This edition pulls the curtain aside to show the realities of the VPN Filter campaign. Joe reflects on the struggle to prevent burnout in a world constantly on fire.

Thursday, September 18, 2025 14:00

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

This is gonna be a tough read. I’m sorry. Believe it or not, it’s even tougher for me to write. I want to talk about what it costs to be in the cybersecurity profession. Not money or time, but potentially your health, both mentally and physically. I want to move the curtain aside and show you an inside look at what happens to people when the pressure is high and the desire to succeed is not only essential, but sometimes even life and death. 

So, story time. 

Seven years ago, Cisco Talos disclosed a novel and new threat campaign: VPN Filter. VPN Filter was a small office/home office (SOHO) device botnet that had many new things we’d never seen before in SOHO devices: infection persistence past device reboot, modularity, victimology, and perhaps most importantly, the (later) attribution to the Russian threat actor APT28 (aka Sandworm). The platform also featured a kill switch, a module designed to cover the tracks and or destroy a device infected with VPN Filter. This could be executed en masse, if they desired. This was a methodical, clever and well-structured campaign to attack unpatched and/or vulnerable devices all over the world for state cyber operations. As I look back at that time, it was (and still is) a marvel of tradecraft and offensive cyber operations. 

Put yourself in our position at Talos. We’ve just discovered a massive campaign by a notorious threat actor. We all know what this is, who this is, and what the consequences could be — and the threat actor had a massive head start on us. We absolutely couldn’t screw this up. If we tipped our hand via our research, the threat actor might get spooked and just burn the whole thing down with the kill switch. The stakes were very high. 

We spent months reversing and analyzing the malware, the victimology, infrastructure, and understanding the scale and scope of what VPN Filter did and potentially could do. The more we peeled things back, the more ominous the implications and the harder we worked. 

As the weeks turned into months, the hours we worked grew longer and longer, and the stress began to take its toll on all of us. The raw enormity of the tasks of analyzing and responding to VPN Filter and the stress of being stealthy begin to extract a price from us personally. Attitudes grew sour, relationships frayed, and some were rent asunder completely. For me, personally, it was a very dark time and would cost me dearly – I would exit people management into an individual contributor role that I still inhabit to this day. 

In the end, the threat actor forced us to into action. We had always theorized a “break glass” moment when the threat actor might hit the gas pedal and we would have to alert the world. One day we saw a massive spike in infections in Ukraine, and we disclosed to the world VPN Filter. We still had so many unanswered questions but had no choice when we saw the spike. In a way, it was a mercy. We had long since hit our limit and were just all collectively cooked and demoralized. I know I was, and it deeply affected my relationships and career, the reverberations of which I still feel to this day.  

I’m often asked by new or potential security practitioners, “Joe, what’s a cool hacker story?!” I have plenty of those, and VPN Filter is certainly one of them. But rarely does anyone want to hear the worst days of our lives. The tales of burnout and stress. Of the long hours and constant work. There is _always_ a breach happening somewhere, your company is _always_ under attack, there is _always_ a story of a someone getting hacked and sometimes people are even hurt or killed. This cadence takes a toll – from events like VPN Filter, to being in a SOC – it’s all the same. No matter where you work, we are here to keep our customers, constituents, and communities safe from some real assholes out there. It is about fighting the good fight, and the fight never stops.  

So, what can we do about it? How can you avoid being me in the middle of VPN Filter? 

1.  **Learn and enforce boundaries.** You must make space and time for you and firmly enforce that space and time. If that means disabling after hours comms, then do so, and do so guilt free. You must look after yourself. 
2.  **Peer support.** Whether it's a therapist, a colleague, or a Slack/Discord/Bsides where you can share and vent with others in the same boat as you, you must reduce the sense of isolation this career space can give you. Others are looking for the same thing and happy to listen and share. Celebrate your wins with people who are eager to reciprocate.  
3.  **Unplugged self-care.** This is tough, and I’m not great at it. Exercise, paint, work in your garden and do something unrelated to your job. Put down the hell rectangle that is your phone and unplug from the news and social media. 
4.  **Mandatory decompression/vacation.** After an incident, be it VPN Filter or a breach, leaders: _look after your people._ Recognize burnout and push your directs into some enforced downtime so they can recover. At a minimum, rotate them into a less stressful role so they can take a break. It’s your responsibility to care for those who work hard for you. 

Responding after the event is just as important as responding to the event itself. Every breach, VPN Filter-like event, or emergency is an opportunity to reflect on the cost to your health and evaluate what you can do to help yourself and others. This is a tough gig sometimes, but it’s a calling we love. Just take care of yourself and each other, ya hear?

**The one big thing **

In Talos' latest blog post, we break down why having a Cisco Talos Incident Response (IR) Retainer is a game-changer for any organization facing today’s nonstop cyber threats. With a Talos IR Retainer, you get direct access to our expert team, 24/7 emergency support, and tailored plans that keep everyone — from IT to leadership — on the same page. You’ll also benefit from continuous threat intelligence and real-world guidance to help your organization bounce back stronger after any incident. 

**Why do I care? **

Our team helps you hunt threats before they escalate, assess your readiness and improve your security posture over time. If a cyber incident hits, having a trusted partner already in place means you’re prepared to act decisively, with clear roles, tested procedures and experts ready to back you up every step of the way. 

**So now what? **

Think about securing a Talos IR Retainer to make sure you’ve got experts on speed dial and your defenses are always up to date. Reach out to us to schedule a tabletop exercise or to talk through how prepared your organization really is.

