> InfoSec News Nuggets 10/29/2025

Ransomware profits drop as victims stop paying hackers  The number of victims paying ransomware threat actors has reached a new low, with just 23% of the breached companies giving in to attackers’ demands. With some exceptions, the decline in payment resolution rates continues the trend that Coveware has observed for the past six years. In the first quarter of 2024, the payment percentage was 28%. Although it increased over the next period, it continued to drop, reaching an all-time low in the third quarter of 2025.    Clearview AI faces criminal heat for ignoring EU data fines  Privacy advocates at Noyb filed a criminal complaint against Clearview AI for scraping social media users’ faces without consent to train its AI algorithms. Austria-based Noyb (None of Your Business) is targeting the US company and its executives, arguing that if successful, individuals who authorized the data collection could face criminal penalties, including imprisonment. The complaint focuses largely on Clearview’s apparent disregard for fines from France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK. Aside from the UK — where Clearview recently lost its appeal of a $10 million fine from the Information Commissioner’s Office — the company has yet to pay other fines totaling more than $100 million, Noyb claims.    Python Foundation goes ride or DEI, rejects government grant with strings attached  The Python Software Foundation (PSF) has walked away from a $1.5 million government grant and you can blame the Trump administration’s war on woke for effectively weakening some open source security. The programming non-profit’s deputy executive director Loren Crary said in a blog post today that the National Science Foundation (NSF) had offered $1.5 million to address structural vulnerabilities in Python and the Python Package Index (PyPI), but the Foundation quickly became dispirited with the terms of the grant it would have to follow.     CEO of spyware maker Memento Labs confirms one of its government customers was caught using its malware  On Monday, researchers at cybersecurity giant Kaspersky published a report identifying a new spyware called Dante that they say targeted Windows victims in Russia and neighboring Belarus. The researchers said the Dante spyware is made by Memento Labs, a Milan-based surveillance tech maker that was formed in 2019 after a new owner acquired and took over early spyware maker Hacking Team. Memento chief executive Paolo Lezzi confirmed to TechCrunch that the spyware caught by Kaspersky does indeed belong to Memento.    Ad and PR Giant Dentsu Says Hackers Stole Merkle Data  Japan-based Dentsu, one of the world’s largest advertising and PR companies, has disclosed a data breach impacting systems of its subsidiary Merkle. With headquarters in the US and UK, Merkle is a customer experience management company that has more than 16,000 employees and over 80 locations worldwide. According to a statement issued on Tuesday by Dentsu, the breach was discovered after abnormal activity was detected on the Merkle network. Some systems have been shut down in response to the incident. Dentsu has admitted that the hackers have taken certain files from the Merkle network, including ones containing information related to some suppliers, clients, and current and former employees.  The post InfoSec News Nuggets 10/29/2025 appeared first on AboutDFIR - The Definitive Compendium Project.