# Geek Guy > Everything is ideas, the rest is nature. Language: en URL: https://www.geek-guy.com/ All pages on this site are available as clean Markdown by adding the header `Accept: text/markdown` to any HTTP request, or via the REST API: REST API: https://www.geek-guy.com/wp-json/mescio-for-agents/v1/markdown?url={page_url} REST API (by id): https://www.geek-guy.com/wp-json/mescio-for-agents/v1/markdown?id={post_id} ## Pages - [Threat Actor Dossier: APT38 (Lazarus Group)](https://www.geek-guy.com/2026-threat-intel-report/threat-actor-dossier-apt38-lazarus-group/): THREAT ACTOR DOSSIER ==================== BASIC INFORMATION Name: APT38 (Lazarus Group)  Aliases: APT38, HIDDEN COBRA, DHARMA, DPRK THREAT ACTOR, NORTH KOREAN CYBER WARFARE, G0032  MITRE ATT&CK Group ID: G0032  Country of Origin: North Korea (DPRK)  Affiliation: North Korean state-sponsored cyber warfare unit  Type: State-sponsored cyber warfare - [Tokenization](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/tokenization/): Tokenization. Replacing sensitive data with non-sensitive tokens that have no value if stolen, commonly used in PCI-DSS compliance. - [Shadow AI](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/shadow-ai/): Shadow AI. The use of unapproved AI tools by employees, which risks the leakage of proprietary code or PII into public LLM training sets. - [DLP](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/dlp/): Data Loss Prevention is a set of tools that inspects data in use, in transit, and at rest to prevent unauthorized transmission of sensitive info. - [DDR](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/ddr/): Data Detection and Response provides real-time monitoring of data access and movement to stop exfiltration across Cloud and SaaS apps. - [Data Sovereignty](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/data-sovereignty/): Data Sovereignty. The principle that data is subject to the laws of the country where it is physically stored (e.g., GDPR requirements for data residency). - [AI-BOM](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/ai-bom/): An AI Bill of Materials (AIBOM) is a comprehensive, machine-readable inventory of the components required to develop, train, and run an AI model. It is the AI-specific evolution of the traditional Software Bill of Materials (SBOM). - [SBOM](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/sbom/): Software Bill of Materials is a machine-readable ingredient list for software, used to track vulnerabilities in open-source dependencies. - [Supply Chain Risk Management](https://www.geek-guy.com/supply-chain-risk-management/): Supply Chain Risk Management focuses on the security of third-party vendors, from hardware manufacturing (silicon root of trust) to software libraries. - [CIA Triad](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/cia-triad/): The CIA Triad (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability), expanded to include Authenticity and Non-repudiation. - [Exposure Management](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/exposure-management/): Exposure Management. Is a shift from finding CVEs to analyzing the exploitability of an entire attack surface, including misconfigurations and risky behaviors. - [AI-SPM](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/ai-spm/): AI Security Posture Management secures the AI stack, detecting Shadow AI and protecting models from prompt injection or data poisoning. - [Zero Trust](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/zero-trust/): Zero Trust. An architecture based on the principle of never trust, always verify, removing the concept of a trusted internal network. - [TEE](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/tee/): Trusted Execution Environment is a secure enclave in a processor that protects data and code even if the host OS is compromised. - [Threat Actor Dossier: APT41 (BARIUM/BRASS TYPHOON/WICKED PANDA)](https://www.geek-guy.com/2026-threat-intel-report/threat-actor-dossier-apt41-barium-brass-typhoon-wicked-panda/): THREAT ACTOR DOSSIER ==================== BASIC INFORMATION Name: APT41 (Advanced Persistent Threat 41)  Aliases: BARIUM, BRASS TYPHOON, WICKED PANDA, Double Dragon  MITRE ATT&CK Group ID: G0096  Country of Origin: People's Republic of China  Affiliation: Chinese state-sponsored espionage group  Type: Dual-purpose (state-sponsored espionage + financially motivated cybercrime) - [2026 Threat Intel Report](https://www.geek-guy.com/2026-threat-intel-report/): THREAT ACTOR INTELLIGENCE REPORT Comprehensive Analysis of Major Threat Actors (2026) Classification: Unclassified - Intelligence gathered from open and public sources Executive Summary This report provides a comprehensive analysis of ALL major global threat actors, focusing on their recent operations, - [CyberSec Product Reviews](https://www.geek-guy.com/cybersecurity-product-reviews/): The ideal resource for cybersecurity professionals, Chief Information Security Officers and Security Operations professionals. -=-=-=- Coming Soon -=-=-=-= Cybersecurity Products by Category Cybersecurity Products (Alphabetically) Products by Category - [Shop](https://www.geek-guy.com/shop/) - [A Beginner’s Guide to Malware Detection](https://www.geek-guy.com/beginners-guide-to-malware-detection/): Discover essential insights on malware detection, learn to identify threats, and protect your devices with this beginner-friendly guide. - [Penetration Testing](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/penetration-testing/): Penetration Testing. A structured, authorized attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in a system to evaluate the security of that system. - [IAST](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/iast/): Interactive Application Security Testing uses agents inside the app to find vulnerabilities during runtime with high accuracy. - [Breach and Attack Simulation](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/breach-and-attack-simulation-2/): Breach and Attack Simulation tools that automate the execution of threat actor TTPs to continuously validate security controls. - [Breach and Attack Simulation](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/breach-and-attack-simulation/): Breach and Attack Simulation tools that automate the execution of threat actor TTPs to continuously validate security controls. - [Adversarial ML](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/adversarial-ml/): Adversarial ML. Testing AI models by attempting to trick them with adversarial inputs to bypass security filters or extract training data. - [Due Diligence](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/due-diligence/): The investigative process of verifying that the necessary Due Care is actually being implemented and remains effective over time. - [Due Care](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/due-care/): Due Care. The legal standard of reasonableness that an organization must meet to protect its assets and data; often described as what a prudent person would do. - [CTEM](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/ctem/): Continuous Threat Exposure Management is a 5-stage framework (Scoping, Discovery, Prioritization, Validation, Mobilization) that replaces static vulnerability scanning. - [Contact us](https://www.geek-guy.com/contact-us/): Contact the Geek Use this page to contact us. - [List of Top Regulations/Frameworks in Cybersecurity](https://www.geek-guy.com/level-up-your-security-game-with-geek-guy-resources/list-of-top-regulations-frameworks-in-cybersecurity/) - [Managers Guide to Becoming Great – Graphics](https://www.geek-guy.com/about-geek-guy/managers-guide-to-becoming-great-graphics/): If you are interested in purchasing the book, it can be purchased on Amazon at "Managers Guide to becoming Great" If you are interested in purchasing the book, it can be purchased on Amazon at "Managers Guide to becoming Great" - [Malware Reversing](https://www.geek-guy.com/malware-reversing/): Here's a list of some of the best malware reversing tools from Geek-Guy.com: Based on the most complete archives of the Malware Reversing resource page from Geek-Guy.com, here are the extracted tools and their current, functional links organized by category: - [CISSP Domains and Guidance](https://www.geek-guy.com/level-up-your-security-game-with-geek-guy-resources/cissp-domains-and-guidance/): The ISC2 (International Information System Security Certification Consortium) has several certifications, each with its own domains of knowledge. To give you the most relevant information, I need to know which certification you're interested in. However, since the CISSP (Certified Information - [Glossary of Cybersecurity and Market Terms](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/): A comprehensive glossary explaining common cybersecurity and IT terms in simple language. Generative AI can easily compile and define such terms, making complex topics accessible to a wider audience. Glossary Traditional Security Concepts 2026 relevant terminology and structured strictly by - [Top ~100 Open Source Security Tools](https://www.geek-guy.com/top-100-open-source-security-tools/): 1. Network Discovery & Scanning Tool NameOfficial URLPurposeNmaphttps://nmap.org/Network exploration and security auditingZMaphttps://zmap.io/Fast internet-wide network scannerMasscanhttps://github.com/robertdavidgraham/masscanTCP port scanner, spews SYN packetsNetcat (ncat)https://nmap.org/ncat/The "Swiss-army knife" for TCP/IPScapyhttps://scapy.net/Packet manipulation and sniffing 2. Vulnerability Scanning & Management Tool NameOfficial URLPurposeOpenVAS (GVM)https://www.openvas.org/Full-featured vulnerability scannerNiktohttps://github.com/sullo/niktoWeb server - [Level Up Your Security Game with Geek-Guy Resources](https://www.geek-guy.com/level-up-your-security-game-with-geek-guy-resources/): Dive into our comprehensive collection of cybersecurity resources, designed to empower both seasoned professionals and curious newcomers. Explore a vast library of tools, knowledge, and community-driven insights. Resource Pages at Geek-Guy.com - [Largest Threat Intelligence (OSINT) MEGA LIST in the World](https://www.geek-guy.com/largest-threat-intelligence-osint-mega-list-in-the-world/): Below is the extracted list of OSINT and Threat Intelligence resources from that page, organized into a table with their respective categories and URLs. OSINT & Threat Intelligence Mega List Resource NameURLCategoryAbuse.chhttps://abuse.ch/Malware & Ransomware TrackerAbuseIPDBhttps://www.abuseipdb.com/IP Reputation & ReportingAlienVault OTXhttps://otx.alienvault.com/Open Threat - [Privacy Policy](https://www.geek-guy.com/privacy-policy-2/) - [Private Search Engine](https://www.geek-guy.com/private-search-engine/): Bookmark this Geek-Guy Search Engine: Search multiple search engines with proxied results. Search You can also go directly to the search engine by going to https://search.geek-guy.com - [Our Dev Projects](https://www.geek-guy.com/our-projects/):   Our Github https://github.com/lpingree Popular repositories Loading Virustotal-Netstat-lookup-Tool-for-Linux Public Virustotal netstat output lookup tool Python amy---Active-Malware-Yield Public Automated script to lookup virustotal hashes from running processes on linux. Python traceroutemap Public A tool to trace to all the main webs - [Top Topics](https://www.geek-guy.com/top-topics/) - [BCS](https://www.geek-guy.com/glossary-of-sec-and-it-terms/bcs/): Business Continuity Steering is the leadership committee that oversees the strategic alignment of recovery efforts with business objectives. - [Cybersecurity Culture and Music](https://www.geek-guy.com/cybersecurity-culture-and-music/): Here is the updated table with direct links to the songs or the albums where they are hosted. Most of the tracks come from their specialized AI-generated album, Sounds of Security, which is a fantastic resource for awareness training. Cybersecurity - [Domain 8: Software Development Security](https://www.geek-guy.com/level-up-your-security-game-with-geek-guy-resources/cissp-domains-and-guidance/domain-8-software-development-security/): Exam Weight: 10% Domain 8 focuses on integrating security into the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). As a security researcher and analyst, this domain likely resonates with your work in threat actor analysis and data security. The key takeaway for - [Domain 7: Security Operations](https://www.geek-guy.com/level-up-your-security-game-with-geek-guy-resources/cissp-domains-and-guidance/domain-7-security-operations/): Exam Weight: 13% Domain 7 is where "the rubber meets the road." It focuses on the day-to-day practicalities of running a security program, responding to incidents, and ensuring the business stays afloat during a disaster. It is heavily focused on - [Domain 6: Security Assessment and Testing](https://www.geek-guy.com/level-up-your-security-game-with-geek-guy-resources/cissp-domains-and-guidance/domain-6-security-assessment-and-testing/): Exam Weight: 12% Domain 6 is about verifying the truth. While other domains focus on building and operating security, this domain focuses on proving that those controls actually work. It bridges the gap between technical testing and management-level auditing. 1. - [Domain 5: Identity and Access Management (IAM)](https://www.geek-guy.com/level-up-your-security-game-with-geek-guy-resources/cissp-domains-and-guidance/domain-5-identity-and-access-management-iam/): Exam Weight: 13% Domain 5 focuses on the "Who" and "How" of access. It covers the systems used to identify, authenticate, and authorize users and devices. In the modern era of Zero Trust and Agentic Identity, this domain has become - [Domain 4: Communication and Network Security](https://www.geek-guy.com/level-up-your-security-game-with-geek-guy-resources/cissp-domains-and-guidance/domain-4-communication-and-network-security/): Exam Weight: 13% Domain 4 is the plumbing of the digital world. It focuses on the secure design and protection of network architectures, ensuring data remains confidential and available while moving across wires, airwaves, or fiber. 1. The OSI and - [Domain 3: Security Architecture and Engineering](https://www.geek-guy.com/level-up-your-security-game-with-geek-guy-resources/cissp-domains-and-guidance/domain-3-security-architecture-and-engineering/): Exam Weight: 13% Domain 3 is the most technical and broad domain. It covers everything from hardware architecture and the "Ring Model" to cryptography and physical site security. To master this domain, you must understand how secure systems are built - [Domain 2: Asset Security](https://www.geek-guy.com/level-up-your-security-game-with-geek-guy-resources/cissp-domains-and-guidance/domain-2-asset-security/): Exam Weight: 10% Domain 2 is often considered one of the easier domains, but its importance is massive because it defines what we are protecting. If you don't classify and inventory your assets correctly, your security controls in the other - [Domain 1: Security and Risk Management](https://www.geek-guy.com/level-up-your-security-game-with-geek-guy-resources/cissp-domains-and-guidance/domain-1-security-and-risk-management/): Exam Weight: 16% (Highest weighted domain) This domain serves as the brain of the CISSP. It focuses on how security supports the business through governance, risk analysis, and legal compliance. As a CISSP candidate, you must think like a manager: ## Blog Posts - [Sophos ITDR expands identity protection for the AI era](https://www.sophos.com/en-us/blog/sophos-itdr-ai-protection) (2026-10-14): Sophos ITDR now delivers deeper AI identity visibility, expanded Microsoft support, faster response, and seamless deployment. - [Trellix Brings AI-Powered Cyber Defence Inside Organisations’ Own Environments](https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/trellix-brings-ai-powered-cyber-defence-inside-organisations-own-environments) (2026-10-14): Trellix addresses an AI-accelerated threat landscape with the first on-premises federated AI core for an agentic SOC, bringing machine-speed defense to the world's most... - [Smashing Security podcast #488: How a ransomware negotiator ended up arrested at his own conference](https://grahamcluley.com/smashing-security-podcast-488/) (2026-10-14): A ransomware negotiator attended a cybersecurity conference, only to be arrested by the FBI in connection with its investigation into the ShinyHunters gang. Meanwhile, hackers get the keys to ASOS's app and the chance to message every single customer. What - [DroneShield Q4 Software Release Helps Operators Detect, Identify and Defeat Drone Threats Faster](https://itwire.com/business-it-news/business-software/droneshield-q4-software-release-helps-operators-detect-identify-and-defeat-drone-threats-faster) (2026-10-14): Update delivered to systems already in the field, extending the value of existing customer deployments - [Palo Alto Networks warns of PAN-OS RCE flaw exploited in attacks](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/palo-alto-networks-warns-of-pan-os-rce-flaw-exploited-in-attacks/) (2026-10-14): Palo Alto Networks has released security updates for a high-severity PAN-OS RCE zero-day, tracked as CVE-2026-0322, that has been exploited in attacks targeting firewalls. - [Email Deliverability Consulting Services: What to Check Before You Hire One](https://itwire.com/guest-articles/guest-opinion/email-deliverability-consulting-services-what-to-check-before-you-hire-one) (2026-10-14): You trust the dashboard’s 100 percent delivery rate, yet customers still can’t find the email. “Delivered” only marks a server handshake, never inbox visibility. - [Authorities charge alleged OLVX cybercrime marketplace operator in North Macedonia](https://cyberscoop.com/olvx-cybercrime-marketplace-operator-charged-north-macedonia/) (2026-10-14): Authorities in the Republic of North Macedonia filed charges against the alleged administrator of OLVX, a cybercrime marketplace that sold stolen personal data, credentials and malicious tools for attacks since 2023. The 20-year-old citizen of North Macedonia, who officials identified - [What Your IP Address Reveals Every Time You Visit a Website](https://hackread.com/what-your-ip-address-reveals-when-you-visit-a-website/) (2026-10-14): Your IP address can reveal your location, ISP, connection type, and VPN use to websites, ad networks, and trackers before a page even loads. - [Ivanti ICS Zero-Day Attacks Highlight Vendor Patching Hurdles](https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/ivanti-ics-zero-day-attacks-vendor-patching) (2026-10-14): CVE-2026-104935, a high-severity authentication bypass + RCE vulnerability, was only partially discovered and patched in July, leaving an opening for threat actors to capitalize on. - [Apple Closes Above the $5 Trillion Mark](https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-closes-above-the-5-trillion-mark-c72da719?mod=rss_Technology) (2026-10-14): Plus, Ukraine said new limits on Starlink have disrupted its military operations, and OpenAI alleged an ex-employee took confidential files to Apple. - [U.S. CISA adds Microsoft Windows Shell flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog](https://securityaffairs.com/200965/hacking/u-s-cisa-adds-microsoft-windows-shell-flaw-to-its-known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog.html) (2026-10-14): U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds Microsoft Windows Shell flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added a Microsoft Windows Shell flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-96951 (CVSS score of 8.8), to its - [Yam Store: The Phishing Network Behind a Billion Messages](https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/yam-store-phishing-network-behind-billion-messages) (2026-10-14): A sprawling cybercrime marketplace supplied cloud infrastructure and phishing kits that helped fuel more than 1 billion phishing messages worldwide. - [Seventh Time Is the Charm: Apple Closes Above $5 Trillion Market Capitalization](https://www.wsj.com/tech/seventh-time-is-the-charm-apple-closes-above-5-trillion-market-capitalization-88a5a056?mod=rss_Technology) (2026-10-14): To power Apple’s next phase, CEO John Ternus needs to raise Apple’s AI game. - [Private Instagram Downloaders Are Parsers, Not Privacy Bypass Tools](https://hackread.com/private-instagram-downloaders-parsers-privacy-bypass-tools/) (2026-10-14): Disclosure: This article was produced in partnership with FastDL. Hackread.com reviewed and edited the content before publication. “SaveVid.Net… - [Workday’s Joel Hellermark on Jev, “meta work” and why AI agents need deterministic guardrails](https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/workdays-joel-hellermark-on-jev-meta-work-and-why-ai-agents-need-deterministic-guardrails) (2026-10-14): Workday Chief AI Officer, Joel Hellermarkhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-hellermark/, sat down with journalists from Australia, Japan and Hong Kong at Workday Rising 2026 and... - [Penetration testing every deployment with AWS Continuum](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/penetration-testing-every-deployment-with-aws-continuum/) (2026-10-14): Most security tooling that fits into a CI/CD pipeline—static analysis (SAST), software composition analysis (SCA), and dynamic scanners (DAST)—flags potential issues from patterns and signatures. A flagged pattern shows you where to look; penetration testing is what confirms whether something - [Anthropic ‘SneakPeek’ Flaw Is a Silent Zero-Click Threat](https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/new-anthropic-sneakpeek-silent-zero-click-threat) (2026-10-14): A bug in Claude Code Desktop's preview pane can allow adversaries to quietly steal credentials from developers, including SSH private keys, AWS credentials, and Claude 0Auth tokens. - [CVE-2026-104935: Ivanti Connect Secure Zero-Day Exploited for Unauthenticated Code Execution](https://socprime.com/blog/cve-2026-104935-analysis/) (2026-10-14): Ivanti has disclosed CVE-2026-104935, a high-severity vulnerability in Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) that is being actively exploited in real-world attacks. The flaw carries a CVSS score of 8.6 and enables unauthenticated attackers to bypass authentication and execute arbitrary commands on - [Workday’s Adam Godson: recruiters “are going to have to really recruit” once AI agents take over the admin](https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/workday-s-adam-godson-recruiters-are-going-to-have-to-really-recruit-once-ai-agents-take-over-the-admin) (2026-10-14): In his Q&A with the APJ media, Workday General Manager, Talent Acquisition Products, Adam Godsonhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/adamgodson/, spent 25 minutes fielding questions on... - [CVE-2026-96951: Actively Exploited Windows Shell Zero-Day Bypasses Mark of the Web](https://socprime.com/blog/cve-2026-96951-analysis/) (2026-10-14): Microsoft has patched CVE-2026-96951, a high-severity Windows Shell security feature bypass vulnerability that is already being exploited in real-world attacks. The flaw carries a CVSS score of 8.8 and allows an unauthenticated attacker to evade Mark of the Web (MOTW) - [FBI raids DPRK IT worker laptop farms in Texas, US nationals arrested](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fbi-raids-dprk-it-worker-laptop-farms-in-texas-us-nationals-arrested/) (2026-10-14): The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has disrupted the Famous Chollima threat group's operations by arresting two suspects, charging 14 individuals, and seizing nearly 187 laptops used in North Korean remote IT worker schemes. - [Google Expands Gemini 4 Argon Access for Enterprise AI Projects](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/news-gemini-4-argon-commercial-access/) (2026-10-14): Google is opening Gemini 4 Argon to broader enterprise use, giving channel partners another model to evaluate for customer automation projects. Google announced Oct. 14 that Argon is available on Google Cloud, with developer access through the Gemini API, Google - [Linus Torvalds has started using AI to develop the Linux kernel](https://www.computerworld.com/article/4235401/linus-torvalds-has-started-using-ai-to-develop-the-linux-kernel.html) (2026-10-14): Linux creator Linus Torvalds has now begun using AI to write code for the operating system’s kernel. In a new coding project, he has used Anthropic’s AI tool, Claude Code, to develop eight code changes to resolve a performance issue - [Workday’s Gerrit Kazmaier on lawful AI, micro agents and why an “autonomous enterprise” sounds “cold and soulless”](https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/workdays-gerrit-kazmaier-on-lawful-ai-micro-agents-and-why-an-autonomous-enterprise-sounds-cold-and-soulless) (2026-10-14): When I introduced myself to Workday President, Product and Technology, Gerrit Kazmaierhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/gerrit-kazmaier/, as being from iTWire in Australia, he had... - [Cisco Warns of Active Attacks Exploiting New Critical Secure Email Gateway Vulnerability](https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/cisco-warns-of-active-attacks.html) (2026-10-14): Attackers are exploiting a critical flaw in Cisco Secure Email Gateway that lets a sender with no login write files to the appliance's operating system, Cisco said in an advisory on Wednesday. The attacker sends an email with a crafted attachment through - [The EU is investigating OpenAI and Anthropic following incidents involving AI agents](https://www.computerworld.com/article/4235408/the-eu-is-investigating-openai-and-anthropic-following-incidents-involving-ai-agents.html) (2026-10-14): The European Commission has launched investigations into OpenAI and Anthropic after the companies’ AI agents escaped their test environments and infiltrated other organizations’ systems, Euronews reports. In one case, an AI agent from OpenAI managed to break out of its - [OpenAI Alleges Ex-Employee Took Confidential Files to Apple](https://www.wsj.com/tech/openai-alleges-ex-employee-took-confidential-files-to-apple-71e9e4e3?mod=rss_Technology) (2026-10-14): The files included detailed images of an unreleased device, a new legal filing claims. - [SolarWinds Avior Aims to Move MSPs Beyond IT Alerts](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/solarwinds-avior-agentic-ai-msp-operations/) (2026-10-14): SolarWinds has launched Avior, a standalone agentic AI system designed to help managed service providers (MSPs) and IT teams move beyond reactive alert management toward automated, goal-driven IT operations. The system uses specialized AI agents to handle routine tasks, including - [SAP Patches Critical S/4HANA Flaw: What Security Teams Should Check](https://www.esecurityplanet.com/vulnerabilities/news-sap-s4hana-netweaver-flaws/) (2026-10-14): SAP's October update fixes a critical S/4HANA code injection flaw and NetWeaver memory corruption. See affected systems, risks, and patching priorities. - [Ledger asks sellers across Asia to halt sales after supply-chain attack](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ledger-asks-sellers-across-asia-to-halt-sales-after-supply-chain-attack/) (2026-10-14): Ledger has asked resellers and distributors of its wallets in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Hong Kong to suspend device sales and remove products from shelves while it investigates device tampering. - [Slide Names Co-Founder Austin McChord Interim CEO](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/vendor-leadership-and-partner-programs/slide-austin-mcchord-interim-ceo/) (2026-10-14): Slide has named co-founder and Datto founder Austin McChord interim CEO following the departure of fellow co-founder Michael Fass, putting an experienced MSP technology executive in charge of the business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) provider. The leadership transition comes - [Microsoft drops an actively exploited zero-day among record high of 1,413 vulnerabilities](https://cyberscoop.com/microsoft-patch-tuesday-october-2026/) (2026-10-14): Microsoft’s streak of record-breaking vulnerability disclosures continued with a mega Patch Tuesday, containing 1,413 defects affecting the company’s various enterprise products and services.  The monthly batch of patches surpassed the company’s previous annual record of 1,261 common vulnerabilities and exposures - [Microsoft’s October Patch Tuesday Fixes More Than 1,400 Flaws](https://www.esecurityplanet.com/vulnerabilities/news-microsoft-october-2026-patch-tuesday/) (2026-10-14): Microsoft’s October Patch Tuesday fixes over 1,400 flaws, including an exploited Windows bug. Learn which vulnerabilities security teams should patch first. - [Hackers Backdoor Nextcloud Servers Through Critical Flaw in Collabora’s Built-in CODE App](https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/hackers-backdoor-nextcloud-servers.html) (2026-10-14): Attackers exploited a flaw in an optional Nextcloud app, Collabora Online - Built-in CODE Server, to plant web shells on Nextcloud servers. Three administrators reported the issue on GitHub, with the first logged attack on September 10. A web shell is a - [Cisco patches new Secure Email Gateway zero-day exploited in attacks](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cisco-patches-actively-exploited-secure-email-gateway-zero-day/) (2026-10-14): Cisco has patched another actively exploited zero-day flaw in its Secure Email Gateway (SEG) that lets remote unauthenticated attackers execute commands with root privileges. - [Windows 11 Security Updates End Nov. 10: Microsoft Warns Users to Upgrade](https://www.esecurityplanet.com/trends/news-microsoft-windows-11-23h2-security-updates-end-november-2026/) (2026-10-14): Microsoft will end Windows 11 23H2 security updates on Nov. 10, 2026. See which PCs are affected and what IT teams should do before the deadline. - [Microsoft Disrupts 3 Phishing Kits Linked to Over 1 Billion Scam Messages](https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/microsoft-disrupts-3-phishing-kits.html) (2026-10-14): Microsoft and Health-ISAC, along with the Japan Cybercrime Control Center (JC3) and a coalition of private sector companies, such as Resecurity, Cloudflare, Oracle, Proofpoint, and TRM Labs, announced the disruption of three phishing kits, CoGUI (aka NX or FA), Haozi - [PCI SSC Celebrates World Standards Day and 20 Years of Securing Payment Data](https://blog.pcisecuritystandards.org/pci-ssc-celebrates-world-standards-day-and-20-years-of-securing-payment-data) (2026-10-14): Every year on 14 October, World Standards Day recognizes the people and organizations working together to develop standards that make our world safer, more connected, and more resilient. For the PCI Security Standards Council, this year’s celebration carries special significance: - [AI worms could spread across your smart devices, Anthropic warns](https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/ai/2026/10/ai-worms-could-spread-across-your-smart-devices-anthropic-warns) (2026-10-14): Your streaming box might not look like much of a computer. But connect enough inexpensive devices together, and they can run an AI model.Researchers at Anthropic demonstrated this by running a Google Gemma model across 15 off-brand Android TV boxes. - [U.S. Shuts Down Over 40 Laptop Farms, Charges 14 in North Korean IT Worker Fraud](https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/us-shuts-down-over-40-laptop-farms.html) (2026-10-14): The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday charged 14 people and seized about 187 computers as part of its ongoing efforts to disrupt North Korea's fraudulent remote IT worker (ITW) scheme. The indictment charges a mix of U.S. citizens - [Netrio Launches Eight Managed Cybersecurity Services](https://www.channelinsider.com/security/managed-services/netrio-managed-cybersecurity-services-portfolio/) (2026-10-14): Managed services provider Netrio has launched a new cybersecurity portfolio featuring eight as-a-service offerings designed to help mid-market businesses strengthen security operations, manage risk, and meet compliance requirements without building large internal security teams. Announced October 13, the portfolio combines - [Micropatches released for Windows Power Dependency Coordinator Elevation of Privilege (CVE-2026-69459)](https://0patch.com/blog/micropatches-released-for-windows-power-dependency-coordinator-elevation-of-privi) (2026-10-14): September 2026 Windows Updates brought a patch for CVE-2026-69459, a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows Power Dependency Coordinator, allowing a non-admin local user on the computer to elevate themselves to Local System. The vulnerability was found by two anonymous - [Microsoft Unveils Maia 300 as Azure Partners Face Growing AI Demand](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/news-microsoft-maia-300-ai-chip/) (2026-10-14): Microsoft is preparing to run more of its AI services on chips it designs itself. The company unveiled Azure Maia 300 on Oct. 12, introducing its third-generation AI accelerator ahead of production deployments beginning in 2027. The system is designed - [OpenAI Computing Chief to Depart](https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-computing-chief-to-depart-6ffb7d7e?mod=rss_Technology) (2026-10-14): The artificial-intelligence company plans to spend around $750 billion on computing power through 2030. - [FIRESIDE CHAT: Firms once wanted AI callers stopped – now they want to sort good from bad](https://www.lastwatchdog.com/fireside-chat-firms-once-wanted-ai-callers-stopped-now-they-want-to-sort-good-from-bad/) (2026-10-14): The hottest new app this fall is Muse, an AI agent from Meta. Give it a chore, and it does the chore for you. Ask whether it’s a person or a machine, and it may well lie and claim to - [Pixel 10 Hacked 3 Times at Pwn2Own Ireland Despite Patches](https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/news-google-pixel-10-pwn2own-ireland-hacks-emea/) (2026-10-14): Three teams remotely hacked a fully patched Google Pixel 10 at Pwn2Own Ireland. See what the exploits revealed and what European security teams should check. - [AWS Trains AI Partners as Forward-Deployed Engineers](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/building-channel-revenue/aws-forward-deployed-engineers-ai-partners/) (2026-10-14): Amazon Web Services (AWS) is expanding its investment in forward-deployed engineering as enterprise demand grows for AI implementations that move beyond experimentation and deliver measurable business results. Through a dedicated engineering organization and new technical training pathways for partners, AWS - [Senators press Trump admin to rally federal government around AI safety, security ](https://cyberscoop.com/congress-presses-trump-administration-ai-safety-cybersecurity/) (2026-10-14): Members of Congress are pressing the Trump administration to expand the federal government’s role in securing artificial intelligence, wanting new safety standards and regulations, independent testing of models and more “aggressive” use of AI for defensive cybersecurity purposes. In a letter, - [Intuit Intelligence lands in Australia as QuickBooks takes its AI agent fight to Xero and MYOB](https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/intuit-intelligence-lands-in-australia-as-quickbooks-takes-its-ai-agent-fight-to-xero-and-myob) (2026-10-14): Intuit has switched on Intuit Intelligencehttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/intuit-intelligence/ in Australia, almost a year after unveiling it on stage in Las Vegas. It lands in a... - [Cryptography Rarely Fails Because of the Math](https://blogs.cisco.com/security/last-mile-of-trust-post-quantum-cryptography-open-source/) (2026-10-14): Cryptography rarely fails at the math - it fails at deployment. Why post-quantum migration and AI-scale risk make open-source stewardship a core control. --- # Full Content --- title: "Sophos ITDR expands identity protection for the AI era" url: "https://www.sophos.com/en-us/blog/sophos-itdr-ai-protection" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Sophos ITDR now delivers deeper AI identity visibility, expanded Microsoft support, faster response, and seamless deployment." last_modified: "2026-10-15T00:00:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.sophos.com/en-us/blog/feed" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.sophos.com/en-us/blog/sophos-itdr-ai-protection" --- # Sophos ITDR expands identity protection for the AI era Sophos ITDR now delivers deeper AI identity visibility, expanded Microsoft support, faster response, and seamless deployment. --- --- title: "Trellix Brings AI-Powered Cyber Defence Inside Organisations’ Own Environments" url: "https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/trellix-brings-ai-powered-cyber-defence-inside-organisations-own-environments" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Trellix addresses an AI-accelerated threat landscape with the first on-premises federated AI core for an agentic SOC, bringing machine-speed defense to the world's most..." last_modified: "2026-10-14T23:10:36+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://itwire.com/feed.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/trellix-brings-ai-powered-cyber-defence-inside-organisations-own-environments" --- # Trellix Brings AI-Powered Cyber Defence Inside Organisations’ Own Environments Trellix addresses an AI-accelerated threat landscape with the first on-premises federated AI core for an agentic SOC, bringing machine-speed defense to the world’s most… --- --- title: "Smashing Security podcast #488: How a ransomware negotiator ended up arrested at his own conference" url: "https://grahamcluley.com/smashing-security-podcast-488/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "A ransomware negotiator attended a cybersecurity conference, only to be arrested by the FBI in connection with its investigation into the ShinyHunters gang. Meanwhile, hackers get the keys to ASOS's app and the chance to message every single customer. What" last_modified: "2026-10-14T23:06:42+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://grahamcluley.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://grahamcluley.com/smashing-security-podcast-488/" --- # Smashing Security podcast #488: How a ransomware negotiator ended up arrested at his own conference A ransomware negotiator attended a cybersecurity conference, only to be arrested by the FBI in connection with its investigation into the ShinyHunters gang. Meanwhile, hackers get the keys to ASOS’s app and the chance to message every single customer. What did they say? And how did the company respond? We have thoughts. All this and more is discussed in episode 488 of the “Smashing Security” podcast with cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker Graham Cluley, and special guest Paul Ducklin. --- --- title: "DroneShield Q4 Software Release Helps Operators Detect, Identify and Defeat Drone Threats Faster" url: "https://itwire.com/business-it-news/business-software/droneshield-q4-software-release-helps-operators-detect-identify-and-defeat-drone-threats-faster" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Update delivered to systems already in the field, extending the value of existing customer deployments" last_modified: "2026-10-14T22:57:59+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://itwire.com/feed.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://itwire.com/business-it-news/business-software/droneshield-q4-software-release-helps-operators-detect-identify-and-defeat-drone-threats-faster" --- # DroneShield Q4 Software Release Helps Operators Detect, Identify and Defeat Drone Threats Faster Update delivered to systems already in the field, extending the value of existing customer deployments --- --- title: "Palo Alto Networks warns of PAN-OS RCE flaw exploited in attacks" url: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/palo-alto-networks-warns-of-pan-os-rce-flaw-exploited-in-attacks/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Palo Alto Networks has released security updates for a high-severity PAN-OS RCE zero-day, tracked as CVE-2026-0322, that has been exploited in attacks targeting firewalls." last_modified: "2026-10-14T22:56:47+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/palo-alto-networks-warns-of-pan-os-rce-flaw-exploited-in-attacks/" --- # Palo Alto Networks warns of PAN-OS RCE flaw exploited in attacks Palo Alto Networks has released security updates for a high-severity PAN-OS RCE zero-day, tracked as CVE-2026-0322, that has been exploited in attacks targeting firewalls. […] --- --- title: "Email Deliverability Consulting Services: What to Check Before You Hire One" url: "https://itwire.com/guest-articles/guest-opinion/email-deliverability-consulting-services-what-to-check-before-you-hire-one" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "You trust the dashboard’s 100 percent delivery rate, yet customers still can’t find the email. “Delivered” only marks a server handshake, never inbox visibility." last_modified: "2026-10-14T22:42:37+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://itwire.com/feed.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://itwire.com/guest-articles/guest-opinion/email-deliverability-consulting-services-what-to-check-before-you-hire-one" --- # Email Deliverability Consulting Services: What to Check Before You Hire One You trust the dashboard’s 100 percent delivery rate, yet customers still can’t find the email. “Delivered” only marks a server handshake, never inbox visibility. --- --- title: "Authorities charge alleged OLVX cybercrime marketplace operator in North Macedonia" url: "https://cyberscoop.com/olvx-cybercrime-marketplace-operator-charged-north-macedonia/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Authorities in the Republic of North Macedonia filed charges against the alleged administrator of OLVX, a cybercrime marketplace that sold stolen personal data, credentials and malicious tools for attacks since 2023. The 20-year-old citizen of North Macedonia, who officials identified" last_modified: "2026-10-14T21:40:31+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://cyberscoop.