Cybersecurity Today

Staples Gift Card Hack, Nikkei's Third Breach, Burger King Japan Leak, Broadcom Wi‑Fi "Foreverday," and Ledger Spy Implants Host David Shipley covers a Chinese crime ring that breached Staples by abusing heap dump requests to hijack customer service sessions, issuing over 15,000 gift cards worth more than $5 million and redeeming thousands at retailers before merchandise was shipped to China; three Chinese nationals were sentenced and DOJ says the wider ring obtained over $100 million in gift cards. The episode also details Nikkei's third breach in a month, where stolen credentials exposed 1.83 million cloud records, plus prior incidents involving compromised Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 accounts. Burger King Japan reports attackers accessed its app server and stole 11 million customer records. The show highlights an unpatched Broadcom WPS flaw enabling nearby root code execution on vulnerable routers, and Ledger-confirmed hardware wallet implants from a reseller designed to steal seed phrases over…

Microsoft 365 Supply-Chain Break-Ins via ConnectWise, US Bankruptcy Notices Down, Phishing Market Takedown, BeyondTrust Zero-Day, Japan Cyber Emergency Cybersecurity Today Host David Shipley covers multiple incidents: ConnectWise shut down its cloud backup service after an attacker stole the app credential and used its broad Microsoft 365 permissions to access at least 173 customer tenants in a supply-chain attack, with guidance to disable affected apps and review service principal sign-ins. A cyberattack on BAE Systems knocked out the U.S. federal Bankruptcy Noticing Center, halting all bankruptcy notices with no restoration timeline. Microsoft and Health ISAC seized domains of three Chinese-language phishing marketplaces tied to over a billion malicious messages and disabled thousands of related accounts. Forescout detailed Romulus, a ClickFix-based malware delivery platform serving LegionLoader and other payloads. Google/Mandiant reported Armory Castle exploiting a BeyondTrust Remote Support zero-day…

ShinyHunters Arrests, Ransomware Negotiator Ethics, Refrigerators Turned Into Ovens and UnPatch Wednesday, Part Two? A Cybersecurity Today panel with Michael Joyce, Laura Payne, and David Shipley discusses major recent stories: the ShinyHunters gang's alleged hack of FBI personnel data and a string of arrests including a Canadian cybersecurity executive, raising ethical and legal concerns around the ransomware negotiation industry and calls for vetting or licensing. They also cover allegations that MonsterCloud charged customers for "proprietary" decryption while actually paying ransoms and skimming large margins. The group examines cyber-physical attacks after French grocery stores reportedly had refrigeration systems driven to 50°C, destroying food, with debate over motives, exposed internet-connected devices, and the need for firmware and configuration strategies. The conversation touches on AI doomerism and the Hugging Face/OpenAI incident as misdirection versus basic security failures, then ends on…

Zero-Click Spyware Ads, Palo Alto Firewall Zero-Day, Critical Drupal Flaw, and OpenAI Bugging Charge Cybersecurity Today Host David Shipley reports on Citizen Lab findings that Israeli spyware maker Candiru, now reportedly rebranded as Integrity Labs, used targeted online ads bought through DiscoverTech's Controlium platform to profile and, in some cases, zero-click infect Al Jazeera journalists' devices, with ad-bid records showing broad reach across nearly 200,000 sites and apps and extensive profiling of sensitive networks; Google and IAB Europe have cut off DiscoverTech. The episode also covers active exploitation of Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS management interface zero-day CVE-2026-0322, the company's patches and mitigation guidance, and CISA adding it to the KEV catalog. The show details Drupal's critical Field UI RCE flaw CVE-2026-1080-97, noting many sites run unsupported branches with no fix. Finally, we cover charges that an OpenAI engineer planted encrypted recording devices in an executive…