**Top security headlines of the week **

**New VoidProxy phishing service bypasses MFA on Microsoft and Google accounts**   
An attack typically begins with a deceptive email sent from a compromised account of legitimate email service providers, like Constant Contact, Active Campaign or NotifyVisitors. (Hack Read) 

**Shai-Hulud supply chain attack: Worm used to steal secrets, 180+ npm packages hit**   
The self-spreading potential of the malicious code will likely keep the campaign alive for a few more days. To avoid being infected, users should be wary of any packages that have new versions on npm but not on GitHub, and pin dependencies. (SecurityWeek) 

**Google nukes 224 Android malware apps behind massive ad fraud campaign**   
The apps were downloaded over 38 million times and employed obfuscation and steganography to conceal the malicious behavior from Google and security tools. (Bleeping Computer) 

**Former FinWise employee may have accessed nearly 700K customer records**   
Nearly 700,000 FinWise Bank customers are being notified after a former employee may have accessed or taken personal data post-employment. The incident went undetected for over a year. (The Register)

**Can’t get enough Talos? **

*   **Alex Ryan: From zero chill to quiet confidence**   
    Discover how a Cisco Talos Incident Response expert transitioned from philosophy to the high-stakes, emotionally intense world of incident command, and the advice that she has for aspiring cybersecurity professionals. 
*   **Beers with Talos: How to ruin an APT's day**   
    The B-Team is joined by Sara McBroom from Talos’ nation-state threat intelligence and interdiction team. Sara shares her journey from a liberal arts major to tracking some of the world’s most advanced adversaries. 
*   **Tampered Chef: When malvertising serves up infostealers**   
    Imagine downloading a PDF Editor tool from the internet that works great... until nearly two months later, when it quietly steals your credentials. Nick Biasini explains how cybercriminals are investing in "malvertising" and challenges in defense.

**Upcoming events where you can find Talos **

*   LABScon (Sept. 17 – 20) Scottsdale, AZ 
*   VB2025 (Sept. 24 – 26) Berlin, Germany 
*   Wild West Hackin' Fest (Oct. 8 – 10) Deadwood, SD

**Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week **

**SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507**    
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f   
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos\_file\_reputation?s=9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507    
Typical Filename: executable.exe   
Claimed Product: N/A     
Example Filename:0a0dc0e95070a2b05b04c2f0a049dad8\_1\_Exe.exe    
Detection Name: Win.Worm.Coinminer::1201 

**SHA256: 41f14d86bcaf8e949160ee2731802523e0c76fea87adf00ee7fe9567c3cec610**    
MD5: 85bbddc502f7b10871621fd460243fbc    
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos\_file\_reputation?s=41f14d86bcaf8e949160ee2731802523e0c76fea87adf00ee7fe9567c3cec610    
Typical Filename: nwx3hgsl.exe   
Claimed Product: Self-extracting archive   
Detection Name: W32.41F14D86BC-100.SBX.TG 

**SHA256: c0ad494457dcd9e964378760fb6aca86a23622045bca851d8f3ab49ec33978fe**    
MD5: bf9672ec85283fdf002d83662f0b08b7    
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos\_file\_reputation?s=c0ad494457dcd9e964378760fb6aca86a23622045bca851d8f3ab49ec33978fe    
Typical Filename: werrx01USAHTML   
Claimed Product: N/A   
Detection Name: W32.C0AD494457-95.SBX.TG 

**SHA256: 96fa6a7714670823c83099ea01d24d6d3ae8fef027f01a4ddac14f123b1c9974**    
MD5: aac3165ece2959f39ff98334618d10d9    
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos\_file\_reputation?s=96fa6a7714670823c83099ea01d24d6d3ae8fef027f01a4ddac14f123b1c9974    
Typical Filename: ~3B6A.tmp   
Claimed Product: N/A   
Detection Name: W32.Injector:Gen.21ie.1201 

**SHA256: a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91**   
MD5: 7bdbd180c081fa63ca94f9c22c457376    
Talos Rep: https://talosintelligence.com/talos\_file\_reputation?s=a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91    
Typical Filename: img001.exe   
Claimed Product:   
Detection Name: Win.Dropper.Miner::95.sbx.tg

Put together an IR playbook — for your personal mental health and wellbeing

Hackers are posing as Empire podcast hosts, tricking crypto influencers and developers with fake interview invites to deliver macOS AMOS Stealer malware.

A new phishing campaign is targeting developers and influencers in the crypto industry with fake interview requests that impersonate a popular Web3 podcast. The attackers pose as hosts, luring unsuspecting victims to websites mimicking platforms such as Streamyard and Huddle to distribute AMOS Stealer malware against macOS devices.

The latest scam surfaced only weeks after another scheme, reported in August 2025, where fraudsters posed as CoinMarketCap journalists to target crypto executives in a spear-phishing campaign.

****A fake podcast, real consequences**  **

José A. Gómez Ledesma, a threat intelligence analyst from Quetzal Team, originally identified a phishing campaign targeting influencers and developers in the crypto industry.  

The attackers impersonate hosts and producers of the popular Empire podcast,  approaching victims via social media DMs under the pretext of interviewing them about recent projects and market forecasts. Once engaged, they suggest interviewing Streamyard or Huddle, sharing links to phishing sites that mimic the chosen platform. 

When visiting the website, an error message is displayed saying something went wrong (either the browser is incompatible or it cannot connect to the platform) and that a desktop client should be downloaded and installed. A DMG (a macOS application installation disk) is then downloaded, posing as either Huddle or StreamYard. 

