There’s a lot to security that isn’t necessarily “cyber.” It’s not all hackers or complex network attacks.

Alongside traditional cyberattacks that deploy malware or exploit known software vulnerabilities, there are also less technical—yet equally devastating—forms of theft.

This doesn’t mean that well-known cybersecurity best practices don’t apply. Every small business owner should still use unique passwords for every account, turn on multi-factor authentication, keep their software and operating systems updated, and run always-on cybersecurity software.

But for the everyday small business owner juggling dozens of accounts, networks, devices, and the reams of data being created, stored, and shared across text messages, emails, and online portals, this advice is for you.

For National Small Business Week in the US, here are three ways to protect your business that require little technical prowess.

Don’t use your Social Security Number as your tax ID

In the US, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows small business owners to use their personal Social Security Number (SSN) as the Federal Tax ID. It’s a small grace meant to simplify annual record-keeping for sole proprietors and owner-employees, but for cybercriminals, it’s a basic oversight they’d like every small business to make.

Using your Social Security Number as your Federal Tax ID means putting your Social Security Number in an ever-increasing number of hands. That’s because small business taxes are different from taxes for everyday salaried employees.

Whenever a small business takes on a new client or a contractor who pays for services costing at least $600, that small business has to share and receive what is called a W-9 form. This exact form isn’t filed with the IRS, but it is used to track payments for later filings.

What’s more important, though, is that this form asks for an owner’s name, address, and tax ID number.

This means that as a small business grows, its vulnerability to identity theft increases in tandem. Every W-9 filed that uses an owner’s SSN as their tax ID number is another opportunity for that SSN to be stolen. After just one year of operation, a small business owner’s SSN could end up in the inboxes, filing cabinets, and cloud drives of a dozen different people and companies.

This is exactly what cybercriminals want.

Equipped with a W-9 form about your business, a cybercriminal could impersonate you or your business. They could open a business credit line, file fraudulent returns that claim your small business income, or scam your clients.

How to stay safe:

Apply for a free Employer Identification Number (EIN) at IRS.gov. It’s quick to do and it separates your business tax identity from your personal tax identity. After that, put the EIN on W-9s, 1099s, and all other business paperwork instead of your SSN.

Keep your personal cloud storage personal

The most popular cloud storage for most small business owners is the cloud storage they already have—their personal Google Drive or iCloud.

Built to make memory archival as easy as possible, these tools can automatically back up and secure nearly every single moment that happens through your device, from the vacation photos you snapped last summer, to your kid’s first steps recorded on video, to the texts you sent, the notes you made, and the calendar appointments you managed.

But this type of automatic archival poses a threat to any non-personal information that you view, send, markup, or sign when using your personal smartphone. Suddenly, and often without thinking about it, your cloud storage has backups of signed contracts, tax returns, client intake forms, invoices, business financial statements, and photos of physical paperwork.

Above, we warned about using your SSN as your tax ID because it creates a risk if anyone in your business network is breached. But storing client information in your personal cloud storage creates a different problem: it puts that risk directly on you.

Compounding the threat here is the fact that many personal cloud storage accounts are shared with family members. More people accessing the same account means more exposure and more chances for mistakes, even if everyone has good intentions.

How to stay safe:

Go through the cloud backup settings on both your phone and your computer and manage what data is being synced. Move sensitive business files to a dedicated business storage account with proper access controls, sharing permissions, and audit logs—something that can tell you who opened a file and when.

If anything business-related has to live in a personal cloud account, give that account a strong, unique password, turn on multi-factor authentication, and don’t share access with anyone who isn’t you.

Protect device and account access in the home

Devices have a funny way of moving around. Your smartphone goes into your spouse’s hands as they override your music choices in the car. Your tablet ends most nights in your kid’s bedroom as they watch TV. And your laptop gets tugged around from couch to counter to kitchen table—each time fully opened and logged in, a portal to the web.

You trust everyone in your home to act safely online, but the path to online safety is full of mistakes.

A single errant click on a fake ad, a malicious search result, or a disguised download is all it takes to compromise your device today, along with all your small business records.

Aside from the threat of malware, someone using your device could make purchases, accidentally delete files, and overwrite important documents.

Remember, an “insider threat” doesn’t need to be malicious to cause damage—they just need to be inside your network (which in this, is your home).

