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Small businesses across the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East have been targeted with phishing emails impersonating the “Interpol Cybercrime Investigation Unit” and claiming the recipient is tied to an investigation. The messages use fear-based social engineering to push victims to a Proton Drive link hosting a password-protected archive, which contains multiple nested archives and a custom ransomware payload disguised as a video file. Bitdefender said the campaign has hit organizations in food and agriculture, legal services, pharmaceuticals, media, technology, and finance.
Once launched, the malware encrypts files on available drives and drops a ransom note directing victims to contact the attackers through Tox instead of a leak site or negotiation portal. Researchers found no evidence of data exfiltration and said the operation appears to be the work of a less sophisticated actor rather than an established ransomware group. Bitdefender also identified a major implementation flaw: the decryption routine and key are embedded in the payload, allowing victims to recover files without paying, while defenders were urged to isolate infected systems, scan endpoints, maintain backups, train employees, and enable visible Windows file extensions.
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Bitdefender reported that the custom ransomware contains an implementation flaw: its decryption functionality and key are embedded in the malware itself. This allows victims to recover encrypted files without paying the ransom.
Bitdefender Antispam Lab reported a phishing campaign targeting small businesses with emails impersonating an Interpol cybercrime investigation unit. The messages use Proton Drive-hosted, password-protected archives and nested files to deliver custom ransomware disguised as a video file.
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The **Silent Ransom Group** — also tracked as **UNC3753**, **Luna Moth**, and **Chatty Spider** — has been targeting U.S. law firms and other professional, financial, insurance, and healthcare organizations with data-theft extortion campaigns that rely on social engineering instead of file encryption. FBI alerts and Google Mandiant reporting say the actors send invoice-themed phishing emails and follow up with voice calls impersonating internal IT or help desk staff, persuading employees to join screen-sharing sessions or install legitimate remote management tools such as AnyDesk, Zoho Assist, Bomgar, Splashtop, Syncro, Atera, and SuperOps. Once inside, the group rapidly searches document repositories and cloud stores for legal files, tax records, financial data, PII, and other sensitive material, then exfiltrates it with tools including WinSCP, hidden or renamed Rclone, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or victim-controlled file-sharing channels. Authorities said the campaign has escalated beyond remote access attempts to **in-person intrusions**, with imposters arriving at offices posing as technicians and connecting USB drives or external disks to steal data when remote social engineering fails. Mandiant said dozens of U.S. organizations were targeted between January and May, and in some cases the intrusion, theft, and extortion cycle was completed within a single business day, with ransom demands sent shortly after access ended. Researchers and the FBI linked the operation to the post-Conti cybercrime ecosystem and noted that its abuse of legitimate tools leaves few forensic artifacts, while Resecurity reported fast-flux infrastructure supporting leak sites including `business-data-leaks[.]com` and `ep6pheij[.]com`. The FBI and Google urged organizations to verify anyone claiming to be IT staff, restrict unauthorized remote management and VDI access, harden USB and removable-media controls, deploy phishing-resistant MFA, and closely monitor sensitive document systems.
Jun 29, 2026
A surge in sophisticated cyberattacks has been observed, with threat actors employing a variety of tactics to compromise organizations and individuals. Notable incidents include the use of the BYOVD (Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver) technique to deploy DeadLock ransomware, as well as targeted campaigns leveraging phishing emails with HR-related lures to distribute Remcos RAT malware. Additionally, attackers are exploiting popular movie torrents to spread Agent Tesla via layered PowerShell scripts, and Android users in Spain are being targeted by the DroidLock ransomware, which can hijack devices and demand ransom through full-screen overlays. These campaigns demonstrate a trend toward multi-stage infection chains, abuse of legitimate tools and drivers, and the use of social engineering to increase the likelihood of successful compromise. Other significant developments include the targeting of Canadian organizations by the STAC6565/Gold Blade group using QWCrypt ransomware, and the emergence of new threat actor tactics such as disabling endpoint detection and response (EDR) systems to facilitate ransomware deployment. The threat landscape is further complicated by the activities of groups like Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, who use social engineering and typosquatted domains to compromise Zendesk users, and the exposure of internal dynamics within ransomware groups like BlackBasta, revealing operational stress and internal mistrust. These incidents underscore the evolving nature of cyber threats, the blending of espionage and financial motives, and the increasing sophistication of both technical and social attack vectors.
Jun 29, 2026
Fortinet/FortiGuard Labs reported that the **Interlock** ransomware group—described as a smaller, non-**RaaS** operation—ran a months-long intrusion campaign primarily targeting the **education sector** in the US and UK. Initial access was observed via **MintLoader**, including “ClickFix” social-engineering lures, followed by post-compromise activity using a JavaScript implant referred to as **NodeSnakeRAT**, lateral movement with valid accounts and living-off-the-land techniques, and broad discovery prior to impact. The operation follows a **double-extortion** pattern, with data exfiltration (including use of `AZcopy`) preceding ransomware deployment, and has been observed impacting both Windows endpoints and **Nutanix** hypervisor environments. A key technical finding is Interlock’s use of a **Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD)** technique to neutralize endpoint defenses. Researchers identified a custom tool dubbed **“Hotta Killer”** (associated with `polers.dll`) that drops a kernel driver `UpdateCheckerX64.sys`, described as a renamed vulnerable anti-cheat driver (`GameDriverx64.sys`, **CVE-2025-61155**). Because the driver is legitimate and digitally signed, it can pass initial trust checks; once loaded, it is abused for kernel-level process termination to **kill EDR/AV processes**, with reporting noting targeting of **Fortinet** security tooling specifically, enabling subsequent ransomware execution with reduced detection and response capability.
Jun 29, 2026