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Tag: government

Welcoming the Philippine Government to Have I Been Pwned

Today, we welcome the 46th government onboarded to Have I Been Pwned’s free gov service: the Philippines. The Philippines’ National CERT, working with the Department of Information and Communications Technology, now has access to monitor official government domains against the data in HIBP. This gives their Cyber Threat Intel and Monitoring Section the ability to…

Two-year old Oracle WebLogic Server vulnerability is being exploited

US federal government departments have been given until Thursday to patch a two-year old high severity vulnerability in Oracle WebLogic Server that could allow an unauthenticated attacker to access critical data. The vulnerability, CVE-2024-21182, was added Monday to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, giving federal Oracle admins a…

Smashing Security podcast #469: What your Oura ring won’t tell you

CISA, the US government agency whose entire job is keeping America’s critical infrastructure safe from hackers, has had a contractor publish dozens of plain-text credentials to a public GitHub profile. Meanwhile, your Oura ring is quietly transmitting some of its data unencrypted – and when one journalist asked the company how often it hands user…

Dutch Government just said no to an American firm buying the keys to their digital State

The Dutch government blocked Kyndryl’s €100M bid for Solvinity, citing national security concerns over critical digital infrastructure. Dutch Government told Kyndryl it can’t buy Solvinity. That sentence doesn’t sound dramatic, but what it means is this: a European government just blocked an American IT company from acquiring the firm that runs DigiD, the platform Dutch…

Welcoming the Bhutanese Government to Have I Been Pwned

Today, we welcome the 45th government onboarded to Have I Been Pwned’s free gov service: Bhutan. The Bhutan Computer Incident Response Team, BtCIRT, now has access to monitor Bhutanese government domains against the data in HIBP. As Bhutan’s national CIRT, BtCIRT is responsible for consuming threat intelligence and sharing relevant insights with its constituents, helping…

Ghostwriter Is Back, Using a Ukrainian Learning Platform as Bait to Hit Government Targets

Ghostwriter targeted Ukrainian government agencies with phishing emails delivering malware and Cobalt Strike payloads. The Belarus-nexus APT group Ghostwriter (also tracked as UAC-0057 and UNC1151) has resurfaced with a new phishing campaign targeting Ukrainian government organizations. This time the lure is Prometheus, a legitimate Ukrainian online learning platform that many government employees actually use. Using…

Contractor’s public GitHub account exposed GovCloud and CISA credentials

Until a few days ago, a publicly-accessible GitHub repository exposed credentials for both US government AWS accounts and internal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) systems. That’s according to cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs, who first broke the news over the weekend, acting on a tip from researcher Guillaume Valadon at GitGuardian. Valadon confirmed the information…

Ghostwriter group resumes attacks on Ukrainian Government targets

ESET uncovered new Ghostwriter (aka FrostyNeighbor) activity targeting Ukrainian government organizations in a campaign active since March 2026. ESET researchers published a new report documenting fresh activity attributed to the APT group FrostyNeighbor, aka Ghostwriter, active since at least March 2026, targeting Ukrainian governmental organizations. The campaign is similar to previous FrostyNeighbor’s campaigns. The threat…

White House cyber official: identity security matters more than ever in the age of AI

As AI becomes more integrated into federal IT (and attacker toolsets) government agencies will need to focus their resources on regulating and monitoring the identities that access their network, a top White House cybersecurity official said Thursday. Nick Polk, branch director for federal cybersecurity in the Executive Office of the President, said that while AI…

Welcoming the Bahamian Government to Have I Been Pwned

Today, we welcome the 44th government onboarded to Have I Been Pwned’s free gov service: The Bahamas. The National Computer Incident Response Team of The Bahamas, CIRT-BS, now has access to monitor government domains against the data in HIBP. As the national CIRT, CIRT-BS is responsible for coordinating and supporting cybersecurity-related matters across the country,…

Major world economies spell out key elements of AI ‘ingredients list’