A fake Streamyard DMG Installer for Mac

****The Setup**  **

By installing the contents of the DMG, victims are actually infecting themselves with  AMOS (Atomic macOS) Stealer, a trending threat creatively distributed and previously seen posing as popular apps such as DeepSeek.  

The infection chain is quite elaborate, starting with the DMG installer, which invokes a Bash script heavily obfuscated with Base64. The encoded contents are deobfuscated, then XORed via Perl, and once again deobfuscated from Base64,  generating an AppleScript that is subsequently executed.  

A fake Huddle DMG Installer for Mac

This AppleScript simply looks for a hidden binary inside the volume named .Huddle or .Streamyard (Note the leading period, which denotes a hidden file in Unix systems.) This file is, in fact, the AMOS Stealer sample. 

****The Afermath**  **

By becoming infected with AMOS (or with virtually any information-stealer), victims place their digital lives in the hands of organised criminals. From banking apps to gaming accounts, login artefacts such as credentials and cookies are sold to the highest bidder, often for a surprisingly low price. 

Some old advice still holds true when browsing the internet: do not download anything you see, and be cautious when dealing with strangers. You could end up with an unpleasant surprise. 

Malicious Apple Script Loader

****IOCs and Summary**  **

    URL: streamyard.ai 
    
    SHA256:69b859db7397a04bb1f1c2ff9d987686b5ce0c64ec8fc716c783ed6dd755e291 SHA256:c275252592228b51b3934a9b3932d269c2f9132caad5f51ae54216ec147a8834     
    
    URL: https://x.com/BillyBitcoins 
    
    Domain: streamyard.ai 
    
    Domain: huddle01.com 
    
    URL: huddle01.com 
    
    SHA256:f7d138a4fa15215c4e747449f31b2b6b6726aed00a9cc9e3ec830df366c1437f     SHA256:af4ba47f760ae08bce49c7b7c16e9dcff7df7eff53f27abc0c2a1eee1cea6085       
    
    FilePath: Huddle.Iwv 
    
    FilePath: Streamyard.ZTz 
    
    SHA256:9665dac619c7d17a2fafd32f2df77f27dc39135d31235a748bd95ac137005e9b       SHA256:f7fe593806aa2b2486e2052c582b1b8423b2455bf9392fa42b1d2cb6d98ca897
    
    

****References**  **

Original Intelligence Pulse: https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/68c99d5ca31f8adcc38d0637

Fake Empire Podcast Invites Target Crypto Industry with macOS AMOS Stealer

AI’s growing role in enterprise environments has heightened the urgency for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) to drive effective AI governance. When it comes to any emerging technology, governance is hard – but effective governance is even harder. The first instinct for most organizations is to respond with rigid policies. Write a policy document, circulate a set of restrictions, and

AI's growing role in enterprise environments has heightened the urgency for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) to drive effective AI governance. When it comes to any emerging technology, governance is hard – but effective governance is even harder. The first instinct for most organizations is to respond with rigid policies. Write a policy document, circulate a set of restrictions, and hope the risk is contained. However, effective governance doesn't work that way. It must be a living system that shapes how AI is used every day, guiding organizations through safe transformative change without slowing down the pace of innovation.

For CISOs, finding that balance between security and speed is critical in the age of AI. This technology simultaneously represents the greatest opportunity and greatest risk enterprises have faced since the dawn of the internet. Move too fast without guardrails, and sensitive data leaks into prompts, shadow AI proliferates, or regulatory gaps become liabilities. Move too slow, and competitors pull ahead with transformative efficiencies that are too powerful to compete with. Either path comes with ramifications that can cost CISOs their job.

In turn, they cannot lead a "department of no" where AI adoption initiatives are stymied by the organization's security function. It is crucial to instead find a path to yes, mapping governance to organizational risk tolerance and business priorities so that the security function serves as a true revenue enabler. Over the course of this article, I'll share three components that can help CISOs make that shift and drive AI governance programs that enable safe adoption at scale.

****1\. Understand What's Happening on the Ground****

When ChatGPT first arrived in November 2022, most CISOs I know scrambled to publish strict policies that told employees what not to do. It came from a place of positive intent considering sensitive data leakage was a legitimate concern. However, while policies written from that "document backward" approach are great in theory, they rarely work in practice. Due to how fast AI is evolving, AI governance must be designed through a "real-world forward" mindset that accounts for what's really happening on the ground inside an organization. This requires CISOs to have a foundational understanding of AI: the technology itself, where it is embedded, which SaaS platforms are enabling it, and how employees are using it to get their jobs done.

AI inventories, model registries, and cross-functional committees may sound like buzzwords, but they are practical mechanisms that can help security leaders develop this AI fluency. For example, an AI Bill of Materials (AIBOM) offers visibility into the components, datasets, and external services that will feed an AI model. Just as a software bill of materials (SBOM) clarifies third-party dependencies, an AIBOM ensures leaders know what data is being used, where it came from, and what risks it introduces.

Model registries serve a similar role for AI systems already in use. They track which models are deployed, when they were last updated, and how they're performing to prevent "black box sprawl" and inform decisions about patching, decommissioning, or scaling usage. AI committees ensure that oversight doesn't fall on security or IT alone. Often chaired by a designated AI lead or risk officer, these groups include representatives from legal, compliance, HR, and business units – turning governance from a siloed directive into a shared responsibility that bridges security concerns with business outcomes.