How to stay safe:

Treat your devices that you use for work as work devices. That means requiring a passcode or password for device entry, along with multi-factor authentication for important business accounts.

Also, to ensure that any wrong click doesn’t lead to a malicious PDF download or a wayward malware installation, use always-on antimalware protection software, like Malwarebytes for Teams.

Secure your success

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with modern cybersecurity advice. Every week there are new vulnerabilities to patch, emerging scams to avoid, and novel viruses and pieces of malware that can seemingly take over your device, your data, and your business.

Thankfully, there are important steps you can take today that don’t require you to fiddle with internal settings or take a class on network engineering. Some of the most effective protections are simple: Limit how widely you share sensitive information, keep business and personal data separate, and control who can access your devices.

For everything else, try Malwarebytes for Teams to receive 24/7, always-on antimalware protection to shut out viruses, block malware attacks, and keep hackers out of your business.

Check Point has been honored Frost & Sullivan’s 2026 Technology Innovation Leadership recognition in WAF and API security, positioning us as a Company to Action shaping the future of cybersecurity. This recognition reflects a major shift in how application security must operate today. Application Security Has Fundamentally Changed Applications are no longer just web apps they now run on APIs, microservices, and AI-driven services, rapidly expanding across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Each release introduces new components, increasing the attack surface. At the same time, accelerated DevSecOps cycles are making both web and AI applications harder to secure, while threats continue […]

The post Check Point WAF Leads Application Security-Validated by Frost & Sullivan appeared first on Check Point Blog.

Unit 42 reveals how multi-agent AI systems can autonomously attack cloud environments. Learn critical insights and vital lessons for proactive security.

The post Can AI Attack the Cloud? Lessons From Building an Autonomous Cloud Offensive Multi-Agent System appeared first on Unit 42.

The Google Cloud and Palo Alto Networks Partnership

As AI agents move into business-critical environments, they are transforming everything from security operations to internal workflows. However, scaling these AI applications introduces unprecedented hurdles for security executives, from detecting "shadow AI" and unsanctioned usage to governing complex nonhuman identities across multimodel environments.

To overcome these challenges, organizations need more than just tools; they need a layered architecture built on a foundation of platformization. The long-standing partnership between Palo Alto Networks and Google Cloud provides this essential framework, offering customers:

• Integrated Security Ecosystems: Seamlessly manage the full agent lifecycle with visibility and observability across your entire AI infrastructure.
• Jointly Engineered Solutions: Leverage over 80 co-engineered integrations designed to eliminate the tradeoff between a cloud-native experience and best-in-class security.
• Proven Scale and Performance: Benefit from a partnership that has already delivered impactful, AI-driven solutions to protect joint customers from evolving threats.

Google Cloud Marketplace enables customers to discover, try, buy and use industry-leading applications that have been validated to run on Google Cloud. Palo Alto Networks has closed $2.4 billion in GCP bookings, helping address evolving customer needs, such as simplified procurement and seamless deployment.

Kevin Ichhpurani, President, Global Partner Ecosystem at Google Cloud:

We’re pleased to celebrate Palo Alto Networks as our Global Technology Partner of the Year… Palo Alto Networks has consistently delivered impactful, AI-driven security solutions that help Google Cloud customers better protect their organizations from evolving threats.

The extensive, long-standing collaboration between Palo Alto Networks and Google Cloud includes jointly engineered offerings, built on 80 solution integrations that help customers build, run and secure AI-enhanced cloud infrastructure and applications with end-to-end protection.

Palo Alto Networks Wins 2026 Global Technology Google Cloud Partner of the Year Award

At Google Cloud Next, Palo Alto Networks has been recognized with four 2026 Google Cloud Partner of the Year awards. By partnering with Google Cloud, we help customers securely leverage the power of the cloud and AI-driven growth with comprehensive cloud-native security offerings. Wins included the following:

• Global Technology
• Marketplace: Technology
• Marketplace: Security
• Security: Artificial Intelligence

These Partner of the Year Awards underscore our expanding partnership with Google Cloud. We share a mutual dedication to improve cloud, network security and AI observability, as well as the progress we’ve made in protecting our joint customers from today’s and tomorrow’s cyberthreats.

