The Victims tag covers people and organizations harmed by cyberattacks, including breaches, scams, malware, identity theft, and data exposure.
Search across headline titles and summaries.
Background for this topic.
Victims are people, organizations, or public bodies that suffer harm from cyber-enabled activity, such as account compromise, fraud, unauthorized data access, malware, or service disruption. The term may describe both the directly compromised party and individuals whose information, devices, or accounts are affected through an incident involving another organization.
For security practitioners, victim impact guides triage and response: identify affected systems and data, contain access, preserve evidence, and restore trustworthy operations. Exposed personal or confidential information can create privacy and notification obligations, while compromised credentials or devices may enable further attacks against the victim or its contacts. Recording victim details in threat intelligence—such as the targeted sector, initial access method, and affected assets—can help identify campaigns and improve controls. Clear communication and support also matter, because victims need accurate guidance on credential resets, account monitoring, fraud reporting, and available remediation.
Microsoft is warning of an uptick in malicious activity from an emerging threat cluster it's tracking as Storm-0539 for orchestrating gift card fraud and theft via highly sophisticated email and SMS phishing attacks against retail entities during the holiday shopping season
NPM repo hijacked after former worker phished Cryptocurrency wallet maker Ledger says someone slipped malicious code into one of its JavaScript libraries to steal more than half a million dollars from victims.…
Crypto hardware wallet maker Ledger published a new version of its "@ledgerhq/connect-kit" npm module after unidentified threat actors pushed malicious code that led to the theft of more than $600,000 in virtual assets
The U.S. Department of Justice charged four suspects (two of them already detained) for their alleged involvement in a pig butchering fraud scheme that resulted in more than $80 million in victim losses. [...]
National security and infosec authorities band together to help victims sniff out stealthy Russian baddies hiding in networks The offensive cyber unit linked to Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is exploiting the critical vulnerability affecting the JetBrains TeamCity CI/CD server at scale, and has been since September, authorities warn.…
Romance scammers have used the technique to great effect in recent years
The Iranian state-sponsored threat actor known as OilRig deployed three different downloader malware throughout 2022 to maintain persistent access to victim organizations located in Israel
Internet plod highlight tactics used by cruel Karakurt crime gang Karakurt, a particularly nasty extortion gang that uses "extensive harassment" to pressure victims into handing over millions of dollars in ransom payments after compromising their IT infrastructure, pose a "significant challenge" for network defenders, we're told.…
Microsoft Details OAuth Tactics, Says Losses Reached Up to $1.5M Per VictimHackers are exploiting OAuth applications to compromise user accounts, manipulate and confer elevated privileges, and set up cryptomining operations, which has cost some organizations up to $1.5 million in losses, according to Microsoft's Threat Intelligence team.
A new wave of BazarCall attacks uses Google Forms to generate and send payment receipts to victims, attempting to make the phishing attempt appear more legitimate. [...]
French authorities arrested a Russian national in Paris for allegedly helping the Hive ransomware gang with laundering their victims' ransom payments. [...]
'Oxygen of Publicity' Helps Intimidate Victims and Recruit Affiliates, Experts WarnSeeking to maximize profits no matter the cost, ransomware groups have been bolstering their technical prowess and psychological shakedowns with a fresh strategy: attempting to control the narrative. Experts are warning security researchers and journalists to beware being co-opted.
Parliamentary Committee Says UK Must Be More AggressiveA U.K. parliamentary committee investigating ransomware threats recommended a more aggressive stance against threat actors and said the government should consider making incident reporting mandatory and provide government support for public sector victims "to the point of full recovery."
Threat actors are fully embracing the spin machine: rebranding, speaking with the media, writing detailed FAQs, and more, all in an effort to make headlines.
Ukraine's biggest telecom operator Kyivstar has become the victim of a cyber attack, disrupting customer access to mobile and internet services
Axiad's State of Authentication Survey also found nearly half of respondents think phishing is the most likely cyberattack, yet only 27% plan to use phishing-resistant MFA next year.
A phishing campaign has been observed delivering an information stealer malware called MrAnon Stealer to unsuspecting victims via seemingly benign booking-themed PDF lures
Scum lure folks with promises of good jobs in crypto and then won't let them leave Hundreds of suspected people smugglers have been arrested, and 163 potential victims rescued from servitude, as part of an Interpol-coordinated operation dubbed "Turquesa V" that targeted cyber criminals who lure workers into servitude to carry out their scams.…
Sanctioned Individuals Operated Investment Scams in Myanmar, Cambodia and LaosThe U.K. government has sanctioned 14 individuals and groups that illegally employed human trafficking victims in online crypto and investment scams. Sanctioned individuals include a Chinese national previously targeted by the U.S. Treasury for running a gambling and trafficking business in Laos.
Interpol breaks up Southeast Asian cybercrime rings, rescuing 149 victims of human trafficking, but the agency warns the human cost of cybercrime is mounting across the globe.