TECHZONE™

Security Tools Alone Don't Protect You — Control Effectiveness Does https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/security-tools-alone-dont-protect-you.html 61% of security leaders reported suffering a breach due to failed or misconfigured controls over the past 12 months. This is despite having an average of 43 cybersecurity tools in place. This massive rate of security failure is clearly not a security investment problem. It is a configuration problem. Organizations are beginning to understand that a security control installed or deployed is not

SonicWall Patches 3 Flaws in SMA 100 Devices Allowing Attackers to Run Code as Root https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/sonicwall-patches-3-flaws-in-sma-100.html SonicWall has released patches to address three security flaws affecting SMA 100 Secure Mobile Access (SMA) appliances that could be fashioned to result in remote code execution. The vulnerabilities are listed below - CVE-2025-32819 (CVSS score: 8.8) - A vulnerability in SMA100 allows a remote authenticated attacker with SSL-VPN user privileges to bypass the path traversal checks and delete an

Qilin Ransomware Ranked Highest in April 2025 with Over 45 Data Leak Disclosures https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/qilin-leads-april-2025-ransomware-spike.html Threat actors with ties to the Qilin ransomware family have leveraged malware known as SmokeLoader along with a previously undocumented .NET compiled loader codenamed NETXLOADER as part of a campaign observed in November 2024. "NETXLOADER is a new .NET-based loader that plays a critical role in cyber attacks," Trend Micro researchers Jacob Santos, Raymart Yambot, John Rainier Navato, Sarah Pearl

MirrorFace Targets Japan and Taiwan with ROAMINGMOUSE and Upgraded ANEL Malware https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/mirrorface-targets-japan-and-taiwan.html The nation-state threat actor known as MirrorFace has been observed deploying malware dubbed ROAMINGMOUSE as part of a cyber espionage campaign directed against government agencies and public institutions in Japan and Taiwan. The activity, detected by Trend Micro in March 2025, involved the use of spear-phishing lures to deliver an updated version of a backdoor called ANEL. "The ANEL file from

Beware of phone scams demanding money for ‘missed jury duty’ https://www.welivesecurity.com/en/scams/phone-scams-demanding-money-missed-jury-duty/ When we get the call, it’s our legal responsibility to attend jury service. But sometimes that call won’t come from the courts – it will be a scammer.

Russian Hackers Using ClickFix Fake CAPTCHA to Deploy New LOSTKEYS Malware https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/russian-hackers-using-clickfix-fake.html The Russia-linked threat actor known as COLDRIVER has been observed distributing a new malware called LOSTKEYS as part of an espionage-focused campaign using ClickFix-like social engineering lures. "LOSTKEYS is capable of stealing files from a hard-coded list of extensions and directories, along with sending system information and running processes to the attacker," the Google Threat

Cisco Patches CVE-2025-20188 (10.0 CVSS) in IOS XE That Enables Root Exploits via JWT https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/cisco-patches-cve-2025-20188-100-cvss.html Cisco has released software fixes to address a maximum-severity security flaw in its IOS XE Wireless Controller that could enable an unauthenticated, remote attacker to upload arbitrary files to a susceptible system. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-20188, has been rated 10.0 on the CVSS scoring system. "This vulnerability is due to the presence of a hard-coded JSON Web Token (JWT) on an

Europol Shuts Down Six DDoS-for-Hire Services Used in Global Attacks https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/europol-shuts-down-six-ddos-for-hire.html Europol has announced the takedown of distributed denial of service (DDoS)-for-hire services that were used to launch thousands of cyber-attacks across the world. In connection with the operation, Polish authorities have arrested four individuals and the United States has seized nine domains that are associated with the now-defunct platforms. "The suspects are believed to be behind six separate

OttoKit WordPress Plugin with 100K+ Installs Hit by Exploits Targeting Multiple Flaws https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/ottokit-wordpress-plugin-with-100k.html A second security flaw impacting the OttoKit (formerly SureTriggers) WordPress plugin has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-27007 (CVSS score: 9.8), is a privilege escalation bug impacting all versions of the plugin prior to and including version 1.0.82.  "This is due to the create_wp_connection() function missing a capability check and

SysAid Patches 4 Critical Flaws Enabling Pre-Auth RCE in On-Premise Version https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/sysaid-patches-4-critical-flaws.html Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed multiple security flaw in the on-premise version of SysAid IT support software that could be exploited to achieve pre-authenticated remote code execution with elevated privileges. The vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2025-2775, CVE-2025-2776, and CVE-2025-2777, have all been described as XML External Entity (XXE) injections, which occur when an attacker is

