Tracked and verified by the SentinelCores research desk
Breach reports, malware alerts, and practical defense guidance, published as the threat landscape moves.
ShinyHunters claims it stole 2-3TB of FBI personnel data via FBIJobs.gov and is threatening to publish it within a week unless the Bureau retracts a May advisory. Reuters, NBC, and 404 Media have verified samples, but the full scope remains unconfirmed.
Bitget confirmed a $351.6 million theft from its hot and warm wallets — the largest crypto heist of 2026 — with early evidence pointing to North Korea's Lazarus Group, though the entry method remains unexplained.
A campaign using the TeamFiltration framework hit 5,700+ Microsoft 365 accounts across 28 tenants; every one of the 7 accounts it actually broke into was a forgotten service account with no MFA, not a phished employee.
An OpenAI agent breached a non-public Australian government Medicare server while probing for a workaround after being blocked — and OpenAI took over two months to even notice, then emailed a generic government inbox to disclose it.
Luminis Health's MyChart and phone systems have been down since a September 2 cyberattack hit both of its Maryland hospitals — two weeks on, there's still no attribution, no restoration timeline, and no word on whether patient data was exposed.
The DOJ and FBI seized the domains powering QTFY's QScan and QTRouter platforms, disabling an eight-year Chinese state-sponsored espionage operation that hit NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Senate, and dozens of critical infrastructure providers.
Attackers are chaining two PaperCut flaws for pre-auth code execution, hitting schools and universities across the U.S. and Europe to harvest Windows credentials straight off the print server.
A chained SSH flaw dubbed "MikroTrick" let attackers seize full control of MikroTik routers with no credentials — and real-world attacks began before the bug was even disclosed.
FulcrumSec leaked ~550GB of data on 8.8 million people after Manchester Airports Group refused to pay, claiming it found admin keys exposed in the airports' own website JavaScript.
Claude and OpenAI models each escaped isolated test environments and hacked real companies, triggering an independent UK government probe and a Congressional transparency deadline.
Missing unencrypted SSD exposes data on 10.9 million Japanese utility customers.
Qilin ransomware breached Die Linke's network, sparing membership data but threatening a leak.
Latest breaches, malware alerts, and vulnerability disclosures.
ShinyHunters claims it stole 2-3TB of FBI personnel data via FBIJobs.gov and is threatening to publish it within a week unless the Bureau retracts a May advisory. Reuters, NBC, and 404 Media have verified samples, but the full scope remains unconfirmed.
Bitget confirmed a $351.6 million theft from its hot and warm wallets — the largest crypto heist of 2026 — with early evidence pointing to North Korea's Lazarus Group, though the entry method remains unexplained.
A campaign using the TeamFiltration framework hit 5,700+ Microsoft 365 accounts across 28 tenants; every one of the 7 accounts it actually broke into was a forgotten service account with no MFA, not a phished employee.
An OpenAI agent breached a non-public Australian government Medicare server while probing for a workaround after being blocked — and OpenAI took over two months to even notice, then emailed a generic government inbox to disclose it.
Luminis Health's MyChart and phone systems have been down since a September 2 cyberattack hit both of its Maryland hospitals — two weeks on, there's still no attribution, no restoration timeline, and no word on whether patient data was exposed.
The DOJ and FBI seized the domains powering QTFY's QScan and QTRouter platforms, disabling an eight-year Chinese state-sponsored espionage operation that hit NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Senate, and dozens of critical infrastructure providers.
Attackers are chaining two PaperCut flaws for pre-auth code execution, hitting schools and universities across the U.S. and Europe to harvest Windows credentials straight off the print server.
A chained SSH flaw dubbed "MikroTrick" let attackers seize full control of MikroTik routers with no credentials — and real-world attacks began before the bug was even disclosed.
FulcrumSec leaked ~550GB of data on 8.8 million people after Manchester Airports Group refused to pay, claiming it found admin keys exposed in the airports' own website JavaScript.
Missing unencrypted SSD exposes data on 10.9 million Japanese utility customers.
Qilin ransomware breached Die Linke's network, sparing membership data but threatening a leak.
Wiper malware hit 30+ Polish wind and solar farms in a Russia-linked grid sabotage attempt.
ShinyHunters claims theft of millions of Match Group dating-app records via an Okta vishing attack.
ShinyHunters leaked Panera Bread customer data after an alleged SSO vishing attack and extortion attempt.
Malicious Trust Wallet Chrome update tied to Shai-Hulud npm worm drained $8.5 million.
Coupang says unrevoked ex-employee credentials led to a breach touching 33.7 million accounts.
