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Iran-linked hackers mask espionage as extortion

Cybersecurity investigators have linked a deceptive ransomware-style intrusion to MuddyWater, a state-sponsored hacking group associated with Tehran’s intelligence apparatus, after forensic evidence showed the operation was built around espionage rather than financial extortion. The campaign, observed in early 2026, was presented to victims as an attack by an affiliate of the Chaos ransomware-as-a-service ecosystem. Yet the intrusion lacked a defining feature of ransomware: there was no file […]

Oman ministries face widening cyber breach

Omani government networks have been hit by a wide-ranging espionage campaign attributed to Iran-linked operators, with evidence pointing to the theft of judicial records, identity data, staff credentials and internal system files from multiple state entities. The operation centred on the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs, where attackers used a custom ASP. NET webshell to maintain access, issue commands and extract data. Exposed attacker infrastructure showed […]

Mamata’s Defiance Makes A Mockery Of Constitutional Propriety

QLNX raises alarm over developer credential theft

A newly documented Linux remote access trojan has sharpened concerns over software supply-chain security after researchers found it was built to steal developer and DevOps credentials that could be used to compromise trusted code repositories, cloud systems and package registries. The malware, known as Quasar Linux or QLNX, combines remote access functions with a rootkit, a Pluggable Authentication Module backdoor, keylogging and credential-harvesting features. Its design suggests […]

UAE defences counter renewed aerial threat

  UAE air defence systems intercepted ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones on Tuesday evening, after loud sounds were reported across parts of the country during a fresh wave of aerial threats linked to the wider Gulf confrontation. The Ministry of Defence said the explosions heard by residents were caused by air defence units engaging hostile projectiles and unmanned aircraft. The statement sought to reassure the public […]

Hormuz pause puts Iran deal in focus

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai   US President Donald Trump has temporarily halted Washington’s ship-escort operation through the Strait of Hormuz, saying talks with Tehran have made “great progress” toward a wider settlement after weeks of disruption to one of the world’s most critical energy corridors. The pause, announced on Tuesday, came only hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio detailed a US effort that began on Monday […]

Compliance lures expose Microsoft account risks

Microsoft has warned of a large-scale credential theft operation that used fake workplace compliance emails to target more than 35,000 users across over 13,000 organisations in 26 countries, underscoring how cybercriminals are refining corporate-style social engineering to bypass both human caution and automated defences. The campaign, observed between April 14 and 16, 2026, relied on emails that appeared to come from internal human resources, regulatory or conduct […]

Gaming platform breach exposes Yanbian users

North Korea-linked hackers compromised a gaming platform used by ethnic Koreans in China’s Yanbian region, turning Windows and Android game software into surveillance tools aimed at users in a strategically sensitive border community. Cybersecurity researchers identified the operation as the work of ScarCruft, also tracked as APT37, Reaper and Ricochet Chollima, a long-running espionage group aligned with Pyongyang. The campaign appears to have been active since late […]

Army raid tests Hezbollah’s Beirut grip

Lebanese soldiers entered Beirut’s southern suburbs and detained suspected gunmen after celebratory fire and rocket-propelled grenades were discharged during a Hezbollah funeral, an unusual assertion of state authority inside one of the group’s most sensitive urban strongholds. The operation in Kafaat followed gunfire during a procession for Hezbollah supporters killed in Israeli strikes, with residents reporting panic as bullets rang out across densely populated neighbourhoods. Army units […]

OpenAI widens cyber access for public defenders

OpenAI plans to open its Trusted Access for Cyber programme to government cyber defenders across federal, state and local levels, marking a broader push to place advanced artificial intelligence tools in the hands of public agencies responsible for protecting critical systems. The expansion is aimed at agencies handling national security, emergency response, public health systems, benefits delivery, municipal infrastructure and other services that face rising digital threats. […]

Trellix breach sharpens source code concerns

  Cybersecurity vendor Trellix has confirmed unauthorised access to part of its source-code repository, raising fresh questions over the protection of development environments inside companies trusted to defend enterprises and public-sector networks. The privately held company said it had brought in external forensic specialists after identifying the intrusion and had notified law enforcement. Trellix said its investigation had so far found no evidence that its source-code release […]

Small contractors face stealth cyber squeeze

Small US defence suppliers are being outmatched by nation-state hackers using poorly monitored network edges to gain long-term access before attacks become visible, new cyber threat analysis has warned. Team Cymru senior threat intelligence adviser Stephen Campbell said smaller companies inside the US Defense Industrial Base face a structural disadvantage because many hold sensitive contract, technical and personnel data but lack the network-level visibility available to major […]

Maersk transit tests Hormuz reopening

Danish shipping group A. P. Moller–Maersk has confirmed that its US-flagged vehicle carrier Alliance Fairfax has left the Arabian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz under US military escort, giving Washington’s effort to reopen one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints its most visible commercial test so far. The vessel, operated by Maersk’s Farrell Lines subsidiary, completed the passage on May 4 accompanied by US military […]

