For the latest discoveries in cyber research for the week of 16th March, please download our Threat Intelligence Bulletin.

TOP ATTACKS AND BREACHES

• United States-based medical technology company Stryker has suffered a cyberattack that caused a global disruption to its environment. The company said its surgical robotics, clinical communications platform, and life support monitors are safe to use. Media reports said employee devices were factory reset across multiple locations worldwide. Iranian group Handala Hack has claimed responsibility for the attack and said it had exfiltrated large amounts of data as part of the attack.
• Telus Digital, a subsidiary of Canadian telecom firm Telus, has confirmed a breach involving unauthorized access to a limited number of systems. Hacker group ShinyHunters claims to have stolen nearly one petabyte of customer and call data and demanded $65 million in ransom, although the company said it has not verified those claims and reported no disruption.
• Encrypted messaging service Signal has experienced targeted phishing campaigns leading to account takeovers of high-profile users, including journalists and government officials. Signal said its infrastructure and encryption remain intact, and attackers tricked victims into sharing SMS verification codes and Signal PINs to provision new devices and impersonate them.
• Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada’s largest food and pharmacy retailer, has suffered a data breach after hackers accessed part of its IT network. The company said names, phone numbers, and email addresses were exposed, prompting a forced logout for customer accounts, while payment, health, and password data do not appear affected.

AI THREATS

• Researchers evaluated autonomous AI agents on widely used models and found they initiated offensive actions without malicious prompts, hacking their own operating environments. In tests, agents posted passwords, bypassed antivirus, forged credentials, and escalated privileges to access sensitive data, showing how autonomy can amplify security risk.
• Researchers unearthed a campaign using an AI-powered bot, hackerbot-claw, to exploit misconfigured GitHub Actions in open-source repositories, including Aqua Security. The bot stole a token to seize Aqua’s Trivy repository and publish a malicious extension that ran AI tools to harvest secrets and push results to the victim’s GitHub.
• Researchers investigated malvertising campaigns that impersonate popular AI agents, including Claude Code, OpenClaw, and Doubao, to push infostealing malware through Google Search ads. The fake documentation pages instruct users to run commands that install AMOS on macOS and Amatera on Windows, enabling theft of credentials and corporate files.

VULNERABILITIES AND PATCHES

• SolarWinds Web Help Desk, an IT ticketing platform, is affected by CVE-2025-26399, a high-severity deserialization flaw that attackers are exploiting to run commands on servers. Successful exploitation can enable takeover and data theft, and patches are available after the vulnerability was added to CISA’s exploited flaws catalog.

Check Point IPS provides protection against this threat (SolarWinds Web Help Desk Insecure Deserialization (
CVE-2024-28986, CVE-2024-28988, CVE-2025-40553, CVE-2025-26399))

• Google has released an out-of-band Chrome update addressing two high-severity zero-days, CVE-2026-3909 in Skia memory handling and CVE-2026-3910 in V8. Both can be triggered by visiting a malicious site and may enable code execution in the browser.
• The n8n workflow automation platform has fixed CVE-2025-68613, a CVSS 10 remote code execution flaw that is under active exploitation. The issue allows authenticated users to run code and compromise servers, and patches were released in versions 1.120.4, 1.121.1, and 1.122.0.

Check Point IPS provides protection against this threat (n8n Remote Code Execution (CVE-2025-68613))

THREAT INTELLIGENCE REPORTS

• Check Point Research has analyzed the Iranian threat group Handala Hack, a hacktivist persona run by the Void Manticore APT group, which is affiliated with the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence. The group targets IT and VPN infrastructure to gain initial access to victim organizations, before using tools such as NetBird for lateral movement. The group then aims to exfiltrate and wipe victim organizations’ data.

Check Point Harmony Endpoint and Threat Emulation provide protection against these threats

• Check Point Research has examined Iranian Ministry of Intelligence-linked groups use of criminal tools and services, including Handala Hack deploying Rhadamanthys infostealer alongside wipers against Israeli targets. The report also noted overlaps between MuddyWater activity, Tsundere and DinDoor botnet infrastructure, and CastleLoader certificates.

Check Point Harmony Endpoint and Threat Emulation provide protection against these threats

• Check Point Research analyzed February 2026 cyber-attacks, as organizations averaged 2,086 weekly attacks, up 9.6% year over year, with education most targeted and Latin America recording the highest volumes. Ransomware totaled 629 incidents, while enterprise GenAI use continued to pose data‑leak risk in 1 of every 31 prompts.
• Check Point Research have analyzed China-nexus espionage campaigns targeting Qatar. A Camaro Dragon campaign attempted to deploy PlugX, while a second operation delivered Cobalt Strike via war-themed lures abusing trusted software targeting government and energy-related entities.