By combining our industry-leading security engineering with Google Cloud’s industry-leading cloud infrastructure and services, we’re providing advanced protection for every stage of a customer’s digital journey. We want customers to feel secure from the formative steps of lifting workloads into the cloud, to expanding digital innovation across platforms, to reaching new levels of business scale and velocity.

Protecting these journeys requires alignment and modernization of infrastructure (lift and shift), applications (refactoring) and user access models (zero trust). It requires an advanced AI drive security operations transformation across all IT domains, leveraging machine learning and sophisticated models to minimize human interventions and unguarded sides.

Our relationship with Google Cloud is based on a deep engineering relationship, yielding integrated solutions that help customers achieve better digital outcomes. Our partnership can help your organization eliminate tradeoffs between a cloud-native experience and best-in-class security. We have more than 80 co-engineered integrations, helping to improve and protect hybrid workers, cloud migrations and application modernization efforts.

We remain committed to our goals of outpacing cyberthreats, helping customers at every stage of their cloud journey, and creating a world where tomorrow is more secure than today.

Whether you’re just beginning your cloud journey or managing complex transformational projects, our jointly engineered, AI-driven solutions are designed to deliver seamless, scalable security. Explore the dynamic partnership between Palo Alto Networks and Google Cloud. Join us at Google Cloud Next '26 in Las Vegas from April 22-24 to discover how to secure your development lifecycle from code to cloud.

The post Scaling AI Agents with Confidence appeared first on Palo Alto Networks Blog.

AI is changing how software works. Applications no longer just process requests. They reason, make decisions, and take action. AI agents now retrieve data, invoke tools, and execute workflows across systems in real time. That shift introduces a new kind of risk. Because in an agentic world, security is no longer just about who has access. It’s about what AI is allowed to do. A new control point for agentic systems in Google Cloud Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform provides a centralized control point for agentic systems enabling identity, access, policy enforcement, and observability across how agents operate. This […]

The post From Access Control to Outcome Control: Securing AI Agents with Check Point and Google Cloud appeared first on Check Point Blog.

Today’s enterprises demand Zero Trust security, everywhere. Cloud security teams require high-performance protection without the burden of managing firewalls at scale. For this reason, organizations are seeking managed network security solutions that reduce operational overhead while improving consistency, visibility, and prevention across complex multi-cloud environments. Responding to that demand, Check Point is continuing rollout of an AI-powered cloud firewall as a service now available for preview on Google Cloud, as well as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.  There will be demos of the new firewall service at the Check Point Booth #3101 in the Google Next Solution Expo.  Check Point Cloud Firewall as a Service eliminates the complex overhead of managing firewall software infrastructure, giving busy DevOps and Security teams time to focus on policy management, compliance, and other strategic initiatives.   Continued Evolution of Cloud Firewalls  Cloud Firewall as a Service on Google Cloud marketplace delivers the power of Cloud Firewall (formerly Guard Network Security) with advanced threat prevention, AI-driven security intelligence, automated policy […]

The post Experience AI-Powered Check Point Firewall at Google Cloud Next appeared first on Check Point Blog.

A few months ago, we reported on a fake cloud storage alert that triggered a redirect chain to an app that has since been delisted from the Apple Store.

The threat of losing your photos is a powerful lure, so scammers are now using it to steal personal and financial details.

The Guardian warns about an iCloud-themed campaign that start with a few “your iCloud storage is full’ messages, then escalates to threats. If you don’t respond or take action, the emails claim your data will be wiped on a specific date.

US Consumer Affairs has urged users not to click any links and to contact Apple directly if they receive such messages.

The deadline in the emails is never far away, usually just two days. No scammer ever wants you to think things through before you act, so there is always time pressure.

We’ve seen these emails in English and Spanish. Oddly, the monthly rate is set at 99 pence or 99 euro cents respectively.

The 0.99 seems to be the magic number. In reality, scammers don’t care about the payment. What they want is for you fill out the form on their phishing site.

The screenshot above is just one of many examples. There are plenty of variations, but they all follow the same them: make a small payment to stop the files in your iCloud storage from being deleted.

The websites these emails link to also vary, but they all ask for personal and payment details to complete that payment.

How to stay safe

It’s worth remembering that Apple does notify users when their iCloud storage is nearing capacity, but those alerts appear within your device settings or as official system notifications. They don’t come through unsolicited text messages or emails with external links. If you need to check your storage, go directly to Settings on your device and review your iCloud usage.

