Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news, articles, interviews and videos: Android VPN apps used by millions are covertly connected AND insecure Three families of Android VPN apps, with a combined 700 million-plus Google Play downloads,…
Category: Help Net Security
China-linked Murky Panda targets and moves laterally through cloud services
In its recently released 2025 Threat Hunting Report, Crowdstrike pointed out an interesting trend: a 136% surge in cloud intrusions. A good chunk of this surge is due to “China-nexus adversaries”, Murky Panda (aka Silk Typhoon) among them. Murky Panda’s…
Interpol operation seizes $97 million in African cybercrime sweep
Authorities in Africa have arrested 1,209 people in an Interpol-led crackdown on cybercrime that targeted nearly 88,000 victims. 11,432 malicious infrastructures were dismantled during Operation Serengeti 2025 (Source: Interpol) Operation Serengeti 2.0 The operation, which ran from June to August…
Five ways OSINT helps financial institutions to fight money laundering
Here are five key ways OSINT tools can help financial firms develop advanced strategies to fight money laundering criminals. 1. Reveal complex networks and ownership structures Money launderers often use layered networks of offshore entities and shell companies to mask…
AI gives ransomware gangs a deadly upgrade
Ransomware continues to be the major threat to large and medium-sized businesses, with numerous ransomware gangs abusing AI for automation, according to Acronis. Ransomware gangs maintain pressure on victims From January to June 2025, the number of publicly reported ransomware…
The new battleground for CISOs is human behavior
Attackers don’t always need a technical flaw. More often, they just trick your people. Social engineering works, and AI makes it harder to catch.” Only about one in four cybersecurity teams are effective at collaborating with the broader business (Source:…
Local governments struggle to defend critical infrastructure as threats grow
A small-town water system, a county hospital, and a local school district may not seem like front-line targets in global conflict, but they are. These organizations face daily cyber attacks, from ransomware to foreign adversaries probing for weak points. What…
DevOps in the cloud and what is putting your data at risk
In this Help Net Security video, Greg Bak, Head of Product Enablement at GitProtect, walks through some of the biggest security risks DevOps teams are dealing with. He covers how AI tools can introduce vulnerabilities, including cases where they ignore…
New infosec products of the week: August 22, 2025
Here’s a look at the most interesting products from the past week, featuring releases from Doppel, Druva, LastPass, and StackHawk. StackHawk empowers security teams to expand their API testing coverage StackHawk releaseed LLM-Driven OpenAPI Specifications, a powerful new capability that…
Russian threat actors using old Cisco bug to target critical infrastructure orgs
A threat group linked to the Russian Federal Security Service’s (FSB) Center 16 unit has been compromising unpatched and end-of-life Cisco networking devices via an old vulnerability (CVE-2018-0171), the FBI and Cisco warned on Wednesday. “Primary targets include organizations in…
SailPoint Accelerated Application Management simplifies app governance
SailPoint unveiled SailPoint Accelerated Application Management, a solution that redefines how enterprises discover, govern, and secure applications at scale. While most organizations govern fewer than 50 applications, thousands more remain outside governance, creating serious risk. SailPoint’s new approach represents a…
AWS Trusted Advisor flaw allowed public S3 buckets to go unflagged
AWS’s Trusted Advisor tool, which is supposed to warn customers if their (cloud) S3 storage buckets are publicly exposed, could be “tricked” into reporting them as not exposed when they actually are, Fog Security researchers have found. S3 access protection…
Doppel Simulation combats social engineering attacks
Doppel announced Doppel Simulation, a new product and expansion to the Doppel Vision Platform that enables organizations to redefine security awareness training and social engineering penetration testing by mirroring today’s multi-channel and dynamic attacker behaviors. Informed by real-world threats and…
Using lightweight LLMs to cut incident response times and reduce hallucinations
Researchers from the University of Melbourne and Imperial College London have developed a method for using LLMs to improve incident response planning with a focus on reducing the risk of hallucinations. Their approach uses a smaller, fine-tuned LLM combined with…
Fractional vs. full-time CISO: Finding the right fit for your company
In this Help Net Security interview, Nikoloz Kokhreidze, Fractional CISO at Mandos, discusses why many early- and growth-stage B2B companies hire full-time CISOs before it’s needed. He breaks down common founder misconceptions, explains the right approach to security leadership, and…
Product showcase: iStorage datAshur PRO+C encrypted USB flash drive
The iStorage datAshur PRO+C is a USB-C flash drive featuring AES-XTS 256-bit hardware encryption. Available in capacities from 32 GB to 512 GB, the drive holds FIPS 140-3 Level 3 certification and operates without the need for software, making it…
URL-based threats become a go-to tactic for cybercriminals
Cybercriminals are using advanced social engineering and AI-generated content to make malicious URLs difficult for users to identify, according to Proofpoint. Whether through email, text messages, or collaboration apps, URL-based threats now dominate the cyber threat landscape. Attackers are not…
CISOs need to think about risks before rushing into AI
Organizations are increasing investments in cloud, AI, and emerging technologies, but their infrastructure and security strategies often lag behind. A recent Unisys survey of 1,000 senior executives shows that business and IT leaders are not always aligned on what needs…
Apple fixes zero-day vulnerability exploited in “extremely sophisticated attack” (CVE-2025-43300)
Apple has fixed yet another vulnerability (CVE-2025-43300) that has apparently been exploited as a zero-day “in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.” About CVE-2025-43300 CVE-2025-43300 is an out-of-bounds write issue that could be triggered by a vulnerable device…
Alleged Rapper Bot DDoS botnet master arrested, charged
US federal prosecutors have charged a man with running Rapper Bot, a powerful botnet that was rented out to launch large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks around the world. According to court documents, 22-year-old Ethan Foltz of Eugene, Oregon, is accused…