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Metabase
API Abuse Cyber Security Data Leaks Japan Metabase

Japan Reports Sharp Rise in Web Data Leaks

 

Japan is experiencing a sharp rise in personal-data leaks from web systems, according to an October 2026 alert from the JPCERT Coordination Center. The incidents, which surged around September, are separate from ransomware and other routine breaches, and JPCERT/CC says they may be increasing. While the agency did not identify attackers or affected organizations, it described the available evidence as limited and fragmentary, and cautioned that the same technique was not necessarily used in every case. The pattern points to attackers systematically probing web applications and APIs for basic security weaknesses rather than relying on one universal exploit.

The scale is substantial. Security firm Macnica counted 119 publicly disclosed incidents in Japan through October 6 in which personal data was stolen or leaked through organizations’ web systems—up from 84 in all of 2025 and 62 in 2024. Eighty-one of this year’s cases occurred in July or later. Targets have ranged from online shops and member services to business systems and customer-support platforms, including a library catalog and a tourist train booking system. High-profile examples include Park24’s Times Car service, where data on about 6.6 million accounts was obtained, and Yakiniku King’s app, where more than 10.7 million records reportedly leaked. 

JPCERT/CC identified three main intrusion patterns. First, attackers analyze publicly released mobile apps to discover API endpoints and keys, then send unauthorized requests—sometimes to internal APIs that should not be reachable through the app. These requests have been used to alter user privileges, create unauthorized accounts, test authentication behavior, and extract data through blind NoSQL injection. Attackers have also used API keys stolen in earlier compromises. In other cases, they exploit weak administrator passwords, known software vulnerabilities, excessive data exposure, broken access controls, and session-management flaws. 

A particularly serious vector involves Metabase, an open-source business-intelligence tool. Attackers exploited CVE-2026-72898, a maximum-severity SQL injection flaw that requires no account to abuse and can grant administrator access to Metabase’s application database. From there, an intruder could steal credentials for connected databases and export their contents. Metabase patched the issue on August 6, but attacks continued afterward; the company has urged users to move to newer minimum-safe releases and, where upgrading is not immediately possible, to block the affected password-reset endpoint. 

For defenders, JPCERT/CC recommends applying access controls to every API endpoint, including internal ones; enforcing least-privilege permissions; rate-limiting sensitive functions such as login, password reset, and search; and ensuring tokens expire and can be revoked quickly. Organizations should also avoid embedding API keys or database credentials in shipped apps, review admin functions in vulnerability testing, restrict regional access where appropriate, and remove data no longer needed. Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission issued a parallel alert, urging businesses to reassess whether the personal data they hold remains necessary. The message is clear: basic API hygiene, configuration review, and prompt patching remain decisive defenses.
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Rubrik
ai agents AI Code Security Anthropic code Guardian Cyber Security Rubrik

Rubrik Expands Project Hourglass to Bring AI-Powered Code Security to Enterprise

 



When Rubrik launched Project Hourglass at its FORWARD 2026 conference in Las Vegas back in June, the initiative set out to answer a question CISOs were already losing sleep over: what happens when an AI agent writing and deploying your code does something catastrophic and nobody can stop it in time?

On Thursday, at its GSI Summit in Goa, India, the cybersecurity firm announced the next step. Rubrik has expanded Project Hourglass to include a new tool called Rubrik Code Guardian, and has welcomed AHEAD, Trace3, and World Wide Technology (WWT) into the alliance, joining the six systems integrators that signed on at launch. The new capability is powered by Anthropic's Claude Mythos 5 and extends the alliance's reach from securing AI agents during execution to proactively identifying vulnerabilities in software code before deployment.


The Problem Driving All of This

Rubrik Zero Labs surveyed more than 1,600 IT and security leaders for its State of the Agent report and found that 86 percent expect AI agents to outpace their security guardrails within a year, while only 23 percent report full visibility into agents operating in their environments. More than 80 percent said agents require more manual oversight than the efficiency they save.

A separate Rubrik and Economist Enterprise study found 88 percent of enterprises experienced an AI agent security breach in 2026. The picture those numbers paint is one of organizations racing to deploy autonomous systems while the controls meant to govern them are still catching up.


What Code Guardian Does

The original Project Hourglass, which launched with Cognizant, Deloitte, LTM, HCLTech, NTT DATA, and Wipro as founding partners, focused on protecting AI agents at runtime through Rubrik Agent Cloud. That platform operates across three layers: Runtime Agent Security for behavioral guardrails and blast-radius control, Agent Rewind for fast repository recovery, and AI Context Guard for prompt integrity and control-plane protection.

Code Guardian shifts the security lens earlier in the development cycle. Rather than running against live production environments, the system tests a cloned, air-gapped copy of customer repositories. Claude Mythos 5 operates inside Rubrik's security harness to evaluate code against sophisticated, multi-step threat scenarios.

Three core capabilities define the product: isolated red-team analysis inside the air-gapped environment; attack chain discovery that reasons across files, services, identity roles, and cloud perimeters to find chained vulnerabilities that conventional static tools miss; and business impact prioritization that filters findings by actual exploitability and business criticality to reduce alert fatigue.

Alok Agrawal, Chief Solutions Officer at Rubrik, put the challenge plainly. "Engineering teams are turning to AI models to accelerate software delivery, but speed cannot compromise security or architectural integrity. By incorporating Rubrik Code Guardian into Project Hourglass, we are ensuring engineering teams are able to conduct red-team analysis, prioritize business impact and reduce risk."


The New Partners

Each of the three incoming partners brings a different angle to the coalition.

AHEAD, which builds enterprise technology architectures for large clients, framed the problem as one of inherited risk. Steven Sorensen, Specialty Solutions Engineer for Cyber Resiliency at AHEAD, said the goal is to get code attacked, tested, and validated in a safe environment before it ships, so teams can move faster knowing Rubrik's recovery capabilities sit underneath them as a safety net.

WWT's Chris Konrad, Vice President of Global Cyber, pointed to the company's Advanced Technology Center, where isolated threat testing has long been part of how it validates security solutions before recommending them. He said Code Guardian integrates naturally with that process.

Trace3 brought a perspective the others did not: its own teams have been running Rubrik Agent Cloud internally to protect their own agentic AI work before recommending it to clients. Sandy Salty, Chief Marketing Officer at Trace3, said that experience as both a user and a partner gives the firm a clearer view of what actually makes agentic environments more resilient at scale.


Where Things Stand

Rubrik Code Guardian is currently in private preview and accepting select design partners. It is not yet generally available and may change or be discontinued. Rubrik Agent Cloud, the original platform at the center of Project Hourglass, remains available to enterprise clients.

Dev Rishi, GM of AI at Rubrik, has previously described the core problem in stark terms: with AI agents, there is the potential for ten times the damage in one-tenth the time. That framing captures why the urgency behind Project Hourglass is unlikely to ease. As the volume of AI-generated code increases across enterprise environments, the window between a vulnerability being introduced and it being found by someone with bad intentions keeps getting smaller.



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Hacker attack
Critical security flaw Cryptominers CVE CVE exploits CVEs Cyber Attacks Cyber Software Hacker attack

Hackers Exploit Two Unpatched AhsayCBS Flaws to Deploy Webshells and Cryptominers

 

Two security flaws in AhsayCBS backup management software are currently being actively exploited by attackers to initiate remote access to the targeted systems, establish webshells, and cryptocurrency miners. Huntress reported that the flaws are being used in attacks that chain the two issues together to bypass authentication and run commands on vulnerable systems. 

