reconnaissance, and deployment of second-stage payloads, and uses GitHub as its command-and-control channel. ThreatLabz assesses with low-to-medium confidence that it is delivered through multi-stage ClickFix infection chains and is likely leveraged by a ransomware-related threat actor. The analysis covers multiple C2Looper variants, their network protocols, and capabilities.

Zscaler ThreatLabz·Aug 17, 14:06 UTC · Aug 17, 2026Malware in the wild1

The Collective Cyber Defense letter wrote your next vendor questionnaire

Op-ed argues the 200-company Collective Cyber Defense letter's three endorsed metrics should become standard vendor procurement questions.

More than 200 companies including Microsoft, Google, AWS, CrowdStrike, Anthropic and Okta signed an August 27 open letter calling for faster cyber defenses against AI-enabled attacks. The letter endorses three measurable metrics: coverage, containment speed, and verified remediation. The author turns those into five concrete procurement questions buyers should pose at vendor renewals, while noting the letter contains no deadlines, dollar figures or measurable targets.

CyberScoop·Sep 1, 10:00 UTC · 15d agoIndustry

I've factored the RSA keys of a Certificate Authority from the 90s

Security researcher factored two 512-bit RSA root CA keys from defunct 1990s certificate authority E-Certify using CADO-NFS on a desktop in roughly 30 hours each.

A researcher extracted legacy root certificates from archived Netscape and Internet Explorer installers, identifying two 512-bit RSA roots shipped with Netscape 4.51 in 1999 by the defunct Canadian CA E-Certify. Using CADO-NFS on a Ryzen 9 5950X desktop, the keys were factored in 32 and 29 hours respectively, allowing private key reconstruction. The work comes shortly after RSA-260 (862-bit) was factored, the largest known factorization to date. The researcher also built a legacy TLS server and published keys and tools on GitHub.

Hacker News · security·Sep 8, 01:16 UTC · 9d agoResearchHN 411↑ · 86 comments

ICO Reprimands Criminal Records Office After 2023 Breach

The UK ICO formally reprimanded ACRO Criminal Records Office over a 2023 breach caused by patching and security monitoring failures.

The UK Information Commissioner's Office issued a formal reprimand to ACRO Criminal Records Office following a breach in 2023. The regulator found failures in patching and security monitoring contributed to the incident. The action underscores regulator expectations for timely patching and monitoring at data-holding organizations.

Infosecurity Magazine·Aug 13, 08:30 UTC · Aug 13, 2026Policy & legal

Red Flags That Expose Fake North Korean IT Workers

Researchers outline red flags for spotting North Korean operatives posing as remote IT workers as their tactics improve.

Dark Reading describes indicators that help organizations identify North Korean operatives working undercover as IT workers. Researchers say these operatives are improving their tactics, but detection methods still exist. Catching them early helps employers avoid infiltration, data theft, and damage.

Dark Reading·Aug 26, 19:21 UTC · 21d agoPhishing & fraud

Hackers Frequently Target Healthcare and Finance Orgs

A new Huntress survey indicates threat actors frequently target healthcare organizations and banks because of the highly personal data they hold.

Huntress published survey findings indicating that healthcare organizations and banks are frequent targets for threat actors. The piece attributes this to the highly personal information these sectors handle. The article is framed around cyberattack readiness rather than a specific incident.

Huntress·Sep 1, 14:00 UTC · 15d agoIndustry

Proofpoint Strengthens Executive Leadership Team with Appointment of Chief Legal Officer and Chief People Officer

Proofpoint appointed Brian Levey as Chief Legal Officer and Puja Jaspal as Chief People Officer, strengthening its executive leadership team.

Proofpoint announced on September 8, 2026 the appointments of Brian Levey as Chief Legal Officer and Puja Jaspal as Chief People Officer. Levey previously served as Chief Business Affairs & Chief Legal Officer at Upwork and spent 13 years at eBay; Jaspal was Chief People Officer at Fastly with prior senior roles at Cisco, Visa, and Google. The hires support Proofpoint's stated expansion around human and AI-agent security.

Proofpoint Threat Insight·Sep 8, 09:30 UTC · 8d agoIndustry

How to build an exposure management program the business trusts: Lessons from Tenable’s CSO

Tenable's CSO describes an AI-driven exposure management program that consolidates tool sprawl and translates cyber risk for boards.

A Tenable blog post shares lessons from CSO Robert Huber on moving to an AI-driven exposure management program. It argues tool sprawl and data silos hinder holistic risk assessment and that exposure management unifies attack-surface data into business-level metrics for the C-suite.

Tenable Blog·Aug 27, 14:30 UTC · 20d agoIndustry

Shattering the Dream – When a Job Offer Becomes a Zero-Day Attack

Check Point details an Operation Dream Job wave using trojanized PDF viewers to hit defense, aerospace, and aviation targets since early 2026.

Since early 2026, Check Point Research has tracked a wave of the Operation Dream Job campaign primarily targeting the global defense sector, with emphasis on aerospace and aviation companies. The threat actor distributes modified PDF viewers that execute malicious payloads embedded in specially crafted files, delivered under fake job-offer pretexts. Check Point characterizes the operation as a zero-day attack.

Check Point Research·Aug 11, 17:30 UTC · Aug 11, 2026Threat actor in the wild

Welsh environment regulator's FoI blunder exposes diversity data of 2,000 staff

Natural Resources Wales inadvertently exposed diversity data of about 2,000 current and former staff via a 2021 Freedom of Information spreadsheet published online.

Natural Resources Wales confirmed equality monitoring data of roughly 2,000 employees who worked between April 2013 and March 2018 was inadvertently disclosed in a spreadsheet released in 2021 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The data may have included ethnicity, disability status, religion or belief, sexual orientation, Welsh language ability, and caring responsibilities — special category data under UK GDPR. The breach was reported to the Information Commissioner's Office, the data was removed and permanently deleted, and NRW says it has found no evidence of misuse. The issue was discovered only after a member of the public alerted the regulator on 23 August 2026.

The Register · Security·Sep 7, 11:04 UTC · 9d agoData breach