So, to stay safe:

• Always access your account through our official website.
• Never share your password with anyone.
• Never click on links in unsolicited emails without verifying with a trusted source.
• Use an up-to-date, real-time anti-malware solution with a web protection component.
• Do not engage with websites that attract visitors like this.

Pro tip: Malwarebytes Scam Guard would have helped you identify this email as a scam and provided advice on how to proceed.

Something feel off? Check it before you click.  

Malwarebytes Scam Guard helps you analyze suspicious links, texts, and screenshots instantly.  

Available with Malwarebytes Premium Security for all your devices, and in the Malwarebytes app for iOS and Android.  

Try it free → 

Securing the AI-Powered Hybrid Multicloud

At the core of every modern enterprise is a fundamental need: The ability to innovate across hybrid environments without sacrificing security. For over five years, Palo Alto Networks and Nutanix have partnered to meet this need, building a collaborative ecosystem where industry-leading infrastructure meets the world’s most comprehensive AI-powered security.

As we look toward the future of the enterprise at Nutanix .NEXT 2026, our focus remains on a shared vision for the "Secure Nutanix Cloud."

2026 Global Security Partner of the Year

We are deeply honored to be named the Nutanix 2026 Global Security Partner of the Year. This recognition reflects our commitment to delivering integrated, automated security that feels like a native part of the Nutanix experience. Together, we have helped thousands of joint customers move from reactive security to a proactive, zero trust posture that spans the data center, the edge and the public cloud.

The Existing Partnership Is the Foundation of Trust

Our partnership is built on the belief that security should be invisible, automated and inseparable from the infrastructure it protects. We’ve worked alongside Nutanix to enable enterprises to scale their hybrid multicloud, and their security posture scales with it. Current integrations provide zero trust protection across the Nutanix environment:

• VM-Series Virtual Firewalls – Seamlessly integrated with Nutanix AHV and Flow Network Security, our virtual firewalls provide Layer 7 visibility and advanced threat prevention for east-west traffic. This integration leverages Nutanix Flow service chaining to automatically steer traffic through VM-Series firewalls for deep packet inspection without manual reconfiguration. It delivers full functional parity and operational continuity for Nutanix AHV environments, allowing security teams to maintain high-performance standards using familiar Panorama® management and persistent, tag-based policies that migrate with workloads across clusters.
• Hybrid Cloud Security – We provide consistent security for Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on both AWS and Azure, enabling your policies to follow your workloads wherever they reside.
• Automation & Orchestration – Leveraging the Panorama® plugin for Nutanix, teams can automate security provisioning and use Dynamic Address Groups to sync application attributes instantly.

New Integration Secures Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI)

Building on this foundation, the highlight of this year’s show is our groundbreaking integration designed to accelerate Enterprise AI adoption. NAI provides a simplified, cloud-native stack that allows organizations to deploy and scale large language models (LLMs) across their choice of infrastructure with push-button simplicity. We are collaborating on a first-of-its-kind, end-to-end security solution for NAI.

This integration, launching soon, will bring AI Model Security and AI Red Teaming directly into the NAI, creating a seamless experience where security is built in, not bolted on. By allowing only Prisma AIRS™ validated models to reach production, we eliminate security friction at the start of the AI lifecycle. Every model will undergo rigorous scans for known vulnerabilities before deployment, providing a "clean room" environment for AI development. Providing a proactive test of AI defenses, Prisma AIRS AI Red Teaming will be available within NAI as an autonomous solution that integrates seamlessly into the development pipeline, utilizing a combination of a profiler and an attacker agent to perform contextual iterative simulations that mirror real-world attacker behavior. By providing detailed reports that map vulnerabilities directly to the OWASP Top 10 for LLMs and NIST AI RMF, it equips teams with the precise context needed to secure AI applications continuously and effectively.

By proactively identifying and neutralizing emerging threats, we will give organizations the confidence to deploy AI bravely, knowing their innovation is anchored in the world’s most robust security platform.