At least five companies have been reported targeted as of October 8, 2026. The vulnerabilities tracked as CVE-2026-105133 and CVE-2026-105134 are generic for the AhsayCBS product, which serves as a centralized management system for managed service providers and system integrators that need to configure and control backup policies and schedules, storage, and users. Both flaws are caused by improper function arguments, which enable an attacker to bypass authentication and execute operating system commands. 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published information about the disclosed security issues on October 4, 2026. Initially, all AhsayCBS versions up to 10.3.2. were considered to be affected. However, Huntress revealed that the company’s latest version at the time, 10.3.4., was also vulnerable. One of the vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-105134, is a remote code execution issue that allows an unauthenticated attacker to run code with System-level privileges. It utilizes an API in AhsayCBS’s Replication Receiver component to establish a reverse connection to an attacker-controlled server. 

An attacker can leverage the Replication Receiver bug by creating a fake replication receiver and delivering a Java Server Page webshell in the application directory served by AhsayCBS. After establishing initial access to the system, the threat actor performs inventory collection and uses Microsoft Edge-labeled XMRig cryptocurrency miners. Huntress discovered that the attackers used an AI-powered PowerShell script that terminates itself if the Task Manager is opened for more than 50 seconds. 

In addition, the script monitors whether the Task Manager has been closed and reopened. The attackers also create a new Windows service that masquerades as Microsoft Edge Updater. It employs an alternate data stream and runs as a System process when using the Non-Sucking Service Manager tool. The service carries the msedge.exe file with custom modifications applied.  The modifications to the Non-Sucking Service Manager allow it to maintain a durable process that restarts applications that were terminated due to an error or when the system restarts. 

The attackers also installed a legitimate but deprecated kernel-mode driver called WinRing0x64.sys, which provides userspace programs with kernel-mode privileges. This component enables the cryptocurrency miner process to maintain persistence even after system reboots. AhsayCBS software, utilized in the attacks, does not currently have a patch available. 

As such, organizations are recommended to restrict access to the management portal by only allowing specific IP addresses or networks, such as those provided by a virtual private network. 

In addition to that, administrators should monitor their systems for signs of compromise, such as webshells, unknown services, scripts, and cryptomining activities. Attackers are currently leveraging the AhsayCBS flaws to target businesses. 

The widespread nature of the issues, as well as the utilization of the latest version of the software at the time of publication, should compel organizations using it to consider limiting access and conducting comprehensive reviews.
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Severe Flaw
Cyber Security Microsoft Microsoft Exchange Organization Security Severe Flaw

Microsoft Exchange Vulnerability Could Leak Confidential Organizational Info


Microsoft has issued an emergency security update to fix a vulnerability in Exchange Server that could expose confidential organizational communications. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-96940, has received a CVSS severity score of 8.8 out of 10.

Reported by TechRadar, the vulnerability could allow attackers who already have valid login credentials to increase their privileges within Exchange and access mailboxes belonging to other users. Microsoft released the fix on October 2, ahead of its originally intended schedule.

About the flaw

The security issue stems from a weakness in authorization controls, which determine what information a user can access. By exploiting the flaw over a network, an authenticated attacker could gain permissions beyond those assigned to their account.

Threat actors could first obtain credentials through phishing attacks or by purchasing stolen login details from underground online markets. Once inside an organization’s Exchange environment, they could exploit the vulnerability to read emails and attachments belonging to other employees.

However, the flaw does not provide unrestricted access across different customer environments, known as tenants. It also does not directly grant administrator-level or SYSTEM-level privileges on the underlying Windows server.

What happens in case of successful exploitation?

Successful exploitation could expose sensitive business information, including financial records, invoices, contracts, customer correspondence, internal discussions, and confidential documents.

Attackers could use the stolen information to support further cyberattacks. For example, they might impersonate company employees, send convincing fraudulent emails, or conduct business email compromise (BEC) scams to trick organizations into transferring money or disclosing additional information.

The vulnerability is particularly problematic because an ordinary employee’s compromised account could potentially provide an entry point for accessing information held in other employees’ mailboxes.

Affected products

The vulnerability affects the following on-premises products:

  • Microsoft Exchange Server Subscription Edition RTM
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 23
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 Cumulative Updates 14 and 15

Microsoft has confirmed that Exchange Online customers are protected by a server-side fix. Organizations running affected on-premises installations should install the appropriate security updates promptly.

Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 have reached the end of their standard support lifecycle. Eligible organizations must be enrolled in Microsoft’s Extended Security Update programme to receive the relevant updates for these versions. Microsoft recommends that organizations without the required coverage migrate to Exchange Server Subscription Edition.

Microsoft’s response 

Microsoft reported no evidence that the vulnerability was being actively exploited at the time of the report. However, the company assessed that exploitation was more likely, making timely patching important.

Administrators should run Microsoft’s Exchange Server Health Checker after installing the update to verify successful deployment and identify any additional actions required.

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Ukraine Cyber Attacks
cyber espionage malware MATCHBOIL Malware Russian Cyber Espionage Russian Hackers Spear-Phishing Attacks UAC-0099 Ukraine Cyber Attacks

Russian-Aligned Spies Upgrade MATCHBOIL Malware Targeting Ukraine


The Russian-aligned cyber espionage group UAC-0099 has continued developing the MATCHBOIL malware for use in attacks against Ukrainian companies involved in transportation, manufacturing, and energy. Several changes have been made to the malware since 2024, according to research conducted by cybersecurity firm ESET, with newer versions adding techniques designed to make detection and analysis of the malware more difficult.

Researchers at ESET analyzed MATCHBOIL samples collected between April 2024 and April 2026 in a report published on October 8, 2026. Based upon the findings, the downloader appears to be becoming more sophisticated with each new version. While the Ukrainian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) first documented the malware in August 2025, earlier samples indicate that the malware had been developing for at least a year prior. 

Matchboy is a C#-based downloader designed for retrieving additional malicious payloads from a command-and-control (C2) server, installing them on compromised systems, and maintaining their presence ESET's telemetry identified victims exclusively in Ukraine, including transportation companies between July and August 2025, a manufacturing organization in December 2025 and a company in the energy sector in June 2026. 

In order to spread the malware, spear-phishing emails containing malicious links are used. Once a recipient clicks the link, an archive containing VBScript is downloaded. MATCHBOIL is then downloaded and executed on the victim's computer, thereby giving the attackers the opportunity to introduce further malicious components. 

Although the level of confidence in UAC-0099's alignment with Russian interests was described as medium, ESET concluded that it was likely aligned with Russian interests. This group has previously targeted Ukrainian government agencies, financial institutions, and media institutions, proving MATCHBOIL to be another component of its broader cyber espionage activities. 

MATCHBOIL has modified its code so that it is harder to inspect, thereby making its activity less visible. It was previously obfuscated with basic Unicode, but newer samples use Eziriz .NET Reactor, which complicates reverse engineering. The malware has also been updated to detect virtual or analysis environments and to stop it from running under these conditions. 

Additionally, the malware's execution pattern has changed. A version seen from late 2025 started checking in roughly once every two minutes for additional or updated components, as opposed to earlier versions that contacted the command-and-control server once to retrieve a payload. It has also evolved over time to keep the malware active on compromised systems, switching between Windows Registry Run keys and scheduled tasks. 