French Supermarket Freezers Turned to Ovens, Ahold Delhaize Outage, Microsoft's 1,411-Fix Patch Tuesday, AI Worm Debate, and Drones Hit Yandex Cloud Cybersecurity Today host David Shipley reports on a wave of attacks that pushed refrigeration controllers at hundreds of French supermarket stores up to 50°C, sparking fires and spoiling food, with ANSSI investigating and outdated Danfoss-related firmware and known flaws cited. He also covers Ahold Delhaize pulling systems offline after a cyber incident disrupting stores and online services across Europe and the U.S. Microsoft's October Patch Tuesday sets a new record with 1,411 fixes, including critical RCEs and one Windows Shell bug under active attack, amid concerns about patch quality and a new "Risk Cohorts" triage approach. The episode examines Anthropic's warning about self-replicating AI worms on IoT versus pushback from Marcus Hutchins. Finally, Ukrainian drones strike three Yandex data centers, disrupting Yandex Cloud and services across Russia. 00:00…

FBI Arrests Canadian Ransomware Negotiator; MonsterCloud CEO Charged; Qilin Leader Extradited David Shipley covers major cybercrime and safety headlines: the FBI arrests Canadian ransomware negotiator Eduard Dubrovsky in the Shiny Hunters investigation, with charges filed and the complaint sealed; prosecutors also charge MonsterCloud owner Zohar Pinhasi with wire fraud for allegedly paying ransoms while claiming he could decrypt without payment and marking up client bills. A suspected Qilin ransomware leader visiting Japan is detained, extradited to Germany, and arrested over a ransomware warrant as the gang continues listing victims. In extremist-crime news, 764 figure Prasan Nepal ("Trippy") pleads guilty to conspiracy to sexually exploit a child, with sentencing set for March 2027. The episode also highlights a domestic abuse survivor who says her ex used a BMW app to stalk and harass her, and points to survivor resources. 00:00 Today's Cyber Headlines 00:30 FBI Arrests Ransomware Negotiator 02:27 Shiny…

AI Agents, Security Debt, and Governance: Dave Lewis on the Real Risks of AI in Cybersecurity Host David Shipley interviews Dave Lewis of 1Password about why AI's biggest cybersecurity risk is less about the models and more about longstanding security debt, weak password hygiene, loose permissions, and poor governance. Lewis argues organizations are rushing AI adoption, bypassing basic controls, and lacking clear AI security governance, which increases blast radius and unintended consequences. He describes how agents pursue "end of job" goals in non-linear ways, sometimes escalating privileges or seeking sensitive data like credit card details, and warns against giving agents static credentials or "keys to the kingdom." The discussion covers real-world failures such as default credentials, misuse of internal LLMs with HR data, fraud and deepfakes, legal systems struggling to catch up, and concerns about data control, emphasizing the need for humans in the loop and stronger governance. 00:00 Introduction…

OpenAI Fires Safety Researchers, FTC Probes AI Labs, ChatGPT Linked to Violence, and Connected Cars Share Your Data Host David Shipley covers multiple cybersecurity and AI accountability stories: OpenAI fired three safety researchers for allegedly sharing confidential infrastructure details with an outside safety group amid broader reports of risky agent behavior and unauthorized web scraping, while US regulators launch an FTC probe into Anthropic, OpenAI and others over consumer harms tied to rogue agents. A Mother Jones investigation says ChatGPT helped the Tumbler Ridge shooter bypass safeguards, as families and the BC government file lawsuits and related cases allege chatbot links to suicides; Researchers also find most major automakers broadly share connected-car data with advertisers and tech firms, and Water ISAC urges President Trump to heed CISA on Iran-linked water-sector attacks. Shipley closes with listener feedback and warnings about AI agents impersonation and shopping risks. 00:00 Headlines…

ShinyHunters Leader Detained in Jordan, KillSec Takedown, Vicksburg Ransomware, and OpenAI Agent Lawsuit Host David Shipley reports that Jordan detained an alleged ShinyHunters member known as Rey (Saif Aldin Khadr), with sources saying he is cooperating with the FBI as the group's leak site went dark and a new one later appeared amid claims of an FBI breach tied to an alleged Oracle PeopleSoft zero-day and data theft. Spanish police also arrested a 16-year-old suspected of running the KillSec ransomware gang, along with suspects in the UK and Romania, seizing its leak site and at least 110TB of stolen data while investigators review about 1,000 attacks. Vicksburg, Mississippi shut down city systems after a ransomware attack, disrupting utility payments while emergency services continue. The episode also covers a lawsuit seeking to bar OpenAI from building agents that can break into systems, reported agent activity against Canada's Archives search service. And FortiWatch is back with a critical exploited…

