Search This Blog
Powered by Blogger.

Blog Archive

Labels

Footer About

Footer About

Labels

Load More
Trendy Right Now

Popular Posts

Latest News

Attackers Exploit Critical Windows Server Update Services Flaw After Microsoft’s Patch Fails

  Cybersecurity researchers have warned that attackers are actively exploiting a severe vulnerability in Windows Server Update Services (WS...

All the recent news you need to know
Security Breach
AI Systems Cyber Security Google MFA Security Breach

Google Probes Weeks-Long Security Breach Linked to Contractor Access

 




Google has launched a detailed investigation into a weeks-long security breach after discovering that a contractor with legitimate system privileges had been quietly collecting internal screenshots and confidential files tied to the Play Store ecosystem. The company uncovered the activity only after it had continued for several weeks, giving the individual enough time to gather sensitive technical data before being detected.

According to verified cybersecurity reports, the contractor managed to access information that explained the internal functioning of the Play Store, Google’s global marketplace serving billions of Android users. The files reportedly included documentation describing the structure of Play Store infrastructure, the technical guardrails that screen malicious apps, and the compliance systems designed to meet international data protection laws. The exposure of such material presents serious risks, as it could help malicious actors identify weaknesses in Google’s defense systems or replicate its internal processes to deceive automated security checks.

Upon discovery of the breach, Google initiated a forensic review to determine how much information was accessed and whether it was shared externally. The company has also reported the matter to law enforcement and begun a complete reassessment of its third-party access procedures. Internal sources indicate that Google is now tightening security for all contractor accounts by expanding multi-factor authentication requirements, deploying AI-based systems to detect suspicious activities such as repeated screenshot captures, and enforcing stricter segregation of roles and privileges. Additional measures include enhanced background checks for third-party employees who handle sensitive systems, as part of a larger overhaul of Google’s contractor risk management framework.

Experts note that the incident arrives during a period of heightened regulatory attention on Google’s data protection and antitrust practices. The breach not only exposes potential security weaknesses but also raises broader concerns about insider threats, one of the most persistent and challenging issues in cybersecurity. Even companies that invest heavily in digital defenses remain vulnerable when authorized users intentionally misuse their access for personal gain or external collaboration.

The incident has also revived discussion about earlier insider threat cases at Google. In one of the most significant examples, a former software engineer was charged with stealing confidential files related to Google’s artificial intelligence systems between 2022 and 2023. Investigators revealed that he had transferred hundreds of internal documents to personal cloud accounts and even worked with external companies while still employed at Google. That case, which resulted in multiple charges of trade secret theft and economic espionage, underlined how intellectual property theft by insiders can evolve into major national security concerns.

For Google, the latest breach serves as another reminder that internal misuse, whether by employees or contractors remains a critical weak point. As the investigation continues, the company is expected to strengthen oversight across its global operations. Cybersecurity analysts emphasize that organizations managing large user platforms must combine strong technical barriers with vigilant monitoring of human behavior to prevent insider-led compromises before they escalate into large-scale risks.



Read more »
Technology
AI Cloud Dark Web Internet Ransomware Technology

Why Ransomware Attacks Keep Rising and What Makes Them Unstoppable


In August, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) suffered a cyberattack. JLR employs over 32,800 people and provides additional 104,000 jobs via it's supply chain. JLR is the recent victim in a chain of ransomware attacks. 

Why such attacks?

Our world is entirely dependent on technology which are prone to attacks. Only a few people understand such complex infrastructure. The internet is built to be easy, and this makes it vulnerable. The first big cyberattack happened in 1988. That time, not many people knew about it. 

The more we rely on networked computer technology, the more we become exposed to attacks and ransomware extortion.

How such attacks happen?

There are various ways of hacking or disrupting a network. Threat actors get direct access through software bugs, they can access unprotected systems and leverage them as a zombie army called "botnet," to disrupt a network.

Currently, we are experiencing a wave of ransomware attacks. First, threat actors hack into a network, they may pretend to be an employee. They do this via phishing emails or social engineering attacks. After this, they increase their access and steal sensitive data for extortion reasons. By this, hackers gain control and assert dominance.

These days, "hypervisor" has become a favourite target. It is a server computer that lets many remote systems to use just one system (like work from home). Hackers then use ransomware to encode data, which makes the entire system unstable and it becomes impossible to restore the data without paying the ransom for a decoding key.

Why constant rise in attacks?

A major reason is a sudden rise in cryptocurrencies. It has made money laundering easier. In 2023, a record $1.1 billion was paid out across the world. Crypto also makes it easier to buy illegal things on the dark web. Another reason is the rise of ransomware as a service (RaaS) groups. This business model has made cyberattacks easier for beginner hackers 

About RaaS

RaaS groups market on dark web and go by the names like LockBit, REvil, Hive, and Darkside sell tech support services for ransomware attack. For a monthly fees, they provide a payment portal, encryption softwares, and a standalone leak site for blackmailing the victims, and also assist in ransom negotiations.


