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Slovakia Warns of Cyber Risks in Road Speed Cameras
Slovakia's NBÚ warns that speed camera systems from SODASUS, Simicon and NEROline pose cyber risks including undocumented remote access.
Slovakia's National Security Authority (NBÚ) warned of a significant cyber threat tied to several road speed camera products: NERO R-ONE units sold by Cyprus-based SODASUS, and Cordon-series cameras made by Russia's Simicon and sold by Croatia's NEROline. A security analysis requested by the Interior Ministry found weak protections, mismatches between documented and actual communication settings and software versions, unclear hardware/software provenance, and pre-configured remote-access mechanisms outside operator control. NBÚ warned that compromised cameras could expose vehicle and licence-plate data, tamper with records, or serve as a foothold into public-sector networks lacking segmentation. The Interior Ministry reportedly removed the units from its pilot deployment and asked the supplier to replace them with equipment meeting Slovak and EU security requirements.
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Risky Bulletin: Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras
Slovakia's NBU found an SMS-triggered backdoor in Russian-made NERO R-ONE traffic cameras, pausing a 279-unit deployment.
Slovakia's national security service NBU issued an alert against NERO R-ONE high-speed traffic cameras after finding a backdoor that grants shell and network access via SMS from hardcoded Russian phone numbers. The cameras are a rebranded version of the Russian CORDON PRO.M model by St. Petersburg firm Semicon, purchased via a Cyprus shell company under a €30 million EU-funded project. The report also found SecureBoot disabled, vulnerable web management, and unauthenticated live streams; the Interior Ministry paused deployment of 279 cameras pending independent assessment.
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New Android malware relays bank cards to fraudsters while victims still hold them
Group-IB discovered WindRelay Android malware that streams NFC card data in real time, paired with SpyNote RAT, targeting Czechia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
Group-IB identified WindRelay, an Android malware that uses NFC to communicate with victims' payment cards and relays the exchange live to attacker-controlled terminals. Fraudsters impersonate bank staff by phone, trick victims into installing a personalized SpyNote RAT, then silently deploy WindRelay to cash out using the victim-entered PIN. Researchers traced 23 samples on VirusTotal from November 2025 to July 2026, four C2 IPs, and campaigns against Czechia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. No affected apps were found on Google Play, and Google Play Protect detects known versions.
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Srsly Risky Biz: Trump's Private Hacker Memo Is the Right Idea
A Trump presidential memo directs DHS to authorize vetted private-sector hackers to conduct cyber operations against foreign cybercriminal groups (CE-TCOs).
A presidential memorandum directs the Department of Homeland Security to establish a program authorizing private companies to conduct cyber surveillance and cyber effects operations against Cyber-Enabled Transnational Crime Organisations (CE-TCOs). Participating companies must pass vetting, obtain government approval before operations, and post a USD $1 million bond. The accompanying fact sheet cites more than USD $20.8 billion in US losses to cyber-enabled crime in 2025. Critics worry about accidental escalation if operations touch foreign government systems.
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WindRelay Android Malware Turns Victims' Phones Into NFC Relays for Payment Fraud
Group-IB details WindRelay, a new Android NFC relay malware paired with SpyNote RAT to relay card data live for contactless payment fraud and loans.
Group-IB identified WindRelay, a previously unseen Android near-field-communication relay malware first seen in the wild in late August 2025, deployed alongside the SpyNote RAT in a contactless payment fraud scheme. Victims are lured via personalized phishing, smishing, or vishing into sideloading an app; SpyNote's Accessibility access silently installs WindRelay, whose reader component captures live EMV APDU card data over NFC and relays it via WebSocket C2 to an emulator component at a payment terminal. The scheme enables dual monetization: RAT-driven remote access to take out digital loans and NFC relay for physical card-present cashouts, known as Ghost Tap. Twenty-three WindRelay samples uploaded to VirusTotal between November 2025 and July 2026 impersonate financial institutions in Czechia, Slovakia, and Slovenia, with the technique also spreading to Brazil and Poland.
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EU chief wants joint response to cyberattacks, sabotage
EU Commission President von der Leyen proposed an Emergency Security Protocol letting any member state convene joint responses to cyberattacks and sabotage.
In her State of the Union address, Ursula von der Leyen proposed an Emergency Security Protocol, modeled on NATO Article 4, allowing a single EU member state to summon all 27 governments to coordinate responses to cyberattacks, sabotage, arson, and drone incursions. The proposal is part of a broader European security strategy that includes a European Security Council with partners such as the UK, Canada, Norway, and Ukraine, plus a European Instrument for Strategic Enablers supporting cyber and defense capabilities. She cited rising incidents in Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, and an attempted drone attack in Leipzig, but did not specify whether unanimous decision-making rules would change.
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Zombie Card Attack Can Revive Expired Visa Cards for Contactless Payments
UMass Amherst researchers demonstrate Zombie Card, an NFC relay attack that revives expired Visa contactless cards for in-store purchases without breaking cryptography.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst presented the Zombie Card attack at USENIX Security 2026, showing that Visa's Kernel 3 does not cryptographically bind the Application Expiration Date (tag 5F24) the terminal reads with the Track 2 expiry seen by the issuer. By positioning an NFC man-in-the-middle relay, an attacker can rewrite the terminal-facing expiration date of an expired card and complete contactless purchases, provided the account remains open under the same PAN and the bank does not independently re-check expiry. Testing across five major US banks found three distinct policies; Visa Kernel 3 accepted the modified date, while Mastercard, American Express, and Discover kernels declined modified transactions. Findings were disclosed to Visa and affected banks in May 2025, no CVE has been assigned, and no exploitation has been reported.
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Automatically Detecting DNS Hijacking in Passive DNS
Unit 42's machine learning pipeline detected 6,729 DNS hijacking events between March and September 2024, hitting political parties, ISPs, and universities.
Unit 42 processes roughly 167 million new DNS records daily and applies a machine learning model using 74 features over 169 TB of passive DNS and geolocation data to flag hijacked domains. From March to September 2024 the pipeline screened over 29 billion records and classified 6,729 as DNS hijacking, averaging 38 detections per day; a new model detects hijacks in customer traffic within about 10 minutes. Notable cases include a Hungarian political party's hijacked domain, defacement of a large utility company and ISP, and university and research center domains repurposed for illicit gambling. DNS hijacking typically relies on stolen registrar or DNS provider credentials or cache poisoning, enabling MitM attacks, phishing, drive-by downloads, and scams.
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