Cybersecurity News: Top Exploits and Intrusions in Focus

TL;DR

This article dives into the surge of vulnerability exploits as the primary cause of cyber intrusions in Q4 2025, with nearly 40% of attacks leveraging unpatched flaws. It also covers the persistent threat of phishing, decreasing ransomware incidents, and emerging AI security risks. Key recommendations include prompt patching, implementing MFA, and limiting exposure of vulnerable systems to safeguard against these evolving threats.

Vulnerability Exploits Dominate Intrusions

Experts are emphasizing the importance of prompt patching, as vulnerability exploits are now the primary cause of intrusions. According to Cisco Talos, nearly 40 percent of all intrusions in Q4 2025 were due to exploited flaws. The speed at which attackers are leveraging these vulnerabilities should be a major concern for security teams. This trend marks the second consecutive quarter where exploits have been the main initial access vector, although down from Q3's 62 percent, which was largely due to ToolShell attacks.

Recent examples such as Oracle EBS and React2Shell vulnerabilities demonstrate how quickly attackers can capitalize on newly disclosed flaws. Talos noted that exploitation activity often occurs around the time a vulnerability becomes public, underscoring the risks associated with internet-facing enterprise applications and default deployments in widely used frameworks. Functional proof-of-concept exploits, like the one for React2Shell, can circulate online within 30 hours of disclosure.

AWS has also reported that Chinese state-backed attackers were exploiting maximum-severity bugs within hours or days of disclosure.

Phishing Remains a Significant Threat

Phishing remains a prevalent method for attackers to gain initial access, accounting for 32 percent of access cases, second only to vulnerability exploits. The Register reports that notable phishing campaigns include those targeting Native American tribal organizations. These campaigns often lead to email account compromises, which attackers then use to launch further phishing attacks, both internally and externally.

Recommended Security Measures

The prevailing advice remains consistent:

Patch systems promptly.
Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and methods for detecting MFA abuse.
Ensure systems log the necessary data for effective incident response.
Limit public exposure of vulnerable endpoints when immediate patching is not possible.

Ransomware Trends

Ransomware incidents have decreased to 13 percent of cases, down from 20 percent in Q3 and 50 percent in the first two quarters. While this may seem positive, Talos suggests that it indicates consolidation within ransomware groups, with larger gangs dominating and smaller ones falling behind.

AI and Security Risks

The rise of AI introduces new security challenges. Dark Reading notes that agentic AI is becoming a significant attack surface. Tenable is addressing AI governance, shadow AI risks, and data exposure with its Tenable One AI Exposure add-on, which discovers unsanctioned AI use and enforces policy compliance.

Concerns are also growing over open-source AI models being vulnerable to criminal misuse.

Notable Cyber Incidents

Panera Bread Breach: 5,112,502 accounts were breached, with attackers publishing data including email addresses, names, phone numbers, and physical addresses after an extortion attempt failed (Have I Been Pwned).
Polish Cyber Attacks: CERT Polska reported coordinated cyber attacks on over 30 wind and photovoltaic farms, a manufacturing company, and a large combined heat and power plant (The Hacker News).
Ivanti EPMM Zero-Days: Two critical zero-day vulnerabilities in Ivanti's Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM) are being actively exploited (The Register).

Other Key News

Russian ELECTRUM: Linked to the December 2025 cyber attack on the Polish power grid (The Hacker News).
FBI Operation Winter SHIELD: A call to arms for organizations to improve cybersecurity (Infosecurity Magazine).
Google Disrupts IPIDEA: An extensive residential proxy network used by criminals (Infosecurity Magazine).
ShinyHunters Breach: Allegedly stole 10M records from dating apps (The Register).

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