Read more »
Vulnerabilities
Apple Apple vulnerabilities Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities

iOS 26 Update Erases Key Forensic Log, Hindering Spyware Detection on iPhones

 

Researchers have raised concerns that Apple’s latest software release, iOS 26, quietly removes a crucial forensic tool used to detect infections from sophisticated spyware such as Pegasus and Predator. The change affects a system file known as shutdown.log, a part of Apple’s Sysdiagnose tool that for years has helped security experts trace evidence of digital compromise. 

Investigators at cybersecurity firm iVerify discovered that the log, which previously recorded every instance of an iPhone being powered off and on, is now automatically overwritten each time the device reboots. Earlier versions of iOS appended new entries to the file, preserving a timeline of shutdown events that often contained small traces of malware activity. 

These traces had previously been key in confirming spyware attacks on devices belonging to journalists, activists, and public officials. In 2021, forensic analysts revealed that Pegasus, a surveillance tool developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, left recognizable patterns within the shutdown.log, which became instrumental in public investigations into digital espionage. 

After these findings, Pegasus operators began deleting the file to hide their activity, but even those deletions became a clue for analysts, as an abnormally clean log often pointed to tampering. 

The iOS 26 update now clears this record automatically, effectively erasing any historical evidence of infection after a single reboot. 

iVerify researchers said the change may have been introduced to improve performance or reduce unnecessary data storage, but its timing has raised alarms among those tracking spyware use, which has expanded beyond activists to include business leaders and celebrities. 

The update complicates ongoing efforts to investigate and confirm past infections, particularly on devices that may have been compromised months or years ago. Analysts studying Predator, another spyware tool linked to the surveillance firm Cytrox, have reported similar behavior within shutdown.log. 

With Apple yet to comment, experts recommend that high-risk users save a Sysdiagnose report before updating to preserve existing logs. They also advise delaying installation until the company provides clarity or releases a patch. The loss of historical shutdown data, researchers warn, could make identifying spyware on iPhones significantly harder at a time when digital surveillance threats continue to grow globally.
Read more »
healthcare data breach
Data Breach Data Exfilteration Data protection data security Healthcare Healthcare Breach Healthcare Data healthcare data breach

Conduent Healthcare Data Breach Exposes 10.5 Million Patient Records in Massive 2025 Cyber Incident

 

In what may become the largest healthcare breach of 2025, Conduent Business Solutions LLC disclosed a cyberattack that compromised the data of over 10.5 million patients. The breach, first discovered in January, affected major clients including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana and Humana, among others. Although the incident has not yet appeared on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ HIPAA breach reporting website, Conduent confirmed the scale of the exposure in filings with federal regulators. 

The company reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in April that a “threat actor” gained unauthorized access to a portion of its network on January 13. The breach caused operational disruptions for several days, though systems were reportedly restored quickly. Conduent said the attack led to data exfiltration involving files connected to a limited number of its clients. Upon further forensic analysis, cybersecurity experts confirmed that these files contained sensitive personal and health information of millions of individuals. 

Affected data included patient names, treatment details, insurance information, and billing records. The company’s notification letters sent to Humana and Blue Cross customers revealed that the breach stemmed from Conduent’s third-party mailroom and printing services unit. Despite the massive scale, Conduent maintains that there is no evidence the stolen data has appeared on the dark web. 

Montana regulators recently launched an investigation into the breach, questioning why Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana took nearly ten months to notify affected individuals. Conduent, which provides business and government support services across 22 countries, reported approximately $25 million in direct response costs related to the incident during the second quarter of 2024. The company also confirmed that it holds cyber insurance coverage and has notified federal law enforcement. 

The Conduent breach underscores the growing risk of third-party vendor incidents in the healthcare sector. Experts note that even ancillary service providers like mailroom or billing vendors handle vast amounts of protected health information, making them prime targets for cybercriminals. Regulatory attorney Rachel Rose emphasized that all forms of protected health information (PHI)—digital or paper—fall under HIPAA’s privacy and security rules, requiring strict administrative and technical safeguards. 

Security consultant Wendell Bobst noted that healthcare organizations must improve vendor risk management programs by implementing continuous monitoring and stronger contractual protections. He recommended requiring certifications like HITRUST or FedRAMP for high-risk vendors and enforcing audit rights and breach response obligations. 

