BD: 14,000 Journos’ Personal Data Leaked Online
Bangladesh Election Commission’s online accreditation portal inadvertently displayed the personal data of roughly 14,000 journalists. The leak included National ID numbers, mobile numbers, and full application documents submitted for election accreditation and vehicle stickers. The flaw surfaced on Saturday afternoon when the site’s home page listed all applicants, allowing unrestricted access. The EC quickly disabled the site after the vulnerability was reported.
Researcher Reveals Evidence of Private Instagram Profiles Leaking Photos
Security researcher Jatin Banga uncovered that Instagram’s private‑profile pages sometimes embed direct CDN links to private photos in the HTML response, exposing them to unauthenticated visitors. His testing showed about 28% of the private accounts he examined leaked such links....
When Agentic AI Systems Fall Into the Wrong Hands
Agentic AI systems—software that can make decisions and act independently—are increasingly embedded in consumer devices, enterprise tools, and critical infrastructure. Their growing autonomy promises efficiency gains but also introduces privacy breaches, security vulnerabilities, and ethical dilemmas when actions exceed human...
Mandiant Finds ShinyHunters-Style Vishing Attacks Stealing MFA to Breach SaaS Platforms
Mandiant reports a surge in ShinyHunters‑style vishing campaigns that harvest SSO credentials and MFA codes to infiltrate SaaS environments. The attacks, attributed to UNC6661, UNC6671, and UNC6240, impersonate IT staff and use fake credential‑harvesting sites to enroll attackers’ devices for...
Informant Told FBI that Jeffrey Epstein Had a ‘Personal Hacker’
A confidential informant told the FBI in 2017 that Jeffrey Epstein hired a personal hacker, described as an Italian from Calabria with expertise in iOS, BlackBerry and Firefox vulnerabilities. The informant claimed the hacker created zero‑day exploits and sold them...
Moltbook Is a Human-Free Reddit Clone Where AI Agents Discuss Cybersecurity and Philosophy
Moltbook is a Reddit‑style forum populated entirely by AI agents, with over 35,000 bots generating content without human input. The platform runs on OpenClaw, an open‑source harness that lets these models control a host computer’s messengers, email, and web browsers....
Startup Amutable Plotting Linux Security Overhaul to Counter Hacking Threats
Berlin‑based startup Amutable, founded by former Red Hat and Microsoft engineers including systemd creator Lennart Poettering, announced a mission to bring determinism and verifiable integrity to Linux systems. The company plans to replace heuristic security with cryptographic verification of boot processes and...
NDSS 2025 – Silence False Alarms
Researchers at NDSS 2025 introduced AutoAR, a system that automatically recognizes anti‑reentrancy patterns in Ethereum smart contracts. By leveraging a novel RentPDG graph representation and a graph auto‑encoder with clustering, AutoAR can detect twelve common protective patterns with 89% accuracy....
Regtech Prove Shares Insights on Combatting Fraudulent Activities on Gaming Platforms During Super Bowl
Regtech firm Prove warns that the Super Bowl’s evolution into a months‑long betting marathon is amplifying fraud risks for gaming platforms. The surge in sign‑ups, logins and transactions on game day attracts credential‑theft attacks, with multi‑factor authentication being evaded in...
Over 175,000 Publicly Exposed Ollama AI Servers Discovered Worldwide - so Fix Now
Security researchers uncovered roughly 175,000 Ollama AI servers worldwide that are publicly reachable because they are bound to all network interfaces instead of localhost. These misconfigured instances lack authentication, allowing attackers to perform "LLMjacking"—hijacking the models to generate spam, malware,...
Microsoft to Disable NTLM by Default in Future Windows Releases
Microsoft announced that NTLM authentication will be disabled by default in future Windows Server and client releases. The change follows a three‑phase transition—auditing tools in Windows 11 24H2 and Server 2025, introduction of IAKerb and a Local KDC in late 2026, and final...
Russian Hackers Breached Polish Power Grid Thanks to Bad Security, Report Says
Poland’s Computer Emergency Response Team confirmed that Russian state‑linked hackers infiltrated wind, solar and a heat‑and‑power plant by exploiting default passwords and the absence of multi‑factor authentication. The attackers deployed wiper malware that disabled monitoring systems at renewable sites, though...
