Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

BlackSuit ransomware combines data exfiltration and encryption, AsyncRAT spawns multiple forks, and HazyBeacon abuses AWS Lambda for command and control.

From the passing Telegraph and Guardian coverage to orchestrated BBC and NCSC collaboration, the British media is repeatedly spotlighting Scattered Spider as 2025’s stimulant to jolt organisations into action. While this coverage has dislodged two blatant misconceptions, it has propagated several more subtle ones.

Acreed, a new malware-as-a-service (MaaS) platform, appears to have taken the top spot in the infostealer ecosystem. We suspect this is due to the takedown of Lumma Stealer (LummaC2) in May 2025. In just its first week, Acreed was observed uploading over 4,000 stolen credential logs to a dark web Russian Market.

I’ve been following ransomware since the first one, the AIDS Cop Trojan, was released in December 1989. It locked up victim computers and asked for $300 to be sent to a Panama P.O. Box. A lot has changed since then. The invention of cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin in January 2009, was largely responsible for the explosion of ransomware by 2013. This was when CryptoLocker ransomware was released to the world. Ransomware gangs have been making many billions of dollars per year ever since.

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tools are essential for IT operations, but their powerful capabilities and trusted status within enterprise networks have also made them valuable to threat actors. In the second half of 2024 and first quarter of 2025, we uncovered a recurring pattern during a series of cyber forensic investigations and threat detections impacting two US-based organizations and one UK-based organization.

Malicious APKs (Android Package Kit files) continue to serve as one of the most persistent and adaptable delivery mechanisms in mobile threat campaigns. Threat actors routinely exploit social engineering and off-market distribution to bypass conventional security controls and capitalize on user trust to steal a variety of data, such as log in credentials.

A financially-motivated threat actor, active since early 2021, has been targeting Mexican organizations with custom packaged installers that deliver a modified version of AllaKore RAT. Arctic Wolf documented 2022 and 2023 campaign samples from this unidentified threat actor in a previous report. We are now referring to this group as Greedy Sponge, due to its financial focus and prior use of a popular “SpongeBob” meme on its C2.

The internet isn’t always a safe place. Behind every click, every download, and every flashy pop-up ad, there might be something lurking that could bring down entire systems or steal sensitive information. That “something” goes by a name we’ve all heard: malware. But while the word gets used a lot, how many of us really know what it means? Or better yet, how many of us understand the different ways malware can mess with our data, our privacy, or even our businesses?