Reevaluating SSEs: A Technical Gap Analysis of Last-Mile Protection https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/reevaluating-sses-technical-gap.html Security Service Edge (SSE) platforms have become the go-to architecture for securing hybrid work and SaaS access. They promise centralized enforcement, simplified connectivity, and consistent policy control across users and devices. But there's a problem: they stop short of where the most sensitive user activity actually happens—the browser. This isn’t a small omission. It’s a structural

Play Ransomware Exploited Windows CVE-2025-29824 as Zero-Day to Breach U.S. Organization https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/play-ransomware-exploited-windows-cve.html Threat actors with links to the Play ransomware family exploited a recently patched security flaw in Microsoft Windows as a zero-day as part of an attack targeting an unnamed organization in the United States. The attack, per the Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom, leveraged CVE-2025-29824, a privilege escalation flaw in the Common Log File System (CLFS) driver. It was patched by

Toll road scams are in overdrive: Here’s how to protect yourself https://www.welivesecurity.com/en/scams/put-brakes-toll-road-scams/ Have you received a text message about an unpaid road toll? Make sure you’re not the next victim of a smishing scam.

Researchers Uncover Malware in Fake Discord PyPI Package Downloaded 11,500+ Times https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/researchers-uncover-malware-in-fake.html Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a malicious package on the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository that masquerades as a seemingly harmless Discord-related utility but incorporates a remote access trojan. The package in question is discordpydebug, which was uploaded to PyPI on March 21, 2022. It has been downloaded 11,574 times and continues to be available on the open-source registry.

NSO Group Fined $168M for Targeting 1,400 WhatsApp Users With Pegasus Spyware https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/nso-group-fined-168m-for-targeting-1400.html A federal jury on Tuesday decided that NSO Group must pay Meta-owned WhatsApp WhatsApp approximately $168 million in monetary damages, more than four months after a federal judge ruled that the Israeli company violated U.S. laws by exploiting WhatsApp servers to deploy Pegasus spyware, targeting over 1,400 individuals globally. WhatsApp originally filed the lawsuit against NSO Group in 2019,

Hackers Exploit Samsung MagicINFO, GeoVision IoT Flaws to Deploy Mirai Botnet https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/hackers-exploit-samsung-magicinfo.html Threat actors have been observed actively exploiting security flaws in GeoVision end-of-life (EoL) Internet of Things (IoT) devices to corral them into a Mirai botnet for conducting distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The activity, first observed by the Akamai Security Intelligence and Response Team (SIRT) in early April 2025, involves the exploitation of two operating system command

New Investment Scams Use Facebook Ads, RDGA Domains, and IP Checks to Filter Victims https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/new-investment-scams-use-facebook-ads.html Cybersecurity researchers have lifted the lid on two threat actors that orchestrate investment scams through spoofed celebrity endorsements and conceal their activity through traffic distribution systems (TDSes). The activity clusters have been codenamed Reckless Rabbit and Ruthless Rabbit by DNS threat intelligence firm Infoblox. The attacks have been observed to lure victims with bogus

Third Parties and Machine Credentials: The Silent Drivers Behind 2025's Worst Breaches https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/third-parties-and-machine-credentials.html It wasn't ransomware headlines or zero-day exploits that stood out most in this year's Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) — it was what fueled them. Quietly, yet consistently, two underlying factors played a role in some of the worst breaches: third-party exposure and machine credential abuse. According to the 2025 DBIR, third-party involvement in breaches doubled

Microsoft Warns Default Helm Charts Could Leave Kubernetes Apps Exposed to Data Leaks https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/microsoft-warns-default-helm-charts-for.html Microsoft has warned that using pre-made templates, such as out-of-the-box Helm charts, during Kubernetes deployments could open the door to misconfigurations and leak valuable data. "While these 'plug-and-play' options greatly simplify the setup process, they often prioritize ease of use over security," Michael Katchinskiy and Yossi Weizman from the Microsoft Defender for Cloud Research team

Entra ID Data Protection: Essential or Overkill? https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/entra-id-data-protectionessential-or.html Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) is the backbone of modern identity management, enabling secure access to the applications, data, and services your business relies on. As hybrid work and cloud adoption accelerate, Entra ID plays an even more central role — managing authentication, enforcing policy, and connecting users across distributed environments. That prominence also