Operation Switch Off Dismantles Major Pirate TV Streaming Services
Operation Switch Off, a joint effort by Europol, Eurojust and Interpol led by Italy’s Catania prosecutor and State Police, seized three industrial‑scale illegal IPTV services—IPTVItalia, migliorIPTV and DarkTV—across 14 countries. The crackdown dismantled servers in Romania and Africa, identified 31...
NDSS 2025 – Provably Unlearnable Data Examples
The NDSS 2025 paper tackles the lack of provable guarantees in machine‑unlearning by introducing a certification framework for (q, η)-learnability. It proposes Provably Unlearnable Examples (PUEs) that tighten certification bounds and resist simple weight‑recovery attacks. Experiments show PUEs cut certified learnability...
Labyrinth Chollima Evolves Into Three North Korean Hacking Groups
Labyrinth Chollima has split into three distinct North Korean hacking groups—Labyrinth Chollima, Golden Chollima, and Pressure Chollima—according to CrowdStrike. While Labyrinth Chollima continues espionage against defense, manufacturing and critical‑infrastructure firms, the new Golden and Pressure factions focus on cryptocurrency theft. Each group employs a unique...
Investigation Into Data Breach Involving Blue Cross Blue Shield Members Could Head to Court
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana disclosed a cyber incident that may have exposed the protected health information of up to 462,000 members through its third‑party vendor Conduent. The breach was discovered on July 1, 2025, investigated internally, and reported to the...
Is Renewing CISA Enough to Restore Confidence for Cyber Threat Reporters?
Lawmakers introduced a minibus package that adds $20 million to expand the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and extends the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act through September 30. Experts warn that the stop‑and‑go extensions erode confidence in real‑time threat reporting, creating...
Arsink Spyware Posing as WhatsApp, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok Hits 143 Countries
Researchers at Zimperium’s zLabs have uncovered Arsink, an Android remote‑access trojan that masquerades as over 50 popular apps, including WhatsApp and TikTok. The campaign has infected roughly 45,000 devices in 143 countries, using Telegram, Discord and MediaFire links to distribute...
Nvidia GPU Driver Flaws Enable Privilege Escalation Across Platforms
Nvidia has released a security update addressing four high‑severity GPU driver vulnerabilities that affect Windows, Linux, virtual GPU, and cloud‑gaming platforms. The flaws—CVE‑2025‑33217 through CVE‑2025‑33220—are use‑after‑free and integer‑overflow bugs with a CVSS rating of 7.8, enabling arbitrary code execution and...
This Month in Security with Tony Anscombe – January 2026 Edition
In January 2026, ESET’s Tony Anscombe highlighted four major security incidents: Nike faced a ransomware claim involving 1.4 TB of data, cyber‑fraud surpassed ransomware as CEOs’ top concern, unsecured Zendesk support systems powered a massive spam campaign, and ServiceNow patched the...
Is 'Shadow AI' A Threat to Your Business? Report Claims Workers Are Increasingly More Willing to Cut Corners and Take...
A new industry report warns that “shadow AI” – unsanctioned artificial‑intelligence tools used by employees and managers – is spreading rapidly across enterprises. The study found a 45% year‑over‑year increase in the use of unapproved AI applications, driven by workers’...
Agentic AI and Non‑Human Identities Demand a Paradigm Shift In Security: Lessons From NHIcon 2026
The second NHIcon 2026 conference highlighted that traditional identity and access management (IAM) is ill‑suited for the rise of agentic AI and non‑human identities (NHIs). Speakers argued that static roles, long‑lived credentials, and session‑based trust amplify risk as autonomous agents act...
SK Telecom Rejects Consumer Agency’s Compensation Settlement over Personal Data Leak
South Korea's SK Telecom, after acknowledging a massive personal data leak, is fighting a $91 million regulator fine and has turned down a consumer‑agency settlement proposal. The breach exposed millions of customers' personal information, prompting intense regulatory scrutiny. SK Telecom's legal...
Microsoft Fixes Outlook Bug Blocking Access to Encrypted Emails
Microsoft has resolved a bug in classic Outlook that blocked users from opening emails encrypted with the “Encrypt Only” permission after a December 2025 update. The defect replaced the encrypted payload with a message_v2.rpmsg attachment, making the content unreadable in...
