Critical National Infrastructure Threat Intelligence
State-sponsored and criminal threats to energy, water, and the infrastructure on which national resilience depends.
Flash Briefings
SharePoint Zero-Day CVE-2026-58644 Exploited in Multi-CVE RCE Chain
A critical SharePoint deserialization zero-day (CVSS 9.8) was exploited in the wild before Microsoft's July 14 Patch Tuesday fixed it. CISA added it to the KEV catalog on July 16 alongside three companion CVEs forming an active RCE and persistence chain.
A 19-agency joint advisory from 13 countries details how FSB Center 16 has been harvesting router configurations and credentials from critical infrastructure networks globally by exploiting default SNMP community strings and unpatched Cisco Smart Install deployments.
CISA added three critical OS command injection vulnerabilities in Fortinet FortiSandbox to the KEV catalog on July 16, 2026, citing active exploitation. Federal agencies face a July 19 patch deadline; enterprise defenders running FortiSandbox on-premises, cloud, or PaaS must act immediately.
Five Eyes Alert: Russian FSB Router Campaign Targets Critical Sectors Globally
CISA, NSA, FBI, and 15 international partners have issued a joint advisory warning that Russian FSB Center 16 actors are systematically exploiting poorly configured networking devices across energy, communications, healthcare, and financial services.
Two SonicWall SMA1000 zero-days — an unauthenticated SSRF (CVE-2026-15409, CVSS 10.0) chained with post-auth code injection (CVE-2026-15410, CVSS 7.2) — are confirmed exploited in the wild. CISA added both plus two Microsoft zero-days to the KEV catalogue on July 14 with a July 17 federal patch deadline.
FSB Center 16 Named in Poland Grid Attack as UK and EU Issue First Joint Cyber Sanctions
The UK and EU have formally attributed a December 2025 cyberattack on Poland's energy grid — which came close to causing a blackout for half a million people — to Russia's FSB Center 16, imposing a landmark coordinated sanctions package targeting Moscow's broader cyber ecosystem.
GigaWiper: Iran-Nexus Destructive Backdoor Combines Wiper, Fake Ransomware, and Spyware
Microsoft and Binary Defense have separately documented GigaWiper, a modular Go-based Windows backdoor attributed to an Iran-nexus group that has been targeting Israeli organisations since October 2025. The implant combines irreversible disk wiping, fake ransomware with no recoverable key, and live spyware capabilities in a single deployable payload.
SharePoint RCE CVE-2026-45659 Exploited Despite Microsoft's 'Less Likely' Rating
CISA added CVE-2026-45659 to its KEV catalog on July 1, overriding Microsoft's own 'Exploitation Less Likely' assessment. Any authenticated SharePoint user with Site Member permissions can achieve remote code execution across SharePoint Server 2016, 2019, and Subscription Edition.
Progress Orders ShareFile Storage Zone Controllers Offline Over Active Security Threat
Progress Software has directed all ShareFile Storage Zone Controller customers to take their on-premises file-transfer infrastructure offline following a credible external security threat. No patch exists; shutdown is the only available mitigation.
Three CVSS 10.0 Flaws Hit CISA KEV in 48 Hours: ColdFusion and Joomla Actively Exploited
Adobe ColdFusion and two Joomla-ecosystem components with CVSS 10.0 ratings were added to the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog between July 7 and 9, with a federal patch deadline of July 10. Langflow also added as the first AI agent platform in the catalog.
GhostLock: 15-Year Linux Kernel Flaw Opens Root and Container Escape
A 15-year-old Linux kernel use-after-free vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-43499 allows any logged-in user to gain root access on unpatched systems. Public exploit code is available and the flaw enables container escape, making patching of cloud, server, and multi-tenant Linux infrastructure an immediate priority.
Januscape (CVE-2026-53359): 16-Year-Old KVM Flaw Allows VM Escape to Host
A critical use-after-free in the Linux KVM shadow MMU lets a guest VM with root privileges escape to the host, threatening multi-tenant cloud and virtualised enterprise environments. A public PoC has been released.
