Fake Solidity VSCode extension on Open VSX backdoors developers

A remote access trojan dubbed SleepyDuck, and disguised as the well-known Solidity extension in the Open VSX open-source registry, uses an Ethereum smart contract to establish a communication channel with the attacker. Open VSX is a community-driven registry for extensions compatible with VS Code, which are popular with AI-powered integrated development environments (IDEs) like Cursor and Windsurf. […]

Microsoft: SesameOp malware abuses OpenAI Assistants API in attacks

Microsoft security researchers have discovered a new backdoor malware that uses the OpenAI Assistants API as a covert command-and-control channel. The company’s Detection and Response Team (DART) discovered the new malware, named SesameOp, during an investigation into a July 2025 cyberattack, which revealed that the malware allowed attackers to gain persistent access to the compromised […]

US cybersecurity experts indicted for BlackCat ransomware attacks

Three former employees of cybersecurity incident response companies DigitalMint and Sygnia have been indicted for allegedly hacking the networks of five U.S. companies in BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware attacks between May 2023 and November 2023. 28-year-old Kevin Tyler Martin of Roanoke, Texas (who pleaded not guilty), 33-year-old Ryan Clifford Goldberg of Watkinsville, Georgia (in federal custody […]

Hackers use RMM tools to breach freighters and steal cargo shipments

Threat actors are targeting freight brokers and trucking carriers with malicious links and emails to deploy remote monitoring and management tools (RMMs) that enable them to hijack cargo and steal physical goods. Researchers tracked the activity to June, but they found evidence of these types of campaigns delivering NetSupport and ScreenConnect since January.  According to email security […]

Penn hacker claims to have stolen 1.2 million donor records in data breach

A hacker has taken responsibility for last week’s University of Pennsylvania “We got hacked” email incident, saying it was a far more extensive breach that exposed data on 1.2 million donors and internal documents. On Friday, University of Pennsylvania alumni and students began receiving multiple offensive emails from Penn.edu addresses claiming the university had been […]