Canada’s Cybersecurity Startups Have No Room for Error
Metropolitan Technologies, a Toronto‑based cybersecurity startup, has built an operational‑technology platform that secures critical‑infrastructure assets such as mines, energy grids, water treatment plants, and transportation networks. The company graduated from Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst’s eight‑month Cyber Challenge, receiving $20,000 in non‑dilutive...
Wallarm Expands Platform, Company and Leadership to Secure APIs and AI
Wallarm announced a multi‑pronged growth push, adding a new chief operating officer and field CISO while expanding its employee base by 41% in 2025. The company unveiled API Session Blocking and Schema‑Based Testing to tighten real‑time API defenses and shift...
Thoropass Launches Smart Sort AI
Thoropass introduced Smart Sort AI, an AI‑driven feature inside its Audit Lifecycle Platform that automatically organizes exported data from any GRC system into audit‑ready evidence. The tool requires no integration, analyzing files, mapping them to the correct controls, and inserting...
LexisNexis Risk Solutions Launches IDVerse for Insurance
LexisNexis Risk Solutions launched IDVerse for Insurance, an AI‑powered document authentication and identity verification platform targeting U.S. personal lines insurers. The solution uses biometric face matching, liveness checks, and proprietary neural‑network models to verify IDs and digital identities within seconds...
TAMECAT PowerShell Backdoor Targets Edge and Chrome: Login Credentials At Risk
Iranian state‑sponsored group APT42 deployed a new PowerShell‑based backdoor named TAMECAT, targeting Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome to harvest saved login credentials. The malware is delivered via a VBScript downloader that checks for antivirus products before fetching an AES‑encrypted loader...
Andesite Achieves Cloud Security Alliance AI-STAR Level 2 Certification
Andesite announced it has earned Cloud Security Alliance AI-STAR Level 2 certification, becoming only the third organization globally to achieve the credential. The AI-STAR assessment validates Andesite’s AI security, risk management and governance practices across its Human‑AI SOC platform. The...
New AI-Developed Malware Campaign Targets Iranian Protests
HarfangLab uncovered the RedKitten campaign, an AI‑assisted operation delivering the SloppyMIO malware to Iranian human‑rights activists and NGOs. The attack uses shock‑value Excel files masquerading as forensic records to lure victims into enabling macros. Once activated, SloppyMIO pulls additional payloads...
Microsoft Sets New Timeline for Sentinel Transition to Defender Portal
Microsoft has postponed the migration of Microsoft Sentinel from the Azure portal to the Microsoft Defender portal, setting a new sunset date of March 31 2027—about nine months later than originally planned. The shift responds to extensive customer and partner feedback requesting...
Badges, Bytes and Blackmail
Orange Cyberdefense compiled a dataset of 418 publicly announced law‑enforcement actions against cybercrime from 2021 to mid‑2025. The analysis shows extortion, malware distribution and hacking as the most frequently targeted offenses, with arrests accounting for 29% of responses. The United...
Threat Actors Hide Behind School-Themed Domains In Newly Uncovered Bulletproof Infrastructure
Researchers uncovered a sophisticated traffic‑distribution system (TDS) that leverages education‑themed domains to deliver phishing pages, scams, and malware. The infrastructure is hosted on bullet‑proof providers in AS202015 (HZ Hosting) and shares WHOIS details such as oreshnik@mailum.com and Regway nameservers. A...
Top 6 Data Breaches of January 2026
In January 2026 six high‑profile data breaches—Nike, Melwood, SNP Transformations, Venezia Bulk Transport, Global Shop Solutions, and Grubhub—highlight a shift toward exposure through internal access paths and third‑party tools. Breaches ranged from a 1.4 TB internal data exfiltration at Nike to a...
National Crime Agency and NatWest Issue Joint Warning Over Invoice Fraud Threat
NatWest Bank and the UK National Crime Agency have launched a joint awareness campaign to combat invoice fraud, a cyber‑crime that siphons millions from businesses each year. The partnership highlights the scale of the threat, citing September 2025 data where...
Sophisticated Malware Lurks In Open VSX Extension With 5,066 Downloads
Annex Security uncovered a malicious VS Code extension in the Open VSX registry that pretended to be the Angular Language Service, amassing 5,066 downloads before activating sophisticated malware. The extension decrypts a payload with AES‑256‑CBC, contacts a Solana blockchain address for command‑and‑control,...