Powered by Prisma AIRS, this integration will bring a "security-first" approach to your AI deployments:

• AI Model Security – Scans AI models during the download phase to block malicious code and hidden backdoors before they reach your environment.
• AI Red Teaming – Provides continuous, autonomous vulnerability hunting on models, application and agent endpoints, testing your AI behavior against more than 750 real-world attack scenarios and contextual agentic risk assessment.
• Unified Visibility – Provides a complete overview of your AI risk posture and scan summaries directly within your NAI dashboards.

Benefits:

Seamless and Frictionless Deployment

We will prioritize a fast and frictionless deployment experience, ensuring that robust AI security does not come at the cost of development speed. By integrating these controls directly into the NAI workflow, organizations will be able to deploy and scale their AI initiatives with "push-button" simplicity, removing the traditional complexity and friction associated with securing large language models.

Proactive Protection Against Emerging Threats

Leveraging our deep expertise in threat prevention, this solution will proactively identify and block vulnerable or malicious models before they can impact the enterprise environment. By scanning models for hidden backdoors and malicious code during the initial download phase, we will stop threats at the perimeter, allowing only validated, secure models to ever reach your production environment.

A Comprehensive Enterprise Cloud AI Solution

This integration will deliver a comprehensive enterprise cloud AI solution, merging Nutanix’s industry-leading infrastructure with our next-generation security controls. The result will be a unified, cloud-native stack where security is built in rather than bolted on after the workload deployment, providing a secured deployment environment, which is consistent across the data center, the edge and public cloud.

Evolving Insights and Real-Time Remediation

The vulnerability insights from AI Red Teaming are coupled with remediation insights. The platform will provide a prioritized list of remediation steps that are tailor-made for the endpoint. This allows organizations to battle-test their inference endpoints before deploying them at scale.

Key Takeaways

• A Proven, Award-Winning Partnership: Celebrating five years of collaboration, Palo Alto Networks has been named the Nutanix 2026 Global Security Partner of the Year, highlighting a shared commitment to delivering native, automated zero trust security for hybrid multicloud environments.
• Seamless Zero Trust for Hybrid Workloads: Through deep integrations with VM-Series virtual firewalls and Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2), organizations can maintain consistent Layer 7 visibility and tag-based security policies that automatically follow workloads across on-premises data centers and public clouds.
• Securing the AI Lifecycle with Prisma AIRS: The new integration with NAI, launching soon, will bring a security-first approach to AI adoption, utilizing Prisma AIRS to scan LLMs for vulnerabilities during download, and perform autonomous Red Teaming to neutralize emerging threats before they reach production.

Don’t Miss Our Speaking Session

Want to see the integration in action? Join our experts, Shrikant Brahmbhatt (Palo Alto Networks) and Ashwini Vasanth (Nutanix), on Tuesday April 7 3:30-4pm for an exclusive look at how we are securing the "Challenge of Hybrid AI." We’ll dive into the architecture that allows you to discover, assess and protect your entire AI ecosystem (apps, agents and models alike).

Visit Us at Booth #G2

Stop by the Palo Alto Networks booth (#G2) to meet our team of over 19,000 active threat researchers and see live demos of our joint solutions. Whether you are building the next generation of agentic AI or securing your virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), we have the tools to help you innovate at machine speed.

Ready to secure your journey? Visit the Palo Alto Networks partner directory or learn more about Prisma AIRS.

Forward-Looking Statements

This blog contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, without limitation, statements regarding the benefits, impact, or performance or potential benefits, impact or performance of our products and technologies or future products and technologies. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and there are a significant number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from statements made in this blog, including, without limitation: developments and changes in general market, political, economic, and business conditions; risks associated with managing our growth; risks associated with new products and subscription and support offerings; shifts in priorities or delays in the development or release of new offerings, or the failure to timely develop, release and achieve market acceptance of new products and subscriptions as well as existing products and subscription and support offerings; failure of our business strategies; rapidly evolving technological developments in the market for security products and subscription and support offerings; our customers’ purchasing decisions and the length of sales cycles; our competition; our ability to attract and retain new customers; and our ability to acquire and integrate other companies, products, or technologies. We identify certain important risks and uncertainties that could affect our results and performance in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from time-to-time, each of which are available on our website at investors.paloaltonetworks.com and on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements in this blog are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we do not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.

The post Palo Alto Networks at Nutanix .NEXT 2026 appeared first on Palo Alto Networks Blog.

