Information security

Information security

AI agents and other systems can't yet conduct cyberattacks fully on their own - but they can help criminals in many stages of the attack chain, according to the International AI Safety report. The second annual report, chaired by the Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio and authored by more than 100 experts across 30 countries, found that over the past year, developers of AI systems have vastly improved their ability to help automate and perpetrate cyberattacks.

The ShinyHunters extortion group has claimed the theft of roughly 14 million records from Panera Bread, after compromising a Microsoft Entra single-sign-on (SSO) code. The attack falls in line with recent ShinyHunters attacks that rely on voice phishing (vishing) and SSO authentication to access victim organizations' cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) environments. Last week, ShinyHunters published on its Tor-based leak site a 760GB archive allegedly containing the sensitive information stolen from Panera Bread.

OpenClaw and Moltbot are the talk of the tech town right now, but cybersecurity researchers have flagged some concerns that you might want to think about. OpenClaw - first known as Clawdbot, then Moltbot, all in the same week - has got the tech world buzzing thanks to its abilities to autonomously perform tasks like managing a user'sschedule. Meanwhile, Moltbook has gone viral for its Reddit-style social network, where AI agents post and interact with one another. No humans allowed - apart from observing.

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is the definitive standard for DoW contractors to demonstrate security competence. Whether viewed as necessary progress or an audit burden, CMMC represents a strategic career investment - and a strong entry point for practitioners looking to specialize. It is poised to reshape cybersecurity roles in the defense sector, making certification a strategic move for advancement.

Sudo, for those not familiar with Unix systems, is a command-line utility that allows authorized users to run specific commands as another user, typically the superuser, under tightly controlled policy rules. It is a foundational component of Unix and Linux systems: without tools like sudo, administrators would be forced to rely more heavily on direct root logins or broader privilege escalation mechanisms, increasing both operational risk and attack surface.

A key advantage of using OPA is its ability to decouple policy decisions from the business logic in your services. With OPA, the engine determines the outcome of a policy, while your application takes responsibility for enforcing it. This separation makes it possible to manage all policies in a single location, instead of having to update business logic across multiple systems-systems that may be written in different languages and maintained by different teams.

We just want to make sure we've got the right elements of, how do we pull together people, and how do we take advantage of the leadership position that we have

Also known as Kimwolf, Aisuru is one of the largest botnets currently in existence, powered by an estimated one to four million infected hosts worldwide, including home and consumer devices such as routers and online CCTV systems. Its operators scan the web for vulnerable devices, often with exposed ports or default credentials, and infect them to add them to a pool of devices that can be harnessed to launch a tsunami of fake traffic against a target service.

Cybersecurity researchers at Bitdefender have uncovered a massive campaign in which attackers are using Hugging Face's trusted infrastructure to host and spread a malicious Android Remote Access Trojan (RAT). By hiding their malicious code on a platform used by millions of developers, the attackers managed to fly under the radar of traditional security filters. The attack doesn't start with a shady link from a dark corner of the web.

For mid-market organizations, cybersecurity is a constant balancing act. Proactive, preventative security measures are essential to protect an expanding attack surface. Combined with effective protection that blocks threats, they play a critical role in stopping cyberattacks before damage is done. The challenge is that many security tools add complexity and cost that most mid-market businesses can't absorb. With limited budgets and lean IT and security teams, organizations often focus on detection and response.

Dallas County is paying $600,000 to two men who sued after they were arrested in 2019 while testing courthouse security for Iowa's Judicial Branch, their lawyer says. Gary DeMercurio and Justin Wynn were arrested Sept. 11, 2019, after breaking into the Dallas County Courthouse. They spent about 20 hours in jail and were charged with burglary and possession of burglary tools, though the charges were later dropped.

Firewalls can fail, passwords can be stolen, but strong encryption remains your last line of defense. InToday's digital world, protect sensitive personal details is more critical and important than ever. The AES algorithm (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm is one of the most trusted and widely used way or method for securing data against unauthorized access and frauded. Advanced Encryption Standard supports different levels like 128-bit, 192-bit, and 256-bit encryption, providing strong security for personal data and more.

Bitwarden is one of the more likable tech companies. It offers a great password manager for free, charges modestly for its paid version, and has mostly stayed in its lane with its focus on security products. So it's disappointing that it isn't being more transparent about the first price hike in its 10-year history. Bitwarden's Premium version now costs $20 per year, up from $10 per year previously.

But what happens when you need more granularity? How do you grant write access to a file to just one specific user who isn't the owner and isn't in the owning group? How do you allow two different groups read access, but only one of them write access? How do you ensure files created in a shared directory automatically get specific permissions for a certain team?

A Farsi-speaking threat actor aligned with Iranian state interests is suspected to be behind a new campaign targeting non-governmental organizations and individuals involved in documenting recent human rights abuses. The activity, observed by HarfangLab in January 2026, has been codenamed RedKitten. It's said to coincide with the nationwide unrest in Iran that began towards the end of 2025, protesting soaring inflation, rising food prices, and currency depreciation.

On January 26, 2026, Delta, a Russian alarm and vehicle security provider, suffered a major cyberattack, disrupting alarms, vehicle systems, and company communications for tens of thousands of customers. While no confirmed customer data breach occurred, an unverified leak circulated online.

"Smart people are burning out sifting through backlogs of unprioritized, low-value vulnerabilities, while the real critical pathways go unprotected," says Shlomie Liberow, founder and CEO of Aisy (and formerly head of hacker research and development at HackerOne). He doesn't see this changing for mid-tier and larger companies - partly because of the security industry itself. Each vulnerability tool competes with other vulnerability tools, and each one avoids the possibility of a competitor finding more issues than it does itself.