****2\. Align Policies to the Speed of the Organization****

Without real-world forward policies, security leaders often fall into the trap of codifying controls they cannot realistically deliver. I've seen this firsthand through a CISO colleague of mine. Knowing employees were already experimenting with AI, he worked to enable the responsible adoption of several GenAI applications across his workforce. However, when a new CIO joined the organization and felt there were too many GenAI applications in use, the CISO was directed to ban all GenAI until one enterprise-wide platform was selected. Fast forward one year later, that single platform still hadn't been implemented, and employees were using unapproved GenAI tools that exposed the organization to shadow AI vulnerabilities. The CISO was stuck trying to enforce a blanket ban he couldn't execute, fielding criticism without the authority to implement a workable solution.

This kind of scenario plays out when policies are written faster than they can be executed, or when they fail to anticipate the pace of organizational adoption. Policies that look decisive on paper can quickly become obsolete if they don't evolve with leadership changes, embedded AI functionality, and the organic ways employees integrate new tools into their work. Governance must be flexible enough to adapt, or else it risks leaving security teams enforcing the impossible.

The way forward is to design policies as living documents. They should evolve as the business does, informed by actual use cases and aligned to measurable outcomes. Governance also can't stop at policy; it needs to cascade into standards, procedures, and baselines that guide daily work. Only then do employees know what secure AI adoption really looks like in practice.

****3\. Make AI Governance Sustainable****

Even with strong policies and roadmaps in place, employees will continue to use AI in ways that aren't formally approved. The goal for security leaders shouldn't be to ban AI, but to make responsible use the easiest and most attractive option. That means equipping employees with enterprise-grade AI tools, whether purchased or homegrown, so they do not need to reach for insecure alternatives. In addition, it means highlighting and reinforcing positive behaviors so that employees see value in following the guardrails rather than bypassing them.

Sustainable governance also stems from _Utilizing AI_ and _Protecting AI_, two pillars of the _SANS Institute's recently published Secure AI Blueprint._ To govern AI effectively, CISOs should empower their SOC teams to effectively utilize AI for cyber defense – automating noise reduction and enrichment, validating detections against threat intelligence, and ensuring analysts remain in the loop for escalation and incident response. They should also ensure the right controls are in place to protect AI systems from adversarial threats, as outlined in the SANS Critical AI Security Guidelines.

****Learn More at SANS Cyber Defense Initiative 2025****

This December, SANS will be offering LDR514: Security Strategic Planning, Policy, and Leadership at SANS Cyber Defense Initiative 2025 in Washington, D.C. This course is designed for leaders who want to move beyond generic governance advice and learn how to build business-driven security programs that steer organizations to safe AI adoption. It will cover how to create actionable policies, align governance with business strategy, and embed security into culture so you can lead your enterprise through the AI era securely.

If you're ready to turn AI governance into a business enabler, register for SANS CDI 2025 here.

Note: _This article was contributed by Frank Kim, SANS Institute Fellow._

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How CISOs Can Drive Effective AI Governance

Infoblox links Vane Viper to PropellerAds, exposing a global malvertising network posing as adtech while spreading malware and running online scams.

Cybersecurity firm Infoblox says it has discovered “Vane Viper,” a massive online ad network that posed as a legitimate business while running global scams and spreading malware.

Linked to **previously reported** PropellerAds and its parent company AdTech Holding, the operation has been active for nearly a decade and is now being called one of the largest malvertising scams seen to date.

Infoblox Threat Intel tracked Vane Viper for more than three years and found that domains linked to the operation appeared in about half of its customer networks. Some of those domains ranked among the world’s top 10,000 websites, with one tracking domain even breaking into the top 1,000.

According to Infoblox’s investigation shared with Hackread.com, PropellerAds was not simply a victim of abuse by bad actors but was actively delivering malware itself. During testing, Infoblox researchers followed links from Vane Viper’s traffic distribution system and received direct malware payloads from PropellerAds. That evidence, Infoblox argues, proves complicity rather than negligence.

> _“Although PropellerAds has been implicated in malvertising campaigns by others in the past, proving that they have crossed the line from abused service to complicit enabler has been challenging. We didn’t come to our conclusions lightly.”_
> 
> _“We found compelling evidence that not only has PropellerAds turned a “blind eye” to criminal abuse of their platform, but indicators described below suggest – with moderate-to-high confidence – that several ad-fraud campaigns originated from infrastructure attributed to PropellerAds.”_
> 
> Infoblox Threat Intel

Infoblox ALSO observed more than one trillion DNS queries linked to its infrastructure in the past year, spread across more than 60,000 domains. Many of these domains are short-lived, active for only days, while others remain live for years to support ongoing campaigns. The group uses bulk domain registrations, **push notification abuse and cloaking** to keep operations alive while evading takedowns.

The investigation also connects Vane Viper to Webzilla and XBT Holdings, companies previously cited in **Russia’s Methbot (aka Boaxxe and Miuref) ad fraud**, disinformation efforts, and piracy platforms.

Additionally, corporate records show layers of offshore registrations and opaque ownership, with links to Russian nationals, gambling enterprises, and adult content businesses. These overlapping connections, Infoblox says, create “plausible deniability” that shields the operation from accountability.

A look at the main companies and individuals connected to the Vane Viper network, and the roles they play in the operation (Image credit: Infoblox)

This isn’t the first large-scale adtech-linked threat group Infoblox has reported on. Last month, the company profiled **VexTrio**, another operation that surfaced in 2015 under similar circumstances. Like Vane Viper, it operates as a cluster of adtech companies run by Russian speakers and has built traffic distribution systems that double as malware delivery engines.

“Cybercriminals aren’t just exploiting adtech platforms,” said Dr. **Renée Burton**, VP of Threat Intel at Infoblox. “Sometimes, they are the adtech platforms.”