Unit 42 uncovers escalating Kubernetes attacks, detailing how threat actors exploit identities and critical vulnerabilities to compromise cloud environments.

The post Understanding Current Threats to Kubernetes Environments appeared first on Unit 42.

Unit 42 uncovers a "double agent" flaw in Google Cloud's Vertex AI, demonstrating how overprivileged AI agents can compromise cloud environments.

The post Double Agents: Exposing Security Blind Spots in GCP Vertex AI appeared first on Unit 42.

Modern software development relies on containers and the use of third-party software modules. On the one hand, this greatly facilitates the creation of new software, but on the other, it gives attackers additional opportunities to compromise the development environment. News about attacks on the supply chain through the distribution of malware via various repositories appears with alarming regularity. Therefore, tools that allow the scanning of images have long been an essential part of secure software development.

Our portfolio has long included a solution for protecting container environments. It allows the scanning of images at different stages of development for malware, known vulnerabilities, configuration errors, the presence of confidential data in the code, and so on. However, in order to make an informed decision about the state of security of a particular image, the operator of the cybersecurity solution may need some more context. Of course, it’s possible to gather this context independently, but if a thorough investigation is conducted manually each time, development may be delayed for an unpredictable period of time. Therefore, our experts decided to add the ability to look at the image from a fresh perspective; of course, not with a human eye — AI is indispensable nowadays.

OpenAI API

Our Kaspersky Container Security solution (a key component of Kaspersky Cloud Workload Security) now supports an application programming interface for connecting external large language models. So, if a company has deployed a local LLM (or has a subscription to connect a third-party model) that supports the OpenAI API, it’s possible to connect the LLM to our solution. This gives a cybersecurity expert the opportunity to get both additional context about uploaded images and an independent risk assessment by means of a full-fledged AI assistant capable of quickly gathering the necessary information.

The AI provides a description that clearly explains what the image is for, what application it contains, what it does specifically, and so on. Additionally, the assistant conducts its own independent analysis of the risks of using this image and highlights measures to minimize these risks (if any are found). We’re confident that this will speed up decision-making and incident investigations and, overall, increase the security of the development process.

What else is new in Cloud Workload Security?

In addition to adding API to connect the AI assistant, our developers have made a number of other changes to the products included in the Kaspersky Cloud Workload Security offering. First, they now support single sign-on (SSO) and a multi-domain Active Directory, which makes it easier to deploy solutions in cloud and hybrid environments. In addition, Kaspersky Cloud Workload Security now scans images more efficiently and supports advanced security policy capabilities. You can learn more about the product on its official page.

Blogs

Blog

Understanding the DarkCloud Infostealer

In this post, we analyze DarkCloud, a commercially available infostealer written in Visual Basic 6.0, examine its encryption and evasion techniques, and assess how this low-cost malware can provide threat actors with enterprise-wide access through harvested credentials.

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Flashpoint Intel Team

February 25, 2026

Table Of Contents

Table of Contents

The Commercialization of DarkCloud

Why Visual Basic 6.0 Matters

Encryption and String Obfuscation

Credential Theft at Scale

Exfiltration Methods: Flexibility for Threat Actors

From BluStealer to DarkCloud

A Potent Entry-Level Threat

Defending Against Commodity Infostealers

More

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Infostealers continue to dominate the initial access landscape in 2026, lowering the barrier to breach through scalable credential theft. DarkCloud illustrates how low-cost, commercialized malware is reshaping the initial access landscape.

First observed in 2022 and attributed to a developer known as “Darkcloud Coder” (formerly “BluCoder” on Telegram), DarkCloud is openly sold through Telegram and a clearnet storefront with subscription tiers starting at just US$30. Despite being marketed as “surveillance software,” its technical focus is unmistakable: high-volume credential harvesting and structured data exfiltration across browsers, email clients, financial data, and contact networks.

At the technical level, DarkCloud is written in Visual Basic 6.0 and compiled into a native C/C++ application. This legacy language choice is unusual in modern malware development — and likely deliberate. By leveraging outdated but still supported runtime components, DarkCloud appears to benefit from lower detection rates while maintaining full credential theft functionality.

Despite its relatively low cost, DarkCloud should not be dismissed as unsophisticated. Flashpoint assesses it as a potent entry-level threat that can provide adversaries with the keys to an entire corporate network through harvested credentials.

