TECHZONE™

Over 60 Software Vendors Issue Security Fixes Across OS, Cloud, and Network Platforms https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/over-60-software-vendors-issue-security.html It's Patch Tuesday, which means a number of software vendors have released patches for various security vulnerabilities impacting their products and services. Microsoft issued fixes for 59 flaws, including six actively exploited zero-days in various Windows components that could be abused to bypass security features, escalate privileges, and trigger a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. Elsewhere

Exposed Training Open the Door for Crypto-Mining in Fortune 500 Cloud Environments https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/exposed-training-open-door-for-crypto.html Intentionally vulnerable training applications are widely used for security education, internal testing, and product demonstrations. Tools such as OWASP Juice Shop, DVWA, Hackazon, and bWAPP are designed to be insecure by default, making them useful for learning how common attack techniques work in controlled environments. The issue is not the applications themselves, but how they are often

Microsoft Patches 59 Vulnerabilities Including Six Actively Exploited Zero-Days https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/microsoft-patches-59-vulnerabilities.html Microsoft on Tuesday released security updates to address a set of 59 flaws across its software, including six vulnerabilities that it said have been exploited in the wild. Of the 59 flaws, five are rated Critical, 52 are rated Important, and two are rated Moderate in severity. Twenty-five of the patched vulnerabilities have been classified as privilege escalation, followed by remote code

SSHStalker Botnet Uses IRC C2 to Control Linux Systems via Legacy Kernel Exploits https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/sshstalker-botnet-uses-irc-c2-to.html Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new botnet operation called SSHStalker that relies on the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) communication protocol for command-and-control (C2) purposes. "The toolset blends stealth helpers with legacy-era Linux exploitation: Alongside log cleaners (utmp/wtmp/lastlog tampering) and rootkit-class artifacts, the actor keeps a large back-catalog of

North Korea-Linked UNC1069 Uses AI Lures to Attack Cryptocurrency Organizations https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/north-korea-linked-unc1069-uses-ai.html The North Korea-linked threat actor known as UNC1069 has been observed targeting the cryptocurrency sector to steal sensitive data from Windows and macOS systems with the ultimate goal of facilitating financial theft. "The intrusion relied on a social engineering scheme involving a compromised Telegram account, a fake Zoom meeting, a ClickFix infection vector, and reported usage of AI-generated

Taxing times: Top IRS scams to look out for in 2026 https://www.welivesecurity.com/en/scams/taxing-times-top-irs-scams-look-out-2026/ It’s time to file your tax return. And cybercriminals are lurking to make an already stressful period even more edgy.

DPRK Operatives Impersonate Professionals on LinkedIn to Infiltrate Companies https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/dprk-operatives-impersonate.html The information technology (IT) workers associated with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) are now applying to remote positions using real LinkedIn accounts of individuals they're impersonating, marking a new escalation of the fraudulent scheme. "These profiles often have verified workplace emails and identity badges, which DPRK operatives hope will make their fraudulent

Reynolds Ransomware Embeds BYOVD Driver to Disable EDR Security Tools https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/reynolds-ransomware-embeds-byovd-driver.html Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of an emergent ransomware family dubbed Reynolds that comes embedded with a built-in bring your own vulnerable driver (BYOVD) component for defense evasion purposes within the ransomware payload itself. BYOVD refers to an adversarial technique that abuses legitimate but flawed driver software to escalate privileges and disable Endpoint Detection

From Ransomware to Residency: Inside the Rise of the Digital Parasite https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/from-ransomware-to-residency-inside.html Are ransomware and encryption still the defining signals of modern cyberattacks, or has the industry been too fixated on noise while missing a more dangerous shift happening quietly all around them? According to Picus Labs’ new Red Report 2026, which analyzed over 1.1 million malicious files and mapped 15.5 million adversarial actions observed across 2025, attackers are no longer optimizing for

ZAST.AI Raises $6M Pre-A to Scale "Zero False Positive" AI-Powered Code Security https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/zastai-raises-6m-pre-to-scale-zero.html January 5, 2026, Seattle, USA — ZAST.AI announced the completion of a $6 million Pre-A funding round. This investment came from the well-known investment firm Hillhouse Capital, bringing ZAST.AI's total funding close to $10 million. This marks a recognition from leading capital markets of a new solution: ending the era of high false positive rates in security tools and making every alert

Warlock Ransomware Breaches SmarterTools Through Unpatched SmarterMail Server https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/warlock-ransomware-breaches.html SmarterTools confirmed last week that the Warlock (aka Storm-2603) ransomware gang breached its network by exploiting an unpatched SmarterMail instance. The incident took place on January 29, 2026, when a mail server that was not updated to the latest version was compromised, the company's Chief Commercial Officer, Derek Curtis, said. "Prior to the breach, we had approximately 30 servers/VMs

