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28 Aug

First known AI-powered ransomware uncovered by ESET Research

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ESET Research The discovery of PromptLock shows how malicious use of AI models could supercharge ransomware and other threats 26 Aug 2025  •  , 2 min. read ESET researchers have discovered what they called “the first known AI-powered ransomware”. The malware, which ESET has named PromptLock, has the ability to exfiltrate, encrypt and possibly even destroy data, though this last functionality appears not to have been implemented in the malware yet. While PromptLock was not…

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26 Aug

DSLRoot, Proxies, and the Threat of ‘Legal Botnets’

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The cybersecurity community on Reddit responded in disbelief this month when a self-described Air National Guard member with top secret security clearance began questioning the arrangement they’d made with company called DSLRoot, which was paying $250 a month to plug a pair of laptops into the Redditor’s high-speed Internet connection in the United States. This post examines the history and provenance of DSLRoot, one of the oldest “residential proxy” networks with origins in Russia and…

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22 Aug

Investors beware: AI-powered financial scams swamp social media

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Can you tell the difference between legitimate marketing and deepfake scam ads? It’s not always as easy as you may think. Phil Muncaster 18 Aug 2025  •  , 4 min. read As economic uncertainty and persistent inflation are eroding our pay checks and imperilling our pensions, it’s not surprising that many of us are looking to make our money go a bit further. Unfortunately, scammers are preying on this need with increasingly sophisticated schemes on…

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22 Aug

The need for speed: Why organizations are turning to rapid, trustworthy MDR

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Business Security How top-tier managed detection and response (MDR) can help organizations stay ahead of increasingly agile and determined adversaries Phil Muncaster 19 Aug 2025  •  , 5 min. read How long does it take for threat actors to move from initial access to lateral movement? Days? Hours? Unfortunately, the answer for many organizations is increasingly “minutes.” In fact, at 48 minutes, the average breakout time in 2024 was 22% shorter than the previous year,…

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22 Aug

“What happens online stays online” and other cyberbullying myths, debunked

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Kids Online Separating truth from fiction is the first step towards making better parenting decisions. Let’s puncture some of the most common misconceptions about online harassment. Phil Muncaster 21 Aug 2025  •  , 5 min. read Cyberbullying, unfortunately, is on the rise. Data from the Cyberbullying Research Center reveals that just over 58% of middle- and high-school students in the US have experienced online harassment of some sort in their lives. That’s compared to 37%…

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20 Aug

SIM-Swapper, Scattered Spider Hacker Gets 10 Years

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A 20-year-old Florida man at the center of a prolific cybercrime group known as “Scattered Spider” was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison today, and ordered to pay roughly $13 million in restitution to victims. Noah Michael Urban of Palm Coast, Fla. pleaded guilty in April 2025 to charges of wire fraud and conspiracy. Florida prosecutors alleged Urban conspired with others to steal at least $800,000 from five victims via SIM-swapping attacks that diverted…

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19 Aug

Oregon Man Charged in ‘Rapper Bot’ DDoS Service

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A 22-year-old Oregon man has been arrested on suspicion of operating “Rapper Bot,” a massive botnet used to power a service for launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against targets — including a March 2025 DDoS that knocked Twitter/X offline. The Justice Department asserts the suspect and an unidentified co-conspirator rented out the botnet to online extortionists, and tried to stay off the radar of law enforcement by ensuring that their botnet was never pointed at…

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15 Aug

Mobile Phishers Target Brokerage Accounts in ‘Ramp and Dump’ Cashout Scheme

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Cybercriminal groups peddling sophisticated phishing kits that convert stolen card data into mobile wallets have recently shifted their focus to targeting customers of brokerage services, new research shows. Undeterred by security controls at these trading platforms that block users from wiring funds directly out of accounts, the phishers have pivoted to using multiple compromised brokerage accounts in unison to manipulate the prices of foreign stocks. Image: Shutterstock, WhataWin. This so-called ‘ramp and dump‘ scheme borrows…

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14 Aug

Vulnerabilities in Xerox Print Orchestration Product Allow Remote Code Execution

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Two serious vulnerabilities were patched recently by Xerox in its FreeFlow Core print orchestration platform.  According to pentesting company Horizon3, whose researchers discovered the flaws, FreeFlow Core is affected by an XXE injection flaw (CVE-2025-8355) and a path traversal issue (CVE-2025-8356). The researchers discovered that the vulnerabilities could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on affected FreeFlow Core instances. The potential impact has been demonstrated with an exploit that placed a webshell…

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14 Aug

How the always-on generation can level up its cybersecurity game

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Kids Online Digital natives are comfortable with technology, but may be more exposed to online scams and other threats than they think Phil Muncaster 12 Aug 2025  •  , 5 min. read It’s International Youth Day on August 12, a moment to celebrate the contribution of young people to society. A big part of this contribution is digital, according to the United Nations, which also notes that “young people are leading the charge in digital…

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