Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter.
Recently, I was invited to sit on a panel at the CIO4Good Conference here in Washington D.C., where I talked about incident response and cyber preparedness to a room full of CIOs who help lead wonderful missions to help others. I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to volunteer for the NGO community. I’ve been involved with them for a few years now, and it has been a singular experience.
I sit in a uniquely blessed situation. Cisco Talos is resourced to help protect our customers — we have expertise, tooling and a huge array of diverse security skillsets. A humanitarian assistance or non-governmental organization (NGO) usually has none or very few of these luxuries. If I can take some of my time and experience here at Talos and help others who provide housing to the homeless, protect refugees or feed the hungry, damn right I’m gonna do it. And NGOs? They really need help.
In today’s global humanitarian funding climate, money and grants are very scarce to come by. This means the competition for the dollars that remain is fierce, and that things like cybersecurity can fall by the wayside. But security in an NGO is incredibly important. We’re talking about incredibly vulnerable and marginalized people who deserve aid, and the amazing volunteers who should have privacy without malicious interference.
The hard truth is that cybersecurity can be a bleak space. We as professionals do not operate in the “good news” business. We work, and thrive, in adversarial conditions — actively searching for what the bad guys are doing and learning how they are coming after the good guys. They’re launching ransomware. They are extorting and causing real harm to others. This is day in and day out, and it can wear you down mentally. You have to endure and focus on the mission. After all, that’s the gig.
This is why I enjoy volunteering by either giving some of my time and expertise to a mentee or to an NGO that has an outstanding mission to help others. It puts fuel in your soul and reminds you that others are fighting their own good fights. These organizations are some of the best. They have a thankless, often dangerous, mission to help others have better lives. The way I see it, volunteering is the least I could do.
If you want to join me, there are some places that could use your help. Check out the Cyber Peace Institute, or Defcon Project Franklin.
The one big thing
This week is bittersweet because we’re discussing the final section of Talos’ 2024 Year in Review report. Let’s jump into the abyss of AI-based threats together.
Why do I care?
AI may not have upended the threat landscape last year, but it’s setting the stage for 2025, where agentic AI and automated vulnerability discovery could pose serious challenges for defenders. The future may bring:
- The use of agentic AI to conduct multi-stage attacks or find creative ways to access restricted systems
- Improved personalization and professionalization of social engineering
- Automated vulnerability discovery and exploitation
- Capabilities to compromise AI models, systems and infrastructure that organizations around the world are building
So now what?
Continue to stay informed and alert, and for more information, read Talos’ blog post about these threats or download the full Year in Review.
Top security headlines of the week
AirPlay Vulnerabilities Expose Apple Devices to Zero-Click Takeover. The identified security defects, 23 in total, could be exploited over wireless networks and peer–to-peer connections, leading to the complete compromise of not only Apple products, but also third-party devices that use the AirPlay SDK. (SecurityWeek)
4 Million Affected by VeriSource Data Breach. VeriSource says the stolen information belonged to employees and dependents of companies using its services. It has been working with its customers to “collect the necessary information to notify additional individuals affected by this incident.” (SecurityWeek)
SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer Flaw Under Active Exploitation. CVE-2025-31324 is a critical vulnerability with a maximum CVSS score of 10 that affects all SAP NetWeaver 7.xx versions. It allows unauthenticated remote attackers to upload arbitrary files to Internet exposed systems without any restrictions. (DarkReading)
FBI shares massive list of 42,000 LabHost phishing domains. The FBI has shared 42,000 phishing domains tied to the LabHost cybercrime platform, one of the largest global phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platforms that was dismantled in April 2024. (BleepingComputer)
Can’t get enough Talos?
State-of-the-art phishing: MFA bypass. Cybercriminals are bypassing multi-factor authentication (MFA) using adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) attacks via reverse proxies, intercepting credentials and authentication cookies.
IR Trends Q1 2025: Phishing soars as identity-based attacks persist. This quarter, phishing attacks surged as the primary method for initial access. Learn how you can detect and prevent pre-ransomware attacks.
TTP Episode 11. Craig, Bill and Hazel discuss three of the biggest callouts from Cisco Talos’ latest Incident Response Quarterly Trends.
Talos Takes: Identity and MFA. Hazel and friends discuss how AI isn’t rewriting the cybercrime playbook, but it is turbo charging some of the old tricks, particularly on the social engineering side.
Upcoming events where you can find Talos
- PIVOTcon (May 7 – 9) Malaga, Spain
- CTA TIPS 2025 (May 14 – 15) Arlington, VA
- Cisco Connect UK & Ireland (May 20) London, UK
- BotConf (May 20 – 23) Angers, France
- Cisco Live U.S. (June 8 – 12) San Diego, CA
Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week
SHA256: 9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507
MD5: 2915b3f8b703eb744fc54c81f4a9c67f
VirusTotal: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/9f1f11a708d393e0a4109ae189bc64f1f3e312653dcf317a2bd406f18ffcc507/
Typical Filename: VID001.exe
Detection Name: Win.Worm.Bitmin-9847045-0
SHA256: a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91
MD5: 7bdbd180c081fa63ca94f9c22c457376
VirusTotal: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91
Typical Filename: img001.exe
Detection Name: Simple_Custom_Detection
SHA256: 47ecaab5cd6b26fe18d9759a9392bce81ba379817c53a3a468fe9060a076f8ca
MD5: 71fea034b422e4a17ebb06022532fdde
VirusTotal: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/a31f222fc283227f5e7988d1ad9c0aecd66d58bb7b4d8518ae23e110308dbf91
Typical Filename: VID001.exe
Detection Name: Coinminer:MBT.26mw.in14.Talos
