Data theft stories
Data theft and repeat extortion are hitting Australian businesses harder as AI helps attackers make ransomware lures more convincing.
More groups are now driving attacks, leaving victim numbers flat even as ransomware operations reached a record 93 active crews in the quarter.
Organisations still miss most stealthy intrusions after logins, as Picus found only 14% of simulated attacks triggered alerts and exfiltration defence was 7%.
Industrial firms face growing disruption as ransomware incidents rose 12% to 1,140 in the second quarter, Dragos said.
By blocking stolen-logins abuse at file level, the new feature aims to curb both data theft and ransomware even after an account is compromised.
Google says the campaign is shifting towards financial and legal firms, with rebranded extortion sites still stealing cloud logins and tokens.
Undisclosed attacks now dominate ransomware activity, with 2,027 incidents logged in the quarter and data theft reported in 97% of disclosed cases.
Organisations face a growing risk of silent data theft as criminals exploit cloud identities and credentials for extortion instead of encryption.
Malicious packages are now spreading faster across code repositories, with Google saying open source ecosystems face the sharpest rise in risk.
More than half of organisations in Australia and New Zealand suffered print-related security incidents last year, exposing document data to theft.
Ransomware-prone operators could cut integration costs as ATLAS pitches a single storage-and-security system to foreign buyers in Yekaterinburg.
Greater exposure to remote attacks is worrying carmakers, as high-severity automotive cybersecurity flaws jumped to 161 in the second quarter.
Manufacturers faced the heaviest ransomware pressure as AI tools and faster intrusions left defenders with less time to react.
Smaller firms face faster and costlier breaches as AI cuts the time hackers need to exploit software flaws from weeks to hours.
Mac users were lured via Google ads and shared Claude chats into installing malware that steals passwords, files and wallet data.
Ransomware activity stayed elevated in Q2, with 2,252 named victims and The Gentlemen overtaking Qilin to top the rankings.
Account takeovers are becoming harder to stop as attackers use real-time code theft and fake login pages to bypass Microsoft 365 MFA.
Defenders facing faster credential theft and account takeovers now have a free, hands-on way to practise dark web intelligence before an incident escalates.
In Singapore, 68% of ransomware-hit organisations said AI made attacks more effective, as phishing and impersonation drove most incidents.
Scammers are exploiting grief-driven sharing with fake death posts that can spread malware, harvest data and build rogue audiences.