Check Point Harmony Endpoint and Threat Emulation provide protection against these threats

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For the latest discoveries in cyber research for the week of 9th March, please download our Threat Intelligence Bulletin.

TOP ATTACKS AND BREACHES

• AkzoNobel, a Netherlands-based global paint manufacturer, has confirmed a cyberattack affecting one of its United States sites. The company said the intrusion was contained, while the Anubis ransomware group claimed it stole 170 GB of data, including employee and financial records.
• LexisNexis, a global legal data and analytics provider, has suffered a breach. Attackers claimed they stole 3.9 million records, including about 400,000 user profiles and some government accounts, while the company said the exposed systems mainly held legacy pre-2020 data.
• The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit behind Wikipedia, has faced a self-propagating JavaScript worm that vandalized pages and replaced editor scripts across multiple wikis. Engineers briefly restricted editing while cleaning up the incident, with about 3,996 pages modified and roughly 85 users’ personal scripts affected.
• TriZetto Provider Solutions, an American healthcare technology company owned by Cognizant, has disclosed a breach affecting more than 3.4 million people. The exposed data includes insurance and medical information, with notifications issued this week after investigators determined the unauthorized access began in 2024.

AI THREATS

• Researchers outlined how Pakistan-linked APT36 has used AI coding tools to produce large volumes of low-quality malware aimed at Indian government entities and embassies. The group generated variants in less common programming languages and used legitimate cloud services for command channels, complicating detection and response.
• Researchers uncovered AI-themed Chrome and Edge extensions that harvest LLM chat histories and browsing activity. Distributed via the Chrome Web Store, they impersonate legitimate tools and have impacted 900,000 users across 20,000 enterprise environments.
• Researchers tracked a campaign abusing interest in OpenClaw, an AI agent, by planting fake installers on GitHub that appeared in Bing search results. The installers delivered Vidar to steal credentials and cryptocurrency wallets and sometimes deployed GhostSocks, turning infected systems into residential proxies.
• Researchers demonstrated indirect prompt injection campaigns against AI agents that read web content, cataloging 22 techniques across live sites. Hidden instructions can redirect agents to expose data, perform unauthorized transactions, and run server commands, and the researchers also observed a real-world bypass of an AI ad review system.

VULNERABILITIES AND PATCHES

• Google has published patches for CVE-2026-0628, a high-severity vulnerability in Chrome’s Gemini AI panel that allowed malicious extensions to inject code and access cameras and microphones. Researchers showed attackers could also take screenshots, access local files, and launch phishing content inside the panel.
• A patch was released for CVE-2026-1492, a critical (9.8 CVSS) privilege escalation flaw in the User Registration & Membership WordPress plugin. The vulnerability lets unauthenticated attackers create administrator accounts and take over sites.
• VMware has patched CVE-2026-22719, a high-severity command injection flaw in Aria Operations, its cloud management platform. The vulnerability allows unauthenticated remote code execution during support-assisted migrations and affects versions 8 through 8.18.5 and 9 through 9.0.1, with patches and a workaround script available.
• Qualcomm has addressed CVE-2026-21385, a memory corruption vulnerability affecting chipsets used in Android phones, tablets, and IoT devices. The flaw can trigger crashes and potentially allow code execution, and CISA said evidence of active exploitation prompted its addition to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

THREAT INTELLIGENCE REPORTS

• Check Point Research have mapped Iran-linked cyber clusters conducting espionage, disruption, and influence operations, including Cotton Sandstorm, Educated Manticore, MuddyWater, Handala, and Agrius. Recent campaigns used impersonation and phishing to steal credentials, remote access tools to persist, and wipers or fake ransomware for impact.
• Check Point Research revealed that, amid the ongoing conflict with Iran, IP cameras in Israel, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, and Cyprus have been intensively targeted. Notably, these countries have also experienced significant missile activity from Iran. The findings align with the assessment that Iran incorporates compromised cameras into its operational doctrine, using them both to support missile operations and to conduct ongoing battle damage assessment (BDA).
• Check Point Research has profiled Silver Dragon, a Chinese-aligned group linked to APT41 that targeted government and enterprise networks across Southeast Asia and Europe. Recent operations used the GearDoor backdoor with SSHcmd and SilverScreen, enabling remote access, covert screen capture, and stealthy control after phishing and server exploitation.

Check Point Harmony Endpoint and Threat Emulation provide protection against these threats

• Researchers have uncovered Coruna, an iPhone exploit kit used by Chinese scammers and Russia-linked operators to compromise devices through malicious websites. The toolkit used 23 exploits against iOS and deployed malware that stole cryptocurrency, emails, and photos.

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