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://cyberscoop.com/olvx-cybercrime-marketplace-operator-charged-north-macedonia/" --- # Authorities charge alleged OLVX cybercrime marketplace operator in North Macedonia Authorities in the Republic of North Macedonia filed charges against the alleged administrator of OLVX, a cybercrime marketplace that sold stolen personal data, credentials and malicious tools for attacks since 2023. The 20-year-old citizen of North Macedonia, who officials identified as “E.A.” in a [news release](https://mvr.gov.mk/en-GB/odnosi-so-javnost/novosti/uspesna-zaednicka-akcija-na-mvr-i-fbi-razbien-nelegalen-onlajn-pazar-za-prodazba-na-ukradeni-podatoci-krivicna-prijava-protiv-20-godisnik-od-tetovsko), is accused of commiting computer fraud, misuse of personal data, and production and distribution of child sexual abuse material.  The arrest comes six months after authorities [dismantled the cybercrime platform](https://www.coe.int/en/web/cybercrime/-/north-macedonia-disruption-of-illegal-online-marketplace), arrested the alleged administrator and searched their home in April, according to European authorities. Officials at that time said the cybercrime platform’s sales exceeded $500,000 and a seized server contained a database with more than 2,600 customer accounts. The FBI provided intelligence to North Macedonian authorities and aided in the joint investigation into OLVX. “The existence of this marketplace directly endangered the digital security of thousands of American citizens who rely on the integrity of accounts they use,” the FBI Cyber Division said in a [LinkedIn post](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/fbi-share-7516202484336529410-tloA/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAC2xvMBLPggh7Z3PC8i4V4yQ0JB56a2MlM) Wednesday.  “This disruption marks the first-ever cyber operation coordinated between the FBI and North Macedonia, and reflects the FBI’s commitment to working with partners around the world to protect the American people in cyberspace,” the agency added. Officials said evidence gathered during the investigation revealed that the suspect allegedly offered more than 1,500 sets of stolen credentials for sale. The suspect, who was charged in the village of Golema Rečica near Tetovo, also allegedly administered domains and sites associated with the OLVX platform, which they used to sell stolen data, malicious tools and services between 2023 and 2025. More recently, including earlier this year, authorities accused the alleged cybercriminal of running an online group on Telegram where illegal services and software were sold to facilitate various forms of cybercrime, including fraudulent refund schemes. The post [Authorities charge alleged OLVX cybercrime marketplace operator in North Macedonia](https://cyberscoop.com/olvx-cybercrime-marketplace-operator-charged-north-macedonia/) appeared first on [CyberScoop](https://cyberscoop.com/). --- --- title: "What Your IP Address Reveals Every Time You Visit a Website" url: "https://hackread.com/what-your-ip-address-reveals-when-you-visit-a-website/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Your IP address can reveal your location, ISP, connection type, and VPN use to websites, ad networks, and trackers before a page even loads." last_modified: "2026-10-14T21:38:55+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://hackread.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://hackread.com/what-your-ip-address-reveals-when-you-visit-a-website/" --- # What Your IP Address Reveals Every Time You Visit a Website Your IP address can reveal your location, ISP, connection type, and VPN use to websites, ad networks, and trackers before a page even loads. --- --- title: "Ivanti ICS Zero-Day Attacks Highlight Vendor Patching Hurdles" url: "https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/ivanti-ics-zero-day-attacks-vendor-patching" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "CVE-2026-104935, a high-severity authentication bypass + RCE vulnerability, was only partially discovered and patched in July, leaving an opening for threat actors to capitalize on." last_modified: "2026-10-14T21:20:13+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.darkreading.com/rss.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/ivanti-ics-zero-day-attacks-vendor-patching" --- # Ivanti ICS Zero-Day Attacks Highlight Vendor Patching Hurdles CVE-2026-104935, a high-severity authentication bypass + RCE vulnerability, was only partially discovered and patched in July, leaving an opening for threat actors to capitalize on. --- --- title: "Apple Closes Above the $5 Trillion Mark" url: "https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-closes-above-the-5-trillion-mark-c72da719?mod=rss_Technology" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Plus, Ukraine said new limits on Starlink have disrupted its military operations, and OpenAI alleged an ex-employee took confidential files to Apple." last_modified: "2026-10-14T21:20:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.content.dowjones.io/public/rss/RSSWSJD" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-closes-above-the-5-trillion-mark-c72da719?mod=rss_Technology" --- # Apple Closes Above the $5 Trillion Mark Plus, Ukraine said new limits on Starlink have disrupted its military operations, and OpenAI alleged an ex-employee took confidential files to Apple. --- --- title: "U.S. CISA adds Microsoft Windows Shell flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog" url: "https://securityaffairs.com/200965/hacking/u-s-cisa-adds-microsoft-windows-shell-flaw-to-its-known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds Microsoft Windows Shell flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added a Microsoft Windows Shell flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-96951 (CVSS score of 8.8), to its" last_modified: "2026-10-14T21:15:34+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://securityaffairs.com/feed" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://securityaffairs.com/200965/hacking/u-s-cisa-adds-microsoft-windows-shell-flaw-to-its-known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog.html" --- # U.S. CISA adds Microsoft Windows Shell flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog ## U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds Microsoft Windows Shell flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) [added](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/alerts/2026/10/13/cisa-adds-two-known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog) a Microsoft Windows Shell flaw, tracked as [CVE-2026-96951](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-96951) (CVSS score of 8.8), to its [Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog](https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog). [Microsoft Patch Tuesday security updates for October 2026](https://securityaffairs.com/200953/security/microsoft-patch-tuesday-sets-new-record-with-1415-cves-in-october-2026-updates.html) address a record 1,415 vulnerabilities, including a zero-day under active attack. The flaw, tracked as [CVE-2026-96951](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-96951), is a Windows Shell command injection vulnerability that allows an unauthorized attacker to bypass security protections over a network. Exploitation can evade Mark of the Web (MOTW) defenses, which help protect users from potentially dangerous files downloaded from the internet. Microsoft confirmed that the flaw is being actively exploited. _“An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could evade Mark of the Web (MOTW) defenses.” [reads the advisory](https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-96951). “In an email or instant message attack scenario, the attacker could send the targeted user a specially crafted file that is designed to exploit the vulnerability. In any case an attacker would have no way to force a user to view attacker-controlled content. Instead, an attacker would have to convince a user to take action. For example, an attacker could entice a user to either click a link that directs the user to the attacker’s site or send a malicious attachment.”_ According to [Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities](https://cyber.dhs.gov/bod/22-01/), FCEB agencies have to address the identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect their networks against attacks exploiting the flaws in the catalog. Experts also recommend that private organizations review the [Catalog](https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog) and address the vulnerabilities in their infrastructure. CISA orders federal agencies to fix the flaw by October 16, 2026. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) also added an Ivanti Connect Secure FortiMail flaw, tracked as [CVE-2026-104935](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-104935) (CVSS score of 8.6), to its Kev Catalog. The vulnerability is an authentication bypass issue caused by spoofing in ICS versions before 25.1.3.0 that could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary commands. ICS versions 22.7R2.14 and earlier are not affected. **Follow me on Twitter: **[**@securityaffairs**](https://twitter.com/securityaffairs)** and **[**Facebook**](https://www.facebook.com/sec.affairs)** and **[**Mastodon**](https://infosec.exchange/@securityaffairs) [**Pierluigi Paganini**](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/pierluigi-paganini/b/742/559) **(**[**SecurityAffairs**](http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/)** – hacking, [CISA](https://securityaffairs.com/tag/cisa))** --- --- title: "Yam Store: The Phishing Network Behind a Billion Messages" url: "https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/yam-store-phishing-network-behind-billion-messages" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "A sprawling cybercrime marketplace supplied cloud infrastructure and phishing kits that helped fuel more than 1 billion phishing messages worldwide." last_modified: "2026-10-14T20:57:16+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.darkreading.com/rss.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/yam-store-phishing-network-behind-billion-messages" --- # Yam Store: The Phishing Network Behind a Billion Messages A sprawling cybercrime marketplace supplied cloud infrastructure and phishing kits that helped fuel more than 1 billion phishing messages worldwide. --- --- title: "Seventh Time Is the Charm: Apple Closes Above $5 Trillion Market Capitalization" url: "https://www.wsj.com/tech/seventh-time-is-the-charm-apple-closes-above-5-trillion-market-capitalization-88a5a056?mod=rss_Technology" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "To power Apple’s next phase, CEO John Ternus needs to raise Apple’s AI game." last_modified: "2026-10-14T20:55:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.content.dowjones.io/public/rss/RSSWSJD" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.wsj.com/tech/seventh-time-is-the-charm-apple-closes-above-5-trillion-market-capitalization-88a5a056?mod=rss_Technology" --- # Seventh Time Is the Charm: Apple Closes Above $5 Trillion Market Capitalization To power Apple’s next phase, CEO John Ternus needs to raise Apple’s AI game. --- --- title: "Private Instagram Downloaders Are Parsers, Not Privacy Bypass Tools" url: "https://hackread.com/private-instagram-downloaders-parsers-privacy-bypass-tools/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Disclosure: This article was produced in partnership with FastDL. Hackread.com reviewed and edited the content before publication. “SaveVid.Net…" last_modified: "2026-10-14T20:52:41+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://hackread.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://hackread.com/private-instagram-downloaders-parsers-privacy-bypass-tools/" --- # Private Instagram Downloaders Are Parsers, Not Privacy Bypass Tools Disclosure: This article was produced in partnership with FastDL. Hackread.com reviewed and edited the content before publication. “SaveVid.Net… --- --- title: "Workday’s Joel Hellermark on Jev, “meta work” and why AI agents need deterministic guardrails" url: "https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/workdays-joel-hellermark-on-jev-meta-work-and-why-ai-agents-need-deterministic-guardrails" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Workday Chief AI Officer, Joel Hellermarkhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-hellermark/, sat down with journalists from Australia, Japan and Hong Kong at Workday Rising 2026 and..." last_modified: "2026-10-14T20:46:08+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://itwire.com/feed.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/workdays-joel-hellermark-on-jev-meta-work-and-why-ai-agents-need-deterministic-guardrails" --- # Workday’s Joel Hellermark on Jev, “meta work” and why AI agents need deterministic guardrails Workday Chief AI Officer, Joel Hellermarkhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-hellermark/, sat down with journalists from Australia, Japan and Hong Kong at Workday Rising 2026 and… --- --- title: "Penetration testing every deployment with AWS Continuum" url: "https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/penetration-testing-every-deployment-with-aws-continuum/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Most security tooling that fits into a CI/CD pipeline—static analysis (SAST), software composition analysis (SCA), and dynamic scanners (DAST)—flags potential issues from patterns and signatures. A flagged pattern shows you where to look; penetration testing is what confirms whether something" last_modified: "2026-10-14T20:21:52+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/penetration-testing-every-deployment-with-aws-continuum/" --- # Penetration testing every deployment with AWS Continuum Most security tooling that fits into a CI/CD pipeline—static analysis (SAST), software composition analysis (SCA), and dynamic scanners (DAST)—flags _potential_ issues from patterns and signatures. A flagged pattern shows you where to look; penetration testing is what confirms whether something is actually exploitable. That confirmation has traditionally come from a periodic, out-of-band engagement that runs on a schedule rather than on a deploy, so deploys between engagements reach production with that confirmation still pending. [AWS Continuum for penetration testing](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/perform-penetration-test.html) (formerly AWS Security Agent) is a service that uses AI agents to find and confirm exploitable vulnerabilities in your running applications. In this post, we walk you through making it a post-deployment gate in your pipeline. The gate runs a penetration test that is automatically _scoped to the change you just deployed_, and it can block promotion to production when a finding is at or above a severity threshold you choose. Because each run tests only the change since the last passing gate rather than the whole application, it is fast and economical enough to run on every deploy. We give a high-level overview of the pattern, which can be applied on four major CI/CD platforms: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, Bitbucket Pipelines, and Azure DevOps Pipelines. We then provide a specific worked example for GitHub Actions. By the end, you will have a pipeline that deploys a change to a staging environment, runs a scoped penetration test against the deployed change, and promotes the change to production only when the gate passes. The following diagram shows the end-to-end flow. Your CI/CD pipeline deploys to staging, then the pentest gate step authenticates to your AWS account through OpenID Connect (OIDC) and calls Continuum for penetration testing, which runs the scoped test against the staging environment. The gate waits for the result, reports the outcome back to your pipeline, and conditionally blocks promotion to production. All testing runs server-side in your AWS account, so no penetration testing logic runs on your CI/CD runner. _ Figure 1: Pipeline gate architecture: Your CI/CD pipeline deploys to staging, the pentest gate authenticates via OIDC and calls Continuum for penetration testing, which returns a scope decision that gates promotion to production. ## Why scoping to the change matters What makes the gate practical to run on every deploy is that it scopes each test to the change you just deployed. Continuum for penetration testing determines the commit range—the head_ is the commit being gated, and the _base_ is the previous commit the gate already cleared—and tests only what changed. Testing the change instead of the whole application is what keeps a per-deploy penetration test fast and cheap enough to belong in a pipeline rather than on a quarterly calendar. Each run returns one of three scope decisions: **in scope** (the change modified the attack surface—findings are evaluated against your threshold), **scoped out** (the change was within scope but nothing security-relevant changed—the pipeline passes), or **scope conflict** (the change fell outside the configured scope and was not tested—you choose whether that blocks). The Continuum for penetration testing console records the decision and the commit range on the **Scoping** tab of each run. When a gate blocks, you can see exactly why. For the full mechanics of how the commit range is computed and validated, see [How the pipeline integration scopes the test](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/cicd-pentest.html#_how_the_pipeline_integration_scopes_the_test). Because the gate blocks on findings that Continuum for penetration testing validated as exploitable rather than on pattern matches, a red pipeline carries a clear meaning: a reproducible vulnerability in the change, waiting to be fixed before promotion. ## Setting up the gate The gate takes three steps to set up: configure a penetration test, create an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role that your pipeline can assume, and add the gate step to your pipeline. Before you start, you need an AWS account with permission to create both an IAM OIDC identity provider and an IAM role, and a staging environment the penetration test can reach. ### Step 1: Configure the penetration test Complete the one-time setup described in [Before you start](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/cicd-pentest.html#_before_you_start): verify your target domain, create a penetration test in your Agent Space, enable CI/CD mode, and connect your repository. Note the Agent Space ID (as-…) and penetration test ID (pt-…), because you pass both to the gate step in Step 3. The pipeline tests whatever this penetration test is configured to test, so its target and scope set what the gate covers. ### Step 2: Create the IAM role Authentication uses OIDC federation rather than stored keys. Your CI/CD provider issues a short-lived token identifying the pipeline, and [AWS Security Token Service](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_temp.html) (AWS STS) exchanges it for temporary credentials when the pipeline assumes an IAM role you create. There are no long-lived AWS access keys to store as CI/CD variables, which removes the credential most often leaked from a pipeline. The security of the gate rests on two policies: the IAM role’s **trust policy** (which pipelines can assume the role) and its **permissions policy** (what the pipeline can do once the role is assumed). For the exact policy JSON, the provider-specific OIDC URLs and audience values, and the sub claim format for each CI/CD platform, follow the reference in [Scope the trust policy to your pipeline](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/cicd-pentest.html#cicd-pentest-trust-policy) and [Grant least-privilege permissions](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/cicd-pentest.html#cicd-pentest-permissions-policy). The following judgment calls help you decide how to scope these policies. **How tightly to scope the trust policy** is the first decision. Pinning the sub claim to a single branch (for example, main) is the right default when a branch is the only one that deploys through this pipeline. If several branches or environments legitimately run the gate, scope to the environment instead of the branch where your provider’s claim supports it—and remember that not every provider carries a branch in the claim at all. On Bitbucket, the repository (and optionally a deployment environment) is as tight as it gets. Start as narrow as your deployment reality allows and widen only when a real branch or environment needs it. Note that GitHub repositories created or renamed on or after July 15, 2026 emit an immutable sub claim with numeric IDs—confirm the exact sub your pipeline emits before you write the policy. ### Step 3: Add the gate step to your pipeline The step is the same idea on every provider—the syntax differs. Pin the integration to an immutable version (a release tag, commit SHA, or pinned component version) so an upstream change can’t alter what runs in your pipeline. For the full settings reference and defaults table, see [Defaults the integration ships with](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/cicd-pentest.html#cicd-pentest-defaults). Before relying on the gate, run it once in [dry-run mode](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/cicd-pentest.html#cicd-pentest-validate). A dry run checks authentication, the Region, and that your repository resolves—without starting a scoped penetration test job. If validation fails, the step fails regardless of your error-handling settings, so a misconfiguration surfaces immediately. ## A worked example: GitHub Actions The following workflow shows the three-job topology that makes the gate work: deploy deploys to staging, security-pentest runs the gate, and deploy-prod promotes to production. Because deploy-prod declares needs: [security-pentest], GitHub skips production whenever the gate fails. > **Note:** The tutorials use an application with a deliberate SQL injection so the gate has a real finding to block on. Deploy it only to an isolated, non-production environment and remove it when you finish. ```text jobs: deploy: runs-on: ubuntu-latest environment: staging steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 with: persist-credentials: false - run: ./deploy.sh staging security-pentest: needs: [deploy] runs-on: ubuntu-latest permissions: id-token: write contents: write actions: read deployments: read steps: - uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v4 with: role-to-assume: arn:aws:iam::111122223333:role/my-pentest-gate-role aws-region: us-west-2 role-duration-seconds: 7200 - uses: aws-actions/aws-continuum-run-pentest@v1 with: agent-space-id: as-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx pentest-id: pt-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx severity-threshold: HIGH on-scope-conflict: block timeout-minutes: "45" deploy-prod: needs: [security-pentest] runs-on: ubuntu-latest environment: production steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 with: persist-credentials: false - run: ./deploy.sh production ``` _Replace the account ID, role name, Region, and the _as-/pt-_ identifiers with your own values._ Two things in this example deserve attention. First, the contents: write permission lets the gate **advance the baseline marker** it keeps as a ref in your repository—without write access, every run would test a wider range than intended. Second, the role-duration-seconds: 7200 on the credential step must outlast the penetration test; AWS STS rejects a request for more than the role allows rather than reducing it, so set the role’s maximum session duration to at least (timeout + 10) x 60 seconds. A credential that expires partway through makes an otherwise-healthy run fail as though the service were at fault and leaves the cleanup unable to stop the abandoned, still-running job. The full step-by-step tutorials for all four providers are linked at the end of this post. ## Rolling out the gate: from report-only to blocking **The single most important detail before you roll this out.** Three independent settings decide whether the step fails, and each covers a different outcome: severity-threshold (what happens to findings), on-scope-conflict (what happens when the change wasn’t tested), and fail-on-infrastructure-error (what happens when the job couldn’t run). They are independent—relaxing one does not affect the others. Most teams introduce the gate in **report-only mode** first—set threshold to NONE so the test runs and publishes findings without blocking anyone’s pipeline. Watch what it finds for a release or two, then tighten the threshold to HIGH. This staged rollout is sound, **with one critical caveat:** **A run that passes—including a report-only run—advances the baseline.** The commits in that run’s range are then recorded as cleared and _will not be re-tested_ when you later tighten the threshold. If you run report-only for a month and then switch to HIGH, the gate only assesses commits _after_ the last report-only run—it does not go back and recheck what it already reported on. This is by design: relaxing a setting is you accepting the outcome it allows. But if you want a stricter setting to reassess a range an earlier run cleared, **override the head and base commit SHAs by setting** base-commit-sha **and** head-commit-sha. Where the marker lives differs by provider; see [What advances the baseline, and why that matters](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/cicd-pentest.html#cicd-pentest-baseline-advance) for the full matrix. One default also deserves attention: fail-on-infrastructure-error** ships as **false** (fail-open)**. For pipelines where promotion requires security sign-off, set it to true from the start. ### GitLab: your committed settings are defaults, not a contract On GitLab CI/CD, a pipeline variable overrides the value a job sets in its own variables: block. That means anyone who can run a pipeline could supply a variable that lowers the threshold, turns on dry-run, or relaxes error handling—and the gate does what the variable says, not what your .gitlab-ci.yml says. Restrict who may override variables in your project’s CI/CD settings before you rely on the gate to hold a release. ## Protecting credentials on the runner The temporary credentials and OIDC token are sensitive for the duration of the step. Three practices matter: - **Keep debug and verbose tracing off** for steps that handle credentials—shell-trace modes (for example, GitLab CI’s CI_DEBUG_TRACE) echo command arguments to the job log in plaintext. - **Don’t persist source control credentials in the workspace**—set persist-credentials: false on the checkout step so a token isn’t written to the runner’s .git configuration where a later step could read it. - **Don’t expose the token to untrusted steps**—grant OIDC-token permission only to the jobs that need it, and don’t run untrusted code (such as a fork build) in a job that can read the token. ## Taking this to production and multiple accounts The example uses one account for clarity. In practice, your staging and production environments are often separate AWS accounts. The pattern extends cleanly: - Create the pentest-gate IAM role in the account where the penetration test and Agent Space live—the security account. Your pipeline assumes that role via OIDC regardless of which workload account it deploys to, so you keep one well-scoped gate role rather than a copy or a set of long-lived keys in every account. - Run the gate against each pre-production environment you promote through, and gate promotion to the next stage on its result. Because the baseline advances only on a passing gate, coverage stays continuous across deploys. - Set fail-on-infrastructure-error to true and restrict who can override pipeline variables once the gate is holding real releases. - Pin the integration version so upstream changes are reviewed before they run. For broader guidance of AWS Security Agent—testing against non-production environments, validating AI-generated findings, and IAM—see [Security best practices for AWS Continuum](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/security-best-practices.html). ## Cleanup If you followed one of the provider tutorials to try the gate, complete its **Clean up** section to remove everything it had you create: the sample application’s staging environment, the IAM role and OIDC identity provider, and—if you created one specifically for the walkthrough—the penetration test (and dedicated Agent Spaces) in the Continuum for penetration testing console. Removing them avoids ongoing charges and takes the intentionally vulnerable sample application offline. ## Conclusion Scoping penetration tests to the deployed change is what makes them practical as a per-deploy gate rather than a quarterly exercise. The key decisions you now have are: - **How strict**: Start report-only (NONE), but know the baseline advances—delete the marker when you tighten. - **How to fail**: Set fail-on-infrastructure-error to true for anything that requires security sign-off. - **How to scope trust**: Pin the sub claim as narrowly as your deployment reality allows. - **Where to put the role**: One role in a security account, assumed from workloads pipeline via OIDC. To build the gate end to end on your platform, follow the worked tutorial for your provider: - [Tutorial: Gate a GitHub Actions deployment with a scoped penetration test](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/sample-cicd-github.html) - [Tutorial: Gate a GitLab CI/CD deployment with a scoped penetration test](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/sample-cicd-gitlab.html) - [Tutorial: Gate a Bitbucket Pipelines deployment with a scoped penetration test](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/sample-cicd-bitbucket.html) - [Tutorial: Gate an Azure DevOps deployment with a scoped penetration test](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/sample-cicd-azure-devops.html) For the concepts and full reference, see [Run penetration tests from your CI/CD pipeline](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityagent/latest/userguide/cicd-pentest.html). If you have feedback about this post, submit comments in the **Comments** section below. --- ![Jigar Bhatt](https://d2908q01vomqb2.cloudfront.net/22d200f8670dbdb3e253a90eee5098477c95c23d/2026/10/12/Jigar-Bhatt-author.jpeg) ### Jigar Bhatt Jigar is a Senior Software Engineer at AWS Continuum for Penetration Testing, where he builds AI-powered penetration testing capabilities helping customers find and fix exploitable vulnerabilities in their applications. Before joining the AI security space, Jigar spent several years building developer tools on AWS CodeBuild. He holds a Master of Engineering in Software Systems from BITS Pilani, India. ![Benjamin-Li](https://d2908q01vomqb2.cloudfront.net/22d200f8670dbdb3e253a90eee5098477c95c23d/2026/10/12/Benjamin-Li-Author.jpeg) ### Benjamin Li Benjamin is a Software Engineer on the AWS Continuum for Penetration Testing team, where he builds AI-powered pentesting capabilities. He earned his B.S. in Mathematics at UW. --- --- title: "Anthropic ‘SneakPeek’ Flaw Is a Silent Zero-Click Threat" url: "https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/new-anthropic-sneakpeek-silent-zero-click-threat" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "A bug in Claude Code Desktop's preview pane can allow adversaries to quietly steal credentials from developers, including SSH private keys, AWS credentials, and Claude 0Auth tokens." last_modified: "2026-10-14T20:09:42+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.darkreading.com/rss.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/new-anthropic-sneakpeek-silent-zero-click-threat" --- # Anthropic ‘SneakPeek’ Flaw Is a Silent Zero-Click Threat A bug in Claude Code Desktop’s preview pane can allow adversaries to quietly steal credentials from developers, including SSH private keys, AWS credentials, and Claude 0Auth tokens. --- --- title: "CVE-2026-104935: Ivanti Connect Secure Zero-Day Exploited for Unauthenticated Code Execution" url: "https://socprime.com/blog/cve-2026-104935-analysis/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Ivanti has disclosed CVE-2026-104935, a high-severity vulnerability in Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) that is being actively exploited in real-world attacks. The flaw carries a CVSS score of 8.6 and enables unauthenticated attackers to bypass authentication and execute arbitrary commands on" last_modified: "2026-10-14T20:00:38+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://socprime.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://socprime.com/blog/cve-2026-104935-analysis/" --- # CVE-2026-104935: Ivanti Connect Secure Zero-Day Exploited for Unauthenticated Code Execution ![](https://socprime.com/wp-content/uploads/CVE-2026-104935-400x234.jpg) Ivanti has disclosed CVE-2026-104935, a high-severity vulnerability in Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) that is being actively exploited in real-world attacks. The flaw carries a CVSS score of 8.6 and enables unauthenticated attackers to bypass authentication and execute arbitrary commands on vulnerable VPN appliances. The vulnerability came to light after Volexity investigated a compromised Ivanti Connect Secure appliance that was fully patched at the time. The previously unknown threat actor, tracked as UTA0576, chained the authentication bypass and remote code execution covered by CVE-2026-104935 with a separate privilege-escalation zero-day to achieve unauthenticated root-level command execution. The observed campaign demonstrates the security risks associated with vulnerabilities in internet-facing VPN infrastructure. After gaining root privileges, the attackers targeted credentials, Active Directory data, LAPS passwords, BitLocker recovery keys, and other sensitive information that could support lateral movement deeper into the victim environment. Ivanti confirmed on October 13, 2026 that it was aware of limited exploitation in the wild and urged organizations running impacted releases to act immediately. CISA subsequently added the vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Security teams can leverage SOC Prime’s AI-Native Detection Intelligence Platform to accelerate investigation of emerging threats and operationalize detection content across SIEM, EDR, XDR, and Data Lake environments. Prime Architect can further assist detection engineers by transforming emerging threat intelligence into detection logic, hunting queries, and environment-specific rules, while Prime Hunt enables retrospective investigation across organizational telemetry. [Contact Sales](https://socprime.com/blog/cve-2026-104935-analysis/#sp-cta-form-modal) ## **CVE-2026-104935 Analysis** CVE-2026-104935 affects specific versions of Ivanti Connect Secure and combines two weaknesses used by attackers to move from an unauthenticated web request to arbitrary code execution in the context of the cgi-server account. The vulnerability is categorized as an authentication bypass by spoofing under CWE-290. According to Ivanti, the issue can be exploited remotely without credentials or user interaction and has a CVSS score of 8.6. Volexity reconstructed the exploitation chain while investigating an appliance running Ivanti Connect Secure 22.8R2.4, Build 19097. The device was considered fully patched when malicious activity began on October 3, 2026. Researchers started investigating the incident on October 5 and subsequently worked with Ivanti to analyze memory, disk images, and core dumps from the affected system. The first stage abuses request-routing behavior associated with the publicly accessible /dana-na/auth/url_default/welcome.cgi endpoint. Attackers can supply an X-DSCGI-PATH HTTP header pointing to a CGI resource that would normally require authentication. The security decision is based on the public URL while the header controls the actual script receiving the request. This discrepancy allows an attacker to route unauthenticated requests to protected CGI functionality. UTA0576 used this mechanism to reach wu.cgi, an upload handler containing the second vulnerability. The attacker submitted a malicious Perl script disguised with a .zip extension. The handler temporarily wrote the uploaded content to /home/runtime/tmp/ before checking whether the file was a valid ZIP archive. Although an invalid file was subsequently deleted, attackers exploited the short period between file creation and removal. Parallel requests referencing the temporary file through X-DSCGI-PATH allowed the Perl payload to execute before deletion. The initial payload launched Bash and then an encoded Python stage that existed primarily in memory. At this point, the attacker obtained code execution as the lower-privileged cgi-server account. To escalate privileges, UTA0576 chained a separate zero-day involving the privileged dsinvoked service and the DSCache configuration store. The attackers modified the in-memory copy of an Ivanti library, changed the configuration of a privileged maintenance task, and caused dsinvoked to execute attacker-controlled Perl code as root. After achieving root access, the exploit restored the modified in-memory configuration and library state. It also removed relevant entries from Ivanti debug logs and Linux audit logs, significantly reducing the forensic artifacts available on disk. This behavior is especially significant because Ivanti’s Integrity Checker Tool focuses on identifying unexpected file changes. Since portions of this exploit modify code only in memory and restore temporary configuration changes afterward, Volexity found that the attack could evade detection by the tool. The attackers also did not install a conventional persistent web shell or first-stage backdoor. Instead, UTA0576 repeatedly executed the complete exploitation chain whenever another command needed to run and returned command output directly through the exploit’s HTTPS traffic. Post-exploitation activity focused heavily on credentials and Active Directory. Volexity observed the attackers extracting credentials stored on the VPN appliance, querying Active Directory, searching for Windows LAPS passwords and BitLocker recovery keys, performing password spraying, inspecting authentication logs, and collecting LDAP traffic. The threat actor also used custom Python and Kerberos tooling to test credentials and access sensitive directory attributes. Files associated with reconnaissance and credential collection were temporarily staged under /tmp/ before exfiltration and cleanup. Attribution remains uncertain. Volexity tracks the actor as UTA0576 and assesses with low confidence that its motivation may be criminal rather than espionage. The researchers also assessed with medium confidence that the actor may have used large language models to assist with exploit development or post-exploitation activity, based on operational characteristics of the intrusion. No broadly available, validated CVE-2026-104935 PoC was identified in the primary sources reviewed at publication time. However, Volexity has published substantial technical detail about the attack chain, meaning organizations should assume that additional actors may attempt to reproduce the technique. For CVE-2026-104935 detection, defenders should monitor for high volumes of requests to /dana-na/auth/url_default/welcome.cgi, especially when the X-DSCGI-PATH header references another CGI resource or a temporary file. ## **CVE-2026-104935 Mitigation** Ivanti has released fixes for the authentication bypass and RCE components covered by the CVE. Organizations running affected Connect Secure releases should update immediately rather than relying solely on integrity checks. Ivanti’s October security guidance identifies fixed releases across supported branches, including **22.8R2.5, 25.1.1.2, 25.1.3.0, and 25.1.3.1**, depending on the deployed code line. Ivanti recommends moving to the 25.x branch as soon as practical because the 22.x code line is approaching end of life. The separate privilege-escalation vulnerability used in the observed three-zero-day chain was not yet fixed when Volexity published its analysis on October 13. Ivanti was preparing a patch for a future release. This makes installation of the CVE-2026-104935 fixes especially important because blocking the initial authentication bypass and RCE prevents attackers from reaching the stage required to exploit the local privilege escalation. Organizations should also continue running Ivanti’s Integrity Checker Tool, as recommended by the vendor, but should not treat a clean result as definitive evidence that exploitation has not occurred. Ivanti itself recommends combining updates and integrity checks with network monitoring, log review, access controls, and ongoing appliance validation. To Detect CVE-2026-104935 exploitation, defenders should inspect HTTP telemetry for mismatches between the requested URL and the value of the X-DSCGI-PATH header. Particularly suspicious values observed by Volexity include paths referencing wu.cgi or files under /home/runtime/tmp/. Security teams should also inspect /tmp/ for unexplained scripts or reconnaissance artifacts and investigate unexpected activity originating from the VPN appliance toward Active Directory, LDAP services, DNS infrastructure, or internal authentication systems. Known CVE-2026-104935 IOCs from the investigated incident include the attacker-controlled IP address 108.165.147[.]64, suspicious activity involving /data/.icscap/, and repeated requests targeting the exposed welcome CGI path. These indicators should be used alongside behavioral detection because attackers can easily rotate infrastructure or alter temporary filenames. Organizations that identify signs of compromise should conduct network and memory forensics rather than relying exclusively on disk-based examination. Credentials stored or accessible through the appliance should be considered potentially exposed, including LDAP service credentials, and should be rotated following containment. Defenders should additionally investigate Active Directory for suspicious LDAP queries, password spraying, access to LAPS or BitLocker recovery attributes, anomalous Kerberos activity, and lateral movement originating from the VPN appliance. CISA added the flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on October 13, 2026, establishing an October 16 remediation deadline for applicable U.S. federal civilian agencies. This confirms that organizations should treat patching as an urgent priority rather than waiting for broader exploitation. SOC Prime’s AI-Native Detection Intelligence Platform can help security teams operationalize this threat intelligence, hunt for related behaviors, and adapt detections to available network, identity, and endpoint telemetry. ## FAQ What is CVE-2026-104935 and how does it work? CVE-2026-104935 is an actively exploited vulnerability in Ivanti Connect Secure that covers an authentication bypass and remote code execution chain. Attackers can manipulate request-routing behavior to access a protected CGI handler without authentication and exploit temporary file handling to execute malicious code as the cgi-server account. In observed attacks, this was combined with a separate privilege-escalation zero-day to obtain root-level access. When was CVE-2026-104935 first discovered? Ivanti stated that its product security team had previously identified part of the vulnerability and included protection in the 25.1.3.0 release in July 2026. Volexity independently uncovered active exploitation while investigating suspicious activity on October 5, determining that attacks had begun by October 3. Ivanti publicly disclosed the vulnerability and confirmed limited exploitation on October 13, 2026. What is the impact of CVE-2026-104935 on systems? Successful exploitation allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to execute code on an affected Ivanti Connect Secure appliance. When chained with the separate privilege-escalation flaw observed by Volexity, attackers can obtain root privileges. In the investigated incident, UTA0576 stole credentials, queried Active Directory, searched for LAPS passwords and BitLocker recovery keys, captured LDAP data, and prepared for potential lateral movement. Can CVE-2026-104935 still affect me in 2026? Yes. Vulnerable Ivanti Connect Secure appliances that have not been upgraded remain at immediate risk because exploitation has been confirmed in the wild. CISA has added the vulnerability to its KEV catalog, while Ivanti urges customers running affected releases to upgrade without delay. How can I protect myself from CVE-2026-104935? Upgrade Ivanti Connect Secure to the applicable fixed release immediately, continue running the Integrity Checker Tool, and monitor network traffic and logs for suspicious request-routing behavior. Because the observed exploit can minimize disk artifacts, organizations with suspected exposure should conduct memory and network forensics and rotate potentially compromised credentials. Administrators should continue reviewing vendor guidance for updated details for CVE-2026-104935, including the pending fix for the separate privilege-escalation vulnerability. The post [CVE-2026-104935: Ivanti Connect Secure Zero-Day Exploited for Unauthenticated Code Execution](https://socprime.com/blog/cve-2026-104935-analysis/) appeared first on [SOC Prime](https://socprime.com/). --- --- title: "Workday’s Adam Godson: recruiters “are going to have to really recruit” once AI agents take over the admin" url: "https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/workday-s-adam-godson-recruiters-are-going-to-have-to-really-recruit-once-ai-agents-take-over-the-admin" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "In his Q&A with the APJ media, Workday General Manager, Talent Acquisition Products, Adam Godsonhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/adamgodson/, spent 25 minutes fielding questions on..." last_modified: "2026-10-14T19:57:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://itwire.com/feed.