Advertisers and publishers should take Infoblox’s findings as a warning to carefully vet the ad networks they work with. For everyday users, the advice is simpler but just as important: be cautious about clicking links or ads on unfamiliar or untrusted sites.

Infoblox’s **full report**, including technical details and domain data, is available through its threat intel team.

Vane Viper Malvertising Network Posed as Legit Adtech in Global Scams

Discover how a Cisco Talos Incident Response expert transitioned from philosophy to the high-stakes world of incident command, offering candid insights into managing burnout and finding a supportive team.

Thursday, September 18, 2025 06:00

Welcome to another episode of Humans of Talos, our ongoing video interview series that celebrates the people powering Cisco’s threat intelligence efforts. In each episode, we dive deep into the personal journeys, motivations and lessons learned from the team members who help keep the internet safe.

This time, we sit down with Alex Ryan, a seasoned Incident Commander from Cisco Talos Incident Response. Read (or watch) on to hear her candid reflections on the emotional intensity of incident response, the critical role of a supportive team in preventing burnout, and invaluable advice for aspiring cybersecurity professionals.

**Amy Ciminnisi: Alex, you were recently on the Beers with Talos podcast, and during that, we learned that you have two liberal arts degrees, but you found yourself really loving how machines and systems worked, and then you work your way through the cybersecurity ranks. I'd love to know: What brought you to Talos?**

Alex Ryan: During my career inside companies doing incident response, vulnerability management, and risk management, Talos Intelligence was often one of my sources. I often looked at intelligence from vendors who were using their own datasets to generate the finished intelligence, rather than those who just took whatever intelligence was already out there, re-mashed it, and enriched it a bit. I have a lot of respect for Talos from using them as a source for guiding how I would do incident response and prioritize my defenses and things like that. When the opportunity came up to join Cisco Talos Incident Response as an Incident Commander, it was that reputation (and having used their material for so long which showed that there was really good quality people and research being done) that put this job at the top of my list of choices.

**AC: You have a very difficult job as an Incident Commander, acting as the point person in situations where people are possibly going through the worst days of their careers. What's something about your day-to-day role that people might be surprised by or interested in?**

AR: Incident response is a very high pressure situation to be in. You need to exude quiet confidence and build a trust relationships quickly with your customer. But on the back end, things can be chaotic: trying to get access to machines, trying to find the _right_ machines. "Do we have the right IOCs?" "What is this thing? Let me reverse engineer it." Trying to distill all of that activity into larger topics and give progress to the customer on it is critical.

It's also high risk for the business being impacted. I think that there was a statistic at one point that about 70% of small to medium businesses that paid the ransom after being compromised went out of business within a year, because the ransom was such a financial hit that they just couldn't absorb that kind of impact. So while the customer is trying to not freak out, I'm trying to exude quiet confidence while managing the forensics analysis activity. Trying to balance all of that is quite difficult, so incident response has a very high burnout rate.

After I came back from raising my children, it took me about two years to detox completely from incident response. I was _really_ high strung, and I had no chill. _Zero_ chill. I had to learn how to say no and how to prioritize my family over this hero complex that I was having at work. I would say I'm a much more well-rounded person now, and perhaps I'm better at my job because of that.

_Want to see more?_ _Watch the full interview__, and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for future episodes of Humans of Talos!_

Alex Ryan: From zero chill to quiet confidence

The threat actor known as TA558 has been attributed to a fresh set of attacks delivering various remote access trojans (RATs) like Venom RAT to breach hotels in Brazil and Spanish-speaking markets.
Russian cybersecurity vendor Kaspersky is tracking the activity, observed in summer 2025, to a cluster it tracks as RevengeHotels.
"The threat actors continue to employ phishing emails with invoice

The threat actor known as **TA558** has been attributed to a fresh set of attacks delivering various remote access trojans (RATs) like Venom RAT to breach hotels in Brazil and Spanish-speaking markets.

Russian cybersecurity vendor Kaspersky is tracking the activity, observed in summer 2025, to a cluster it tracks as RevengeHotels.

"The threat actors continue to employ phishing emails with invoice themes to deliver Venom RAT implants via JavaScript loaders and PowerShell downloaders," the company said. "A significant portion of the initial infector and downloader code in this campaign appears to be generated by large language model (LLM) agents."

The findings demonstrate a new trend among cybercriminal groups to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to bolster their tradecraft.

Known to be active since at least 2015, RevengeHotels has a history of hospitality, hotel, and travel organizations in Latin America with the goal of installing malware on compromised systems.

Early iterations of the threat actor's campaigns were found to distribute emails with crafted Word, Excel, or PDF documents attached, some of which exploit a known remote code execution flaw in Microsoft Office (CVE-2017-0199) to trigger the deployment of Revenge RAT, NjRAT, NanoCoreRAT, and 888 RAT, as well as a piece of custom malware called ProCC.

Subsequent campaigns documented by Proofpoint and Positive Technologies have demonstrated the threat actor's ability to refine their attack chains to deliver a wide range of RATs such as Agent Tesla, AsyncRAT, FormBook, GuLoader, Loda RAT, LokiBot, Remcos RAT, Snake Keylogger, and Vjw0rm.

The main goal of the attacks is to capture credit card data from guests and travelers stored in hotel systems, as well as credit card data received from popular online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Booking.com.

According to Kaspersky, the latest campaigns involve sending phishing emails written in Portuguese and Spanish bearing hotel reservation and job application lures to trick recipients into clicking on fraudulent links, resulting in the download of a WScript JavaScript payload.