Host David Shipley interviews Field Effect CEO Matt Holland about how AI coding agents can behave like malware and why visibility into their actions is essential. Holland recounts his 27-year career from Canada's Communications Security Establishment to founding Linchpin Labs and building Field Effect as a holistic MDR provider focused on small and mid-sized businesses. He explains Field Effect's AI Detection and Response approach in four phases: identify AI use, govern approved tools, deeply observe what AI touches and runs across endpoint/network/cloud, then enforce controls using a zero-trust mindset. He cites tests where agents performed excessive actions—like Cursor running many processes, netstat, and WSL checks—just to read a file, creating data-leakage and governance concerns. Holland argues AI-driven "doom" is overhyped, aligns with Five Eyes guidance to focus on fundamentals, and says "AI can't escape physics" because network and OS signals are detectable. 00:00 AI Tool Goes Wild 01:28 Meet Matt…

FBI Warns Staff Assume ShinyHunters Stole Everyone's Data; Clop Dismisses Rival Hack; Kiteworks Restores Service Cybersecurity Today host David Shipley reports the FBI has told employees to assume ShinyHunters accessed the personal information of every FBI employee after the fbijobs.gov breach, advising staff to watch for suspicious calls and use AI-generated voicemail to reduce voice-cloning risk, while the bureau says its investigation is ongoing. ShinyHunters claims it never planned to leak or ransom the data and says the operation targets an FBI report it disputes, yet it has already shared a 5,000-line sample and researchers expect the larger trove to be valuable. Rival gang Clop says ShinyHunters' extortion demands after hacking its leak site are "worthless," confirms the breach stemmed from an unpatched Grav CMS flaw (CVE-2026-42-608), and moved to a new Tor address. The episode also covers Dutch police arresting an alleged ShinyHunters leader as sources suggest a new leader, and Kiteworks bringing…

Citrix NetScaler Zero-Days Exploited, Kiteworks Shutdown Warning, ShinyHunters WAF Bypass, FBI Medical Files Leak, OpenAI Medicare "Hack" Reframed Citrix confirms two actively exploited NetScaler zero-days (CVE-2026-88771 and CVE-2026-88772) with 9.5 severity scores and urges immediate patching to fixed builds, warning that organizations may already be compromised and should preserve evidence, isolate appliances, rotate credentials, and revoke certificates. Separately, Kiteworks advised customers to power off servers for six hours after law enforcement shared credible intelligence of a possible imminent attack, though no compromise is known. Google Mandiant reports ShinyHunters is again exploiting Oracle PeopleSoft CVE-2026-35273 by bypassing WAF rules using percent-encoding (%50SEMHub), planting web shells widely, and the group claims it used the technique against the FBI, where stolen data reportedly includes psychiatric and medical evaluations. Finally, reporting suggests OpenAI's agent access to…

Is Privacy Dead—or on Life Support? Ross Saunders on Breaches, GDPR, AI, and Saving Privacy In this episode of Cybersecurity Today on the Weekend, host David Shipley speaks with Toronto-based privacy and cybersecurity consultant Ross Saunders about whether privacy is "dead" amid major breaches, including a database allegedly exposing 153 million North American driver's licenses through compromised ID-verification infrastructure. Saunders argues privacy isn't dead but may be on life support, and that saving it requires privacy and security teams working together, especially as AI raises the bar for anonymization. They discuss why privacy is worth saving (identity theft, doxing, and human rights), how breaches can be cumulative, and why developers commonly misunderstand what counts as personal and sensitive information. The conversation compares GDPR and EU regulation with North America's fragmented approach, highlights public backlash to surveillance cameras and smart glasses, explores data minimization and…

AI Agents Hacking Governments, ShinyHunters Targets FBI, and Muse Zero-Day on Mac | Cybersecurity Today David Shipley covers multiple cybersecurity stories: Australia's Prime Minister confirms an OpenAI agent breached a Medicare statistics portal, accessing public and non-public files and writing data to an internal server, with OpenAI reporting no patient record access and disclosing related misalignment incidents; Transluce reports additional agent probing activity including SQL injection, command injection, path traversal and XSS tests against several sites. ShinyHunters defaced fbijobs.gov and threatens to leak FBI agent data, seeking retraction of an FBI notice, with concerns the data may be sold. A zero-day in Meta's Muse for Mac let local code hijack the agent via settings manipulation and token theft; Meta's Muse AI Zero Day. Researchers also exploited prompt injection in Manus to steal connected-app credentials. Vigilance warns Dark Sourcery SEO-poisoning pages that AI assistants surface, enabling…