Dutch Authorities Confirm Ivanti Zero-Day Exploit Exposed Employee Contact Data https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/dutch-authorities-confirm-ivanti-zero.html The Netherlands' Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) and the Council for the Judiciary confirmed both agencies (Rvdr) have disclosed that their systems were impacted by cyber attacks that exploited the recently disclosed security flaws in Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM), according to a notice sent to the country's parliament on Friday. "On January 29, the National Cyber Security Center (

Fortinet Patches Critical SQLi Flaw Enabling Unauthenticated Code Execution https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/fortinet-patches-critical-sqli-flaw.html Fortinet has released security updates to address a critical flaw impacting FortiClientEMS that could lead to the execution of arbitrary code on susceptible systems. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-21643, has a CVSS rating of 9.1 out of a maximum of 10.0. "An improper neutralization of special elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability [CWE-89] in FortiClientEMS may

China-Linked UNC3886 Targets Singapore Telecom Sector in Cyber Espionage Campaign https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/china-linked-unc3886-targets-singapore.html The Cyber Security Agency (CSA) of Singapore on Monday revealed that the China-nexus cyber espionage group known as UNC3886 targeted its telecommunications sector. "UNC3886 had launched a deliberate, targeted, and well-planned campaign against Singapore's telecommunications sector," CSA said. "All four of Singapore's major telecommunications operators ('telcos') – M1, SIMBA Telecom, Singtel, and

SolarWinds Web Help Desk Exploited for RCE in Multi-Stage Attacks on Exposed Servers https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/solarwinds-web-help-desk-exploited-for.html Microsoft has revealed that it observed a multi‑stage intrusion that involved the threat actors exploiting internet‑exposed SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD) instances to obtain initial access and move laterally across the organization's network to other high-value assets. That said, the Microsoft Defender Security Research Team said it's not clear whether the activity weaponized recently

⚡ Weekly Recap: AI Skill Malware, 31Tbps DDoS, Notepad++ Hack, LLM Backdoors and More https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/weekly-recap-ai-skill-malware-31tbps.html Cyber threats are no longer coming from just malware or exploits. They’re showing up inside the tools, platforms, and ecosystems organizations use every day. As companies connect AI, cloud apps, developer tools, and communication systems, attackers are following those same paths. A clear pattern this week: attackers are abusing trust. Trusted updates, trusted marketplaces, trusted apps, even

How Top CISOs Solve Burnout and Speed up MTTR without Extra Hiring https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/how-top-cisos-solve-burnout-and-speed.html Why do SOC teams keep burning out and missing SLAs even after spending big on security tools? Routine triage piles up, senior specialists get dragged into basic validation, and MTTR climbs, while stealthy threats still find room to slip through. Top CISOs have realized the solution isn’t hiring more people or stacking yet another tool onto the workflow, but giving their teams faster, clearer

Bloody Wolf Targets Uzbekistan, Russia Using NetSupport RAT in Spear-Phishing Campaign https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/bloody-wolf-targets-uzbekistan-russia.html The threat actor known as Bloody Wolf has been linked to a campaign targeting Uzbekistan and Russia to infect systems with a remote access trojan known as NetSupport RAT. Cybersecurity vendor Kaspersky is tracking the activity under the moniker Stan Ghouls. The threat actor is known to be active since at least 2023, orchestrating spear-phishing attacks against manufacturing, finance, and IT

TeamPCP Worm Exploits Cloud Infrastructure to Build Criminal Infrastructure https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/teampcp-worm-exploits-cloud.html Cybersecurity researchers have called attention to a "massive campaign" that has systematically targeted cloud native environments to set up malicious infrastructure for follow-on exploitation. The activity, observed around December 25, 2025, and described as "worm-driven," leveraged exposed Docker APIs, Kubernetes clusters, Ray dashboards, and Redis servers, along with the recently disclosed

BeyondTrust Fixes Critical Pre-Auth RCE Vulnerability in Remote Support and PRA https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/beyondtrust-fixes-critical-pre-auth-rce.html BeyondTrust has released updates to address a critical security flaw impacting Remote Support (RS) and Privileged Remote Access (PRA) products that, if successfully exploited, could result in remote code execution. "BeyondTrust Remote Support (RS) and certain older versions of Privileged Remote Access (PRA) contain a critical pre-authentication remote code execution vulnerability," the company