- Notepad++ Hosting Breach Attributed to China-Linked Lotus Blossom Hacking Groupby info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News) (The Hacker News) on February 3, 2026 at 4:55 am
A China-linked threat actor known as Lotus Blossom has been attributed with medium confidence to the recently discovered compromise of the infrastructure hosting Notepad++. The attack enabled the state-sponsored hacking group to deliver a previously undocumented backdoor codenamed Chrysalis to users of the open-source editor, according to new findings from Rapid7. The development comes shortly
- Attackers Harvest Dropbox Logins Via Fake PDF Luresby Alexander Culafi (darkreading) on February 2, 2026 at 10:21 pm
A malware-free phishing campaign targets corporate inboxes and asks employees to view "request orders," ultimately leading to Dropbox credential theft.
- County Pays $600K to Wrongfully Jailed Pen Testersby Nate Nelson, Contributing Writer (darkreading) on February 2, 2026 at 9:57 pm
Iowa police arrested two penetration testers in 2019 for doing their jobs, highlighting the risk to security professionals in red teaming exercises.
- Chinese Hackers Hijack Notepad++ Updates for 6 Monthsby Jai Vijayan, Contributing Writer (darkreading) on February 2, 2026 at 7:57 pm
State-sponsored threat actors compromised the popular code editor's hosting provider to redirect targeted users to malicious downloads.
- Researchers Find 341 Malicious ClawHub Skills Stealing Data from OpenClaw Usersby info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News) (The Hacker News) on February 2, 2026 at 5:49 pm
A security audit of 2,857 skills on ClawHub has found 341 malicious skills across multiple campaigns, according to new findings from Koi Security, exposing users to new supply chain risks. ClawHub is a marketplace designed to make it easy for OpenClaw users to find and install third-party skills. It's an extension to the OpenClaw project, a self-hosted artificial intelligence (AI) assistant
- OpenClaw Bug Enables One-Click Remote Code Execution via Malicious Linkby info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News) (The Hacker News) on February 2, 2026 at 4:28 pm
A high-severity security flaw has been disclosed in OpenClaw (formerly referred to as Clawdbot and Moltbot) that could allow remote code execution (RCE) through a crafted malicious link. The issue, which is tracked as CVE-2026-25253 (CVSS score: 8.8), has been addressed in version 2026.1.29 released on January 30, 2026. It has been described as a token exfiltration vulnerability that leads to
- ShinyHunters Expands Scope of SaaS Extortion Attacksby Elizabeth Montalbano, Contributing Writer (darkreading) on February 2, 2026 at 4:07 pm
Following its attacks on Salesforce instances last year, members of the cybercrime group have broadened their targeting and gotten more aggressive with extortion tactics.
- Microsoft Begins NTLM Phase-Out With Three-Stage Plan to Move Windows to Kerberosby info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News) (The Hacker News) on February 2, 2026 at 3:59 pm
Microsoft has announced a three-phase approach to phase out New Technology LAN Manager (NTLM) as part of its efforts to shift Windows environments toward stronger, Kerberos-based options. The development comes more than two years after the tech giant revealed its plans to deprecate the legacy technology, citing its susceptibility to weaknesses that could facilitate relay attacks and allow bad
- ⚡ Weekly Recap: Proxy Botnet, Office Zero-Day, MongoDB Ransoms, AI Hijacks & New Threatsby info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News) (The Hacker News) on February 2, 2026 at 11:59 am
Every week brings new discoveries, attacks, and defenses that shape the state of cybersecurity. Some threats are stopped quickly, while others go unseen until they cause real damage. Sometimes a single update, exploit, or mistake changes how we think about risk and protection. Every incident shows how defenders adapt — and how fast attackers try to stay ahead. This week’s recap brings you the
- Securing the Mid-Market Across the Complete Threat Lifecycleby info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News) (The Hacker News) on February 2, 2026 at 11:45 am
For mid-market organizations, cybersecurity is a constant balancing act. Proactive, preventative security measures are essential to protect an expanding attack surface. Combined with effective protection that blocks threats, they play a critical role in stopping cyberattacks before damage is done. The challenge is that many security tools add complexity and cost that most mid-market businesses
- Notepad++ Official Update Mechanism Hijacked to Deliver Malware to Select Usersby info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News) (The Hacker News) on February 2, 2026 at 8:55 am
The maintainer of Notepad++ has revealed that state-sponsored attackers hijacked the utility's update mechanism to redirect update traffic to malicious servers instead. "The attack involved [an] infrastructure-level compromise that allowed malicious actors to intercept and redirect update traffic destined for notepad-plus-plus.org," developer Don Ho said. "The compromise occurred at the hosting
- eScan Antivirus Update Servers Compromised to Deliver Multi-Stage Malwareby info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News) (The Hacker News) on February 2, 2026 at 5:47 am
The update infrastructure for eScan antivirus, a security solution developed by Indian cybersecurity company MicroWorld Technologies, has been compromised by unknown attackers to deliver a persistent downloader to enterprise and consumer systems. "Malicious updates were distributed through eScan's legitimate update infrastructure, resulting in the deployment of multi-stage malware to enterprise
- Open VSX Supply Chain Attack Used Compromised Dev Account to Spread GlassWormby info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News) (The Hacker News) on February 2, 2026 at 5:04 am
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a supply chain attack targeting the Open VSX Registry in which unidentified threat actors compromised a legitimate developer's resources to push malicious updates to downstream users. "On January 30, 2026, four established Open VSX extensions published by the oorzc author had malicious versions published to Open VSX that embed the GlassWorm
- Iran-Linked RedKitten Cyber Campaign Targets Human Rights NGOs and Activistsby info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News) (The Hacker News) on January 31, 2026 at 12:02 pm
A Farsi-speaking threat actor aligned with Iranian state interests is suspected to be behind a new campaign targeting non-governmental organizations and individuals involved in documenting recent human rights abuses. The activity, observed by HarfangLab in January 2026, has been codenamed RedKitten. It's said to coincide with the nationwide unrest in Iran that began towards the end of 2025,
- Mandiant Finds ShinyHunters-Style Vishing Attacks Stealing MFA to Breach SaaS Platformsby info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News) (The Hacker News) on January 31, 2026 at 7:58 am
Google-owned Mandiant on Friday said it identified an "expansion in threat activity" that uses tradecraft consistent with extortion-themed attacks orchestrated by a financially motivated hacking group known as ShinyHunters. The attacks leverage advanced voice phishing (aka vishing) and bogus credential harvesting sites mimicking targeted companies to gain unauthorized access to victim