CVE-2026-46242 'Bad Epoll': Linux Kernel LPE Demands Patch Urgency Across Server Fleets
A race-condition use-after-free in the Linux kernel's epoll subsystem gives any unprivileged local user a reliable path to root. A working exploit exists, kernel versions 6.4 and later are affected, and many distributions have not yet shipped the backport.
Armored Likho Deploys BusySnake Stealer Against Government and Power Sector
Russia-linked threat actor Armored Likho has launched a credential theft campaign targeting government agencies and electric power infrastructure across Russia, Kazakhstan, and Brazil. The Python-based BusySnake infostealer extracts browser credentials, Telegram sessions, and crypto wallet keys while operating in-memory to evade disk-based detection.
FBI and Google Dismantle NetNut: 2 Million-Device Botnet Used by Spy Groups and Ransomware Gangs
A coordinated FBI and Google-led operation has seized hundreds of domains tied to NetNut, a residential proxy network secretly built on 2 million compromised home devices. GTIG observed 316 distinct threat actor clusters using the network in a single June week — spanning state-sponsored espionage groups and ransomware operators.
CISA Flags Critical Unauthenticated RCE in StoneFly Storage Appliances
CISA's June 30 ICS advisory batch reveals CVSS 9.8 flaws in StoneFly Storage Concentrator including unauthenticated command injection granting remote root access via TCP port 9000, alongside hardcoded credentials and SQL injection.
SimpleHelp CVSS 10.0 Auth Bypass Exploited: Djinn Stealer Targets Cloud, AI, and Dev Credentials
Attackers are actively exploiting CVE-2026-48558, a perfect-CVSS authentication bypass in SimpleHelp RMM, to deploy a new cross-platform infostealer harvesting cloud platform credentials, AI API keys, developer tokens, and cryptocurrency wallets across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
CVE-2026-55200: Public PoC for Critical libssh2 Flaw Exposes Enterprise Infrastructure
A public proof-of-concept has been released for a CVSS 9.2 client-side flaw in libssh2 that enables zero-authentication remote code execution when connecting to a malicious or compromised SSH server. No official patched release exists yet.
PTC Windchill RCE Exploited: JSP Web Shells Hit Manufacturing PLM
Attackers are deploying persistent JSP web shells via CVE-2026-12569, a critical unauthenticated RCE flaw in PTC Windchill and FlexPLM affecting 1.5 million users across defence, aerospace, and automotive manufacturing.
Handala Breaches California Water Service via Third-Party Pivot, Mandiant Finds No OT Compromise
MOIS-affiliated Handala group accessed Cal Water billing systems via RTKBase pivot, exfiltrating 5GB of customer PII. Mandiant investigation found no OT access — but the claimed capability to disrupt water supply remains unverified propaganda.
CISA KEV: Lantronix EDS5000 and Ubiquiti UniFi Under Active Attack
CISA added four critical vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on June 23, 2026, including a CVSS 9.8 code injection flaw in Lantronix EDS5000 serial device servers widely used in OT environments, and three maximum-severity flaws in Ubiquiti UniFi OS.
Mistic Backdoor: Memory-Resident IAB Tooling Supplies Six Ransomware Groups
A fileless, memory-resident backdoor named Mistic has been identified as the primary initial-access tool for KongTuke — an access broker selling corporate footholds to at least six active ransomware operations including Qilin, Akira, Rhysida, and Black Basta. Active since April 2026, delivered via ClickFix and FileFix social engineering lures.
World Leaks Publishes 630GB of Apple and Tesla Data From Tata Electronics Breach
Data extortion group World Leaks has published more than 630 gigabytes of files allegedly stolen from Tata Electronics, one of the largest manufacturers of iPhone components and assemblies, exposing apparent Apple product schematics, Tesla manufacturing documents, and tens of thousands of employee passport scans.
Squidbleed: 29-Year-Old Squid Proxy Bug Exposes Enterprise Credentials
Researchers disclosed a heap over-read in Squid proxy's FTP parser on June 23, 2026 that can silently leak cleartext HTTP requests, credentials, and session tokens from other users on the same proxy instance. The bug has existed since 1997.