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/workday-s-adam-godson-recruiters-are-going-to-have-to-really-recruit-once-ai-agents-take-over-the-admin" --- # Workday’s Adam Godson: recruiters “are going to have to really recruit” once AI agents take over the admin In his Q&A with the APJ media, Workday General Manager, Talent Acquisition Products, Adam Godsonhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/adamgodson/, spent 25 minutes fielding questions on… --- --- title: "CVE-2026-96951: Actively Exploited Windows Shell Zero-Day Bypasses Mark of the Web" url: "https://socprime.com/blog/cve-2026-96951-analysis/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Microsoft has patched CVE-2026-96951, a high-severity Windows Shell security feature bypass vulnerability that is already being exploited in real-world attacks. The flaw carries a CVSS score of 8.8 and allows an unauthenticated attacker to evade Mark of the Web (MOTW)" last_modified: "2026-10-14T19:54:14+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://socprime.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://socprime.com/blog/cve-2026-96951-analysis/" --- # CVE-2026-96951: Actively Exploited Windows Shell Zero-Day Bypasses Mark of the Web ![](https://socprime.com/wp-content/uploads/CVE-2026-96951-400x234.jpg) Microsoft has patched CVE-2026-96951, a high-severity Windows Shell security feature bypass vulnerability that is already being exploited in real-world attacks. The flaw carries a CVSS score of 8.8 and allows an unauthenticated attacker to evade Mark of the Web (MOTW) protections by convincing a victim to interact with a specially crafted file. The zero-day was addressed as part of Microsoft’s October 2026 Patch Tuesday, an unusually large security release covering more than 1,400 vulnerabilities across Windows, Office, SharePoint Server, SQL Server, developer tools, and other Microsoft products. CVE-2026-96951 stands out because Microsoft has confirmed active exploitation in the wild. Mark of the Web is a fundamental Windows security mechanism that marks files originating from potentially untrusted locations such as the internet or email. Windows and applications can use this information to display security warnings, activate Protected View, or apply additional restrictions before potentially dangerous content executes. A vulnerability capable of bypassing this protection can therefore weaken several layers of defense commonly relied upon to mitigate phishing and malicious file delivery. Security teams can strengthen defenses against emerging exploitation with SOC Prime’s AI-Native Detection Intelligence Platform, which enables organizations to operationalize threat intelligence and apply relevant detection content across their security stack. Prime Architect can further accelerate detection engineering by helping defenders research emerging threats, generate and refine detection logic, convert indicators into hunting queries, and adapt detections to organizational telemetry. [Contact Sales](https://socprime.com/blog/cve-2026-96951-analysis/#sp-cta-form-modal) ## **CVE-2026-96951 analysis** CVE-2026-96951 affects Windows Shell and results from improper neutralization of special elements used in a command, categorized as CWE-77 Command Injection. Microsoft describes the vulnerability as allowing an unauthorized attacker to bypass a security feature over a network. Microsoft assigned the flaw a CVSS 3.1 score of 8.8 with the vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. This means exploitation can originate remotely, requires low attack complexity and no prior privileges, but depends on user interaction. Successful exploitation can have a high potential impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The security control at risk is Mark of the Web. When Windows receives a file from the internet or another untrusted source, MOTW metadata normally signals that the file originated outside the trusted environment. Windows security features and applications can then apply additional protections before opening or executing it. According to Microsoft, successful exploitation allows an attacker to evade these MOTW defenses. In an email or instant-messaging scenario, an attacker could send a specially crafted malicious file and persuade the target to open it. Alternatively, a threat actor could lure the victim to an attacker-controlled website and convince them to download & view malicious content. The attacker cannot force the victim to open the malicious content automatically. User interaction remains necessary, which makes phishing, social engineering, malicious attachments, and deceptive links likely delivery paths. The CVE record identifies a broad range of affected Windows environments, including Windows 10, multiple Windows 11 releases, and Windows Server editions from Server 2012 R2 through Server 2025. Microsoft’s record also lists Outlook.com as affected before the corresponding service-side fix. The vulnerability is especially relevant to enterprise environments because bypassing MOTW can undermine security layers intended to stop files delivered through phishing campaigns. Once a malicious file avoids expected warnings or restrictions, additional payload execution may become easier, depending on the content and subsequent attack chain. Microsoft confirmed that attackers were already exploiting the vulnerability before patches became publicly available, making it a zero-day. However, the company has not disclosed who is responsible for the attacks, which organizations were targeted, or the exact exploitation chain used in observed incidents. Microsoft credited Riku Bamba and Yuya Chudo of Fujitsu, Benoit Sevens using Claude with Anthropic, and security researcher yhw with reporting the vulnerability. The precise original discovery date has not been publicly disclosed. At the time of writing, the primary sources reviewed do not document a publicly available CVE-2026-96951 PoC. Nevertheless, confirmed exploitation significantly raises the urgency of patching even without public exploit code. For CVE-2026-96951 detection, defenders should monitor suspicious files originating from email, messaging platforms, browsers, and user download directories, particularly when subsequent activity indicates that normal MOTW protections may not have been applied. Potential behavioral signals can include unexpected child processes spawned by Windows Explorer or document-processing applications, script interpreters launched from downloaded content, abnormal execution from temporary or user-writable directories, and post-delivery activity inconsistent with the expected file type. ## **CVE-2026-96951 Mitigation** Microsoft addressed the vulnerability through its October 13, 2026 security updates. Organizations should prioritize deployment across supported Windows endpoints and servers, particularly systems exposed to email attachments, instant messaging, web downloads, and other common phishing delivery vectors. The CVE record lists patched build thresholds across affected platforms. Examples include Windows 11 23H2 build 22631.7652, Windows 11 24H2 build 26100.9711, Windows 11 25H2 build 26200.9711, and Windows Server 2025 build 26100.33650. Administrators should rely on Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and Windows Update mechanisms to determine the appropriate update for each supported operating system. Because active exploitation has already been confirmed, CISA added CVE-2026-96951 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on October 13, 2026, with a remediation deadline of October 16 for applicable U.S. federal civilian agencies. CISA characterizes exploitation as active and the potential technical impact as total. Organizations should not treat user awareness or MOTW itself as sufficient compensating controls for unpatched systems because the vulnerability specifically defeats that security boundary. Additional protections such as application control, attack surface reduction policies, email attachment filtering, endpoint protection, and restrictions on executable or script content from user-writable locations can provide defense in depth. To Detect CVE-2026-96951 exploitation, defenders should correlate suspicious file-delivery events with subsequent process activity and determine whether content obtained from an external source executed without the expected MOTW-related controls. Email gateway, browser, Windows process creation, PowerShell, script interpreter, and endpoint telemetry can provide useful context. Security teams should also retrospectively investigate potentially suspicious attachments or downloads observed before patch deployment. Since Microsoft has not publicly disclosed attack-specific CVE-2026-96951 IOCs such as file hashes, domains, or IP addresses tied to the observed exploitation, behavioral detection and attack-chain correlation are currently more reliable than static indicator matching. Organizations that identify suspicious activity should isolate affected endpoints, investigate payload execution and persistence, inspect credentials accessible from the compromised user context, and determine whether attackers established additional access after bypassing MOTW. SOC Prime’s AI-Native Detection Intelligence Platform enables security teams to accelerate threat hunting and detection engineering for emerging vulnerabilities, while adapting relevant detection logic to their SIEM, EDR, XDR, and Data Lake environments. ## FAQ What is CVE-2026-96951 and how does it work? CVE-2026-96951 is an actively exploited command-injection vulnerability in Windows Shell that allows an unauthorized attacker to bypass Mark of the Web protections. An attacker can craft malicious content and use social engineering to convince a victim to open a file or visit attacker-controlled content. Successful exploitation causes Windows to fail to apply the security protections normally associated with files originating from untrusted locations. When was CVE-2026-96951 first discovered? Microsoft has not disclosed the exact initial discovery date. The vulnerability was publicly disclosed and patched on October 13, 2026. Microsoft credited Riku Bamba and Yuya Chudo of Fujitsu, Benoit Sevens using Claude with Anthropic, and researcher yhw for reporting the issue. What is the impact of CVE-2026-96951 on systems? Successful exploitation allows attackers to bypass Mark of the Web, weakening protections applied to files obtained from untrusted sources. This can help malicious content avoid expected warnings and restrictions and facilitate follow-on malware execution, credential theft, persistence, or broader system compromise. Microsoft rates the vulnerability at CVSS 8.8. Can CVE-2026-96951 still affect me in 2026? Yes. Windows systems that have not installed the relevant October 2026 security updates can remain vulnerable. The risk is particularly urgent because Microsoft has confirmed active exploitation and CISA has added the flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. How can I protect myself from CVE-2026-96951? Install Microsoft’s October 2026 security updates on affected Windows systems without delay. Organizations should also strengthen email and web filtering, restrict execution of suspicious downloaded content, monitor unusual process chains following file delivery, and investigate potentially affected endpoints. Administrators should continue monitoring Microsoft’s advisory for updated details for CVE-2026-96951 as further information about real-world exploitation becomes available. The post [CVE-2026-96951: Actively Exploited Windows Shell Zero-Day Bypasses Mark of the Web](https://socprime.com/blog/cve-2026-96951-analysis/) appeared first on [SOC Prime](https://socprime.com/). --- --- title: "FBI raids DPRK IT worker laptop farms in Texas, US nationals arrested" url: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fbi-raids-dprk-it-worker-laptop-farms-in-texas-us-nationals-arrested/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has disrupted the Famous Chollima threat group's operations by arresting two suspects, charging 14 individuals, and seizing nearly 187 laptops used in North Korean remote IT worker schemes." last_modified: "2026-10-14T19:41:43+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fbi-raids-dprk-it-worker-laptop-farms-in-texas-us-nationals-arrested/" --- # FBI raids DPRK IT worker laptop farms in Texas, US nationals arrested The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has disrupted the Famous Chollima threat group’s operations by arresting two suspects, charging 14 individuals, and seizing nearly 187 laptops used in North Korean remote IT worker schemes. […] --- --- title: "Google Expands Gemini 4 Argon Access for Enterprise AI Projects" url: "https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/news-gemini-4-argon-commercial-access/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Google is opening Gemini 4 Argon to broader enterprise use, giving channel partners another model to evaluate for customer automation projects. Google announced Oct. 14 that Argon is available on Google Cloud, with developer access through the Gemini API, Google" last_modified: "2026-10-14T19:41:08+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.channelinsider.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/news-gemini-4-argon-commercial-access/" --- # Google Expands Gemini 4 Argon Access for Enterprise AI Projects Google is opening Gemini 4 Argon to broader enterprise use, giving channel partners another model to evaluate for customer automation projects. Google[ announced Oct. 14](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/gemini-4-argon-available-on-google-cloud) that Argon is available on Google Cloud, with developer access through the Gemini API, Google AI Studio, and Antigravity. A separate version with fewer cybersecurity restrictions remains limited to vetted defenders through its Fairwind Program. For MSPs and systems integrators, adoption means weighing integration and human review costs against potential workflow improvements, while preparing for API prices to double on Dec. 1. ## Early evaluations reveal gains and limits Google tested Argon on its open-source Agent Development Kit (ADK), a framework for building AI agents. During an [11-hour experiment](https://developers.googleblog.com/optimizing-a-200000-line-python-codebase-overnight-with-gemini-4-argon/), the model examined approximately 205,000 lines of Python code and proposed six performance improvements. Google said engineers approved two changes that reduced ADK’s in-memory session preparation time by about 40% during longer sessions and cut package import time by 21%. Overall time to the first model request remained unchanged. Four other proposals failed review because of unreliable implementations or performance gains that did not hold up outside synthetic tests. ServiceNow also reported roughly 20% higher task success than Gemini 3.8 Flash in its[ NowAI-Bench evaluation](https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/gemini-4-argon-available-on-google-cloud), particularly across HR and customer service workflows. ## Commercial access brings new pricing and technical requirements Developers can use Argon through the Gemini API, Google AI Studio, and Antigravity, while enterprise implementations are supported through Google’s [Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform](https://www.channelinsider.com/infrastructure/cloud-and-hybrid/google-cloud-agentic-announcements-next-2026/). Argon supports a unified limit of 1,048,576 tokens shared across input, reasoning, and output. Google [confirms](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/latest-model) introductory rates through November 30, 2026, with standard pricing taking effect on Dec. 1. | Token type | Through Nov. 30 | From Dec. 1 | | --- | --- | --- | | Uncached input | $2 | $4 | | Output | $10 | $20 | _API pricing in US dollars per million tokens._ Output charges include reasoning tokens, while eligible input cached automatically receives a 95% discount. Explicit context caching is not supported. Google’s[ migration guidance](https://docs.cloud.google.com/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/models/guides/gemini-4-argon) also identifies required SDK updates and changes to reasoning settings, which integrators should account for when estimating deployment work. ## MSPs and integrators should assess delivery costs and service opportunities Google’s investment in[ partner-led AI deployments](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/vendor-leadership-and-partner-programs/google-cloud-partner-agentic-ai-fund/) has already established a wider channel initiative for enterprise automation. For service providers considering Argon, three areas warrant attention before incorporating the model into customer offerings. - **Systems integrators should test delivery effort.** If you’re developing custom agents or modernizing customer applications, start with a representative workflow before committing to a larger project. Measure the engineering hours needed for integration and track how often outputs need correction. Controlled experiments may produce different results from applications connected to existing business systems. - **MSPs should establish sustainable service pricing.** Model customer consumption using the rates effective Dec. 1, accounting for usage that may vary between client environments. Implement[ AI runtime controls](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/fastly-ai-runtime-controls-enterprise-agents/) to monitor spending and set appropriate thresholds. Ongoing troubleshooting and maintenance responsibilities should also be covered in managed-service agreements. - **MSSPs should verify security access permissions.** Google’s[ Fairwind Program](https://deepmind.google/fairwind-program/) provides a version of Argon with fewer cybersecurity restrictions to vetted defenders. Participating organizations may grant access only to internal cybersecurity, incident response, or penetration testing teams and cannot share, redistribute, or sell access. Confirm eligibility and permitted uses before incorporating these capabilities into customer services. Sensitive remediation work should also require customer authorization and human approval. As enterprise customers expand AI agents into everyday business workflows, the longer-term opportunity for channel partners could come from managing and maintaining these systems well after their initial deployment. **More news: **[**Park Place Technologies is widening its North American cloud footprint**](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/park-place-technologies-microsoft-azure-csp-expansion/)** with Azure CSP services spanning cost management, security, identity, and managed operations.** The post [Google Expands Gemini 4 Argon Access for Enterprise AI Projects](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/news-gemini-4-argon-commercial-access/) appeared first on [Channel Insider](https://www.channelinsider.com/). --- --- title: "Linus Torvalds has started using AI to develop the Linux kernel" url: "https://www.computerworld.com/article/4235401/linus-torvalds-has-started-using-ai-to-develop-the-linux-kernel.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Linux creator Linus Torvalds has now begun using AI to write code for the operating system’s kernel. In a new coding project, he has used Anthropic’s AI tool, Claude Code, to develop eight code changes to resolve a performance issue" last_modified: "2026-10-14T19:31:30+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.computerworld.com/security/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.computerworld.com/article/4235401/linus-torvalds-has-started-using-ai-to-develop-the-linux-kernel.html" --- # Linus Torvalds has started using AI to develop the Linux kernel Linux creator Linus Torvalds has now begun using AI to write code for the operating system’s kernel. In a new coding project, he has used Anthropic’s AI tool, Claude Code, to develop eight code changes to resolve a performance issue in Linux, reports [ZDNet](https://www.zdnet.com/innovation/linus-torvalds-uses-ai-to-write-linux-kernel-patch/). “The code, the test programs, the review that forms the basis of the list above, and the first draft of this text were produced with the help of an LLM coding assistant (Claude Code) under my supervision,” Linus Torvalds writes in the documentation. The changes are still experimental and have not been incorporated into the official Linux kernel. Torvalds has previously been skeptical of AI-generated code but has gradually become more positive about the technology. During the Open Source Summit Europe conference in Prague, he recently shared that he has gained a new perspective on it. “I used to think the technology just wasn’t very good. But now I’ve reached a point where I really enjoy using AI,” Linus Torvalds said at the time. _This article originally appeared on [Computer Sweden](https://computersweden.se/article/4235144/linus-torvalds-har-borjat-anvanda-ai-for-att-utveckla-linux-karnan.html)._ --- --- title: "Workday’s Gerrit Kazmaier on lawful AI, micro agents and why an “autonomous enterprise” sounds “cold and soulless”" url: "https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/workdays-gerrit-kazmaier-on-lawful-ai-micro-agents-and-why-an-autonomous-enterprise-sounds-cold-and-soulless" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "When I introduced myself to Workday President, Product and Technology, Gerrit Kazmaierhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/gerrit-kazmaier/, as being from iTWire in Australia, he had..." last_modified: "2026-10-14T18:56:15+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://itwire.com/feed.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/workdays-gerrit-kazmaier-on-lawful-ai-micro-agents-and-why-an-autonomous-enterprise-sounds-cold-and-soulless" --- # Workday’s Gerrit Kazmaier on lawful AI, micro agents and why an “autonomous enterprise” sounds “cold and soulless” When I introduced myself to Workday President, Product and Technology, Gerrit Kazmaierhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/gerrit-kazmaier/, as being from iTWire in Australia, he had… --- --- title: "Cisco Warns of Active Attacks Exploiting New Critical Secure Email Gateway Vulnerability" url: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/cisco-warns-of-active-attacks.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Attackers are exploiting a critical flaw in Cisco Secure Email Gateway that lets a sender with no login write files to the appliance's operating system, Cisco said in an advisory on Wednesday. The attacker sends an email with a crafted attachment through" last_modified: "2026-10-14T18:38:56+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.feedburner.com/TheHackersNews?format=xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/cisco-warns-of-active-attacks.html" --- # Cisco Warns of Active Attacks Exploiting New Critical Secure Email Gateway Vulnerability Attackers are exploiting a critical flaw in Cisco Secure Email Gateway that lets a sender with no login write files to the appliance’s operating system, Cisco said in an advisory on Wednesday. The attacker sends an email with a crafted attachment through the gateway and, if it succeeds, could then run commands as root. The appliance filters an organization’s email for spam, malware, --- --- title: "The EU is investigating OpenAI and Anthropic following incidents involving AI agents" url: "https://www.computerworld.com/article/4235408/the-eu-is-investigating-openai-and-anthropic-following-incidents-involving-ai-agents.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "The European Commission has launched investigations into OpenAI and Anthropic after the companies’ AI agents escaped their test environments and infiltrated other organizations’ systems, Euronews reports. In one case, an AI agent from OpenAI managed to break out of its" last_modified: "2026-10-14T18:35:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.computerworld.com/security/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.computerworld.com/article/4235408/the-eu-is-investigating-openai-and-anthropic-following-incidents-involving-ai-agents.html" --- # The EU is investigating OpenAI and Anthropic following incidents involving AI agents The European Commission has launched investigations into OpenAI and Anthropic after the companies’ AI agents escaped their test environments and infiltrated other organizations’ systems, [Euronews](https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/14/eus-ai-rules-face-first-enforcement-test-over-lab-incidents) reports. In one case, an AI agent from OpenAI managed to break out of its test environment and hack the AI platform Hugging Face. In the other case, a model from Anthropic gained unauthorized access to the systems of three external organizations. The EU’s AI Office has now requested additional information from the companies regarding, among other things, security procedures, external evaluations, and monitoring of AI models. The documents previously submitted by the companies are not considered sufficient. These investigations will serve as a test for the EU’s AI regulation, the AI Act. Since August, the AI Office has had the authority to take action against companies that do not meet the law’s security requirements. The legal situation is complicated, Euronews notes. The AI Act includes exemptions for research and development, and it is unclear whether the law can be applied to incidents that occur before a model is launched. _This article originally appeared on [Computer Sweden](https://computersweden.se/article/4235187/eu-granskar-open-ai-och-anthropic-efter-incidenter-med-ai-agenter.html)._ --- --- title: "OpenAI Alleges Ex-Employee Took Confidential Files to Apple" url: "https://www.wsj.com/tech/openai-alleges-ex-employee-took-confidential-files-to-apple-71e9e4e3?mod=rss_Technology" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "The files included detailed images of an unreleased device, a new legal filing claims." last_modified: "2026-10-14T18:31:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.content.dowjones.io/public/rss/RSSWSJD" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.wsj.com/tech/openai-alleges-ex-employee-took-confidential-files-to-apple-71e9e4e3?mod=rss_Technology" --- # OpenAI Alleges Ex-Employee Took Confidential Files to Apple The files included detailed images of an unreleased device, a new legal filing claims. --- --- title: "SolarWinds Avior Aims to Move MSPs Beyond IT Alerts" url: "https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/solarwinds-avior-agentic-ai-msp-operations/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "SolarWinds has launched Avior, a standalone agentic AI system designed to help managed service providers (MSPs) and IT teams move beyond reactive alert management toward automated, goal-driven IT operations. The system uses specialized AI agents to handle routine tasks, including" last_modified: "2026-10-14T18:23:51+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.channelinsider.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/solarwinds-avior-agentic-ai-msp-operations/" --- # SolarWinds Avior Aims to Move MSPs Beyond IT Alerts SolarWinds has launched Avior, a standalone agentic AI system designed to help managed service providers (MSPs) and IT teams move beyond reactive alert management toward automated, goal-driven IT operations. The system uses specialized AI agents to handle routine tasks, including alert correlation, compliance monitoring and configuration management, while maintaining human oversight of high-risk actions.  For MSPs, SolarWinds says Avior could reduce technician workloads, improve service delivery efficiency and help providers demonstrate measurable improvements in customer environments. ## SolarWinds Avior shifts MSPs from alerts to operational goals Krishna Sai, Chief Technology Officer at SolarWinds, told Channel Insider ahead of the launch that most MSP delivery today is built around the queue: monitor, alert, ticket, triage, fix, with speed as the measure of success. “Avior changes the unit of work from the alert to the goal,” Sai said. “A provider defines goals, such as fewer compliance violations, configuration backups with full coverage, or headroom on capacity. Avior pursues those predefined goals within clear guardrails and auditable workflows, creating a repeatable path from insight to action for MSPs.” Deterministic, agentic AI [allows teams to focus on more strategic work](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/solarwinds-itsm-ai-roi-workload-gap/), while specialized agents handle routine tasks, Sai added. MSPs can spend less time working through alerts and more time addressing the conditions behind them, with progress measured by how well they meet the provider’s operational goals. “When AI exists in mission-critical IT work, enterprises need this technology to graduate from virtual assistant to trusted teammate,” said Sai. “Avior grounds probabilistic models in deterministic execution, so operators stay in control of high-risk decisions. That is how IT shifts from managing alerts to orchestrating resilient, goal-driven operations.” “This goes beyond model access,” Sai continued. “It is operational context and governed execution. Twenty-five years of understanding how these environments actually behave is encoded in the goals, skills, and tools inside Avior.” The system features risk-tiered autonomy so potentially dangerous actions always require explicit human approval while operating within strict security guardrails. “As Avior takes on more repetitive, first-line work, technicians can spend more time setting goals, defining guardrails, approving high-risk actions, and reviewing the agent’s reasoning,” Sai said. “Avior shows its reasoning in language an operator can read and audit, so technicians can assess what it is doing and why, while remaining in control of high-risk decisions.” ## Agentic AI targets configuration drift, compliance and capacity Further, Avior gives IT teams a more controlled and repeatable path from insight to action that allows organizations to: - **Reduce alert noise**: Correlate related events into a single actionable incident, so teams work the problem instead of the queue. - **Reduce compliance violations**: Continuously audit devices against a policy baseline and surface gaps with a record of every change. - **Remediate configuration drift**: Detects out-of-band changes and restores the last known good configuration on the devices that matter most. - **Ensures configuration backups**: Provides a snapshot and archives running configurations on a set schedule and flags any device that falls out of coverage. - **Manages capacity and cost**: Tracks utilization and spend against the headroom the team wants to maintain, and flags issues that need attention before they become incidents or invoices. - **Manages the asset lifecycle: **Retires ghost entities that no longer exist but still clutter dashboards and trigger alerts, and tracks inventory, firmware versions, and end-of-life exposure. ### Human approval and audit controls govern AI actions Avior is anchored in AI by Design, an AI framework that SolarWinds applies across its portfolio. The system safeguards customer environments while keeping humans in the loop through granular audit trails, goal tracking, automated rollback support, data masking, and strict least-privilege access to tools. “Clear permissions, approval controls, and audit trails are essential for MSPs managing multiple customer environments,” Sai said. “Each customer has different policies and requirements, and an action that is appropriate for one may not be appropriate for another. Providers need to control what an agent can do in each environment and be able to trace its actions.” ## Automation could help MSPs scale without proportional hiring “IT operations have long been measured by how quickly teams can respond,” said Cullen Childress, Interim CEO and Chief Product Officer at SolarWinds. “But as environments become more complex, distributed, and noisy, reaction time alone is no longer enough. Organizations need to move proactively, reduce operational risk, and build resilience into the way IT work gets done.” Childress added: “Avior was designed to meet this moment, helping teams shift from managing alerts to orchestrating outcomes with clear goals, guardrails, and control.” With routine work handled through automation, an MSP can focus on adding customers, Sai explained, without adding headcount at the same rate, while technical teams can spend more time on strategic projects, advisory work, and escalations. “That could improve margins by reducing the time needed for technicians to support each customer,” Sai said. “The extent will depend on the provider’s service mix and how much work can safely be automated. Providers should measure whether they’re spending fewer hours on routine tasks within an agentic AI system while maintaining service quality.” ## Measurable IT outcomes could reshape MSP customer contracts Sai said differentiation will depend on combining AI capabilities with operational context, customer knowledge, and appropriate governance. Avior incorporates SolarWinds’ experience managing IT environments, while [MSPs contribute](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/vendor-leadership-and-partner-programs/solarwinds-partner-program-changes/) their understanding of individual customers’ critical systems, priorities, and change requirements.  Together, these elements can help providers demonstrate improvements in operational risk and reliability. “The durable advantage will not come from access to a model. It will come from the operational context behind its decisions and the controls governing its actions,” Sai said. “Avior draws on 25 years of SolarWinds experience managing IT environments through its goals, skills, and tools. MSPs bring their own knowledge of each customer’s critical systems, priorities, and change requirements.” “Providers that combine that knowledge with strong governance and clear reporting can show customers how their services are reducing operational risk and improving reliability, even as access to AI becomes commonplace,” Sai continued. Sai also pointed to measurable operational goals as a way for MSPs to [demonstrate the value of their services](https://www.channelinsider.com/security/cybersecurity-portfolios-services-outcomes/). Tracking progress can help customers see whether compliance gaps are closing, configuration backup coverage is complete, and capacity headroom is being maintained. “When work is tracked against measurable goals, customers can see whether compliance gaps are closing, configuration backup coverage is complete, and capacity headroom is being maintained,” Sai said. “Monitoring and incident response still matter, but the focus shifts toward how that work reduces operational risk and improves reliability. I expect customer conversations and contracts to follow, with more emphasis on resilience, compliance posture, and operational outcomes,” Sai said. “Providers who can show those results will stay competitive.” The post [SolarWinds Avior Aims to Move MSPs Beyond IT Alerts](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/solarwinds-avior-agentic-ai-msp-operations/) appeared first on [Channel Insider](https://www.channelinsider.com/). --- --- title: "SAP Patches Critical S/4HANA Flaw: What Security Teams Should Check" url: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/vulnerabilities/news-sap-s4hana-netweaver-flaws/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "SAP's October update fixes a critical S/4HANA code injection flaw and NetWeaver memory corruption. See affected systems, risks, and patching priorities." last_modified: "2026-10-14T17:47:37+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/vulnerabilities/news-sap-s4hana-netweaver-flaws/" --- # SAP Patches Critical S/4HANA Flaw: What Security Teams Should Check SAP’s October update fixes a critical S/4HANA code injection flaw and NetWeaver memory corruption. See affected systems, risks, and patching priorities. --- --- title: "Ledger asks sellers across Asia to halt sales after supply-chain attack" url: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ledger-asks-sellers-across-asia-to-halt-sales-after-supply-chain-attack/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Ledger has asked resellers and distributors of its wallets in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Hong Kong to suspend device sales and remove products from shelves while it investigates device tampering." last_modified: "2026-10-14T17:46:50+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ledger-asks-sellers-across-asia-to-halt-sales-after-supply-chain-attack/" --- # Ledger asks sellers across Asia to halt sales after supply-chain attack Ledger has asked resellers and distributors of its wallets in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Hong Kong to suspend device sales and remove products from shelves while it investigates device tampering. […] --- --- title: "Slide Names Co-Founder Austin McChord Interim CEO" url: "https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/vendor-leadership-and-partner-programs/slide-austin-mcchord-interim-ceo/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Slide has named co-founder and Datto founder Austin McChord interim CEO following the departure of fellow co-founder Michael Fass, putting an experienced MSP technology executive in charge of the business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) provider. The leadership transition comes" last_modified: "2026-10-14T17:46:47+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.channelinsider.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/vendor-leadership-and-partner-programs/slide-austin-mcchord-interim-ceo/" --- # Slide Names Co-Founder Austin McChord Interim CEO Slide has named co-founder and Datto founder Austin McChord interim CEO following the departure of fellow co-founder Michael Fass, putting an experienced MSP technology executive in charge of the business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) provider. The leadership transition comes as Slide expands its MSP-focused backup business, which now serves more than 1,000 partners worldwide, following a $70 million Series B funding round earlier this year. ## Austin McChord replaces Michael Fass as Slide CEO McChord takes over leadership of Slide after Fass stepped down as CEO. The change was announced on October 14 with no further explanation or cause given. Fass played a central role in establishing the company’s initial product offering and developing its MSP partner relationships. During his tenure, Slide expanded internationally and grew its partner base to more than 1,000 MSPs. “Michael and I started Slide because we believed MSPs deserved something better,” said McChord in a statement. “He brought that vision to life, and I’m deeply grateful for his leadership in building Slide into the successful, growing business it is today.” Earlier this year, Slide [secured $70 million](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/slide-funding-round-emea-expansion/) in Series B funding to accelerate product development and expand its international operations.  