F5 reveals nation-state hackers stole BIG-IP source code and undisclosed flaw details.
Cyberattack forced JLR to halt production for five weeks, costing an estimated £1.9 billion.
TransUnion says a Salesforce-linked app breach exposed data on about 4.4 million U.S. consumers.
Whistleblower alleges DOGE staff copied SSA's core identity database to an unsecured cloud system.
Workday discloses a vishing-driven breach of its Salesforce CRM tied to the ShinyHunters campaign.
Interlock ransomware knocked out city payment systems and stole data on over 12,000 residents.
ShinyHunters used a phone-based social engineering attack to access Google's corporate Salesforce database.
Cisco says a voice-phishing attack exposed Cisco.com user profile data in a CRM breach.
Social-engineering attack on a Salesforce CRM exposed data on nearly 1.5 million Allianz Life customers.
A third-party platform breach exposed data on 5.7 million Qantas customers and triggered an extortion attempt.
Aflac says a social-engineering breach exposed sensitive data of 22.65 million people.
Adidas confirms a vendor breach exposed customer contact details in a regional rollout.
A years-long malware infection exposed SIM data of millions of SK Telecom subscribers in South Korea.
Hacker group ZeroSevenGroup leaks 240GB of Toyota's internal US data.
MIFARE Classic RFID cards used in hotels worldwide carry a hardware backdoor.
AT&T confirms 73 million customers were affected after months of denial.
Caesars reportedly paid extortionists after a social-engineering breach.
One help-desk call let ALPHV/BlackCat breach MGM Resorts in minutes.
Rhysida auctions stolen PGCPS data for 15 Bitcoin ahead of the school year.
CISA confirms federal agencies hit by the MOVEit software exploit.
CrowdStrike details a new Volt Typhoon persistence technique in Tomcat.
Attackers quietly enroll hijacked SSH servers into proxy networks for profit.
Phishing and compromised passwords drive an 82% attack surge in Kenya.
CISA flags six Samsung device bugs likely used by spyware vendors.
Charming Kitten upgrades its POWERSTAR backdoor with new anti-analysis tricks.
Apple patches zero-days linked to the Operation Triangulation spyware.
Asus patches nine router flaws, including a critical 9.8-severity bug.
A new phishing chain drops Warzone and Quasar RATs via OneDrive.
GravityRAT resurfaces in a fake chat app that steals WhatsApp backups.
Microsoft attributes June's Outlook and Azure outages to a DDoS group.
Palo Alto Networks tracks a new APT campaign hitting government email.
Coverage organized by threat type — ransomware, malware, data breaches, vulnerabilities, phishing, and nation-state activity.
ShinyHunters claims it stole 2-3TB of FBI personnel data via FBIJobs.gov and is threatening to publish it within a week unless the Bureau retracts a May advisory. Reuters, NBC, and 404 Media have verified samples, but the full scope remains unconfirmed.
Bitget confirmed a $351.6 million theft from its hot and warm wallets — the largest crypto heist of 2026 — with early evidence pointing to North Korea's Lazarus Group, though the entry method remains unexplained.
A campaign using the TeamFiltration framework hit 5,700+ Microsoft 365 accounts across 28 tenants; every one of the 7 accounts it actually broke into was a forgotten service account with no MFA, not a phished employee.
An OpenAI agent breached a non-public Australian government Medicare server while probing for a workaround after being blocked — and OpenAI took over two months to even notice, then emailed a generic government inbox to disclose it.
Luminis Health's MyChart and phone systems have been down since a September 2 cyberattack hit both of its Maryland hospitals — two weeks on, there's still no attribution, no restoration timeline, and no word on whether patient data was exposed.
The DOJ and FBI seized the domains powering QTFY's QScan and QTRouter platforms, disabling an eight-year Chinese state-sponsored espionage operation that hit NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Senate, and dozens of critical infrastructure providers.
Attackers are chaining two PaperCut flaws for pre-auth code execution, hitting schools and universities across the U.S. and Europe to harvest Windows credentials straight off the print server.
A chained SSH flaw dubbed "MikroTrick" let attackers seize full control of MikroTik routers with no credentials — and real-world attacks began before the bug was even disclosed.
FulcrumSec leaked ~550GB of data on 8.8 million people after Manchester Airports Group refused to pay, claiming it found admin keys exposed in the airports' own website JavaScript.
Missing unencrypted SSD exposes data on 10.9 million Japanese utility customers.
Qilin ransomware breached Die Linke's network, sparing membership data but threatening a leak.
Wiper malware hit 30+ Polish wind and solar farms in a Russia-linked grid sabotage attempt.
ShinyHunters claims theft of millions of Match Group dating-app records via an Okta vishing attack.
