@BushidoToken Threat Intel

What Happened In mid-2026, an emerging cybercriminal group known as ExfilSquad launched a high-profile extortion campaign targeting prominent UK organisations across the public sector, education, and law enforcement, as well as other firms worldwide. Unlike traditional ransomware groups, ExfilSquad does not deploy encryptors or destructive malware. Instead, they operate as a pure data extortion group, stealing data and threatening to publish it on their onion-based Data Leak Site (DLS) if a ransom is not paid. Several prominent UK entities have confirmed breaches linked to the group: UK Department for Education (DfE): Approximately 600,000 records stolen from its Help Portal containing parent and staff contact details (names, emails, phone numbers, job titles), plus around 7,000 records from the Turing Portal. Police National Legal Database (PNLD): Stole 1.9 GB of data (around 135,000 records) containing contact information for over 100,000 serving police officers, staff, and crimin...

What Happened On 7 August 2026, the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) disclosed that between July 2021 and June 2023, the ACRO Criminal Records Office suffered three separate compromises involving its customer portal website (acro.police.uk). ACRO is a national police unit providing public services such as issuing Police Certificates, International Child Protection Certificates, and processing Subject Access Requests. In March 2023, ACRO was notified about an SQL injection attack that reportedly exposed 15 sets of credentials, the majority of which belonged to its employees. A subsequent forensic investigation uncovered long-term threat actor activity within the website's environment, spanning from 9 July 2021 to 22 June 2023. The website was built on the Kentico CMS and was running version 12.0.0 between September 2019 and March 2023. This version had multiple known vulnerabilities at the time of the incident, but suffered from ambiguity around who was accountable fo...

What Happened New data published by the City of London Police in June 2026  reveals that courier fraud losses exceeded £21 million in 2025, with individuals aged over 70 being heavily targeted. The highest concentration of these offenses was recorded in London and the Home Counties. Cybercriminals and fraud syndicates are actively evolving their operational tactics, increasingly pivoting to messaging platforms like WhatsApp to contact their victims and remotely paying for third-party courier services to facilitate physical collections. UK law enforcement also highlighted a dangerous shift in 2025 toward high-value physical goods. Victims are being systematically manipulated into visiting multiple jewellers over an extended period to purchase gold and expensive jewellery, which they then hand directly to fraud couriers. Recent operational crackdowns by UK Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) showcase the nationwide scale of these networks: North West ROCU Operations (July 2026): ...