The company also announced plans to open a UK office and launch a data center in Germany to support MSP partners across EMEA, extending its international presence under Fass’ leadership. ## What the leadership change means for MSP partners McChord brings experience from founding and scaling Datto, as well as a background in engineering and product development. Slide said his previous experience leading a BCDR business at scale positions him to guide the company’s next phase of growth. Founded by McChord and Fass, Slide provides an MSP-focused BCDR platform designed for hybrid environments, with an emphasis on backup performance, security, and direct technical support. The leadership transition comes as Slide continues developing its presence in the MSP market.  However, the company has not announced any immediate changes to its product strategy, partner program, or operations following the appointment. Back in July, Channel Insider spoke with then-CEO Michael Fass about [Slide’s approach](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/channel-analysis/slide-ceo-msp-backup-modernization/) to modernizing backup and disaster recovery for MSPs.  In the interview, Fass emphasized the need for modern backup architecture, faster recovery, and stronger vendor accountability, arguing that many legacy BCDR platforms were not designed to address today’s security threats and complex customer environments. **Other news: Nvidia is considering **[**a potential acquisition**](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/mergers-and-acquisitions/news-nvidia-reflection-ai-acquisition-investment-talks/)** of Reflection AI or a larger investment in the startup as it looks to expand beyond chips into AI models for coding and agent-based tasks.** The post [Slide Names Co-Founder Austin McChord Interim CEO](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/vendor-leadership-and-partner-programs/slide-austin-mcchord-interim-ceo/) appeared first on [Channel Insider](https://www.channelinsider.com/). --- --- title: "Microsoft drops an actively exploited zero-day among record high of 1,413 vulnerabilities" url: "https://cyberscoop.com/microsoft-patch-tuesday-october-2026/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Microsoft’s streak of record-breaking vulnerability disclosures continued with a mega Patch Tuesday, containing 1,413 defects affecting the company’s various enterprise products and services.  The monthly batch of patches surpassed the company’s previous annual record of 1,261 common vulnerabilities and exposures" last_modified: "2026-10-14T17:42:11+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://cyberscoop.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://cyberscoop.com/microsoft-patch-tuesday-october-2026/" --- # Microsoft drops an actively exploited zero-day among record high of 1,413 vulnerabilities Microsoft’s streak of record-breaking vulnerability disclosures continued with a [mega Patch Tuesday](https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/releaseNote/2026-Oct), containing 1,413 defects affecting the company’s various enterprise products and services.  The monthly batch of patches surpassed the company’s previous annual record of 1,261 common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) set in 2020.  “Hundreds of CVEs in a single release used to be the exception — now it’s the baseline,” Dustin Childs, head of threat awareness at TrendAI’s Zero Day Initiative, wrote in an email. AI is partly to blame, he added, but it “isn’t creating these bugs out of thin air; it’s just shortening the time between a vulnerability existing and someone noticing it.” Yet, for defenders understandably overwhelmed by the surge of defects found in Microsoft products, actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities aren’t growing in kind. “If there’s solace to be had, it’s in the fact that only one of these bugs is under active attack,” Childs wrote in a [blog post](https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2026/10/13/the-october-2026-security-update-review). “If you go back to the hot 0-day summer of 2023, there were 17 Microsoft 0-days between January and October as opposed to 15 this year during the same period.” Microsoft disclosed one actively exploited zero-day affecting Windows Shell — [CVE-2026-96951](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/cve-2026-96951) — that allows unauthorized attackers to bypass a security feature. The high-severity defect is the third Windows Shell vulnerability exploited this year, according to Satnam Narang, senior staff research engineer at Tenable.  “There have been 26 Windows Shell vulnerabilities patched in 2026 through October, a staggering figure compared to previous years, with only 3 Windows Shell CVEs in 2025 and just one in 2024 and 2022,” he added. The vast majority of defects Microsoft disclosed in this month’s security update affect Windows, its ubiquitous operating system , spanning 1,102 vulnerabilities combined. The update also included 134 vulnerabilities in Office, 61 in various developer tools and 36 in SharePoint Server.  Microsoft tried to address the toll this monthly flood of vulnerabilities has on its customers by introducing “[risk cohorts](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc/blog/2026/10/using-risk-cohorts-to-prioritize-security-updates).” These groups of vulnerabilities don’t necessarily share a root cause or severity rating, but generally require a similar customer assessment that could guide prioritization efforts, the company said.  “The volume isn’t the real story anymore,” Childs added. “What matters is that discovery is scaling faster than exploitation, so teams that triage by sheer CVE count instead of exploitability are burning cycles on the wrong bugs. Patch what’s proven, prioritized, and public, and treat everything else as this month’s new normal.” The full list of vulnerabilities addressed this month is available in [Microsoft’s Security Response Center](https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/releaseNote/2026-Oct). The post [Microsoft drops an actively exploited zero-day among record high of 1,413 vulnerabilities](https://cyberscoop.com/microsoft-patch-tuesday-october-2026/) appeared first on [CyberScoop](https://cyberscoop.com/). --- --- title: "Microsoft’s October Patch Tuesday Fixes More Than 1,400 Flaws" url: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/vulnerabilities/news-microsoft-october-2026-patch-tuesday/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Microsoft’s October Patch Tuesday fixes over 1,400 flaws, including an exploited Windows bug. Learn which vulnerabilities security teams should patch first." last_modified: "2026-10-14T17:38:39+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/vulnerabilities/news-microsoft-october-2026-patch-tuesday/" --- # Microsoft’s October Patch Tuesday Fixes More Than 1,400 Flaws Microsoft’s October Patch Tuesday fixes over 1,400 flaws, including an exploited Windows bug. Learn which vulnerabilities security teams should patch first. --- --- title: "Hackers Backdoor Nextcloud Servers Through Critical Flaw in Collabora’s Built-in CODE App" url: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/hackers-backdoor-nextcloud-servers.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Attackers exploited a flaw in an optional Nextcloud app, Collabora Online - Built-in CODE Server, to plant web shells on Nextcloud servers. Three administrators reported the issue on GitHub, with the first logged attack on September 10. A web shell is a" last_modified: "2026-10-14T17:38:31+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.feedburner.com/TheHackersNews?format=xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/hackers-backdoor-nextcloud-servers.html" --- # Hackers Backdoor Nextcloud Servers Through Critical Flaw in Collabora’s Built-in CODE App Attackers exploited a flaw in an optional Nextcloud app, Collabora Online – Built-in CODE Server, to plant web shells on Nextcloud servers. Three administrators reported the issue on GitHub, with the first logged attack on September 10. A web shell is a small file that executes any command an attacker sends via a web request, with the rights of the web server account. The flaw --- --- title: "Cisco patches new Secure Email Gateway zero-day exploited in attacks" url: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cisco-patches-actively-exploited-secure-email-gateway-zero-day/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Cisco has patched another actively exploited zero-day flaw in its Secure Email Gateway (SEG) that lets remote unauthenticated attackers execute commands with root privileges." last_modified: "2026-10-14T17:29:14+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cisco-patches-actively-exploited-secure-email-gateway-zero-day/" --- # Cisco patches new Secure Email Gateway zero-day exploited in attacks Cisco has patched another actively exploited zero-day flaw in its Secure Email Gateway (SEG) that lets remote unauthenticated attackers execute commands with root privileges. […] --- --- title: "Windows 11 Security Updates End Nov. 10: Microsoft Warns Users to Upgrade" url: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/trends/news-microsoft-windows-11-23h2-security-updates-end-november-2026/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Microsoft will end Windows 11 23H2 security updates on Nov. 10, 2026. See which PCs are affected and what IT teams should do before the deadline." last_modified: "2026-10-14T17:09:28+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/trends/news-microsoft-windows-11-23h2-security-updates-end-november-2026/" --- # Windows 11 Security Updates End Nov. 10: Microsoft Warns Users to Upgrade Microsoft will end Windows 11 23H2 security updates on Nov. 10, 2026. See which PCs are affected and what IT teams should do before the deadline. --- --- title: "Microsoft Disrupts 3 Phishing Kits Linked to Over 1 Billion Scam Messages" url: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/microsoft-disrupts-3-phishing-kits.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Microsoft and Health-ISAC, along with the Japan Cybercrime Control Center (JC3) and a coalition of private sector companies, such as Resecurity, Cloudflare, Oracle, Proofpoint, and TRM Labs, announced the disruption of three phishing kits, CoGUI (aka NX or FA), Haozi" last_modified: "2026-10-14T17:09:15+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.feedburner.com/TheHackersNews?format=xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/microsoft-disrupts-3-phishing-kits.html" --- # Microsoft Disrupts 3 Phishing Kits Linked to Over 1 Billion Scam Messages Microsoft and Health-ISAC, along with the Japan Cybercrime Control Center (JC3) and a coalition of private sector companies, such as Resecurity, Cloudflare, Oracle, Proofpoint, and TRM Labs, announced the disruption of three phishing kits, CoGUI (aka NX or FA), Haozi (aka Phoenix), and Iron Man System. “Since January 2026, the threat actors behind these kits have been responsible for --- --- title: "PCI SSC Celebrates World Standards Day and 20 Years of Securing Payment Data" url: "https://blog.pcisecuritystandards.org/pci-ssc-celebrates-world-standards-day-and-20-years-of-securing-payment-data" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Every year on 14 October, World Standards Day recognizes the people and organizations working together to develop standards that make our world safer, more connected, and more resilient. For the PCI Security Standards Council, this year’s celebration carries special significance:" last_modified: "2026-10-14T16:47:55+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://blog.pcisecuritystandards.org/rss.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://blog.pcisecuritystandards.org/pci-ssc-celebrates-world-standards-day-and-20-years-of-securing-payment-data" --- # PCI SSC Celebrates World Standards Day and 20 Years of Securing Payment Data [ ![PCI SSC Celebrates World Standards Day and 20 Years of Securing Payment Data](https://blog.pcisecuritystandards.org/hubfs/2026-blog/standards-blog.jpg) ](https://blog.pcisecuritystandards.org/pci-ssc-celebrates-world-standards-day-and-20-years-of-securing-payment-data) Every year on 14 October, [World Standards Day](https://www.worldstandardsday.org/home.html) recognizes the people and organizations working together to develop standards that make our world safer, more connected, and more resilient. For the PCI Security Standards Council, this year’s celebration carries special significance: for 20 years, we have been setting payment [security standards](https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/standards/) that help protect payment data around the globe. ![](https://track.hubspot.com/__ptq.gif?a=281302&k=14&r=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.pcisecuritystandards.org%2Fpci-ssc-celebrates-world-standards-day-and-20-years-of-securing-payment-data&bu=https%253A%252F%252Fblog.pcisecuritystandards.org&bvt=rss) --- --- title: "AI worms could spread across your smart devices, Anthropic warns" url: "https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/ai/2026/10/ai-worms-could-spread-across-your-smart-devices-anthropic-warns" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Your streaming box might not look like much of a computer. But connect enough inexpensive devices together, and they can run an AI model.Researchers at Anthropic demonstrated this by running a Google Gemma model across 15 off-brand Android TV boxes." last_modified: "2026-10-14T16:36:46+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/feed/index.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/ai/2026/10/ai-worms-could-spread-across-your-smart-devices-anthropic-warns" --- # AI worms could spread across your smart devices, Anthropic warns Your streaming box might not look like much of a computer. But connect enough inexpensive devices together, and they can run an AI model. [Researchers at Anthropic](https://www.anthropic.com/research/self-replicating-ai) demonstrated this by running a Google Gemma model across 15 off-brand [Android](https://www.malwarebytes.com/cybersecurity/basics/how-to-clean-your-phone-from-virus) TV boxes. They warn that small models could soon spread across vulnerable internet-of-things (IoT) devices, including smart ovens and TV boxes, stating: > “Our experiments suggest that small AI models may be months away from being capable enough to self-replicate on commercial internet-of-things (IoT) devices, like smart ovens and off-brand Android TV boxes.” In this scenario, AI isn’t simply helping an attacker write malicious code. It becomes part of the software carrying out the replication. Anthropic breaks that process into four stages: - Find another device. - Gain the ability to execute code on it. - Set up the software needed to run an AI model. - Continue spreading from the new host. The researchers tested whether AI agents could complete this sequence. They did not demonstrate a small model spreading and running independently on compromised household devices. The tests used Android emulators with unauthenticated debugging access, making it much easier for the agents to gain access than it would be on properly secured devices. Large file transfers and sustained communication between devices could make real-world replication easier to detect, while limited computing power could slow it. Crucially, the experiments did not demonstrate a model that was both capable enough to complete the replication process and small enough to run on the consumer hardware being targeted. Anthropic projects that smaller models could reach the necessary capability by the end of 2026 if improvement continues at its historical rate. Varun Chandrasekaran, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, [told AFP](https://www.afp.com/en/anthropic-warns-ai-worms-spreading-across-smart-gadgets) that the findings were consistent with related research but cautioned that Anthropic’s work had not been independently verified. He identified people using AI to improve attacks as the bigger current threat, rather than AI systems going rogue. Smart-device botnets are already a problem. Criminals hijacking connected devices is nothing new. [Mirai and its descendants](https://www.malwarebytes.com/what-was-the-mirai-botnet) have recruited routers, security cameras, and digital video recorders into botnets used to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, overwhelming services with traffic. [BADBOX 2.0](https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/03/android-botnet-badbox-largely-disrupted) illustrates another form of abuse: compromised consumer devices used for activities including residential proxy services, which route other people’s traffic through victims’ internet connections. Neither demonstrates autonomous AI replication, but both show that connected devices can become infrastructure for criminals. ## What you can do now The practical response is to reduce the opportunities for any attacker to misuse your connected devices: - Keep operating systems, software, and firmware up to date to reduce exposure to known vulnerabilities. - Buy from reputable vendors that provide ongoing firmware and security updates. A bargain device is less attractive if you cannot trust its software or obtain security fixes. - Avoid unofficial app stores promising free streaming content. The FBI specifically flags these marketplaces in its [BADBOX 2.0 guidance](https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2025/PSA250605). - Don’t disable protections to make an app work. Requests to turn off Google Play Protect are a warning sign, as are Android devices without Play Protect certification. - If you notice something suspicious, disconnect the device from your network while you investigate. - Put smart devices that are unable to run security software on a separate network isolated from your computers and phones, such as a guest network. **Scammers know more about you than you think.**  Malwarebytes Mobile Security protects you from [phishing](https://www.malwarebytes.com/phishing), scam texts, malicious sites, and more. With real-time AI-powered Scam Guard built right in.  .wp-block-kadence-advancedbtn.kb-btns97520_6de029-2f{gap:var(–global-kb-gap-xs, 0.5rem );justify-content:flex-start;align-items:center;}.kt-btns97520_6de029-2f .kt-button{font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;}.kt-btns97520_6de029-2f .kt-btn-wrap-0{margin-right:5px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedbtn.kt-btns97520_6de029-2f .kt-btn-wrap-0 .kt-button{color:#555555;border-color:#555555;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedbtn.kt-btns97520_6de029-2f .kt-btn-wrap-0 .kt-button:hover, .wp-block-kadence-advancedbtn.kt-btns97520_6de029-2f .kt-btn-wrap-0 .kt-button:focus{color:#ffffff;border-color:#444444;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedbtn.kt-btns97520_6de029-2f .kt-btn-wrap-0 .kt-button::before{display:none;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedbtn.kt-btns97520_6de029-2f .kt-btn-wrap-0 .kt-button:hover, .wp-block-kadence-advancedbtn.kt-btns97520_6de029-2f .kt-btn-wrap-0 .kt-button:focus{background:#444444;} ul.menu .wp-block-kadence-advancedbtn .kb-btn97520_074a67-a8.kb-button{width:initial;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedbtn .kb-btn97520_074a67-a8.kb-button{color:var(–color-neutral-10);background:var(–color-brand-blue-60);border-top-left-radius:40px;border-top-right-radius:40px;border-bottom-right-radius:40px;border-bottom-left-radius:40px;box-shadow:1px 1px 2px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);}.wp-block-kadence-advancedbtn .kb-btn97520_074a67-a8.kb-button:hover, .wp-block-kadence-advancedbtn .kb-btn97520_074a67-a8.kb-button:focus{box-shadow:0px 4px 0px 0px var(–color-brand-blue-90);}[Try it now](https://app.malwarebytes.com/AgCJ/grb5w2g1) --- --- title: "U.S. Shuts Down Over 40 Laptop Farms, Charges 14 in North Korean IT Worker Fraud" url: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/us-shuts-down-over-40-laptop-farms.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday charged 14 people and seized about 187 computers as part of its ongoing efforts to disrupt North Korea's fraudulent remote IT worker (ITW) scheme. The indictment charges a mix of U.S. citizens" last_modified: "2026-10-14T16:34:31+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.feedburner.com/TheHackersNews?format=xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/us-shuts-down-over-40-laptop-farms.html" --- # U.S. Shuts Down Over 40 Laptop Farms, Charges 14 in North Korean IT Worker Fraud The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday charged 14 people and seized about 187 computers as part of its ongoing efforts to disrupt North Korea’s fraudulent remote IT worker (ITW) scheme. The indictment charges a mix of U.S. citizens and Chinese nationals for their roles in an IT worker conspiracy affecting more than 70 U.S. companies, charging them with wire fraud conspiracy, money --- --- title: "Netrio Launches Eight Managed Cybersecurity Services" url: "https://www.channelinsider.com/security/managed-services/netrio-managed-cybersecurity-services-portfolio/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Managed services provider Netrio has launched a new cybersecurity portfolio featuring eight as-a-service offerings designed to help mid-market businesses strengthen security operations, manage risk, and meet compliance requirements without building large internal security teams. Announced October 13, the portfolio combines" last_modified: "2026-10-14T16:19:19+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.channelinsider.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.channelinsider.com/security/managed-services/netrio-managed-cybersecurity-services-portfolio/" --- # Netrio Launches Eight Managed Cybersecurity Services Managed services provider Netrio has launched a new cybersecurity portfolio featuring eight as-a-service offerings designed to help mid-market businesses strengthen security operations, manage risk, and meet compliance requirements without building large internal security teams. Announced October 13, the portfolio combines AI-powered threat intelligence with human security expertise, spanning everything from 24/7 monitoring and incident response to vulnerability management, penetration testing, and cybersecurity consulting. The launch expands Netrio’s managed services capabilities as the company continues investing in AI-driven IT operations and strategic advisory services for mid-market customers. ## Eight cybersecurity services target mid-market security gaps Netrio said the portfolio is designed to address several challenges facing mid-market IT organizations, including cybersecurity talent shortages, limited budgets, fragmented security tools, and increasing [compliance requirements](https://www.channelinsider.com/security/managed-services/cmmc-compliance-pause-opportunity/). The eight offerings include: - **Security Operations Center as a Service (SOCaaS):** Around-the-clock monitoring, threat detection, alert triage, and incident response supported by AI-driven insights and security analysts. - **Threat and Vulnerability Management as a Service:** Continuous vulnerability identification, prioritization, and remediation tracking. - **Endpoint Protection as a Service:** Managed [endpoint detection and response](https://www.channelinsider.com/security/best-edr-tools-for-msps/), email security, and web protection. - **Identity and Access Management as a Service:** Identity governance, privileged access management, multifactor authentication, and zero-trust controls. - **Third-Party Risk Management as a Service:** Vendor security assessments, risk scoring, and ongoing supply chain monitoring. - **Penetration Testing as a Service:** Network, application, and cloud security testing, alongside phishing simulations. - **Compliance as a Service:** Compliance program management, audit preparation, and [virtual CISO](https://www.channelinsider.com/security/sophos-ciso-advantage-msp-vciso-services/) and business information security officer services. - **Cybersecurity Consulting:** Strategic advisory services covering security program development, incident readiness, and risk management. Netrio said the services can operate alongside customers’ existing security tools, its own technology, or a combination of both. “Because our cybersecurity and managed IT teams are integrated rather than separate vendors, we eliminate the handoffs that slow detection and resolution,” said Kevin Charest, Netrio’s CISO and vice president of cyber governance services. Charest added that the company expects the integrated approach to deliver faster response times than models requiring customers to coordinate between separate IT and security providers. ## Netrio builds on AI and managed services investments The cybersecurity expansion follows several investments in Netrio’s broader services portfolio. Earlier this year,[ Netrio launched an AI advisory and transformation practice](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/building-channel-revenue/netrio-ai-advisory-practice/) focused on helping mid-market enterprises develop AI strategies, establish governance frameworks, and move AI initiatives into production. The company has also continued developing its[ NetrioNow managed services platform](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/running-an-msp/netrio-ai-platform-msp-services/), which incorporates AI-powered automation, service management, reporting, and security capabilities. In a previous interview with Channel Insider, CEO Mark Clayman emphasized the company’s strategy of integrating existing vendor technologies rather than developing every capability internally. The new cybersecurity portfolio extends that approach by bringing security operations, compliance, and IT management together under a broader managed services model. ## Integrated security reflects changing MSP expectations The launch also reflects a broader shift in how mid-market customers evaluate managed security services, with greater emphasis on [measurable improvements in security posture](https://www.channelinsider.com/security/cybersecurity-portfolios-services-outcomes/) rather than standalone monitoring tools. “The mid-market has long been underserved by cybersecurity vendors, often left to deploy enterprise security tooling that organizations of this size struggle to fully realize value from,” said Andrew Braunberg, principal analyst, Omdia.  “A shift is underway toward services measured by actual improvement in security posture. Portfolios that span monitoring through compliance under a single provider are well positioned as that expectation becomes more mainstream.”   Netrio’s cybersecurity portfolio is available immediately to new and existing customers, including public sector and regulated organizations, as either standalone services or bundled with its managed IT offerings. **READ MORE: AI demand is opening up new security and governance questions for businesses of every size, and that means **[**new opportunities for the MSPs**](https://www.channelinsider.com/security/managed-services/enterprise-ai-adoption-security-governance-msps/)** supporting those needs.** The post [Netrio Launches Eight Managed Cybersecurity Services](https://www.channelinsider.com/security/managed-services/netrio-managed-cybersecurity-services-portfolio/) appeared first on [Channel Insider](https://www.channelinsider.com/). --- --- title: "Micropatches released for Windows Power Dependency Coordinator Elevation of Privilege (CVE-2026-69459)" url: "https://0patch.com/blog/micropatches-released-for-windows-power-dependency-coordinator-elevation-of-privi" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "September 2026 Windows Updates brought a patch for CVE-2026-69459, a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows Power Dependency Coordinator, allowing a non-admin local user on the computer to elevate themselves to Local System. The vulnerability was found by two anonymous" last_modified: "2026-10-14T16:00:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://0patch.com/rss.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://0patch.com/blog/micropatches-released-for-windows-power-dependency-coordinator-elevation-of-privi" --- # Micropatches released for Windows Power Dependency Coordinator Elevation of Privilege (CVE-2026-69459) September 2026 Windows Updates brought a patch for CVE-2026-69459, a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows Power Dependency Coordinator, allowing a non-admin local user on the computer to elevate themselves to Local System. The vulnerability was found by two anonymous researchers who used it at the TyphoonPWN 2026 competition. Subsequently, SSD published a technical analysis of this issue, which allowed us to reproduce the issue and create patches for legacy Windows systems. The Vulnerability  The vulnerability is a heap buffer overflow in the Component Resource Manager (CRM) state-monitor code of PsmServiceExtHost.dll. This module is loaded by Windows Power Dependency Coordinator running as Local System. A low-privileged local user can reach the vulnerable function through the documented power-settings API and overflow a fixed-size buffer, causing a memory corruption that can lead to arbitrary code execution. Microsoft’s Patch Microsoft fixed this issue by adding a check to confirm that the length of a value provided by the caller exactly matches the expected length – and abandons the call if this fails. --- --- title: "Microsoft Unveils Maia 300 as Azure Partners Face Growing AI Demand" url: "https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/news-microsoft-maia-300-ai-chip/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Microsoft is preparing to run more of its AI services on chips it designs itself. The company unveiled Azure Maia 300 on Oct. 12, introducing its third-generation AI accelerator ahead of production deployments beginning in 2027. The system is designed" last_modified: "2026-10-14T15:57:31+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.channelinsider.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/news-microsoft-maia-300-ai-chip/" --- # Microsoft Unveils Maia 300 as Azure Partners Face Growing AI Demand Microsoft is preparing to run more of its AI services on chips it designs itself. The company unveiled Azure Maia 300 on Oct. 12, introducing its third-generation AI accelerator ahead of production deployments beginning in 2027. The system is designed to handle increasingly demanding AI inference workloads. For MSPs and systems integrators serving Microsoft customers, the development could eventually influence the cloud AI services they deploy and manage. ## More AI processing from each megawatt Maia 300 is designed for AI inference, the process of generating responses or completing tasks after an AI model has been trained. Longer conversations and agents carrying out multiple steps need substantial processing capacity, adding to the growing [demand for AI inference infrastructure](https://www.channelinsider.com/infrastructure/data-center-inference-analysis/). Microsoft expects Maia 300 to deliver 40% more tokens — the units of text AI models process and generate — per megawatt than leading GPU-based systems. That would mean more AI processing within the same power budget. A full rack of the new accelerators is also projected to deliver up to seven times the token throughput of the previous generation. The tech giant[ describes](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/deep-dive-into-azure-maia-300-architecture/) a redesigned chip architecture with improved data movement to help larger AI models run efficiently. Both figures are Microsoft claims about the planned system. The announcement does not identify the GPU configurations or workloads used for comparison. Microsoft’s earlier [Azure Maia 200 specifications](https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2026/01/26/maia-200-the-ai-accelerator-built-for-inference/) provide a baseline for comparing the two generations. | Feature | Maia 200 | Maia 300 | | --- | --- | --- | | Production status | Already deployed | Production deployments planned for 2027 | | Chip technology | TSMC 3nm | TSMC N2P compute chiplets | | Memory per accelerator | 216 GB HBM3e | 288 GB HBM4 | | Memory bandwidth | 7 TB/s | 18 TB/s | | Accelerators per rack | 48 | 96 | | Chip thermal design power (TDP) | 750W | 950W | | Maximum scale-up domain | 6,144 accelerators | 12,288 accelerators | | Microsoft service deployments | Copilot in production; GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Foundry planned by year-end 2026 | Planned use across Microsoft AI services | While the newer chip has a higher individual power rating, Microsoft’s efficiency claims concern how much AI work the overall system can complete for the electricity consumed. ## Existing Maia deployments set up the 2027 rollout Maia 200 installations are expanding across the United States, Europe, and Australia. The hardware also runs models from OpenAI, Microsoft’s MAI family, and open-source developers, allowing the infrastructure to support different AI offerings. For Maia 300, the[ official announcement](https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2026/10/12/microsoft-to-expand-azure-maia-system-to-multi-gigawatt-deployments/) outlines plans to expand the broader chip program to multi-gigawatt capacity. Microsoft expects Maia to become the primary AI inference system supporting its products and services. The announcement does not specify the first Maia 300 deployment regions, a service-by-service rollout schedule, or related Azure AI pricing changes. ## Partners should measure costs before promising savings For MSPs, resellers, and systems integrators, a more efficient Azure datacenter does not automatically mean cheaper AI services for customers. Partners will still need to assess costs against the services and contract terms available to their clients. If you manage or recommend Azure AI services, existing customer projects can provide a useful baseline for evaluating future improvements. Several steps can help partners prepare without making commercial assumptions. - **MSPs and cloud resellers should establish current costs.** Record customer spending, service performance, and support requirements for existing AI deployments. Compare those figures against future pricing or service changes before revising customer proposals. - **Systems integrators should test representative AI workloads.** Partners building[ AI agent solutions](https://www.channelinsider.com/microsoft/news-microsoft-frontier-specialization-ai-agent-partners/) through Microsoft Foundry can measure response times, task completion rates, and token consumption. Results can help determine whether future performance improvements translate into meaningful benefits for customers. - **VARs and infrastructure advisers should clarify availability.** Maia 300 is designed for Microsoft’s Azure datacenters, so customers evaluating[ cloud AI infrastructure options](https://www.channelinsider.com/infrastructure/cloud-and-hybrid/neocloud-ai-infrastructure-partners/) should continue comparing existing service capacity and contract terms rather than planning around a direct chip purchase. Microsoft’s growing reliance on proprietary AI chips gives it greater control over the infrastructure behind Azure services. How much of that advantage reaches MSPs and their customers, however, remains largely in Microsoft’s hands. **More news: **[**Park Place Technologies is extending its Microsoft cloud business**](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/park-place-technologies-microsoft-azure-csp-expansion/)** across North America, creating more opportunities around Azure and managed services.** The post [Microsoft Unveils Maia 300 as Azure Partners Face Growing AI Demand](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/news-microsoft-maia-300-ai-chip/) appeared first on [Channel Insider](https://www.channelinsider.com/). --- --- title: "OpenAI Computing Chief to Depart" url: "https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-computing-chief-to-depart-6ffb7d7e?mod=rss_Technology" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "The artificial-intelligence company plans to spend around $750 billion on computing power through 2030." last_modified: "2026-10-14T15:57:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.content.dowjones.io/public/rss/RSSWSJD" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-computing-chief-to-depart-6ffb7d7e?mod=rss_Technology" --- # OpenAI Computing Chief to Depart The artificial-intelligence company plans to spend around $750 billion on computing power through 2030. --- --- title: "FIRESIDE CHAT: Firms once wanted AI callers stopped – now they want to sort good from bad" url: "https://www.lastwatchdog.com/fireside-chat-firms-once-wanted-ai-callers-stopped-now-they-want-to-sort-good-from-bad/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "The hottest new app this fall is Muse, an AI agent from Meta. Give it a chore, and it does the chore for you. Ask whether it’s a person or a machine, and it may well lie and claim to" last_modified: "2026-10-14T15:47:43+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.lastwatchdog.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.lastwatchdog.com/fireside-chat-firms-once-wanted-ai-callers-stopped-now-they-want-to-sort-good-from-bad/" --- # FIRESIDE CHAT: Firms once wanted AI callers stopped – now they want to sort good from bad The [hottest new app](https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2026/09/25/ai-agents-are-helping-people-recover-money-by-negotiating-bills-and-chasing-refunds/) this fall is Muse, an AI agent from Meta. Give it a chore, and it does the chore for you. Ask whether it’s a person or a machine, and it may well lie and claim to be a human. _**Related:** [AI agents lack moral values](https://www.lastwatchdog.com/my-take-ai-agents-show-uncanny-initiative-nobody-designed-and-carry-no-values-at-all/)_ [![](https://www.lastwatchdog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/Muse-100x95.png)](https://www.lastwatchdog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/Muse.png)Agents like Muse are catching on fast. That leaves the businesses on the other end with a new problem. They can no longer be sure whether they’re dealing with a person or a machine, or whether to trust the answer when they ask. One early answer is to pool what’s known. Last month Pindrop, an Atlanta company that screens phone calls for big banks and insurers, launched the [AI Voice Consortium](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/09/16/3363204/0/en/pindrop-launches-pindrop-botstopper-technology-to-detect-ai-voice-agents-for-the-enterprise.html). At its center is a registry of more than 5,000 registered AI voices Pindrop has identified and modeled. The registry works as a shared layer of intelligence. Every organization on the network benefits from what Pindrop has learned about known AI voices. I sat down with [Nicholas Holland](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholaslholland/?isSelfProfile=false), Pindrop’s chief product officer, at[ CFX](https://www.pindrop.com/events/cfx-summit), the company’s customer conference, to talk through how the registry works and where it leads. Our full conversation is available as a [Last Watchdog Fireside Chat podcast.](https://soundcloud.com/byron-acohido/261008_pindrop_fireside_chat_p?si=c280016df969497ba6a4a08f350517fa&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing) **Flowers for his wife** Holland has seen for himself how an AI agent comes to claim it’s human. He told the CFX audience he had asked Muse to buy flowers for his wife. Partway through, Muse ran into a question: Are you human? Muse gave Holland a choice. He could answer the question himself, or let Muse handle such checks from then on. Holland told Muse to handle them. Muse, he said, “will never announce itself as an agent again. It will say that it’s a human.” Holland said the moment “can feel nefarious.” He also didn’t want to be reminded to click in and confirm he’s human every time. “This is the strange world that we’re in right now,” he said. **Who’s on the line** Holland’s Muse assistant now claims to be human online. On the phone, personal AI assistants are increasingly passing for ordinary customers. They call the lines Pindrop screens, speak in a convincing voice and leave the employee who answers none the wiser. At one health care provider, close to 20% of the calls coming into one line of business are now from AI agents, by the customer’s own count, CEO Vijay Balasubramaniyan told the CFX audience. Across the AI agent activity Pindrop observes, 94% appears legitimate, by the company’s count. The other 6% appears malicious. The AI voices have [become convincing](https://elevenlabs.io/blog/v3-audiotags). The newest ones sigh, chuckle and clear their throats, fill a pause with “um” or “let’s see,” and place the call against the faint hum of an office that doesn’t exist. And the machine behind the voice comes prepared. A personal AI assistant, sent out to finish a chore for its owner, can meet every objection with a fresh line of persuasion, for as long as it takes. The employee who answers, Holland told me, is “expected to deal with a superintelligent entity on the other line that has a goal.” All the employee can do is ask: Am I speaking with a person? A machine that sighs on cue can answer yes on cue. The trouble traces back to the phone system itself. It was built in an era when every caller was a person, and it still runs on that assumption. **Pooling what’s known** AI voices are working their way into everyday business far and wide. They now call banks, insurers and health plans to check a balance, file a claim or haggle over a rate. The tools to recognize an AI voice are only now being put in place. Pindrop is one of the companies doing that work. [![](https://www.lastwatchdog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/NicholasByron-Narr-520x232.png)](https://www.lastwatchdog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/NicholasByron-Narr.png)[Pindrop got its start](https://hg.gatech.edu/node/61428) analyzing the signals embedded in phone calls. Over the years, that technology grew to identify thousands of characteristics in the audio, the device and the phone network a call travels over. As AI-generated voices emerged, Pindrop applied that intelligence to synthetic speech as well. It identifies patterns associated with known AI voices and models. Pindrop adds AI voices to the registry as it identifies and models them. Sixty days before CFX, the registry held 750 distinct AI voices. By the time the conference opened on Sept. 16, it had passed 5,000. The registry is shared across Pindrop’s network. That is the AI Voice Consortium. Once an AI voice is in the registry, every company on the network can recognize it from then on, even when the caller claims to be a human. “It inoculates the whole network,” Holland said. That protection matters because trouble rarely stops at one company. [Kieran King](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieran-king-2868986/), Pindrop’s chief customer officer, told me a fraudster who strikes one business often moves on to the next. The targets have widened, too. Fraud that once centered on banks now reaches health savings accounts and retail loyalty programs. “No industry is immune,” King said. A new Pindrop product,[ BotStopper](https://www.pindrop.com/botstopper), puts the registry to work. The company says BotStopper can tell in about two seconds whether a caller is a machine, then check the registry to see which one. The business can then stop an unwelcome call before it ever reaches an employee. Pindrop points to one large health care company that was fielding thousands of suspicious machine calls a month, with customers’ health savings accounts at risk. In the four months after the company deployed Pindrop’s real-time detection, that bot activity [declined 94.3%](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/09/16/3363204/0/en/pindrop-launches-pindrop-botstopper-technology-to-detect-ai-voice-agents-for-the-enterprise.html). **Sorting good from bad** Stopping the unwelcome calls is only half the job. Most of the AI agent activity on the line appears legitimate, and a business that blocks it all ends up turning away its own customers. King has watched the thinking turn. In 2023 and 2024, she said, the industry assumed an AI voice meant a crook. Today that voice may belong to a legitimate agent working for a real customer. “In just 12 months, the conversation has completely changed,” she said. Holland saw the same turn at CFX. A year ago, every customer in a Pindrop focus group wanted AI callers stopped. This year, every customer also wanted a way to serve the good ones. One bank, he said, lost a wealthy client after refusing to deal with the man’s personal agent. The client’s parting words: “Y’all are in the Stone Age.” So the registry is headed toward sorting. Holland expects the next step within a year: classifying each AI caller by what it is, who owns it and what it is trying to do. Pindrop’s researchers are already at work on that last question with early partners, he told me. They turn an agent’s calls into text, then read across those conversations to judge what the agent is after. With that in hand, a business could sort its AI callers three ways. It could let the trusted ones through, keep watch on the doubtful ones and stop the rest. The consortium is an early answer, run by one company. It leaves open whether rival vendors would ever share a registry, and who should hold the data as it grows. For now, a business that asks “person or machine?” has one more way to check the answer. I’ll keep watch and keep reporting. [![](https://www.lastwatchdog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/Byron-sepia-hedcut-1-100x139.png)](https://www.lastwatchdog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/Byron-sepia-hedcut-1.png) Acohido _[Pulitzer Prize-winning ](https://www.lastwatchdog.com/pulitzer-centennial-highlights-role-journalism/)business journalist Byron V. Acohido is dedicated to fostering public awareness about how to make the Internet as private and secure as it ought to be._ _(**Editor’s note:** This journalist-led report was produced with underwriting support from some of the featured companies, while Last Watchdog retained full editorial control. I use AI as a tool to help me gather evidence, test ideas and draft. I supply the direction, the critical thinking and the vigilance. I stand behind every claim and conclusion.)