Sapphire Sleet Compromises 144 Mastra AI npm Packages in 88-Minute Operation
North Korean state actor Sapphire Sleet hijacked a contributor account to the Mastra AI framework and injected credential-stealing malware into 144 npm packages in under 90 minutes, targeting LLM API keys, cryptocurrency wallets, and cloud credentials across the AI developer ecosystem.
Icarus Compromises Klue to Steal CRM Data from Salesforce Customers
A new extortion group called Icarus abused a legacy integration credential to steal OAuth tokens from Klue's integration infrastructure, enabling automated bulk extraction of Salesforce CRM data from dozens of enterprise customers — with Huntress among those confirming impact as of June 19, 2026.
FortiBleed: 73,932 FortiGate Credentials from CVE-2022-40684 Surface Four Years After Exploitation
A dataset of valid VPN credentials harvested from 73,932 FortiGate devices during CVE-2022-40684 exploitation was published on 17 June 2026. The four-year gap between collection and release illustrates a documented threat actor pattern — credential harvesting during a mass exploitation window, then monetising the dataset years later when many organisations have forgotten to rotate.
CVE-2026-20253: Splunk Enterprise RCE Added to CISA KEV — SOCs at Risk
CISA added CVE-2026-20253, an unauthenticated RCE in Splunk Enterprise's PostgreSQL sidecar service, to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on June 18, 2026. Federal remediation deadline is June 21. Splunk deployments at SOCs, financial institutions, healthcare, and government are at elevated risk.
UNC6508: China-Linked Group Mined Medical and Military Research for Two Years
Google Threat Intelligence has disclosed a PRC-nexus espionage campaign that breached North American clinical, academic, and military health institutions via REDCap research servers, remaining undetected from September 2023 through November 2025.
Handala Claims Breach of California Water Service, Exposing Customer Data and GNSS Credentials
Iran-linked Handala group claims 5GB exfiltration from California Water Service including customer records and RTKBase GNSS platform credentials across seven districts. Investigation ongoing; no OT disruption confirmed but destructive escalation risk is real.
NCSC Warning: Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway Critical Vulnerabilities Under Active Exploitation
NCSC has issued an urgent advisory on two vulnerabilities in Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway — CVE-2026-3055 (CVSS 9.3, unauthenticated memory exfiltration) and CVE-2026-4368 — urging UK organisations to patch immediately. Both flaws affect versions widely deployed across enterprise, healthcare, and finance environments.
Velvet Ant's Operation Highland: China-Nexus APT Backdoored Linux Auth Stack for Nearly a Decade
Sygnia's disclosure of Operation Highland reveals a China-linked threat actor that modified PAM and OpenSSH components to maintain persistent, credential-harvesting access inside isolated networks from 2016 to at least 2026.
Europol and FBI Dismantle AudiA6: The €336 Million Ransomware Laundering Pipeline
International law enforcement dismantled AudiA6, a cryptocurrency laundering service that processed €336 million in ransomware proceeds since 2021, arresting two administrators and seizing 25 domains and 30 servers in a coordinated operation on 10 June 2026.
Ivanti Sentry MDM Gateways Backdoored Within 48 Hours of Patch: CVSS 10.0 Pre-Auth RCE
A CVSS 10.0 pre-authentication OS command injection in Ivanti Sentry allows unauthenticated root-level code execution on MDM gateway appliances. Production instances were backdoored within 48 hours of the advisory. CISA has set a 14 June 2026 remediation deadline.
The researcher behind the Nightmare-Eclipse exploit series has released a seventh zero-day — RoguePlanet — exploiting a race condition in Microsoft Defender to deliver SYSTEM privileges on fully patched Windows 10 and 11, hours after June Patch Tuesday closed the previous six.
A CVSS 9.4 remote code execution flaw in Veeam Backup & Replication v12 lets any authenticated domain user execute arbitrary code on backup servers — recreating the low-barrier attack surface that ransomware groups have repeatedly weaponised in prior Veeam vulnerabilities.
A Qilin ransomware affiliate is systematically exploiting authentication bypass vulnerabilities across Check Point, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, and F5 VPN infrastructure simultaneously — with a month-long zero-day window on the Check Point flaw before any patch existed.