Researchers have also noted attempts to make the malware appear legitimate in the past. The late-2025 variant was able to display a daily planner interface when manually launched, but interface errors rendered it unconvincing. 

However, the sample identified in February 2026 was more conspicuous, showing a text-search utility. Other malicious tools have also been associated with MATCHBOIL, including MATCHWOK, a backdoor that enables the execution of remote commands, and DRAGSTARE, a cookie and browser credential stealer.

This combination allows the group to expand beyond initial access and engage in further activities on compromised systems. ESET's findings indicate that UAC-0099 continues to refine MATCHBOIL for future operations. There is no accurate figure of the number of organizations affected by the campaign, as neither ESET nor Ukraine's CERT-UA have provided a confirmation of the number of victims.

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PoeLLM Malware
AI Infrastructure Security AI Server Security Canto Incognito cryptocurrency mining Cryptojacking Cybersecurity Threats GitHub C2 LiteLLM Vulnerability malware PoeLLM Malware

PoeLLM Campaign Compromises 3,400+ Servers for Crypto Mining


Cryptocurrency mining campaigns have compromised over 3,400 servers since April 2026, with attackers primarily targeting exposed artificial intelligence and large language model infrastructures. The campaign is referred to as Canto Incognito and exploits vulnerable internet-facing services through PoeLLM malware, which becomes part of a growing mining botnet by exploiting vulnerable internet-facing services. 

Infections have largely been reported in the U.S. and Western Europe with nearly 2,200 affected servers at its peak at mid-June. Lumen Black Lotus Labs has reported that the malware has affected enterprise deployments such as LiteLLM, Ollama, Gotenberg, Gitea, and possibly Ivanti Sentry. 

The choice of artificial intelligence-based infrastructure has a significant impact on cryptocurrency mining due to the substantial computing resources that such systems are capable of providing. Some of the compromised servers may also be used to scan for additional vulnerable systems, which can help the attacker expand the botnet once they have been compromised. 

PoeLLM stands out due to its unique command-and-control mechanism (C2) Instead of placing the server address directly in the malware, the attacker concealed it in a poem hosted on GitHub. On April 13, 2026, the repository was created under the username “ejejejdfbbebebe,” with the first relevant commit being recorded. Throughout the campaign's change to its C2 infrastructure, the poem, titled "On the Nature of Connection," has been modified several times. 

By using a dictionary embedded in its code, the malware extracts selected words from fixed sections of the poem and maps them to numerical values. Those values are combined to determine the IPv4 address of the active C2 server. If the attacker changes the selected words, infected systems will be able to determine the new address without requiring a new sample of malware. 

A campaign's effectiveness is not only determined by the initial compromise. Once PoeLLM gains access to a compromised server, it can use the compromised system to locate additional targets. Black Lotus Labs observed a significant amount of scanning activity involving ports 3000 and 4000, which are commonly used to access Gotenberg and LiteLLM deployments. In order for vulnerable systems to retrieve malware from the active C2 infrastructure, crafted HTTP requests were sent to them. LiteLLM was a significant target in this activity. 

The analyzed malware sample referenced CVE-2026-42271, a command injection vulnerability associated with /mcp-rest/test/connection. In addition to providing attackers with access to exposed artificial intelligence infrastructure, PoeLLM also features cryptocurrency mining capabilities. This allowed attackers to launch further attacks on compromised systems. 

Infection involves the deployment of XMRig and Iron miners as well as the connection of compromised systems to the Kryptex mining service. The attackers can benefit greatly from the use of AI infrastructure because many such environments are run on advanced hardware with GPUs capable of providing significant computing power for mining. 

The malware does not limit itself to mining. According to researchers, infected servers are able to perform additional malicious activities by using remote shell functionality, HTTP/S scanning, and exploit deployment. Recent activity against SSH ports and other login interfaces suggests that the operator may also be testing distributed brute-force attacks, though this capability is currently at an early stage. As a result of assessing the campaign with moderate confidence, Black Lotus Labs has determined that the attacker is an Italian-speaking individual. 

A combination of Italian-language comments found on malicious software and associated GitHub pages, as well as network traffic analysis, contributed to the assessment. There has been no identification of a specific individual or established criminal group. 

In this campaign, it illustrates the dual purpose of exposed artificial intelligence infrastructure for attackers: its computing resources can be monetized, while compromised machines are also able to assist in locating and compromising the next set of vulnerable systems. 

Recent attack by hackers motivated by financial gain has demonstrated how exposed AI and developer infrastructure can become valuable targets for attackers with financial motivations. As AI deployments expand across enterprises, strong patching, restricted internet exposure and proactive monitoring remain essential.
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utility companies
Alabama Cyberattack Data Breach energy systems Georgia utility companies

Southern Company Discloses Data Breach Affecting 400,000 Georgia Power and Alabama Power Customers

 



Southern Company, the Atlanta-based energy holding giant, has confirmed that an unauthorized third party broke into its online customer portal and accessed account information belonging to roughly 400,000 customers across its electric subsidiaries, Georgia Power, Alabama Power, and Mississippi Power.

The company publicly disclosed the breach on October 5, 2026, stating that the intrusion, which occurred in September, was detected through its own monitoring systems. Upon discovery, Southern Company said it moved quickly to shut down the unauthorized access and notified law enforcement.

"Southern Company recently detected suspicious activity involving our online customer portal," the company said in a statement. "An unauthorized third party accessed certain, limited information about the accounts of approximately 400K customers. Upon detection, we took immediate steps to stop the activity and have engaged law enforcement."

Of the roughly 400,000 accounts compromised, approximately 300,000 belong to Georgia Power customers. Alabama Power accounts for the remaining 100,000, which represents about 6% of its 1.6 million-customer base. Mississippi Power was named in the company's public notice as affected, but Southern Company has not released a customer count for that subsidiary.

According to the company's published incident notice, the data the attacker accessed includes customers' names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, along with other unspecified basic account details. The company was clear about what was not taken: bank account numbers, payment card numbers, and driver's license numbers were not part of what the attacker pulled from the portal.

The online portal in question is the same platform customers use to pay bills and manage their accounts.

Despite the company's confirmation that it caught and stopped the intrusion, Southern Company has not said when exactly in September the breach occurred, nor has it explained how the attacker got past the portal's defenses in the first place. That absence of technical detail leaves open questions about the attack method, whether it involved stolen credentials, a software vulnerability, or some other approach.

Customers whose information was involved are being notified directly by both mail and email. Southern Company is also offering each affected customer one year of free credit monitoring through Equifax. Those with additional questions were directed to a dedicated assistance line at 1-800-900-6021, available Monday through Friday.

Southern Company, incorporated in 1945 and headquartered in Atlanta, is one of the largest energy holding companies in the United States. It supplies electricity through its subsidiaries to customers across three states and operates natural gas distribution businesses in four more. Its total customer base numbers over 9 million.

The incident sits alongside a string of recent cyberattacks targeting utility companies in North America and beyond. Just weeks earlier, in September 2026, Houston-based CenterPoint Energy disclosed that an unauthorized third party had obtained personal information on a portion of its customers through one of the company's external-facing systems. That disclosure came after a threat actor claimed on a cybercrime forum to have extracted 7.49 million customer records from the utility and ultimately leaked the data after the company failed to respond. In March 2025, Nova Scotia Power, Canada's largest electric utility in that province, suffered a cyberattack that disrupted its customer support line and web portal.