Top 10 B2B Healthcare SaaS SSO Solutions in 2026
Healthcare SaaS vendors now face a non‑negotiable requirement: integrate Single Sign‑On with hospital identity providers to secure access and meet procurement standards. Data breaches in the sector average $12 million per incident, driving CISOs to demand instant revocation and compliance‑ready authentication....
Ad Fraud Is Exploding — Dhiraj Gupta of mFilterIt Explains How Brands Can Respond
Ad fraud is escalating into a systemic threat that undermines the digital economy’s trust. In 2024 mobile ad fraud rose 21% and programmatic scams siphoned nearly $50 billion, while the ad‑fraud detection market is set to exceed $2 billion by 2034. Dhiraj...
DynoWiper Update: Technical Analysis and Attribution
ESET researchers identified a new data‑wiping malware, DynoWiper, used against a Polish energy company in December 2025. Technical analysis attributes the campaign to the Russian‑aligned Sandworm group with medium confidence, noting similarities to the previously observed ZOV wiper. The malware deployed...
Cardamon Partners Microsoft to Scale Secure AI in Compliance
Cardamon, a RegTech firm specializing in secure AI for compliance, has entered Microsoft’s AI Partnership Program to deliver enterprise‑grade, auditable AI solutions to highly regulated organizations. The collaboration combines Cardamon’s rapid delivery platform, which claims to automate up to 95%...
Why Passwordless Authentication Is Critical for Online Learning & Student Services
Online learning has become core campus infrastructure, but passwords remain the weakest link, exposing grades, payments, and personal data. Passwordless authentication replaces reusable secrets with device‑bound credentials such as passkeys, security keys, magic links, OTPs, and push approvals. The shift...
Arkose Titan Aims to Make Bot, Scraping, and AI Fraud Economically Unviable
Arkose Labs unveiled Arkose Titan, a unified platform that defends against both human‑driven and AI‑powered fraud, scraping, and bot attacks. The solution consolidates bot detection, device and email intelligence, API security, behavioral biometrics, and phishing protection into a single API...
Intruder Grows Enterprise Customers by 81% as Part of Record 2025 Momentum
Intruder announced record 2025 growth, with enterprise annual recurring revenue climbing 81% year‑over‑year. The surge was fueled by a 51% rise in new business and a 2.5‑fold jump in expansion revenue, alongside the rollout of Cloud Security Posture Management and...
EFF Calls Out Major Tech Companies on Encryption Promises
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has launched the "Encrypt It Already" campaign, urging major tech firms to fulfill announced end‑to‑end encryption promises, enable encryption by default, and broaden encrypted storage. The initiative groups demands into three categories—Keep your promises, Defaults...
Cyble Research Discovers ShadowHS, an In-Memory Linux Framework for Long-Term Access
Cyble Research & Intelligence Labs uncovered ShadowHS, a Linux post‑exploitation framework that operates entirely in memory. The tool leverages a weaponized version of hackshell with an AES‑256‑CBC encrypted loader, enabling fileless execution via /proc//fd/. ShadowHS provides an operator‑controlled environment for...
Apple’s New Privacy Feature Limits How Precisely Carriers Track Your Location
Apple introduced a new privacy setting called Limit Precise Location in iOS 26.3, which reduces the granularity of location data shared with cellular networks. When enabled, carriers can only determine a user’s approximate neighborhood rather than the exact address, while app‑level...
KnowBe4 Celebrates a Decade of AI Innovation with 7 Active AI Agents in Market
KnowBe4 marks a decade of AI-driven cybersecurity by celebrating the tenth anniversary of its AIDA platform and the deployment of seven active AI agents in the market. The company appointed Harlan Parrott as Vice President of AI Innovation to head...
The CSO Guide to Top Security Conferences
The CSO editorial team compiled a calendar of security conferences slated for February through May 2026, covering more than 30 events across Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. Highlights include multiple Gartner Security & Risk Management Summits, the BSides community...
Abusers Using AI and Digital Tech to Attack and Control Women, Charity Warns
Domestic‑abuse charity Refuge reports a sharp rise in technology‑enabled abuse, with a 62% increase in complex cases amounting to 829 women in Q4 2025. Referrals of victims under 30 grew 24%, highlighting younger women’s vulnerability to smart‑device stalking. Perpetrators are exploiting...