Miasma Worm Hits 73 Microsoft GitHub Repositories, Including Core Azure SDKs
The Miasma supply chain worm -- a variant of the Mini Shai-Hulud campaign -- has compromised 73 repositories across Microsoft's GitHub organisations today, including Azure Functions, Durable Task, and several developer tooling packages. GitHub has disabled access to affected repos; credentials from the May compromise appear not to have been fully rotated.
Active exploitation of CVE-2026-41089, a pre-authentication zero-click RCE in Windows Netlogon, was confirmed by Belgium's Centre for Cybersecurity on 29 May. Successful exploitation gives an attacker SYSTEM-level control of the domain controller and full ownership of the Active Directory domain.
TA4922 Extends High-Tempo Campaign Operations to UK and Europe With Atlas RAT and Credential Stealer
Proofpoint has published intelligence on TA4922's geographic expansion into the UK, Germany, Italy, and South Africa — deploying two new malware families via tax-themed and HR-themed phishing. The group holds the highest campaign pace of any Proofpoint-tracked threat actor.
Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 has published new research detailing how Iran-nexus APT Screening Serpens deployed six previously undocumented RAT variants against US, Israeli, and UAE targets in aerospace, defence manufacturing, and telecommunications between February and April 2026.
Android Zero-Day Exploitation Confirmed: June 2026 Bulletin Signals Commercial Spyware Activity
Google's June 2026 Android Security Bulletin confirms active exploitation of CVE-2025-48595, a local privilege escalation requiring no user interaction. CISA's simultaneous KEV addition with a three-day federal deadline points to targeted commercial surveillance tool deployment against high-value individuals.
Seqrite researchers have attributed a targeted espionage campaign against government, financial, and research organisations in the Czech Republic and Taiwan to a China-aligned threat actor using Azure Blob Storage as a covert C2 channel.
A medium-severity authentication bypass in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS GlobalProtect is being actively exploited across enterprise networks, with CISA's KEV remediation deadline falling on 1 June 2026.
FortiClient EMS Active Exploitation: Threat Actors Deploying EKZ Infostealer Via Fake Fortinet Patch
Fresh exploitation of CVE-2026-35616, a critical pre-authentication bypass in Fortinet's FortiClient Endpoint Management Server, is ongoing in May 2026. Threat actors are delivering the EKZ credential-stealing malware disguised as a legitimate Fortinet software update, prompting an NHS England Digital alert.
ShinyHunters Publishes Charter Communications Customer Data After Vishing Compromise
ShinyHunters extortion group has published data from Charter Communications after a vishing attack compromised a Microsoft Entra account and enabled access to Charter's Salesforce environment. At least 4.9 million customer records confirmed; the group claims 42 million.
The Mini Shai-Hulud npm worm has expanded well beyond the initial TanStack compromise to breach GitHub's internal infrastructure, compromise devices at OpenAI and Mistral AI, and poison 600+ packages across 16 million weekly downloads -- before its authors open-sourced it on BreachForums.
Dutch Authorities Seize 800 Servers Tied to Russian Cyber-Attack Infrastructure
Dutch financial crime investigators arrested two suspects and seized 800 servers connected to Stark Industries, a hosting network linked to NoName057(16) DDoS campaigns against European governments and critical infrastructure.
Nightmare-Eclipse: Six Windows Zero-Days Released in Six Weeks, Three Now Weaponised in Live Attacks
A rogue researcher has published six working Windows exploit drops since April 2026. Three are confirmed active in attacks linked to Russian infrastructure, with more exploits -- including RCE -- threatened for June Patch Tuesday.
Iranian IRGC-affiliated APT Nimbus Manticore has resumed aggressive campaigns against aviation, telecommunications, and critical infrastructure in Europe and the US, deploying an undocumented AI-assisted backdoor and adopting new delivery techniques since the outbreak of the US-Iran conflict.
CISA's May 21 KEV additions confirm active exploitation of Trend Micro Apex One's directory traversal flaw -- which allows attackers to push malicious code through the defender's own endpoint management -- alongside a Langflow AI workflow vulnerability tied to MuddyWater intrusions.
An attacker who obtained push access to the Laravel-Lang GitHub organisation rewrote over 230 package versions in under 90 minutes on 22–23 May, injecting a sophisticated cloud credential stealer into one of PHP's most widely used localisation library sets.
Iranian APT MuddyWater Deploys Chaos Ransomware as False Flag to Mask Espionage
Rapid7 researchers have attributed a series of intrusions using Chaos ransomware branding to MuddyWater -- an Iranian state-sponsored group -- in a deliberate false flag operation designed to obscure intelligence collection behind the appearance of criminal extortion.
APT10 Renews MSP Targeting in UK and Europe -- Cloud Hopper Techniques Persist
China's APT10 has resumed systematic targeting of UK managed service providers and professional services firms, using the same supply chain pivot techniques that characterised the Cloud Hopper campaign -- now adapted for cloud-managed tenants.
APT29 Exploiting Trusted Vendor Relationships to Reach UK and European Government Networks
Russia's SVR-linked APT29 is using compromised software vendor and IT service provider accounts to pivot into government targets -- a continuation of the SolarWinds playbook applied to UK and European supply chains.
Critical Unpatched RCE in Siemens RUGGEDCOM and ScadaBR -- No Fix Available for Either
CISA's May 19 ICS advisories flag unauthenticated root-level code execution in Siemens RUGGEDCOM APE1808 and ScadaBR SCADA software. Neither has a patch. The ScadaBR vendor has not responded to CISA.
NCSC Warns: Volt Typhoon Reconnaissance Extends to Tier 2 UK Government Suppliers
Intelligence confirms Volt Typhoon pre-positioning activity has moved beyond primary CNI operators into the Tier 2 supplier networks that service UK central government and defence. Smaller suppliers with privileged access to government systems are now directly in scope.
Volt Typhoon Activity Confirmed Across UK Water and Energy OT Networks
NCSC and Five Eyes partners have confirmed Volt Typhoon intrusions at operational technology networks in UK water treatment and regional energy distribution. The group is not causing disruption -- it is waiting.
First Confirmed AI-Built Zero-Day: Google Thwarts Mass Exploitation Campaign
A threat actor used a large language model to write a working 2FA bypass exploit for a widely deployed open-source admin tool. Google's threat intelligence team detected the planned mass exploitation campaign before it launched. The code left distinctive LLM fingerprints.
Deep Analysis
Infoblox and The Hacker News disclosed in July 2026 that Lurking Lizard, a China-based financially motivated threat group, operates an industrial-scale residential proxy business sustained by trojaned installers for legitimate software. The network has processed hundreds of millions of proxy requests and is actively rented to criminal and espionage-linked operators.
UAT-7810 and LapDogs: Inside China's Malware Factory for Covert Relay Infrastructure
Cisco Talos has published detailed research on UAT-7810's LapDogs campaign: a China-nexus operation building Operational Relay Box networks through compromised SOHO routers. New malware families LONGLEASH, DOGLEASH, and JARLEASH reveal how far this infrastructure-as-a-service model has matured.
Weaver Ant: The China-Nexus APT That Lived Inside a Telecom for Four Years
Sygnia's exposure of Weaver Ant reveals a China-aligned threat actor that maintained persistent access inside an Asian telecommunications provider for more than four years, using an AES-encrypted China Chopper variant, a novel in-memory web shell, and an ORB network built from compromised telco routers.
Cadet Blizzard: GRU Unit 29155 and the Sabotage Doctrine
Cadet Blizzard — GRU Unit 29155's cyber arm — is the group behind WhisperGate, a wiper that preceded Russia's full-scale Ukraine invasion. Since the September 2024 DOJ indictment publicly named its officers, a clearer picture has emerged of a unit that combines destructive cyber operations with physical sabotage across NATO member states.
Anubis Ransomware: The RaaS Platform Weaponising Healthcare Regulators Against Its Own Victims
Anubis is a Go-based ransomware-as-a-service operation that emerged in late 2024 and has rapidly focused on healthcare organisations, deploying a novel pressure tactic: threatening to notify data protection regulators and HIPAA enforcement bodies unless victims pay. This deep dive covers Anubis's affiliate model, technical profile, targeting patterns, and the regulatory weaponisation that distinguishes its extortion approach.
