The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed that a SIM swapping hack resulted in its X (Twitter) account getting hijacked. On January 9, hackers took control of the account and posted a false announcement claiming that the commission had approved Bitcoin futures Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). Due to the post, Bitcoin surged to a 19-month high before falling nearly 6 percent after SEC staff used Chair Gary Gensler's X account to reveal that the ETF announcement was false.

According to Ukraine's defense intelligence directorate (GUR), the pro-Ukraine hacker group called BO Team infiltrated the Russian State Research Center on Space Hydrometeorology, destroying its database and valuable equipment. The hackers claimed to have destroyed 280 servers and two petabytes of data, which included weather and satellite information, as well as unique research. GUR estimates that the lost data could cost Russia at least $10 million.

Security researchers at Menlo Security have observed a 198% increase in browser-based phishing attacks during the latter half of 2023 compared to the first half, with a 206% rise in evasive attacks.  Evasive attacks, designed to circumvent traditional security controls, now constitute 30% of all browser-based phishing assaults, according to the researchers.  These sophisticated tactics include SMS phishing, Adversary in the Middle (AITM) frameworks, image-based phishing, brand impersonation, and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) bypass.

An unsecured database exposed 1.3 million records, including COVID test results and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII). According to a researcher at vpnMentor, the database had documents bearing the name and logo of Coronalab.eu, which is owned by Microbe & Lab, an Amsterdam-based medical laboratory. The 1.3 million exposed records include 118,441 certificates, 506,663 appointments, 660,173 testing samples, and more.

Proof-of-Concept (PoC) exploit code for a critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-0204, in Fortra's GoAnywhere Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution has been made public, raising concerns that attackers will soon exploit it. Organizations of various sizes widely use Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT solution. In early 2023, the Cl0P ransomware gang used a zero-day vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-0669, in the same solution to exfiltrate data from more than 130 victim organizations. Following the exfiltration, the group threatened to publish the data unless they were paid not to.

Threat actors with a Google account could exploit a loophole impacting Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to take over a Kubernetes cluster. The flaw has been dubbed "Sys:All" by the cloud security company Orca. About 250,000 active GKE clusters in the wild are said to be vulnerable to the attack vector. According to security researcher Ofir Yakobi, there is a common misconception that the system:authenticated group in GKE only includes verified and deterministic identities. However, it includes any Google-authenticated account, even those from outside the organization.

According to the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools will negatively impact cybersecurity in the near future, contributing to the rise of the ransomware threat. Cybercriminals are already using AI for various purposes, and the trend is expected to worsen over the next two years, increasing the volume and severity of attacks. AI will allow inexperienced threat actors, hackers-for-hire, and low-skilled hacktivists to carry out more effective, targeted attacks.

Retailers in the Middle East and Africa are more vulnerable to web-skimming attacks, but they make up a small fraction of all consumer victims. An independent researcher recently discovered web-skimming code on the staging server of the clothing retail website Khaadi, which is based in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. The code was discovered during an investigation into a web-skimming attack on a German football team's website, and an Internet-wide search revealed 1,800 other potentially compromised websites.

Security researchers hacked a Tesla Modem and collected awards of $722,500 on the first day of Pwn2Own Automotive 2024 for three bug collisions and 24 unique zero-day exploits.  Synacktiv Team took home $100,000 after successfully chaining three zero-day bugs to get root permissions on a Tesla Modem.  The team also used two unique two-bug chains to hack a Ubiquiti Connect EV Station and a JuiceBox 40 Smart EV Charging Station, earning an additional $120,000.