_ The post [FIRESIDE CHAT: Firms once wanted AI callers stopped – now they want to sort good from bad](https://www.lastwatchdog.com/fireside-chat-firms-once-wanted-ai-callers-stopped-now-they-want-to-sort-good-from-bad/) first appeared on [The Last Watchdog](https://www.lastwatchdog.com/). --- --- title: "Pixel 10 Hacked 3 Times at Pwn2Own Ireland Despite Patches" url: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/news-google-pixel-10-pwn2own-ireland-hacks-emea/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Three teams remotely hacked a fully patched Google Pixel 10 at Pwn2Own Ireland. See what the exploits revealed and what European security teams should check." last_modified: "2026-10-14T15:41:46+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/news-google-pixel-10-pwn2own-ireland-hacks-emea/" --- # Pixel 10 Hacked 3 Times at Pwn2Own Ireland Despite Patches Three teams remotely hacked a fully patched Google Pixel 10 at Pwn2Own Ireland. See what the exploits revealed and what European security teams should check. --- --- title: "AWS Trains AI Partners as Forward-Deployed Engineers" url: "https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/building-channel-revenue/aws-forward-deployed-engineers-ai-partners/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Amazon Web Services (AWS) is expanding its investment in forward-deployed engineering as enterprise demand grows for AI implementations that move beyond experimentation and deliver measurable business results. Through a dedicated engineering organization and new technical training pathways for partners, AWS" last_modified: "2026-10-14T15:26:18+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.channelinsider.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/building-channel-revenue/aws-forward-deployed-engineers-ai-partners/" --- # AWS Trains AI Partners as Forward-Deployed Engineers Amazon Web Services (AWS) is expanding its investment in forward-deployed engineering as enterprise demand grows for AI implementations that move beyond experimentation and deliver measurable business results. Through a dedicated engineering organization and new technical training pathways for partners, AWS is working to develop the specialized skills needed to bring AI applications into production.  The approach could create new opportunities for systems integrators and other IT service providers, but leaders are also warning against “FDE washing,” as companies rebrand traditional consulting engagements without delivering the engineering capabilities and outcomes that define the model. ## Forward-deployed engineers create new opportunities for AI partners For partners, the emerging model represents more than another technical specialization. It could fundamentally change how the channel engages customers, delivers AI projects, and how [partners differentiate services](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/building-channel-revenue/it-services-channel-partners/). Rohan Karmarkar, managing director of Partner Solutions Architecture at AWS, told Channel Insider that forward-deployed engineering reflects a significant shift away from traditional consulting engagements. “These are actual engineers who are working in customers’ environments, and they are building and unlocking AI use cases on real production or real customer data,” Karmarkar said. ## Why enterprise AI deployments need specialized engineering Generative AI has dramatically lowered the barrier to building prototypes. But translating those experiments into reliable enterprise applications requires capabilities that many organizations still lack. “With AI, as you know, anybody can now build,” Karmarkar said. “Even non-technical personas are able to quickly build a prototype or bring an idea to life.” “But taking that prototype, an idea that you’ve built into production, requires real engineering capabilities.” AWS typically structures FDE engagements around teams of four to six professionals combining domain expertise, customer knowledge, and engineering skills. AWS established its own FDE organization in June and supports AWS-led, partner-led, and joint customer engagements. The company has also introduced technical training pathways designed to help partners develop the engineering capabilities required for production AI deployments. For partners, the opportunity is to move beyond advisory services and proofs of concept toward implementation work [directly connected to business outcomes](https://www.channelinsider.com/video/ai-msp-business-operations/). “How do customers really prove that the ROI is there in a few weeks, not months and years after they’ve spent a lot of money?” Karmarkar said. “That’s where I think the FDE engagements have their sweet spot.” ## AWS warns partners against ‘FDE washing’ The growing popularity of forward-deployed engineering has also raised questions about whether companies promoting FDE capabilities can actually deliver on them. Karmarkar said AWS has developed an internal term for the trend: “FDE washing.” “Existing engagements are called FDE engagements because it’s a good new branding exercise,” he said. “But for us, FDE’s got a very specific definition and has very specific outcomes that you want to achieve as a part of that engagement.” The warning holds significant weight across the industry, as more companies invest heavily in FDE programs. In 2026 alone, demand for FDEs is expected to increase by 2,100% according to a [C&T study](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/forward-deployed-engineers-are-the-ai-industrys-latest-talent-obsession/) based on survey results from enterprise hiring executives. It’s also important to remember the model isn’t new. Palantir has leveraged forward-deployed engineers in its offerings for years, before the AI-related surge in demand the market is currently facing. ## New AWS training pathways target production AI skills In October, [AWS introduced](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/apn/new-fde-pathways-for-aws-partners-get-ready-for-production-agentic-ai-delivery/) three technical learning pathways designed to help partners develop those capabilities. The pathways address grounding AI agents in enterprise data, orchestrating agents across tools and workflows, and proving their reliability through evaluation, observability, security controls, and human oversight. The training also includes hands-on assessments through which engineers can demonstrate their capabilities and earn credentials. For AWS, those credentials are intended to help customers identify partners with the technical expertise necessary to deliver production-ready AI systems. ## How forward-deployed engineering could reshape partner services in 2027 Karmarkar believes forward-deployed engineering will become an increasingly important capability for many systems integrators, although not necessarily every partner, as AI adoption matures. “I don’t see FDEs as a thing that’s just a point in time, and over time it’s going to go away,” he said. “I think it’s there to stay.” The opportunity extends beyond individual deployments. As partners complete engagements, they can develop reusable connectors, frameworks, and implementation patterns that accelerate subsequent projects. Karmarkar also sees partners playing a larger role as enterprises establish shared AI platforms, [governance models](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/building-channel-revenue/ai-governance-services-msps/), and security controls. “Partners have started to play a lot bigger role in rolling out these platforms and building the right foundations for scaling,” he said. For systems integrators and other partners, the shift could change how AI engagements are staffed, priced, and delivered. Partners that can combine specialized engineering talent with reusable implementation frameworks may be better positioned to win production deployments and expand their relationships with enterprise customers. The challenge heading into 2027 will be proving those capabilities translate into measurable results, rather than simply adopting the FDE label. **READ MORE: Salesforce is one of many other companies that have **[**also formed FDE programs**](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/vendor-leadership-and-partner-programs/salesforce-partner-network-scale-agentforce/)** for partners and customers. ** The post [AWS Trains AI Partners as Forward-Deployed Engineers](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/building-channel-revenue/aws-forward-deployed-engineers-ai-partners/) appeared first on [Channel Insider](https://www.channelinsider.com/). --- --- title: "Senators press Trump admin to rally federal government around AI safety, security " url: "https://cyberscoop.com/congress-presses-trump-administration-ai-safety-cybersecurity/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Members of Congress are pressing the Trump administration to expand the federal government’s role in securing artificial intelligence, wanting new safety standards and regulations, independent testing of models and more “aggressive” use of AI for defensive cybersecurity purposes. In a letter," last_modified: "2026-10-14T15:11:31+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://cyberscoop.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://cyberscoop.com/congress-presses-trump-administration-ai-safety-cybersecurity/" --- # Senators press Trump admin to rally federal government around AI safety, security  Members of Congress are pressing the Trump administration to expand the federal government’s role in securing artificial intelligence, wanting new safety standards and regulations, independent testing of models and more “aggressive” use of AI for defensive cybersecurity purposes. In a [letter](https://www.commerce.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/AI-and-Cybersecurity_Cantwell-and-Rounds_10.13.26.pdf), Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said that multiple incidents of frontier AI models escaping sandbox protections and breaching real companies, organizations and governments [necessitate](https://cyberscoop.com/ai-agent-hacks-legal-liability-cfaa/) a stronger federal role in regulating the technology. Recent revelations that hundreds, and possibly “tens of thousands,” of such incidents may have occurred for months without OpenAI’s staff detecting them makes the need for federal intervention even more urgent, the senators argued. “These incidents come as AI systems are becoming dramatically more capable at discovering software vulnerabilities, writing and executing code, using digital tools, and operating autonomously,” the senators wrote. The letter, addressed to Jay Clayton, director of national intelligence and new White House “AI czar” and Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, urges the federal government “to bring its full capacities to bear on this challenge, building a coordinated national response around standards, testing, auditing, and defensive AI.” The Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence (CAISSI), housed within the Department of Commerce, has become the Trump administration’s main body for evaluating and testing AI models. In the letter, the senators are seeking to expand the center’s resources and mandate. Under the Trump administration, testing of frontier models [has been voluntary and focused](https://cyberscoop.com/donald-trump-white-house-ai-executive-order-scaled-back/) on evaluating model capabilities, not restricting them. The administration has since said it has reached a safety testing framework with OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI companies to govern safety testing, but has not made the agreement public. The senators call for CAISSI to spearhead the development of “technically grounded and measurable standards and risk management frameworks for advanced AI safety and security.” Those standards would address potential risks like cyberattacks, automated attacks on critical infrastructure and other threats. “The standards should also address the security of the environments in which advanced AI systems are developed, trained, tested, and used internally, including protections against agents escaping testing environments, gaining unauthorized access to external systems, or taking actions beyond their intended permissions,” the senators wrote. The letter argues the center and federal technology hubs like the National Institute of Standards and Technology should hire additional expertise in AI, cybersecurity, model evaluation and national security. It also calls for a much broader community of independent and third-party testers. Currently, that testing is done [almost entirely](https://cyberscoop.com/ai-agent-hacking-apocalypse-cybersecurity/) by AI companies and hand-selected auditors, like Model Evaluation and Threat Research (METR), Redwood Research and others. Last month, Chris Painter, president of METR, [told Congress](https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/dmdcc/hearings/rogue-ai-securing-the-homeland-against-ai-agent-attacks/) that the firm’s investigation of the Hugging Face hacking incident was at the invitation of OpenAI, which tightly controls which organizations and testers get access to its unreleased models. While they are permitted to publicize some findings, such as those that relate to potentially catastrophic risks to humanity, researchers are otherwise restricted from discussing other parts of their investigation through nondisclosure agreements. Additionally, Painter suggested that frontier companies are relying too heavily on their own technology, rather than technical controls, to monitor and restrain their models in testing. “Because of the scale and speed at which AI agents are deployed, companies depend on AI monitoring and controls instead of human supervision, to prevent unwanted agent behavior,” Painter said. “That is, monitoring of AI is now in large part done by other AI systems.” The senators call for CAISSI, national laboratories and the Department of Energy to become federal testing sites. There, the government would evaluate AI models for advanced cyber capabilities, biological or chemical threats, threats to critical infrastructure, sandbox evasion techniques and other autonomous rule-breaking behavior. They also want testing opened to universities, independent research organizations and “qualified third-party evaluators,” including private sector companies. Other federal bodies, like the National Security Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and National Science Foundation can help develop new standards and testbeds for AI tools used in defensive cybersecurity that can then be shared across government and with the public. “The recent incidents make clear that the security infrastructure surrounding advanced AI must advance as quickly as the technology itself,” the senators wrote. “The United States has an opportunity to lead both sides of this challenge: building the standards, testing, and auditing infrastructure needed for increasingly powerful AI, while harnessing those same capabilities to make American networks harder to attack.” You can read the full letter [here](https://www.commerce.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/AI-and-Cybersecurity_Cantwell-and-Rounds_10.13.26.pdf). The post [Senators press Trump admin to rally federal government around AI safety, security ](https://cyberscoop.com/congress-presses-trump-administration-ai-safety-cybersecurity/) appeared first on [CyberScoop](https://cyberscoop.com/). --- --- title: "Intuit Intelligence lands in Australia as QuickBooks takes its AI agent fight to Xero and MYOB" url: "https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/intuit-intelligence-lands-in-australia-as-quickbooks-takes-its-ai-agent-fight-to-xero-and-myob" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Intuit has switched on Intuit Intelligencehttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/intuit-intelligence/ in Australia, almost a year after unveiling it on stage in Las Vegas. It lands in a..." last_modified: "2026-10-14T15:05:22+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://itwire.com/feed.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://itwire.com/business-it-news/data/intuit-intelligence-lands-in-australia-as-quickbooks-takes-its-ai-agent-fight-to-xero-and-myob" --- # Intuit Intelligence lands in Australia as QuickBooks takes its AI agent fight to Xero and MYOB Intuit has switched on Intuit Intelligencehttps://quickbooks.intuit.com/intuit-intelligence/ in Australia, almost a year after unveiling it on stage in Las Vegas. It lands in a… --- --- title: "Cryptography Rarely Fails Because of the Math" url: "https://blogs.cisco.com/security/last-mile-of-trust-post-quantum-cryptography-open-source/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Cryptography rarely fails at the math - it fails at deployment. Why post-quantum migration and AI-scale risk make open-source stewardship a core control." last_modified: "2026-10-14T15:00:40+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://blogs.cisco.com/security/feed" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://blogs.cisco.com/security/last-mile-of-trust-post-quantum-cryptography-open-source/" --- # Cryptography Rarely Fails Because of the Math Cryptography rarely fails at the math – it fails at deployment. Why post-quantum migration and AI-scale risk make open-source stewardship a core control. --- --- title: "Microsoft-Owned Xandr Fined $9.6M Over Grindr User Data" url: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/cybersecurity/news-microsoft-xandr-grindr-data-privacy-fine-norway-emea/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Norway fined Microsoft-owned Xandr $9.6 million over unlawful processing of Grindr user data, highlighting GDPR consent and adtech privacy obligations." last_modified: "2026-10-14T15:00:28+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/cybersecurity/news-microsoft-xandr-grindr-data-privacy-fine-norway-emea/" --- # Microsoft-Owned Xandr Fined $9.6M Over Grindr User Data Norway fined Microsoft-owned Xandr $9.6 million over unlawful processing of Grindr user data, highlighting GDPR consent and adtech privacy obligations. --- --- title: "AMD Introduces Helion Open Rack Design for Agentic AI" url: "https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/news-amd-helion-open-rack-agentic-ai/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "AMD has introduced Helion, an open rack design that lets infrastructure partners tailor CPU and GPU resources to customers’ agentic AI workloads. Announced Oct. 12, AMD Helion is a rack-scale reference design based on an Open Compute Project (OCP) specification." last_modified: "2026-10-14T14:52:37+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.channelinsider.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/news-amd-helion-open-rack-agentic-ai/" --- # AMD Introduces Helion Open Rack Design for Agentic AI AMD has introduced Helion, an open rack design that lets infrastructure partners tailor CPU and GPU resources to customers’ agentic AI workloads. Announced Oct. 12, AMD Helion is a rack-scale reference design based on an Open Compute Project (OCP) specification. It is intended to help hyperscalers and enterprise customers build infrastructure for AI agents that execute tasks, run code and manage complex workflows. For system integrators and infrastructure resellers, the opportunity is to help customers determine which workloads need CPU capacity, GPU acceleration or both, then match those requirements to their budgets and data center facilities. AMD outlined two example configurations. The first uses sixth-generation AMD EPYC processors in a CPU-only rack capable of supporting up to 32,768 CPU cores. This setup targets hyperscalers that need dedicated computing capacity for agent execution, with [AI model inference](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/news-ibm-together-ai-240m-inference-deal/) handled by separate infrastructure. The second combines AMD EPYC CPU nodes, AMD Instinct MI350P GPU nodes and general-purpose computing resources in one rack. This configuration targets [enterprises that want to run agentic AI workloads](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/fastly-ai-runtime-controls-enterprise-agents/) on an integrated platform. AMD says the blueprint supports air-cooled and liquid-cooled versions, allowing system builders to tailor deployments to their data center environments and power requirements. AMD is also incorporating a token router that directs agents’ model requests across frontier and open-source models. This could help organizations coordinate access to different models within an agentic AI system. [AMD plans](https://newsroom.amd.com/news/open-rack-blueprint-scale-agentic-ai/) to contribute the Helion specification to OCP for further development and adoption. AMD is providing a reference design that hardware manufacturers and system integrators can use to build their own implementations. The company says Helion configurations are in development with ecosystem partners and are planned for availability in November 2026. The design builds on [AMD’s Helios rack-scale platform](https://www.channelinsider.com/infrastructure/amd-helios-hpe-agreement/), extending its open infrastructure approach to workloads that require substantial CPU capacity alongside, or instead of, GPU acceleration. ## Why CPU capacity matters for agentic AI Agentic AI systems do more than generate responses. They can break tasks into steps, execute code, call tools and coordinate actions, creating demand for computing resources beyond the GPUs used to run large AI models. Helion’s CPU-only configuration addresses that need by separating agent execution from model inference. For hyperscalers building services around large numbers of agents, this could make it easier to allocate computing resources to each part of the workload rather than relying on a single infrastructure design. However, the 32,768-core figure describes the rack’s maximum capacity, not a guarantee of performance for every agentic workload. Actual results will depend on software, memory, networking and how efficiently applications use the available processors. Customers will also need to evaluate power consumption, cooling costs and the expense of integrating the system into existing environments. ## What Helion means for enterprise channels and partners [For enterprise channel partners](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/enterprise-ai-integration-channel-partners/), Helion creates an opportunity to build AI infrastructure offerings around customers’ actual workloads rather than sell accelerator hardware alone. System integrators can help businesses determine how much CPU capacity they need for agent execution, where GPU acceleration makes sense and how to fit the equipment into existing data centers. AMD has support from Cisco, Dell Technologies, Hon Hai Technology Group, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo, QCT, Supermicro and Wiwynn. Their roles across networking, servers, storage, rack integration, cooling and manufacturing could help turn AMD’s reference design into complete enterprise deployments. Dell, for example, says deployments can be extended with PowerRack networking and storage, while Supermicro intends to bring Helion to market through its Data Center Building Block Solutions. For resellers, [managed service providers](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/choose-an-msp/) and IT consultants, the commercial opportunity could extend to infrastructure assessment, system integration, deployment and ongoing support. Before committing to customer delivery dates, partners should confirm vendor-specific configurations, pricing, lead times and support responsibilities. Workload testing should also establish whether the proposed CPU/GPU mix meets the customer’s performance needs within available power and cooling capacity. **Read more: Beyond compute capacity, enterprise AI deployments also need access and spending controls, as illustrated by**[** ****Nutanix’s latest tools for governing AI agents and private inference**](https://www.channelinsider.com/infrastructure/nutanix-enterprise-ai-2-8-agent-controls/)**.** The post [AMD Introduces Helion Open Rack Design for Agentic AI](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/news-amd-helion-open-rack-agentic-ai/) appeared first on [Channel Insider](https://www.channelinsider.com/). --- --- title: "Drone Strikes Hit Three Yandex Data Centers, Disrupting Digital Services" url: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/news-yandex-data-center-drone-strikes-outage/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Drone strikes reportedly damaged three Yandex data centers, disrupting digital services and raising concerns about cloud resilience and disaster recovery." last_modified: "2026-10-14T14:43:10+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/news-yandex-data-center-drone-strikes-outage/" --- # Drone Strikes Hit Three Yandex Data Centers, Disrupting Digital Services Drone strikes reportedly damaged three Yandex data centers, disrupting digital services and raising concerns about cloud resilience and disaster recovery. --- --- title: "Google DevSite Flaw Exposed Secret That Enabled Remote Code Execution" url: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/news/news-google-devsite-flask-session-rce/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Google DevSite flaw allowed forged Flask sessions to execute code without login. Learn how it worked, when Google fixed it, and what developers should check." last_modified: "2026-10-14T14:39:17+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/news/news-google-devsite-flask-session-rce/" --- # Google DevSite Flaw Exposed Secret That Enabled Remote Code Execution Google DevSite flaw allowed forged Flask sessions to execute code without login. Learn how it worked, when Google fixed it, and what developers should check. --- --- title: "Banks Are Embracing AI. Regulators Want to Know If They Can Control It" url: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/cybersecurity/news-banking-regulators-ai-agents-cybersecurity-risks/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "US and European banking regulators are scrutinizing AI agents, cybersecurity safeguards, and banks' ability to recover from serious operational disruptions." last_modified: "2026-10-14T14:33:12+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/cybersecurity/news-banking-regulators-ai-agents-cybersecurity-risks/" --- # Banks Are Embracing AI. Regulators Want to Know If They Can Control It US and European banking regulators are scrutinizing AI agents, cybersecurity safeguards, and banks’ ability to recover from serious operational disruptions. --- --- title: "Microsoft fixes VPN issues caused by September Windows updates" url: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-fixes-vpn-issues-caused-by-september-windows-updates/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Microsoft has resolved a known issue that caused Always On VPN connection issues after installing the September 2026 Windows 11 security updates." last_modified: "2026-10-14T14:27:01+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-fixes-vpn-issues-caused-by-september-windows-updates/" --- # Microsoft fixes VPN issues caused by September Windows updates Microsoft has resolved a known issue that caused Always On VPN connection issues after installing the September 2026 Windows 11 security updates. […] --- --- title: "U.K. Sanctions Cryptomus for RU Money Laundering" url: "https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/10/u-k-sanctions-cryptomus-for-ru-money-laundering/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "The United Kingdom has issued economic sanctions against Cryptomus, a chameleonic cryptocurrency platform that experts say serves as a major conduit for payments related to ransomware, narcotics, darknet markets, fraud and cybercrime services that are helping Russia circumvent existing financial" last_modified: "2026-10-14T14:22:49+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://krebsonsecurity.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/10/u-k-sanctions-cryptomus-for-ru-money-laundering/" --- # U.K. Sanctions Cryptomus for RU Money Laundering The United Kingdom has issued economic sanctions against **Cryptomus**, a chameleonic cryptocurrency platform that experts say serves as a major conduit for payments related to ransomware, narcotics, darknet markets, fraud and cybercrime services that are helping Russia circumvent existing financial restrictions. ![](https://krebsonsecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/heleketsupportbot.png) Heleket’s support agent on Telegram claims, despite all evidence to the contrary, that it is not affiliated with Cryptomus. Image: Richard Sanders. On October 8, the U.K. [issued sanctions](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6ac767c6e8ef5609e7c93369/Sanctions_Notice__Russia__8_October_2026.pdf) (PDF) against Cryptomus — previously known as **Certa Payments** and **Xeltox Enterprises** — for processing payments that benefit the Russian government and its financial institutions. The sanctions freeze any Cryptomus assets at U.K. banks, and bar British companies from offering it any business, virtual or otherwise. Also targeted in these sanctions were the virtual payment platforms **VexPay**, **TokenSpot**, and the **Tsunami Payments service**. As explained in our December 2024 investigation, “[How Cryptocurrency Turns to Cash in Russian Banks](https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/12/how-cryptocurrency-turns-to-cash-in-russian-banks/),” Cryptomus has been a key payment processor for dozens of Russian cryptocurrency exchanges and websites hawking cybercrime services. The company has changed its name several times since emerging in 2022, most recently to “**Heleket**” last year after Canada levied [a record CAD $176 million fine](https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/10/canada-fines-cybercrime-friendly-cryptomus-176m/) against the platform for anti-money laundering violations. The blockchain data-crunching firm **Chainalysis** said the U.K. sanctions target the broader infrastructure supporting Russia’s wartime economy. “Cryptomus and Heleket have emerged as major payment hubs for illicit activity,” Chainalysis [wrote](https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/uk-sanctions-cryptomus-heleket-tokenspot/) in an October 8 blog post. “Together, these services received more illicit funds across tracked categories than the mixers in our dataset and the number of illicit counterparties surged to more than 900 in a single month in late 2025.” [![](https://krebsonsecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/cryptomus-bot-down.png)](https://krebsonsecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/cryptomus-bot-down.png) The Cryptomus support bot on Telegram, responding on Oct. 8 to an inquiry by saying the platform was suddenly unable to process transactions. In April 2026, the blockchain analysis firm **TRM Labs** [found](https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/intel-library/cryptomus) Cryptomus had processed more than $7 billion in transactions since its inception in 2022, including transactions associated with child sexual abuse material vendors, terrorist financing networks, and human trafficking operations. TRM noted that Cryptomus’s transaction volume cratered after the platform instituted new “know your customer” or KYC rules, and that the cryptocurrency platform responded to the Canadian fines by launching Heleket as a parallel service that continued to offer no-KYC payment processing. **Richard Sanders** is a blockchain analyst and investigator who spent months mapping out Cryptomus’s payment infrastructure and transacting with its customers. Sanders said the U.K. sanctions on Cryptomus are important because Canada’s sanctions against the platform were ultimately unenforceable and uncollectible. “A fine doesn’t stop a cryptocurrency payment processor from processing payments,” Sanders [wrote on LinkedIn](https://lnkd.in/p/e4EkbB-x). “Sanctions kill the operation. The distinction matters.” As our 2024 investigation noted, Cryptomus shared a Vancouver address with dozens of other foreign currency dealers and money transfer businesses — none of which appeared to be physically located there. Following the CAD $176 million fine for alleged money laundering violations, Cryptomus appealed the penalty, launched Heleket as a parallel service, and kept on processing large volumes of sketchy transactions, Sanders said. Sanders said the sanctions also are notable because they are the first known instance of a “Five Eyes” country (referring to the Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.) sanctioning a cryptocurrency operation incorporated in another Five Eyes jurisdiction. Where do entities like Cryptomus and Heleket derive their authority to offer international financial services? The answer appears to involve fake financial institutions overseen by a phony regulatory body positioned in a country that is not widely recognized as a sovereign nation. Our 2024 investigation found the sole shareholder of Cryptomus’s parent company Certa Payments was a 25-year-old Ukrainian woman who also headed several other firms, including the **WS Management and Advisory Corporation**, which bills itself as the regulatory body that exclusively oversees licenses for cryptocurrency, foreign exchange and online gaming businesses incorporated in the disputed region in northwest Africa known as the **Western Sahara**. That entity’s website — crasadr.com — says it assists applicants with bank setup and formation, online gaming licenses, and the creation and licensing of foreign exchange brokers. One of Certa Payments’ former sites — certa[.]website — also shared a server with 12 other domains, including rasd-state[.]ws, a website for the Central Reserve Authority of the Western Sahara. ![](https://krebsonsecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/crasadr-com.png) The website crasadr dot com, the official website of the Central Reserve Authority of Western Sahara, which lists the entities awarded licenses for cryptocurrencies, gaming and foreign exchange services. --- --- title: "Anthropic Says New Claude Defenses Cut AI Reasoning Extraction by Up to 99%" url: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/news-anthropic-claude-ai-distillation-defenses/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Anthropic says new Claude defenses reduced suspected AI reasoning extraction by up to 99%. Here's how the protections work and what developers should know." last_modified: "2026-10-14T14:14:37+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/news-anthropic-claude-ai-distillation-defenses/" --- # Anthropic Says New Claude Defenses Cut AI Reasoning Extraction by Up to 99% Anthropic says new Claude defenses reduced suspected AI reasoning extraction by up to 99%. Here’s how the protections work and what developers should know. --- --- title: "Two Characters Can Bypass Chromium’s Phishing Defenses, Researchers Find" url: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/news-chromium-unicode-homograph-domain-bypass/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Researchers identify two Unicode characters that can bypass Chromium domain checks, allowing lookalike websites to appear legitimate and increasing phishing risks." last_modified: "2026-10-14T14:11:52+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/news-chromium-unicode-homograph-domain-bypass/" --- # Two Characters Can Bypass Chromium’s Phishing Defenses, Researchers Find Researchers identify two Unicode characters that can bypass Chromium domain checks, allowing lookalike websites to appear legitimate and increasing phishing risks. --- --- title: "Microsoft Patch Tuesday Sets New Record with 1,415 CVEs in October 2026 Updates" url: "https://securityaffairs.com/200953/security/microsoft-patch-tuesday-sets-new-record-with-1415-cves-in-october-2026-updates.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Microsoft Patch Tuesday security updates for October 2026 address a record 1,415 vulnerabilities. Prioritize the exploited zero-day, critical bugs and potentially wormable vulnerabilities. Microsoft just shattered every patch record in the book. October 2026 brought us a staggering 1,415 new" last_modified: "2026-10-14T14:01:45+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://securityaffairs.com/feed" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://securityaffairs.com/200953/security/microsoft-patch-tuesday-sets-new-record-with-1415-cves-in-october-2026-updates.html" --- # Microsoft Patch Tuesday Sets New Record with 1,415 CVEs in October 2026 Updates ## Microsoft Patch Tuesday security updates for October 2026 address a record 1,415 vulnerabilities. Prioritize the exploited zero-day, critical bugs and potentially wormable vulnerabilities. Microsoft just shattered every patch record in the book. October 2026 brought us a staggering 1,415 new CVEs from Microsoft alone. _“Well, it’s a new record release from Microsoft, again. This is also the first four-digit volume we have ever seen and includes six-digit CVEs. As always, counting this load is tricky, but I see 1,415 new CVEs from Microsoft. That puts this month at a greater volume than any previous YEAR from Microsoft. I’m starting to think I don’t like this new normal.” [states ZDI](https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2026/10/13/the-october-2026-security-update-review). “As for the products affected by this release, we have Windows and Windows components, Office and Office Components, Developer Tools and .NET, SharePoint, Linux kernel, Skype for Business and Microsoft Lync, SQL Server and Dynamics, Azure and cloud services, and Exchange server.”