Cicada3301: The Rust-Based RaaS That Emerged From the ALPHV Collapse
Cicada3301, tracked by Palo Alto Unit 42 as Repellent Scorpius, emerged in mid-2024 as a technically sophisticated ransomware-as-a-service operation bearing strong similarities to the ALPHV/BlackCat platform. This deep dive examines the evidence for an ALPHV connection, the technical profile of the Rust-based encryptor, targeting patterns, and what the group's structure tells us about resilience in the ransomware ecosystem.
RansomHub: The RaaS Platform That Inherited the Ransomware Ecosystem
RansomHub launched in February 2024 as a direct beneficiary of two simultaneous law enforcement disruptions — the FBI's LockBit takedown and the ALPHV/BlackCat collapse — and in less than a year became the most prolific ransomware group by victim count. This deep dive covers how RansomHub built its dominance, the multi-platform technical architecture, the affiliate model that makes it resilient to law enforcement pressure, and what defenders should prioritise.
Qilin emerged in 2022 as Agenda ransomware and has evolved through a complete Rust rewrite, a defining attack on NHS blood supply services in 2024, a novel Chrome browser credential theft technique, and a 2026 VPN exploitation campaign hitting four major vendors simultaneously. This deep dive covers the full operational and technical profile.
Pioneer Kitten: How Iran's IRGC Became an Access Broker for Ransomware Gangs
Pioneer Kitten — tracked as Fox Kitten, Lemon Sandstorm, and UNC757 — is an Iranian state-sponsored group that exploits network perimeter devices to establish persistent access, then sells that access to criminal ransomware affiliates. This deep dive examines the group's dual mandate, tradecraft, and what a compromise looks like in practice.
Mustang Panda (Twill Typhoon): China's Most Prolific Espionage APT
Mustang Panda is one of the most operationally active Chinese APT groups, running continuous espionage operations since at least 2012. Known for PlugX, DLL sideloading, and a rapidly evolving implant arsenal, the group has compromised government ministries, NGOs, telecoms, and religious organisations across Southeast Asia, Europe, and beyond.
INC Ransomware: Rust Encryptors, Veeam Credential Theft, and 830 Victims
INC Ransom has quietly become one of the most prolific ransomware operations of 2025-2026, combining purpose-rebuilt Rust encryptors, a modified Veeam DPAPI credential dumper, and deliberate use of living-off-the-land techniques to evade detection. With over 830 confirmed victims across healthcare, legal, and manufacturing, this group deserves closer examination than it typically receives.
APT42: Iran's Elite Social Engineering Unit Targeting Western Officials and Research
APT42 is Iran's most operationally sophisticated espionage actor — an IRGC-IO-sponsored group that has compromised US presidential campaigns, nuclear researchers, journalists, and Western diplomats through highly targeted social engineering rather than technical exploitation.
Secret Blizzard: Inside Russia's Most Patient Cyber Espionage Operation
A deep dive into Secret Blizzard (Turla), the FSB-linked APT that has sustained global intelligence collection for over two decades — hijacking criminal infrastructure, deploying ISP-level interception against foreign embassies, and evolving the Kazuar backdoor into a resilient P2P botnet.
APT41 / Winnti / Double Dragon: China's Dual-Mandate Cyber Threat Group
APT41 operates simultaneously as a state-directed espionage actor targeting strategic industries for Beijing and a financially motivated cybercriminal enterprise — a combination unique among Chinese threat groups. A 2026 ELF cloud credential backdoor with zero VirusTotal detections is the latest evidence of the group's continued operational sophistication.
Gamaredon (Primitive Bear, Aqua Blizzard) — Russia's FSB-linked APT targeting Ukraine since 2014 — has deployed a newly modularised malware framework in 2026, using HTML smuggling and CVE-2025-8088 WinRAR exploitation for initial access. Sekoia's June 2026 analysis reveals a four-stage VBScript loader chain, Telegram-based dead drop resolvers, and five distinct payload families covering every phase of the kill chain.