UAE defences blunt new aerial assault

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai   UAE authorities condemned a wave of missile and drone attacks on civilian sites after national air defence systems intercepted 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and four unmanned aerial vehicles on May 4, preventing wider damage in an escalation that has sharpened security concerns across the Gulf. Three people suffered moderate injuries and were taken to hospital, with officials identifying them as […]

The UAE’s Opec exit was both inevitable and rational

Matein Khalid It is significant that Abu Dhabi joined Opec from the moment the emirate exported its first barrel of oil in 1967, four years before the birth of the UAE itself. For 59 years the UAE was a member of Opec enduring an era of multiple shocks, wars, revolutions, recessions, banking crises, oil price wars, supply shocks, embargoes and the pandemic. Saudi Arabia has been the ultimate power […]

SAP developers face npm supply shock

Malicious code inserted into four SAP-related npm packages exposed developer workstations and automated build systems to credential theft, marking a sharp escalation in attacks against open-source software supply chains used by enterprise technology teams. The compromised packages were published on April 29, 2026, and affected components tied to SAP’s Cloud Application Programming Model and Multi-Target Application build workflows. The malicious versions identified were @cap-js/sqlite 2.2.2, @cap-js/postgres 2.2.2, […]

Opaque deepens trusted AI push

Arabian Post Staff -Dubai OPAQUE has acquired cryptographic AI technologies developed in Abu Dhabi, expanding its confidential AI platform into model training, agentic workflows and post-quantum protection for enterprises handling highly sensitive data. The deal links OPAQUE, a San Francisco-headquartered confidential AI company founded by researchers from UC Berkeley’s RISELab, with the Technology Innovation Institute, the applied research arm of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council. The […]

QR phishing reshapes Microsoft email threat map

  Microsoft detected about 8.3 billion email-based phishing threats in the first quarter of 2026, exposing a sharp shift in attacker behaviour as criminal groups moved deeper into QR codes, fake CAPTCHA pages, phishing-as-a-service kits and file-based payloads to bypass conventional email defences. The volume eased from about 2.9 billion threats in January to 2.6 billion in March, but the decline in headline numbers masked a more […]

Crypto’s automated attack risk deepens

Crypto exploit losses have crossed $770 million in the first four months of 2026, intensifying concern that decentralised finance is entering a harsher phase of cyber risk as attackers combine old weaknesses with faster automation, sharper social engineering and increasingly advanced reconnaissance tools. The scale of the damage has been driven by two major breaches. Drift Protocol, a Solana-based decentralised exchange, lost about $285 million after an […]

China’s Gulf bet: Why Iran’s escalation hits Beijing where it hurts

Matein Khalid As the world’s leading trading power, China’s vast export engine fuelled a $1.2 trillion current account surplus in 2025. At the same time, it is the largest importer of crude oil globally, with around 40 percent sourced from the Middle East. This exposure gives Beijing a clear stake in Gulf stability – prioritising secure maritime transit through energy chokepoints and uninterrupted access to the GCC’s trillion-dollar development […]

cPanel flaw exposes hosting defences

A publicly released exploit for a critical cPanel and WebHost Manager flaw has intensified pressure on hosting companies and website operators after monitoring groups reported tens of thousands of likely compromised internet-facing systems. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-41940, allows unauthenticated attackers to bypass login controls and obtain administrative access to affected cPanel & WHM environments. The weakness carries a CVSS severity score of 9.8, placing it among […]

Trusted platforms fuel Facebook account theft

  More than 30,000 Facebook accounts have been compromised in a large phishing operation that exploited trusted internet services to make fraudulent messages appear legitimate, sharpening concerns over how cybercriminals are turning mainstream cloud tools into delivery channels for account theft. Cybersecurity researchers have identified the campaign as AccountDumpling, a Vietnamese-linked operation aimed largely at Facebook Business users, page administrators and account operators. The attackers used Google […]

Botnet turns Jenkins into game weapon

A new botnet campaign is turning poorly secured Jenkins servers into attack nodes aimed at online game infrastructure, including Valve Source Engine servers used for titles such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2. The activity shows how a single exposed continuous integration system can be repurposed to generate UDP, TCP and application-layer floods against multiplayer platforms. Cybersecurity researchers observed the activity on March 18, 2026, after a […]

Tehran hardens stance on Hormuz control

Tehran has sharpened its confrontation with Washington and Gulf shipping powers after Mojtaba Khamenei declared that the Strait of Hormuz would be “managed by new rules”, signalling Iran’s intention to tighten political and operational control over the world’s most sensitive energy corridor. Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader and the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the waterway would no longer be treated as a passage subject […]