Welcome to your weekly roundup of cyber news, where every headline gives you a peek into the world of online battles. This week, we look at a huge crypto theft, reveal some sneaky AI scam tricks, and discuss big changes in data protection.
Let these stories spark your interest and help you understand the changing threats in our digital world.
Threat of the Week
Lazarus Group Linked to Record-Setting $1.5 Billion Crypto Theft — The North Korean Lazarus Group has been linked to a “sophisticated” attack that led to the theft of over $1.5 billion worth of cryptocurrency from one of Bybit’s cold wallets, making it the largest ever single crypto heist in history. Bybit said it detected unauthorized activity within one of our Ethereum (ETH) Cold Wallets during a planned routine transfer process on February 21, 2025, at around 12:30 p.m. UTC. The incident makes it the biggest-ever cryptocurrency heist reported to date, dwarfing that of Ronin Network ($624 million), Poly Network ($611 million), and BNB Bridge ($586 million).
Top News#
- OpenAI Bans ChatGPT Accounts for Malicious Activities — OpenAI has revealed that it banned several clusters of accounts that used its ChatGPT tool for a wide range of malicious purposes. This included a network likely originating from China that used its artificial intelligence (AI) models to develop a suspected surveillance tool that’s designed to ingest and analyze posts and comments from platforms such as X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Telegram, and Reddit. Other instances of ChatGPT abuse consisted of creating social media content and long-form articles critical of the U.S., generating comments for propagating romance-baiting scams on social media, and assisting with malware development.
- Apple Drops iCloud’s Advanced Data Protection in the U.K. — Apple has stopped offering its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature for iCloud in the United Kingdom with immediate effect, rather than complying with government demands for backdoor access to encrypted user data. “We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy,” the company said. The development comes shortly after reports emerged that the U.K. government had ordered Apple to build a backdoor that grants blanket access to any Apple user’s iCloud content.
Source: The Hacker News