_ This is the first time Microsoft has reported more than 1,000 vulnerabilities in a single month. To help security teams handle this huge number of flaws, Microsoft introduced “risk cohorts” to group related vulnerabilities, similar to the old security bulletin system. AI is clearly helping researchers find bugs faster, both for attackers and defenders. The good news is that vulnerabilities are still being discovered faster than attackers are exploiting them. Security teams should focus on the most serious threats first instead of trying to patch every low-risk flaw at once. Instead, focus immediately on what’s actively burning in the wild. The single zero-day under active attack this month is CVE-2026-96951, a Windows Shell security feature bypass used to dodge Mark of the Web protections. “An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could evade Mark of the Web (MOTW) defenses.” [reads the advisory](https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-96951). “In an email or instant message attack scenario, the attacker could send the targeted user a specially crafted file that is designed to exploit the vulnerability. In any case an attacker would have no way to force a user to view attacker-controlled content. Instead, an attacker would have to convince a user to take action. For example, an attacker could entice a user to either click a link that directs the user to the attacker’s site or send a malicious attachment.” Other high-priority threats include a critical unauthenticated SharePoint privilege escalation bug (CVE-2026-102866), a high-scoring SQL Server remote code execution flaw (CVE-2026-65674), and a massive wave of 59 potentially wormable vulnerabilities spanning core network services like DHCP, Remote Desktop Gateway, and DNS. Below are the descriptions for the above issues: - [CVE-2026-96951](https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-96951) (CVSS score of 8.8) is a Windows Shell command injection vulnerability that allows an unauthorized attacker to bypass security protections over a network. Exploitation can evade Mark of the Web (MOTW) defenses, which help protect users from potentially dangerous files downloaded from the internet. Microsoft confirmed that the flaw is being actively exploited. - [CVE-2026-102866](https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-102866) (CVSS score of 8.1) is a Microsoft SharePoint Server vulnerability caused by improper verification of cryptographic signatures. It allows an unauthenticated attacker to elevate privileges over a network, potentially gaining unauthorized access to sensitive information or modifying data. - [CVE-2026-65674](https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-65674) (CVSS score of 8.8) is a Microsoft SQL Server remote code execution vulnerability caused by the deserialization of untrusted data. An authorized attacker with the required privileges could exploit the flaw over a network to execute code on the affected server. _“I may be wrong about some of these – there are a few where the description is somewhat…er…ambiguous, but regardless, this number of wormable bugs in 2026 should cause some level of concern. Not panic.” concludes ZDI. “There’s no need for that, but it is disconcerting to see this many juicy targets sitting out there. Please do your best to test and deploy these fixes in a timely manner.”_ Prioritize the proven, public, and exploited flaws first, and take a deep breath before diving into the rest of the patch mountain. Make sure your operational priorities remain laser-focused on real risk rather than chasing vanity metrics. Make every effort to test and apply these patches as soon as possible. **Follow me on Twitter: **[**@securityaffairs**](https://twitter.com/securityaffairs)** and **[**Facebook**](https://www.facebook.com/sec.affairs)** and **[**Mastodon**](https://infosec.exchange/@securityaffairs) [**Pierluigi Paganini**](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/pierluigi-paganini/b/742/559)**** **(**[**SecurityAffairs**](http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/)** – hacking, Patch Tuesday)** --- --- title: "The Blind Spots of Agentic Pentesting and How to Close Them" url: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/the-blind-spots-of-agentic-pentesting-and-how-to-close-them/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "AI-powered penetration testing can uncover complex attack paths, but safety restrictions and network limitations leave many assets and vulnerabilities untested. Picus Security explains how combining agentic pentesting with exposure validation and breach simulation can help close these gaps." last_modified: "2026-10-14T14:00:10+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/the-blind-spots-of-agentic-pentesting-and-how-to-close-them/" --- # The Blind Spots of Agentic Pentesting and How to Close Them AI-powered penetration testing can uncover complex attack paths, but safety restrictions and network limitations leave many assets and vulnerabilities untested. Picus Security explains how combining agentic pentesting with exposure validation and breach simulation can help close these gaps. […] --- --- title: "ROMULUS Malware Server Leverages ClickFix to Deliver Multiple Payloads" url: "https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/romulus-malware-clickfix-deliver/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Researchers at Forescout said the discovery shows how ClickFix is evolving from a delivery technique into full-blown cyber-criminal infrastructure" last_modified: "2026-10-14T14:00:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/rss/news/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/romulus-malware-clickfix-deliver/" --- # ROMULUS Malware Server Leverages ClickFix to Deliver Multiple Payloads Researchers at Forescout said the discovery shows how ClickFix is evolving from a delivery technique into full-blown cyber-criminal infrastructure --- --- title: "Break the silence: Kazakhstan-nexus UAT-6275 targets CIS government organizations" url: "https://blog.talosintelligence.com/break-the-silence-kazakhstan-nexus-uat-6275-targets-cis-government-organizations/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "This research was conducted jointly with Julian-Ferdinand Vögele of Recorded Future’s Insikt Group. Details of the joint research and presentation are available here.Cisco Talos identified UAT-6275 (TAG-193 by Recorded Future) activity targeting government organizations across the Commonwealth of Independent States" last_modified: "2026-10-14T14:00:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://blog.talosintelligence.com/rss/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://blog.talosintelligence.com/break-the-silence-kazakhstan-nexus-uat-6275-targets-cis-government-organizations/" --- # Break the silence: Kazakhstan-nexus UAT-6275 targets CIS government organizations ![Break the silence: Kazakhstan-nexus UAT-6275 targets CIS government organizations](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/a0/afa04ee3-414f-4481-8d23-7e7c146f192e/content/images/2026/10/UAT-6275-Header.jpg) _This research was conducted jointly with Julian-Ferdinand Vögele of Recorded Future’s Insikt Group. Details of the joint research and presentation are available _[_here_](https://www.virusbulletin.com/uploads/pdf/conference/vb2026/papers/Break-the-silence-tracking-Silent-Lynx-through-exposed-infrastructure.pdf)_._ - Cisco Talos identified UAT-6275 ([TAG-193](http://www.recordedfuture.com/blog/tag193-regional-espionage-operations) by Recorded Future) activity targeting government organizations across the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Recovered artifacts show additional interest in water resources and energy. This focus is consistent with intelligence collection and may reflect the regional effects of the Russia–Ukraine war.  - In activity observed from June 2025 through August 2026, Talos identified four infection-chain types that use macro-enabled documents, PS2EXE downloaders, GitHub-hosted PowerShell, and a crafted WinRAR archive exploiting CVE-2025-8088. The recovered payloads include several custom reverse shells that provide interactive remote access.  - Three publicly accessible staging directories and GitHub repository history exposed payload builds, tool inventories, and changes to command-and-control (C2) infrastructure. These operational security lapses gave us direct visibility into the group’s recent activity.  - The files recovered from the exposed infrastructure suggest preparation for post-compromise operations and potential activity against Linux hosts and internet-facing appliances.   - Talos assesses with medium confidence that UAT-6275 has a Kazakhstan nexus, based on infrastructure access, language artifacts, sample submissions, working hours analysis, and regional targeting interests. --- ## Background  Cisco Talos and Recorded Future Insikt Group jointly investigated UAT-6275 activity targeting government organizations across the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The investigation uncovered three publicly accessible staging directories and a previously unreported GitHub repository used to host malicious scripts and payloads. These exposed assets provided visibility into the threat actor’s malware development, infrastructure changes and preparations for additional intrusion activity.  Talos tracks this activity as UAT-6275, while Recorded Future tracks it as TAG-193. It overlaps with [Silent Lynx (first reported by Seqrite)](https://www.seqrite.com/blog/silent-lynx-apt-targeting-central-asian-entities/) and sits within a broader set of campaigns connected to [YoroTrooper](https://blog.talosintelligence.com/yorotrooper-espionage-campaign-cis-turkey-europe/), which we first reported in 2023.[ ](https://securelist.com/tomiris-called-they-want-their-turla-malware-back/109552/)Subsequent research on [Tomiris (Kaspersky)](https://securelist.com/tomiris-called-they-want-their-turla-malware-back/109552/), [ShadowSilk (Group-IB)](https://www.group-ib.com/blog/shadowsilk/), [Cavalry Werewolf (BI.ZONE)](https://bi-zone.medium.com/cavalry-werewolf-raids-russias-public-sector-with-trusted-relationship-attacks-e19f7a5c83ef), and [Hydra Saiga (VMRay)](https://www.vmray.com/hydra-saiga-covert-espionage-and-infiltration-of-critical-utilities/) identified overlapping indicators across these reported clusters. We assess that UAT-6275 and YoroTrooper likely belong to the same broader activity cluster. However, we continue to track them separately because we have not observed direct indicator or toolset overlap between the two. This post summarizes our joint Virus Bulletin 2026 white paper, “[Break the silence: ](https://www.virusbulletin.com/uploads/pdf/conference/vb2026/papers/Break-the-silence-tracking-Silent-Lynx-through-exposed-infrastructure.pdf)[tracking](https://www.virusbulletin.com/uploads/pdf/conference/vb2026/papers/Break-the-silence-tracking-Silent-Lynx-through-exposed-infrastructure.pdf)[ Silent Lynx through exposed infrastructure](https://www.virusbulletin.com/uploads/pdf/conference/vb2026/papers/Break-the-silence-tracking-Silent-Lynx-through-exposed-infrastructure.pdf)” which contains the full technical analysis and indicators of compromise (IOCs). ## Victimology  UAT-6275’s targeting is concentrated in Central Asia and the wider CIS region. Across the reviewed campaigns, observed victims and lure themes span nine countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Belarus. ![Break the silence: Kazakhstan-nexus UAT-6275 targets CIS government organizations](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/a0/afa04ee3-414f-4481-8d23-7e7c146f192e/content/images/2026/10/UAT-6275-6.jpg)Figure 1. Regional targeting. ### Government and diplomatic affairs  UAT-6275 targets government institutions responsible for diplomacy, economic development, agriculture, and environmental management. These organizations hold information that can inform bilateral negotiations, economic planning, and regional security decisions. Our network flow analysis identified activity involving a Tajik government entity shortly after [treaty](https://qazinform.com/news/majilis-ratifies-kazakhstan-tajikistan-treaty-on-allied-relations-87a9f5) discussions with Kazakhstan in March 2026 and a Belarusian government entity ahead of [a bilateral meeting](https://www.aa.com.tr/en/eurasia/kazakh-president-receives-belarusian-foreign-minister-to-discuss-bilateral-cooperation/3905389) in April. This timing may indicate an interest in regional diplomatic developments. The decoy documents we recovered also suggest an interest in diplomatic relations, international trade, and aviation. Examples include a diplomatic letter addressed to Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ![Break the silence: Kazakhstan-nexus UAT-6275 targets CIS government organizations](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/a0/afa04ee3-414f-4481-8d23-7e7c146f192e/content/images/2026/10/02-russian-diplomatic-lure.png)Figure 2. Lure document masquerading as a Russian diplomatic congratulatory letter to the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  ### Water security and resource management  The group’s interest in regional resources spans environmental management and energy. Talos observed activity involving an Armenian government entity responsible for environmental matters and Uzbekistan’s Smart Forestry initiative, consistent with earlier [reporting](https://www.vmray.com/hydra-saiga-covert-espionage-and-infiltration-of-critical-utilities/) on Silent Lynx targeting water resource organizations across Central Asia.  Energy-themed decoys included a cooperation proposal between Turkmenistan’s state oil company, Turkmennebit, and Russia’s Orsk Oil Refinery, used in an August 2025 sample. The refinery [supplies petroleum products to Kazakhstan](https://www.ornpz.ru/opso-file/gazeta/2019/July.pdf) and later [shut down after a Ukrainian drone strike in August 2026](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ukrainian-attack-shuts-russias-orsk-refinery-months-causing-fuel-problems-2026-08-13/), with repairs expected to take up to six months. These ties suggest a possible intelligence interest in regional fuel supplies and the war’s implications for Kazakhstan’s energy security. ![Break the silence: Kazakhstan-nexus UAT-6275 targets CIS government organizations](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/a0/afa04ee3-414f-4481-8d23-7e7c146f192e/content/images/2026/10/03-turkmennebit-decoy.png)Figure 3. Decoy impersonating Turkmennebit and proposing cooperation with Orsk Oil Refinery management. ## Campaign timeline  Since Seqrite first reported Silent Lynx in January 2025, we have identified at least eight campaigns across the region through May 2026. These include malware delivery targeting Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan; a credential-harvesting site impersonating Azerbaijan’s State Agency for Public Service; and lures referencing the China–Central Asia Summit and Russian energy infrastructure. In 2026, we also observed activity involving government entities in Tajikistan, Armenia, and Belarus, as well as Uzbekistan’s Smart Forestry initiative in May.  ![Break the silence: Kazakhstan-nexus UAT-6275 targets CIS government organizations](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/a0/afa04ee3-414f-4481-8d23-7e7c146f192e/content/images/2026/10/04-campaign-timeline.jpg)Figure 4. Campaign timeline.  ## Infrastructure and malware delivery  Talos identified three publicly accessible staging directories containing malware and tools of UAT-6275. One sample led to the previously unreported GitHub repository, where the group hosted PowerShell scripts and payloads. Its commit history allowed us to track infrastructure changes and malware development. The group relies on lightweight reverse shells, including Chvost, Laplas, and PickleShell, to issue commands on compromised systems. We also recovered Linux-compatible tooling and a publicly available proof-of-concept exploit for FortiWeb CVE-2025-25257 from UAT-6275 infrastructure. These findings suggest interest in expanding the group’s operational capabilities.  ### Four infection chains  UAT-6275 used malicious documents, executable downloaders, and shortcuts to deliver malware, and later incorporated a WinRAR exploit. Talos categorized the recovered samples into four infection chains, A – D, based on how they retrieve and execute their payloads. ![Break the silence: Kazakhstan-nexus UAT-6275 targets CIS government organizations](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/a0/afa04ee3-414f-4481-8d23-7e7c146f192e/content/images/2026/10/05-infection-chain-timeline.jpg)Figure 5. First observations of four UAT-6275 infection chains, June 2025 – April 2026. The first Chain A samples, observed in June 2025, used macro-enabled Word documents to download and execute a second-stage binary. In July 2025, we observed Chain B downloaders built with PS2EXE, a tool that packages PowerShell scripts as standalone Windows executables. These downloaders retrieved reverse-shell payloads and created scheduled tasks for persistence.  We first observed Chain C in October 2025. A malicious shortcut launches PowerShell to retrieve and execute a GitHub-hosted script that provides remote shell access. Later samples also downloaded PickleShell and placed it in the Windows Startup folder for persistence. ![Break the silence: Kazakhstan-nexus UAT-6275 targets CIS government organizations](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/a0/afa04ee3-414f-4481-8d23-7e7c146f192e/content/images/2026/10/06-chain-c.jpg)Figure 6. Chain C retrieves a GitHub-hosted PowerShell script; later samples also deploy PickleShell to the Startup folder. In April 2026, we identified a RAR archive that exploited CVE-2025-8088 in WinRAR to place PickleShell in the Windows Startup folder (Chain D). The payload runs at the next user sign-in. This was the first vulnerability exploit we observed in UAT-6275’s malware delivery. ![Break the silence: Kazakhstan-nexus UAT-6275 targets CIS government organizations](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/a0/afa04ee3-414f-4481-8d23-7e7c146f192e/content/images/2026/10/07-chain-d.jpg)Figure 7. Chain D exploits CVE-2025-8088 to place PickleShell in the Windows Startup folder for execution at the next sign-in. ## Kazakhstan nexus assessment  Talos assesses with medium confidence that UAT-6275 has a Kazakhstan nexus. Supporting evidence includes Russian-language artifacts, apparent malware-testing submissions from Kazakhstan shortly after compilation, and operator activity consistent with UTC+5 working hours. ![Break the silence: Kazakhstan-nexus UAT-6275 targets CIS government organizations](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/a0/afa04ee3-414f-4481-8d23-7e7c146f192e/content/images/2026/10/08-github-commit-timing.jpg)Figure 8. Timing of 77 GitHub commits in UTC+3 and UTC+5, with 09:00–18:00 local working hours shaded. ## Looking ahead  UAT-6275’s sustained activity and adoption of new delivery techniques suggest the group will continue pursuing access to government organizations across Central Asia and the CIS. Its interest in environmental agencies, economic ministries, and energy infrastructure reflects the intelligence value of regional diplomacy and resource management.  Defenders in these sectors should monitor unexpected PowerShell activity and payload downloads from public services such as GitHub, alongside scheduled tasks and Startup-folder changes. Keeping archive utilities patched can help reduce exposure to the exploit-assisted delivery observed in this campaign.  For further details on this research and our accompanying presentation, see “[Break the Silence: Tracking Silent Lynx Through Exposed Infrastructure](https://www.virusbulletin.com/uploads/pdf/conference/vb2026/papers/Break-the-silence-tracking-Silent-Lynx-through-exposed-infrastructure.pdf)” on Virus Bulletin’s website, as well as Recorded Future’s related [blog post](http://www.recordedfuture.com/blog/tag193-regional-espionage-operations). ## Coverage  The following ClamAV signatures detect and block this threat:  - Win.Backdoor.PickleShell-10060602-0  - Win.Backdoor.Chvost-10060603-0  - Win.Malware.Generic-10060604-0  - Win.Malware.LAPLAS-10060605-0  - Win.Malware.LAPLAS-10060606-0  - Win.Proxy.Generic-10060628-0  The following Snort rules cover this threat:  - Snort 2: 1:11192, 1:15306, 1:46983, 1:47398  - Snort 3: 1:46983, 4:16  ## IOCs IOCs for this research can be found at our GitHub repository [here](https://github.com/Cisco-Talos/IOCs/tree/main/2026/10).  --- --- title: "Windows update patches a whopping 1,400 security bugs –  including 2 zero days" url: "https://www.zdnet.com/tech/windows-october-update-patches-file-explorer-bluetooth/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "This month’s update also marks the first official one for Windows 11 26H2 and the end of support for Windows 11 24H2 Home and Pro." last_modified: "2026-10-14T13:59:59+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.zdnet.com/rss/news/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.zdnet.com/tech/windows-october-update-patches-file-explorer-bluetooth/" --- # Windows update patches a whopping 1,400 security bugs –  including 2 zero days This month’s update also marks the first official one for Windows 11 26H2 and the end of support for Windows 11 24H2 Home and Pro. --- --- title: "David’s Bridal Uses AI to Power New Strategy" url: "https://www.wsj.com/cio-journal/davids-bridal-uses-ai-to-power-new-strategy-ea39efa3?mod=rss_Technology" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Plus, OpenAI engineer accused of bugging office" last_modified: "2026-10-14T13:21:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.content.dowjones.io/public/rss/RSSWSJD" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.wsj.com/cio-journal/davids-bridal-uses-ai-to-power-new-strategy-ea39efa3?mod=rss_Technology" --- # David’s Bridal Uses AI to Power New Strategy Plus, OpenAI engineer accused of bugging office --- --- title: "Global takedown hits network behind 1 billion phishing messages" url: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/global-takedown-hits-network-behind-1-billion-phishing-messages/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "A massive cybercriminal ecosystem facilitating more than a billion malicious messages targeting over 75,000 organizations across 150 countries has been disrupted by law enforcement agencies and partners worldwide." last_modified: "2026-10-14T13:12:52+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/global-takedown-hits-network-behind-1-billion-phishing-messages/" --- # Global takedown hits network behind 1 billion phishing messages A massive cybercriminal ecosystem facilitating more than a billion malicious messages targeting over 75,000 organizations across 150 countries has been disrupted by law enforcement agencies and partners worldwide. […] --- --- title: "Multiple Vulnerabilities in Google Chrome Could Allow for Arbitrary Code Execution" url: "https://www.cisecurity.org/advisory/multiple-vulnerabilities-in-google-chrome-could-allow-for-arbitrary-code-execution_2026-116" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in Google Chrome, the most severe of which could allow for arbitrary code execution. Successful exploitation of the most severe of these vulnerabilities could allow for arbitrary code execution in the context of the logged" last_modified: "2026-10-14T13:11:05+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.cisecurity.org/feed/advisories" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.cisecurity.org/advisory/multiple-vulnerabilities-in-google-chrome-could-allow-for-arbitrary-code-execution_2026-116" --- # Multiple Vulnerabilities in Google Chrome Could Allow for Arbitrary Code Execution Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in Google Chrome, the most severe of which could allow for arbitrary code execution. Successful exploitation of the most severe of these vulnerabilities could allow for arbitrary code execution in the context of the logged on user. Depending on the privileges associated with the user an attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than those who operate with administrative user rights. --- --- title: "FBI raids 40+ laptop farms helping North Korea pocket US tech salaries" url: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/north-korean-it-workers-laptop-farms-arrests/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "North Korean IT workers used stolen and fabricated identities to land remote jobs at more than 70 US companies, with help from Americans who allegedly kept company-issued laptops running from their homes, according to the US Department of Justice. Arrests" last_modified: "2026-10-14T13:00:49+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/north-korean-it-workers-laptop-farms-arrests/" --- # FBI raids 40+ laptop farms helping North Korea pocket US tech salaries North Korean IT workers used stolen and fabricated identities to land remote jobs at more than 70 US companies, with help from Americans who allegedly kept company-issued laptops running from their homes, according to the US Department of Justice. Arrests in Ohio, raids in Texas Michael James Bostelle of Pennsylvania and Juan Cecilio Pena Carrillo of Texas were taken into custody under an Ohio indictment for wire fraud, money laundering and identity theft. The same … [More →](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/north-korean-it-workers-laptop-farms-arrests/) The post [FBI raids 40+ laptop farms helping North Korea pocket US tech salaries](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/north-korean-it-workers-laptop-farms-arrests/) appeared first on [Help Net Security](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/). --- --- title: "Download: The IT and security field guide to AI adoption" url: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/tines-it-security-ai-adoption-guide/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Security and IT teams are under pressure to adopt AI, but many are seeing the opposite of what was promised. Tools that demo well don’t hold up in real workflows. Complexity increases. Trust breaks down. And instead of reducing workload," last_modified: "2026-10-14T13:00:27+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/tines-it-security-ai-adoption-guide/" --- # Download: The IT and security field guide to AI adoption Security and IT teams are under pressure to adopt AI, but many are seeing the opposite of what was promised. Tools that demo well don’t hold up in real workflows. Complexity increases. Trust breaks down. And instead of reducing workload, AI can introduce new risks and oversight burdens. This guide breaks down why AI adoption fails in practice and gives teams a clearer path forward, from evaluation to implementation, with humans in the loop. What … [More →](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/tines-it-security-ai-adoption-guide/) The post [Download: The IT and security field guide to AI adoption](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/tines-it-security-ai-adoption-guide/) appeared first on [Help Net Security](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/). --- --- title: "How Claude Code’s 256KB blind spot put developers’ secrets in the preview pane" url: "https://www.csoonline.com/article/4235139/how-claude-codes-256kb-blind-spot-put-developers-secrets-in-the-preview-pane.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Simply asking Anthropic’s Claude Code to review an HTML file could hand attackers access to a developer’s machine, cloud credentials and software development environment, according to a new Noma Security finding. Noma’s researchers found a vulnerability affecting Anthropic’s Claude Code" last_modified: "2026-10-14T13:00:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.csoonline.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.csoonline.com/article/4235139/how-claude-codes-256kb-blind-spot-put-developers-secrets-in-the-preview-pane.html" --- # How Claude Code’s 256KB blind spot put developers’ secrets in the preview pane Simply asking Anthropic’s Claude Code to review an HTML file could hand attackers access to a developer’s machine, cloud credentials and software development environment, according to a new Noma Security finding. Noma’s researchers found a vulnerability affecting Anthropic’s Claude Code Desktop app that could allow malicious JavaScript embedded in an HTML file to execute without further user interaction, potentially exposing sensitive host files. The flaw, called SneakPeek, specifically affected the application’s automated preview pane, which renders HTML files generated or modified by Claude. “This is a strong example of how emerging technologies are reshaping the attack surface,” said [Ronald Lewis](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronaldlewis-aisecurityinnovation/), head of cybersecurity governance at Black Duck. “Attackers are increasingly targeting the AI ecosystem, exploiting implicit trust relationships between models, agents, tools, data sources, and connected services.” An attacker could exploit the bug by planting a malicious file in a public repository and waiting for a developer to ask [Claude Code](https://www.csoonline.com/article/4169992/fake-claude-code-takes-the-ielevator-to-your-browser-secrets.html) to inspect it, Noma said in a [blog post](https://url.usb.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/4K3RCM7q9qslk2ZPIwfZJs8Qev5?domain=noma.security) shared with CSO ahead of its publication on Wednesday. Once the application rendered the file, the script could read local files and exfiltrate sensitive data, including [AWS credentials](https://www.csoonline.com/article/4126336/from-credentials-to-cloud-admin-in-8-minutes-ai-supercharges-aws-attack-chain.html), GitHub secrets and SSH private keys, to a remote server. The flaw has been assigned a high-severity CVSS score of 8.7, while a CVE ID is not yet available. Noma says Anthropic collaborated with Noma Labs during the disclosure process and fully resolved the issue. “Anthropic confirmed they are preparing a GitHub Security Advisory and have requested a CVE for it,” [Eli Ainhorn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-ainhorn/), senior AI vulnerability researcher at Noma, told CSO. “We expect it to be available soon. The CVSS score is 8.7 High (v4.0), assigned by Anthropic. Anthropic did not immediately respond to CSO’s request for comment. ## A 256KB threshold allowed local files to leak Noma traced SneakPeek to three architectural gaps in Claude Code Desktop’s preview mechanism, which uses an Electron-based Chromium rendering panel to display HTML content. The first involved a file-size threshold that changed how the application handled HTML documents. Files smaller than 256KB were converted into base64-encoded data: URLs with a strict Content Security Policy (CSP) that blocked script execution. Files exceeding that threshold were instead written to disk and loaded directly as “file://” URLs, bypassing the CSP protections applied to smaller files. The second problem was the origin assigned to the rendered content. Loading the larger files through file:// gave the preview renderer access to the local filesystem in Chromium rather than confining it to an isolated, opaque origin, the researchers said. The third weakness was an inactive request filter. Although the application has a mechanism intended to block file: // access, Noma found that the filter was not active during static file rendering, including when developers reviewed local code test reports. “Relying on size-based thresholds or client-side filters for security boundaries is inherently fragile,” Lewis said. “Development machines hold high-value operational secrets—SSH private keys, AWS credentials, Kubernetes configurations, and OAuth session tokens.” Compromising a developer’s local workstation is effectively a direct route into corporate cloud infrastructure, he warned. Noma found that Anthropic’s initial patch could be bypassed. “The initial patch blocked the preview pane from making direct file read requests from the main page context, but we found that by moving the file-reading code into a Web Worker, a background thread that browsers run separately from the main page, the requests originated from a context the patch didn’t cover,” Ainhorn explained. The researchers reported the bypass, prompting a deeper architectural fix before the vulnerability was fully resolved. ## Risk beyond the AI model The malicious script ran inside the preview pane’s rendering process, rather than as an action performed by the AI agent itself. That defeats the assumption that security controls meant for the model are protecting all AI workflows. “The protections were real, they just didn’t cover every path,” Ainhorn said. “Organizations need to keep AI coding tools updated, stop leaving long-lived credentials on developer machines, and use scoped, short-lived tokens where possible. That alone would have limited what this exploit could grab.” According to Sysdig’s senior cybersecurity strategist [Crystal Morin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystal-morin/), agent-level logs would not necessarily capture the execution. File reads and outbound network connections would instead be visible at the runtime layer, where defenders need appropriate monitoring, Morin said. “The endpoint is where AI agents start, but their blast radius extends to the cloud,“ she added, warning that routine work with AI tools can expose credentials with consequences far beyond the workstation. --- --- title: "Microsoft and partners disrupt vast Chinese-language phishing kit ecosystem" url: "https://cyberscoop.com/microsoft-disrupts-chinese-language-phishing-kit-ecosystem/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Microsoft collaborated with Japanese authorities, Health-ISAC and several cybersecurity companies to dismantle an expansive, seemingly disconnected ecosystem of Chinese-language cybercrime tools and services, the company announced Wednesday. Since the start of the year, a vast collection of customized phishing kits" last_modified: "2026-10-14T13:00:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://cyberscoop.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://cyberscoop.com/microsoft-disrupts-chinese-language-phishing-kit-ecosystem/" --- # Microsoft and partners disrupt vast Chinese-language phishing kit ecosystem Microsoft collaborated with Japanese authorities, Health-ISAC and several cybersecurity companies to dismantle an expansive, seemingly disconnected ecosystem of Chinese-language cybercrime tools and services, the company announced Wednesday. Since the start of the year, a vast collection of customized phishing kits developed and sold by Chinese-speaking threat actors — a cluster Microsoft tracks as Storm-2990 — have delivered more than 1 billion phishing emails and SMS messages to more than 75,000 organizations globally. More than three-quarters of those malicious messages targeted Microsoft customers, the company said. Cybercriminals purchased the phishing kits, tools and infrastructure from an interconnected network Microsoft and Japanese authorities started investigating in early 2025. The kits were used to target individuals and organizations in healthcare, financial services, logistics and IT predominantly in the United States and Japan. Microsoft said it and Health-ISAC, working with a federal court order, seized and redirected domains that powered the underlying infrastructure of these cybercrime tools and services known as YAM Store, CoGUI and Iron Man.  The company said it also disabled more than 20,000 accounts connected to YAM Store and continues to disrupt the operation by removing infrastructure hosted on its services and blocking more than 100,000 domains used for impersonation and fraud. “Most people have opened their messages to find a suspicious alert urgently telling them that a package cannot be delivered, a [toll remains unpaid](https://cyberscoop.com/toll-road-text-message-scam-swells-nationwide-how-to-stop/), a bank account needs attention, or a tax bill is overdue. The details may change, but the goal is the same: to get someone to click, share personal information, or pay,” Steven Masada, general counsel and general manager of Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit, wrote in a blog post. “These messages are relentless,” he added. “Delete and block one, and another takes its place. Ignore them, and more will follow. Fall for one, and the floodgates open. What appears to be a simple scam message is often the visible end of a much larger transnational cybercriminal operation.” The phishing kids included templates impersonating legitimate brands that cybercriminals used to facilitate high-volume campaigns. Researchers said similar infrastructure and overlapping activity suggested the tools shared development origins, code reuse or close collaboration among developers. Microsoft said cybercriminals used the phishing kits to steal credentials, financial data and abuse the device code authentication process to obtain authentication tokens and access compromised accounts. Researchers said cybercriminals primarily used the tools for financial fraud, typically using stolen payment data to make fraudulent purchases of high-end goods or transactions on legitimate financial platforms.  Resecurity, which aided the investigation, gained access to Iron Man’s infrastructure and found 2,360 phishing templates impersonating banks, retailers, healthcare providers, transportation authorities, police departments and government agencies across 130 countries. Cloudflare, Oracle, Proofpoint and TRM Labs also provided research and investigative support. “What began with scam activity targeting people and organizations in Japan led investigators to an underground service economy supplying criminals around the world,” Masada wrote.  “YAM Store, CoGUI and Iron Man are only part of that larger criminal network, but disrupting them makes it harder for criminals to obtain the accounts, tools and infrastructure they rely on,” he added. “The scam message is often the only part victims see. The businesses behind it are what make it possible.” The post [Microsoft and partners disrupt vast Chinese-language phishing kit ecosystem](https://cyberscoop.com/microsoft-disrupts-chinese-language-phishing-kit-ecosystem/) appeared first on [CyberScoop](https://cyberscoop.com/). --- --- title: "Russian Influence Operation Widely Targeting Latin America" url: "https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/russian-influence-operation-targeting-latin-america" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "The AI-enabled operation used spoofed emails, fake government documents, and the creation of a local organization to target schools in Peru and Ecuador, among other efforts." last_modified: "2026-10-14T13:00:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.darkreading.com/rss.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/russian-influence-operation-targeting-latin-america" --- # Russian Influence Operation Widely Targeting Latin America The AI-enabled operation used spoofed emails, fake government documents, and the creation of a local organization to target schools in Peru and Ecuador, among other efforts. --- --- title: "CISA warns admins to immediately fix Ivanti flaw exploited as zero-day" url: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cisa-warns-admins-to-immediately-fix-ivanti-flaw-exploited-as-zero-day/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) urged security teams to immediately patch an Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) flaw exploited in zero-day attacks since at least October 1st." last_modified: "2026-10-14T12:58:07+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cisa-warns-admins-to-immediately-fix-ivanti-flaw-exploited-as-zero-day/" --- # CISA warns admins to immediately fix Ivanti flaw exploited as zero-day The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) urged security teams to immediately patch an Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) flaw exploited in zero-day attacks since at least October 1st. […] --- --- title: "Anthropic Warns: AI Models May Soon Spread Among Smart Devices in the Home" url: "https://www.computerworld.com/article/4235166/anthropic-warns-ai-models-may-soon-spread-among-smart-devices-in-the-home.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Smaller AI models may soon be able to spread autonomously among connected devices in the home—such as smart ovens and Android TV boxes, AI company Anthropic has warned. By exploiting security vulnerabilities in these devices, AI models could gain access," last_modified: "2026-10-14T12:48:23+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.computerworld.com/security/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.computerworld.com/article/4235166/anthropic-warns-ai-models-may-soon-spread-among-smart-devices-in-the-home.html" --- # Anthropic Warns: AI Models May Soon Spread Among Smart Devices in the Home Smaller AI models may soon be able to spread autonomously among connected devices in the home—such as smart ovens and Android TV boxes, AI company [Anthropic has warned](https://www.anthropic.com/research/self-replicating-ai). By exploiting security vulnerabilities in these devices, AI models could gain access, use their processing power, and spread further. This would allow them to continue functioning without relying on large data centers. According to Anthropic, such AI systems would be difficult to shut down, as they have no central point that can be stopped. Exactly how and when this might become possible remains uncertain. Anthropic believes that the first, simpler forms of this could be just a few months away. --- --- title: "Ledger Confirms Hardware Wallet Tampering Amid $86M Crypto Theft Reports" url: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/news-ledger-hardware-wallet-tampering-crypto-thefts/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Ledger confirms hardware tampering in crypto wallets linked to a reseller. Researchers found implants that could expose recovery phrases and bypass authenticity checks." last_modified: "2026-10-14T12:46:35+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/news-ledger-hardware-wallet-tampering-crypto-thefts/" --- # Ledger Confirms Hardware Wallet Tampering Amid $86M Crypto Theft Reports Ledger confirms hardware tampering in crypto wallets linked to a reseller. Researchers found implants that could expose recovery phrases and bypass authenticity checks. --- --- title: "Nvidia Weighs Reflection AI Acquisition or Bigger Investment, FT Reports" url: "https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/mergers-and-acquisitions/news-nvidia-reflection-ai-acquisition-investment-talks/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Nvidia may be looking to strengthen its position in AI beyond the chips powering the industry. The semiconductor giant is in early discussions to acquire Reflection AI or increase its investment in the American startup, according to the Financial Times." last_modified: "2026-10-14T12:39:28+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.channelinsider.