ScarCruft’s Operation HanKook Phantom uses RokRAT malware in spear-phishing campaigns, targeting South Korean academics for espionage.
Category: cybercrime/malcode – Page 71
Malicious npm Package nodejs-smtp Mimics Nodemailer, Targets Atomic and Exodus Wallets
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a malicious npm package that comes with stealthy features to inject malicious code into desktop apps for cryptocurrency wallets like Atomic and Exodus on Windows systems.
The package, named nodejs-smtp, impersonates the legitimate email library nodemailer with an identical tagline, page styling, and README descriptions, attracting a total of 347 downloads since it was uploaded to the npm registry in April 2025 by a user named “nikotimon.” It’s currently no longer available.
“On import, the package uses Electron tooling to unpack Atomic Wallet’s app.asar, replace a vendor bundle with a malicious payload, repackage the application, and remove traces by deleting its working directory,” Socket researcher Kirill Boychenko said.
Storm-0501 Exploits Entra ID to Exfiltrate and Delete Azure Data in Hybrid Cloud Attacks
The financially motivated threat actor known as Storm-0501 has been observed refining its tactics to conduct data exfiltration and extortion attacks targeting cloud environments.
“Unlike traditional on-premises ransomware, where the threat actor typically deploys malware to encrypt critical files across endpoints within the compromised network and then negotiates for a decryption key, cloud-based ransomware introduces a fundamental shift,” the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said in a report shared with The Hacker News.
“Leveraging cloud-native capabilities, Storm-0501 rapidly exfiltrates large volumes of data, destroys data and backups within the victim environment, and demands ransom — all without relying on traditional malware deployment.”
Storm-0501 hackers shift to ransomware attacks in the cloud
Microsoft warns that a threat actor tracked as Storm-0501 has evolved its operations, shifting away from encrypting devices with ransomware to focusing on cloud-based encryption, data theft, and extortion.
The hackers now abuse native cloud features to exfiltrate data, wipe backups, and destroy storage accounts, thereby applying pressure and extorting victims without deploying traditional ransomware encryption tools.
Storm-0501 is a threat actor who has been active since at least 2021, deploying the Sabbath ransomware in attacks against organizations worldwide. Over time, the threat actor joined various ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) platforms, where they used encryptors from Hive, BlackCat (ALPHV), Hunters International, LockBit, and, more recently, Embargo ransomware.
Experimental PromptLock ransomware uses AI to encrypt, steal data
Threat researchers discovered the first AI-powered ransomware, called PromptLock, that uses Lua scripts to steal and encrypt data on Windows, macOS, and Linux systems.
The malware uses OpenAI’s gpt-oss:20b model through the Ollama API to dynamically generate the malicious Lua scripts from hard-coded prompts.