The Sophos Annual Threat Report: Cybercrime on Main Street 2025
Ransomware remains the biggest threat, but old and misconfigured network devices are making it too easy
Brandon Vigliarolo reports: The US government’s Login.gov identity verification system could be one cyberattack, or just a routine IT hiccup, away from serious trouble, say auditors, because it hasn’t shown its backup testing policy is actually in use or effective. The US Government Accountability Office reported Tuesday that Login.gov, which is managed by the federal government’s General…
Bad actors are leveraging browser notifications as a vector for phishing attacks to distribute malicious links by means of a new command-and-control (C2) platform called Matrix Push C2. “This browser-native, fileless framework leverages push notifications, fake alerts, and link redirects to target victims across operating systems,” Blackfog researcher Brenda Robb said in a Thursday report….
AI is changing everything — from how we code, to how we sell, to how we secure. But while most conversations focus on what AI can do, this one focuses on what AI can break — if you’re not paying attention. Behind every AI agent, chatbot, or automation script lies a growing number of non-human…
The advice didn’t change for decades: use complex passwords with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols. The idea is to make passwords harder for hackers to crack via brute force methods. But more recent guidance shows our focus should be on password length, rather than complexity. Length is the more important security factor, and passphrases are…
Dmitry Pokidaev reports: Kazakhstan is considering tightening legal responsibility for violations related to personal data protection. The Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development has proposed introducing criminal liability for mass leaks of citizens’ personal data, along with a significant increase in administrative fines for failing to comply with information security requirements. The proposal was……
Zack Whittaker reports: Journalists in Europe found it was “easy” to spy on top European Union officials using commercially obtained location histories sold by data brokers, despite the continent having some of the strongest data protection laws in the world. EU officials said they’re “concerned” about the trade of citizen and officials’ mobile phone location……