Information

Who Operates the Badbox 2.0 Botnet?

The cybercriminals in control of Kimwolf — a disruptive botnet that has infected more than 2 million devices — recently shared a screenshot indicating they’d compromised the control panel for Badbox 2.0, a vast China-based botnet powered by malicious software that comes pre-installed on many Android TV streaming boxes. Both the FBI and Google say they are hunting for the people behind Badbox 2.0, and thanks to bragging by the Kimwolf botmasters we may now…

Read More

ESET Research: Sandworm behind cyberattack on Poland’s power grid in late 2025

ESET Research The attack involved data-wiping malware that ESET researchers have now analyzed and named DynoWiper ESET Research 23 Jan 2026  •  , 1 min. read In late 2025, Poland’s energy system faced what has been described as the “largest cyberattack” targeting the country in years. ESET Research has now found that the attack was the work of the notorious Russia-aligned APT group Sandworm. “Based on our analysis of the malware and associated TTPs, we attribute the…

Read More

Children and chatbots: What parents should know

Kids Online As children turn to AI chatbots for answers, advice, and companionship, questions emerge about their safety, privacy, and emotional development Phil Muncaster 23 Jan 2026  •  , 4 min. read AI chatbots have become a big part of all of our lives since they burst onto the scene more than three years ago. ChatGPT, for example, says it has around 700 million weekly active users, many of whom are “young people.” A UK…

Read More

Common Apple Pay scams, and how to stay safe

Here’s how the most common scams targeting Apple Pay users work and what you can do to stay one step ahead Phil Muncaster 22 Jan 2026  •  , 6 min. read Apple Pay is clearly a hit with consumers. According to estimates, it had hundreds of millions of global users and processed trillions of payments in 2025 alone. But where there is money to be made, scammers will not be far behind. Apple is well…

Read More

Under Armour Looking Into Data Breach Affecting Customers’ Email Addresses

Clothing retailer Under Armour is investigating a recent data breach that purloined customers’ email addresses and other personal information, but so far there are no signs the hackers stole any passwords or financial information. The breach is believed to have happened late last year, and affected 72 million email addresses, according to information cited by the cybersecurity website Have I Been Pwned. Some of the records taken also included personal information that included names, genders,…

Read More

Old habits die hard: 2025’s most common passwords were as predictable as ever

Digital Security Once again, data shows an uncomfortable truth: the habit of choosing eminently hackable passwords is alive and well Christian Ali Bravo 20 Jan 2026  •  , 3 min. read ‘123456’ continues to reign supreme as the most commonly-used password among people across the world, according to two reports, from NordPass and Comparitech, respectively. A full 25 percent of the top 1,000 most-used passwords are made up of nothing but numerals. In addition, ‘123456’…

Read More

Kimwolf Botnet Lurking in Corporate, Govt. Networks

A new Internet-of-Things (IoT) botnet called Kimwolf has spread to more than 2 million devices, forcing infected systems to participate in massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and to relay other malicious and abusive Internet traffic. Kimwolf’s ability to scan the local networks of compromised systems for other IoT devices to infect makes it a sobering threat to organizations, and new research reveals Kimwolf is surprisingly prevalent in government and corporate networks. Image: Shutterstock, @Elzicon. Kimwolf…

Read More

Why LinkedIn is a hunting ground for threat actors – and how to protect yourself

Social Media The business social networking site is a vast, publicly accessible database of corporate information. Don’t believe everyone on the site is who they say they are. Phil Muncaster 16 Jan 2026  •  , 4 min. read In November, Britain’s Security Service began notifying members of parliament (MPs) and their staff of an audacious foreign intelligence-gathering scheme. It claimed two profiles on LinkedIn were approaching individuals working in British politics in order to solicit…

Read More

Is it time for internet services to adopt identity verification?

Social Media Should verified identities become the standard online? Australia’s social media ban for under-16s shows why the question matters. Tony Anscombe 14 Jan 2026  •  , 5 min. read New legislation in Australia makes it illegal for those under 16 to have a social media account. To avoid financial penalties, social media companies have scrambled to remove accounts they believe breach the legislation. Notably, there are no consequences for the under-16s who attempt to…

Read More

Investor Lawsuit Over CrowdStrike Outage Dismissed

A federal judge in Austin, Texas, has dismissed a major securities class action lawsuit against CrowdStrike over the highly disruptive outage caused by a software update in July 2024. Millions of Windows devices worldwide crashed after the cybersecurity giant pushed an insufficiently tested update to endpoints running its software. The incident led to severe disruptions at airports, banks, media outlets, and hospitals. Just days after the incident, CrowdStrike investors announced plans to file a securities…

Read More