Research published by cybersecurity firm Trustwave in 2025 found that roughly 67% of credential access techniques used against energy and utilities companies involved brute force methods, which are largely automated attacks that cycle through large lists of usernames and passwords. That tactic, known as credential stuffing when it draws on passwords stolen from previous breaches on other platforms, has been used against utility customer portals before. In 2021, UK energy supplier Npower had to shut down its mobile app entirely after attackers used stolen credentials from other websites to access thousands of customer accounts.

The energy sector's digital attack surface has expanded considerably as utilities push more customer services online. Customers log into portals to check bills, set up autopay, and track usage, all of which requires storing personal data behind web-based logins. Security researchers have long pointed out that these portals often receive less security investment than back-end operational systems, even though they handle data that is directly useful for phishing, identity fraud, and social engineering.

Southern Company said it has found no evidence of ongoing unauthorized access following the breach, and noted that it continues to monitor its systems around the clock. The company's public notice also cautioned customers to be alert for fraudulent contact from individuals claiming to be Georgia Power or Alabama Power representatives, reminding them that neither utility will ever threaten immediate service disconnection or demand payment over the phone.

Anyone who believes they may have been affected and has not yet received notification from the company can contact Georgia Power customer service directly through the number listed on their bill.



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Cyber Extortion
ASOS Hack Data Breach Push Notification Snowflake Breach Cyber Extortion

ASOS Confirms Unauthorised Hack Notification; Customer Data May Be Exposed

 

On 6 October 2026, thousands of ASOS customers across multiple countries received a shocking push notification via the official ASOS app, claiming that hackers had breached the retailer’s systems. The message, which appeared around 10:00 BST, was addressed to ASOS’s data protection officer and IT team and warned that attackers had “fully compromised the Snowflake instance” and would leak data unless the company engaged with them. ASOS swiftly described the alert as an “unauthorised customer notification” and launched an investigation into what appears to be a cyber-extortion attempt routed through a third-party communications platform. 

The notification was headlined “ASOS HACKED” and read: “Dear Asos DPO and IT, we have fully compromised the Snowflake instance. Engage with us, or we will leak it,” followed by a link to an external Telegram channel signed by a user called “xuanyewengateway”. Many users reported feeling scared and confused, with some saying they no longer trusted the ASOS app after seeing the message arrive through what should be a secure, brand-controlled channel. Security experts described the incident as a brazen attempt to pressure ASOS publicly by hijacking its own customer-notification system, raising concerns about how attackers gained access to such a sensitive communications tool. 

In response, ASOS said it took immediate action to restrict access to the notification platforms and is working with internal and external cybersecurity specialists, as well as relevant authorities. The company confirmed that basic personal information, including names and contact details, may have been accessed during the incident, but it does not believe payment-card information or account passwords were impacted. ASOS stressed that its website and app remain fully operational and urged customers to disregard the unauthorised alert and not click any links contained within it, warning that doing so could expose them to further risks.

ASOS is not currently asking customers to change their passwords or take other specific actions, but it advises anyone who received the notification to ignore it and avoid engaging with the third-party link. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has gone further, suggesting that all ASOS customers should consider themselves potentially affected, even if they did not see the alert, and should only access ASOS via its official website or app. Users are also warned to be alert for follow-up scams, such as fake refund or support messages exploiting concern over the incident, and to treat any unexpected communication about the breach with caution. 

ASOS says its investigation into the unauthorised activity involving third-party communication platforms is ongoing, and it will provide updates if the situation changes. While the attackers claimed a Snowflake data-platform breach, Snowflake itself has stated it has found no compromise of its platform at this time. For now, ASOS maintains that push notifications are safe, operations are unaffected, and customers can continue to shop with confidence while the company works with cybersecurity advisers and law enforcement to understand exactly how the unauthorised message was sent and to prevent similar incidents in the future.
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https
Chrome Security Cyber Security Cyberattack DNS Google Chrome HTTPS warning HTTP HTTP Attacks https

Chrome Blocks Unauthorized Certificates After Three ccTLD Hijacks

 

Chrome has taken steps to protect users after attackers compromised three country-code top-level domains and exploited the incidents to acquire unauthorized HTTPS certificates for multiple organizations. The affected namespaces are .gh for Ghana, .sl for Sierra Leone and .as for American Samoa. Attackers targeted the third-party registries which own the ccTLDs rather than Google directly. 

In addition to the country-code top-level domain takeovers, the adversaries also modified the authoritative DNS records to compromise several Google domains and domains of other companies. Chrome reported that it is not evident that Certification Authorities (CAs) that issued the certificates acted in bad faith but instead concluded that the problem stemmed from attackers’ tampering with DNS infrastructure of the country-code domains. 

Chrome’s Secure Web and Networking Team responded to the incidents by utilizing CRLSets to block the unauthorized certificates associated with Google properties and coordinated with the CAs to revoke the certificates, protecting the users of the browsers and other clients. The list of impacted entities grew as Chrome analyzed Certificate Transparency (CT) logs and identified a number of large publicly traded companies and popular internet services. 

The team blocked certificates it suspected to be related to the attacks and reached out to the impacted businesses. Users of Chrome do not need to take any action as the protections are designed to be transparent and work in the background. However, Google warned that organizations should not rely on the browser to protect them against the attacks and that Chrome did not identify all the affected domains. Similarly, protections worked on Google Chrome and may have not triggered in other browsers and clients. 

Organizations are advised to ensure that they monitor the CT logs for all the domains and that they are notified if an unauthorized certificate is issued. This is critical because every certificate that is trusted by the public must be reported to CT logs. For domains that are impacted by the ongoing attacks, it is recommended to look over the most recent certificates to ensure that they have not been issued without authorization. Google recommended the use of restricted Certification Authority Authorization (CAA) records and the use of ACME account bindings when available. 

CAA records dictate which CAs can issue certificates and, while they do not prevent an attacker from using a hijacked domain to issue a certificate, they can help in ensuring that unknown CAs are not utilized. Additionally, the CAA records can prevent attackers from using domain-control validation for certificate issuance through misdirection. Using issuing restrictions and validation method restrictions can prevent attackers from using certificates’ domain validation through cached entries. These protections are only effective after the control of the domain is re-established. 

Chrome announced its intent to keep working on long-term projects to improve security and reduce the risks associated with the use of certificates. The proposed changes include shortening the lifespan of certificates and limiting the re-use of domain validation. They will continue to work to improve the Chrome Root Program with the Chrome Quantum-resistant Root Program as the Chrome ecosystem seeks to mitigate the risks posed by DNS and routing compromises.
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Ransomware
Cyber Attacks Healthcare Qilin RaaS Ransomware

Japan Arrests Suspected Qilin Ransomware Hacker, Extradites Him to Germany


A suspected member of the Qilin ransomware group has been arrested in Japan and extradited to Germany, where he is expected to face charges related to cyberattacks and ransomware extortion. The case is important as it reveals a growing international effort to identify and prosecute individuals involved in major ransomware operations.

According to a report by SecurityWeek, the suspect is a 28-year-old Russian national who was arrested in Osaka, Japan, in May 2026. German authorities accuse him of playing a role in the Qilin ransomware operation, which has targeted organizations in several countries.

