Polish intelligence service ABW announced Wednesday that hackers attacked the industrial control systems at multiple Polish water treatment plants. The Record reports the targeting profile is consistent with state-aligned activity - patient reconnaissance, careful access, no data destruction. Polish authorities have not formally attributed the attack but the timing (alongside Russia-Ukraine conflict and Russia's interest in Polish infrastructure as a NATO frontline state) is unmistakable. Similar incidents have been reported in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands over the past 12 months. No service disruption was reported, but the access establishes pre-positioning.
ScarCruft (also called APT37 or Reaper) built a fake online gaming platform in Korean to spread BirdCall, a previously undocumented Android malware aimed at ethnic Koreans living in China. The Record reports the platform impersonated legitimate Korean-language game communities. BirdCall harvests device information, contacts, SMS, call logs, photos, and microphone audio - capabilities consistent with surveillance of diaspora communities rather than financial gain. ScarCruft has historically targeted North Korean defectors and journalists with similar Android malware lures.
Rapid7 disclosed an Iranian state-sponsored intrusion that disguised itself as a Chaos ransomware attack to mask the real goal: cyber-espionage. The threat actor (assessed with moderate confidence as MuddyWater, linked to Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security) initiated chat requests through Microsoft Teams, walked employees into screen-sharing sessions, then captured credentials and manipulated MFA prompts. Some victims were asked to type their passwords into local text files during the call. Persistence came from a custom backdoor (Game.exe) deployed alongside DWAgent, AnyDesk, and RDP. The fake ransomware note and Chaos leak-portal entry concealed the espionage.
BleepingComputer reports a phishing campaign that bought Google Ads to push a fake GoDaddy ManageWP login page to the top of search results. ManageWP is GoDaddy's centralized dashboard for managing multiple WordPress sites - so a successful phish gives the attacker simultaneous access to dozens or hundreds of sites under one account. The fake page is a near-perfect clone of managewp.com hosted on a typosquat domain; victims who enter credentials are redirected to the real site to mask the theft. Same Google Ads abuse template used recently against AWS, Notion, and other developer-tool brands.
Kaspersky disclosed yesterday that the official DAEMON Tools installer - a popular Windows disk-image utility - has been distributing a backdoor since April 8. The trojanized versions (12.5.0.2421 through 12.5.0.2434) are downloaded from the legitimate vendor website and signed with valid AVB Disc Soft certificates. Thousands of infections recorded across 100+ countries, but follow-on payloads went to about a dozen targets in retail, scientific, government, and manufacturing sectors in Russia, Belarus, and Thailand. Kaspersky attributes the attack to Chinese-speaking actors and says it remains active. Detection took roughly a month - similar timeline to the 2023 3CX supply-chain attack.
Trend Micro disclosed Quasar Linux (QLNX), a previously undocumented Linux remote access trojan designed for developer workstations and DevOps environments. The malware harvests credentials for npm, PyPI, GitHub, AWS, Docker, and Kubernetes - then uses them to publish trojanized packages to public registries. QLNX runs entirely fileless and in-memory, dynamically compiling its rootkit and PAM backdoor on the target host using gcc, then loading them via /etc/ld.so.preload for system-wide interception. Capabilities include a 58-command RAT, dual-layer rootkit, keylogging, SSH lateral movement, and peer-to-peer mesh networking. Only four security tools detect the binary as malicious.
Securonix tracked a phishing campaign called VENOMOUS#HELPER that has hit 80+ organizations (mostly in the US) since April 2025 by getting employees to install legitimate remote-monitoring software they think is a Social Security Administration document. The lure is a fake SSA email asking the recipient to download their statement; the link points to a compromised Mexican business website hosting a SimpleHelp installer. Once installed, the attackers gain SYSTEM-level access, then quietly install ConnectWise ScreenConnect as a backup channel. The pattern aligns with initial-access broker activity: quiet persistence, then sale or hand-off to ransomware operators.
Kaspersky tracked a China-based group called Silver Fox running a tax-themed phishing campaign against organizations in India, Russia, Indonesia, Japan, and South Africa. Phishing emails impersonate the Indian Income Tax Department or Russian tax service with subjects about audits or 'lists of tax violations.' Inside the attached archive sits a modified Rust loader that pulls down a known backdoor called ValleyRAT, plus a brand-new Python-based backdoor called ABCDoor. ABCDoor handles screen recording, keystroke control, clipboard theft, and file operations. Kaspersky logged 1,600+ phishing emails between January and February 2026 across industrial, consulting, retail, and transportation sectors.
Kaspersky reported a sharp rise in phishing campaigns sent through Amazon's Simple Email Service (SES). Because the emails come from Amazon's own infrastructure, they pass SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks that normally catch fake-brand emails - and reputation-based blocks don't trigger because Amazon's mail servers have legitimate reputation. The pattern starts with attackers harvesting AWS access keys leaked in public GitHub repos, .env files, Docker images, and S3 buckets, then using those keys to send phishing through SES from the victim's own AWS account. Wiz documented similar abuse in 2025 with attackers escalating from sandbox mode (200 emails/day) to production mode (50,000+/day) by issuing PutAccountDetails across all AWS regions in 10 seconds.
Update on the cPanel ransomware wave covered May 3: attackers have shifted focus and are now targeting governments and managed service providers exploiting CVE-2026-41940. Security Affairs reports the operation is no longer just opportunistic mass-encryption of small business websites - the actors are deliberately looking for hosting accounts owned by government agencies and IT firms that manage downstream customers. CISA added the cPanel flaw to its KEV catalog Friday with a federal patch deadline of May 21. With 44,000 cPanel hosts already compromised in the initial wave, the secondary phase targeting MSPs has the potential to multiply impact through customer-tenant relationships - much like the 2023 Kaseya VSA campaign.
TrustStrike Labs