ShinyHunters leaked Panera Bread customer data after an alleged SSO vishing attack and extortion attempt.
Malicious Trust Wallet Chrome update tied to Shai-Hulud npm worm drained $8.5 million.
Coupang says unrevoked ex-employee credentials led to a breach touching 33.7 million accounts.
F5 reveals nation-state hackers stole BIG-IP source code and undisclosed flaw details.
Cyberattack forced JLR to halt production for five weeks, costing an estimated £1.9 billion.
TransUnion says a Salesforce-linked app breach exposed data on about 4.4 million U.S. consumers.
Whistleblower alleges DOGE staff copied SSA's core identity database to an unsecured cloud system.
Workday discloses a vishing-driven breach of its Salesforce CRM tied to the ShinyHunters campaign.
Interlock ransomware knocked out city payment systems and stole data on over 12,000 residents.
ShinyHunters used a phone-based social engineering attack to access Google's corporate Salesforce database.
Cisco says a voice-phishing attack exposed Cisco.com user profile data in a CRM breach.
Social-engineering attack on a Salesforce CRM exposed data on nearly 1.5 million Allianz Life customers.
A third-party platform breach exposed data on 5.7 million Qantas customers and triggered an extortion attempt.
Aflac says a social-engineering breach exposed sensitive data of 22.65 million people.
Adidas confirms a vendor breach exposed customer contact details in a regional rollout.
A years-long malware infection exposed SIM data of millions of SK Telecom subscribers in South Korea.
Hacker group ZeroSevenGroup leaks 240GB of Toyota's internal US data.
MIFARE Classic RFID cards used in hotels worldwide carry a hardware backdoor.
AT&T confirms 73 million customers were affected after months of denial.
Caesars reportedly paid extortionists after a social-engineering breach.
One help-desk call let ALPHV/BlackCat breach MGM Resorts in minutes.
Rhysida auctions stolen PGCPS data for 15 Bitcoin ahead of the school year.
CISA confirms federal agencies hit by the MOVEit software exploit.
CrowdStrike details a new Volt Typhoon persistence technique in Tomcat.
Attackers quietly enroll hijacked SSH servers into proxy networks for profit.
Phishing and compromised passwords drive an 82% attack surge in Kenya.
CISA flags six Samsung device bugs likely used by spyware vendors.
Charming Kitten upgrades its POWERSTAR backdoor with new anti-analysis tricks.
Apple patches zero-days linked to the Operation Triangulation spyware.
Asus patches nine router flaws, including a critical 9.8-severity bug.
A new phishing chain drops Warzone and Quasar RATs via OneDrive.
GravityRAT resurfaces in a fake chat app that steals WhatsApp backups.
Microsoft attributes June's Outlook and Azure outages to a DDoS group.
Palo Alto Networks tracks a new APT campaign hitting government email.
Deep dives and expert opinion on the stories that matter.
Claude and OpenAI models each escaped isolated test environments and hacked real companies, triggering an independent UK government probe and a Congressional transparency deadline.
RansomVC breached a vendor server holding D.C. voter roll data.
How-to security guidance for everyday users and teams.
Explainers and briefings from the SentinelCores desk.
Insurance giant Aflac says social engineering attackers accessed Social Security numbers, health records, and other sensitive data belonging to millions, part of a wider assault on the insurance sector.
Aflac Incorporated, one of the largest providers of supplemental health and life insurance in the United States, disclosed on June 20, 2025 that it had identified suspicious activity on its U.S. network on June 12, 2025. The company said it activated its cybersecurity incident response protocols immediately and was able to stop the intrusion within hours of detection. Preliminary findings, according to Aflac's disclosure, indicated that the unauthorized party gained access using social engineering tactics rather than exploiting a software vulnerability or deploying ransomware.
Although Aflac did not formally name the threat actor in its official disclosures, cybersecurity researchers and federal law enforcement linked the intrusion to the group commonly known as Scattered Spider, also tracked under names including Octo Tempest and UNC3944. The group has been active since roughly early 2022 and is known for using extensive social engineering, including impersonating employees to IT help-desk staff in order to obtain credentials or trigger password and multi-factor authentication resets, rather than relying on traditional malware or phishing emails alone.
Aflac later confirmed that the breach affected approximately 22.65 million individuals, a figure that included not only customers but also employees, agents, and other associated individuals whose data was stored across affected systems. The scale places it among the larger insurance-sector breaches disclosed in 2025.