"The script appears to be generated by a large language model (LLM), as evidenced by its heavily commented code and a format similar to those produced by this type of technology," the company said. "The primary function of the script is to load subsequent scripts that facilitate the infection."

This includes a PowerShell script, which, in turn, retrieves a downloader named "cargajecerrr.txt" from an external server and runs it via PowerShell. The downloader, as the name implies, fetches two additional payloads: a loader that's responsible for launching the Venom RAT malware.

Based on the open-source Quasar RAT, Venom RAT is a commercial tool that's offered for $650 for a lifetime license. A one-month subscription bundling the malware with HVNC and Stealer components, costs $350.

The malware is equipped to siphon data, act as a reverse proxy, and features an anti-kill protection mechanism to ensure that it runs uninterrupted. To accomplish this, it modifies the Discretionary Access Control List (DACL) associated with the running process to remove any permissions that could interfere with its functioning, and terminates any running process that matches any of the hard-coded processes.

"The second component of this anti-kill measure involves a thread that runs a continuous loop, checking the list of running processes every 50 milliseconds," Kaspersky said.

"The loop specifically targets those processes commonly used by security analysts and system administrators to monitor host activity or analyze .NET binaries, among other tasks. If the RAT detects any of these processes, it will terminate them without prompting the user."

The anti-kill feature also comes fitted with the ability to set up persistence on the host using Windows Registry modifications and re-run the malware anytime the associated process is not found in the list of running processes.

Should the malware be executed with elevated privileges, it proceeds to set the SeDebugPrivilege token and marks itself as a critical system process, thereby allowing it to persist even when there is an attempt to terminate the process. It also forces the computer's display to remain on and prevents it from entering sleep mode.

Lastly, the Venom RAT artifacts incorporate capabilities to spread via removable USB drives and terminate the process associated with Microsoft Defender Antivirus, as well as tamper with the task scheduler and Registry to disable the security program.

"RevengeHotels has significantly enhanced its capabilities, developing new tactics to target the hospitality and tourism sectors," Kaspersky said. "With the assistance of LLM agents, the group has been able to generate and modify their phishing lures, expanding their attacks to new regions."

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TA558 Uses AI-Generated Scripts to Deploy Venom RAT in Brazil Hotel Attacks

New research reveals Raven Stealer malware that targets browsers like Chrome and Edge to steal personal data. Learn how this threat uses simple tricks like process hollowing to evade antiviruses and why it's a growing risk for everyday users.

A new sneaky type of malware, known as Raven Stealer, has been identified by the Lat61 Threat Intelligence Team at Point Wild. The research team, led by Onkar R. Sonawane, have found that this simple-looking program is surprisingly good at staying hidden while it steals your personal information. The research, which was shared with Hackread.com, shows that the malware is primarily spread through underground forums and bundled with pirated software.

Built using the programming languages Delphi and C++, Raven Stealer is designed to be small and quick. It works by quietly getting into your computer, where its payload (the part of the malware that does the actual harm) goes to work.

The payload targets popular web browsers like Chrome and Edge to grab things like your passwords, cookies, payment details, and other information you’ve saved. What makes it particularly tricky is that it can send this stolen information directly to a cybercriminal using a Telegram messaging bot. This means the bad guys get your data in real-time.

Attack flow, the UI of the file and the generated payload (Image Credit: Point Wild)

****How It Works****

Point Wild’s report explains that Raven Stealer uses a clever trick called process hollowing to avoid being caught by traditional antivirus programs. This means, instead of leaving a file on your computer’s hard drive, it works entirely within your computer’s memory, pretending to be a regular browser program. It’s like a car thief hollowing out a car and putting a different engine in it, so it looks normal from the outside but is used for something else entirely. This technique makes it tough for security software to spot it.

The malware’s creator used a simple builder program to create the attack file, which hides an encrypted “payload” inside and gives it a unique name to avoid detection. Once on an infected computer, it gathers a screenshot and stolen data into a ZIP file, then tries to send it to the attacker via Telegram. Although this transmission failed in testing due to a Telegram bot token problem, the threat of data theft remains.

****Protecting Yourself****

To keep your personal information safe from threats like this, always use up-to-date antivirus software with real-time protection and avoid downloading pirated programs. It’s also wise to be careful about clicking on suspicious links or attachments.

As Dr. Zulfikar Ramzan, CTO of Point Wild and Head of the Lat61 Threat Intelligence Team, explains, “Raven Stealer shows how commodity malware is evolving – stealing credentials, cookies, and payment data while hiding its tracks through in-memory execution and Telegram exfiltration. It’s a reminder that attackers are packaging advanced techniques into tools that even low-skilled actors can use.”

New Raven Stealer Malware Hits Browsers for Passwords and Payment Data

Learn what Codeless Testing Tools are and how effective they are in detecting common security vulnerabilities, along with understanding their strengths and limitations.

Codeless testing tools have become increasingly popular in recent years thanks to advances in automation technology. The reason for that is the numerous benefits it offers to the software development teams. Team members from a non-technical background, like business analysts, product owners, and project managers, can also participate in the testing process, as these tools do not require them to possess coding skills.

Test scripts need not be created using programming languages when using such tools. Just simple clicks or drag and drop features are enough for them to be created. This feature has considerably enhanced collaboration between team members and reduced the overall time and cost associated with the testing stage.

While looking at the security aspect of the software, it is quite clear that fraudulent cases and scams are rising too, with the advancements in technology. Cybersecurity is an ever-growing field, as it needs to keep itself up to date with the latest security protocols to fight cyber attacks. A company can not release its software product without testing for all the security features and patches that have been integrated into it.

