Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

Proposed Bill Could Reopen Debate Over Computer Misuse Act ProtectionsThe British government has announced plans to update cybersecurity legislation aimed at strengthening the country's digital defenses - while overhauling outdated cybercrime authorities that officials and security researchers warn are no longer fit for modern threats

Also: macOS Naughty or Nice, Cybercrime Karma, Spoofing Legacy Rail InfrastructureLondon in December: Early to dark, quick to rain but also festive - and a mecca for cybersecurity researchers there for the annual Black Hat Europe conference. This year's event featured nearly 50 briefings that touched on everything from hardware hacking to combing infostealer logs for hidden gems.

Uncovered: Typosquatted Domains Linked to Suspected Ransomware Group CampaignContinuing its targeting of customer data, the cybercrime group Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters appears to be gearing up for large-scale attacks involving typosquatted domains that lead to phishing domains designed to steal Zendesk users' valid credentials, warn security researchers.

Malware Captures Billions of CredentialsThe threat posed by information-stealing malware continues to rise, as it mass harvests ever-greater quantities of user credentials and offers them for sale across the cybercrime underground. Researchers have recently tracked 1.8 billion stolen credentials being sold across illicit marketplaces.

Moscow Crackdowns 'Less About Enforcement and More About Optics,' Say ExpertsChanging forces are reshaping the Russian cybercrime ecosystem, as the Kremlin takes a more direct role in leveraging ransomware and other groups for geopolitical influence, while not hesitating to occasionally burn lower-level players as a diplomatic token gesture, say researchers.

Foundation for Defense of Democracies Warns Against Aligning With New Cyber TreatyThe United Nations' cybercrime treaty, shaped by Russian and Chinese influence, could legitimize global digital repression by enabling prosecutions of journalists, activists and researchers under vague terms - despite U.S. opposition and mounting civil society alarm, analysts warned Thursday.

Runners Hired to Connect Device to Bank's Network, Facilitating Remote HacksResearchers tied a cybercrime group tracked as UNC2891 to an attempted Asia-Pacific bank heist, in which remote attackers physically installed a 4G-enabled Raspberry Pi onto an ATM network switch, giving them remote access to the internal IT environment as part of an attempted cashout attack.

PoisonSeed Threat Actor Uses Cross-Device Login Feature and QR Code to Trick UsersExpel researchers have found a novel adversary-in-the-middle phishing technique used by PoisonSeed, a cybercrime group previously tied to large-scale cryptocurrency thefts, to sidestep one of the most secure forms of multifactor authentication - FIDO2 physical keys.

Research Shows Attackers Jailbreaking LLMs such as Grok, MixtralThe phrase "WormGPT," once an actual evil twin of OpenAI's GPT AI model designed for malicious activities, has now become a catch-all phrase for jailbroken large language models used in cybercrime. "WormGPT now serves as a recognizable brand for a new class of uncensored LLMs."

Russia, China, Iran and North Korea Tapping Cybercrime Services, Google SaysThe cybercrime-as-a-service economy continues to power ransomware and other criminal enterprises, as well as serve as "an accelerant for state-sponsored hacking," collectively posing an increasing risk to Western national security, cybersecurity researchers warn.

Infoblox Researchers on Links Between Human Trafficking, Cybercrime and GamblingIllegal gambling operations depend on trafficked individuals to perform cybercriminal activities. Threat researchers at Infoblox explain how cybercriminals use trafficked people for operations such as pig-butchering scams and leverage European sports sponsorships to boost illegal gambling websites.

Russia, Ukraine, China and US All Top 'First-Ever World Cybercrime Index'A new study published by researchers from the universities of Oxford and New South Wales ranks Russia at the top of a global list of cybercrime hot spots and says Ukraine, China, the United States, Nigeria and Romania are home to a majority of global cybercriminal activity.

GoldPickaxe Malware Can Record User’s Face - Use Video to Commit Deepfake ScamsA Chinese-speaking cybercrime group with the codename GoldFactory has built a new Android and iOS banking Trojan, GoldPickaxe, that can harvest and steal personal details, including biometric face profiles, that attackers use to create AI-driven deepfakes to fool bank defenses, researchers warn.

Both iOS and Android Variants Can Record Face Videos, Used to Create AI DeepfakesA Chinese-speaking cybercrime group codenamed GoldFactory has built a new Android and iOS banking Trojan, GoldPickaxe, that can to harvest and steal personal details, including biometric face profiles, which attackers use to create AI-driven deepfakes to fool bank defenses, researchers warn.

Final Round of Negotiations Set to Begin on MondayA draft international cybercrime treaty set to enter a final round of negotiations at the United Nations Monday drew condemnation from civil society groups that said it will criminalize security research and promote indiscriminate police surveillance.

Cybercrime Groups Hire VexTrio to Help Route Victims to Their Malicious ContentAs if the cybercrime ecosystem wasn't already damaging enough, security researchers have discovered a malicious traffic broker named VexTrio, which affiliates hire to route victims to their malicious content that is often disguised via fake dating site profiles, tech support or browser updates.