Article
Risky Business: Securing a Remote Workforce Comes with Its Challenges – but Also Solutions
Arete Analysis
In the past year, businesses around the world have had to fundamentally transform how they work and communicate. And not that work from home is new, but it’s certainly never been done at the current scale. To maintain productivity, organizations have had to move quickly to connect a much broader remote workforce — but often without the necessary polices, technology, and training to ensure security.
Some of the more common issues with trying to secure a remote workforce are:
Remote desktop protocol: To connect remote workers to office systems, organizations can turn on remote desktop protocol (RDP), as it easily allows one computer to connect to another for remote use. The problem, however, is that cybercriminals continue to successfully target RDP exposed to the internet. In fact, remote access is the primary method of intrusion Arete sees in ransomware cases!
As a solution, organizations should consider implementing a virtual private network (VPN) with multifactor authentication (MFA), which allows distributed offices to connect securely.
Social engineering: Social engineering is all about deception. Threat actors try to trick victims into giving out confidential information that they can then use to gain access to other systems or data. For example, they may try to lure users into clicking on a link in an email; or they may call employees, claiming to be tech support and asking for passwords. The key is to remain vigilant. Don’t click on links or open attachments from suspicious sources. And always investigate any requests for money, personal information, or anything of value before handing something over.
Weak passwords: Weak passwords have resulted in many a breach. Organizations can address the issue by mandating complex and unique passphrases for all accounts, implementing password manager tools, and most importantly, implementing MFA wherever possible.
Outdated systems: Outdated software has vulnerabilities and might not be able to withstand an up-to-date attack by cybercriminals. Thus, it’s critical to continually update software and systems — all computers, phones, and tablets — with the latest patches and versions.
It’s the little things that are important. It’s the little things that put you at risk.
The Arete Managed Detection and Response (MDR) team recently helped a client address not only the security challenges above, but also a new one: remote workers’ home network security.
This work-from-home client had disconnected his home Wi-Fi router/firewall and plugged his laptop directly into the modem. A firewall establishes a barrier between a trusted network and an untrusted network, such as the internet. It prevents unauthorized access and inspects traffic to identify and block threats. By directly connecting to the modem and thus, the internet, the client exposed his laptop to scanning and attack.
Fortunately, Arete’s MDR analysts immediately saw threat alerts in their SentinelOne Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) console. They quickly escalated the issue, locked down the laptop, and contacted the client. Next, they placed the laptop back behind the firewall, helping the client avoid a data breach or ransomware event.
Tips for maintaining home network security
If you are working remotely, there are several steps you can take to secure your home network:
Change the default username and password — on both the login to the router administrative controls and on the Wi-Fi network you join.
Turn on wireless network encryption. We recommend using the WPA3 protocol as it’s the most secure.
Most Wi-Fi routers have a built-in firewall. Check to see that the firewall is turned on.
Disable remote administration. Attackers are using this feature to break into home networks.
Keep the router software and firmware up to date. Manufacturers provide updates with important security fixes.
Have trained and experienced security staff investigate all alerts immediately. A fast response can mean the difference between
an hour of remediation and a full-blown ransomware event.Deploy an EDR solution like SentinelOne on all business endpoints — from servers to remote employee laptops.
Next-generation SentinelOne EDR for optimal protection
Ransomware operators often use polymorphic malware, which can easily evade even the most advanced enterprise antivirus solutions.
For this reason, Arete analysts use the next-generation SentinelOne EDR toolset. Designed to identify, kill, and quarantine any malicious executable found in an environment, SentinelOne relies on behavioral analytics — not common signature-based detection — and acts as a force magnifier for our experienced cybersecurity professionals. Its behavioral artificial intelligence (AI) automatically detects and remediates threats based on how they act and by leveraging dynamic threat intelligence gathered by Arete and SentinelOne analysts.
For more information on how the Arete MDR team can assist you with securing your remote workforce, contact us at MDR_Info@areteir.com.
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Article
FortiGate Exploits Enable Network Breaches and Credential Theft
A recent security report indicates that threat actors are actively exploiting FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) appliances as initial access vectors to compromise enterprise networks. The activity leverages recently disclosed vulnerabilities or weak credentials to gain unauthorized access and extract configuration files, which often contain sensitive information, including service account credentials and detailed network topology data.
Analysis of these incidents shows significant variation in attacker dwell time, ranging from immediate lateral movement to delays of up to two months post-compromise. Since these appliances often integrate with authentication systems such as Active Directory and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), their compromise can grant attackers extensive access, substantially increasing the risk of widespread network intrusion and data exposure.
What’s Notable and Unique
The activity involves the exploitation of recently disclosed security vulnerabilities, including CVE-2025-59718, CVE-2025-59719, and CVE-2026-24858, or weak credentials, allowing attackers to gain administrative access, extract configuration files, and obtain service account credentials and network topology information.
In one observed incident, attackers created a FortiGate admin account with unrestricted firewall rules and maintained access over time, consistent with initial access broker activity. After a couple of months, threat actors extracted and decrypted LDAP credentials to compromise Active Directory.