A group of international government agencies released guidance Tuesday on what they believe any artificial intelligence “ingredients list” tool should include to make AI more secure. The concept of such a list, known as a “software bill of materials (SBOM),” is to know everything that goes into a particular piece of software so that any…

Welcoming the Costa Rican Government to Have I Been Pwned

Today, we welcome the 42nd government onboarded to Have I Been Pwned’s free gov service: Costa Rica. The CSIRT of the Government of Costa Rica now has access to monitor government domains against the data in HIBP. This enables their national cybersecurity incident response team to identify exposure of government email addresses in data breach,…

Hackers target governments and MSPs via critical cPanel flaw CVE-2026-41940

Attackers exploit a critical cPanel flaw to target government and MSP networks across Southeast Asia and several countries, including the U.S. and Canada. A threat actor is exploiting critical cPanel vulnerability CVE-2026-41940 to target government and military organizations in Southeast Asia, along with MSPs and hosting providers in countries like the Philippines, Laos, Canada, South…

Critical cPanel Vulnerability Weaponized to Target Government and MSP Networks

A previously unknown threat actor has been observed targeting government and military entities in Southeast Asia, alongside a smaller cluster of managed service providers (MSPs) and hosting providers in the Philippines, Laos, Canada, South Africa, and the U.S., by exploiting the recently disclosed vulnerability in cPanel. The activity, detected by Ctrl-Alt-Intel on May 2, 2026,…

China-Linked Hackers Target Asian Governments, NATO State, Journalists, and Activists

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new China-aligned espionage campaign targeting government and defense sectors across South, East, and Southeast Asia, along with one European government belonging to NATO. Trend Micro has attributed the activity to a threat activity cluster it tracks under the temporary designation SHADOW-EARTH-053. The adversarial collective is assessed to

Federal CIO cautious on Anthropic’s Mythos despite planned rollout

Federal Chief Information Officer Greg Barbaccia said Tuesday the government is approaching Anthropic’s Mythos model with measured expectations, acknowledging both its potential to strengthen federal cyber defenses and the significant uncertainties that remain about how it would perform in real-world conditions. Barbaccia said his direct exposure to Mythos has been limited to evaluations and benchmarking…

ClickUp Data Leak Exposes Enterprise Emails for Over a Year 

A hardcoded API key embedded in ClickUp’s public website has quietly exposed hundreds of corporate and government email addresses for more than a year. The flaw, first reported in early 2025, remained active as of April 2026 — allowing anyone to access sensitive data with a simple request and no authentication. “I went to http://clickup[.]com,…

A dozen allied agencies say China is building covert hacker networks out of everyday routers

U.S. and international government agencies warned Thursday about a “widespread shift” in Chinese hacker methods toward the use of large-scale covert networks that compromise common devices to carry out a variety of attacks. The advisory details how those networks work, and defensive steps organizations should take. “Over the past few years there has been a…

Cyberattack on French government agency triggers phishing alert for users

France Titres, a French government agency, has disclosed a data breach that may have exposed user data from its online portal. France Titres, also known as the Agence nationale des titres sécurisés (ANTS), operates under the French Ministry of the Interior and manages systems for official identity and registration documents, including driver’s licences, national ID…

The thin gray line: Handala, CyberAv3ngers and Iran’s proxy ops

On April 7, six US government agencies issued a critical advisory warning domestic private sector organizations of potential infrastructural cyberattacks conducted by Iranian-affiliated Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actors. The advisory stops short of attributing these threats to a single group but makes reference to 2023 attacks on US water and wastewater facilities linked to the…

White House moves to give federal agencies access to Anthropic’s Claude Mythos

The US government is preparing to authorize a version of Anthropic’s Claude Mythos model for use by major US federal agencies, amid concerns that the AI model could rapidly spot cybersecurity vulnerabilities and offer the ability to exploit them. Federal Chief Information Officer Gregory Barbaccia at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB)…

From clinics to government: UAC-0247 expands cyber campaign across Ukraine

CERT-UA reports UAC-0247 targeting Ukrainian clinics and government bodies with malware stealing data from Chromium browsers and WhatsApp. CERT-UA has revealed a cyber campaign by the threat actor UAC-0247 targeting Ukrainian government entities and municipal healthcare facilities, including clinics and emergency hospitals. The operation between March and April 2026, used malware designed to steal sensitive…

Anthropic tests user trust with ID and selfie checks for Claude

Anthropic announced identity verification for Claude using government ID and selfie checks, becoming the first major AI chatbot to do so, a move that may prove unpopular with users. Having built its reputation around privacy in the AI race, Anthropic risks undermining its positioning, as competitors such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini do not…

The French government eyes alternatives to Windows

The French government has decided to reduce its dependence on US technology companies in light of the growing divide between the US and the EU. The Direction interministérielle du numérique (DINUM), an agency responsible for digitalization issues, has announced that it will soon replace Windows with a Linux-based operating system. Previously, the French government had…

Hungarian government email passwords exposed ahead of election

When voters in the forthcoming Hungarian election assess the current government, its record on internet security will not be one of its proudest achievements. An analysis by open source investigation organization Bellingcat has revealed that the passwords for almost 800 Hungarian government email accounts are circulating online, many of them associated with national security. These…

Hungarian government email passwords exposed ahead of election

When voters in the forthcoming Hungarian election assess the current government, its record on internet security will not be one of its proudest achievements. An analysis by open source investigation organization Bellingcat has revealed that the passwords for almost 800 Hungarian government email accounts are circulating online, many of them associated with national security. These…

Inside the FBI’s router takedown that cut off APT28’s ‘tremendous access’

The recent FBI-led operation to knock Russian government hackers off routers sought to topple an especially insidious and threateningly contagious cyberespionage campaign, top bureau cyber official Brett Leatherman told CyberScoop. Researchers, along with U.S. and foreign government agencies, revealed details of the campaign this week by which APT28 — also known as Forest Blizzard or…

Prompt injection tags along as GenAI enters daily government use

Routine use of GenAI has moved into daily operations in state and territorial government environments, placing new security risks within common workflows. A Center for Internet Security (CIS) report, Prompt Injections: The Inherent Threat to Generative AI, identifies prompt injection as a persistent concern tied to that adoption. Adoption expands exposure Use of AI tools…

Hack-for-hire spyware campaign targets journalists in Middle East, North Africa

An apparent hack-for-hire campaign from a group with suspected Indian government connections targeted Middle Eastern and North African journalists and activists using spyware, three collaborating organizations said in reports published Wednesday. The attacks shared infrastructure that pointed to the advanced persistent threat group known as Bitter, which most frequently targets government, military, diplomatic and critical…

Iranian cyber activity hits US energy, water, and government networks

U.S. government agencies on Tuesday warned American organizations about ongoing cyber activity targeting OT and PLC devices, including those manufactured by Rockwell Automation and Allen-Bradley, across multiple critical infrastructure sectors. The activity has been attributed to Iranian-affiliated APT actors seeking to disrupt operations in the United States. Disruptions across critical sectors The advisory, issued by…

Iranian hackers launching disruptive attacks at U.S. energy, water targets, feds warn

Iranian government hackers are launching disruptive cyberattacks on American energy and water infrastructure, U.S. government agencies “urgently” warned Tuesday. The hackers are taking aim at devices and systems that control industrial processes, and have harmed victims in the last month following the onset of U.S.-Israel strikes against Iran, according to the joint alert from the…

China-Linked TA416 Targets European Governments with PlugX and OAuth-Based Phishing

A China-aligned threat actor has set its sights on European government and diplomatic organizations since mid-2025, following a two-year period of minimal targeting in the region. The campaign has been attributed to TA416, a cluster of activity that overlaps with DarkPeony, RedDelta, Red Lich, SmugX, UNC6384, and Vertigo Panda. “This TA416 activity included multiple

California to bar AI vendors that can’t prove bias safeguards

AI vendors selling to the California state government must prove they have safeguards against algorithmic bias, civil rights violations, and illegal content, or risk being barred from state contracts, under an executive order signed by Governor Gavin Newsom. The order directs the Department of General Services and the California Department of Technology to develop new…

CCTV Crackdown: India Moves to Block Chinese Surveillance Cameras

India is preparing for a major shift in its surveillance ecosystem as the government tightens rules around internet-connected CCTV cameras. The move is primarily aimed at addressing rising concerns over national security and data privacy risks linked to foreign-made devices. Authorities have found that several widely used CCTV systems may not be as secure as…

China-Linked groups target Southeast Asian government with advanced malware in 2025

China-linked groups hit a Southeast Asian government in 2025, deploying multiple malware families in a sophisticated cyber campaign. In 2025, three China-linked threat clusters targeted a Southeast Asian government in a complex, well-funded cyber operation. Threat actors deployed numerous malware types, including HIUPAN, PUBLOAD, EggStremeFuel/Loader, MASOL RAT, PoshRAT, TrackBak Stealer, Hypnosis Loader, and FluffyGh0st, showing…

Three China-Linked Clusters Target Southeast Asian Government in 2025 Cyber Campaign

Three threat activity clusters aligned with China have targeted a government organization in Southeast Asia as part of what has been described as a “complex and well-resourced operation.” The campaigns have led to the deployment of various malware families, including HIUPAN (aka USBFect, MISTCLOAK, or U2DiskWatch), PUBLOAD, EggStremeFuel (aka RawCookie), EggStremeLoader (aka Gorem RAT), MASOL

China-linked Red Menshen APT deploys stealthy BPFDoor implants in telecom networks

China-linked Red Menshen APT group used stealthy BPFDoor implants in telecom networks to spy on government targets. Rapid7 Labs uncovered a China-linked threat group known as Red Menshen has been running a long-term espionage campaign by infiltrating telecom networks, mainly in the Middle East and Asia. Active since at least 2021, the group uses highly…

Can Zero Trust survive the AI era?

For the past decade, cybersecurity experts in the federal government have argued that trust, or a lack of it, was key to developing effective security policies for agency systems and data. But today, cybercriminals and state-sponsored hackers are using artificial intelligence to develop and launch cyberattacks more quickly and efficiently. Governments and businesses are facing…

CISA Warns of Zimbra, SharePoint Flaw Exploits; Cisco Zero-Day Hit in Ransomware Attacks

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has urged government agencies to apply patches for two security flaws impacting Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint, stating they have been actively exploited in the wild. The vulnerabilities in question are as follows – CVE-2025-66376 (CVSS score: 7.2) – A stored cross-site scripting

CISA official advises agencies not to get too hung up on who takes lead in critical infrastructure sectors

The U.S. government shouldn’t rigidly stick to traditional designations about which agency takes the lead on engaging with critical infrastructure sectors, the acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Tuesday. Sector risk management agency designations have long governed which agency is at the forefront of government efforts to protect each of the…

Russia-linked hackers target Signal, WhatsApp of officials globally

Russia-linked hackers are targeting Signal and WhatsApp accounts of government and military officials worldwide, warns Dutch intelligence. Dutch intelligence agencies (MIVD and AIVD) warn of a global campaign by Russia-linked threat actors aiming to compromise Signal and WhatsApp accounts. The operation targets government officials, civil servants, and military personnel, highlighting growing cyber risks to sensitive…

Dust Specter Targets Iraqi Officials with New SPLITDROP and GHOSTFORM Malware

A suspected Iran-nexus threat actor has been attributed to a campaign targeting government officials in Iraq by impersonating the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deliver a set of never-before-seen malware. Zscaler ThreatLabz, which observed the activity in January 2026, is tracking the cluster under the name Dust Specter. The attacks, which manifest in the…

Possible U.S.-developed exploits linked to first known ‘mass’ iOS attack

An exploit kit that may have originated from a leaked U.S. government framework is behind what researchers are calling the first mass-scale attack on iOS, the operating system for Apple’s iPhones. Traces of the exploits, found in the work of Chinese cybercriminals, also have been spotted in Russian attacks on Ukraine and used by a…

OpenAI says its US defense deal is safer than Anthropic’s, but is it?