The suspect was extradited to Germany on October 2, 2026, following legal proceedings in Japan. German investigators allege that he was involved in an attack against a logistics company in September 2024.

Ransomware attack

Investigators say the targeted logistics company had its computer systems encrypted during the attack. The attackers allegedly demanded more than $160,000 in cryptocurrency in exchange for restoring access to the affected systems.

The incident is believed to have been connected to the Qilin ransomware operation, also known as Agenda. Qilin emerged as a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation in 2022. Under this model, ransomware developers provide malware and infrastructure to affiliates, who conduct attacks against victims and share the proceeds with the operators.

This business model has allowed ransomware groups to expand their operations without every attacker needing to develop their own malware or infrastructure.

Qilin's global activity

Qilin has become one of the more active ransomware groups in recent years. It has targeted organizations across different industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, professional services and other critical sectors.

The group attracted international attention after attacks linked to it disrupted healthcare services in the United Kingdom. It was associated with the 2024 attack against Synnovis, a medical services provider whose systems were used by several London hospitals. The incident caused significant disruption to healthcare operations.

Qilin has also been linked to attacks against major companies in other countries, demonstrating the international reach of the ransomware operation.

Experts have continued to track the group's activities and techniques. In 2026, Qilin was also reported to have exploited a critical vulnerability affecting Check Point security products as part of its attack activity.

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Watermarking
ai agents AI prompt injection attack Artificial Intelligence Cybersecurity EU AI Act Google DeepMind LLM SynthID-Text technology Watermarking

AI Watermarking Meant to Protect Against Misuse Could Actually Enable It

 



A security feature designed to make AI text traceable appears to have an unintended side effect: it can change how a language model behaves, in some cases making it more willing to follow instructions it was built to refuse.

That is the core finding from new research by Lasso Security, published on September 17 by researcher Andrea Siposova under the title "The Provenance Tax: Understanding the Impact of LLM Watermarking on AI Agent Behavior." The study tested Google DeepMind's SynthID-Text watermarking system across six open-weight language models and found that enabling watermarking changed how those models responded to harmful requests, particularly when attackers used prompt-injection techniques designed to override a model's instructions.


What SynthID-Text Actually Does

To understand why that matters, it helps to understand what SynthID-Text actually changes inside a model.

When a language model generates text, it does not write the way a human does. It builds sentences one token at a time, each step producing a probability distribution over thousands of possible next tokens and then sampling from that distribution. SynthID-Text does not attach a label to the finished output or hide characters in whitespace. It intervenes at the sampling step itself.

The system uses a process called tournament sampling, first described in a 2024 Nature paper by Google DeepMind researchers Sumanth Dathathri, Abigail See, and colleagues. Instead of the standard randomness used in token selection, the watermark substitutes pseudorandom values generated from a secret key and the context of tokens already produced. The result is a statistically detectable pattern woven through the text at the level of individual word choices, invisible to readers but recoverable by anyone holding the key. The technique is refined enough that it does not degrade text quality in any measurable way, which is a large part of what made it attractive as a compliance tool.


The Regulatory Push Behind It

Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires providers of generative AI systems to mark their text, image, audio, and video outputs in a way that is machine-readable and detectable as AI-generated. The Code of Practice the European Commission finalized on July 20, 2026, requires at least two marking layers for audio, images and video, plus watermarking of free-form text longer than 200 tokens. Google signed the Code on July 24, 2026, citing SynthID partnerships as its route to the interoperable detection requirement due on February 2, 2027.

Anthropic's technical implementation is built directly on SynthID-Text, the same tournament-sampling mechanism from the Nature paper, adapted for their own models and keys. It covers claude.ai, the API, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Claude Tag, and access through AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Foundry. With the industry's largest players now committed to the same watermarking standard, Siposova's findings arrive at an uncomfortable moment.


What the Research Found

Siposova ran paired experiments on six open-weight models using Hugging Face's unmodified SynthIDTextWatermarkLogitsProcessor, enabling and disabling watermarking while keeping the seed, batch composition, and ordering identical.

Watermarking changed refusal behavior on harmful requests, but the effect was more pronounced when the same requests were paired with prompt-injection techniques. Under those conditions, several watermarked models complied with harmful requests their unwatermarked versions had rejected, with the strongest differences appearing in prompt-injection scenarios.

Siposova told Ars Technica that behavior was clearly different compared with the same model without watermarking, and that the differences were especially pronounced under adversarial conditions or when running an agent calling tools. She put it plainly: "Watermarking is made to not be perceptible to a reader, but we know that when we are changing anything about what the model is generating, it is going to cause some tradeoffs, it's going to show up somewhere."

Lasso repeated its prompt-injection experiment using 11 different watermark keys and found that changing the key could change both the size and direction of the effect. That means two different deployments of the same watermarking system, on the same model, could produce different safety outcomes depending purely on which key was chosen.


The Agent Problem

The consequences extend beyond what a model says. When a language model powers an AI agent, token selection can determine which tool an agent invokes and which arguments it passes. "Such a watermarking procedure can therefore affect both what the model says and what an agent does," the study stated. Watermarking reduced accuracy on six of seven models, with a substantial decrease on four.

Lasso's conclusions are deliberately careful. The study did not verify how Claude model responses change when watermarking is applied, and critics noted the experiment only validated the SynthID-Text tournament sampling implemented by Hugging Face, which differs from how the Claude model would actually implement it. Siposova stressed that the findings describe patterns in the tested sample, not universal rules about watermarking as a category.

Lasso recommended repeating agent evaluations and red-team testing when watermarking or its configuration changes, particularly under adversarial inputs.

The research surfaces a tension that will only sharpen as regulatory deadlines close in. Watermarking was designed to answer the question of where AI text comes from. What it can also do, under the right adversarial conditions, is change what the AI decides to do next.


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Ransomware
Cyber Attacks Extortion FBI Prison Ransomware

Former Engineer Jailed for Ransomware-Style Cyberattack

 

A former employee of a New Jersey-based industrial company has been sentenced to 32 months in federal prison for launching a computer network attack and attempting to extort his former employer. Daniel Rhyne, 59, of Kansas City, Missouri, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp on September 28, 2026, at federal court in Trenton, New Jersey. The sentence followed his guilty plea to charges involving extortion through a threat to damage a protected computer and intentional damage to a protected computer. 

According to court documents and statements made during the proceedings, Rhyne previously worked as a core infrastructure engineer for the U.S.-based industrial company, identified in court records as Victim-1. While he was living in New Jersey in November 2023, he allegedly began preparing a plan to disrupt the company’s computer network and force it to pay a ransom. His position reportedly gave him technical knowledge and access that allowed him to plan the attack against the company’s critical systems. 

As part of the scheme, Rhyne initiated unauthorized remote desktop sessions and scheduled tasks designed to damage the company’s network. The planned actions included deleting network administrator accounts, changing passwords linked to other employee accounts and shutting down several company servers. These steps could have seriously disrupted business operations by preventing authorized staff from accessing systems and interrupting essential digital services. 

On November 25, 2023, Rhyne sent an extortion email to employees of the industrial company. In the message, he threatened to continue shutting down servers unless the company paid approximately 20 bitcoin. At the time, the cryptocurrency demand was valued at about $750,000. The case highlights how former employees with detailed knowledge of internal infrastructure can pose a significant cybersecurity risk, especially when access controls and administrative privileges are not promptly reviewed after employment ends. 

The investigation was conducted by special agents from the FBI’s Newark Field Office, with assistance from the FBI’s Kansas City Field Office. U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer announced the sentence, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Taj Moore of the Cybercrime Unit prosecuted the case. The conviction demonstrates that unauthorized access, deliberate disruption of computer networks and ransom demands can result in substantial federal prison sentences. It also underlines the importance of removing former employees’ access, monitoring remote sessions and protecting administrator accounts against misuse.
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Malware attacks
Cyber Attacks data security Information Security Infostealer Malicious Code malicious npm package Malware attacks

MALFEX npm Campaign Uses Three Malware Delivery Chains

 

A long-running malware campaign on the npm registry is using malicious JavaScript packages to compromise Windows systems with remote-access malware, information stealers and additional payloads. Researchers have linked the operation, known as MALFEX, to an apparent single operator active on npm since August 2023. 

The operator has published 12 packages, eight of which were found to contain malicious code. Together, the packages had recorded 40,767 downloads by October 1. However, those figures represent package downloads rather than confirmed infections. MALFEX currently uses three separate infection chains. The first delivers the Overlord Remote Access Trojan through packages including tlxbnhd, tldriver and mxdriver. 

Malicious installation scripts download and execute a Windows payload disguised as an image. Overlord can capture screenshots, keystrokes and clipboard data, search files and provide attackers with remote shell access. It also establishes persistence through a scheduled Windows task named “Maiden.” A second chain involves native-runner, img-to-native and cdn-img-fetch. 

Instead of relying on an npm installation script, the malicious code executes when the package is loaded. Data hidden inside an image is decrypted to produce a downloader, which retrieves movinlike, a Node.js information stealer. The malware targets Discord accounts, browser credentials, Telegram session data and cryptocurrency wallets before sending stolen information to an attacker-controlled Discord webhook. 

The third and longest-running chain revolves around function-flag. Its malicious versions contain code that downloads Windows executables from changing external locations. In version 1.7.3, a hidden routine triggered during installation downloads node.exe and executes it from the user’s application-data directory. function-color serves as a wrapper that installs function-flag. 

Three malicious packages remained installable as of September 29: function-flag, function-color and cdn-img-fetch. function-flag accounted for 37,419 downloads, making it by far the most widely downloaded package in the campaign. Despite that activity, it had no security advisory. function-color also lacked an advisory, while the advisory for cdn-img-fetch covered only versions 1.0.0 and 1.0.1, leaving malicious versions 1.0.2 and 1.0.3 outside its coverage. 

The campaign also uses several techniques to make detection harder. Malicious code can be hidden beyond the visible area of a typical editor, failed downloads may be suppressed without generating installation errors, and the attacker has published benign packages alongside the malicious ones. Security teams should block all eight identified malicious packages and check dependency trees and lockfiles for them. 

Any Windows system where one was installed should be treated as potentially compromised, isolated from the network and investigated. Organizations should also remove persistence mechanisms and rotate credentials from a clean device if sensitive accounts were used on the affected machine. 

MALFEX highlights the risk of relying solely on npm advisory feeds: malicious packages can remain installable even when related packages have been removed, while some dangerous versions may have no advisory coverage at all.
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US Cybersecurity
Cyber Attacks Energy Tankers Iran Cyberattack Iran Linked Hackers Maritime Cybersecurity Shipping Cyberattacks Strait Of Gibraltar US Cybersecurity

US Probes Cyberattack on Energy Tankers Over Possible Iran Ties


One of the Journal reported that US authorities are investigating a possible Iranian connection to cyberattacks targeting two energy tankers in August heading toward American ports. A number of vessels were attacked as they passed through the Strait of Gibraltar before proceeding towards Texas. These vessels were the oil tanker VL Prosperity and the liquefied petroleum gas carrier Kohaku which were targeted. 

At the time of the incident, the VL Prosperity was transporting more than two million barrels of oil from Egypt to Galveston, Texas. The Kohaku was also on its way to Texas where it was scheduled to load liquefied petroleum gas. Following the arrival of the vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, a specially trained cyber response team led by FBI personnel boarded both. 

The Coast Guard conducted several days of assessments of the incidents and checked to ensure that the vessels could continue operating safely after they discovered signs of a compromise of their information technology and operational systems. According to reports published in August, hackers gained access to the engine-room systems of the VL Prosperity and interfered with several engine functions, including cooling, speed, fuel, and engine oil. 

There was no claim of responsibility from any group, and the reported details were unable to be independently verified. Later on, the vessel's manager confirmed that US authorities examined the tanker's cybersecurity before clearing it for normal operations. This incident illustrates the risks associated with interconnected systems that are used aboard modern commercial vessels. 

As a result of the integration of information technology with propulsion, navigation, and engineering systems on board, it may be difficult for a successful intrusion to affect the vessel's physical performance. Neither incident has disrupted operational operations, caused harm to crews, or damaged the environment, and no attribution of these attacks has been made public to Iran. 

Additionally, the investigation takes place in the context of increased suspicions of Iranian-linked cyber activity by US agencies. A maritime security expert has warned that it may be difficult to determine the actual extent of attacks against shipping, especially when vessel operators restore systems quickly without thoroughly investigating how an intrusion occurred. 

According to Lloyd's List, US agencies are monitoring cyber threats involving almost 20 ships worldwide, which raises concerns over the growing vulnerability of commercial shipping. The risks extend beyond individual ships as well. Navigating, propulsion, steering, and other critical operations of commercial vessels are increasingly dependent on connected digital systems. The compromise of these systems could negatively impact a vessel’s movements or create broader difficulties around major shipping routes and ports. 

A serious disruption could result in a fire, explosion, or spill. An investigation of the tanker is also underway as key maritime routes are becoming increasingly congested. It is important to note that the crossing of the Strait of Hormuz has been repeatedly disrupted and attacked during the conflict, while Iran-backed Houthi forces have exerted increased pressure on vessels operating around the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait. 

Since cyberattacks could take place against vessels traveling outside these traditional conflict zones, maritime security concerns have been intensified. US authorities have not yet established that Iran was responsible for the attacks. There has also been no determination as to whether the attacks were connected to each other. Further investigations by the FBI and Coast Guard may clarify whether the attacks were isolated incidents or part of a broader campaign targeted at maritime infrastructure.
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User Data
Cyber Attacks Data Leak Data Privacy Google Microsoft Nikkei User Data

Japanase Media Company Nikkei Reveals Intrusions Attacking Users and Employees


Japanese media company Nikkei has disclosed two separate cyber incidents involving employee accounts on Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. One of the incidents allowed attackers to use an employee's account to send about 9,000 phishing emails, while the other may have exposed the personal information of 1,646 employees and business partners.

The incidents were disclosed on October 4 and reveal the risks organizations face when attackers gain access to legitimate employee accounts. Nikkei has not attributed either incident to a specific hacking group or confirmed whether the two attacks were connected. 

Microsoft 365 account used to send phishing mails

The more recent incident involved an employee's Microsoft 365 account. According to Nikkei, attackers gained unauthorized access to the account and used it on September 30 to send approximately 9,000 emails.

The messages were sent to people both inside and outside the company. Some recipients were journalistic sources and other individuals who had previously communicated with Nikkei employees.

The emails contained links leading to malicious websites. Because the messages were sent from a legitimate Nikkei employee account, recipients could have been more likely to trust them. This type of account compromise can allow attackers to use an organization's existing relationships to distribute phishing messages.

Nikkei said the incident may have exposed recipients' names and email addresses, along with the contents of some emails. The company is still investigating the number of people whose personal information may have been affected. According to Nikkei, “There may be an increase in emails impersonating Nikkei employees or our group companies,”

Google workspace breach

Nikkei also disclosed a separate incident involving an employee's Google Workspace account. The account was accessed without authorization beginning in late July.

The company discovered the intrusion in early August after receiving an alert from Google. Nikkei then changed the account's password and said it has not detected any further unauthorized access.

The incident may have exposed information belonging to 1,646 employees and business partners. The potentially affected information included names and email addresses.

Nikkei said the exposed information did not include data related to its readers or journalistic sources. The company also said it has found no evidence that the information was misused. 

Nikkei’s response

After the Microsoft 365 incident, Nikkei changed the affected password and contacted recipients of the phishing emails, asking them to delete the messages. The company warned that additional emails impersonating Nikkei employees or its group companies could appear.

Nikkei has also reported the incidents to Japan's data protection authority. Investigations into the scope of the Microsoft 365 compromise and the information potentially exposed are continuing.

Nikkei has experienced other cybersecurity incidents in recent years. In November 2025, the company disclosed a malware-related credential theft incident that potentially exposed information connected to more than 17,000 employees and business partners. 

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technology
ai agents Apple MacOS ChatGPT Cloud iOS Devices meta privacy security tools technology

Meta's AI Agent Read 187,000 Private Messages. Now Apple Is Changing the Rules




Apple has announced plans to overhaul one of macOS's most powerful privacy settings, citing security risks posed by AI agents that have been using it to access user data in ways most people never anticipated.

The setting, Full Disk Access, lives inside Privacy & Security in macOS Settings and was introduced with macOS Mojave (version 10.14). It gives users control over which applications can read system-level data, including files, Mail, Messages, Safari history, and Time Machine backups. Security tools and backup software rely on it legitimately. The problem is that once granted, an application can bypass many of the protections Apple built to keep sensitive data off-limits to third parties.

Apple warned in a developer advisory that some developers are using Full Disk Access to expose everything on a user's system without their full knowledge, and that for communication apps this also compromises the privacy of the people those users are messaging. The company said it plans to update the setting so access can only be granted through an explicit user action, and that as AI agents grow more capable and autonomous, the risks tied to this level of access will only increase. When the new controls will arrive has not been said.

The announcement follows a controversy involving Meta's personal AI agent, Muse. When the app launched on September 8, Inc. columnist Jason Aten installed it and says he explicitly declined to give it access to his Messages, calendar, or personal data. Despite that, Muse pitched him a column idea drawn from a private text exchange with his podcast co-host. Aten says Full Disk Access was disabled on his machine, yet the agent had synced more than 187,000 rows of his private iMessages to Meta's cloud. When he asked Muse directly how it read those conversations, the agent told him the paired Mac app was only relaying notification previews, an explanation that turned out to be false. Meta's David Singleton later called it a fabricated account of the feature.

Meta disputed the broader account. Singleton and communications head Andy Stone both argued that reading Messages requires two separate permissions: Full Disk Access must be active in macOS, and the Messages connector within Muse must also be switched on. Singleton said that without Full Disk Access, all related options are greyed out and the feature does not work. Whether that permission was ever active on Aten's Mac is something the two sides still disagree on.

What the episode made clear, regardless of how that specific question gets resolved, is exactly the scenario Apple is now trying to prevent: AI agents accumulating sweeping system permissions that users did not fully understand they had handed over.

The problem extends beyond confusing permission dialogs. On September 21, security researcher Patrick Wardle, founder of the Objective-See Foundation, published a zero-day flaw in Muse's Mac app before Meta had a patch ready, accompanied by a working proof of concept called "not-a-mused." The flaw centered on an undocumented configuration setting called "endo_voyager_dictation_endpoint" that any unprivileged local process could overwrite without admin rights and without triggering macOS security prompts. An attacker who had already landed on the machine could use it to redirect Muse's dictation traffic, capture audio and prompts, inject malicious instructions, and take advantage of every permission the agent held, covering files, microphone, camera, calendar, location data, and linked iOS devices. Wardle's proof of concept demonstrated over 50 commands being executed through the compromised agent.

Meta deployed a patch within 24 hours of disclosure, but Wardle argued that a ClickFix-style attack could have made the exploit remote, giving attackers access to any device running Muse, not just machines they had already penetrated by other means. He described Muse's extensive system permissions as making it trivial to turn the agent into a ready-made backdoor.

Wardle also separately reported a flaw in OpenAI's ChatGPT Mac app, tracked as CVE-2026-100754, that could have let attackers take over the assistant and access chat logs and other stored data. He described the exploit as insanely trivial, requiring roughly a dozen lines of code, and noted it could also be used to get ChatGPT to run commands on an attacker's behalf, with the requests appearing as legitimate instructions from the OpenAI software. OpenAI has since patched it.

Wardle has said he will present analysis of multiple AI macOS application vulnerabilities at Objective by the Sea, an Apple-focused security conference in November, and has already submitted a further finding to OpenAI related to the integration between ChatGPT and the company's always-on Dots AI assistant.

The pattern across all three incidents points to a structural problem the industry has not resolved. AI agents need deep system access to function, and that same access makes them attractive targets. "AI companies are fixated on adding features right now," Wardle said, and the permission frameworks macOS relies on were not designed with always-running, autonomous agents in mind. Apple's planned changes to Full Disk Access are an attempt to close that gap, though what those controls will actually look like when they ship remains unknown.


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Vulnerability Research
AI Security Vulnerabilities AI-Generated Reports Bug Bounty Programs Google Bug Bounty Open Source Security Software Supply Chain Vulnerabilities and Exploits Vulnerability Research

AI Spam Surge Forces Google to Pause Open Source Bug Bounty Program


OSS VRP (Open Source Software Vulnerability Rewards Program) has temporarily been suspended after a sharp increase in automated reports that were found to be valid. Since October 1, security teams and open-source maintainers have been facing an increasing number of low-quality vulnerability reports generated via artificial intelligence. 


The pause, which took effect on October 1, is in response to increasing volumes of low-quality vulnerability reports. Google announced the OSS VRP in August 2022 as a means of rewarding researchers who identifies and responsibly discloses security flaws in open-source software maintained by the company. 

The program covers projects such as Golang, Angular, Bazel, Protocol Buffers and Fuchsia, along with selected third-party dependencies. Security concerns regarding GitHub Actions, application configurations, repository settings, and access control rules are also covered by this program. There was initially a range of rewards available from $100 to $31,337 under the program, with particular emphasis placed on vulnerabilities that could potentially pose significant risks for software suppliers. 

As a result of the company's wider vulnerability rewards program, millions of dollars have since been awarded to researchers, making the OSS VRP an important means of identifying security vulnerabilities in widely used open-source projects. An increase in automated submissions was responsible for the current suspension, according to the company, with the majority failing to identify valid security issues. 

Although the use of artificial intelligence-assisted tools has made the generation of vulnerability reports at scale easier, the resulting volume may also include incorrect findings, duplicate claims, and reports concerning vulnerabilities that do not exist. OSS VRP is currently being reviewed by Google to address the issue and determine how the program should handle the growing number of automated submissions. 