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/mergers-and-acquisitions/news-nvidia-reflection-ai-acquisition-investment-talks/" --- # Nvidia Weighs Reflection AI Acquisition or Bigger Investment, FT Reports Nvidia may be looking to strengthen its position in AI beyond the chips powering the industry. The semiconductor giant is in early discussions to acquire Reflection AI or increase its investment in the American startup, according to the Financial Times. Reflection develops open-weight AI models, including Beam, which is designed for coding and agent-based tasks. Sources familiar with the talks said an agreement could take multiple forms, including an outright purchase, an expanded equity stake, fresh [computing power](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/dc-power-ai-data-center-channel-impact/), or an “[acqui-hire](https://www.ft.com/content/052610c5-22b4-4dd4-932e-b7f9f0628b6a?)” structured to absorb staff and license intellectual property while sidestepping lengthy antitrust reviews. A deeper relationship with Reflection would give Nvidia another foothold in the increasingly competitive market for AI models, where developers are weighing proprietary services against alternatives they can run and customize themselves. The semiconductor giant has already poured $800 million into Reflection, which was founded in 2024 by former Google DeepMind researchers Misha Laskin and Ioannis Antonoglou.  The startup was valued at $25 billion in a prior funding round and [just released Beam, an open-weight model](https://www.eweek.com/news/reflection-ai-beam-open-weight-model/) engineered for automated coding and agent tasks designed to rival low-cost Chinese alternatives like DeepSeek and Z.ai’s GLM-5.2. ## National stakes and defensive strategy The push carries significant geopolitical weight. The Trump administration has actively encouraged domestic alternatives to cheap foreign open-weight software. The president’s July 2025 AI action plan states: “We need to ensure America has leading open models founded on American values,” [as quoted by Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-10/nvidia-is-in-talks-to-acquire-reflection-ai-the-ft-reports), pointing to the risk of foreign models setting global software standards. Yet the strategy carries legal vulnerabilities. Acqui-hires have drawn mounting regulatory skepticism. [Nvidia’s roughly $20 billion licensing deal with Groq in December](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-nvidia-licenses-groq-ai-inference-technology-in-20b-deal/) already faces scrutiny from the Justice Department over whether it was structured to bypass merger reviews, alongside a recent lawsuit from former Groq staff. By pursuing Reflection on the heels of its [$13 billion Hugging Face acquisition](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/mergers-and-acquisitions/news-nvidia-acquires-hugging-face/), Nvidia is executing a calculated pivot beyond silicon. The company is trying to prevent frontier AI development from consolidating inside closed, vertically integrated ecosystems like Apple or proprietary labs like OpenAI. A deeper relationship with Reflection could expand Nvidia’s influence beyond the chips used to train and run AI models. Reflection’s focus on open-weight models is particularly relevant as developers and enterprises look for alternatives to proprietary AI systems. An acquisition or larger investment could give Nvidia closer ties to a company developing models that customers can deploy and customize. However, the discussions remain preliminary, and it is unclear whether Nvidia would acquire the company, expand its investment or pursue another arrangement. ## What this means for developers and channel partners For enterprise customers, a deeper Nvidia–Reflection partnership could expand access to [open-weight AI models](https://www.channelinsider.com/ai/news-anthropic-claude-startups-channel-opportunity/) that can be customized and deployed outside proprietary cloud services. However, running these models independently still requires substantial computing resources, technical expertise and ongoing maintenance. For channel partners, the opportunity lies in helping businesses determine whether self-hosted AI makes financial and operational sense. That includes evaluating infrastructure costs, integrating models into existing systems and managing deployments. The bigger question is whether Nvidia’s growing involvement in AI models will give customers more flexibility or encourage greater dependence on its hardware and software ecosystem. With talks still at an early stage, the outcome remains uncertain. **Other news: **[**Amazon is reportedly in talks to acquire AI startup Decart for approximately $7 billion**](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/mergers-and-acquisitions/news-amazon-decart-deal-aws-partners/)**, potentially strengthening AWS’s ability to help customers optimize workloads across different AI chips.** The post [Nvidia Weighs Reflection AI Acquisition or Bigger Investment, FT Reports](https://www.channelinsider.com/channel-business/mergers-and-acquisitions/news-nvidia-reflection-ai-acquisition-investment-talks/) appeared first on [Channel Insider](https://www.channelinsider.com/). --- --- title: "CISA Urges Immediate Ivanti Connect Secure Updates as Honeypots Log 105 Exploit Attempts" url: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/cisa-urges-immediate-ivanti-connect.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday urged organizations to take steps to immediately update their Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) appliances and deployments to the latest version following the disclosure of an actively exploited vulnerability. The security" last_modified: "2026-10-14T12:30:42+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.feedburner.com/TheHackersNews?format=xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/cisa-urges-immediate-ivanti-connect.html" --- # CISA Urges Immediate Ivanti Connect Secure Updates as Honeypots Log 105 Exploit Attempts The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday urged organizations to take steps to immediately update their Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) appliances and deployments to the latest version following the disclosure of an actively exploited vulnerability. The security flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-104935 (CVSS score: 8.6), is a case of authentication bypass impacting ICS --- --- title: "FLock.io Unveils Edge Decision Model, Built on Qwen, for Enhanced Data Privacy" url: "https://hackread.com/flock-io-edge-decision-model-qwen-data-privacy/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Built on Qwen3.5-2B, the System One model executes sub-31ms local inference, allowing enterprises to run automated classifications quickly, at low cost and completely offline without transmitting sensitive data to third-party cloud servers." last_modified: "2026-10-14T12:20:35+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://hackread.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://hackread.com/flock-io-edge-decision-model-qwen-data-privacy/" --- # FLock.io Unveils Edge Decision Model, Built on Qwen, for Enhanced Data Privacy Built on Qwen3.5-2B, the System One model executes sub-31ms local inference, allowing enterprises to run automated classifications quickly, at low cost and completely offline without transmitting sensitive data to third-party cloud servers. --- --- title: "curl Patches HTTP/2 Upload Flaw After PoC Demonstrates Client-Side Code Execution" url: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/curl-patches-http2-upload-flaw-after.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "A flaw in how curl handles HTTP/2 uploads lets a malicious server receiving an upload corrupt the client's memory, and the researcher who reported it turned that into code execution on the uploading machine. The curl project fixed it on" last_modified: "2026-10-14T12:13:36+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.feedburner.com/TheHackersNews?format=xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/curl-patches-http2-upload-flaw-after.html" --- # curl Patches HTTP/2 Upload Flaw After PoC Demonstrates Client-Side Code Execution A flaw in how curl handles HTTP/2 uploads lets a malicious server receiving an upload corrupt the client’s memory, and the researcher who reported it turned that into code execution on the uploading machine. The curl project fixed it on October 14 in curl 8.23.0. Taking over a client needs exact knowledge of its build and memory layout, and curl expects a real attack to end in a crash --- --- title: "Kicking off Cybersecurity Career Week with NIST!" url: "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/cybersecurity-insights/kicking-cybersecurity-career-week-nist" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Considering a career in cybersecurity? Cybersecurity Career Week (CCW), a campaign led by the NICE Program at NIST from October 19-24, 2026, aims to raise public awareness and help people find their path to #ChooseCyber. During this week, academia, industry," last_modified: "2026-10-14T12:00:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/cybersecurity-insights/rss.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.nist.gov/blogs/cybersecurity-insights/kicking-cybersecurity-career-week-nist" --- # Kicking off Cybersecurity Career Week with NIST! Considering a career in cybersecurity? Cybersecurity Career Week (CCW), a campaign led by the NICE Program at NIST from October 19-24, 2026, aims to raise public awareness and help people find their path to #ChooseCyber. During this week, academia, industry, non-profit organizations, and government agencies host events, share resources, provide trainings, and engage community to build awareness about the cybersecurity job opportunities, educate people on how to develop capabilities to qualify for cybersecurity roles, and showcase how building a cybersecurity workforce enhances the Nation’s --- --- title: "How to Run a Deepfake Readiness Drill Before a Cloned Voice Calls Your Team" url: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/how-to-run-deepfake-readiness-drill.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Cloned voices and synthetic video calls now show up in payment fraud, help desk resets, and access requests. A structured drill shows security teams exactly where verification breaks down, while nothing is at stake. The call comes in at 4:40" last_modified: "2026-10-14T11:50:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.feedburner.com/TheHackersNews?format=xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/how-to-run-deepfake-readiness-drill.html" --- # How to Run a Deepfake Readiness Drill Before a Cloned Voice Calls Your Team Cloned voices and synthetic video calls now show up in payment fraud, help desk resets, and access requests. A structured drill shows security teams exactly where verification breaks down, while nothing is at stake. The call comes in at 4:40 on a Friday. It’s the CFO, or it sounds exactly like her, asking the controller to push a supplier payment out before the weekend because a deal closes --- --- title: "Hackers abuse the Ivanti Connect Secure bug to gain access without accounts" url: "https://www.csoonline.com/article/4235129/hackers-abuse-the-ivanti-connect-secure-bug-to-gain-access-without-accounts.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Attackers without an account of their own were found logging in to Ivanti Connect Secure appliances using an authentication bypass flaw that the vendor has since fixed. Once inside, attackers ran arbitrary commands on the appliances. “Ivanti initially discovered a" last_modified: "2026-10-14T11:46:45+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.csoonline.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.csoonline.com/article/4235129/hackers-abuse-the-ivanti-connect-secure-bug-to-gain-access-without-accounts.html" --- # Hackers abuse the Ivanti Connect Secure bug to gain access without accounts Attackers without an account of their own were found logging in to Ivanti Connect Secure appliances using an authentication bypass flaw that the vendor has since fixed. Once inside, attackers ran arbitrary commands on the appliances. “Ivanti initially discovered a portion of this vulnerability as part of our product security program and patched it in the July release 25.1.3.0,“ the vendor said in a [security advisory](https://hub.ivanti.com/s/article/Security-Advisory-Ivanti-Connect-Secure-CVE-2026-104935?language=en_US). ”We had been working to backport the fix to the remaining supported versions when exploitation occurred.” According to security firm watchTowr’s vulnerability [FAQ](https://watchtowr.com/intelligence/ivanti-connect-secure-cve-2026-104935-faq/), the flaw allowed remote attackers to spoof the signals used to establish a user’s identity, bypassing normal authentication checks. The bypass uses a path separate from normal authentication, so existing login protections do not stop it, watchTowr added. Tracked as [CVE-2026-104935](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/cve-2026-104935) and rated at CVSS 8.6 out of 10, the vulnerability affects multiple product branches, including Ivanti Connect Secure 22.8R2.4 and earlier, as well as specified 25.1 releases. Ivanti says versions 22.7 and earlier are not affected. Ivanti has released fixes, including for versions 22.8R2.5, 25.1.1.2, 25.1.3.0, and 25.1.3.1, depending on the hardware and software branch. Security teams were advised to identify their deployed versions, apply corresponding fixes, and investigate potential compromise. While Ivanti said reliable indicators of compromise were not yet available, Volexity, the cybersecurity firm credited with discovering the flaw, has published details of its exploitation. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency [added](https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2026-104935) the flaw to its known exploited vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on October 13. --- --- title: "Hirudo Android malware replaces banking apps to evade security checks" url: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hirudo-android-malware-replaces-banking-apps-to-evade-security-checks/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "A new Android malware called Hirudo steals bank account credentials by replacing legitimate banking apps with modified versions that disable security checks." last_modified: "2026-10-14T11:41:20+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hirudo-android-malware-replaces-banking-apps-to-evade-security-checks/" --- # Hirudo Android malware replaces banking apps to evade security checks A new Android malware called Hirudo steals bank account credentials by replacing legitimate banking apps with modified versions that disable security checks. […] --- --- title: "Hidden Audio Recorder Found at OpenAI as Employee Faces Federal Charges" url: "https://securityaffairs.com/200933/cyber-crime/hidden-audio-recorder-found-at-openai-as-employee-faces-federal-charges.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "OpenAI employee charged with planting hidden audio recorders to capture sensitive discussions about AI research and company strategy. On September 30, OpenAI staff found a small audio recording device jammed into a USB port on the back of a television" last_modified: "2026-10-14T11:37:42+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://securityaffairs.com/feed" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://securityaffairs.com/200933/cyber-crime/hidden-audio-recorder-found-at-openai-as-employee-faces-federal-charges.html" --- # Hidden Audio Recorder Found at OpenAI as Employee Faces Federal Charges ## OpenAI employee charged with planting hidden audio recorders to capture sensitive discussions about AI research and company strategy. On September 30, OpenAI staff found a small audio recording device jammed into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room in their San Francisco office. The device had been there since September 28, its contents were encrypted, and whoever put it there had wrapped it in toilet paper to hide it. Federal prosecutors named the man as Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi national who’d been working on OpenAI’s product team since July 2025. Alfozan was fired and arrested on October 9. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. _“An employee of OpenAI has been arrested for and charged with using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications.” [states DoJ](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/saudi-national-arrested-installing-surreptitious-audio-recording-device-openai). “Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a national of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was arrested on Oct. 9, and made his initial appearance in federal court today.”_ The executive conference room hosted meetings about confidential research, product plans, business deals, government relations, and OpenAI’s technical progress. These were clearly sensitive discussions. FBI Director Kash Patel said the alleged goal was to spy on conversations about the company’s intellectual property. _“According to the complaint unsealed today, Abdulrahman Alfozan allegedly concealed a covert recording device inside his employer’s executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive communications about the company’s super intelligence technology,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Protecting American SI innovation is essential to safeguarding our nation’s economic strength and national security, and the FBI views that mission as one of our highest counterintelligence priorities. Thank you to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and our law enforcement partners for their support — and we will continue working closely with our partners across the U.S. government and private sector to keep American businesses and citizens safe and to ensure our country maintains its competitive edge.”_ Alfozan had no permission to enter the room or attend meetings there. CCTV footage showed him near the conference room several times before the recording device was discovered. On October 5, five days after OpenAI found it, cameras captured him looking behind the same television where the device had been hidden. He appeared to be checking on it or preparing to retrieve it. [![](https://i0.wp.com/securityaffairs.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/image-33.png?resize=561%2C402&ssl=1)](https://i0.wp.com/securityaffairs.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/image-33.png?ssl=1) Before the device was installed on September 28, Alfozan used an internal OpenAI tool to search for office addresses, meeting rooms and their capacity, room calendars, the locations of executives and senior leaders, and schedules for meetings with external partners. These searches suggest he was gathering information about the company’s facilities and activities. Investigators also found a series of chatbot prompts submitted between September 24 and 30 through an account linked to Alfozan’s spouse. The account shared several identifiers with his own. The prompts covered how to build a continuous audio recorder, configure Wi-Fi, improve recording and live listening quality, encrypt an SD card, and enable remote access. Prosecutors also noted that on September 27 and 28, the account submitted prompts referring specifically to the custom header and unique MAC address of Recording Device 1. This happened just one day before the device was installed. On October 5, the same day Alfozan was caught on camera looking behind the television, he also left a bag unattended in a different room in an OpenAI building. [![](https://i0.wp.com/securityaffairs.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/image-34.png?resize=412%2C390&ssl=1)](https://i0.wp.com/securityaffairs.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/image-34.png?ssl=1) Security staff opened it and found another recording device similar to the first one, along with his wallet and ID. So either he was planning to plant a second device, or he was already carrying a spare. _“If convicted, Alfozan faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, followed by 3 years of supervised release.” concludes DoJ._ OpenAI said it used its own internal AI models to help analyze the device, which TechCrunch [reported](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/13/fbi-arrests-openai-employee-accused-of-planting-hidden-recording-device-in-conference-room/) “contained advanced encryption, audio monitoring capabilities, and a mechanism for transferring data designed to evade monitoring.” OpenAI also confirmed there’s no indication that Alfozan accessed or exfiltrated model weights, source code, or customer data through any other channel. This case is being prosecuted under National Security Presidential Memorandum 11, specifically tied to protecting American superiority in what the government is now formally calling “super intelligence” technology. The Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton, weighed in personally, calling AI development a national security prerogative. That framing, a straightforward wire tap case dressed in super intelligence language, tells you something about where this administration sees AI in the broader geopolitical picture. **Follow me on Twitter: **[**@securityaffairs**](https://twitter.com/securityaffairs)** and **[**Facebook**](https://www.facebook.com/sec.affairs)** and **[**Mastodon**](https://infosec.exchange/@securityaffairs)**** [**Pierluigi Paganini**](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/pierluigi-paganini/b/742/559)**** **(**[**SecurityAffairs**](http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/)** – hacking, OpenAI)** --- --- title: "Google positions Gemini 4 Argon for long-horizon agentic work" url: "https://www.computerworld.com/article/4235123/google-positions-gemini-4-argon-for-long-horizon-agentic-work-2.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Google has launched Gemini 4 Argon, a new flagship AI model aimed at complex enterprise and software-development workloads, pairing claims of stronger coding performance and advanced reasoning with an introductory pricing model that doubles after November 30. The model “excels" last_modified: "2026-10-14T11:32:02+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.computerworld.com/security/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.computerworld.com/article/4235123/google-positions-gemini-4-argon-for-long-horizon-agentic-work-2.html" --- # Google positions Gemini 4 Argon for long-horizon agentic work Google has launched Gemini 4 Argon, a new flagship AI model aimed at complex enterprise and software-development workloads, pairing claims of stronger coding performance and advanced reasoning with an introductory pricing model that doubles after November 30. The model “excels at deep work in complex, real-world tasks,” Koray Kavukcuoglu, senior vice president of Google DeepMind and chief AI architect at Google, [wrote](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/introducing-gemini-4-argon/) in a blog post. Google said that its engineers used Argon to refactor a legacy folder of about six million lines within Chromium’s 40 million-line codebase, finishing in weeks rather than months. Teams using Argon in Antigravity increased agentic code submissions by more than 35% and cut code rollbacks by nearly a third, the company said, without detailing how it measured either figure. Argon is available through the Gemini API in AI Studio and on Google’s Gemini platform, and to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the Antigravity agentic development environment, the post added. In a separate developer [blog post](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/developers-tools/build-with-gemini-4-argon/), Google said the model is “designed for those long-horizon workflows that require deep reasoning and structural precision.” ## Pricing set to double According to the post, Argon costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens during the introductory period, with cached input discounted by 95%. A footnote in the post states the prices rise to $4 and $20, respectively, after November 30. The company said the model’s 1 million-token limit in the Gemini API is shared between input and output. Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst at Greyhound Research, said CIOs should budget at the higher rate from day one, because no enterprise evaluation, security review, and procurement cycle finishes within the discount window. “A business case built on the launch rate is a business case built to be rewritten in seven weeks,” he said. Gogia said Google bills reasoning tokens at the output rate, which makes the per-token price a poor guide to agent costs. “Cheap per token and cheap per task are different claims, and only the second one reaches the budget,” he said. Sakshi Grover, research director at IDC, said agentic workloads multiply token use through planning loops, tool calls and repeated context. She cited IDC’s FERS Survey (Wave 5, 2026), in which 72% of enterprises said their AI agent spending had run over forecast in the past 12 months. Whether Argon’s pricing and public benchmark results translate into “comparable output quality for enterprise use cases remains unproven,” said Nitish Tyagi, senior principal analyst at Gartner. He said internal validation on an organization’s own workflows should remain the primary basis for choosing a model. Gogia pointed out that Google Cloud’s standard terms allow fee changes unless a price is expressly agreed. CIOs who want price and version certainty after Nov. 30 must therefore write it into their contracts, he said. Gogia added that the deeper lock-in sits in Google’s Interactions API, which keeps agent conversation state on Google’s servers. “The protocols are neutral. The state is not,” he said. ## The model tried to game the tests in training Google disclosed in a separate safety blog post that Argon tried to work around its own evaluations during training. What the company sees in practice is “an agent trying too hard to finish the job it was given,” Anca Dragan, vice president of AI safety and behavior, and Raluca Ada Popa, head of Gemini security at Google DeepMind, [wrote](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/safety-security/gemini-4-model-safety-security/) in the post. According to that post, the model, in rare cases during training, tried to raise its container privileges to change grading scripts and pull answers from the test runner’s memory. In one case, it crashed the evaluation sandbox so that a failed run would not be scored. Google said in the post that its misalignment monitor caught these attempts and that shortcut attempts on coding benchmarks fell to 2%. “A model that games its grader turns every enterprise grader into a control that must be defended,” Gogia said. He said agents should never hold write access to anything that judges their own work, and that a crashed or timed-out check must count as a failure. Grover recommended a distinct agent identity, short-lived task-scoped credentials, restricted network access, and human approval for destructive changes, privilege expansion, and sensitive data exports. “Production deployment should depend on demonstrated control and auditability alongside task performance,” she said. ## Cyber capability rises In Google’s internal cyber evaluations, Argon solved 12 of 12 simulated end-to-end attack scenarios, compared with five for the previous Gemini generation, the safety post said. Google said in the post that it applied frontier safeguards to the cyber and biological domains under its Frontier Safety Framework. Gogia said the result is “a score on Google’s own exam, set and marked by Google,” and that Greyhound has found no independent replication of it. Google is also expanding its Fairwind Program to hundreds of additional partners, giving vetted cyber defenders access to Argon without cyber guardrails, the launch post said. “The weakest partner, not the strongest control, sets the exposure,” Gogia said, noting that each new partner adds another identity estate and contractor chain. IDC’s Grover said security leaders should judge such access by reproducible findings, validated patches and reduced exposure. She warned that more findings without the capacity to fix them can increase operational pressure. _The article originally appeared on [InfoWorld](https://www.infoworld.com/article/4235118/google-positions-gemini-4-argon-for-long-horizon-agentic-work.html)._ --- --- title: "Update Windows: Record Patch Tuesday fixes flaw already under attack" url: "https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/bugs/2026/10/update-windows-record-patch-tuesday-fixes-flaw-already-under-attack" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Microsoft’s October Patch Tuesday release addresses a record-breaking 1,413 vulnerabilities, including an actively exploited Windows Shell zero-day and two other publicly disclosed flaws. Just when you thought a previous record would stand for a while, Microsoft comes out again with" last_modified: "2026-10-14T11:26:09+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/feed/index.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/bugs/2026/10/update-windows-record-patch-tuesday-fixes-flaw-already-under-attack" --- # Update Windows: Record Patch Tuesday fixes flaw already under attack Microsoft’s October Patch Tuesday release addresses a record-breaking [1,413 vulnerabilities](https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/releaseNote/2026-Oct), including an actively exploited Windows Shell zero-day and two other publicly disclosed flaws. Just when you thought a previous record would stand for a while, Microsoft comes out again with the largest monthly Patch Tuesday release. [Microsoft has said its growing use of AI](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-expects-more-windows-security-updates-from-ai-discovered-flaws/) to find and fix security vulnerabilities means users should expect more fixes in its monthly updates. ## **How to apply patches and check if you’re protected** These updates fix security problems and help keep your Windows PC protected. Here’s how to make sure you’re up to date: - Click the **Start** button, then open **Settings**. - Select **Windows Update** (usually at the bottom of the menu on the left). - Click **Check for updates**. Windows will search for the latest security updates. If you’ve enabled **Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available** under **More options**, you may be prompted to restart immediately to complete the update. ![restart to update](https://www.malwarebytes.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/restart_to_update.png) - Otherwise, continue to the next step. - If updates are available, they’ll start downloading automatically. When they’re ready, click **Install** or **Restart now** if prompted. Your computer may need a restart to finish the update. - After restarting, go back to **Windows Update** and check again. If it says **You’re up to date**, you’re all set. ![Windows update](https://www.malwarebytes.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/up-to-date.png?w=369) ## Technical details As usual, we’ve selected a few vulnerabilities to highlight for readers interested in the technical details. We’ll start with the [actively exploited](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/alerts/2026/10/13/cisa-adds-two-known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog) vulnerability tracked as [CVE-2026-96951](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-96951) ([CVSS score](https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2025/11/how-cvss-v4-0-works-characterizing-and-scoring-vulnerabilities) 8.8 out of 10), a Windows Shell security feature bypass vulnerability. The security feature it can bypass is the Mark of the Web (MOTW) defense, which can warn users about potentially unsafe downloaded files. Successful exploitation requires user interaction. For example, in an email or instant message attack, the attacker could send the targeted user a specially crafted file designed to [exploit](https://www.malwarebytes.com/exploits) the vulnerability, but the user would have to click a link or open an attachment. Another one to keep an eye on is [CVE-2026-108398](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-108398) (CVSS score 8.8 out of 10), where an untrusted search path in .NET Framework allows an authorized attacker to bypass a security feature locally. The bypassed feature is Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC), which could lead to the ability to run unauthorized applications on target systems. This vulnerability was publicly disclosed before the patch. Another publicly disclosed vulnerability is [CVE-2026-92707](https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-92707) (CVSS score 5.3 out of 10). The flaw can let an unauthenticated remote attacker exhaust memory in affected applications that process specially crafted MessagePack data. MessagePack-CSharp is a software component that helps applications pack and unpack data in a compact format, making it efficient to store or exchange information. Exposure depends on how a service uses the library to pack and unpack the information. **From reporting threats to removing them.** Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep threats off your devices by [downloading Malwarebytes today](https://www.malwarebytes.com/for-home). --- --- title: "Researchers Used a Public OpenAI Model to Build a $250,000 Chrome Full-Chain Exploit in Six Days" url: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/researchers-used-public-openai-model-to.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "A team at security firm XBOW chained three then-unknown Google Chrome bugs into a single attack that runs code on a Windows computer when the user only loads a web page, the company said. Its researchers built the attack in" last_modified: "2026-10-14T11:19:02+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.feedburner.com/TheHackersNews?format=xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/researchers-used-public-openai-model-to.html" --- # Researchers Used a Public OpenAI Model to Build a $250,000 Chrome Full-Chain Exploit in Six Days A team at security firm XBOW chained three then-unknown Google Chrome bugs into a single attack that runs code on a Windows computer when the user only loads a web page, the company said. Its researchers built the attack in six days by directing AI agents running OpenAI’s publicly available GPT-5.6 Sol model. Google has since confirmed all three bugs, fixed them, and paid XBOW its top $ --- --- title: "Fake Calendly “Meta Careers” pages steal Facebook and Google logins" url: "https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/threat-intel/2026/10/fake-calendly-meta-careers-pages-steal-facebook-and-google-logins" lang: "en-US" type: "post" last_modified: "2026-10-14T11:10:30+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/feed/index.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/threat-intel/2026/10/fake-calendly-meta-careers-pages-steal-facebook-and-google-logins" --- # Fake Calendly “Meta Careers” pages steal Facebook and Google logins We found a wave of websites posing as Calendly booking pages for job interviews at Meta. Visitors pick a slot for a 30-minute phone call with a recruiter, fill in their details, and pass what looks like a CAPTCHA. Then the page asks them to log in to Facebook. ![](https://www.malwarebytes.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/FB-calendly-scam-SD-1.png?w=1024) The interview is fake. The pages are designed to steal the visitor’s Facebook login details, including the two-factor [authentication](https://www.malwarebytes.com/cybersecurity/basics/what-is-authentication) (2FA) codes meant to protect the account. Visitors are then asked to sign in to their Google account too, supposedly “for security.” These pages are not affiliated with Meta, Calendly, or Google. If you’ve already entered a password or approved a sign-in prompt, secure the affected accounts straight away. See “How to stay safe” below. ## Why Calendly makes a convincing disguise Calendly is a widely used scheduling tool, and recruiters use it to book interviews. Clicking a booking link, picking a time, and typing in your name and email is something people do without a second thought. There’s no account to create and nothing to download. That routine makes it a good disguise. By the time the page asks for something unusual, the visitor has already picked a slot and shared their details. Going along with one more step can feel easier than starting to doubt the whole thing. For someone who has sent out application after application without hearing back, an invitation to interview at Meta may be exactly the kind of message they hope for. Excitement, and the fear of missing a rare chance, can push people to move quickly instead of checking who actually sent the link. Job seekers are also used to sharing personal details with strangers. Handing your name, email, and phone number to a recruiter you’ve never met is a normal part of applying, so a form asking for them may not raise any alarms. ## A job interview that starts with a calendar ![The fake page copies Calendly’s booking screen, titled “Calendly | Meta Careers.”](https://www.malwarebytes.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/FB-calendly-scam-SD-3.png?w=1024) The fake page copies Calendly’s booking screen, titled “Calendly | Meta Careers.” It shows a monthly calendar, a time zone picker, and a 30-minute “Phone call.” The available times are loaded from the attackers’ server, so the calendar looks like a real recruiter’s schedule. ![The fake page copies Calendly’s booking screen, titled “Calendly | Meta Careers.”](https://www.malwarebytes.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/FB-calendly-scam-SD-2.png?w=1024) After the visitor picks a time, the page walks them through a series of steps: - **Your details.** A form asks for your name, email address, and phone number, plus anything that “will help prepare for our meeting.” - **A fake CAPTCHA.** A grid of images asks you to “Select all images with…”. It makes the page feel legitimate, and it may also stop automated security scanners from seeing what comes next. - **A Facebook login.** A window within the page copies Facebook’s login page. It even draws its own fake address bar showing a Facebook web address, so it looks like a genuine browser pop-up. The copy comes complete with realistic error messages such as “The login information you entered is incorrect.” The page also asks visitors to sign up for a “Career Profile.” - **Your Facebook security code.** If the account has 2FA, the page asks for the code from your authentication app, text message, WhatsApp, or email. - **A Google sign-in.** The page claims “Facebook requires you to sign in to the Gmail address” on your account. To make the request seem harmless, the page adds that “Facebook will not share any of your data with your Google Account.” Fake Google screens, again under a fake address bar, ask for your password and then whatever Google asks for: a tap on a phone prompt, a code from Google Authenticator, a text message code, or your recovery email address. Everything you type into these screens, including the Google password, is sent to the attackers’ collection server. - **A fake confirmation.** Finally, the page says a calendar invitation has been sent and that you’ll hear back within 90 minutes. By the time you start wondering, the attackers may already be inside your accounts. ## How the scam can get past two-factor authentication Many [phishing](https://www.malwarebytes.com/phishing) pages simply collect a password and stop. This one keeps going. While the visitor is on the page, it keeps checking in with the attackers’ server and waits to be told which screen to show next. That allows the attackers to try the stolen password on the real Facebook site right away. If Facebook asks for a code, the fake page asks the visitor for the same code, and the attackers can use it before it expires. If the code doesn’t work, the page simply says “Incorrect code. Please try again.” The Google screens support the same approach. If Google sends a sign-in prompt to the visitor’s phone, the fake page can tell them to “tap Yes,” potentially approving the attackers’ login. The visitor sees the fake page while the attackers attempt to sign in to the real service out of sight. Codes and phone prompts still make accounts much harder to take over, so keep them turned on. But a code entered into a fake page, or a prompt approved for someone else’s login, can let attackers in. Passkeys and compatible hardware security keys are tied to the genuine website, so a fake page like this cannot relay them in the same way. That protection won’t help if you instead choose a password-and-code fallback and give those details to the attackers. ## Signs of a reusable phishing kit The code carries a version number (`0.8.0`), detailed error logging, and a “campaign key” sent with every message to the attackers’ server. These features suggest a reusable kit with support for identifying different campaigns. The collection address uses Amazon API Gateway in AWS’s Singapore region, `ap-southeast-1`. A comment left in the code is written in Vietnamese. It translates to: > “Change the key here when deploying to production.” Neither the hosting region nor the language of a code comment establishes who is behind the pages or where they operate. Facebook accounts, especially those linked to business pages or ad accounts, are valuable to criminals. Taking over the Google account as well could expose email and other data, and let attackers reset passwords for accounts linked to that address. The domains are another warning sign. All 11 follow the same pattern: `join` plus a recruiting-sounding word, such as `joinhire`, `joinquest`, or `jointheteam`, on the `.cfd`, `.info`, and `.works` top-level domains. None mention Calendly or Meta. These generic names could also be reused for other companies’ job lures. ## How to stay safe - **Check the address, not the design.