In another case, attackers moved from FortiGate access to deploying remote access tools, including Pulseway and MeshAgent, while also utilizing cloud infrastructure such as Google Cloud Storage and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Analyst Comments
Arete has identified multiple instances of Fortinet device exploitation for initial access, involving various threat actors, with the Qilin ransomware group notably leveraging Fortinet device exploits. Given their integration with systems like Active Directory, NGFW appliances remain high-value targets for both state-aligned and financially motivated actors. In parallel, Arete has observed recent dark web activity involving leaked FortiGate VPN access, further highlighting the expanding risk landscape. This aligns with the recent reporting from Amazon Threat Intelligence, which identified large-scale compromises of FortiGate devices driven by exposed management ports and weak authentication, rather than vulnerability exploitation. Overall, these developments underscore the increasing focus on network edge devices as entry points, reinforcing the need for organizations to strengthen authentication, restrict external exposure, and address fundamental security gaps to mitigate the risk of widespread compromise.
Sources
FortiGate Edge Intrusions | Stolen Service Accounts Lead to Rogue Workstations and Deep AD Compromise
Article
Vulnerability Discovered in Anthropic’s Claude Code
Security researchers discovered two critical vulnerabilities in Anthropic's agentic AI coding tool, Claude Code. The vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2025-59536 and CVE-2026-21852, allowed attackers to achieve remote code execution and to compromise a victim's API credentials. The vulnerabilities exploit maliciously crafted repository configurations to circumvent control mechanisms. It should be noted that Anthropic worked closely with the security researchers throughout the process, and the bugs were patched before the research was published.
What’s Notable and Unique
The configuration files .claude/settings.json and .mcp.json were repurposed to execute malicious commands. Because the configurations could be applied immediately upon starting Claude Code, the commands ran before the user could deny permissions via a dialogue prompt, or they bypassed the authentication prompt altogether.
.claude/settings.json also defines the endpoint for all Claude Code API communications. By replacing the default localhost URL with a URL they own, an attacker could redirect traffic to infrastructure they control. Critically, the authentication traffic generated upon starting Claude Code included the user's full Anthropic API key in plain text and was sent before the user could interact with the trust dialogue.
Restrictive permissions on sensitive files could be bypassed by simply prompting Claude Code to create a copy of the file's contents, which did not inherit the original file's permissions. A threat actor using a stolen API key could gain complete read and write access to all files within a workspace.
Analyst Comments
The vulnerabilities and attack paths detailed in the research illustrate the double-edged nature of AI tools. The speed, scale, and convenience characteristics that make AI tools attractive to developer teams also benefit threat actors who use them for nefarious purposes. Defenders should expect adversaries to continue seeking ways to exploit configurations and orchestration logic to increase the impact of their attacks. Organizations planning to implement AI development tools should prioritize AI supply-chain hygiene and CI/CD hardening practices.
Sources
Caught in the Hook: RCE and API Token Exfiltration Through Claude Code Project Files | CVE-2025-59536 | CVE-2026-21852
Article
Ransomware Trends & Data Insights: February 2026
After a slight lull in January, Akira and Qilin returned to dominating ransomware activity in February, collectively accounting for almost half of all engagements that month. The rest of the threat landscape remained relatively diverse, with a mix of persistent threats like INC and PLAY, older groups like Cl0p and LockBit, and newer groups like BravoX and Payouts King. Given current trends, the first quarter of 2026 will likely remain relatively predictable, with the top groups from the second half of 2025 continuing to operate at fairly consistent levels month to month.
Figure 1. Activity from the top 5 threat groups in February 2026
Throughout the month of February, analysts at Arete identified several trends behind the threat actors perpetrating cybercrime activities:
In February, Arete observed Qilin actively targeting WatchGuard Firebox devices, especially those vulnerable to CVE-2025-14733, to gain initial access to victim environments. CVE-2025-14733 is a critical vulnerability in WatchGuard Fireware OS that allows a remote, unauthenticated threat actor to execute arbitrary code. In addition to upgrading WatchGuard devices to the latest Firebox OS version, which patches the bug, administrators are urged to rotate all shared secrets on affected devices that may have been compromised and may be used in future campaigns.
Reports from February suggest that threat actors are increasingly exploring AI-enabled tools and services to scale malicious activities, demonstrating how generative AI is being integrated into both espionage and financially motivated threat operations. The Google Threat Intelligence Group indicated that state-backed threat actors are leveraging Google’s Gemini AI as a force multiplier to support all stages of the cyberattack lifecycle, from reconnaissance to post-compromise operations. Separate reporting from Amazon Threat Intelligence identified a threat actor leveraging commercially available generative AI services to conduct a large-scale campaign against FortiGate firewalls, gaining access through weak or reused credentials protected only by single-factor authentication.
The Interlock ransomware group recently introduced a custom process-termination utility called “Hotta Killer,” designed to disable endpoint detection and response solutions during active intrusions. This tool exploits a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2025-61155) in a gaming anti-cheat driver, marking a significant adaptation in the group’s operations against security tools like FortiEDR. Arete is actively monitoring this activity, which highlights the growing trend of Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attacks, in which threat actors exploit legitimate, signed drivers to bypass and disable endpoint security controls.
Sources
Arete Internal