Two separate data breaches in the U.S. have exposed sensitive information of more than 236,000 people. These incidents involve two organizations: Endue Software in New York and Medical Express Ambulance (MedEx) in Illinois.
Endue Software creates software used by infusion centers, which help treat patients with medication delivered directly into their bloodstream. In February this year, the company found that hackers had broken into its system. This breach led to the exposure of personal details of around 118,000 individuals. The leaked information included full names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and unique medical record identifiers. While there is currently no proof that the stolen data has been used illegally, the company isn’t taking any chances. It has added more safety tools and measures to its systems. It is also offering one year of free credit monitoring and identity protection to help affected people stay safe from fraud.
In a different case, MedEx, a private ambulance service provider based in Illinois, reported that it was also hit by a cyberattack. This breach happened last year, but the details have recently come to light. Information belonging to more than 118,000 people was accessed by attackers. The data included health records, insurance information, and even passport numbers in some cases.
These events are part of a larger pattern of cyberattacks targeting the healthcare industry in the U.S. In recent months, major organizations like UnitedHealth Group and Ascension Health have also suffered large-scale data breaches. Cybercriminals often go after hospitals and medical companies because the data they store is very valuable and can be used for scams or identity theft.
Both Endue and MedEx are working with cybersecurity experts to investigate the breaches and improve their systems. People affected by these incidents are being advised to be extra cautious. They should use the free protection services, monitor their bank and credit accounts, and immediately report anything unusual.
In the last few years since the war in Ukraine began, several European countries have experienced unusual and suspicious activities. These events include online attacks, spying, fires, and efforts to spread false information. Investigations suggest that many of these actions may be linked to Russia or groups working in its interest.
According to a report studied by journalists from a global news agency, at least 59 such incidents have taken place. These actions are believed to be part of a broader strategy known as "hybrid attacks" which mix cybercrime, sabotage, and misinformation to confuse or harm other countries without direct warfare.
Some of these incidents involved hackers breaking into politicians' accounts or important systems. In other cases, there were attempts to cause damage through arson or even plans to smuggle explosives onto cargo flights. These activities have raised serious concerns among security agencies.
Officials from NATO believe these attacks serve two purposes: to create political tension within countries and to reduce international support for Ukraine. Nations that have supported Ukraine the most— like Poland, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia—have been targeted more often.
In the Baltic Sea, mysterious shipping activity has raised suspicions of Russian involvement in damaging undersea cables and pipelines. On land, authorities in some countries have accused Russia and its close ally Belarus of creating border tensions by pushing migrants toward their borders. Fires in Lithuania and Poland have also been publicly connected to these efforts.
When asked for a response, Russian officials denied all the accusations and claimed there was no solid proof of their involvement.
In a separate investigation, journalists from a European media alliance managed to secretly join an online group linked to Russian hackers. The journalist, after gaining the group's trust, was asked to perform tasks such as putting anti-West stickers in European cities and gathering personal data about people and groups.
This group was also linked to cyberattacks targeting vital infrastructure in European and NATO member countries. They appear to be part of a growing number of hacker collectives that act on behalf of Russian interests.
A European Union representative described these operations as an invisible form of war that is becoming more common across the continent— not just in countries near Russia.
Security experts say Russian intelligence may be hiring short-term agents through online channels to carry out small-scale missions. Because these people work anonymously and are hard to trace, it's difficult to hold anyone directly responsible.
According to the Czech foreign minister, there have been around 500 suspicious cases across Europe. Of these, about 100 have been officially blamed on Russia. He added that such attacks are happening more frequently now.
Security vendor BforeAI said around 600 phishing campaigns surfaced after the Bybit heist, which was intended to steal cryptocurrency from its customers. In the last three weeks, after the news of the biggest crypto scam in history, BforeAI found 596 suspicious domains from 13 different countries.
Dozens of these malicious domains mimicked the cryptocurrency exchange itself (Bybit), most using typosquatting techniques and keywords like “wallet,” “refund,” “information, “recovery,” and “check.”
According to BforeAI, there were also “instances of popular crypto keywords such as ‘metaconnect,’ ‘mining,’ and ‘airdrop,’ as well as the use of free hosting and subdomain registration services such as Netlify, Vercel, and Pages.dev.”
The use of free hosting services and dynamics is a common practice in this dataset. Many phishing pages are hosted on forums that offer anonymous, quick deployment without asking for domain purchases. Also, the highest number of verified malicious domains were registered in the UK.
After the incident, Bybit assured customers that they wouldn’t lose any money as a result. But the hackers took advantage of this situation and intentionally created a sense of anxiety and urgency via deceptive tactics like ‘fake recovery services and ‘phishing schemes.’ A few phishing websites pretended to be the “Bybit Help Center.”