APT28: Russia's GRU Hacking Unit and the Twenty-Year Campaign Against Western Democracy
APT28 — Fancy Bear, Forest Blizzard, GRU Unit 26165 — is Russia's Military Intelligence cyber arm and the most prolific nation-state attacker targeting Western governments, militaries, and democratic institutions. This deep dive covers their operational history, tradecraft, tooling, and current targeting priorities.
Cl0p: The Group That Turned File Transfer Vulnerabilities Into a Mass Exploitation Business
Cl0p is a financially motivated cybercriminal group that has systematically identified and mass-exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in enterprise file transfer software, compromising thousands of organisations globally. Their MOVEit campaign in 2023 was the largest data theft operation in the history of ransomware. This deep dive covers their operational model, technical approach, and what comes next.
LockBit: The Ransomware Operation That Survived Its Own Takedown
LockBit is the world's most prolific ransomware-as-a-service operation, responsible for more confirmed attacks than any other RaaS group. Despite Operation Cronos seizing its infrastructure and unmasking its administrator in 2024, the affiliate network remains active. This deep dive covers LockBit's operational model, technical capabilities, and what the post-Cronos resurgence means for defenders.
Midnight Blizzard: A Complete Profile of Russia's SVR Espionage Apparatus
APT29 — Cozy Bear, Midnight Blizzard — is Russia's SVR-aligned intelligence collection machine, responsible for SolarWinds, the 2024 Microsoft corporate email compromise, and ongoing targeting of European governments, diplomatic missions, and defence industrial base organisations. This deep dive covers their full operational history, tradecraft, tooling, and what defenders need to be doing now.
MuddyWater: Iran's MOIS Cyber Arm and the Blurred Line Between Espionage and Disruption
MuddyWater — Seedworm, Static Kitten, Earth Vetala — is Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security cyber unit conducting sustained espionage across the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, increasingly deploying ransomware as a false flag to complicate attribution and provide cover for intelligence collection.
UNC1549: Iran's Persistent Aerospace and Defence Espionage Operation
UNC1549 — tracked as Screening Serpens and Nimbus Manticore by different intelligence vendors — is an IRGC-affiliated Iranian APT conducting sustained espionage against aerospace, defence, and telecommunications targets. Their recent expansion to European targeting, adoption of Azure and cloud C2 infrastructure, and novel AppDomainManager injection technique make them a growing concern beyond their traditional Middle East focus.
Harvester APT: South Asia Espionage Expands to Linux With Graph API Command-and-Control
The Harvester threat group — active since at least 2021 against government and telecommunications targets in South Asia — has extended its capabilities to Linux with a new GoGra backdoor variant that routes command-and-control traffic through Microsoft Outlook via the Graph API. The evolution reflects a broader shift toward cloud-service-based C2 that defeats traditional perimeter monitoring.
Silk Typhoon: China's IT Supply Chain Pivot and the Downstream Threat to Every Sector
Silk Typhoon — the Chinese state actor behind the 2021 Exchange ProxyLogon campaign and the 2024 US Treasury breach — has fundamentally changed how it operates. A deep dive into the group's shift to IT supply chain targeting and what it means for every organisation that relies on a managed service provider.
Lazarus Group / TraderTraitor: North Korea's Premier Financial Theft Operation
A comprehensive profile of Lazarus Group and its TraderTraitor subcluster -- the North Korean cyber apparatus responsible for over $6 billion in cryptocurrency theft, the largest single financial heist in history, and a growing campaign of developer-targeted supply chain intrusions.
Sandworm: Inside Russia's Most Destructive Cyber Weapon
Sandworm -- GRU Unit 74455 -- is responsible for the most destructive cyberattacks in history: the 2015 and 2016 Ukraine power grid attacks, NotPetya, Olympic Destroyer, and continuous destructive campaigns against Ukraine since 2022. This deep-dive covers their history, capabilities, and why they remain the most dangerous threat actor operating today.
