Cybersecurity Brief – 2025-07-31

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Major Incidents or Breaches

The ShinyHunters extortion group has been linked to data breaches at Qantas, Allianz Life, LVMH, and Adidas, using voice phishing attacks to steal data from Salesforce environments.
SafePay ransomware group claims to have stolen 3.5TB of data from Ingram Micro and is threatening to leak the data.
Telecom provider Orange suffered a cyberattack resulting in service disruptions for both corporate and individual customers.
The UNC2891 (LightBasin) threat group attempted a physical intrusion by planting a 4G-equipped Raspberry Pi on a bank’s network during a failed ATM heist.
The City of Saint Paul, Minnesota, called in the National Guard to respond to a cyberattack.
The National Treasury of South Africa and several other organisations were compromised in mass exploits of on-premises Microsoft SharePoint servers.
A U.S.-based chemicals company was breached via exploitation of a SAP NetWeaver vulnerability, leading to deployment of the Auto-Color backdoor.
The Python Software Foundation warned that attackers are using a fake PyPI website to phish for developer credentials.
Over 250 fake mobile apps targeting Koreans have been used to deploy spyware and conduct blackmail campaigns.
Discord and other social platforms are being flooded with fraudulent online gaming and wagering sites, which lure users and steal funds.

Apple released security updates for iOS, iPadOS, and Safari, patching 29 vulnerabilities, including a WebKit flaw that was exploited as a zero-day in Google Chrome.
Lenovo issued UEFI firmware updates to address high-severity BIOS flaws enabling Secure Boot bypass in certain desktop models.
Critical, now-patched vulnerabilities in Dahua smart camera firmware could allow remote hijacking via ONVIF and file upload exploits.
Researchers disclosed a critical authentication bypass in the Vibe coding platform Base44, which exposed private enterprise applications; Wix patched the issue.
A critical unauthenticated arbitrary file upload vulnerability in the WordPress ‘Alone’ theme is being actively exploited for remote code execution and full site takeovers.

Cobalt Strike Beacon is being delivered via social media, Microsoft Learn Challenge, Quora, and GitHub in a campaign targeting Russian entities.
Hackers are distributing JSCEAL malware through Facebook ads promoting fake cryptocurrency trading apps, using compiled V8 JavaScript to capture sensitive data.
Chinese state-sponsored group Silk Typhoon (Hafnium) is linked to over 15 technology patents for cyber espionage tools, highlighting PRC-backed contractor involvement.
Scattered Spider’s activity has decreased following recent arrests, but their social engineering and backup targeting tactics are being adopted by other financially motivated actors.

Device Bound Session Credentials (DBSC) launched in open beta in Google Chrome to protect against session cookie theft.
A new attack vector allows threat actors to use malicious browser extensions to inject prompts into popular generative AI tools, including ChatGPT and Gemini (“Man in the Prompt” attack).
AI adoption in vCISO services is rapidly increasing, with a reported 68% reduction in workload and tripling of adoption rates among MSPs and MSSPs.
VPN usage in the UK is rising sharply in response to age verification controls mandated by the Online Safety Act.
Security awareness training and tools, such as KnowBe4’s Phish Alert Button, can significantly increase employee phishing reporting rates, as evidenced by a 50-fold increase in a large retail organisation.
Fraudsters are exploiting Discord and social media to promote sophisticated scam gaming sites.
Mass exploitation of on-premises Microsoft SharePoint servers continues to impact organisations, particularly in Africa.
Threat actors are using phishing with fake PyPI sites to target software developers and steal credentials.

The US Senate Committee has advanced the nomination of Sean Plankey to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
The UK’s Online Safety Act, which mandates age verification on adult sites, is directly influencing a surge in VPN adoption across the region.

Palo Alto Networks announced the acquisition of CyberArk for $25 billion, marking a significant move into the identity security market.
BlinkOps raised $50 million for its agentic security automation platform, bringing total funding to $90 million.
Legion emerged from stealth with $38 million in funding for its browser-native AI Security Operations Center (SOC) platform.
Cyata, an Israeli startup focused on AI agent monitoring and control, raised $8.5 million in funding.
The average cost of a data breach in the US has risen to $10.22 million, while the global average has decreased slightly to $4.44 million, according to IBM.