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Monthly Cyber Threats Reports - May 2025

Issue 5: May 2025

Monthly Cyber Threats Reports - May 2025

Editor's note

Mark Tibbs

Our monthly report prepares cybersecurity practitioners to make better tactical, operational and strategic decisions. We have distilled analysis of key events from the previous month which have learning points that can be actioned to improve security.

News
People on phones

NSO Group fined $168m for targeting WhatsApp users

On 6 May 2025, a federal jury in California ordered the Israeli spyware company NSO Group to pay a $168 million fine for targeting around 1,400 WhatsApp users in 2019. The case was initiated by WhatsApp and its parent company Meta after discovering that NSO Group exploited a vulnerability in WhatsApp’s voice call feature, enabling its Pegasus spyware to be installed even if the user did not answer the call.

News
cyber image

Scattered Spider takes aim at the UK retail sector

Between 22 and 29 April 2025, major UK retailers including Marks & Spencer (M&S), Co-op, and Harrods experienced cyber attacks that disrupted core business operations. Although not conclusively attributed in all instances, the threat actor group Scattered Spider is suspected to be behind the attacks, which likely involved attempted and successful social engineering, multi-factor authentication (MFA) bypasses, and ransomware deployment.

News
Person's hands typing on laptop

Attackers observed exploiting obscure Remote Desktop functionality

A new phishing campaign believed to have been orchestrated by suspected Russian state threat actors known as UNC5837 has been targeting European military and government organisations, leveraging lesser-known features of the Windows Remote Desktop Protocol to infiltrate systems.

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Monthly Cyber Threats Reports - May 2025 Issues

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