The end goal was to make victims enter their crypto/Bybit passwords. A few weeks later, campaigns changed from “withdrawals, information, and refunds” through spoof Bybit sites to providing “crypto and training guides” and special rewards to trick potential investors.
Regardless of the change in these crypto and training guides, the campaigns persevered a “connection to the earlier withdrawal scams by including ‘how to withdraw from Bybit guides,’ BforeAI explained. This results in “a flow of traffic between learning resources fakes and withdrawal phishing attempts,” it added.
Bybit has accused North Korean hackers behind the attacks, costing the firm a massive $1.5 billion in stolen crypto. The campaign has contributed to Q1 2025 with an infamous record: a $1.7 billion theft in the first quarter, the highest in history.
Every day, the digital landscape evolves, thanks to innovations and technological advancements. Despite this growth, it suffers from a few roadblocks, cybercrime being a major one and not showing signs of ending anytime soon. Artificial Intelligence, large-scale data breaches, businesses, governments, and rising target refinement across media platforms have contributed to this problem. However, Nord VPN CTO Marijus Briedis believes, “Prevention alone is insufficient,” and we need resilience.
VPN provider Nord VPN experienced first-hand the changing cyber threat landscape after the spike in cybercrime cases attacking Lithuania, where the company is based, in the backdrop of the Ukraine conflict.
In the last few years, we have witnessed the expansion of cybercrime gangs and state-sponsored hackers and also the abuse of digital vulnerabilities. What is even worse is that “with little resources, you can have a lot of damage,” Briedis added. Data breaches reached an all-time high in 2024. The infamous “mother of all data breaches” incident resulted in a massive 26 billion record leak. Overall, more than 1 billion records were leaked throughout the year, according to NordLayer data.
Google’s Cybersecurity Forecast 2025 included Generative AI as a main threat, along with state-sponsored cybercriminals and ransomware.
Amid these increasing cyber threats, companies like NordVPN are widening the scope of their security services. A lot of countries have also implemented laws to safeguard against cyberattacks as much as possible throughout the years.
Over the years, governments, individuals, and organizations have also learned to protect their important data via vpn software, antivirus, firewall, and other security software. Despite these efforts, it’s not enough. According to Briedis, this happens because cybersecurity is not a fixed goal. "We have to be adaptive and make sure that we are learning from these attacks. We need to be [cyber] resilience."
In a RightsCon panel that Briedis attended, the discourse was aimed at NGOs, activists, and other small businesses, people take advantage of Nord’s advice to be more cyber-resilient. He gives importance to education, stressing it’s the “first thing.”
Cybercriminals are targeting Counter-Strike 2 (a free-to-play tactical first-person shooter game) players using a disguised Steam login page that looks quite convincing. The fake page tricks innocent gamers into giving away their account IDs and passwords.
The hackers distributed the attack on the websites that pretended to represent the sports team Navi. “Part of the campaign’s attack tactics also includes abusing the name of a professional esports team called Navi,” reports cybersecurity vendor Silent Push. The hackers offered visitors free weapons skins or a “free case” that could be used in the game. To get these freebies, the phishing page demanded users to log in to Steam.
“All of the websites our team has found so far were in English save one Chinese site, simplegive[.]cn, which was created in Mandarin, with some English wording, and used the top-level domain (TLD) '.cn,” reports Silent Push.
The campaign, an example of browser-in-the-browser tactic, is built around creating an almost real-looking fake browser pop-up windows that display the URL of the actual website. It aims to make a visitor feel safe; the users believe the pop-up window is part of the real site. When a victim tries to log into the fake Steam portal, the hackers steal their login credentials and also try to take over victim accounts for future resale. After this, the site shows a fake pop-up page that mimics the Steam login portal, including the official “steamcommunity.com” domain in the web address. But the pop-up is a dummy window inside the phishing webpage; Silent Push has shown this in its video.
According to Silent Push, the fake pop-up to the Steam login “cannot be maximized, minimized, or moved outside the browser window even though victims can ‘interact’ with the URL bar of the fake pop-up.” Silent Push also said that the campaign can be more effective for desktop users because the pop-ups are designed to be viewed on a larger resolution, in this case, big screens. All the fake Navi websites discovered were in English, except one Chinese site, which was in Mandarin with few English words.
The fake websites were hosted on domains like casenaps[.]com, caserevs[.]com, and caseneiv[.]com. However, it doesn’t seem likely that the hackers took the time to make fake pop-ups for mobile phone viewing. To stay safe, users should always check for fake URL bars in any login pop-ups. If you find any URL bar, always drag that window outside of your browser. If it doesn’t move, you can tell the pop-up is fake.