Cyber attackers are using businesses in developing countries like Africa, Asia, and South America as testing grounds for their latest ransomware before targeting wealthier countries with more sophisticated security systems, a report by cybersecurity firm Performanta claims. The “staging ground” tactic is said to be successful due to less awareness of cybersecurity in these countries. The report highlighted recent targets including a Senegalese bank and a tax firm in Colombia, part of the “dry runs” undertaken by the hackers.

Attackers are exploiting RCE vulnerability in BIG-IP APM systems (CVE-2025-53521)
A critical unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2025-53521) in F5’s BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) solution is under active exploitation, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure


