From the frontier AI front,

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “Nvidia NVDA is planning to use a $6 billion deal it struck this week [August 22] to build one of the world’s most powerful open-weight AI models, one that would compete with Chinese heavyweights like DeepSeek and Kimi K3, according to people familiar with the matter.
  • “The chip giant’s licensing deal with the AI startup Poolside is also set to present a direct challenge to frontier U.S. AI companies including OpenAI and Anthropic, since open-weight models are generally far cheaper to operate and allow easy customization.
  • “Although Nvidia counts big labs like OpenAI and Anthropic as some of its closest partners, the move reflects Chief Executive Jensen Huang’s efforts to position Nvidia for success in multiple AI battlegrounds simultaneously, ensuring the company is able to hold on to its dominant market position.”
• and
  • Nvidia and CrowdStrike are addressing what they see as one of cybersecurity’s biggest gaps: the need for cyber defenders to harness AI at the velocity of cyber attackers.
  • In the current cyber landscape, frontier AI models are discovering bugs at machine speed—raising alarm bells among experts, who warn that when autonomous hacking models go rogue or attack companies, chaos is on the horizon.
  • But cyber defenders aren’t getting enough of that same AI firepower, according to Nvidia and CrowdStrike, who on Tuesday [September 1] introduced a new family of agentic AI models, dubbed SafeMind, which can both find attack paths and close them for customers. The models are available in CrowdStrike’s flagship Falcon platform and through its API. * * *
  • “SafeMind has two models: Red Tempest, which is an “offensive” model that emulates AI adversaries, and Blue Solano, which is a “defensive” model designed to fix identified issues. The two models are connected by software called a harness, which runs the models in a closed-loop system that pits them against each other for self-improvement.”

• The New York Times reports,
  • “Nvidia said on Thursday [September 3] that it is buying Hugging Face, a library of open artificial intelligence models, for $12.9 billion, as the chipmaker extends a spending spree in the escalating global race to dominate the technology.
  • “The deal marries Nvidia’s chip and data center infrastructure with Hugging Face’s millions of open-source A.I. models that can be freely downloaded and modified. And it puts Nvidia’s deep pockets firmly on one side of a debate over how A.I. systems should be built.
  • “Together, we will make A.I. more open, more capable and more accessible to people and institutions around the world,” wrote Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, in a blog post.
  • “The acquisition is also another sign of Nvidia’s growing role as Silicon Valley’s central banker, using its vast financial resources to bolster A.I. start-ups and funnel money to customers for its chips. With $197 billion in current assets and nearly $60 billion in profits from its most recent quarter, the Silicon Valley giant has been spending heavily on A.I.”

• Daniel Borish writing in LinkedIn lets us know,
  • “Anthropic released Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1 this week, positioning them as its most capable models yet for coding and knowledge work. The two are the same underlying model, split only by the safeguards wrapped around them. Fable 5.1 is generally available. Mythos 5.1 is restricted to vetted cybersecurity and life sciences professionals through trusted access programs run in partnership with the US government.” * * *
  • “On the cybersecurity side, Claude Code users should see roughly 60% fewer safeguard interventions per session, and Fable 5.1 can now be used to find software vulnerabilities, though not to write exploits for them. Tasks like penetration testing, exploit generation, and binary-based vulnerability scanning still route to Anthropic’s Opus models. On biology, updated safeguards reportedly fire 85% less often on benign medical and elementary biology questions, though research-grade life sciences queries still get redirected to Opus, and full access to Mythos 5.1’s biology capabilities is limited to the government-linked Life Sciences Verification Program.
  • “Anthropic’s safety testing found Mythos 5.1 better aligned than its predecessor on several measures it tracks: less likely to seek resources outside its assigned environment when given an impossible task, less likely to reason its way around explicit constraints, and less likely to attempt or succeed at reward hacking. The company also disclosed limits to that picture, noting its behavioral audits have less visibility into very long-context work, multi-agent settings, and testing found the model can still sometimes bypass approval steps and automated review classifiers.
  • “Fable 5.1 also ships with new anti-distillation measures. New API accounts created from launch onward can no longer edit Claude’s prior context in a conversation while preserving the model’s recorded thinking, closing off a publicly documented technique used to extract that thinking at scale.”
    
• The Wall Street Journal adds,
  • Anthropic has signed a cloud-computing deal worth $35 billion with NvidiaNVDA 3.21%increase; up pointing triangle-backed cloud provider Lambda, with Nvidia itself holding the lease on the data center, according to people familiar with the deal. 
  • The data center is being developed by Hut 8, a bitcoin miner and data-center developer, in Nueces County, Texas. Nvidia signed an agreement with Hut 8 a few weeks ago to secure the capacity, the people said. 
  • The convoluted arrangement is another example of Nvidia’s growing role in helping non-investment-grade firms such as Anthropic get access to its expensive computing resources. The deal also helped a nascent cloud provider, Lambda, secure a lucrative contract with Anthropic without needing to procure the data-center space on its own. 
  • Lambda will use the data center Hut 8 is developing to plug in chips bought from Nvidia, which is also its investor. It is not clear how much Lambda will pay Nvidia to access the data-center space.
  • Anthropic has been racing to sign cloud-capacity deals after hitting a supply crunch earlier this year that coincided with its products gaining traction. The AI developer signed a $45 billion deal earlier this month with another Nvidia-backed neocloud, Nscale, to rent Nvidia capacity from its West Virginia site, according to people familiar with the deal. 

• Security Week relates,
  • OpenAI said its newest model, Astra, has reached the ‘Critical’ cybersecurity capability level under the company’s Preparedness Framework, the first time any of its models has been placed in that category. 
  • The designation applies when a model can independently find and exploit zero-day vulnerabilities across many well-defended systems, or carry out a complete cyberattack against a hardened target from only a high-level instruction. OpenAI said the classification requires additional safeguards before the model can be released.
  • In testing described by the company, Astra achieved a perfect score on ExploitBench, a benchmark that measures a model’s ability to turn known vulnerabilities into working exploits. During a separate evaluation involving more recently disclosed flaws, Astra uncovered two zero-day vulnerabilities on its own. 
  • The model also broke out of a browser sandbox to run commands on the underlying machine, and separately chained several flaws in a hardened operating system to gain root-level access.
  • OpenAI reported that Astra now declines 91.5% of cyber-related jailbreak attempts in its testing, up from 59% for its predecessor, GPT-5.6 Sol. The company also said Astra showed far less tendency than Sol to bypass safety restrictions or take advantage of deliberately placed “honeypot” targets during evaluations. 
  • Full cybersecurity capabilities will not be widely available at launch. OpenAI plans to give a group of testers early access, with wider availability to follow through its Daybreak Blue program.

• Cybersecurity Dive adds,
  • “OpenAI on Thursday [September 3] said it would commit $1 billion in subsidized access and training to help small IT security teams use frontier AI to protect essential services, including electricity, water and local government services. 
  • “The Daybreak for Frontline Defenders program will be used to help defenders search for critical vulnerabilities in their software, hunt for suspicious activity in their technology stacks and stop malicious actions if hackers are able to gain access to their systems.
  • “OpenAI plans to roll out a six-month pilot program with the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), which will train and support a group of water utilities and other public sector defenders.” 

• Dark Reading points out,
  • “A new study suggests that while AI is rapidly accelerating vulnerability discovery, enterprise organizations are better equipped to handle the surge than generally assumed.
  • “The key is their ability to quickly validate findings, prioritize risk, and get available fixes into production.
  • “Software supply chain security firm Echo recently analyzed nearly 40,000 CVE life cycles across 250 open source container projects, drawing on a year of its own platform telemetry, survey responses from more than 80 security leaders, and an independent analysis of Anthropic’s Claude Mythos.
  • “The results, detailed in a report titled “Mythos Readiness Report,” show how AI is transforming vulnerability discovery and exploit development — something that security teams have been encountering firsthand over the past year.”
• and
  • “With multiple benchmarks confirming that at least one frontier model can autonomously execute an end-to-end compromise, cybersecurity experts are warning that companies have to pick up the pace in securing their attack surfaces and adopting AI-speed defenses.
  • “On Sept. 2, consulting firm Booz Allen became the latest organization to confirm that a frontier model — Anthropic’s Mythos 5 — can act as a fully autonomous hacker and compromise a production-grade enterprise network. The company also released a metric, dubbed the Cyber Weapon Index (CWI), to benchmark a model’s capabilities, pairing the ability to find and exploit vulnerabilities with the ability to execute and attack a target.
  • “In their evaluation, Mythos scored an 80, while the next-closest contender, SpaceXAI‘s Grok-4.5, scored a 49. However, the current standings are not as important as where we will be in six months, says Brad Medairy, president of Booz Allen’s National Cyber practice.
  • “Our view is there’s going to be some level of parity, at least between the frontier models and the Chinese models over probably a six-month horizon, and so everyone is in a rapid race to evolve these capabilities,” he says, adding that, when facing human attackers, defenders had the advantage, but “in the future, the balance of power shifts to the offense, because the attacker can deliver effects at speed and scale that the traditional defenses can’t keep pace with.”

From the cybersecurity policy and law enforcement front,

• Federal News Network reports,
  • “Congress is kicking the can down the road again on a long term debate over reauthorizing the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015.
  • “The continuing resolution passed by the House on Tuesday would extend CISA 2015 through the stopgap funding period into early December. The Senate has already passed the measure, meaning it now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk. [FEHBlog note: The President signed the continuing resolution into law on September 2.]
  • “There has been a persistent chorus of voices in industry calling on Congress to find a long-term solution to re-authorizing CISA 2015. Those calls have only grown louder amid advancements in artificial intelligence models and recent cyber attacks on critical infrastructure.
  • “The 2015 law provides privacy and liability protections to encourage companies to share data about cyber vulnerabilities and threats with government and each other. The information sharing law briefly lapsed during last fall’s shutdown and again earlier this year before being extended through Sept. 30.”

• The Wall Street Journal points out,
  • “The U.S. Defense Department is expected to release its cyber plan as early as Tuesday, NextGov reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The plan is due to outline how the Pentagon will integrate cyber tactics into military strategy, emphasizing offensive actions, and address training requirements. The most recent Defense Department cyber strategy was issued in 2023.”

• Per a CISA news release,
  • “CISA and the Group of Seven (G7) Cyber Security Working Group released Preparing for the Post-Quantum Era: A Call to Action highlighting the urgent need for organizations and governments to begin transitioning to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to protect sensitive data, authentication systems, and critical assets from emerging quantum computing threats.  
  • “The G7 Cyber Security Working Group’s call to action outlines five priorities for a successful transition to PQC:
    • “Raising awareness of quantum risks and the importance of PQC;
    • “Developing national strategies that support PQC adoption and integration;
    • “Advancing research and development for quantum-safe technologies;
    • “Fostering public-private partnerships to share expertise and resources; and
    • “Integrating PQC into cybersecurity requirements and procurement processes.” 

• Cyberscoop relates,
  • “The Trump administration rolled out a six-month test program in Texas on Monday that will draw on volunteer expertise and technology from cyber and artificial intelligence companies to protect the water sector.
  • “Project Watershed 250” is the first of the state-based, industry-centric pilot projects to cross the finish line that the Office of the National Cyber Director has previewedsince the publication of its national cybersecurity strategy earlier this year. Water systems have long been viewed as among the most vulnerable and neediest critical infrastructure sectors, and in recent months the sector has been the victim of a spree of attacks.
  • “Project Watershed 250 is a commitment from the states, industry and federal government that we will continue to prioritize our nation’s safety and deliver on America-first policies for the American people,” National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross said at a rollout event in San Antonio Monday.”
• and
  • “Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is asking the National Security Agency to update public guidance on the security risks associated with commercial virtual private networks, and to answer questions about foreign surveillance threats against standard VPNs.
  • “In a letter to NSA Director Gen. Joshua Rudd that Wyden sent Wednesday, the senator continued his push to warn about standard, commercial VPNs, following letters to federal agency leaders in March and July.
  • “While commercial Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are recommended by federal agencies and widely marketed as shields against online spying, standard consumer VPNs do not sufficiently protect users from sophisticated adversaries,” Wyden wrote in the letter, first reported by CyberScoop. “Other, more secure alternatives are widely available.”
  • “Wyden took aim at “single-hop” VPNs that routes data through one server before arriving at the destination.”

• Cybersecurity Dive tells us,
  • “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is scaling back the free assessments it offers to critical infrastructure organizations, a move that marks a significant retreat from the agency’s core mission of helping secure the nation’s infrastructure.
  • “CISA’s regional staff will no longer perform its Cyber Resilience Reviews, Cyber Resilience Essentials surveys, Ransomware Readiness Assessments, Incident Management Reviews, External Dependencies Management Assessments or Cyber Infrastructure Surveys, the agency confirmed to Cybersecurity Dive.”
• and
  • “U.S. law-enforcement agencies and the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike took down a 23-year-old Russia-based botnet on Monday.
  • “Authorities from the Justice Department, the FBI and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service seized U.S.-based domain namesbelonging to the Sality botnet, while CrowdStrike analysts worked with the agencies to sever infected computers from the botnet. Investigators in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania also took down Sality domain names in their jurisdictions.
  • “Since 2003, Sality powered spam campaigns, credential-theft operations, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and malicious proxy networks. In 2018, the botnet began deploying malware that hijacked cryptocurrency transactions by replacing copied wallet addresses with attacker-controlled ones.
  • “Sality “has been one of the most persistent threats on the internet, not because of its payloads but because of the robustness of its architecture,” CrowdStrike said in its report on the botnet’s takedown.”

From the cybersecurity breaches and vulnerabilities front,

• Dark Reading reports,
  • “Social engineers are trying to convince companies to make large-dollar transfers to their own accounts, under the guise of fake merger & acquisition (M&A) deals.
  • ‘It’s one of the oldest gambits in cybersecurity — the advance fee scam — for a new generation, and with more on the line. Gen, the parent company of cybersecurity brands Norton and Avast, was targeted by a ruse masquerading as a corporate acquisition. Gen investigated the attempted attack and discovered the company was just one of at least five targets, all of which were at risk of losing massive sums of money.
  • “Social engineers are trying to convince companies to make large-dollar transfers to their own accounts, under the guise of fake merger & acquisition(M&A) deals.
  • “It’s one of the oldest gambits in cybersecurity — the advance fee scam — for a new generation, and with more on the line. Gen, the parent company of cybersecurity brands Norton and Avast, was targeted by a ruse masquerading as a corporate acquisition. Gen investigated the attempted attack and discovered the company was just one of at least five targets, all of which were at risk of losing massive sums of money.”

• HelpNetSecurity relates,
  • “Attackers are targeting prominent individuals, their relatives and personal contacts to gain persistent access to their accounts, including private emails and files, the FBI has warned.
  • “The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) says the activity, which uses a technique called “OAuth consent phishing,” has been ongoing since late 2025. The FBI describes it as “a deceptive, sophisticated approach to access user accounts without requiring a password.”
  • OAuth is a framework that lets one application request access to a user’s account on another service without the user handing over login credentials directly.
  • “Recently observed activity includes impersonating government officials, media, and other publicly known personalities on a commercial messaging application (CMA) and soliciting the targeted individual to access a malicious link under the guise of a file sharing service through an application under the malicious actor’s control,” the FBI wrote in its advisory.”

• Dark Reading tells us,
  • “A coordinated operation has targeted at least 150 Microsoft Teams users across multiple companies with voice phishing (vishing) attacks aimed at installing remote monitoring and management (RMM) and malware tools onto their machines. The campaign also attempts in some instances to compromise organizations’ domain controllers.
  • “Researchers from Palo Alto Networks observed the operations — which they’ve dubbed “Spring Ring” — between January and April attacking employees across at least 10 organizations, according to a report published this week. The campaign illustrates a growing shift away from traditional email phishing toward attacks conducted through trusted enterprise collaboration platforms, which adds authenticity to the interaction.
  • “The Spring Ring operation represents an evolution from previous campaigns by merging vishing into the Teams workflow,” Noam Sala, a Palo Alto Networks staff researcher, wrote in the post. “This shift moves the attack from a passive click-and-harvest model to a real-time engagement.”

• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency added ten known exploited vulnerabilities to its catalog this week.
  • August 31, 2026
    • CVE-2026-81578 PaperCut NG/MF Missing Authentication for Critical Function Vulnerability 
    • CVE-2026-82078 PaperCut NG/MF Unsafe Reflection Vulnerability
      • The Hacker News discusses these KVEs here.
  • September 2, 2026
    • CVE-2026-9586 Sangoma Switchbox SQL Injection Vulnerability
    • CVE-2026-48710 Kludex Starlette HTTP Request/Response Smuggling Vulnerability 
    • CVE-2026-49869 Kestra OSS OS Command Injection Vulnerability 
    • CVE-2026-59822 BerriAI LiteLLM Improper Authentication Vulnerability 
    • CVE-2026-82329 JFrog Artifactory Improper Authentication Vulnerability 
    • CVE-2026-83548 SonicWall SMA1000 Appliances Server-Side Request Forgery Vulnerability 
    • CVE-2026-83549 SonicWall SMA1000 Appliances OS Command Injection Vulnerability 
      • Cybersecurity Dive discusses the SonicWall KVEs here.
      • ePlanetSecurity discusses the Sangoma KVE here.
      • AssurePort discusses the Kludex KVE here.
      • Sentinel One discusses the Kestra KVE here.
      • CSurface discusses the BerriAI KVE here.
      • Security Week discusses the JFrog KVE here.
    • September 4, 2026
      • CVE-2026-85046. Google Chromium V8 Type Confusion Vulnerability\
        • The Hacker News discusses the Google KVE here.

• Security Week tells us,
  • “Anthropic has warned some Claude users that infostealer malware on their computers allowed attackers to hijack login sessions and run up usage limits, according to an email the company sent to affected customers. 
  • “The company said it detected the activity, signed out the compromised sessions, and removed saved payment methods from affected accounts as a precaution.
  • “Anthropic is alerting Claude AI users whose computers were infected with infostealer malware such as Vidar, Lumma, StealC, RedLine, and Acreed on Windows, along with Atomic Stealer (AMOS) on a small number of macOS devices.
  • “The AI giant emphasized that the malware is general-purpose and not tied to Claude itself, typically arriving via unofficial downloads or malicious apps.” 

From the ransomware front,

• HIPAA Journal reports,
  • “Data breaches have been confirmed by Alta Orthopaedics in California, Cornerstone Behavioral Healthcare in Maine, Cameron Regional Medical Center in Missouri, Suntree Internal Medicine in Florida, and Associated Endocrinologists in Michigan. Ransomware groups have claimed responsibility for the attacks.”

• The Register adds,
  • “US hospital operator Nutex Health says attackers stole private or confidential patient, employee, provider, business, and financial information during the cyberattack it disclosed last week.
  • “In an updated filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, Nutex also said an unauthorized third party had threatened to publish the stolen information.” * * *
  • “Nutex did not identify the intruders. However, The Gentlemen ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation added the company to its leak site on Monday and claimed responsibility for the attack.
  • “The gang offered no evidence or details to substantiate its claim. Naming victims on a leak site and threatening to publish their data is a standard pressure tactic in double-extortion attacks.”

• InfoSecurity Magazine relates,
  • “Aurora ransomware actors have been observed abusing SpaceX’s AI Cursor Agent as part of exploitation campaigns, according to a new study by Gambit Security’s Threat Intelligence team.
  • “The threat actors ran Claude Sonnet through Cursor Agent to assist with various exploitation activities against 10 victims between April 8 and May 26, 2026.
  • “These tasks included scanning the victim’s environment for reconnaissance purposes, installing a VPN client and running certificate attacks.
  • “While Cursor Agent did not always achieve its stated objectives, the research demonstrated how threat actors are continuously experimenting with AI tools to speed up and enhance their campaigns.
  • “Cursor Agent is used by software developers to complete complex coding tasks independently, run terminal commands and edit code.”

From the cybersecurity business and defenses front,

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “Palo Alto PANW Networks swung to a loss in the fiscal fourth quarter, but posted higher revenue and projected double-digit revenue growth in the current fiscal year as customers continue to boost their cybersecurity spending in response to advancements in artificial-intelligence.
  • “The cybersecurity company on Tuesday [September 1] said it is expecting revenue to rise between 23% and 24% to $14.1 billion to $14.2 billion in fiscal 2027. Analysts polled by FactSet are expecting $13.84 billion in revenue.
  • “Chief Executive Officer Nikesh Arora said the results and outlook reflect growing recognition among enterprises that they need to modernize their cyber defenses to meet the capabilities of ever-more-powerful AI models, especially following the release of Anthropic’s Mythos earlier this year.
  • “In that context, people are gravitating towards the largest players in the industry and looking at us to provide the antidotes to this development in AI,” Arora said in an interview.”
• and
  • Zscaler ZS posted a narrower loss after revenue rose 25% in its fiscal fourth-quarter, as artificial intelligence helps drive demand for its cybersecurity offerings.
  • The San Jose, Calif.-based company also said it would restructure and cut 3% of its workforce as it reallocates resources to support its AI and growth initiatives.
  • Zscaler on Thursday [September 3] reported a loss of $3.37 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with a loss of $17.6 million, or 11 cents a share, a year earlier.
  • Adjusted earnings were $1.19 a share. Analysts were looking for $1.09 a share, according to FactSet.
• and
  • “Blackstone is placing an early bet on Huskeys, a cybersecurity startup building an artificial intelligence gatekeeper to protect companies from the growing chaos of automated web traffic.
  • “The firm’s early-stage venture-capital arm, Blackstone Innovations Investments, led a $27 million Series A investment that values the year-old company at more than $100 million.
  • “The deal makes Blackstone the second-largest outside investor in Huskeys, behind Israeli venture-capital firm 10D, according to a Huskeys representative. So far, investors have put $35 million into the startup.
  • “Other backers in the most recent transaction include the investment arm of publicly traded cybersecurity company Zscaler and Bright Pixel Capital, the venture arm of Portuguese retailer Sonae.
  • “New York-based Huskeys was founded in Tel Aviv in 2025 by Itai Gafni and Roy Weisfeld, veterans of the Israeli army’s elite Unit 8200 cybersecurity division. Gafni is Huskeys’ chief executive and Weisfeld is its chief technology officer.”

• Tech Crunch offers a tip
  • “How to find cyber-risk data sources for a FAIR analysis
    • “Cyber-risk quantification with FAIR can change the game for CISOs — but sourcing enough accurate data for analysis can feel impossible. Learn how and where to find it.”
    • “The Factor Analysis of Information Risk (FAIR) model is a widely respected, mathematically based open standard for CRQ that enables CISOs to translate cyber-risk into financial risk. One of the biggest challenges of using the FAIR model, however, is that its analytical output is only as good as its data inputs — and finding accurate data to feed the model is not always easy or intuitive.”

• Per a CISA news release,
  • “Developed by CISA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and international partners, this guidance describes how organizations can plan and execute clear, timely, accurate, and audience-appropriate communications during IT and operational technology (OT) outages. Whether caused by cyber threat actors, human error, equipment failure, or natural hazards, service outages can create disruption and societal panic even without speculation from end users and the public as added factors. Outages at one organization may cascade across interconnected systems, increasing uncertainty and alarm. The guidance emphasizes clarity, accountability, and transparency as core principles and details key elements of effective crisis messaging to inform affected stakeholders and the public while aligning with legal requirements, operational security, law enforcement, and containment efforts. 
  • “CISA’s CI Fortify initiative provides information and resources that help critical infrastructure organizations prepare to isolate and recover vital OT systems during a major cyber incident or crisis. Changes in service availability, whether from outages or isolation as a defensive strategy, require transparent and ongoing communication to help end users minimize operational impact, limit speculation, and preserve trust. For emergency planning purposes, critical infrastructure owners and operators should assume that telecommunications services may be disrupted or otherwise unreliable, making it crucial for organizations to have crisis communications plans in place that integrate backup communication methods and understand the type of communication they should expect from their service providers.”

• Cyberscoop explains why judgment is emerging as cybersecurity’s defining skill.

• Here’s a link to Dark Reading’s CISO Corner.

From the quantum computing / Project Glasswing front

• Per the Wall Street Journal
  • “Quantum computers exist mainly in labs but “Q-day”—the hypothetical moment when quantum computers become powerful enough to break standard-key encryption—is coming. 
  • “What threat does this technology pose? How can you protect your company and yourself? WSJ takes a look at the state of this emerging technology.” * * *
  • “Cybersecurity experts say companies should be gearing up now for a quantum future, replacing the current crop of data-protection tools with more-secure alternatives. Yet a recent survey published by Trusted Computing Group, a nonprofit industry-standards organization, found that 91% of security professionals in the U.S. and Europe have no formal road map in place to protect against quantum threats.
  • “The immediate risk is a “harvest now, decrypt later” approach by bad actors, who are downloading large sets of encrypted data they can’t crack now—but could unlock once quantum computing algorithms are good enough.
  • “That’s particularly threatening to intellectual property and sensitive government intelligence, which remain valuable long after they are harvested, says Andrew McLaughlin, chief operating officer at SandboxAQ, an enterprise software company specializing in AI and quantum technology.

• Federal News Network adds,
  • “Federal agencies will increasingly seek out technology products that use quantum-resistant encryption, as cybersecurity leaders also eye ways to validate the cryptography used in critical systems.
  • “A code-breaking quantum computer holds the potential to break classical encryption methods, putting sensitive systems and communications at risk. And even though such a computer is not yet known to exist, organizations are also concerned that hackers could steal sensitive encrypted data today and decrypt it in the future.
  • “The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released three primary PQC standards in recent years, with additional algorithms under consideration. Agencies and industry are now on the clock to begin the time consuming and costly process of migrating current systems to the new algorithms.
  • “Now is the time to budget, to test, and to implement,” Will Loucks, senior director for intelligence in the White House Office of the National Cyber Director, said during an Aug. 26 panel discussion at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in North Bethesda, Md.”

• The New York Times reports,
  • “A wave of cyberattacks driven by artificial intelligence is coming, and companies have a narrow window to defend themselves.
  • “That was the message of an open letter published on Thursday by OpenAI and more than 100 major technology companies and others. The letter said that A.I. labs should provide their best A.I. models to organizations like hospitals and infrastructure providers so they can prepare and that governments should help coordinate and fund cyberdefense.
  • “The letter’s signatories included Google, Microsoft and OpenAI’s archrival, Anthropic, as well as cybersecurity and financial firms such as CrowdStrike, a company known for investigating cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee in 2015 and 2016, and credit card providers like Visa and Mastercard.
  • “The companies and public services our communities depend on — from hospitals to water treatment plants to the infrastructure that powers the internet — are at risk,” the letter said. “A.I. enabled cyber attacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models around the world become increasingly capable.”

• Cyberscoop relates,
  • “Unit 42’s top brass has seen enough from internal frontier AI model testing and malicious in-the-wild use of commercially available AI tools to be genuinely concerned.
  • “I can tell you without exaggeration that we believe that this is a generational shift in cybersecurity,” Sam Rubin, senior vice president of Palo Alto Networks’ threat intelligence arm, said in a media briefing Wednesday. 
  • “A period of relative balance between security and exposure has been broken by frontier AI model capabilities that could allow attackers to find and exploit network weaknesses with speed, Rubin said.
  • “Unit 42 warned that capabilities demonstrated by readily available agentic AI models, and those unlocked by frontier AI models that remain gated for defense, have shifted the balance of power from defenders to attackers.

• Cybersecurity Dive tells us,
  • “The July security breach at Hugging Face was unleashed after 1,200 agents communicated on an unsanctioned message board, despite attempted measures to keep them isolated, according to an independent report released on Wednesday. About 700 of those agents went on to commit an unprecedented attack on Hugging Face, an open-source AI platform.
  • “The agents sent about 70,000 messages and files on the unsanctioned board and coordinated several projects designed to trick an automated scorer for the ExploitGym benchmark, according to the review by METR and Redwood Research. The agents figured out ways to “spoof, edit or delete” their own transcripts.
  •  ‘Open AI, in a report it also released Wednesday, said it will tighten safeguards in its research model in order to prevent such an attack from happening again in the future.”

• WIRED informs us,
  • “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AGENTS might occasionally get confused and hack into other computers, but Anthropic thinks it has a way to unleash the little rascals into scientific labs and manufacturing facilities safely.
  • “The AI company released details today of a new framework designed to help AI agents use physical systems like microscopes, liquid-handling equipment, quantum computing hardware, manufacturing machines, and robot arms.
  • “The framework, called Model Hardware Standard, is a set of rules that specify how AI agents should—and should not—interact with all sorts of hardware. It reflects a growing belief that AI has the potential to revolutionize scientific research and industries like manufacturing–if it can venture into the physical world safely.
  • “The company says it will work with trusted partners to determine how to maximize safety before making it generally available. Though there are potential misuse issues involved—developing biological weapons, for instance—the company says guardrails built into AI models themselves should prevent bad actors from taking advantage of the new standard for nefarious ends.”
    
• Security Week adds,
  • “Anthropic is broadening access to the cybersecurity capabilities of its advanced AI models through a mix of partner integrations, an updated Claude Security offering, a new open source funding program, and plans to expand its Cyber Verification Program.
  • “The move builds on Project Glasswing, launched in April, which gave a small group of organizations early access to Claude Mythos Preview and its successor, Mythos 5. Anthropic said the goal was to give defenders time to find and fix vulnerabilities before comparable capabilities became widely available or fell into the hands of malicious actors. Claude Fable 5 followed as a broadly available model that keeps dual-use cyber work blocked.
  • “Anthropic said the riskiest scenario is direct, unrestricted access to a model, a risk that drops sharply when users instead receive specific defensive outputs, such as a patch or a security alert. The latest changes are built around this idea, expanding what defenders can get from Mythos-class models while keeping guardrails around direct interaction with them.
  • “On the integration front, Anthropic is working with cybersecurity partners to build Mythos 5 into the security operations, incident response and detection tools already used by teams protecting hospitals, utilities, financial systems, and the software supply chain. 
  • “End users will not interact with Mythos directly. Instead they will work through purpose-built interfaces that run the model in the background and return only a defined output, such as a list of suggested patches, with abuse-prevention checks meant to keep the model within that scope.”

From the cybersecurity policy and law enforcement front,

• Dark Reading lets us know,
  • “The growing number of incidents of rogue agentic AI systems attacking third-party services and systems has resulted in calls for more aggressive security controls to monitor agent behavior and for companies to have the ability to slow, suspend, or shut down an agent’s operations if they go rogue.
  • “In late July, Representatives Ted W. Lieu (D-CA) and Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) introduced a bill — “The AI Kill Switch Act” — that would require developers of advanced AI systems to “maintain the technical capability to throttle, suspend, or shut … down” their systems and agents, according to a statement announcing the legislation. The bipartisan bill would also require that any incident of loss of control, significant collateral damage, or sabotage be reported to the Department of Homeland Security, which would have the right to enforce actions. Penalties of up to $20 million per day could be levied for noncompliance.” * * *
  • “The bipartisan AI Kill Switch Act has focused the debate, but in the end might be unnecessary, argues Raj Rajamani, co-founder and CEO of JetStream, a startup focusing on creating a management layer for agentic AI.
  • “While he fully supports the concept of an AI kill switch, it has to be comprehensive, not just affecting the agent but all other system components as well.
  • “The regulations, or at least one of the regulations that was proposed, was really focused on having a kill switch for the model — the brain — but I think that is too constrained,” he says. “We need to think about an AI system as a whole and make sure that every part of the AI system has a kill switch, not just the brain.”

• Cyberscoop reports,
  • “Citing cyber and other security threats, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that declares a national emergency to secure the U.S. bulk-power system and aims to prohibit certain foreign-produced equipment, software and systems from being used in the  country.
  • “The order says it forbids “any acquisition, importation, transfer, or installation” of such foreign-produced equipment if it’s determined to pose a significant national security risk.
  • “To deal with the threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, the Order, among other things, generally prohibits certain foreign-produced bulk-power system electric equipment, including associated critical software and digital capabilities that could pose cybersecurity or operational risks, from being purchased or installed in the United States, or appropriately conditions such purchases and installations to address those risks,” the White House said in a fact sheet.”

• Cybersecurity Dive lets us know,
  • “The Trump administration wants to help the financial sector prepare for the day when quantum computers make it easy for threat actors to break traditional encryption and access sensitive data.
  • “The Treasury Department on Monday [August 24] launched a Quantum-Readiness Task Force that will work with financial firms, technology vendors and other agencies to coordinate the adoption of quantum-resistant encryption algorithms.
  • “In a statement, the Treasury said the task force would “focus on practical, risk-based approaches to quantum readiness, including identifying critical dependencies, improving cryptographic agility, promoting interoperability, strengthening operational resilience, and addressing implementation challenges related to third-party dependencies and digital assets.”

• The New York Times relates,
  • “The Trump administration acted illegally when it labeled the artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic a security risk and barred the company from working with the U.S. government, a federal judge ruled on Thursday [August 27].
  • Judge Rita Lin of the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California wrote in her 59-page ruling that the government had unlawfully retaliated against Anthropic “for constitutionally protected expressive activities” after the A.I. company spoke out about how its technology should be used.
  • “The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” she wrote.
  • In a statement, Anthropic said: “We welcome the court’s ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful. We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness A.I. for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology.”
  • “The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
  • “The ruling caps the first of two lawsuits that Anthropic filed on March 9 in response to the Trump administration’s action. The second lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is ongoing. The Trump administration could appeal Judge Lin’s ruling or wait for a decision in the second lawsuit before taking action, a person with knowledge of the matter said.”

• The Wall Street Journal tells us,
  • “U.S. officials say they have disrupted a China-linked hacking operation that broke into U.S. government networks and critical infrastructure, while hiding its tracks on a global network of hacked devices, cloud-computing infrastructure and even clandestine networks.
  • “The goal was to blend in with legitimate networking traffic, making the hacking activity hard to trace. The operation targeted networks at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Energy and the Senate, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a court filing.
  • The group exploited software vulnerabilities to launch cyberattacks against U.S. government agencies, power companies and hospital systems, and operated a worldwide network of hacked devices—known as a botnet—to conduct its hacking campaigns, according to Brett Leatherman, the FBI’s top cyber official.
  • “We’ve seen, through this botnet, the targeting of entities and devices in more than 130 countries,” he said.
  • “On Wednesday [August 26], the FBI and the National Security Agency said they had seized several domains that the operation used for core functions. “Without those domains, the platforms—as a result of the operation—were rendered inoperable,” Leatherman said. 
  • “U.S. officials also released technical details of how the hacking operation worked, to help organizations identify and stop the group’s hacking activity.”
• and
  • “Taiwan prosecutors charged nine people, including former employees of Nvidia and Super Micro Computer, with aiding the shipment of advanced artificial-intelligence servers to China, as Taiwan tries to limit technology reaching the mainland.
  • “The indictment charges eight of the individuals with crimes including breach of trust and forgery. One individual was charged in connection with allegedly siphoning funds from a company involved in the case.
  • “Washington is trying to block China from getting access to the latest Nvidia chips and has imposed export controls. That has pushed some Chinese companies to seek the chips through backdoor routes. Taiwan, which manufactures advanced computing components, is under pressure to find ways to clamp down.” * * *
  • “In the end, 74 of the servers were shipped to China through Hong Kong, Japan and Indonesia. Taiwan customs officials intercepted 56 servers, which were intended for shipment to Japan.”

From the cybersecurity breaches and vulnerabilities front,

• Beckers Health IT reports,
  • “Boston Scientific said in an Aug. 27 stakeholder update that “a cybersecurity incident continues to affect certain information technology systems, and the company remains in a network outage with disruption to its operations.”
  • “The Marlborough, Mass.-based company detected the attack Aug. 25 and disclosed it to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Aug. 26, saying the incident caused a global disruption to its operations, including its ability to process and ship customer orders.
  • “Two days later, Boston Scientific said its investigation shows no impact to the function of its implanted cardiac rhythm management devices, or CRM devices. The company also reported no disruption to those devices’ ability to transmit data and no interruption to physicians’ access to remote patient management data for CRM devices monitored before the outage began, with no evidence of increased cybersecurity risk transferring that data to EMR systems.
  • “New remote monitoring activations remain affected, however. For new cardiac implants other than insertable cardiac monitors, new communicators cannot be activated, so device data will not transmit to remote monitoring systems until activation resumes, though programmer interrogations are unaffected.”
• and
  • “Anderson, S.C.-based AnMed says files copied during its cybersecurity incident may have included patients’ Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and financial account information.
  • “The health system said its investigation into the incident, first disclosed July 26, is nearly complete and has identified unauthorized copying of files from certain network systems.
  • “AnMed said patient electronic medical records, stored primarily in a secure cloud environment, were not affected. However, the health system said some patient care files stored locally on its network may have included names alongside demographic details such as address, date of birth, Social Security number and driver’s license or other government-issued identification.” * * *
  • “AnMed said it is working with federal and state law enforcement and third-party specialists, and it has reported the incident to HHS. The health system said it has no indication that any individual has experienced confirmed identity theft as a result of the incident. AnMed said it will send direct notices to affected patients once its review of the compromised files is complete.”
• and
  • “Houston-based Nutex Health has disclosed that an unauthorized third party accessed and exfiltrated data from its computer network.
  • “The publicly traded microhospital operator said it recently detected the unauthorized activity and has engaged an independent third-party cybersecurity response team and forensic experts, according to an Aug. 24 SEC filing. The company activated its cybersecurity response plan, implemented containment measures and notified law enforcement.
  • “The company is still determining what data was compromised. Nutex said it continues to assess whether patient, employee, credentialed provider, confidential business and financial information, or intellectual property was accessed or acquired.”
    
• The American Hospital Association News adds,
  • “Epic’s MyChart has shared examples from potential phishing schemes observed as recently this month that include email messages linking to a fake MyChart website displaying erroneous medical records and others notifying of a free “2026 Medicare Health Kit.” MyChart provided recommendations for healthcare organizations and patients to help prevent or mitigate impacts from potential scams. The company announced last month that it has witnessed an uptick in scammers using the MyChart name or logo to create deceptive emails, text messages, phone calls and websites that appear official.” 

• Cyberscoop points out,
  • “The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives insists the cyberattack that it publicly disclosed Wednesday [August 26] was limited to investigation targets, and has not impacted other agency systems.
  • “ATF said it is responding to the breach, which first became public after a prolific ransomware group claimed it accessed the federal agency’s network “The incident involved a standalone computer system containing information about targets of ATF investigations,” Tanya Roman, ATF’s public affairs chief, told CyberScoop in an email.
  • “The standalone system was not connected to any other ATF systems, including any case management systems, laboratory systems, or eForms systems, and it was quickly shut down when the breach was discovered,” Roman added. 
  • “Qilin, a financially-motivated threat group composed of Russian-speaking operators, claimed responsibility for the attack, but its involvement hasn’t been independently confirmed. The group has claimed hundreds of victims from more than 60 countries since 2022 and became one of the most active ransomware threats globally by mid-2025, according to Halcyon.” 

• Bleeping Computer lets us know,
  • “Healthcare and pharmaceutical distribution giant McKesson has disclosed a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to third-party applications and data theft, with the ShinyHunters extortion group claiming it stole 284 million patient data records.
  • “McKesson is a major U.S. healthcare company and pharmaceutical distributor that provides medicines, medical supplies, technology, and services to healthcare providers and pharmacies.
  • “CyberInsider first reported the breach earlier today, and McKesson later disclosed it in a Form 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
  • “McKesson says it discovered the cybersecurity incident on August 25, 2026, and that its investigation remains in the early stages.
  • “Information about the incident, including any updates, is available on the company’s website at www.mckesson.com/cybersecurity,” McKesson said in its SEC filing“

• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added known exploited vulnerabilities to its catalog this week.
  • August 24, 2026
    • CVE-2026-21962. Oracle HTTP Server and Oracle Weblogic Server Proxy Plug-in Improper Access Control Vulnerability
      • The Hacker News discusses this KVE here.
  • August 25, 2026
    • CVE-2026-60004 Gitea Code Injection Vulnerability
      • Security Week discusses this KVE here.
  • August 26, 2026
    • “CVE-2015-3246 Red Hat Libuser Race Condition Vulnerability
    • “CVE-2015-5287 Red Hat Automatic Bug Reporting Tool Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
    • “CVE-2019-1068 Microsoft SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
    • “CVE-2021-23758 Ajax.NET Professional Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability
    • “CVE-2022-0995 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Vulnerability
    • “CVE-2026-8452 Citrix NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer Vulnerability
      • The Hacker News and Infosecurity Magazine discusse these KVEs.
  • August 27, 2026
    • CVE-2023-49105 ownCloud Improper Authentication Vulnerability
    • CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Vulnerability
    • CVE-2026-66384. JFrog Artifactory Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory Vulnerability
      • Security Affairs discusses these KVEs here.

• Per a CISA news release,
  • “Most compromises do not rely on advanced techniques or cutting-edge tools. Cyber threat actors scan the internet looking for exposed, well-known software vulnerabilities to exploit. Basic security failures enable most compromises and organizations can reduce their risk by addressing these underlying weaknesses and prioritizing vulnerabilities for action based on the risk they pose.
  • “The CISA Vulnerability Review provides organizations with critical insights into the root causes of insecure software and practical steps they can take to address these flaws to prevent exploitation. Analyzing CISA and open source data from fiscal years 2024 and 2025, the review establishes a baseline of today’s vulnerability landscape before AI-enabled vulnerability discovery becomes more widespread. The review demonstrates the importance of Secure by Design principles in shifting cybersecurity efforts from reacting to threat actors to proactively fixing preventable software flaws.
  • “The review also identifies common software weaknesses that contribute to exploitable vulnerabilities and details practices software producers can use to prevent these weaknesses from recurring. By examining the patterns across vulnerability data, the review helps organizations focus on systemic improvements that can reduce entire classes of vulnerabilities rather than addressing individual vulnerabilities only after they are discovered.
  • “Additionally, the review shows organizations how to prioritize vulnerabilities for action using the framework outlined in Binding Operational Directive 26-04: Prioritizing Security Based on Risk. This framework evaluates vulnerabilities using four key criteria: exposure status, Known Exploited Vulnerability (KEV) Catalog status, potential for automated exploitation, and technical impact.”

• Cybersecurity Dive adds,
  • “Two critical vulnerabilities in Microsoft SharePoint can be chained together to let an unauthenticated attacker execute code on a vulnerable server, according to a Monday blog post by researchers at VulnCheck.
  • “The sequence involves a critical authentication bypass vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-55040, and an improper input validation flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-63520. A proof of concept was previously disclosed on Aug. 11 by researchers at cybersecurity firm Rapid7. 
  • “Exploitation of CVE-2026-55040 was confirmed days after the Rapid7 disclosure. On Monday, VulnCheck researchers said the vulnerability on its own is not very impactful. To achieve maximum effect, they said, it needs to be chained with CVE-2026-63520. 
  • “The auth bypass is enough to prove some impact, but not enough to demonstrate the criticality of the full chain or build complete protections,” Vulncheck researchers said in their post.”

• Per Infosecurity Magazine,
  • “Security researchers have claimed that over 9300 leaked AWS keys which surfaced between August 2022 and August 2026 are still active, including hundreds with full admin rights.
  • “Truffle Security said its scanners found 64,024 unique AWS key pairs across 431,875 public findings: git history, Hugging Face datasets, Docker images, package registries and CI logs.
  • “We took the 10,616 pairs with complete credentials and re-verified them, then enumerated what each key can tell us about its account: key age, attached policies, budgets, and last month’s spend,” the security vendor continued.
  • “No key material is published, and every owner we could identify is being notified.”
  • “Of the 10,616 pairs, 88% still authenticate. They include 768 corporate AWS keys which have full admin rights, Truffle Security said.”

• Per Cyberscoop,
  • “Ubiquiti has patched 21 critical vulnerabilities, three of which were rated the highest severity possible, the communications product company said Wednesday [August 26] in a security bulletin.
  • In all, the company patched 22 vulnerabilities, with the last one rated “high,” it said in the bulletin.
  • Three of the vulnerabilities had a Common Vulnerability Scoring System rating of 10 out of 10. Each of them would allow a hacker to access privileges on the device or application.
  • All but one of the 22 vulnerabilities affect the UniFi line of products. The three maximum-security vulnerabilities are CVE-2026-77537, CVE-2026-77550 and CVE-2026-77554.

• Per Bleeping Computer,
  • “PaperCut is warning that hackers are actively exploiting a vulnerability in all versions of its PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF print management software in zero-day attacks.
  • “The company says it is aware of confirmed attacks on customers and is urging organizations with Internet-exposed PaperCut Application Servers to immediately restrict access to the web interfaces to trusted IP addresses.
  • “PaperCut Software security response team is investigating active exploitation of a vulnerability affecting PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF,” reads an urgent security advisory published Thursday [August 27].

• Per Dark Reading,
  • “A Chinese manufacturer has been planting backdoors inside of white-label routers sold in high volume around the globe.
  • “Shenzhen Zhibotong Electronics Co. Ltd. (ZBT) sells gobs of routers every year, if public evidence is to be believed. The 15-year-old company is the bestselling router manufacturer on Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.com, which lists its total annual output at 3.57 million units. Typically, those units are then sold to customers by companies other than ZBT, in countries like the Philippines, India, Canada, Australia, Germany, Bulgaria, Austria, Russia, and the US. According to its marketing, ZBT has exported its products to more than 50 countries and regions.
  • “On Aug. 6, Jacob Baines, chief technology officer (CTO) at VulnCheck, revealed that ZBT’s most updated router firmware contains a root-level backdoor. After a few more weeks of investigating, he discovered that, in fact, ZBT routers have contained a variety of backdoors dating several back years.”
• and
  • “Fraudulent North Korean IT workers are getting better at infiltrating organizations, but a number of indicators can help organizations stay ahead.
  • “A new blog post from Huntress detailed a number of investigations the security firm conducted throughout 2026. Specifically, Huntress assisted several organizations this year in validating “suspicions that they’ve hired North Korean nationals posing as legitimate workers.”
  • “In recent years, operatives from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) have infamously posed as IT workers — generally through fake or stolen identities — to get hired at companies. Once hired, these employees send their wages back to the North Korean regime, and possibly plant malware or steal data depending on the government’s needs. Blog post authors Jai Minton and James Maclachlan wrote that these agents “have significantly improved and increased their activity over the past few years.”

From the ransomware front,

• Reuters reports,
  • “A ransomware group ​said on Friday [Augut 28] it was putting up for auction a trove of ‌data it stole from Berlin [Germany] state agencies, and city officials refused to pay.
  • The Rhysida group, which researchers say operates from Russia or Eastern Europe, said on its website it took 5.79 ​terabytes of data including 46,500 contracts as well as emails, phone numbers, passwords ​and classified information.
  • “The group said it was auctioning the data ⁠at a starting price of 30 bitcoin ($77,622) in just under seven days, showing a ​countdown timer on its website.” * * *
  • Broadcaster RBB reported on Thursday evening that Berlin had received ransom demands for an unspecified amount following the attack.
  • “The state ​of Berlin will not submit to extortion,” Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner and Berlin’s interior senator, ​Iris Spranger, said in a joint statement on Friday, before the ransomware group claimed the attack ‌on ⁠their website.”
    
• Technology.org relates,
  • An affiliate of the new Aur0ra ransomware group used Cursor, the AI coding assistant now owned by SpaceX, to draft attack sequences in Russian across 28 recovered chat sessions dated 8 April to 21 May.
  • Named victims include Ghent-based hygiene and cleaning products maker Christeyns, German garage door manufacturer Teckentrup, Scotland’s Helideck Certification Agency and Louisiana title insurer Bayou Title.
  • Researchers counted more than 20 targeted organisations across nine countries, with domain-level or interactive access achieved at 17 of them between April and July 2026.

• Safe State tells us,
  • “A ransomware affiliate has been posing as a specialist rescue outfit and contacting victims before their attacks became public. Researchers describe the operation as a ransomware recovery scam that drains payments away from the criminal groups the affiliate works for. The entity calls itself Ransom Busters LTD.” * * *
  • “Anyone targeted by a ransomware recovery scam meets it at the worst possible moment, with systems down and pressure building. Treat unexpected contact as part of the attack. Route the message to the incident response team straight away and preserve it as evidence instead of replying. A sender who knows about a breach nobody has announced is either involved in it or holds the data taken during it.
  • “Law enforcement and established response firms remain the reliable route through a ransomware incident. Verify anyone claiming to represent a security company through channels you found yourself. Never use the contact details supplied in the email. Treat any guarantee of data deletion as unenforceable, because no payment to a criminal party comes with proof that copies no longer exist.
  • “Distrust inside ransomware-as-a-service operations may produce more of this behaviour. Affiliates have every reason to look for income outside the revenue splits their employers set. So the ransomware recovery scam running under the Ransom Busters name reads less like an isolated curiosity and more like a preview. Anyone willing to defraud the criminal enterprise paying them has already answered the question of what a victim’s data is worth to them.”

• SC Media informs us,
  • “Organizations may assume they are unlikely ransomware targets because they are not large, high-profile, or strategically important. But ransomware attackers are often motivated by economics, not prestige. That means organizations that consider themselves low-risk may be more attractive targets than they realize.
  • “The ransomware affiliate model rewards attackers for finding victims that are likely to pay, not necessarily those that are difficult or impressive to compromise. This can make mid-sized organizations and businesses that depend heavily on critical systems especially attractive targets.
  • “For security teams, this changes how ransomware risk should be assessed. Company size, industry, and public profile tell only part of the story. Attackers may care more about whether an organization can pay, how costly downtime would be, and how quickly it needs to restore operations.
  • “The key question is not how important your organization looks to an attacker, but how valuable a ransomware payment could be.”

• Dark Reading adds,
  • “A sophisticated malware family has emerged onto the cyberthreat scene that might foreshadow ransomware attacks that are more successful than usual.
  • “Marcus Hutchins and his colleagues at Expel that discovered it named the malware “SynkLoader,” since it throws so many ideas (“everything but the kitchen sink”) at trying to sneakily dig into corporate systems. It uses some conventional strategies — like executing code in-memory, running a scheduled task, etc. — but layers on a few interesting, novel tactics that make social engineering particularly compelling, and malware analysis especially frustrating.
  • “The program is new, and how its creators intend to use it remains a mystery. But evidence in the code suggests that it might be the baby of a ransomware group or initial access broker (IAB), used to set the stage for follow-on ransomware.”

From the cybersecurity business and defenses front,

• PYMNTS reports,
  • “Visa expanded the capabilities of its artificial intelligence-powered cyber risk management tool, Visa Vulnerability Agentic Harness (VVAH), to include not only discovery of vulnerabilities but also remediation and validation, the company said in a Thursday (Aug. 27) press release.
  • “Visa initially released VVAH in June after participating in Anthropic’s frontier AI cybersecurity initiative, Project Glasswing. While the first release of VVAH showed how AI can help security teams uncover vulnerabilities and assess exploitability, the latest release extends the workflow into remediation and validation of those vulnerabilities, according to the release.
  • “Visa also announced in the release that to help clients navigate the evolving threat landscape driven by AI, it has expanded its Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) Cybersecurity Advisory Practice to include new advisory services focused on assessing risk, prioritizing remediation efforts and strengthening resilience.
  • “The new advisory services include AI Cyber Leadership Education, VVAH-Informed Cybersecurity Maturity Assessment and VVAH Cyber Risk Prioritization and Roadmap, per the release.”

• Cybersecurity Dive tells us,
  • “Operational silos, technological sprawl and cloud-platform blind spots are serious issues preventing organizations from spotting and repelling cyberattacks, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned in a new report.
  • “Those were three of the main factors that allowed CISA’s red team to break into the networks of two unnamed partner organizations — one a government agency, the other a water utility — during recent simulated attacks. But although the red team was successful in both intrusions, it had a much harder time with one attack than with the other, a fact that CISA attributed to important differences in the targets’ operating procedures and use of technology.”

• Security Week informs us,
  • “Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 team analyzed 405 malware samples tied to AI in some way, from ransomware partly written with the help of LLMs to installers that simply borrowed the name of a popular AI app.
  • “The researchers found that roughly 97% of the samples in the dataset never left a sandbox, research repository, or internal testing environment to reach a real target.
  • “Unit 42 cross-referenced the 405 file hashes against endpoint telemetry, network sessions forwarded for sandbox analysis, and internal alert records generated whenever a sample actually ran. Only 12 hashes surfaced on live endpoints, while a somewhat larger group (15-20 hashes) appeared in network sandbox traffic. Every one of the 12 samples detected on protected endpoints triggered a security alert.
  • “The samples that never reached production fall into three groups. The largest is proof-of-concept code built to demonstrate a technique: configured to target only local or private networks, filled with debug output no real attacker would leave behind, and uploaded once by a research lab or university. 
  • “A second group comes from organizations testing their own defenses against previously reported AI malware, identifiable by repeated uploads of the same file from the same source in a short window. A third group uses AI branding purely as bait, dressing up an ordinary payload as installers for well-known AI products with no actual AI functionality behind them.
  • “The 12 samples that did reach live endpoints spanned five malware families across three countries, with no concentration in any particular industry or region.” 

• Beckers Health IT points out,
  • “Healthcare’s cybersecurity workforce problem may have less to do with finding more candidates and more to do with changing who health systems are willing to hire, how they develop them and what they do to keep them.
  • “Cybersecurity leaders at four health systems told Becker’s that continually competing for the same pool of experienced professionals is not a sustainable strategy as cyber risks expand and the skills needed to manage them become more complex.
  • “The cybersecurity workforce challenge has shifted from a talent shortage to a talent entry problem,” Trevor Martin, vice president, chief information security officer and interim chief technology officer at Madison, Wis.-based UW Health, said.
  • “Mr. Martin said there are many high-potential people trying to enter cybersecurity, but organizations frequently prioritize candidates who already have experience instead of creating pathways for people to gain it.
  • “Healthcare could benefit from hiring more heavily for aptitude, adaptability and an understanding of business and clinical operations, then developing those employees internally, he said. UW Health has found success moving talent from adjacent IT disciplines into cybersecurity roles and providing opportunities for employees to grow within the field.”

• Dark Reading notes,
  • “As the “vulnpocalypse” reshapes the bug bounty industry, one class of researcher may face the greatest pressure: independent hunters who rely on midtier vulnerabilities — those worth roughly $10,000 to $50,000 — to make a living.
  • “It is no secret that large language models (LLMs) have led to a mass of bug reports and an increase in vulnerability discovery. It is also no secret that the platforms and companies that run much of the bug bounty industry have faced increased triage and payout times.
  • “Multiple bug bounty operators interviewed by Dark Reading report dramatic increases in submission volume over the past year. HackerOne CEO Kara Sprague says report volume has roughly doubled year over year. Dustin Childs, head of threat awareness for TrendAI’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI), says the company’s submission rate went up 450% year-over-year in April of this year, although volumes have moderated since that peak. Bugcrowd CEO Dave Gerry said the firm saw a submissions spike of more than 300% during a three-week surge period, but “now it’s normalized where we’re about double the volume we saw historically.”

• Per a National Institute of Standards and Technology news release,
  • “The final version of NIST Special Publication (SP) 1347, Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0 Informative References Quick-Start Guide, has published. Thank you to all who provided comments during the public comment period.  
  • “This publication explains what informative references are and how they support achieving the outcomes of the CSF 2.0. The guide introduces readers to NIST tools available for accessing, viewing, and using informative references for cybersecurity risk management, including direct download, the CSF 2.0 Reference Tool, and the Online Informative References Program. The document also provides two sample use cases along with examples of how artificial intelligence (AI) tools can support reference data use when implemented with continuous evaluation and improvement.” 

• Here’s a link to Dark Reading’s CISO Corner.

“”We are in the Singularity.” Elon Musk

From the Project Glasswing front,

• Cybersecurity Dive reports,
  • “Versions of Anthropic’s Claude AI model broke out of their testing environments and hacked into other organizations on three separate occasions, Anthropic said on Thursday [July 30].
  • “The frontier AI lab’s announcement came roughly one week after OpenAI disclosed a similar incident involving its models, a revelation that has set off a new round of consternation about whether AI developers are adequately overseeing their sophisticated AI products.
  • “In the three incidents that Anthropic disclosed, Claude conducted the intrusions while believing that it was participating in a capture-the-flag exercise in which it did not have access to the internet and all available systems were part of the test. “Due to a misunderstanding between us and our evaluation partner,” Anthropic explained in a blog post, “this was not the case, and internet access was available.”
  • “As a result, when Claude encountered the three victim organizations, it believed that they were simulated targets and broke into them using basic attack techniques such as exploiting weak passwords.
• The article describes the incursions which is worth a click.

• Cyberscoop adds,
  • “We almost never get both sides of an intrusion. This time we did.
  • “Last month, Hugging Face disclosed a breach into part of its production infrastructure, saying an autonomous AI agent system ran the attack from start to finish. Five days later, OpenAI revealed that its own models, including GPT-5.6 Sol along with an unreleased one, were responsible for the breach. OpenAI called it an unprecedented cyber incident.
  • “Most of the commentary since has been about AI capability. That is the least useful part of the story, because the capability was doing what it was destined to do. Security teams should look at a simpler truth: in both systems, the key defenses sat behind untrusted code that was already running.”

• Cybersecurity Dive notes,
  • “Businesses are more concerned about AI-fueled threats than traditional cybersecurity dangers, potentially undermining their ability to prepare for the attacks they are most likely to face, researchers at the security firm Arctic Wolf said on Tuesday.
  • “Roughly a third of organizations said AI topped their list of cybersecurity concerns, while concerns about malware, credential theft and cloud misconfigurations dropped from their 2025 numbers, according to Arctic Wolf’s annual AI and cybersecurity trends report.
  • “The report also delved into organizations’ use of AI for their security programs, their reasons for reporting cybersecurity incidents and regional trends in cybersecurity challenges.”
• and
  • “AI agents remain a major cybersecurity risk for businesses, with 81% of CISOs worrying that their AI systems aren’t properly governed, according to a report Okta published on Wednesday.
  • “Only 47% of companies Okta surveyed said they knew all the AI agents on their networks, and only 46% reported controlling those agents’ access to corporate data.
  • “Okta’s findings highlight a complicated and dangerous environment in which companies aren’t properly balancing the risks and benefits of agentic AI.”

• Security Week points out,
  • “Anthropic on Friday [July 24] rolled out Claude Opus 5, pitching it as a cheaper alternative to its top-tier Fable 5 model. In terms of cybersecurity, the new model is nearly as good as the AI giant’s most capable system, Mythos 5, at spotting software vulnerabilities, but remains well behind it in turning those findings into working exploits.”
  • “The difference comes from Anthropic’s own OSS-Fuzz-based evaluation, which measures how well a model can locate and then exploit vulnerabilities with minimal human steering. According to the company, Opus 5 identifies vulnerabilities at a rate close to Mythos 5, but its exploit-development score trails considerably. 
  • “Anthropic frames this as a deliberate outcome, noting that it has avoided training Opus 5 directly on offensive cyber tasks. The gains it does show, the company says, are a byproduct of broader capability improvements.”
    
• Per a July 28, 2026, SonicWall news release,
  • SonicWall today confirmed it is a participant in Anthropic’s Project Glasswing and is testing Claude Mythos 5 for defensive cybersecurity work. Through the initiative, SonicWall is applying the model to vulnerability discovery and code review across its own software to find and remediate security issues before they can be exploited. 
  • Project Glasswing is an Anthropic-led industry effort that gives participating security teams access to Claude Mythos 5, a frontier model not available to the general public, for defensive security research. Anthropic launched the program to help close the gap between attackers using AI to accelerate vulnerability discovery and defenders’ ability to find and fix those same issues first. 
  • “Security vendors are not exempt from the pressure every software maker is under right now,” said Chandro Prasad, SonicWall Chief Product Officer. “Vulnerabilities move from disclosure to exploitation faster than most patch cycles can keep up with. Participating in Project Glasswing gives our security team another way to find and close gaps in our own code before an attacker does. That is the standard we hold ourselves to, and this program is a meaningful way to raise it further.” 

From the cybersecurity policy and law enforcement front,

• Bleeping Computer reports,
  • “The U.S. and Australian governments have released new guidance urging critical infrastructure organizations to prepare to isolate vital operational technology systems in the event of a cyberattack or other major disruptions.
  • “The guidance, titled “CI Fortify – Advice for isolating vital systems,” was developed by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), the FBI, and international partners.
  • “It provides recommendations for disconnecting critical operational technology (OT) and associated systems from corporate, Internet-facing, and other less-trusted networks while continuing to provide essential services for an extended period.”

• Cyberscoop relates
  • “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency published a guidebook for federal agencies Thursday to aid them on managing security risks with open-source software, touching on topics like patching and open-source AI models.
  • “An executive order President Joe Biden signed and that President Donald Trump amended ordered CISA and other agencies to issue open-source security recommendations to federal agencies. But the guidance is also timely, given a recent slew of attacks on open-source software (OSS).
  • “As part of our statutory mission, CISA remains laser-focused on enhancing the nation’s cybersecurity by collaborating with government, industry and the open-source community to understand and securely use OSS,” said Chris Butera, acting executive assistant director for cybersecurity. “CISA encourages federal civilian agencies to review this guide and implement the principles and practices to improve risk management, better execute their mission, and better serve the public.” 
  • “The document, “Open Source Software: Security Principles and Practices,” touts the advantages of open-source software — which anyone can use, modify and share — as offering benefits in efficiency, cost, security transparency and more, but notes that it also has unique tradeoffs.”
  • “All software carries risk, and OSS is no more or less risky than other software. The key distinction is that, with OSS, agencies can directly assess code quality and security, rather than relying solely on vendor assurances,” the guidance reads. “OSS is increasingly intertwined with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. Agencies that adapt to OSS’s unique characteristics will position themselves to meet future challenges and leverage new innovations.”
    
• Dark Reading tells us,
  • “A gaggle of government partners from around the world has released new guidelines for the minimum elements that organizations should include in a software bill of materials (SBOM).
  • “The document, published this week, was authored by the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and 16 other government entities spread across four continents. It supersedes the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) 2021 guidelines, which laid out what an SBOM had to contain as far as the US government was concerned. This updated version was first drafted in 2025, and was then informed by suggestions from 90 commenters, including major organizations like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to create the resulting document.
  • An SBOM is essentially an “ingredients list,” detailing the building blocks and supply chains that make up a given piece of software. This could include proprietary or open source software components, APIs, utilities, and more. As a risk management tool, it aims to provide visibility into where vulnerabilities exist in a software stack and how to prioritize patching, among other things.
  • “There’s nothing revolutionary in this latest spruced-up framework, which follows SBOM policy revisions earlier this year, but it introduces 10 new data fields, and a dozen or so updates to existing elements, which range from major to minor significance. Though the changes might be directionally positive, Jeff Williams, founder of OWASP and founder and CTO of Contrast Security, argues that these minor procedural changes miss the bigger picture.”
    
• Per a Health and Human Services Department news release,
  • “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today announced a settlement with OSF Healthcare System and its Affiliated Covered Entities (OSF), concerning potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules. OSF is headquartered in Illinois and has providers located in Illinois and Michigan.
  • “An accurate and thorough HIPAA risk analysis is not only required by law, but it is also necessary to protect health information and prevent or mitigate ransomware attacks,” said OCR Director Paula M. Stannard. “If a HIPAA regulated entity doesn’t know what threats and vulnerabilities exist to its electronic protected health information (ePHI), they will often learn the hard way when their systems are hacked.” * * *
  • “The settlement resolves an investigation that OCR initiated after OSF filed a breach report in October 2021. In April of 2021, OSF discovered that its files had been infected with the “Nephilim” variant of ransomware. The PHI of 53,907 individuals was exfiltrated by the threat actor. Affected PHI included driver’s license numbers, diagnosis and treatment information, prescription information, medical record numbers, provider names, dates of services, financial account information, and health insurance information.” * * *
  • “Under the terms of the resolution agreement, OSF agreed to implement a corrective action plan that OCR will monitor for two years and paid $552,250 to OCR. Under the corrective action plan, OSF has committed to taking steps to ensure compliance with the HIPAA Rules and protect the security of ePHI, including:
    • “Conduct an accurate and thorough risk analysis to determine the potential risks and vulnerabilities to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its ePHI; and
    • “Develop and implement a risk management plan to address and mitigate security risks and vulnerabilities identified in its risk analysis.
  • “Read the resolution agreement and corrective action plan.”

From the cybersecurity breaches and vulnerabilities front,

• Dark Reading reports,
  • “A coordinated cyberattack targeting more than 30 community water systems in Minnesota this week underscored the growing threat to often poorly protected operational technology (OT) from adversaries seeking to disrupt critical infrastructure services across the US.
  • “The attacks, which US government officials have reportedly attributed to Iran, disrupted automated systems in some Minnesota communities, forcing them to switch to manual operations for brief periods. However, the attacks don’t appear to have affected water supply, water safety, or wastewater services in a major way, based on public statements by community officials and Minnesota’s IT Services (MNIT) unit.” * * *
  • In an advisory Thursday [July 30], the FBI described the attacks as broader and impacting water and wastewater systems in at least seven states with some of the attacks degrading water operations. The FBI advisory said attackers were targeting OT devices including Rockwell Automation/Allen-Bradley PLCs, specifically MicroLogix 1100 and 1400 series devices. “After remotely accessing internet-facing devices, the actors changed the IP addresses and passwords, resulting in a loss of monitoring and control functionality,” the FBI said. It recommended that affected organizations remove PLCs “from direct Internet exposure via secure gateway and firewalls, setting up strong, unique passwords, and utilizing access control list (ACL) to allow only authorized communication between expected control system devices.”

• Bleeping Computer adds,
  • “Pharmaceutical company Amgen says it suffered a data breach after threat actors stole corporate data and patient information stored in multiple cloud systems operated by third-party service providers.
  • “Amgen is a California-based biotechnology company that develops and manufactures medicines for serious illnesses, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, inflammation, and rare diseases.
  • “The company said it detected the unauthorized activity in July 2026 and responded by activating its cybersecurity response plan, implementing containment measures, and hiring independent forensic experts to investigate the incident.
  • “The investigation found that the attackers stole sensitive data from the cloud environments.
  • “The Company has since learned that some of its data, including proprietary data, patient protected health information, and other information, has been exfiltrated from these cloud environments,” Amgen said in a Form 8-K filing with the SEC.”

• Cyberscoop tells us,
  • “Huntress researchers spotted an active and ongoing series of attacks targeting SonicWall VPN and firewall accounts, which compromised 30 organizations in less than two days, the company said in a threat advisory Tuesday [July 28].
  • The credential stuffing campaign started Saturday and grew rapidly, ultimately compromising 92 unique user accounts during the next 41 hours, according to Huntress. Researchers said the attacks were broad and opportunistic, hitting various SonicWall devices, rather than targeting specific types of organizations.
  • SonicWall hasn’t released a security advisory about the malicious activity as of press time. A spokesperson told CyberScoop the company is still investigating and hopes to have more information soon.
  • The attacks ended — at least for now — as abruptly as they began. The last compromise occurred Monday, according to Michael Tigges, principal tactical response analyst at Huntress.

• Bleeping Computer informs us,
  • “Hackers are actively exploiting a vulnerability in the FastJson open-source Java library, allowing remote code execution without user interaction or elevated privileges.
  • “The security issue affects FastJson versions 1.2.68 through 1.2.83 and is leveraged in attacks targeting various organizations in the U.S.
  • “The malicious activity was observed last week by the agentic security company ThreatBook, and researchers at the business protection company Imperva confirmed that it was “targeting a wide range of organizations, across Financial Services, Healthcare, Computing, Retail, Business, and other industries.” * * *
  • “FastJson is an open-source Java library developed by Alibaba, used for serializing Java objects to JSON, and vice versa.” * * *
  • “In its security bulletin, Alibaba confirmed the critical severity of the vulnerability and warned that it is exploitable on “the most common Spring Boot deployment model.”
    
• CISA added three known exploited vulnerabilities to its catalog this week.
  • July 27, 2026
    • CVE-2025-68686 Fortinet FortiOS Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor Vulnerability
    • CVE-2026-16812 Arista VeloCloud Orchestrator On-Prem OS Command Injection Vulnerability
      • Cybersecurity News discusses the Fortinet KVE here.
      • Arista discusses its KVE here.
  • July 29, 2026
    • 2026-20316. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Use of Hard-coded Password Vulnerability
      • Cybersecurity News discusses this KVE here.

• Bleeping Computer notes,
  • “Broadcom has released security updates to fix five vulnerabilities in VMware vCenter, ESX, Workstation, and Fusion, including three critical flaws that allow attackers to bypass authentication, execute arbitrary code, or escape from a virtual machine to the host.
  • “The vulnerabilities also affect products containing vCenter or ESX, including VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware vSphere Foundation, VMware Telco Cloud Platform, and VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure.
  • “Broadcom says organizations running versions released before those listed as fixed in its advisory should assume they are vulnerable and take immediate action.”

• Dark Reading adds,
  • “A maximum-severity vulnerability in the open source AI agent platform Ruflo puts enterprise AI deployments at risk by letting attackers conduct various malicious activities from inside the orchestration framework. The flaw also can leave agents behaviorally compromised even after it’s been patched.
  • “Researchers at Noma Security’s Noma Labs discovered the flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-59726, in Ruflo, formerly called Claude Flow and which hosts AI agent swarms for Codex and Claude Code, they revealed today. The vulnerability, which received the highest CVSS severity score of 10, allowed them to access the platform without logging in at all, according to Noma Labs.”
  • “The weakness is a lack of authentication coupled with command execution capabilities, enabling complete control over the container and exposure of sensitive credentials,” according to details about the flaw posted on OpenCVE.”

• ZDNet notes,
  • “Forty-three percent of organizations have experienced AI-enhanced or AI-generated phishing attacks, and 37% have encountered AI-augmented malware, according to a new survey. 
  • “CDW’s 2026 Security Research Report is based on a survey of 951 IT decision-makers across a variety of industries. Published Monday, the research reveals what appears to be an AI arms race between cyberattackers and defenders. Many organizations are considering investing in AI threat detection, training, and controls to combat the new face of modern cyber threats: AI techniques, tactics, and technologies.” 

From the ransomware front,

• Inc.com reports,
  • “The hackers behind the Fairlife ransomware attack have identified themselves, and experts are sounding the alarm. 
  • “A hacking group known as Anubis has claimed responsibility for the ransomware attack that hit Fairlife, Coca-Cola’s dairy products unit, saying it locked the company’s servers and stole about one terabyte of confidential data.
  • “Coca-Cola first confirmed the attack on July 17, noting that the incident had affected Fairlife’s production systems and forced a temporary suspension of its U.S. operations. At the time, the company said it expected the disruption to continue for the foreseeable future. It said that there was no impact on the safety or quality of its products.
  • “Upon revealing its identity, Anubis threatened to leak the stolen data unless Fairlife paid a ransom. Despite that, Coca-Cola announced this week that much of production had resumed. The company did not disclose how it managed to restore operations or share any details about how the hackers initially gained access to Fairlife’s systems. Coca-Cola has not disclosed whether it paid the ransom.
  • Zach Lewis, chief information officer and chief information security officer at a private higher education institution, told Inc. that this was a case of double extortion: Attackers encrypt a company’s systems and demand payment for a decryption key, and then come back with a second demand, threatening to leak stolen data unless they’re paid again.
  • He described the process as an oddly formal one, with negotiations often playing out through dedicated portals set up by the hackers themselves. “It’s really bizarre working with these criminals who are running a really good support site to navigate through this negotiation,” he said. “They want the transaction to be successful, because if they don’t hold up their end of the bargain, they don’t get that good reputation, and when they go to hit someone else, they won’t get paid either.”
    
• Health Exec relates,
  • “A 2025 data breach on a medical billing company, first revealed in late June, exposed sensitive protected health data on 1.3 million people to hackers.
  • “In an announcement, Medical Computer Business Services (MCBS) said the September 2025 incident stemmed from an unauthorized third party gaining access to its network, though it revealed few details about the nature of the attack, saying online that personal information on individuals stored on its network may have been “accessed or removed.”
  • “Soon after, an updated filing with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights Healthcare Data Breach Tracker showed the official number of victims, meaning that hackers at the very least accessed files on 1,261,464 patients.
  • “The company did not confirm that files were moved offsite. However, BleepingComputer reports—complete with a screenshot from the dark web—that a data trove from the incident is available online, with a ransomware group called PEAR (Pure Extraction and Ransom) taking credit. 
  • “The data is available for download, which typically means a ransom wasn’t paid. 
  • “The trove was discovered by researchers at the outlet sometime this week.” 

• Bleeping Computer tells us,
  • “Health-ISAC, a cybersecurity information-sharing organization for the health sector, is warning healthcare and medical technology organizations of an observed increase in successful attacks by ShinyHunters.
  • “ShinyHunters is an extortion gang that primarily conducts supply chain and identity attacks to breach cloud SaaS and storage platforms in data theft attacks,
  • “Over the past two years, the threat actors have become notorious for conducting numerous supply chain attacks on third-party integration partners. These breaches give them access to OAuth tokens that are used to integrate with SaaS providers like Salesforce and Snowflake.
  • “The threat actors are known for identity attacks, where they target employees through social engineering, including vishing and phishing, to compromise corporate single-sign-on accounts. Once they gain access to an account, they log in to an organization’s Okta, Microsoft Entra, or Google SSO dashboard, which acts as a centralized hub listing all SaaS applications the user has permission to access.” * * *
  • “Health-ISAC says the most important defensive step is breaking the attack chain between the initial vishing call and the takeover of an SSO account.
  • “Organizations are advised to require out-of-band identity verification for password resets, MFA resets, and device re-enrollment requests.
  • “This can include calling users back using a previously verified phone number and requiring manager approval for privileged accounts.”

• Cybersecurity Dive adds,
  • “Dozens of North American companies have been targeted in a social engineering campaign that abuses Microsoft Teams to deploy ransomware, according to a report by cybersecurity firm Sophos.
  • “A threat group, tracked as STAC4749, has initiated chats or calls through Microsoft Teams under the guise of providing help desk or IT support to companies in the U.S. and Canada. 
  • “After initiating a remote session through Microsoft Quick Assist or the cloud-based RemSupp tool, hackers deploy PowerShell in order to establish persistence and execute malicious payloads.” * * *
  • “In at least three cases, the hackers deployed Chaos ransomware on a compromised system. Researchers said in one of the cases, the time between initial access to deployment of ransomware was 17 hours, which is consistent with prior Chaos cases. 
  • “The observed attacks ran between February and June, targeting organizations in the services, manufacturing, energy, construction and engineering sectors.” 

• Cybersecurity News informs us,
  • “The Gentlemen ransomware operation is drawing attention for its aggressive effort to disable security software before locking files. Instead of relying only on fast encryption, the attackers attempt to remove the tools that could detect, block, or contain the attack.
  • “This approach raises the risk for businesses because antivirus and endpoint monitoring tools may be silenced when they are needed most. 
  • “The campaign’s exact initial access method was not detailed, but the activity shows attackers preparing systems for encryption after obtaining a foothold.
  • “Catalyst analysts identified the malware component as anticheatG13.sys, a kernel-level driver with broad capabilities for manipulating processes, networking, files, and system memory.”
    
• Per Dark Trace,
  • “Darktrace detected a multi-stage ransomware intrusion from its earliest stages, identifying reconnaissance, privilege escalation, lateral movement, command-and-control communications, and data exfiltration before encryption occurred. This analysis highlights how behavioral detection exposed attacker activity using legitimate tools and infrastructure, providing multiple opportunities for early intervention and containment. “

From the cybersecurity business and defenses front,

• Security Week reports,
  • “Nvidia and a large group of technology, cybersecurity, and enterprise software companies announced on Monday the launch of the Open Secure AI Alliance, a new initiative aimed at developing and sharing open source tools, models, and techniques for securing AI systems and agents. 
  • “The effort builds on existing work from the Linux Foundation’s recently launched Akrites initiative and the OpenSSF community.
  • “Inaugural partners of the Open Secure AI Alliance also include Adobe, Cadence, Capital One, Cisco, Cloudera, Cloudflare, Cognition, CrowdStrike, Databricks, Dell, DoorDash, Elastic, HPE, Hugging Face, IBM, LangChain, Microsoft, Naver, NetApp, Nous Research, OpenClaw, Palantir, Palo Alto Networks, Red Hat, Reflection AI, Salesforce, SAP, SK Telecom, ServiceNow, Siemens, Snowflake, SpaceXAI, Synopsys, Thinking Machines Lab, and TrendAI.”

• Cybersecurity Dive adds,
  • “Microsoft on Monday announced the launch of Project Perception, an agentic security system designed to help defenders combat a rapidly evolving threat of AI-based attacks by malicious actors. 
  • “The company also introduced MAI-Cyber-1-Flash, an AI model that helps users identify and remediate vulnerabilities through an integration with the company’s MDASH code-scanning harness. 
  • “The launch is part of a major industry push to implement AI-based security that can protect corporate IT and critical infrastructure systems from sophisticated attacks. In the past year, threat actors have demonstrated the ability to speed and scale attacks in a way that traditional security technologies cannot match.” 

• Forresters offers its take on how Project Perception should be implemented.

• The Wall Street Journal reports,’
  • “Data-security company Cyera has agreed to acquire startup Oasis Security for $1 billion, the latest large deal in a wave of consolidation across the cybersecurity industry fueled by artificial intelligence.
  • “The cash-and-stock acquisition would help Cyera bridge its data-protection platform with Oasis’s technology for managing nonhuman identities, such as AI agents and automated software, as companies grapple with the risks of deploying autonomous tools across their businesses. The companies expect the deal to close later this year.
  • “The biggest catalyst for this acquisition is the customers,” said Yotam Segev, Cyera’s chief executive, who co-founded the company in 2021. “Our customers, and especially our shared customers, have been telling us that these capabilities belong together.”
  • “The transaction between the two New York-based companies is among the largest cybersecurity acquisitions of the year, underscoring how AI is reshaping the industry.”

• Cyberscoop adds,
  • “Okta announced Thursday it has signed a deal to buy Permiso Security, a cloud-based firm that tracks threats tied to human, machine, and AI-driven digital identities. 
  • “Permiso specializes in spotting risks after a user or system has already logged in, an area the industry refers to as identity threat detection and response. The company draws on more than 2,500 signals gathered from over 70 identity-related partners to flag issues such as excessive access permissions, unused credentials, unusual behavior from AI agents, and violations of internal security policies.
  • “Ely Kahn, Okta’s chief product officer, told CyberScoop that Permiso will allow Okta to merge two functions that have operated separately: real-time threat detection and identity security posture management. “Today those are two separate products that don’t really talk to each other,” he said.” 

• The American Hospital Association offers “Lessons Learned from Conversations with the FBI: Healthcare Cyberthreats and Best-practice Defense.”

• The Health Sector Coordinating Council provides a summary recap of the Operation Vital Signs National Cybersecurity Exercise which took place on July 21 an 22, 2026.

• The HIPAA Journal shares its HIPAA Audit Checklist.

• Tech Target gives us a CISO’s guide to privileged identity management.

• SC Media explains why “effective incident response plans elusive for most cybersecurity teams.”

• Here is a link to Dark Reading’s CISO Corner.

“”We are in the Singularity.” Elon Musk

From the War with Iran front.

• The American Hospital Association News tells us
  • “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other U.S. and international partners July 22 released an updated advisory on Iranian-affiliated cyber actors targeting internet-connected programmable logic controllers, which are computers used to manage and monitor equipment. PLCs can be found in climate control systems, access control systems and many other applications in healthcare. Agencies first warned of malicious activity targeting Rockwell Automation PLCs in April. The updated advisory expands the scope of incidents to include observed targeting of Schneider Electric, Siemens and potentially other manufacturers of PLCs. It also includes new guidance on detecting malicious changes in reusable code modules exploited within Rockwell Automation PLC programs.”

From the Project Glasswing / the Singularity front,

• Cybersecurity Dive reports on July 22,
  • “Two OpenAI large language models, including one not yet released to the public, broke free of their constraints last week and autonomously hacked into the AI application library Hugging Face.
  • “The first-of-its-kind event, in which the LLMs tried to steal information that would help them excel on an important test, has highlighted the dangers of the AI industry’s increasingly powerful tools.
  • “We consider this incident to be an unprecedented cyber incident, involving state-of-the-art cyber capabilities, and are responding accordingly,” OpenAI said in a blog post on Tuesday that confirmed its models’ responsibility for the attack, which Hugging Face announced on July 16.”

• AI Strategist David Borish, writing in LinkedIn, lets us know,
  • “On July 21, Elon Musk quote a message from OpenAI researcher Will Depue that laid out a timeline: a security incident at Hugging Face on July 21, a counterexample to the Jacobian conjecture on July 20, the disproof of Erdős’s unit distance conjecture on May 20, the solution to Erdős problem 1196 on April 14, and Anthropic’s Project Glasswing finding thousands of zero day vulnerabilities on April 7. Depue’s post noted that in “normal” times, these milestones would have been spread across months or years. Compressed into a single week of news cycles, they read differently. Musk’s reply ran five words: “We are in the Singularity.”
  • “The claim landed hard because, unlike most Singularity talk, this timeline is not speculative. Each item is a documented event with a paper trail, and the details matter more than the framing.” * * *
  • “The skeptical case. Grocery prices, commute times, and most people’s jobs look the same this week as they did a month ago. Every event on Depue’s timeline required a human to set up the evaluation, pose the conjecture, or prompt the model, and in most cases required teams of human experts to verify, formalize, or clean up afterward. Deep learning researcher Yann LeCun has argued current architectures will not reach general intelligence without a different approach entirely. Writer Freddie deBoer has made the broader point that a self-improving AI escaping human oversight remains a speculative scenario without a demonstrated mechanism, distinct from AI systems getting better at specific tasks people assign them.
  • “Both things can be true at once. The rate of capability progress across math, security research, and coding is genuinely compressing what used to take years into weeks, and the humans setting the objectives, verifying the outputs, and deciding what gets deployed have not gone anywhere. The more telling test ahead is quieter than another isolated proof or another leaderboard topper: whether formal verification, in Lean or otherwise, keeps pace with the rate of claims, and whether the containment failures at Hugging Face turn out to be a one time embarrassment or the first entry in a longer list.”

• TechTimes adds,
  • “Microsoft is preparing to launch Project Perception, an AI-powered security platform that scans enterprise codebases for exploitable vulnerabilities — and is built around a deliberate cost-and-access argument against Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview, the most capable vulnerability-hunting AI available and one that most organizations on Earth cannot currently use.
  • “The platform is expected to debut before the end of July. It routes security analysis tasks across AI models from Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic, using a model-selection layer that reserves expensive frontier model calls for the steps where they create real value and assigns cheaper, distilled models to high-volume scan passes. That architecture, according to reporting first published by The Information, is designed to bring the cost of running continuous, enterprise-grade vulnerability discovery well below what Anthropic charges for direct Mythos access.”

From the cybersecurity policy front,

• Federal News Network reports,
  • “The unprecedented breach of a technology vendor by autonomous artificial intelligence agents is serving to underscore governmentwide efforts to streamline federal cloud security and prioritize faster patching of critical software vulnerabilities.
  • “OpenAI confirmed this week that its advanced AI training models broke out of their test environment and then hacked into the networks of start-up vendor Hugging Face. The incident is the latest AI cybersecurity development driving policy conversations across Washington.
  • “Pete Waterman, director of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) at the General Services Administration, pointed to the Hugging Face incident as a landmark moment for cybersecurity during Carahsoft’s FedRAMP Summit on Thursday.
  • “Waterman said the incident underscores his program’s shift to the FedRAMP 20x model.”

• Cyberscoop relates,
  • “Industry groups who spoke at town halls hosted by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency [(CISA)] about a pending cyber incident notification regulation had a few consistent messages:
  • “We want this to apply to fewer of us. We don’t want to report to you on as many incidents. We want to give you less information when we do. 
  • “CISA last week published transcripts from the town halls, where the agency sought feedback on the delayed rule for the 2022 Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act — perhaps the most significant cyber legislation Congress has ever passed. That law required critical infrastructure owners to report major cyberattacks to the federal government within 72 hours, and ransomware payments within 24 hours.” * * *
  • “Where the rule specifies what kind of data organizations should report in a major incident, CISA should “seek to collect the least amount of information possible in the easiest to report fashion to facilitate information accuracy and reporting speed,” said Samantha Burch, vice president of technology public policy at government affairs at AHIP, a health insurance industry trade association.” * * *
  • “One industry representative told CyberScoop that CISA’s willingness to hold town halls, combined with the Trump administration strategy emphasizing “common sense regulation,” was a good sign about where the rule might be heading.
  • ‘They are not picking up on the Biden administration’s approach and tweaking it. They’re thinking, ‘What are the specific pieces of information we need during a cyber incident to help critical infrastructure companies respond?’” said Henry Young, senior director of policy for the Business Software Alliance. “In general, industry is optimistic that what we’ll end up with are a few of the most important pieces of information, so that in the emergency, companies can act quickly and actually respond to an incident rather than completing lots of paperwork.”
• and
  • “Seven out of 10 federal cyber regulations requiring written reports to federal agencies are duplicated elsewhere, a report from a government watchdog found in a report to Congress Wednesday.
  • “And so far, efforts to de-conflict haven’t had much success, the report from the Government Accountability Office concluded.
  • “At the request of two top lawmakers, the GAO examined federal cyber regulations at 37 agencies. It counted 80 out of 117 rules that “either contain the same kind of reporting requirement applicable to a sector or the same reporting requirement as at least one other regulation.”
  • “The desire to harmonize those conflicting rules gathered steam under the Biden administration, as it undertook a more aggressive push to regulate cybersecurity than prior administrations. It has continued into the second Trump administration.”

From the cybersecurity breaches and vulnerabilities front,

• HIPAA Journal reports,
  • “There has been a general trend of increasing data breaches over the past decade, with this year on track to set a new record. According to the H1 2026 Data Breach Report from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), there have been at least 1,803 data compromises in H1 2026, which will give an annual total of more than 3,600 data compromises if they continue to occur at a similar rate as the first half of the year.
  • “Across those data compromises, there have been 1,394 confirmed data breaches (excluding leaks, exposures, and unknown incidents), accounting for 77% of total events. More than 471 million victim notices have been issued, which already exceeds the total number of victim notices for all of 2025, and there are still six months of the year to go. While at the current rate, this year is unlikely to beat the total for 2024, even with only 6 months of data, 2026 already ranks as one of the worst years to date.
  • “As ITRC explains in the report, part of the reason is the return of mega data breaches, the biggest of which involved the Instructure Holdings’ Canvas platform, which accounted for an estimated 275 million notices. A mega data breach at Under Armour involved more than 72.7 million notices, while the SoundCloud data breach saw 29.8 million victim notices issued.
  • “There were no healthcare data breaches in the top 10 data compromise list, in contrast to H1, 2025, when three healthcare data breaches made it into the top 5. In fact, based on breach reporting to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights, there have been relatively few mega data breaches in healthcare. In H1 2026, only 7 healthcare data breaches required more than 1 million notices.”

• Dark Reading relates,
  • “Russian state-backed threat actors are compromising networks of Western governments and enterprises through the Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS), according to intelligence and cybersecurity agencies in more than a dozen countries.
  • “In a joint advisory Thursday, the US government and several allied nations warned that an advanced persistent threat (APT) dubbed “Laundry Bear” has been targeting ZCS customers since July 2025. Laundry Bear actors used a zero-day vulnerability in ZCS, tracked as CVE-2025-66376, in a phishing campaign that featured what experts describe as a “half-click exploit” to breach Zimbra webmail servers.
  • “Unlike traditional phishing campaigns that persuade a user into taking an action, such as clicking a link or opening a file, Laundry Bear’s latest campaign leverages a view-based exploit that only requires a user to view a malicious email within a vulnerable version of the webmail service,” the agencies said in the advisory.
  • The campaign is designed “almost certainly to gather sensitive information for the Russian Federation,” according the advisory. The Laundry Bear attacks mark yet another threat from Russian APTs against US organizations.
    
• Cybersecurity Dive tells us,
  • “A critical vulnerability in Check Point Software’s SmartConsole login process is being exploited, with a small number of customers already impacted, according to a security advisory released Wednesday from the company. 
  • “The authentication bypass flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-16232, allows an attacker to gain full administrative privileges after they access an application login token. An attacker can then make changes to security policy and configurations. The vulnerability has a severity score of 9.1 out of 10. 
  • Check Point on Wednesday released a jumbo hotfix to address several security issues in its firewall and management products, according to the advisory.
  • A vulnerability of this type is particularly concerning, giving an attacker the ability to make a number of changes, according to a blog post released Thursday by Rapid7. A remote hacker can “alter administrator permissions, manipulate VPN configurations, and potentially disable or tamper with logging and monitoring,” Rapid7 said. 
• and
  • “A critical-severity deserialization vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint is now under exploitation, according to security researchers at watchTowr and Defused. 
  • “The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-50522, has a severity rating of 9.8 out of 10 and could enable an attacker to execute remote code over a network. 
  • “Hackers are targeting on-premises SharePoint server environments following the release of new exploit code, watchTowr researchers said in a LinkedIn post. Researchers warned that attackers are stealing machine keys to maintain long-term access.”

• CISA added six known exploited vulnerabilities to its catalog this week.
  • July 21, 2026
    • CVE-2021-27137 DD-WRT Stack-Based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
    • CVE-2026-0770 Langflow Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere Vulnerability  
    • CVE-2026-63030 WordPress Core Interpretation Conflict Vulnerability  
    • CVE-2026-60137 WordPress Core SQL Injection Vulnerability
      • Security Affairs discusses these KVEs here.
  • July 22, 2026
    • “CVE-2026-16232 Check Point SmartConsole Improper Authentication Vulnerability
      • The Hacker News discusses this KVE here.
    • “CVE-2026-50522 Microsoft SharePoint Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability
      • Cybersecurity Dive discusses this KVE here.

• Cyberscoop adds,
  • “Malware targeting AI coding assistants and software developers’ automated workflows is spreading into more environments with more capabilities, placing defenders at a growing disadvantage.
  • “A malware strain dubbed Sandworm_Mode, first discovered by Socket in February, represents a growing threat to software development. According to a CrowdStrike report, the self-propagating worm can spread through code repositories with minimal detection, raising alarms about software supply chains.
  • “The malware’s capabilities are extensive, but not especially unique compared to the series of supply-chain worms known as Shai-Hulud, and more recently Mini Shai-Hulud.
  • “This is the new trend,” Adam Meyers, senior vice president of counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike, told CyberScoop. “This is something we’re seeing more and more. It’s the new hotness right now.”

From the ransomware front,

• Cybersecurity Dive reports,
  • “A threat group called Anubis claimed credit for the ransomware attack against Fairlife, the dairy products unit of Coca-Cola. 
  • “The group says it locked the servers at Fairlife and obtained 1TB of data from the attack, according to researchers at Arctic Wolf. Anubis is threatening to leak information if its demands are not met within a week. Researchers provided screenshots posted on the group’s data leak site
  • “Coca-Cola was forced to suspend U.S. production at Fairlife while it launched an investigation into the attack. Coca-Cola officials noted there was no impact on the safety or quality of its dairy products.” “

• Dark Reading relates,
  • “Ransomware is not just growing, it is actually accelerating, with activity surging between October 2025 and March 2026, as more than 60 new groups entered an increasingly crowded criminal ecosystem.
  • “For enterprises, the surge means not only more attacks but also a larger and constantly changing pool of adversaries to track and defend against.
  • “Black Kite analyzed ransomware incidents between April 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026, and identified 7,551 known victims worldwide. That represented a 25% increase over the previous 12-month period, with much of the growth concentrated in the second half of the year. Black Kite counted 2,904 victims between April and September 2025 and 4,647 between October 2025 and March 2026, marking a 60% increase in reported ransomware victims. March 2026 was the busiest month with as many as 861 organizations — or nearly 28 per day — falling victim to a ransomware attack.
  • “This isn’t a problem we’ve contained,” says Ferhat Dikbiyik, chief research and intelligence officer at Black Kite. “It’s still a lucrative business, and the barrier to running one keeps getting lower.”
    
• The Hacker News tells us,
  • “Threat actors have been observed exploiting a now-patched high-severity Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS vulnerability as an entry point to deploy Qilin (aka Agenda) ransomware on victim environments.
  • Arctic Wolf Labs said it investigated multiple intrusions in June 2026 that began with the exploitation of CVE-2026-0257 (CVSS score: 7.8), an authentication bypass flaw affecting the portal and gateway components of PAN-OS software.
  • Successful exploitation of the flaw allows unauthenticated remote attackers to sidestep authentication and establish VPN sessions without valid credentials when authentication override cookies are enabled with specific certificate configurations.
  • “Post-exploitation tradecraft varied across intrusions, from rapid encryption-only operations to full double-extortion, possibly suggesting multiple affiliates operating under the Qilin ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) umbrella,” the cybersecurity company said.
    
• Bleeping Computer points out,
  • “The Clop ransomware gang (also tracked as Cl0p) is targeting Internet-exposed PTC Windchill and FlexPLM instances in a new data theft extortion campaign.
  • “Clop has reportedly been exploiting a critical improper input validation vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-12569, which allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable Windchill and FlexPLM instances.
  • “As cybersecurity company ReliaQuest reported on Thursday, Clop operators have been deploying JSP webshells that allow them to exfiltrate sensitive data from targeted companies’ compromised PLM platforms.
  • “ReliaQuest has observed threat actors actively exploiting CVE-2026-12569, a critical unsafe deserialization vulnerability (CVSS 9.3) affecting PTC Windchill and FlexPLM. Exploitation enables unauthenticated remote code execution and JSP web shell deployment for remote command execution and sensitive product data exfiltration,” the company said.”

• Per Cisco Talos,
  • “Cisco Talos has discovered a new Rust-based remote access trojan (RAT) we call “msaRAT” attributed to the Chaos ransomware group. The name is derived from the binding names found in the binary: “msaOpen,” “msaClose,” “msaError,” and “msaMessage”.
  • “msaRAT is implemented using the Tokio asynchronous runtime, with primary capabilities of browser-leveraged remote code execution and covert tunneling to establish command-and-control (C2) communications.
  • “This RAT never touches the network directly — it controls its C2 communication channel exclusively through Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP), a browser debugging API. The binary contains a Cloudflare Workers endpoint, but it never makes HTTP connections to that domain itself; it offloads that work entirely to the browser.
  • “msaRAT manipulates the browser via CDP, performs signaling (SDP Offer/Answer exchange) with Cloudflare Workers, and establishes a WebRTC DataChannel between the browser and the C2 server using Twilio TURN (Traversal Using Relays around NAT) as a relay.”

From the cybersecurity business and defenses front,

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “The Defense Department signed an up to 10-year, near $7 billion contract with Oracle intended to streamline fragmented licensing and intra-agency efficiency.
  • “The Austin-based cloud computing and software company separately maintained different contracts across the agency. The government said the deal will optimize services and deliver hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer savings.”

• TechCrunch relates,
  • “Glow, a cybersecurity startup founded by former Meta and Snowflake executives, emerged from stealth as a unicorn, betting that artificial intelligence is reshaping how enterprises secure employee devices.
  • “The Palo Alto-headquartered startup on Wednesday said it raised $180 million in an all-equity Series A funding round that valued it at $1.2 billion, with backing from Sequoia Capital, Cyberstarts, Greenoaks, and Redpoint Ventures, alongside participation from Index Ventures, Swish Ventures, Lux Capital, Operator Collective, and Holly Ventures. The investment made Glow one of the latest cybersecurity startups to achieve unicorn status before publicly disclosing revenue metrics.”
    
• Cybersecurity Dive relates,
  • “Many ransomware victims remain vulnerable to follow-up cyberattacks, even after they complete their incident response processes, highlighting gaps in mitigation activities that increase their odds of becoming repeat targets, the security firm Black Kite said on Tuesday in its annual ransomware report.
  • “The report described how victims fail to patch critical vulnerabilities and properly configure email security tools, underscoring the importance of thorough digital cleanup operations as part of the ransomware recovery period.” * * *
  • “Black Kite also shared fresh data on the ransomware ecosystem and its top targets.”
  • Because ransomware is a profit-motivated business, cybercriminals prioritize the easiest and most lucrative targets, and if an organization fails to fix the problems that opened the door for hackers in the first place, they are likely to return. That fact makes it imperative for hacked businesses to fix digital liabilities as soon as possible after an incident, lest hackers revictimize them seeking another payout.
    
• MSN adds, “The next cyber arms race isn’t about finding bugs. It’s about fixing them first.”

• Here is a link to Dark Reading’s CISO Corner.