OpenAI has struck a deal to supply the US government with AI services, announcing it hours after US President Donald Trump’s decision on Friday to ban its AI rival Anthropic from all US government contracts. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said of the negotiation, “It was definitely rushed, and the optics don’t look good,” in…

UK reduces cyberattack fix times from two months to eight days

The UK government has launched a new vulnerability monitoring service (VMS) that promises to reduce the time needed to fix critical cyber weaknesses across the public sector. Scanning government systems for critical cyber flaws The service, launched as part of the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government, published in January 2025, continuously scans internet-facing systems at…

US orders diplomats to push back on data sovereignty

The US government has ordered its diplomats to actively oppose other countries’ attempts to introduce so-called data sovereignty laws that restrict how and where foreign technology companies can store and handle citizens’ data, according to Reuters. In an internal memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the US describes such rules as a threat to…

Treasury Sanctions Russian Exploit Brokerage

The U.S. government has imposed sanctions on a foreign exploit brokerage accused of purchasing and reselling stolen government cyber tools under the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act (PAIPA).  This action targets Operation Zero, a Russia-linked exploit broker, and signals a tougher stance against markets that monetize zero-day vulnerabilities tied to national security systems.  “If you…

UK sounds alarm on rising cyber risks to businesses

The UK government launched a national campaign urging businesses to strengthen basic cyber defenses. The initiative follows new figures highlighting the scale of the threat. Serious cyber incidents cost businesses an average of £195,000, with about half of small firms experiencing one in the past 12 months, officials say. “No business is out of reach…

UK sets course for stricter AI chatbot regulation

The UK government has announced immediate action to force AI chatbot providers to comply with laws requiring online platforms to protect children from illegal and harmful content. Providers that fail to meet these duties will face legal consequences. This follows recent intervention after non-consensual intimate images were shared through the AI chatbot Grok, prompting the…

Suspected Russian hackers deploy CANFAIL malware against Ukraine

A new alleged Russia-linked APT group targeted Ukrainian defense, government, and energy groups, with CANFAIL malware. Google Threat Intelligence Group identified a previously undocumented threat actor behind attacks on Ukrainian organizations using CANFAIL malware. The group is possibly linked to Russian intelligence services and has targeted defense, military, government, and energy entities at both regional…

Fallout from latest Ivanti zero-days spreads to nearly 100 victims

Ivanti customers, including major government agencies, face mounting pressure as attackers expand their scope of targets to exploit a pair of vulnerabilities the vendor disclosed late January after in-the-wild attacks already occurred. The Netherlands’ Dutch Data Protection Authority and the Council for the Judiciary confirmed both agencies were impacted by attacks linked to the Ivanti…

Fallout from latest Ivanti zero-days spreads to nearly 100 victims

Ivanti customers, including major government agencies, face mounting pressure as attackers expand their scope of targets to exploit a pair of vulnerabilities the vendor disclosed late January after in-the-wild attacks already occurred. The Netherlands’ Dutch Data Protection Authority and the Council for the Judiciary confirmed both agencies were impacted by attacks linked to the Ivanti…

New APT group breached gov and critical infrastructure orgs in 37 countries

A new cyberespionage group that operates out of Asia has compromised 70 government and critical infrastructure organizations across 37 countries over the past year using a sophisticated toolset that combines phishing, exploitation kits, custom malware, Linux rootkits, web shells, and a variety of other tunneling and proxy tools. Researchers believe the group is expanding its…

China-linked Amaranth-Dragon hackers target Southeast Asian governments in 2025

China-linked hackers tracked as Amaranth-Dragon targeted government and law enforcement agencies across Southeast Asia in 2025. CheckPoint says China-linked threat actors, tracked as Amaranth-Dragon, carried out cyber-espionage campaigns in 2025 targeting government and law enforcement agencies across Southeast Asia. The activity is linked to the APT41 ecosystem and affected countries including Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and…