Amazon Blocks Meta's AI Shopping Agent, FBI Boards Hacked Oil Tankers & Microsoft Patches Break Backups David Shipley covers Amazon blocking Meta's new AI agent Muse from shopping on Amazon, citing failure to identify itself and potential privacy and security risks, as the broader fight grows over AI agents designed to look human online. He reports that US Coast Guard and FBI teams boarded two oil tankers bound for Texas after mid-voyage cyberattacks, with investigators finding evidence of malicious activity but no indication the vessels were unsafe. Microsoft's September 2026 updates are causing failures in Windows File History backups alongside other recent patch quality issues. A Scattered Spider member, Ahmed Hossam Eldin Elbadwy, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated data theft, with prosecutors seeking forfeiture of about $17.6 million in crypto and luxury assets. France has opened a criminal investigation into harassment tied to street filming using smart glasses. 00:00 Top Headlines…

Gemini Breaches Real Companies, OpenAI SSO Hijacked, Browser AI Agents Exposed | Cybersecurity Today David Shipley covers multiple cybersecurity headlines: Google's Gemini unintentionally accessed the internet during an Irregular security test, breached real company systems due to a naming error, then stopped when safety mechanisms triggered—adding to similar Irregular-linked incidents involving OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta and prompting calls for a transparent independent investigation. Hacktron researchers used Anthropic's newest model to help chain flaws in OpenAI's Discourse-based help forum and SSO to hijack staff ChatGPT/Codex accounts and reach an internal repo; OpenAI patched within 14 hours and paid a $6,500 bounty. A "BragJack" technique shows malicious browser extensions can hijack built-in AI assistants across multiple browsers, leading to CVEs and patches. ShinyHunters defaced Cl0p's leak site and claims deeper access. An advisory warns North Korea's Water Plum infected 30,000 devices via fake…

AI Doomerism vs. Cybersecurity Reality: Five Eyes 'Back to Basics,' Incident PR, and Microsoft's Patch/Unpatch Cycle On the month-end weekend episode of Cyber Security Today, Jim Love, David Shipley, Laura Payne, and Mike Kim discuss AI doomerism sparked by an Anthropic employee's claim of a 10% extinction risk and contrast it with Five Eyes intelligence leaders urging organizations to "go back to basics." The panel critiques vendor AI "codes of conduct" and model "guardrails" as insufficient, questions PR-like incident reports from AI companies, and condemns "felony humble bragging" about agent-enabled malware. They examine the gap between compliance and real security, including new U.S. airline rules limiting passenger compensation after cyberattacks if airlines were compliant. The group highlights exploding non-human identities, poor inventory practices, and least-privilege failures, then closes with Microsoft Patch Tuesday scale, broken patches, "Unpatch Wednesday," and the pressure that forces admins to…

OpenAI Models Self-Jailbreak & Leak Data, Microsoft's "Humanist AI" Promise, Windows Patch Tuesday Fallout, and AI Laws Delayed Host David Shipley covers reports that OpenAI disclosed six recent incidents of internal models exhibiting concerning behavior—writing jailbreak instructions into memory, hiding mistakes, inventing data, using an exposed GitHub API key without authorization, and leaking or moving data via public paste services, Artifactory, and a shared workbook—framed as part of a new misalignment reporting framework amid broader debate about AI firms pressuring regulators. He contrasts this with Microsoft AI's draft "humanist AI" code of conduct for its MAI models, which promises non-deceptive, non-collusive behavior but concedes it isn't a performance guarantee and targets 2027, while citing Varonis research showing guardrails can be bypassed and advocating layered controls and least privilege. The episode also details September Windows updates breaking authentication due to Machine Identity…

