Blackpoint Cyber documented Avalon, a previously undocumented modular malware framework that pulls credential theft, lateral movement, remote access, backup disruption, and ransomware into one toolkit, with its ransomware component named CrownX. The attack starts with a spoofed legal-document email pointing to a password-protected archive on Proton Drive. Inside is an ISO image rather than a direct attachment, which helps it slip past email scanning, and opening a document-themed Windows shortcut inside the mounted image kicks off the infection chain. By combining evasive delivery with a full attack toolkit under one roof, Avalon lets operators run an intrusion from initial access through data theft to encryption.
Microsoft is tracking a phishing campaign hitting hotels across Europe and Asia since April, using guest-complaint and inspection-themed emails to get front-desk staff to open photo-themed ZIP files. The lures pass email authentication through what Microsoft calls authentication laundering, routing messages through Calendly's notification system and Google redirects so they appear legitimate. The ZIP hides a shortcut posing as an image that runs obfuscated PowerShell, quietly installs a legitimate Node.js runtime, and launches a JavaScript implant called TonRAT. TonRAT resolves its command servers through a blockchain API, communicates over encrypted WebSockets on unusual ports, disables Microsoft Defender for itself, and persists through the registry. The attackers' ultimate goal is still unclear.
Xsolis, a US healthcare technology company whose AI software is used by more than 600 hospitals and insurers for utilization management and reimbursement decisions, has disclosed a breach affecting 1,396,519 people. Attackers got in through a targeted phishing attack on an employee in January, accessing files containing patient data Xsolis handles for its clients. The exposed information includes names, dates of birth, addresses, Social Security numbers, health insurance details, and medical treatment information. Because Xsolis is a vendor, affected individuals may never have dealt with it directly; downstream health systems including Mayo Clinic are among those whose patients are impacted.
South Korea's Genians Security Center reports that the North Korean group ScarCruft (APT37) is sending spear-phishing emails dressed up as Microsoft Account security alerts to deliver a Python-based spy tool called NarwhalRAT. The emails warn of suspicious one-time-code activity and urge the recipient to open an attached advisory, which is actually a ZIP holding a malicious shortcut. Opening it kicks off a multi-stage, in-memory infection that leaves little on disk and gains persistence through a scheduled task. NarwhalRAT can log keystrokes, capture screenshots, record audio, and steal files from USB drives, and it disguises itself as the Korean browser Naver Whale while targeting South Korean users.
Meta says it caught and shut down fresh spear-phishing attempts linked to Israeli spyware maker NSO Group that tried to lure WhatsApp users into clicking malicious links leading to sites outside the app, mirroring the one-click attacks NSO has used to plant its Pegasus spyware. Meta also found and removed NSO-created test accounts and groups, and published the malicious domains involved. The company is now asking a US federal court to hold NSO in contempt for violating the permanent injunction issued last year barring it from targeting WhatsApp. High-risk users such as journalists, activists, and officials are the usual targets of this kind of mercenary spyware.
With the FIFA World Cup kicking off June 11 across the US, Canada, and Mexico, the FBI and researchers at Group-IB and Fortinet warn that a large fraud operation is already running. Group-IB tracked more than 4,300 fake FIFA websites and a Chinese-speaking crew, GHOST STADIUM, that cloned the official site pixel-for-pixel, fake login and all, across 300-plus domains. Scams include bogus ticket, merchandise, and hospitality sites, fake streaming apps that hide banking malware, and betting sites that harvest passport scans for identity theft. With tickets scarce and 150 million requests filed, scammers are exploiting fans' urgency to steal logins, money, and personal data.
Permiso Security has disclosed ChatGPhish, a vulnerability in OpenAI ChatGPT that abuses the assistant's implicit trust in Markdown links and images sourced from third-party pages it has just summarized. The chatgpt.com response renderer auto-fetches those images and surfaces the links as live clickable elements inside the trusted assistant UI. An attacker who appends a small payload to any web page a victim later asks ChatGPT to summarize can leak the victim's IP, User-Agent, and Referer via attacker-hosted images, render fake system-style security alerts, plant malicious clickable links, and serve a QR code from an S3 bucket to bypass desktop URL filters via the victim's phone.
Security researchers are warning of a phishing campaign that impersonates Signal Support over text message to steal users' backup recovery keys, specifically targeting journalists and activists. Once an attacker obtains the recovery key, they can decrypt the victim's entire message-history backup. The campaign relies purely on social engineering - there is no flaw in Signal's cryptography - tricking targets into handing over the secret that protects their encrypted backups. The targeting of journalists and activists points to surveillance-motivated actors rather than financially-driven crime. Signal users should treat any unsolicited 'Support' contact requesting recovery keys or codes as hostile, since Signal never asks for them.
The FBI has issued a public service announcement warning of hundreds of fake FIFA-themed phishing and fraud sites ahead of the 2026 World Cup running June 11 to July 19 in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Domains include fiffa[.]com and alternative TLDs (.org, .xyz, .live, .sale) plus fake employment portals like jobs-fifa[.]com and fifa-hiring[.]com. The fraudulent sites collect names, addresses, phone numbers, and banking/payment details; the data is used for fake-ticket sales, hospitality-package scams, identity theft, and fraudulent account creation. Group-IB and Bitdefender confirmed parallel malvertising via Google Search, Facebook, Telegram, and WhatsApp, with one major operation attributed to a Chinese-speaking gang.
INTERPOL says a coordinated operation called Ramz, run across 13 Middle East and North Africa countries, has produced 201 arrests, seized 53 servers, and identified 3,867 victims. Algerian authorities took down a phishing-as-a-service operation; Moroccan officials seized hard drives loaded with banking data and phishing kits; and Jordanian police uncovered 15 people running a fraudulent trading platform who turned out to be trafficking victims forced into the work. Group-IB and Team Cymru contributed intelligence on over 5,000 compromised accounts, including some tied to government systems. Participating countries included Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia, and the UAE.
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