So, the main question that arises is how effective codeless testing tools are in detecting security vulnerabilities. The article centers around this theme, along with diving deep into its elements.

In simplest terms, codeless testing tools are the platforms that allow testers to generate and run test cases without writing code in any programming language. These tools are intelligent enough to accept user inputs in the form of natural language commands, drag and drop features, or clicks on intuitive interfaces. testRigor, as a codeless test automation tool, is one such widely used product that has those benefits along with the following ones.

****Primary Benefits of Codeless Testing Tools****

The most common benefits of these tools are:

*   **Speed:** These tools considerably reduce the time required for creating and running test cases, as most parts of these steps can be executed based on simple inputs rather than complex coding and automated workflows.

*   **Greater Accessibility:** The technical barrier can be eliminated by using such tools because of their capability to accept simple inputs instead of code. That means testing can be done not just by testers but also by business analysts, project managers, and others from non-technical backgrounds.

*   **Better Test Coverage:** Repetitive tasks can be delegated to such tools so that testers get a bandwidth for creating edge cases as well. That improves the overall coverage of the test cases.

While the above benefits are of immense value to the testing process, whether they extend to the security testing also or not is what we will examine in the further sections.

****Common Security Vulnerabilities in Software****

Before we examine the role of codeless testing tools in security testing, let’s first have a brief look at the most common security vulnerabilities. Most of these risks are already documented in the OWASP Top 10, which is a widely followed standard for software security.

*   **SQL Injection (SQLi):** This is a kind of security breach when a malicious query is injected into an input field that can manipulate the backend database of a web application.

*   **Authentication Breaches:** Weak login mechanisms implemented in the software that may allow attackers to impersonate as an authentic user to hack the system.

*   **Misconfigured Security Settings:** This type of breach can happen due to exposed endpoints, unpatched servers, or misconfigured default settings that can be exploited by attackers.

*   **Cross-Site Scripting (XSS):** A webpage can be altered by using harmful scripts that may put its security at risk.

*   **Weak API security:** This kind of vulnerability arises from poorly validated inputs on APIs without adequate authentication that can expose sensitive information.

These vulnerabilities require rigorous testing by using specialised tools, programming skills, and penetration testing techniques. Whether a codeless testing tool can handle all that or not, let’s examine in the next section.

To understand the efficacy of codeless tools in security testing, let’s unpack their strengths and weaknesses.

****Strengths of Codeless Tools in Security Testing****

Several kinds of vulnerabilities exist in a web application, but a codeless testing tool is especially adept at detecting security flaws at the application behavioural level. They include:

*   **Input Validation Errors:** The tool can simulate different kinds of input for testing an application from all aspects, whether for valid inputs or invalid ones. Unexpected inputs may expose a weak validation mechanism.

*   **UI level vulnerability:** This includes whether the application can mask password fields properly or not, or whether the rule enforces strong password creation rules or not.

*   **Regression testing:** The tool can run regression tests for already incorporated security patches any number of times when further updates are introduced to the software.

These are mostly the simple ones that can be easily caught by a codeless testing tool.

****Limitations of Codeless Tools in Security Testing****

Security testing is an altogether separate module in the overall testing process. It needs specialised tools that are specifically designed to catch certain security flaws. And hence, a codeless testing tool may not suffice for such cases. They include:

*   **Deep Code Analysis:** If there are any insecure patterns in an application, a codeless tool cannot analyse its source code to highlight them. Simply because it lacks the capability of a deep code analysis tool. This may cause breaches like SQL Injection or insecure deserialization.

*   **Limited Simulation Capability:** Although a codeless tool can simulate a large set of scenarios, it may still fall short in simulating complex cases to test vulnerabilities like XSS or privilege escalation.

*   **Over-dependent on Patterns:** Most of the tools rely on pre-defined patterns that may not consider nuanced or the latest security risks that have emerged after the tool was trained.

So, in a nutshell, a codeless testing tool may complement security testing by running repetitive and simple test cases to catch common vulnerabilities. But it cannot be used to replace a dedicated security testing tool that is capable enough to catch deeply embedded security flaws.

****Final Thoughts****

Codeless testing tools can still be considered in their infancy. There are several advanced features, like AI and machine learning, that are on their way to being integrated into these platforms. That will considerably enhance their capabilities from simple record and playback features to an intelligent system that can easily detect deeply embedded vulnerabilities.

While in the current phase, they are effective enough to catch the most common security issues, they still fall short in rigorous security testing.

So, to answer the question, can codeless testing tools detect common security flaws? It is, yes, but only up to a certain extent. These tools can definitely elevate your security testing process, but cannot be wholly dependable due to their few limitations discussed in the previous section.

Nevertheless, they can still play an important role in improving the testing process by making it more efficient and thereby delivering a more powerful product.

Can Codeless Testing Tools Detect Common Security Vulnerabilities?

Researchers have discovered a large ad fraud campaign on Google Play Store.

Researchers have discovered a large ad fraud campaign on Google Play Store.

The Satori Threat Intelligence and Research team found 224 malicious apps which were downloaded over 38 million times and generated up to 2.3 billion ad requests per day. They named the campaign “SlopAds.”

Ad fraud is a type of fraud that lets advertisers pay for ads even though the number of impressions (the times that the ad has been seen) is enormously exaggerated.

While the main victims of ad fraud are the advertisers, there are consequences for the users that had these apps installed as well, such as slowed-down devices and connections due to the apps executing their malicious activity in the background without the user even being aware.

At first, to stay under the radar of Google’s app review process and security software, the downloaded app will behave as advertised, if a user has installed it directly from the Play Store.