Phantom Taurus: China's Surgical New APT Targeting Governments and Embassies Worldwide
Unit 42 researchers have unmasked Phantom Taurus, a previously undocumented Chinese state-aligned APT deploying the bespoke NET-STAR malware suite against ministries of foreign affairs, embassies, and telecoms across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
SHADOW-EARTH-053: Inside China's ShadowPad Espionage Campaign Against Asian Governments and NATO
A detailed examination of SHADOW-EARTH-053, a China-aligned cyberespionage cluster that has compromised government, defence, and critical infrastructure organisations across South, East, and Southeast Asia -- and at least one NATO member state -- since late 2024.
Launched in mid-2025 by a disgruntled Qilin affiliate, The Gentlemen ransomware-as-a-service operation reached third place globally in Q1 2026 through pre-stockpiled FortiGate access, a 90% affiliate commission, and a deliberate strategy to target non-US markets that most groups neglect.
UNC3886: The China-Nexus Group That Breached All of Singapore's Major Telecoms
UNC3886, the China-linked APT responsible for zero-day exploitation of Fortinet, VMware, and Juniper systems, breached all four of Singapore's major telecommunications operators in a campaign that triggered the nation's largest ever coordinated cyber defence operation.
AI in the Attack Chain: How Threat Actors Are Using Language Models Operationally
AI-assisted exploitation is no longer theoretical. From automated vulnerability research to AI-generated spear-phishing, the adoption of LLMs across the offensive lifecycle is accelerating. This analysis examines what is confirmed, what is emerging, and what it means for defenders.
Volt Typhoon: The Long Game in Western Critical Infrastructure
A deep analysis of Volt Typhoon's objectives, methods, and targets -- and what the sustained Chinese pre-positioning campaign in Western CNI means for how operators, regulators, and governments need to respond.
Commentary
Twenty-Two Seconds: What M-Trends 2026 Says About Attacker Speed and Defender Reality
Mandiant's M-Trends 2026 report, grounded in over 500,000 hours of incident investigations, contains several findings that should recalibrate how security teams think about detection windows, initial access economics, and the real mechanics of ransomware recovery denial. The headline statistic — 22 seconds from initial access to secondary threat group handoff — isn't the most important one.
The Agentic Attack Surface: Your AI Assistant Is the New Endpoint
Enterprise AI assistants now hold privileged access to code repositories, cloud credentials, internal APIs, and production systems. Security teams are not monitoring them. This is a structural blind spot with material consequences — and it's arriving faster than most organisations realise.
The 2026 Iran Conflict and the Dawn of Cyber-Enabled Kinetic Targeting
Iran's conflict with the US and Israel in 2026 confirmed what threat analysts had long theorised: cyberspace is now inseparable from kinetic warfare. What the Iran war reveals about hybrid doctrine — and what it means for critical infrastructure operators.
The AI Patch Wave Is Already Here -- and Defenders Are Already Behind
The NCSC warned in May that AI-accelerated vulnerability discovery would create a forced correction of technical debt. One month later, Anthropic's Project Glasswing has already found over 10,000 critical vulnerabilities in open source. The bottleneck is no longer finding bugs. It's fixing them.
A joint advisory from CISA, NCSC, and ten allied nations describes how China-linked threat actors have abandoned dedicated attack infrastructure in favour of networks of compromised home routers and IoT devices. The implication for defenders is worse than it sounds.
The OT/ICS Blind Spot: Why Your Cyber Risk Picture Is Missing Half the Picture
Most boards have a reasonable grasp of IT cyber risk. Almost none have adequate visibility into the operational technology that runs their industrial processes, utilities, and physical infrastructure. This gap is exactly what state actors are exploiting.
Nation-State Threats: What Business Leaders Get Wrong and Why It Matters
Most executives conflate nation-state cyber activity with the ransomware threat they're more familiar with. They are different in purpose, method, and the defences required. Getting this wrong shapes your entire risk posture.
The Real Cost of a Critical Infrastructure Attack: Beyond the Ransom
When a critical infrastructure operator is hit, the ransom payment is usually the smallest line on the eventual damage assessment. The true costs -- operational, regulatory, reputational, and systemic -- are far larger and far longer-lasting.