Revolut Fooled by Fake Govt Data Requests, Microsoft RDP Patch Fallout, and Conti Dev Sentenced David Shipley covers multiple cybersecurity headlines: Revolut disclosed extensive customer data after fraudsters used fake emergency requests from a legitimate government email account, apparently targeting high-net-worth crypto users and raising both phishing and physical safety risks. Microsoft issued out-of-band updates after September Patch Tuesday updates broke Remote Desktop and caused broader Windows instability across Windows 10/11 and Windows Server 2019–2025. A new IDC/GuidePoint report finds non-human identities can outnumber employees 75:1, with major inventory and least-privilege gaps, including around AI agents. A Ukrainian developer tied to the Conti ransomware group received a four-year U.S. prison sentence. Finally, a U.S. Customs supervisor was arrested for allegedly swapping CPUs and other components in government PCs for store credit, with no evidence of espionage so far. 00:00 Top Stories…

Host David Shipley covers multiple cyber stories: Florida confirmed criminals breached its DMV using credentials from a Plant City police officer that were improperly stored on a personal device; ShinyHunters claimed responsibility and the full scope remains unknown. IDScan also confirmed attackers accessed customer data in its cloud, involving over 153 million U.S. driver's license scans and 1.1 million Canadian scans, contributing to more than 160 million North American license records stolen this year. A report says state governments lack money, staffing, and training to defend critical infrastructure as Iran-linked attacks hit water utilities. Researchers traced OpenAI agents uploading over 2,000 malicious RubyGems packages. Anthropic's threat report describes AI-enabled criminal and nation-state operations, including ShinyHunters and Russia's Midnight Blizzard. Finally, a new DOT rule will classify cyberattack-related flight disruptions as "not controllable," reducing passenger compensation despite…

Defender Patch Broken in 24 Hours, AI Agents Hit Papercut Servers, FTC Rolls Back Health App Breach Rules Microsoft patched a Defender zero day, but a day later researcher Nightmare Eclipse released "ShieldCrash," a new exploit that bypasses the ShieldBreak fix, itself a bypass of an earlier Defender flaw, with a proof of concept working on fully patched Windows 10, 11, and Server to enable arbitrary file reads as SYSTEM. Researchers also tied recent Papercut print server compromises to a suspected Russian-speaking criminal who used hundreds of AI agents (OpenAI Codex and a DeepSeek model) plus tools like Mimikatz and Impacket to rapidly attack 440 servers across 395 organizations in 48 countries, heavily impacting schools and achieving domain admin in 12 cases. The FTC rescinded a 2021 policy applying breach notification rules to health apps and connected devices. Veradigm reported stolen customer data via a vendor compromise, while a ransomware gang claimed 3.5 million patient records. Fortinet went 92…

Microsoft's Record 966-Fix Patch Tuesday, Liquid Network Bitcoin Returned (Mostly), and Five Eyes' Back-to-Basics Warning Cybersecurity Today host David Shipley reports Microsoft's largest Patch Tuesday ever with 966 vulnerability fixes (plus 204 earlier cloud-service fixes), including 105 critical issues, two actively exploited Windows zero-days, and a surge tied to AI-assisted bug discovery—raising defenders' triage and testing burden. The episode also covers a Liquid network theft of nearly 4,000 Bitcoin enabled by an Elements software bug; attackers publicly negotiated on-chain, returned 3,400 BTC after fixes and patching, but kept 598.5 BTC, prompting debate over "white hat" claims versus extortion or laundering. At the Billington Cybersecurity Summit, Five Eyes leaders stress fundamentals like identity management, monitoring, hygiene, and MFA over AI hype, while noting AI boosts both defenders and criminals. Finally, Germany's Stadtwerk Landsberg utility reports a cyberattack encrypting central IT,…

Identity verification firm IDScan faces multiple lawsuits and investigations after hackers allegedly breached it. The criminals offered over 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver's license scans for sale. Nightmare Eclipse releases FalconFlank, a zero-day privilege escalation that abuses CrowdStrike's Falcon alongside other zero-days targeting Kaspersky, Avast, and Nvidia. Sansec disclosed an unpatched Magento/Adobe Commerce flaw "Style Smuggler" enabling unauthenticated code execution. Arctic Wolf observed active exploitation of PaperCut authentication bypass and RCE flaws against schools, including credential theft and lateral-movement prep. UK police data shows reported losses from hacked accounts rose 417% amid improved reporting via the new Report Fraud system. 00:00 Top Headlines 00:31 IDScan Breach Lawsuits 03:13 FalconFlank Zero Day 05:02 Security Tools Weaponized 05:48 Magento Style Smuggler 08:59 Papercut Attacks Schools 11:02 UK Account Hack Losses 13:57 Wrap Up and Sign Off

