Author: HackWatchit

A large-scale ad fraud operation called ‘Scallywag’ is monetizing pirating and URL shortening sites through specially crafted WordPress plugins that generate billions of daily fraudulent requests. Scallywag was uncovered by bot and fraud detection firm HUMAN, which mapped a network of 407 domains supporting the operation that peaked at 1.4 billion fraudulent ad requests per day. HUMAN’s efforts to block and report Scallywag traffic have resulted in its shrinking by 95%, although the threat actors have shown resilience by rotating domains and moving to other monetization models. Built around WordPress ad fraud plugins Legitimate ad providers avoid pirating and URL shortening sites…

Back in the days before the internet became part of our daily life, computing was a localized affair, with data stored on physical servers that required physical proximity for businesses to have access. The arrival of the internet introduced the concept of cloud computing, transforming how businesses store, manage, and process data by enabling access to computing resources over the internet. Traditional cloud services like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud operate on a centralized model. These services rely on large data centers owned and managed by a single entity, with inherent barriers (challenges) like security vulnerabilities,…

A security architect with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleges that employees from Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) transferred gigabytes of sensitive data from agency case files in early March, using short-lived accounts configured to leave few traces of network activity. The NLRB whistleblower said the unusual large data outflows coincided with multiple blocked login attempts from an Internet address in Russia that tried to use valid credentials for a newly-created DOGE user account. The cover letter from Berulis’s whistleblower statement, sent to the leaders of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The allegations came in an…

Hello and welcome! My name is John Strand, and in this video, we’re going to be talking about tripwire Honeyports. Now, this is a lab that’s used in ADHD. This is the virtual machine that we use in my classes that we teach at Wild West Hackin’ Fest and also at Black Hat. But in this video, we’re going to be talking about how you can create a port on your computer system that as soon as an adversary interacts with that port it will automatically blacklist the IP address of said attacker. Now in this particular situation, as always,…

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) reportedly plans to cut about 20% of its staff. The regulator told employees Monday (April 21) in an email that it plans to reduce its staff by about 1,250 through early retirement, incentives for retirement and, if necessary, layoffs, Reuters reported Monday, citing a copy of the email. That reduction would equal 20% of the roughly 6,900 employees for which the FDIC had authorization in 2025, according to the report. The FDIC did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment. Hundreds of FDIC employees already agreed to resign during an earlier, government-wide buyout…

The ongoing trade dispute between China and the United States, commonly referred to as the “tariff war,” has created far-reaching effects beyond economics and politics. One of the often overlooked consequences of this prolonged conflict is its growing impact on cybersecurity, which is becoming an increasingly urgent issue for businesses, governments, and individuals alike. As both countries lock horns over tariffs, technology, and trade practices, the resulting tensions are escalating the risks of cyberattacks, intellectual property theft, and the weaponization of digital infrastructure. Let’s break down how this trade war is fueling cybersecurity concerns and why both nations, and the…

The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) expanded last week its Cyber Essentials and Cyber Trust certification marks to include cloud security, artificial intelligence (AI) security, and operational technology (OT) security areas.  In the expanded Cyber Essentials, organizations can find guidance to protect themselves against the most common cyberattacks related to cloud, AI, and OT. For Cyber Trust, these three new areas have been added to its assessment template: risk, cybersecurity preparedness, and risk treatment. The expansion simplifies cybersecurity requirements in the new areas for organizations, especially SMEs, and makes adopting good cyber hygiene practices easier. Announced by Tan Kiat…

The! It was giving me OK answers and then it just started hallucinating. We’ve all heard or experienced it. Natural Language Generation models can sometimes hallucinate, i.e., they start generating text that is not quite accurate for the prompt provided. In layman’s terms, they start making stuff up that’s not strictly related to the context given or plainly inaccurate. Some hallucinations can be understandable, for example, mentioning something related but not exactly the topic in question, other times it may look like legitimate information but it’s simply not correct, it’s made up. This is clearly a problem when we start…

INTRODUCING DIGITAL TRUST SCORE (FICO-DT) The Digital Trust (FICO-DT) framework is an attempt by DigitalXForce to bridge a critical gap: the absence of a standard metric for measuring and validating the trustworthiness of digital services. By adapting the principles of FICO scoring to digital services, DigitalXForce introduces a quantifiable, standardized method for evaluating the reliability, security, and compliance of online platforms and interactions. This article explores the growing need for trust metrics in the digital era, the limitations of existing trust validation methods, and how the FICO-DT framework empowers businesses to mitigate risks and foster confidence. The Current State of…