IT Security Newsletter

IT Security Newsletter - 10/23/2025

Written by Cadre | Thu, Oct 23, 2025

FinWise data breach shows why encryption is your last defense

The 2024 FinWise data breach serves as a stark example of the growing insider threats faced by modern financial institutions. Unlike typical cyberattacks originating from external hackers, this incident stemmed from unauthorized access by a former employee using retained credentials. On May 31, 2024, the ex-employee accessed FinWise Bank's systems after leaving the company and leaked sensitive personal information belonging to 689,000 customers of American First Finance (AFF). READ MORE...

SpaceX pulls plug on 2,500 Starlink terminals tied to Myanmar fraud farms

SpaceX says it has shut down thousands of Starlink terminals that were powering Myanmar's notorious scam compounds after its satellite network was found to be keeping human trafficking and cyber-fraud operations online in the country's lawless border zones. In a statement posted on X, SpaceX's senior vice president of commercial business, Lauren Dreyer, said the company had "proactively identified and disabled over 2,500 Starlink Kits in the vicinity of suspected scam centers" in Myanmar. READ MORE...

Lazarus Group Hunts European Drone Manufacturing Data

North Korea's relentless Lazarus Group is at it again, this time targeting drone manufacturers in Europe to steal proprietary information and manufacturing know-how for Pyongyang. ESET researchers tracking the campaign have identified at least three organizations Lazarus has struck so far, all located in Central and Southeastern Europe. The targeted organizations manufacture a range of military equipment, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, aka drones). READ MORE...

Mideast, African Hackers Target Gov'ts, Banks, Small Retailers

For years running now, retail has been one of the most frequently targeted sectors in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Between internecine conflicts and more cutting-edge industries, one might expect certain kinds of cyberattacks to dominate the Middle East in particular. On the low end, hacktivism. At the high end, disruptions of government and critical services, or perhaps attacks aimed at advanced military, defense, and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors. READ MORE...

Vibe Coding's Real Problem Isn't Bugs-It's Judgment

AI-generated code - vibe coding - is an exciting prospect: it turns anyone into a computer programmer. But that is precisely what is wrong with it… The problem is not that vibe coding introduces an excessive number of vulnerabilities. Comparative analysis shows AI vulnerabilities are at a similar density per line of code to those introduced by humans. Code quality is not the problem. It's just there's too much of it, too fast, and it lacks good judgment. READ MORE...

Google nukes 3,000 YouTube videos that sowed malware disguised as cracked software

Google has taken down thousands of YouTube videos that were quietly spreading password-stealing malware disguised as cracked software and game cheats. Researchers at Check Point say the so-called "YouTube Ghost Network" hijacked and weaponized legitimate YouTube accounts to post tutorial videos that promised free copies of Photoshop, FL Studio, and Roblox hacks, but instead lured viewers into installing infostealers such as Rhadamanthys and Lumma. READ MORE...

Spoofed AI sidebars can trick Atlas, Comet users into dangerous actions

OpenAI's Atlas and Perplexity's Comet browsers are vulnerable to attacks that spoof the built-in AI sidebar and can lead users into following malicious instructions. The AI Sidebar Spoofing attack was devised by researchers at browser security company SquareX and works on the latest versions of the two browsers. The researchers created three realistic attack scenarios where a threat actor could use AI Sidebar Spoofing. READ MORE...

Canada Fines Cybercrime Friendly Cryptomus $176M

Financial regulators in Canada this week levied $176 million in fines against Cryptomus, a digital payments platform that supports dozens of Russian cryptocurrency exchanges and websites hawking cybercrime services. The penalties for violating Canada's anti money-laundering laws come ten months after KrebsOnSecurity noted that Cryptomus's Vancouver street address was home to dozens of foreign currency dealers, money transfer businesses, and cryptocurrency exchanges. READ MORE...

Exploitation of Critical Adobe Commerce Flaw Puts Many eCommerce Sites at Risk

Hackers have started exploiting a critical-severity vulnerability in Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source, cybersecurity firm Sansec reports. Tracked as CVE-2025-54236 (CVSS score of 9.1), the flaw is described as an improper input validation issue leading to security feature bypass. On September 9, Adobe released hotfixes for the security defect, urging users of Commerce and Magento Open Source versions between 2.4.4 and 2.4.7 to update their deployments. READ MORE...

F5 vulnerability highlights weak points in DHS's CDM program

Last week, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency officials spoke candidly about the challenges they faced tracking the use of F5 products across the civilian federal government. While CISA knows there are thousands of instances of F5 currently in use, it admitted it wasn't certain where each instance was deployed. The uncertainty came as the agency issued an emergency directive related to F5, instructing other government agencies to find and patch any F5 instances. READ MORE...

  • ...in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C. for all military-related cases.
  • ...in 1929, The first transcontinental air service begins from New York to Los Angeles.
  • ...in 1959, musical parodist and accordion virtuoso Alfred "Weird Al" Yankovic ("Eat It," "UHF") is born in Downey, CA.
  • ...in 1988, the classic 8-bit video game Super Mario Bros. 3 is released by Nintendo.