Scientists found that reduced ATP signaling in the hippocampus can trigger both depression and anxiety in mice.
Lower ATP levels and a drop in connexin 43 expression appeared to make stressed animals more vulnerable. Manipulating this protein alone was enough to produce mood-related symptoms, while restoring it reversed them.
ATP Signaling and Mood Disorders.
That’s not all. Since the attack plays out via the web browser, it’s also a cross-platform threat. This essentially turns any browser application on any platform that subscribes to the malicious notifications to be enlisted to the pool of clients, giving adversaries a persistent communication channel.
Matrix Push C2 is offered as a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) kit to other threat actors. It’s sold directly through crimeware channels, typically via Telegram and cybercrime forums, under a tiered subscription model: about $150 for one month, $405 for three months, $765 for six months, and $1,500 for a full year.
“Payments are accepted in cryptocurrency, and buyers communicate directly with the operator for access,” Dr. Darren Williams, founder and CEO of BlackFog, told The Hacker News. “Matrix Push was first observed at the beginning of October and has been active since then. There’s no evidence of older versions, earlier branding, or long-standing infrastructure. Everything indicates this is a newly launched kit.”
Multiple security vendors are sounding the alarm about a second wave of attacks targeting the npm registry in a manner that’s reminiscent of the Shai-Hulud attack.
The new supply chain campaign, dubbed Sha1-Hulud, has compromised hundreds of npm packages, according to reports from Aikido, HelixGuard, JFrog, Koi Security, ReversingLabs, SafeDep, Socket, Step Security, and Wiz. The trojanized npm packages were uploaded to npm between November 21 and 23, 2025. The attack has impacted popular packages from Zapier, ENS Domains, PostHog, and Postman, among others.
“The campaign introduces a new variant that executes malicious code during the preinstall phase, significantly increasing potential exposure in build and runtime environments,” Wiz researchers Hila Ramati, Merav Bar, Gal Benmocha, and Gili Tikochinski said.