The incident follows last year’s record-breaking Change Healthcare ransomware attack, which exposed data from 193 million patients. While smaller in comparison, Conduent’s 10.5 million affected individuals highlight how interconnected the healthcare ecosystem has become—and how each vendor link in that chain poses a potential cybersecurity risk. As experts warn, healthcare organizations must tighten vendor oversight, ensure data minimization practices, and develop robust incident response playbooks to prevent the next large-scale PHI breach.
Read more »
Ravin Academy
Data Breach Iranian hackers MOIS Private Data Ravin Academy

Iranian Intelligence-Linked Ravin Academy Suffers Data Breach

 

Ravin Academy, a cybersecurity training center closely linked to Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), has suffered a significant data breach that exposed the personal information of over 1,000 individuals enrolled in its technical programs.

The academy, established in 2019, has been described as a recruitment pipeline for Iran's cyber operations and has previously been sanctioned by the U.S., UK, and EU for aiding the country's intelligence activities.

Details of the breach

The breach involved the compromise of personal data, including names, phone numbers, Telegram usernames, and, in some cases, national ID numbers of students and associates. The information was reportedly leaked on an online platform managed by the academy and subsequently made public by UK-based Iranian activist Nariman Gharib, who obtained a copy of the stolen dataset. 

The breach occurred just before Ravin Academy's annual Tech Olympics event, leading the institution to claim the attack was orchestrated to undermine its reputation and harm Iran's cybersecurity ambitions. Ravin Academy has been widely recognized for providing both offensive and defensive cyber training to Iranian intelligence personnel, including courses in red-teaming, malware reverse-engineering, and vulnerability analysis. 

The academy’s founders, Farzin Karimi Mazlganchai and Seyed Mojtaba Mostafavi, are themselves sanctioned by Western governments for their ties to state-sponsored cyber operations. The organization is thought to play a critical role in Iran’s cyber capabilities, contributing to projects that have targeted domestic protests and international adversaries.

Global implications

The breach not only highlights vulnerabilities within Iran’s cyber training infrastructure but also raises concerns over the privacy and security of individuals involved in state-linked cyber programs. Analysts suggest the incident underscores the risks faced by institutions central to national cyber development and the growing sophistication of cyber operations targeting such entities. 

With the leaked data potentially useful for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, the breach has significant ramifications for both individual privacy and the broader landscape of cyber conflict. This incident serves as a stark reminder of the exposure faced by state-affiliated cyber training programs and the far-reaching consequences of cyber breaches in the realm of international security.
Read more »
Supply chain vulnerability
Airport Cyberattack Aviation Cyber Threats Collins Aerospace Hack Critical Infrastructure Security Cybersecurity Breach Data Extortion Digital Resilience Ransomware attack Supply chain vulnerability

Collins Aerospace Deals with Mounting Aftermath of Hack


One of the most disruptive cyber incidents to have hit Europe's aviation sector in recent years was a crippling ransomware attack that occurred on September 19, 2025, causing widespread chaos throughout the continent's airports.  

The disruption was not caused by adverse weather, labour unrest or mechanical failure but by a digital breakdown at the heart of the industry's technological core. The Collins Aerospace MUSE platform, which is used for passenger check-ins and baggage operations at major airport hubs including Heathrow, Brussels, Berlin, and Dublin, unexpectedly went down, leading airports to revert to paper-based, manual procedures. 

There was confusion in the terminals and gate agents resorted to handwritten manifests and improvised coordination methods to handle the surge, while thousands of passengers stranded in transit faced flight cancellations and delays. While flight safety systems remained unaffected, and a suspect (a British national) was apprehended within a few days of the attack, it also exposed an increasingly frightening vulnerability in aviation's growing reliance on interconnected digital infrastructure. 

This ripple effect revealed how one breach of security could cause shockwaves throughout the entire ecosystem of insurers, logistics companies, and national transport networks that are all intertwined with the digital backbone of air travel itself, far beyond an aviation issue. 

In the aftermath of the Collins Aerospace cyberattack, the crisis became worse when on Sunday, a group linked to Russian intelligence and known as the Everest Group claimed to have accessed sensitive passenger information allegedly stolen by Dublin Airport and claimed to have been possessed by the group. This group, which operates on the dark web, announced that they had acquired 1.5 million passenger records and threatened to release the data unless a ransom was paid by Saturday evening before releasing the data. 

It has been reported that Everest, which had earlier claimed credit for breaching systems connected to Collins Aerospace's MUSE software on October 17, believes that the security breach occurred between September 10 and 11, using credentials obtained from an insecure FTP server in order to infiltrate the company's infrastructure. 

On September 19, Collins Aerospace shut down affected servers that blocked cybercriminals from accessing these servers, according to the cybercriminals who claimed their access to those servers was later stopped. This move occurred simultaneously with a wide array of operational outages in major European airports including Heathrow, Berlin Brandenburg, Brussels, and Dublin. 

A spokesperson for the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) confirmed that a probe has been initiated in response to the mounting concerns regarding the incident, as well as in coordination with regulators and impacted airlines. It should be pointed out that as of yet no evidence has been found of a direct hacking attack on DAA's internal systems, indicating that the dataset exposed primarily consists of details regarding passenger boarding for flights departing Dublin Airport during the month of August.

