Intelligence Center

Threat Research

UAT-8302 and its box full of malware

Cisco Talos is disclosing UAT-8302, a sophisticated, China-nexus advanced persistent threat (APT) group targeting government entities in South America since at least late 2024 and government agencies in southeastern Europe in 2025. Learn More

CloudZ RAT potentially steals OTP messages using Pheno plugin

Cisco Talos discovered an intrusion, active since at least January 2026, where an unknown attacker implanted a CloudZ remote access tool (RAT) and a previously undocumented plugin called “Pheno.” Learn More

Bad Apples: Weaponizing native macOS primitives for movement and execution

Cisco Talos documents several macOS living-off-the-land (LOTL) techniques, demonstrating that native pathways for movement and execution remain accessible to those who understand the underlying architecture.  Learn More

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Latest Talos Takes Podcast Episodes

May 7, 2026
The trust paradox: How attackers weaponize legitimate SaaS platforms

In this episode of Talos Takes, Amy Ciminnisi sits down with researcher Diana Brown to discuss the rise of "platform-as-a-proxy" (PAP) attacks. We explore how threat actors are weaponizing legitimate SaaS platforms like GitHub and Jira to deliver phishing campaigns that bypass traditional security filters. By leveraging the platforms' own infrastructure to send authenticated emails, attackers are exploiting the inherent trust employees place in these essential business tools. We break down the mechanics of these campaigns and provide actionable strategies for security teams to move beyond binary trust and implement contextual awareness to better protect their organizations.Blog: https://blog.talosintelligence.com/weaponizing-saas-notification-pipelines/

April 21, 2026
It's not you, it's your printer: State-sponsored and phishing threats in 2025

In this episode, we unpack state-sponsored and phishing trends from the 2025 Talos Year in Review. Amy and Martin Lee explore the alarming rise of internal phishing campaigns that bypass traditional perimeter defenses, including the widespread weaponization of Microsoft 365's Direct Send feature. Beyond simple phishing, we analyze the aggressive, blended operations of state-sponsored actors from China and North Korea who are combining high-level zero-day exploits with sophisticated social engineering. From the "Dear Leader" interview test to the reality of fake developer personas, we break down exactly how these adversaries are infiltrating modern organizations. 2025 Year in Review report: https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2025yearinreview/

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