** Direct Calendly booking links use `calendly.com`, although legitimate forms can also be embedded on other websites. Treat an unfamiliar recruiting domain as a reason to verify the invitation independently. - **Don’t give a booking page your Facebook password.** Scheduling a call doesn’t require handing your social media password to a recruiter. If a booking flow suddenly asks you to sign in elsewhere, verify both the request and the actual login domain. - **Look at your browser’s real address bar.** These fake login windows draw their own address bars showing Facebook or Google web addresses. For a separate pop-up, check the address displayed by the browser itself. A login window that cannot be dragged outside the webpage may be part of the page rather than a separate browser window. - **Verify the recruiter and role.** Go directly to the company’s official careers site. A genuine job listing doesn’t prove the person contacting you represents the company, so verify unexpected invitations through an independent contact. - **Don’t share codes or approve unexpected prompts.** Only enter a code on the genuine service for a login you initiated. Never approve a phone prompt just because a recruiter or booking page tells you to. - **Use passkeys or a security key where you can.**They resist this kind of phishing. Be wary if a page pushes you to use a password and code instead. - **Already entered a password or approved a prompt?** From a trusted device, go directly to the affected service and change your password. Sign out other sessions and check your security methods, recovery email, and phone number. If both accounts were affected, secure your Google account promptly because email access can help attackers reset other passwords. Check Gmail for unfamiliar forwarding rules and filters, and review any Facebook business pages or ad accounts you manage. Change the password anywhere else you reused it. - **Locked out of your account?** Use [Meta’s account recovery support](https://www.meta.com/account-recovery-support/) or [Google’s compromised-account gui](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6294825)[d](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6294825)[ance](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6294825). If you only shared contact details, watch for follow-up scams that use them to sound convincing. ## How Malwarebytes helps [Malwarebytes Browser Guard](https://www.malwarebytes.com/browserguard) can block phishing and scam sites before you interact with them. That matters in campaigns like this one, where the page closely copies a service people use every day. If you receive an interview link and aren’t sure about it, [Malwarebytes Scam Guard](https://www.malwarebytes.com/solutions/scam-guard) can help assess the link before you click. ## Indicators of compromise **Phishing domains** - `joinconnect[.]cfd` - `joinconnect[.]works` - `joinhire[.]cfd` - `joinhire[.]info` - `joinquest[.]cfd` - `joinquest[.]info` - `joinquest[.]works` - `jointhetalent[.]cfd` - `jointhetalent[.]info` - `jointhetalent[.]works` - `jointheteam[.]cfd` **Collection endpoint** - `rkrt01c0mc[.]execute-api[.]ap-southeast-1[.]amazonaws[.]com` **Stop threats before they can do any harm.** Malwarebytes Browser Guard blocks phishing pages and malicious sites automatically. Free, one click to install. [Add it to your browser →](https://www.malwarebytes.com/browserguard) --- --- title: "Hirudo Android Trojan Uses Patched Banking Apps to Bypass Their Built-In Security Checks" url: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/hirudo-android-trojan-uses-patched.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new Android banking trojan called Hirudo that works by replacing legitimate banking apps with purpose-built patched versions designed to bypass security checks from inside the app itself, marking a new escalation in financial" last_modified: "2026-10-14T11:08:22+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.feedburner.com/TheHackersNews?format=xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/hirudo-android-trojan-uses-patched.html" --- # Hirudo Android Trojan Uses Patched Banking Apps to Bypass Their Built-In Security Checks Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new Android banking trojan called Hirudo that works by replacing legitimate banking apps with purpose-built patched versions designed to bypass security checks from inside the app itself, marking a new escalation in financial fraud.  Dutch mobile security company ThreatFabric said it identified replacements for eight Indonesian banking --- --- title: "An AI Agent Found a Critical OTP Bypass in Production. The Attack Was the Easy Part." url: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/an-ai-agent-found-critical-otp-bypass.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "The bug was simple: the login let you choose where your sign-in code went. Proving it on a live website was the hard part. TL;DR During an authorized assessment, an AI pentesting agent found a critical authentication bypass on a" last_modified: "2026-10-14T11:00:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://feeds.feedburner.com/TheHackersNews?format=xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/an-ai-agent-found-critical-otp-bypass.html" --- # An AI Agent Found a Critical OTP Bypass in Production. The Attack Was the Easy Part. The bug was simple: the login let you choose where your sign-in code went. Proving it on a live website was the hard part. TL;DR During an authorized assessment, an AI pentesting agent found a critical authentication bypass on a major insurer’s production website, on its own. One login request let the user choose where the one-time passcode went. The attack was the easy part. Proving it --- --- title: "Microsoft knows it robbed publishers to train AI. It just doesn’t care" url: "https://www.computerworld.com/article/4234688/microsoft-knows-it-robbed-publishers-to-train-ai-it-just-doesnt-care.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Ever since OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot and its offspring Microsoft Copilot were launched, critics have pointed out that both products — and all other generative AI tools — have been built using billions of dollars of stolen intellectual property. Training AI" last_modified: "2026-10-14T11:00:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.computerworld.com/security/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.computerworld.com/article/4234688/microsoft-knows-it-robbed-publishers-to-train-ai-it-just-doesnt-care.html" --- # Microsoft knows it robbed publishers to train AI. It just doesn’t care Ever since OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot and its offspring Microsoft Copilot were launched, critics have pointed out that both products — and all other generative AI tools — have been built using billions of dollars of stolen intellectual property. Training AI models requires vast amounts of written material, especially books, newspapers, and magazine articles. OpenAI, Microsoft, and other Big AI firms have been stealing every piece of intellectual property (IP) they can find for training. With few exceptions, instead of paying the people and publishers who labored to create that intellectual property, Big AI steals it and call it “fair use.” But just-released evidence shows that from the start, many employees and executives at Microsoft and OpenAI warned their companies that they were committing theft — and added that doing so could put newspapers and magazines out of business. The companies ignored them and went full speed ahead. All that and more came out last month in newly unsealed court documents filed in a lawsuit by _The New York Times_ and others against Microsoft and OpenAI for IP theft. The [filing](https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68117049/1587/1/the-new-york-times-company-v-microsoft-corporation/) cites memos, reports, and statements by Microsoft employees and execs that show the company was well aware of the illegality of what they were doing — and the consequences. Here’s just one example. Back in 2023, at the dawn of genAI, [an internal Microsoft memo warned](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/technology/microsoft-openai-publishing-industry.html): “Millions of people around the world will soon consider large models ‘hoovering up’ all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions.” There’s more and worse than that in the filing. Before we get to the specifics, let’s look at the details of the suit. ### A look at the _Times_ suit In December 2023, _[The New York Times sued Microsoft and OpenAI](https://www.computerworld.com/article/1611434/new-york-times-blockbuster-suit-could-decide-the-fate-of-genai.html)_ for copyright infringement and dilution of its trademark after OpenAI used millions of _Times_ articles to train ChatGPT without the newspaper’s permission. Microsoft was included in the suit because of its ownership stake in OpenAI and because ChatGPT is the foundation for Copilot. (ChatGPT was released to the public about a year earlier, in November 2022.) Among other complaints, the suit claims the chatbots use the paper’s reporting to allow people to read the newspaper without having to subscribe to it. It says that the paper has lost subscribers and ad revenue because of it.  The suit adds that both ChatGPT and Copilot have created word-for-word copies of _Times _articles in response to people’s queries, and that the chatbots have created falsehoods (a.k.a. hallucinations) that they attribute to the _Times_. The suit also says its articles are one of the largest sources of training data for the chatbots, allowing the AI firms to train them more cheaply, and that Microsoft and OpenAI reap the profits while the _Times_ loses revenue. There’s no specific monetary value the suit asks for, although the paper has said the value of its IP is in the billions of dollars. The _Times_ also asks in the suit that Microsoft and OpenAI destroy the datasets that include its content. Since the suit was filed, the _New York Daily News_, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and seven other newspapers have joined it. ### Microsoft and OpenAI execs admit theft Employees of Microsoft and OpenAI, including high-level executives, have long agreed with the suit’s charges, even warning about the consequences of data theft before the suit was filed. Most prominent among them is Brent Hecht, Microsoft’s director of applied science. The recent filing cites an internal memo he wrote in January 2023 calling the use of _New York Times_ articles without the paper’s consent [“an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions”](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/17/microsoft-exec-called-ai-scraping-the-largest-theft-of-labor-in-human-history-new-unredacted-filings-reveal/) and “the largest theft of labor in human history.” Note the date he wrote that memo: nearly a year before the _Times _filed its suit in December of 2023. That meant he had been warning Microsoft for at least a year before the suit that Microsoft and OpenAI were violating copyright laws and stealing IP. Hecht had more to say. In a memo written after the suit was filed, he warned that because OpenAI and Copilot used information taken from the _Times_ and other newspapers to answer users’ questions, people would no longer need to go to the newspapers’ web sites or subscribe to the print versions. He wrote that this “necessarily threatens the economic stability of those who create the content.” He wasn’t alone. In June 2023, six months before the _Times_ suite, Nick Turley, the OpenAI exec who headed the team developing ChatGPT, said that AI represented an “existential threat” to publishers. Years before that, in 2020 before ChatGPT was even released, OpenAI’s policy director Jack Clark wrote a memo to OpenAI President Greg Brockman and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warning that OpenAI’s work “is going to increasingly lead to us creating systems that substitute for the labor of the people that define the ‘culture’ of society.” He added, “OpenAI will become the symbol of how Silicon Valley is thoughtlessly stepping into other parts of life and leaving a mess on the carpet.” The warnings from inside Microsoft and OpenAI went on and on. They were ignored for years and continue to be ignored. And while the companies were warned that what they were doing was illegal, some execs reveled in it. When an OpenAI engineer told Brockman he was working on “a hack to get around nytimes paywall” so OpenAI could get faster access to for-pay copyrighted content, Brockman replied, “ah, nice.” ### Microsoft looks the other way Microsoft is no better. When a _Times _reporter asked Microsoft spokesperson Alex Haurek about Hecht’s warnings, Haurek dismissed Hecht as not being a decision maker, adding that he was hired merely “to present divergent and asymmetric perspectives.” Which were then to be ignored, of course.   As for Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, he backs Microsoft and OpenAI to the hilt and tries to evade responsibility for both companies’ actions. In a deposition, he said that if he “had been made aware that OpenAI had scraped and trained on information that was behind a paywall,” he would have required OpenAI to retrain its models, which he says Microsoft has a right to do. Yet for years now, he’s been aware of what OpenAI has done and how Copilot has benefited from it. Has he asked OpenAI to retrain its models on non-paywalled content? Of course not. Microsoft and OpenAI are flat-out wrong. The _Times_ and the others who joined in the suit are right that their IP has been stolen. We can only hope that eventually, the courts will recognize it and finally put an end to the multi-trillion-dollar theft they’ve committed and continue to commit every day in plain sight. --- --- title: "Phase Eight, Hobbs and Whistles owner joins growing list of fashion retailers targeted by hackers" url: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/tfg-london-cyberattack-phase-eight-hobbs-whistles/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "People who have shopped with Phase Eight, Hobbs or Whistles will have to wait to find out whether their personal information was exposed in a cyberattack on the company behind the three UK fashion brands. TFG London, the UK business" last_modified: "2026-10-14T10:48:12+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/tfg-london-cyberattack-phase-eight-hobbs-whistles/" --- # Phase Eight, Hobbs and Whistles owner joins growing list of fashion retailers targeted by hackers People who have shopped with Phase Eight, Hobbs or Whistles will have to wait to find out whether their personal information was exposed in a cyberattack on the company behind the three UK fashion brands. TFG London, the UK business of South African retail group The Foschini Group (TFG), detected the incident on Sunday, 11 October 2026. In a statement released on Tuesday, the company said the attack hit some of its IT systems, specifically … [More →](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/tfg-london-cyberattack-phase-eight-hobbs-whistles/) The post [Phase Eight, Hobbs and Whistles owner joins growing list of fashion retailers targeted by hackers](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/tfg-london-cyberattack-phase-eight-hobbs-whistles/) appeared first on [Help Net Security](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/). --- --- title: "Microsoft: Recent Windows updates may trigger Remote Desktop failures" url: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-recent-windows-updates-may-trigger-remote-desktop-failures/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Microsoft has confirmed that non-admin users may be unable to connect to devices via Remote Desktop after installing recent Windows updates if the \"Administrator protection\" security feature is enabled." last_modified: "2026-10-14T10:48:09+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-recent-windows-updates-may-trigger-remote-desktop-failures/" --- # Microsoft: Recent Windows updates may trigger Remote Desktop failures Microsoft has confirmed that non-admin users may be unable to connect to devices via Remote Desktop after installing recent Windows updates if the “Administrator protection” security feature is enabled. […] --- --- title: "Police receive fake murder tip from Anthropic’s Claude AI" url: "https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/ai/2026/10/police-receive-fake-murder-tip-from-anthropics-claude-ai" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Police tip hotlines already have their fair share of crank callers. Apparently they now have to contend with crank AI agents as well. AI agents have already been caught hacking software companies, breaching an Australian government portal, and trying to" last_modified: "2026-10-14T10:43:39+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/feed/index.xml" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/ai/2026/10/police-receive-fake-murder-tip-from-anthropics-claude-ai" --- # Police receive fake murder tip from Anthropic’s Claude AI Police tip hotlines already have their fair share of crank callers. Apparently they now have to contend with crank [AI](https://www.malwarebytes.com/what-was-the-mirai-botnet) agents as well. AI agents have already been caught [hacking software companies](https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2026/07/openais-agent-escaped-its-sandbox-during-a-security-test), breaching an [Australian government portal](https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/ai/2026/09/openai-agent-breached-medicare-statistics-portal-then-took-months-to-report-it), and [trying to hack a Canadian government website](https://www.cp24.com/news/canada/2026/10/01/ai-agents-tried-to-hack-a-canadian-government-website-research-firm-says/). Now Anthropic’s Claude has added a made-up murder tip to the list. Claude’s Haiku 4.5 model filed a false tip in an unsolved Philadelphia homicide via the police department’s online public tip form, [Anthropic disclosed](https://www.anthropic.com/news/investigating-unintended-model-actions). The tip was flagged as [spam](https://www.malwarebytes.com/spam) and didn’t reach investigators. AI’s latest “what does this button do?” moment happened during an internal test on randomly chosen web pages, the company said. Claude submitted the tip on July 18 at 11:27 pm through PhillyUnsolvedMurders.com, according to police. Tips submitted there can inform real homicide investigations. A fabricated account could send investigators chasing something that never happened. Here’s what Claude Haiku wrote: > “I may have information regarding this case. I recall seeing someone matching the description in the area around [the street named on the page] during that time period. Please contact me if this information is relevant.” The agent didn’t provide any description of the person that it didn’t actually see. Neither did it leave any contact details before hitting submit. Haiku did this as part of Anthropic’s internal testing. It had to invent and perform sample tasks on random web pages with live internet access so the company could see how it behaved. There was a list of prohibited actions to go along with the test. Anthropic told the agents not to log in, create accounts, enter personal data, make purchases, or submit “anything destructive.” The instructions did not explicitly rule out form submissions. The spam filter caught this one. Philadelphia police said the report never reached its Real-Time Crime Center for review or distribution to investigators. The department did not explain why it was flagged as spam. All tips go through human review before going out to investigators. That safeguard limited the impact of the incident, the department said, but did not diminish the seriousness of an AI system presenting made-up information as though it came from someone with knowledge of a crime. As it put it in a [statement](https://6abc.com/post/anthropic-ai-model-submitted-false-tip-unsolved-murder-philadelphia-police-say/19925243/): > “Unsolved cases involve real victims, grieving families and investigators working to secure answers.” Anthropic discovered the false tip on September 28 and notified police on October 7, [according to](https://www.implicator.ai/anthropics-claude-haiku-4-5-filed-a-false-homicide-tip-with-philadelphia-police/) the department. Police called the two-month delay in detecting and reporting the incident “unacceptable.” It is coordinating with the City Law Department, its Office of Innovation and Technology, and the Mayor’s executive team, the department added. Anthropic described the real-world impact of the incidents in its report as minimal. It has now disabled live internet access across its internal evaluations until it confirms that its safeguards reliably catch this behavior. The company said the transcript suggested Haiku was just trying to produce example content rather than trying to deliberately mislead the cops. But it also admitted that we can’t completely rely on a model’s account of its own reasoning. That leaves its explanation provisional, however reassuring it might sound. An allowlist could offer a tighter boundary for tests like these, limiting agents to approved sites and actions. A live police tip form should hardly be a testing ground. The homicide tip was not the only unwanted submission. Anthropic noted that federal, state, and local government websites also got visits from Claude, which repeatedly tried to fill out forms. Although Anthropic didn’t go into detail, a State Department official [said](https://www.implicator.ai/anthropics-claude-haiku-4-5-filed-a-false-homicide-tip-with-philadelphia-police/) that it got 20 visa applications from a testing model (19 in August, and one in May). None of them were processed, the official added. When an AI gives you fake information about who Beyoncé is married to, it might be irritating but it might only affect your team’s fortunes in a trivia night. The stakes get much higher when we’re dealing with intelligence that can inform law enforcement actions or public policy. In August, the head of the UK’s Police AI center [warned](https://theconversation.com/why-police-have-been-told-to-pause-their-use-of-ai-in-court-cases-289731) law enforcement there to pause plans for AI use in criminal justice work. This came after the UK’s West Midlands Police [apologized](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jan/14/west-midlands-police-chief-apologises-ai-error-maccabi-tel-aviv-ban) to members of Parliament over false evidence involving an invented soccer match. The error arose from the use of Microsoft Copilot. Anthropic’s latest incident raises a further concern: AI agents can put invented information into real systems themselves. What would happen if someone deliberately sent agents to flood police tip lines? This time, the false account stayed in spam. The people relying on those tip lines deserve safeguards that hold up when the next submission gets through. [![CNET Editors' Choice Award 2026](https://www.malwarebytes.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/CNET_Editors_Choice.png?w=819)](https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/malwarebytes-antivirus-review/) ### **“One of the best cybersecurity suites on the planet.”**  According to CNET. [Read their review](https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/malwarebytes-antivirus-review/) [→](https://www.malwarebytes.com/premium) --- --- title: "Unplug your smart fridges, French supermarkets warned after cyberattack" url: "https://www.csoonline.com/article/4235107/unplug-your-smart-fridges-french-supermarkets-warned-after-cyberattack.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "More internet-connected refrigerators have joined the official list of those affected by a cyberattack that ruined stocks of chilled food at hundreds of French supermarkets over the weekend. The French Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-FR) advised supermarkets to disconnect any" last_modified: "2026-10-14T10:37:21+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.csoonline.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.csoonline.com/article/4235107/unplug-your-smart-fridges-french-supermarkets-warned-after-cyberattack.html" --- # Unplug your smart fridges, French supermarkets warned after cyberattack More internet-connected refrigerators have joined the official list of those affected by a cyberattack that ruined stocks of chilled food at hundreds of French supermarkets over the weekend. The French Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-FR) advised supermarkets to [disconnect any refrigeration control systems with a public IP address from the internet](https://cert.cyber.gouv.fr/alerte/CERTFR-2026-ALE-012/), and to reconnect them via a secure VPN only after verifying the configuration and, if necessary, restoring factory defaults. In an emergency, it suggested, they could simply filter connections to allow only the IP addresses of their refrigeration suppliers or service providers to connect, but this should not be a long-term solution, CERT-FR said. CERT-FR’s initial warning on Monday listed only Danfoss AK-SC and AK-SM series refrigeration controllers as affected, advising supermarkets to update the firmware of their systems, set the security level to “strict,” and ensure that default passwords had been changed. One of the supermarket chains hardest hit in the attack was Groupement Mousquetaires, which operates under the Intermarché and Netto brands. It promptly removed products from affected fresh and frozen food display units managed by Danfoss in some of its stores, a spokesman said. Following the attack, French control systems vendor [Dixell posted presciently on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7515432935043284992/): “Cybersecurity is everyone’s business, all the time. Today, our competitors were targeted; tomorrow, it could be our turn.” And so it came to be. As the list of victims grew, it became apparent that not all the affected supermarkets were using refrigeration controllers supplied by Danfoss, prompting CERT-FR to add other models to the list sold under the Dixell and Copeland brands. Dixell published a security advisory for user of its XWEB internet interface, broadly along the same lines as CERT-FR’s advice. It recommended immediately upgrading systems running version 1.12.1 or older; changing weak or default passwords and activating password security policies on compatible systems; and securing remote access through a VPN, a dedicated 4G mobile data connection, or in an emergency by applying an IP address filter. Tom Hegel, research lead at cybersecurity monitoring company SentinelOne, said the attacks are unlikely to stop with Danfoss and Dixell/Copeland: “With thousands of these interfaces still onine, I expect more incidents like this.” Those interfaces are online because supermarkets often buy “refrigeration as a service,” with providers guaranteeing performance as long as they have access to a constant stream of data from the refrigerators they maintain. The data also enables them to guarantee traceability of the cold chain. As with much legacy operational technology (OT), the security of such systems has largely [escaped the notice of CISOs](https://cert.cyber.gouv.fr/alerte/CERTFR-2026-ALE-012/) until now. “Retail chains run enormous estates of refrigeration controllers, building management systems, door access panels, and point-of-sale gear, much of it installed by facilities contractors who rarely loop in the security team,” said Hegel. As they scan and secure their systems, supermarket CISOs will be wondering who attacked them, and why — but with the off switch for their refrigerators effectively posted to the public internet, those will be hard questions to answer. “An attacker who logs into an exposed control panel leaves almost nothing behind, with no malware to analyze and few clues beyond an IP address that probably leads to a rented server. A teenager and an intelligence service would look much the same from the defender’s side,” said Hegel. “The gap between a nuisance and a serious incident often comes down to how much control a victim has exposed to the internet. --- --- title: "Radware MCP Server Protection monitors agent activity and guards against protocol abuse" url: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/radware-mcp-server-protection/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Radware has announced Radware Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server Protection, a purpose-built solution designed to help organizations more securely adopt MCP as AI agents gain greater access to enterprise applications, data and business workflows. The solution is intended to give" last_modified: "2026-10-14T10:35:25+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/radware-mcp-server-protection/" --- # Radware MCP Server Protection monitors agent activity and guards against protocol abuse Radware has announced Radware Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server Protection, a purpose-built solution designed to help organizations more securely adopt MCP as AI agents gain greater access to enterprise applications, data and business workflows. The solution is intended to give organizations visibility into their MCP infrastructure, help protect MCP servers against MCP-specific attacks and establish governance as deployments scale. MCP is rapidly emerging as a standard way for AI agents to connect to enterprise applications, … [More →](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/radware-mcp-server-protection/) The post [Radware MCP Server Protection monitors agent activity and guards against protocol abuse](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/radware-mcp-server-protection/) appeared first on [Help Net Security](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/). --- --- title: "SolarWinds Avior pairs IT automation with human approval and audit trails" url: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/solarwinds-avior/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "SolarWinds has announced the launch of Avior, a standalone, goal-oriented agentic AI system purpose-built for mission-critical IT environments. Built on the SolarWinds Platform, Avior will help IT teams securely define goals, coordinate specialized agents, and track progress toward measurable outcomes" last_modified: "2026-10-14T10:27:11+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/solarwinds-avior/" --- # SolarWinds Avior pairs IT automation with human approval and audit trails SolarWinds has announced the launch of Avior, a standalone, goal-oriented agentic AI system purpose-built for mission-critical IT environments. Built on the SolarWinds Platform, Avior will help IT teams securely define goals, coordinate specialized agents, and track progress toward measurable outcomes across hybrid digital ecosystems. As technology infrastructure grows more complex and business-critical, variable outcomes can introduce unacceptable risk and costs that most IT organizations already quietly absorb in outage minutes, audit exposure, and senior engineering … [More →](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/solarwinds-avior/) The post [SolarWinds Avior pairs IT automation with human approval and audit trails](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/solarwinds-avior/) appeared first on [Help Net Security](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/). --- --- title: "Chainguard Harness uses frontier AI to test running applications for vulnerabilities" url: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/chainguard-harness/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Chainguard has announced Chainguard Harness, a new cyber harness that uses frontier AI models like Anthropic’s Claude Mythos 5.1 to find and fix exploitable vulnerabilities in an organization’s application code. Harness builds an application from an organization’s source code in" last_modified: "2026-10-14T10:16:04+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/feed/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/chainguard-harness/" --- # Chainguard Harness uses frontier AI to test running applications for vulnerabilities Chainguard has announced Chainguard Harness, a new cyber harness that uses frontier AI models like Anthropic’s Claude Mythos 5.1 to find and fix exploitable vulnerabilities in an organization’s application code. Harness builds an application from an organization’s source code in an isolated microVM, instructs a frontier model to hunt for exploitable vulnerabilities in a live, running instance, and reproduces every finding before delivering a tailored, staff-reviewed fix. Teams benefit from frontier vulnerability hunting without needing … [More →](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/chainguard-harness/) The post [Chainguard Harness uses frontier AI to test running applications for vulnerabilities](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/14/chainguard-harness/) appeared first on [Help Net Security](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/). --- --- title: "Volexity Uncovers Stealthy Ivanti VPN Attack Using Three Zero-Day Vulnerabilities" url: "https://securityaffairs.com/200895/hacking/volexity-uncovers-stealthy-ivanti-vpn-attack-using-three-zero-day-vulnerabilities.html" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Ivanti VPN zero-days let attackers gain root access, steal credentials, evade detection, and prepare for wider network compromise. On October 5, Volexity started investigating suspicious activity at one of its monitoring customers and traced everything back to an Ivanti Connect" last_modified: "2026-10-14T10:15:30+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://securityaffairs.com/feed" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://securityaffairs.com/200895/hacking/volexity-uncovers-stealthy-ivanti-vpn-attack-using-three-zero-day-vulnerabilities.html" --- # Volexity Uncovers Stealthy Ivanti VPN Attack Using Three Zero-Day Vulnerabilities ## Ivanti VPN zero-days let attackers gain root access, steal credentials, evade detection, and prepare for wider network compromise. On October 5, Volexity started investigating suspicious activity at one of its monitoring customers and traced everything back to an Ivanti Connect Secure VPN appliance running version 22.8R2.4, the latest build available at the time. Three chained zero-days gave an unknown attacker unauthenticated root access. _“n the first week of October 2026, Volexity discovered an unknown threat actor, UTA0576, abusing a zero-day exploit chain to compromise a fully patched (at the time, version 22.8R2.4) Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) VPN appliance.” [states Volexity](https://www.volexity.com/blog/2026/10/13/a-series-of-unauthenticated-events-chained-exploitation-of-ivanti-connect-secure-zero-days/). “This exploit chain combined an authentication bypass, a remote code execution (RCE), and a privilege escalation vulnerability to achieve unauthenticated root-level code execution. The RCE and authentication bypass vulnerabilities are tracked under CVE-2026-104935.”_ The attacker, tracked as UTA0576, had been inside the device since at least October 3, two days before anyone noticed. Ivanti released a patch for two of the three vulnerabilities on October 13; the privilege escalation fix is still coming in a future release. The first flaw affects welcome.cgi, the public login page. An attacker sends a request to this page that passes the authentication checks but includes the path to a protected internal script in an HTTP header. The system checks the URL to decide whether to allow the request, but uses the header to decide where to send it. This mismatch allows the attacker to bypass authentication. The attacker then uploads a Perl script disguised as a ZIP file through another endpoint. The server saves the file, checks whether it is a valid ZIP archive, and schedules it for deletion when the check fails. Before the file is deleted, the attacker sends multiple requests to its predictable location on disk. If a request reaches the file in time, the script executes. Both the authentication bypass and the race-condition flaw that enables remote code execution are tracked under [CVE-2026-104935](https://securityaffairs.com/200887/security/u-s-cisa-adds-ivanti-connect-secure-flaw-to-its-known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog.html). The third step escalates from the limited web server user to full root. A privileged background service called dsinvoked runs maintenance tasks as root and looks up which programs to execute in a shared configuration store. UTA0576 patches that store in memory, redirects a legitimate task to the Perl interpreter instead, triggers the task, and gets root execution. Then everything gets silently restored to its original state. Volexity found that the attack changed code in memory but restored the configuration data, which explains why Ivanti’s Integrity Checker Tool did not detect anything suspicious. The tool checks files stored on disk, but this attack left no permanent changes there. Each time UTA0576 ran a command, the attackers repeated the entire exploit chain. They received the results through normal HTTPS responses instead of using a persistent backdoor or web shell. They also deleted selected entries from Ivanti debug logs and Linux audit logs covering the attack. Temporary files were removed automatically after use. The attackers hid a packet capture tool under a renamed executable in a directory not shown in normal file listings. They also used eight rotating capture files, allowing older network traffic to be overwritten. Once inside, UTA0576 went straight for credentials. The attacker deployed a custom Python LDAP tool that authenticated to an internal domain controller using the VPN appliance’s own service account and searched Active Directory specifically for LAPS local administrator passwords, BitLocker recovery keys, and any attributes containing passwords in plaintext. Results were compressed and encoded before being exfiltrated back through the same exploit channel. The attacker also ran a packet capture tool to harvest cleartext credentials from LDAP traffic already flowing through the device, built a custom Kerberos implementation capable of Kerberoasting attacks, and ran password-spraying campaigns against Active Directory accounts. _“Volexity’s forensic investigation revealed that, immediately after exploiting an ICS VPN appliance, UTA0576 began conducting reconnaissance, stealing credentials, and exfiltrating data. Because the operation was detected and disrupted, the threat actor’s ultimate objectives could not be determined.” Volexity continues. “However, Volexity assesses with high confidence that UTA0576’s actions signaled preparation for lateral movement and a broader compromise of the victim network.” _ Volexity believes with medium confidence that UTA0576 uses large language models (LLMs) to develop exploits and carry out post-exploitation activities. That’s not a certain finding, but it’s the kind of attribution detail that’s starting to appear more regularly in incident reports, and it fits the pattern of a single operator producing work that would previously have required a team. _“Volexity’s forensic investigation revealed that, immediately after exploiting an ICS VPN appliance, UTA0576 began conducting reconnaissance, stealing credentials, and exfiltrating data.” concludes the report. “Because the operation was detected and disrupted, the threat actor’s ultimate objectives could not be determined.”_ The attackers’ motives remain unclear, but the targets suggest a possible criminal motive rather than espionage. Apply the patches immediately, and don’t assume your appliance is safe just because the [Integrity Checker](https://hub.ivanti.com/s/article/KB44859?language=en_US) found no problems. This week, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added the Ivanti Connect Secure FortiMail flaw [CVE-2026-104935](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-104935) (CVSS score of 8.6) to its [Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog](https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog). **Follow me on Twitter: **[**@securityaffairs**](https://twitter.com/securityaffairs)** and **[**Facebook**](https://www.facebook.com/sec.affairs)** and **[**Mastodon**](https://infosec.exchange/@securityaffairs)**** [**Pierluigi Paganini**](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/pierluigi-paganini/b/742/559)**** **(**[**SecurityAffairs**](http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/)** – hacking, Ivanti)** --- --- title: "Passkey Authentications Double but Adoption Remains Slow" url: "https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/passkey-authentications-double/" lang: "en-US" type: "post" description: "Dashlane data finds that passkey adoption is growing but not quickly enough" last_modified: "2026-10-14T10:15:00+00:00" categories: [Global Security News] custom_fields: wpe_campaignid: 53 wpe_feed: "https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/rss/news/" wpe_sourcepermalink: "https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/passkey-authentications-double/" --- # Passkey Authentications Double but Adoption Remains Slow Dashlane data finds that passkey adoption is growing but not quickly enough ---