While this happened, ENISA, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, categorised the Collins Aerospace hack as a ransomware attack, which underlined the escalation of sophistication and reach of cybercriminals targeting critical aviation infrastructure across the globe. There have been signs of gradual recovery as European airports have struggled to regain operational stability since the Collins Aerospace cyber incident. 

Although challenges persisted throughout the days of the cyberattack, signs of gradual recovery did emerge. While flight schedules at London's Heathrow airport and Berlin Brandenburg airport had begun to stabilize on Sunday, Brussels Airport continued to experience significant disruptions. A statement issued by Brussels Airport on Monday stated that it had requested airlines cancel about half of the 276 departures scheduled for Monday due to the non-availability of Collins Aerospace's new secure check-in software, which had not been available for the previous few days.

As manual check-in procedures remained in place, the airport warned that cancellations and delays were likely to continue until full digital functionality had been restored. In spite of the ongoing disruptions, airport authorities reported that roughly 85% of weekend flights operated, which was made possible by ensuring additional staffing from airline partners and ensuring that the online check-in and self-service baggage system were still operational, according to Airport Authority reports. 

The airport’s spokesperson Ihsane Chioua Lekhli explained that the cyberattack impacted only the computer systems being used at the counters staffed by employees, and that in order to minimize the inconvenience to passengers, backup processes and even laptops have been used as workarounds.

It is important to note that RTX Corporation, the parent company of Collins Aerospace, refused to comment on this matter in a previous statement issued on Saturday, when RTX Corporation acknowledged the disruption and said it was working to fully restore its services as soon as possible. According to the company, the impact will only be felt by electronic check-in and baggage drop and can be minimized by manual operations. 

During the weekend, Heathrow and Brandenburg airports both encouraged passengers to check their flight statuses before arriving at the airport, as well as to take advantage of online or self-service options to cut down on traffic. In its latest communication, Heathrow Airport stated that it was working with airlines "to recover from Friday's outage," stressing that despite the delays, a majority of scheduled flights were able to run throughout the weekend despite the delay. 

There has been a broader discussion around the fragility of digital supply chains and the increasing risk that comes with vendor dependency as a result of the Collins Aerospace incident. Increasingly, ransomware and data extortion groups are exploiting third-party vulnerabilities in order to increase the likelihood of a systemic outage, rather than an isolated cyber event. 

An analysis by industry analysts indicates that the true differentiator between organizations that are prepared, visible, and quick to respond during such crises lies in their ability to deal with them quickly, and in the ability to anticipate problems before they arise. According to Resilience's cybersecurity portfolio, only 42% of ransomware attacks in 2025 were followed by incurred claims, a significant decrease from 60% in 2024.

According to experts, this progress is largely due to the adoption of robust backup protocols, periodic testing, and well-defined business continuity frameworks, which are the foundation of this improvement. However, broader industry figures paint a more worrying picture. Approximately 46% of organizations that have been affected by ransomware opted to pay ransoms to retrieve data, according to Sophos' State of Ransomware report, while in the Resilience dataset, the number of affected organizations paid ransoms fell from 22% in 2024 to just 14% in 2025.

This contrast illustrates the fact that companies that have tested recovery capabilities are less likely to succumb to extortion demands because they have viable options for recovering their data. A new approach to cybersecurity has emerged – one that is based on early detection, real-time threat intelligence, and preemptive mitigation. Eye Security uncovered a critical vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint in July 2025 and issued targeted alerts in response to the vulnerability. This proactive approach enabled Eye Security to scan its client ecosystem, alert its clients, and contain active exploitation attempts before significant damage could occur. 

According to experts, Collins Aerospace's breach serves as a lesson for what happens when critical vendors fail in a network that is interconnected. A recent outage that crippled airports across Europe was more than just an aviation crisis; it was an alarming reminder of the concentration risk that cloud-based and shared operating technologies carry across industries as well. 

Organizations are increasingly reliant on specialized vendors to manage essential systems in order to ensure their success, so the question isn't if a major outage will occur again, but whether businesses have the resilience infrastructure to stay operational if it happens again. It is clear from the Collins Aerospace incident that cybersecurity is no longer a separate IT concern, but rather a core component of operational continuity. 

It stands as a defining moment for digital resilience in the evolving narrative. The emphasis in navigating this era of global infrastructure disruption must shift to building layered defense ecosystems, combining predictive intelligence, rigorous vendor vetting, and a real-time crisis response framework, as businesses navigate through the challenges of a single vendor outage disrupting global infrastructure. 

In the end, the lesson is clear: resilience is not built when disruption happens but in anticipation of it, ensuring that when the next digital storm hits, we are prepared, not panicked.
Read more »
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)

Featured