Everyone’s on the cyber target list

Everyone’s on the cyber target list

/in

Everyone's on the cyber target list

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter. 

I’ve discovered that being a rent guarantor for someone is an involved experience. While I’m glad that I can help out a loved one secure a better rental property, the process of verifying my identity and ability to cover any missed payments required handing over far more personal and financial data than I was comfortable with. 

I asked the agent about their information security policies and cybersecurity posture. I was relieved to hear that they delete all the personal data within two weeks of processing, but I was concerned that the person dealing with my dossier didn’t think that they were at risk of a cyber attack. They believed that because they had a low online profile and their organisation was small, they didn’t present as a target. 

Not wanting to jeopardise my position as a guarantor, I didn’t argue further beyond offering a few words of advice. The truth is that everyone is a target. Many criminals do not discriminate; they seek to compromise anyone and see how they can make money from a compromise once access is achieved. Sophisticated criminals research their targets and their wider ecosystem of suppliers and partners in depth to identify potential weak points. It only takes a moment’s inattention for anyone to fall for a phishing or social engineering scam. 

Cybersecurity training needs to reinforce the fact that anyone can be a victim of a cyber attack. No matter how careful you might be, how insignificant you think that you might be, an attack can still catch you off guard. The good news is that by ensuring basic cyber hygiene, we can make a lot of progress towards preventing harm. 

Impressing on users the need to install updates promptly, the importance of having end-point protection and using multi-factor authentication is not a panacea, but it is a basic foundation upon which more advanced protection can be built. 

Good cybersecurity begins with an awareness of the threat, an acknowledgement that we are all at risk, and knowing the potential consequences. Nobody is too insignificant, too small or too well hidden to escape the risk of cyber attack. Suitable protection follows from reflecting on what is at risk and what could possibly go wrong.

The one big thing 

Talos has uncovered a destructive attack on Ukrainian critical infrastructure involving a new wiper malware, “PathWiper,” deployed through a legitimate endpoint administration framework. Talos attributes this attack to a Russia-linked APT actor, underscoring the persistent threat to Ukraine’s infrastructure amid the ongoing war. 

Why do I care? 

This attack highlights the sophisticated tactics of state-sponsored threat actors and the risks critical infrastructure entities face, which could have global implications for cybersecurity and geopolitical stability. 

So now what? 

Organizations, particularly those managing critical infrastructure, should strengthen their endpoint security, monitor for unusual administrative activity, and stay informed on evolving threats to mitigate potential risks.

Top security headlines of the week

New Chrome Zero-Day Actively Exploited; Google Issues Emergency Out-of-Band Patch 
The high-severity flaw is being tracked as CVE-2025-5419 (CVSS score: 8.8), and has been flagged as an out-of-bounds read and write vulnerability in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. (The Hacker News) 

Vanta bug exposed customers’ data to other customers 
Compliance company Vanta has confirmed that a bug exposed the private data of some of its customers to other Vanta customers. The company told TechCrunch that the data exposure was a result of a product code change and not caused by an intrusion. (TechCrunch) 

Data Breach Affects 38K UChicago Medicine Patients 
UChicago Medicine released a statement that the data of 38K patients may have been exposed by a third-party debt collector’s system breach. The exposed data may include SSNs, addresses, dates of birth, medical information, and financial account information. (UPI)

Can’t get enough Talos? 

Fake AI installers target businesses. Catch up on the ransomware and malware threats Talos discovered circulating in the wild and masquerading as legit AI tool installers. Read the blog or listen to our most recent Talos Takes to hear Hazel and Chetan, the author, discuss the blog more in-depth.

Talos at Cisco Live 2025. From sessions featuring a live IR tabletop session to learning how to outsmart identity attacks, there’s plenty of Talos to keep you going in San Diego next week. Browse sessions Talos is participating in, and we’ll see you there!

Upcoming events where you can find Talos 

Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week 

SHA 256: a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91   
MD5: 7bdbd180c081fa63ca94f9c22c457376   
VirusTotal: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91/details  
Typical Filename: IMG001.exe  
Detection Name: Simple_Custom_Detection 

SHA 256: 
9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f 
VirusTotal: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507 
Typical Filename: VID001.exe 
Detection Name: Simple_Custom_Detection 

SHA 256: c67b03c0a91eaefffd2f2c79b5c26a2648b8d3c19a22cadf35453455ff08ead0 
MD5: 8c69830a50fb85d8a794fa46643493b2  
Typical Filename: AAct.exe  
Claimed Product: N/A  
Detection Name: PUA.Win.Dropper.Generic::1201 

Cisco Talos Blog – ​Read More