_Image courtesy of HUMAN Satori_

But if the installation has been initiated by one of the campaign’s ads, the user will receive some extra files in the form of a steganographically encrypted payload.

If the app passes the first check it will receive four .png images that, when decrypted and reassembled, are actually an .apk file. The malicious file uses WebView (essentially a very basic browser) to send collected device and browser information to a Control & Command (C2) server which determines, based on that information, what domains to visit in further hidden WebViews.

The researchers found evidence of an AI (Artificial Intelligence) tool training on the same domain as the C2 server (ad2\[.\]cc). It is unclear whether this tool actively managed the ad fraud campaign.

Based on similarities in the C2 domain, the researchers found over 300 related domains promoting SlopAds-associated apps, suggesting that the collection of 224 SlopAds-associated apps was only the beginning.

Google removed all of the identified apps listed in this report from Google Play. Users are automatically protected by Google Play Protect, which warns users and blocks apps known to exhibit SlopAds associated behavior at install time on certified Android devices, even when apps come from sources outside of the Play Store.

You can find a complete list of the removed apps here: SlopAds app list

**How to avoid installing malicious apps**

While the official Google Play Store is the safest place to get your apps from, there is no guarantee that it will remain a non-malicious app just because it is in the Google Play Store. So here are a few extra measures you can take:

*   Always check what permissions an app is requesting, and don’t just trust an app because it’s in the official Play Store. Ask questions such as: Do the permissions make sense for what the app is supposed to do? Why did necessary permissions change after an update? Do these changes make sense?
*   Occasionally go over your installed apps and remove any you no longer need.
*   Make sure you have the latest available updates for your device, and all your important apps (banking, security, etc.)
*   Protect your Android with security software. Your phone needs it just as much as your computer.

Another precaution you can take if you’re looking for an app, do your research about the app before you go to the app store. As you can see from the screenshot above, many of the apps are made to look exactly the same as very popular legitimate ones (e.g. ChatGPT).

So, it’s important to know in advance who the official developer is of the app you want and if it’s even available from the app store.

As researcher Jim Nielsen demonstrated for the Mac App Store, there are a lot of apps trying to look like ChatGPT, but they are not the real thing. ChatGPT is not even in the Mac App Store, it is available in the Google Play Store for Android, but make sure to check that OpenAI is listed as the developer.

**We don’t just report on phone security—we provide it**

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your mobile devices by downloading Malwarebytes for iOS, and Malwarebytes for Android today.

 224 malicious apps removed from the Google Play Store after ad fraud campaign discovered 

A China-aligned threat actor known as TA415 has been attributed to spear-phishing campaigns targeting the U.S. government, think tanks, and academic organizations utilizing U.S.-China economic-themed lures.
"In this activity, the group masqueraded as the current Chair of the Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as well as the

Cyber Espionage / Malware

A China-aligned threat actor known as **TA415** has been attributed to spear-phishing campaigns targeting the U.S. government, think tanks, and academic organizations utilizing U.S.-China economic-themed lures.

"In this activity, the group masqueraded as the current Chair of the Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as well as the U.S.-China Business Council, to target a range of individuals and organizations predominantly focused on U.S.-China relations, trade, and economic policy," Proofpoint said in an analysis.

The enterprise security company said the activity, observed throughout July and August 2025, is likely an effort on part of Chinese state-sponsored threat actors to facilitate intelligence gathering amid ongoing U.S.-China trade talks, adding the hacking group shares overlaps with a threat cluster tracked broadly under the names APT41 and Brass Typhoon (formerly Barium).

The findings come days after the U.S. House Select Committee on China issued an advisory warning of an "ongoing" series of highly targeted cyber espionage campaigns linked to Chinese threat actors, including a campaign that impersonated the Republican Party Congressman John Robert Moolenaar in phishing emails designed to deliver data-stealing malware.

The campaign, per Proofpoint, mainly focused on individuals who specialized in international trade, economic policy, and U.S.-China relations, sending them emails spoofing the U.S.-China Business Council that invited them to a supposed closed-door briefing on U.S.-Taiwan and U.S.-China affairs.

The messages were sent using the email address "uschina@zohomail\[.\]com," while also relying on the Cloudflare WARP VPN service to obfuscate the source of the activity. They contain links to password-protected archives hosted on public cloud sharing services such as Zoho WorkDrive, Dropbox, and OpenDrive, within which there exists a Windows shortcut (LNK) along with other files in a hidden folder.

The primary function of the LNK file is to execute a batch script within the hidden folder, and display a PDF document as a decoy to the user. In the background, the batch script executes an obfuscated Python loader named WhirlCoil that's also present in the archive.

"Earlier variations of this infection chain instead downloaded the WhirlCoil Python loader from a Paste site, such as Pastebin, and the Python package directly from the official Python website," Proofpoint noted.

The script is also designed to set up a scheduled task, typically named GoogleUpdate or MicrosoftHealthcareMonitorNode, to run the loader every two hours as a form of persistence. It also runs the task with SYSTEM privileges if the user has administrative access to the compromised host.

The Python loader subsequently establishes a Visual Studio Code remote tunnel to establish persistent backdoor access and harvests system information and the contents of various user directories. The data and the remote tunnel verification code are sent to a free request logging service (e.g., requestrepo\[.\]com) in the form of a base64-encoded blob within the body of an HTTP POST request.

"With this code, the threat actor is then able to authenticate the VS Code Remote Tunnel and remotely access the file system and execute arbitrary commands via the built-in Visual Studio terminal on the targeted host," Proofpoint said.

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