The Commercialization of DarkCloud

DarkCloud represents a mature example of commodity malware-as-a-service.

It is openly sold through Telegram and a clearnet website, where it is misleadingly labeled as a keylogger. While it does include keylogging capabilities, this is only a minor component of a much broader infostealing toolkit.

Its real value proposition is credential harvesting across browsers, email clients, file transfer applications, VPN software, and more.

This dual positioning — public-facing “surveillance software” and underground stealer — provides plausible deniability while enabling large-scale credential operations.

Why Visual Basic 6.0 Matters

One of the most notable aspects of DarkCloud is its use of Visual Basic 6.0.

The payload is written in VB6 and compiled into a native C/C++ application. Microsoft no longer supports VB6 in its modern development environment, and VB6 applications rely on legacy components such as MSVBVM60.DLL for execution.

Flashpoint assesses this legacy language choice is deliberate, both for its simplicity and its potential to evade modern detection models.

In testing, Flashpoint analysts generated equivalent payloads in C/C++ and VB6. The VB6 variant produced significantly fewer detections in VirusTotal scans.

The implication is clear: older languages are not necessarily obsolete in adversary tradecraft. In some cases, they may be strategically advantageous.

Encryption and String Obfuscation

DarkCloud employs a layered string encryption scheme that complicates static and dynamic analysis.

Most internal strings are encrypted and decrypted at runtime using Visual Basic’s Rnd() pseudo-random number generator, combined with a custom seed-generation algorithm.

The process involves:

• Hex-encoded encrypted strings
• Base64-encoded keys
• Seed calculation through a custom algorithm
• Resetting the VB pseudo-random number generator to a known state
• Iterative Rnd() calls to reconstruct plaintext strings

By resetting the PRNG with a known value before applying the calculated seed, the malware ensures deterministic output during decryption.

This approach does not rely on novel cryptography, but rather on abusing legacy language behavior to frustrate reverse engineering.

Credential Theft at Scale

DarkCloud’s primary objective is credential collection.

It targets:

Email clients:

• Outlook
• eM Client
• FoxMail
• Thunderbird
• 163Mail
• MailMaster

File transfer applications:

• FileZilla
• WinSCP
• CoreFTP

Browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox
• Brave
• Opera
• Yandex
• Vivaldi
• (and many additional Chromium- and Firefox-based browsers)

Other applications:

• Pidgin
• NordVPN

When extracting browser data, DarkCloud steals:

• Login credentials
• Cookies
• Credit card information

Email applications are additionally scraped for contact lists. This is likely intended to seed future phishing campaigns.

DarkCloud stores collected data locally in two directories under %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Templates. One directory (“DBS”) stores copied database files, while another (“_”) stores parsed data in unencrypted text format.

This local staging enables continuous exfiltration while maintaining structured log output.

Exfiltration Methods: Flexibility for Threat Actors

DarkCloud supports four exfiltration methods:

• SMTP
• FTP
• Telegram
• HTTP

SMTP and FTP require hardcoded credentials within each binary. Email subjects include the victim machine’s hostname and username, and stolen data is transmitted as attachments.

HTTP exfiltration appears less frequently used, though the capability is present.

This flexibility allows operators to tailor deployments depending on infrastructure preferences and operational security requirements.

From BluStealer to DarkCloud

Flashpoint analysts identified notable similarities between DarkCloud’s regular expressions for credit card parsing and those found in a publicly documented project known as “A310LoggerStealer,” also referred to as BluStealer.

The regex patterns appear in identical order and format.

Combined with the developer’s prior alias “BluCoder,” Flashpoint assesses that A310LoggerStealer likely represents an earlier iteration of what became DarkCloud.

This evolution reflects a common pattern in commodity malware development: incremental refinement rather than radical innovation.

A Potent Entry-Level Threat

Despite its relatively low cost, DarkCloud should not be dismissed as unsophisticated.

Its marketing as surveillance software attempts to normalize its presence while providing plausible deniability for buyers. Technically, however, its focus is clear: large-scale credential harvesting across browsers, email clients, financial data, and contact networks.

Flashpoint assesses DarkCloud as a potent entry-level threat that can provide adversaries with the keys to an entire corporate network through harvested credentials.

