New MODBEACON RAT Uses gRPC Streaming for Encrypted C2 Traffic
The China-linked cybercrime group known as Silver Fox has been attributed to a new Rust-based remote access trojan (RAR) called MODBEACON
Stay secure with the latest encryption news, trends, and best practices in information security. Protect your data with cutting-edge cryptography.
Search across headline titles and summaries.
Background for this topic.
Encryption transforms readable data into ciphertext using an algorithm and a key, so someone who obtains the ciphertext cannot normally understand it without the required key. It protects confidentiality for data in transit, such as traffic between services, and at rest, such as files, databases, and backups. Encryption does not by itself prove who sent data, prevent tampering, or protect plaintext displayed on a compromised endpoint.
Its security therefore depends on implementation and key management. Attackers may target stolen, exposed, or overprivileged keys, weak algorithms or protocols, poor randomness, and systems that decrypt data unnecessarily. Use modern, authenticated encryption where appropriate; protect keys separately from encrypted data with tightly limited access, rotation and revocation procedures, and monitored use. Verify that encryption covers relevant backups and internal service links, while recognizing that lost keys can make recovery impossible and that encrypted traffic may still reveal metadata such as timing or endpoints.
Weekly headline count for the current query.
The China-linked cybercrime group known as Silver Fox has been attributed to a new Rust-based remote access trojan (RAR) called MODBEACON
Microsoft on Tuesday said it's accelerating its quantum safe security roadmap, stating technology advances in quantum computing are making it essential to replace existing encryption standards sooner than previously expected
Today’s encrypted data, such as credentials, may no longer remain confidential in the future because the public-key cryptography protecting it will soon be broken by quantum computers. Although no machine today can break elliptic curve cryptography or RSA, quantum hardware is advancing rapidly and will inevitably change how organizations protect their data. Ciphertext and credentials captured by
Password manager Dashlane has disclosed that "fewer than" 20 users on the personal subscription plan had their encrypted vaults downloaded following a brute-force attack launched by an unknown party
A new Mini Shai-Hulud supply chain attack campaign, codenamed Miasma, has compromised @redhat-cloud-services packages to steal credentials and secrets from developer machines and deliver a self-propagating worm
Apple on Monday officially released iOS 26.5 with support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to Rich Communication Services (RCS) in beta as part of a "cross-industry effort" to replace traditional SMS with a more secure alternative
Threat hunters are warning that the cybercriminal operation known as VECT 2.0 acts more like a wiper than a ransomware due to a critical flaw in its encryption implementation across Windows, Linux, and ESXi variants that renders recovery impossible even for the threat actors
Chinese-speaking users are the target of an active campaign that uses typosquatted domains impersonating trusted software brands to deliver a previously undocumented remote access trojan named AtlasCross RAT
Meta has announced plans to discontinue support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for chats on Instagram after May 8, 2026
Phishing has quietly turned into one of the hardest enterprise threats to expose early. Instead of crude lures and obvious payloads, modern campaigns rely on trusted infrastructure, legitimate-looking authentication flows, and encrypted traffic that conceals malicious behavior from traditional detection layers. For CISOs, the priority is now clear: scale phishing detection in a way that helps
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a multi-stage malware campaign that uses batch scripts as a pathway to deliver various encrypted remote access trojan (RATs) payloads that correspond to XWorm, AsyncRAT, and Xeno RAT
Most organizations assume encrypted data is safe
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new botnet loader called Aeternum C2 that uses a blockchain-based command-and-control (C2) infrastructure to make it resilient to takedown efforts
Apple on Monday released a new developer beta of iOS and iPadOS with support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) in Rich Communications Services (RCS) messages
Are ransomware and encryption still the defining signals of modern cyberattacks, or has the industry been too fixated on noise while missing a more dangerous shift happening quietly all around them? According to Picus Labs’ new Red Report 2026, which analyzed over 1.1 million malicious files and mapped 15.5 million adversarial actions observed across 2025, attackers are no longer optimizing for
Threat hunters have disclosed details of a new, stealthy malware campaign dubbed DEAD#VAX that employs a mix of "disciplined tradecraft and clever abuse of legitimate system features" to bypass traditional detection mechanisms and deploy a remote access trojan (RAT) known as AsyncRAT
Old Playbook, New Scale: While defenders are chasing trends, attackers are optimizing the basics The security industry loves talking about "new" threats. AI-powered attacks. Quantum-resistant encryption. Zero-trust architectures. But looking around, it seems like the most effective attacks in 2025 are pretty much the same as they were in 2015. Attackers are exploiting the same entry points that
Artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI on Wednesday announced the launch of ChatGPT Health, a dedicated space that allows users to have conversations with the chatbot about their health
The encrypted vault backups stolen from the 2022 LastPass data breach have enabled bad actors to take advantage of weak master passwords to crack them open and drain cryptocurrency assets as recently as late 2025, according to new findings from TRM Labs
The pro-Russian hacktivist group known as CyberVolk (aka GLORIAMIST) has resurfaced with a new ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) offering called VolkLocker that suffers from implementation lapses in test artifacts, allowing users to decrypt files without paying an extortion fee