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Navigating 2026’s Converged Threats: Insights from Flashpoint’s Global Threat Intelligence Report

In this post, we preview the critical findings of the 2026 Global Threat Intelligence Report, highlighting how the collapse of traditional security silos and the rise of autonomous, machine-speed attacks are forcing a total reimagining of modern defense.

The cybersecurity landscape has reached a point of total convergence, where the silos that once separated malware, identity, and infrastructure have collapsed into a single, high-velocity threat engine. Simultaneously, the threat landscape is shifting from human-led attacks to machine-speed operations as a result of agentic AI, which acts as a force multiplier for the modern adversary.

Flashpoint’s 2026 Global Threat Intelligence Report

Flashpoint’s 2026 Global Threat Intelligence Report (GTIR) was developed to anchor security leaders — from threat intelligence and vulnerability management teams to physical security professionals and the CISO’s office — with the data required to navigate this year’s greatest threats, rife with infostealers, vulnerabilities, ransomware, and malicious insiders.

Our report uncovers several staggering metrics that illustrate the industrialization of modern cybercrime:

• AI-related illicit activity skyrocketed by 1,500% in a single month at the end of 2025.
• 3.3 billion compromised credentials and cloud tokens have turned identity into the primary exploit vector.
• From January 2025 to December 2025, ransomware incidents rose by 53%, as attackers pivot from technical encryption to “pure-play” identity extortion.
• Vulnerability disclosures surged by 12% from January 2025 to December 2025, with the window between discovery and mass exploitation effectively vanishing.

These findings are derived from Flashpoint’s Primary Source Collection (PSC), a specialized operating model that collects intelligence directly from original sources, driven by an organization’s unique Priority Intelligence Requirements (PIR). The 2026 Global Threat Intelligence Report leverages this ground-truth data to provide a strategic framework for the year ahead. Download to gain:

1. A Clear Understanding of the New Convergence Between Identity and AI
   Discover how threat actors are preparing to transition from generative tools to sophisticated agentic frameworks. Learn how 3.3 billion compromised credentials are being weaponized via automated orchestration to bypass legacy defenses and exploit the connective tissue of modern corporate APIs.
   
2. Intelligence on the “Franchise Model” of Global Extortion
   Gain deep insight into the professionalized operations of today’s most prolific threat actors. From the industrial efficiency of RaaS groups like RansomHub and Clop to the market dominance of the next generation of infostealer malware, we break down the economics driving today’s cybercrime ecosystem.
   
3. A Blueprint for Proactive Defense and Risk Mitigation
   Leverage the latest trends, in-depth analysis, and data-driven insights driven by Primary Source Collection to bolster your security posture by identifying and proactively defending against rising attack vectors.

“As attackers automate exploitation of identity, vulnerabilities, and ransomware, defenders who rely on fragmented visibility will fall behind. To keep pace, organizations must ground their decisions in primary-source intelligence that is drawn from adversarial environments, so that decision-makers can get ahead of this accelerating threat cycle.”

Josh Lefkowitz, CEO & Co-Founder at Flashpoint

The Top Threats at a Glance

Our latest report identifies four driving themes shaping the 2026 threat landscape:

2026 Is the Era of Agentic-Based Cyberattacks

Flashpoint identified a 1,500% rise in AI-related illicit discussions between November and December 2025, signaling a rapid transition from criminal curiosity to the active development of malicious frameworks. Built on data pulled from criminal environments and shaped by fraud use cases, these systems scrape data, adjust messaging for specific targets, rotate infrastructure, and learn from failed attempts without the need for constant human involvement.

“2026 is the era of agentic-based cyberattacks. We’ve seen a 1,500% increase in AI-related illicit discussions in a single month, signaling increased interest in developing malicious frameworks. The discussions evolve into vibe-coded, AI-supported phishing lures, malware, and cybercrime venues. When iteration becomes cheap through automation, attackers can afford to fail repeatedly until they find a successful foothold.”

Ian Gray, Vice President of Cyber Threat Intelligence Operations at Flashpoint

Identity Is the New Exploit

Flashpoint observed over 11.1 million machines infected with infostealers in 2025, fueling a massive inventory of 3.3 billion stolen credentials and cloud tokens. The fundamental mechanics of cybercrime have shifted from breaking in to logging in, as attackers leverage stolen session cookies to behave like legitimate users.

The Patching Window Is Rapidly Closing

Vulnerability disclosures surged by 12% in 2025, with 1 in 3 (33%) vulnerabilities having publicly available exploit code. The strategic gap between discovery and weaponization is increasingly vanishing, as evidenced by mass exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities in as little as 24 hours after discovery.

Ransomware Is Hacking the Person, Not the Code

As technical defenses against encryption harden, ransomware groups are pivoting to the path of least resistance: human trust. This approach has led to a 53% increase in ransomware, with RaaS groups being responsible for over 87% of all ransomware attacks.

Build Resilience in a Converged Landscape

The findings in the 2026 Global Threat Intelligence Report make one thing clear: incremental improvements to legacy security models are no longer sufficient. As adversaries transition to machine-speed operations, the strategic advantage shifts to organizations that can maintain visibility into the adversarial environments where these attacks are born.

Protecting organizations and communities requires an intelligence-first approach. Download Flashpoint’s 2026 Global Threat Intelligence Report to gain clarity and the data-driven insights needed to safeguard critical assets.

Blogs

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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.

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.

Begin your free trial today.