In a landscape where identity is the new perimeter, even a US$30 subscription can be operationally devastating.

Defending Against Commodity Infostealers

Commodity infostealers like DarkCloud may be commercially accessible, but defending against them requires enterprise-grade vigilance.

Organizations should:

• Treat phishing-delivered ZIP/RAR attachments as high-risk initial access vectors
• Monitor for abnormal data exfiltration over SMTP, FTP, and Telegram
• Audit credential reuse across browser and email applications
• Prioritize credential rotation and incident response playbooks following suspected compromise

Infostealers like DarkCloud are not breakthrough malware families. They do not rely on zero-days or advanced exploits.

Instead, they exploit scale, accessibility, and identity exposure.

To understand how credential harvesting campaigns are evolving and to embed real-time intelligence into your detection workflows, request a demo today and see how Flashpoint intelligence strengthens your defense posture.

The post Understanding the DarkCloud Infostealer appeared first on Flashpoint.

In today’s multi-cloud world, businesses deploy workloads across dozens of public and private clouds, each with their own network topology, security controls, and operational quirks. Over time this flexibility comes at a cost of increasing complexity and risk. How can budget minded IT team sanely enforce complex security policies, prevent AI-powered cyber breaches by foreign entities, and maintain geographical compliance across such a diverse environment?  They can do so with a partner that leads with an open garden, agnostic approach. Check Point cloud firewalls, called CloudGuard Network Security, provide integrations across 22 leading public and private cloud vendors from AWS, […]

The post Check Point Named Leader in GigaOm Radar for Cloud Network Security For 3 Years in a Row – Protects 22 Cloud Vendors appeared first on Check Point Blog.

Introduction: Security Testing Must Evolve with Attacks As cyber threats rise, web applications, GenAI workloads, and APIs have become prime targets. WAFs remain a critical first line of defense, but as attackers move beyond basic OWASP Top 10 techniques, WAF testing must evolve. Modern attacks increasingly rely on evasion methods, payload padding, and zero-day techniques designed to bypass signature-based WAFs. The WAF Comparison Project 2026 presents the results of our third annual, real-world evaluation of WAF efficacy (see the last year result here), using over 1 million legitimate requests and 74,000 malicious payloads to assess 14 leading WAF vendors, including […]

The post WAF Security Test Results 2026: Why Prevention-First Matters More Than Ever appeared first on Check Point Blog.

Simplifying Cloud Network Security When securing cloud landscapes, it’s critically important to eliminate any downtime or performance degradation that firewall or gateway implementation may cause. To address these challenges, Check Point is proud to announce our support for Google Cloud Network Security Integration. This innovation creates a nondisruptive approach to cloud firewall deployment, increasing network security without negatively impacting performance. Scaling Hybrid Cloud Network Security Network security and performance are critical to any organization, but this is especially true for industries under heavy regulations like financial services, healthcare, and government. So over time these organizations gain comfort, expertise, and confidence […]

The post Check Point Supports Google Cloud Network Security Integration appeared first on Check Point Blog.

In this video, John Strand discusses the complexities and challenges of penetration testing, emphasizing that it goes beyond just finding and exploiting vulnerabilities.

The post 5 Things We Are Going to Continue to Ignore in 2025 appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

This webcast was originally published on September 26, 2024. In this video, Kevin Klingbile from Black Hills Information Security discusses the intricacies of Azure Cloud services and M365, focusing on […]

The post Reconnaissance: Azure Cloud w/ Kevin Klingbile appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

| Nigel Douglas As a Developer Advocate working on Project Falco, Nigel Douglas plays a key role in driving education for the Open-Source Detection and Response (D&R) segment of cloud-native […]

The post Better Together: Real Time Threat Detection for Kubernetes with Atomic Red Tests & Falco appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

By Beau Bullock & Steve Borosh TL;DR We built a post-compromise toolset called GraphRunner for interacting with the Microsoft Graph API. It provides various tools for performing reconnaissance, persistence, and […]

The post Introducing GraphRunner: A Post-Exploitation Toolset for Microsoft 365 appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..

Mike Felch// How to Purge Google and Start Over – Part 1 Brief Recap In part 1, we discussed a red team engagement that went south when the Google SOC […]

The post How to Purge Google and Start Over – Part 2 appeared first on Black Hills Information Security, Inc..