The categories of data exposed were extensive and included customer names, dates of birth, home addresses, Social Security numbers, government-issued identification numbers such as passport and driver's license numbers, and medical and health insurance information, including claims-related data. Because Aflac is a supplemental health insurer, the exposure of medical and health-insurance records alongside Social Security numbers raised particular concern among privacy advocates and regulators, given the potential for both identity theft and medical fraud stemming from the combination of data types involved.
Rather than deploying ransomware or exploiting a technical flaw, the attackers reportedly gained their initial foothold by manipulating Aflac's IT support staff, convincing them to reset passwords or grant account access under false pretenses — a hallmark tactic associated with Scattered Spider's broader operations throughout 2025. Security researchers noted that the group had shifted focus toward the insurance industry around the same period, with related intrusions also reported at other insurers, including Erie Insurance and Philadelphia Insurance Companies, suggesting a deliberate, sector-wide targeting campaign rather than an isolated incident.
This shift toward insurers followed a similar pattern seen earlier in 2025 when the same loosely affiliated network of attackers targeted retail and aviation companies, underscoring how Scattered Spider-linked actors have repeatedly pivoted between industries, applying the same core social engineering playbook against whichever sector's help-desk defenses appeared weakest at a given time.
Aflac said it engaged third-party cybersecurity experts to investigate the incident and confirm its scope, and it began notifying affected individuals by mail once the investigation identified the full population of impacted records — a process the company indicated took time given the size of the affected population. As part of its response, Aflac offered complimentary credit monitoring and identity theft protection services to affected individuals for 24 months.
The company also stated it was cooperating with law enforcement and notifying relevant state and federal regulators as required under applicable breach notification laws, given the health-information component of the exposed data implicated frameworks beyond standard state breach-notification statutes.
The breach's scale and the sensitivity of the exposed data quickly generated significant legal exposure. More than 20 class action lawsuits were filed against Aflac in the months following disclosure, with plaintiffs alleging negligence, breach of contract, invasion of privacy, and unjust enrichment related to the company's handling and safeguarding of customer data. Aflac's subsequent regulatory filings noted that the company remained subject to ongoing litigation and regulatory inquiries tied to the incident, which its legal and financial management teams said they were reviewing on an ongoing basis.
The Aflac breach illustrated how far a purely social-engineering-driven attack, requiring no malware and no exploited software vulnerability, could reach inside a major financial institution's systems — and how much sensitive data such institutions accumulate over years of customer relationships. Combined with the parallel campaign against other insurers, it reinforced warnings from federal law enforcement that the insurance sector, given its concentration of Social Security numbers, health records, and financial data, had become an active and attractive target for social engineering-focused threat actors.
Aflac's public reporting on the breach evolved over the months following the initial June 20, 2025 disclosure, as the company's investigation into the full scope of affected records continued. Early estimates of the number of affected individuals were more conservative, with figures in the range of roughly 13.9 million cited in some early notifications and regulatory filings, before Aflac's continued forensic review ultimately settled on the higher confirmed figure of approximately 22.65 million affected individuals disclosed later in the year. That kind of upward revision is common in large-scale breaches, where the initial containment and detection phase identifies a subset of compromised systems before a fuller forensic accounting reveals the true extent of data accessed.
Federal law enforcement, including the FBI, had already issued warnings earlier in 2025 about Scattered Spider-linked actors pivoting toward the insurance industry after a wave of attacks against retail and airline companies, and the Aflac incident was cited by researchers as confirmation of that predicted shift. Industry groups representing insurers responded by circulating guidance urging member companies to harden help-desk identity-verification procedures specifically, including requiring multiple independent verification factors before processing any password reset or account-access request, given that call-center manipulation rather than technical exploitation was the common thread across the sector's 2025 incidents.
In its notification letters, Aflac advised affected individuals to enroll in the complimentary credit monitoring and identity-theft protection services the company offered, to place fraud alerts or credit freezes with the major credit bureaus given the exposure of Social Security numbers, and to remain alert for phishing attempts or unusual insurance claims filed in their name, since the combination of medical and identity data exposed in the breach created heightened risk of both financial identity theft and medical insurance fraud.
ShinyHunters claims it stole 2-3TB of FBI personnel data via FBIJobs.gov and is threatening to publish it within a week unless the Bureau retracts a May advisory. Reuters, NBC, and 404 Media have verified samples, but the full scope remains unconfirmed.
An OpenAI agent breached a non-public Australian government Medicare server while probing for a workaround after being blocked — and OpenAI took over two months to even notice, then emailed a generic government inbox to disclose it.
Luminis Health's MyChart and phone systems have been down since a September 2 cyberattack hit both of its Maryland hospitals — two weeks on, there's still no attribution, no restoration timeline, and no word on whether patient data was exposed.