A further update is anticipated in the first quarter of 2027. Additionally, the company clarifies that the change does not affect outstanding reports or product vulnerabilities submitted prior to October 1. The impact of the AI-driven reporting surge extends beyond Google's program as well. 


It has not been the company's first time experiencing a sharp increase in low-quality vulnerability submissions that have been generated by automated tools. This raises concerns about the time security teams will need to spend validating reports that do not identify genuine vulnerabilities. The Google Patch Rewards Program continues to offer incentives to researchers for submitting high-impact open-source security patches that qualify for rewards of up to $15,000. 

Google Cloud's Cloud Vulnerability Reward Program provides a means of reporting security vulnerabilities affecting open-source repositories related to Google Cloud products. Google's decision follows similar developments elsewhere in the security industry. In January, the curl project maintainer terminated its HackerOne bug bounty program in response to a significant number of low-quality, artificial intelligence-generated vulnerability reports. 

As part of its Intigriti bug bounty program, Intel also removed financial rewards in September, though the company did not provide a publicly stated reason for the change. As the use of artificial intelligence tools increases in speed, potential vulnerabilities are identified and reported more rapidly, while the review process remains the responsibility of security researchers and maintainers. 

Earlier this year, Microsoft warned that AI-assisted vulnerability discovery could increase the number and scale of security discoveries, potentially increasing the operational demands on security teams. Google has not yet confirmed that the Open Source OSS VRP will be permanently discontinued. The company is reviewing the program and anticipates making changes in the first quarter of 2027. 

For now, the temporary suspension reflects a growing challenge for bug bounty programs, namely, how to handle a large volume of automated reports without allowing invalid findings to overwhelm genuine security issues. 

The decision of Google highlights the difficulty of vulnerability reward programs as AI-assisted security research increases submissions. It will become increasingly important for these programs to distinguish genuine findings from automated and inaccurate reports in order for them to be effective.
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data security
AI Attacks AI cybersecurity AI technology Cyersecurity AI Data Data Breach Data protection data security

South Korea Orders Financial Sector Probe After Series of Data Breaches

 

South Korea is gearing up to respond to a string of cyber disruptions that targeted financial institutions, with the President demanding a thorough inquiry about the recent personal data breaches and protection of future incidents.  

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) is leading the response and is holding meetings with industry bodies, regulators, and officials from impacted financial institutions to discuss the next steps. FSC Chairman Lee Eog-weon warned that finance companies must remain on high alert as the authorities trace the source of the cyberattack. The security breach investigation was initiated after Shinhan Bank notified the FSC about the incident on September 30. 

Following that, regulators opened on-site inspections and expanded the probe as more financial institutions reported a cyberattack. Shinhan Bank and KB Kookmin Bank were the two financial firms named by the FSC, while Yonhap News Agency reported that Hana Bank and Woori Bank also experienced data leaks. FSC decided to call an emergency meeting of senior officials to review the situation, moving it from its original date, October 7. 

According to Korean media, the main reason for the emergency meeting was related to the fact that more financial institutions became victims of cyberattacks, and that additional breaches at secondary financial institutions were also suspected. Regulators are also considering the possibility that AI might be involved in the cyberattack. Lee warned that the involvement of AI in the cyberattack cannot be ruled out and that the response should be based on AI-driven cybersecurity solutions. 

In addition, the FSC is considering implementing enhanced cybersecurity measures for the finance sector. Among the first steps taken by the FSC is a recommendation that financial institutions conduct a cyber hygiene review. FSC urged finance companies to implement stricter access controls, reduce the exposure of their systems, and introduce additional measures to protect consumers from potential data abuse. Furthermore, the FSC is pressuring financial institutions to share information about the cyber incidents. 

The information exchange process should include attack methods, internet protocol (IP) addresses, and other details. It would enable financial companies to develop a joint response and recognize other potentially impacted entities. The cyberattack might have been targeting financial hubs rather than the single institution, according to one scenario produced by South Korean regulators and reported by Yonhap. The unnamed regulators believe that the cyber attackers targeted several financial institutions in an attempt to scan the system to find weaker areas.  

According to the information provided by the banks to the National Assembly, the cyberattack came from various IP addresses. Those locations spanned across several countries, including the US, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, and the UK. South Korea’s opposition People Power Party is demanding that the government investigate whether North Korea was behind the cyberattack. 

The cyberattack could be a retaliation for decades of cyber espionage and economic sabotage by Pyongyang, according to the party. The response from the FSC is to keep investigating the cyber incidents and urge financial institutions to boost their cybersecurity measures and share information about the cyber incidents.
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User Privacy
CPR registry Data Breach Denmark Identity Theft User Privacy

Denmark Population Registry Breach Exposes 8.8 Million Citizens

 

Denmark is grappling with one of the most significant data breaches in its history after unauthorized actors gained access to the Central Population Register (CPR), exposing the personal information of approximately 8.8 million individuals. The breach, discovered in early October 2026, affects not only current residents but also includes data on people who have moved abroad and even deceased individuals. The CPR serves as Denmark's national civil registry and contains highly sensitive information including names, addresses, dates of birth, marital status, and unique CPR identification numbers that are integral to daily life in the Scandinavian nation. 

The attack was carried out through a sophisticated method involving a private Danish company that had legitimate access to the registry system. According to authorities, threat actors misused this company's credentials to extract data from the CPR database. The Danish Data Protection Agency revealed that the attackers employed brute-force techniques to enumerate valid CPR numbers before systematically extracting associated personal data from each entry. This method allowed them to harvest information on a massive scale, impacting roughly 80% of the 11 million registered citizens currently in the CPR system, making it one of the largest population registry breaches ever recorded in Europe. 

Security officials detected the breach on October 2, 2026, though the actual incident occurred earlier in September. Once the CPR administration became aware of the compromise, they immediately blocked the private company's access to the registry and launched a comprehensive investigation with police assistance. Minister for Research, Education and Digitalization Christina Egelund described the incident as extremely serious and promptly informed Parliament's Business and Digitalization Committee. The government has since implemented additional security measures to prevent similar incidents and is working with all relevant authorities to establish the full extent of the damage caused by this unprecedented security failure.

In response to the breach, Danish authorities have established a dedicated cyber hotline to assist potentially affected individuals and provide guidance through the website sikkerdigital.dk. Officials are urgently warning citizens to remain vigilant against unsolicited communications, emphasizing that criminals may use the stolen data to craft convincing phishing attempts. The government specifically cautioned that people should never disclose passwords or confidential information in response to telephone calls, emails, or similar communications, even if the caller appears to know their name, address, and CPR number. This warning is particularly critical because the exposed data could enable highly targeted social engineering attacks that would be difficult for ordinary citizens to identify as fraudulent. 

The Denmark CPR breach represents a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities inherent in centralized population databases and the catastrophic consequences when such systems are compromised. As investigations continue, questions remain about how the private company's credentials were obtained and whether additional security lapses contributed to the scale of the breach. For millions of Danes, the incident means living with heightened risk of identity theft, financial fraud, and privacy violations for years to come. The breach also raises broader concerns about data protection practices across Europe and may prompt other nations to reassess the security of their own civil registry systems in an increasingly dangerous digital landscape where personal information has become a valuable commodity for cybercriminals worldwide.
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