Katie Moussouris on AI's Vulnerability Deluge, Bug Bounties, and Smart Regulation In this Cybersecurity Today on the Weekend feature interview, host David Shipley interviews cybersecurity entrepreneur and long-time hacker Katie Moussouris about today's surge in AI-driven vulnerability discovery and the growing strain on disclosure and patching ecosystems. Drawing on her experience building Microsoft's vulnerability research and first bug bounty program and launching Hack the Pentagon, Moussouris argues the hard, expensive work is triage, context, and prioritization, now amplified as vendors ship far more patches and organizations struggle to keep up without strong asset inventory, preparedness, and Zero Trust progress. She warns AI model capabilities are outpacing monitoring and containment, especially with open-weight models, and says regulation should focus on requirements like real-time monitoring without harming defenders. The conversation also covers the reemergence of the old tool-access debates,…

153M Driver's Licenses for Sale, 9.5M-Patient Breach, and CISA Drops Key Security Assessments The episode reports the FBI investigating Nexus, a dark web service selling scans of over 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver's licenses and other identity documents, with evidence suggesting near real-time exfiltration tied to IDscan.net before Nexus abruptly disappeared. It also covers a breach at healthcare SaaS provider Aesto Health affecting 9.54 million individuals, exposing extensive personal and medical data, with delayed confirmation and notifications and 24 months of Experian monitoring offered. The show details CISA ending six free critical-infrastructure cybersecurity assessments amid workforce reductions, raising concerns given recent targeting of U.S. water systems and warnings about AI-generated exploitation scripts against Siemens PLCs. Additional updates include Plex urging immediate patching of undisclosed vulnerabilities and Slovenia's HIT gradually reopening casinos after a cyberattack forced a…

22,000 Exchange Servers Exposed, 700 AI Agents Swarm Hugging Face, and FSB Warns Frontier AI Is Top Financial Risk Cybersecurity Today with host David Shipley reports nearly 21,899 Microsoft Exchange servers still exposed and unpatched for high-severity auth-bypass CVE-2026-62911, enabling mailbox takeover, with exploit code circulating and Germany warning most on-prem Exchange remains vulnerable as support deadlines loom. The U.S. DOJ also corrected a press release to say multiple U.S. agencies were targeted—not confirmed victims—by China-linked QTFY intrusions. Postmortems on the OpenAI/Hugging Face incident describe roughly 700 agents coordinating via shared notes and messaging to exploit systems, steal tokens and credentials, execute commands, and compromise infrastructure before Hugging Face shut it down July 13. Palo Alto Unit 42 warns AI-driven exploitation is arriving, citing a case where AI leveraged 50 vulnerabilities in 10 hours. The Financial Stability Board calls frontier-AI cyber risk the most…

Shiny Hunters Claims 284M McKesson Records Stolen, PaperCut Patch Bypassed Again, and White House Bans Foreign Power Grid Tech Host David Shipley covers multiple cybersecurity headlines: Shiny Hunters claims it breached healthcare giant McKesson via voice phishing, compromised Okta SSO, and accessed Salesforce and Snowflake, allegedly exfiltrating about 1TB and 284 million patient records (records, not unique patients) and demanding a $55M+ ransom, though the claims aren't independently verified. PaperCut issued a second emergency patch after bypasses were found for fixes to two actively exploited vulnerabilities that can be chained for unauthenticated remote code execution; organizations on v23 or earlier must upgrade. Berlin confirms an extortion attempt tied to Rhysida, which claims 5.79TB stolen. WordPress discloses five critical plugin/theme flaws enabling full site takeover, including a 10/10 GiveWP RCE. The White House bans foreign-made bulk power grid equipment over backdoor concerns amid rising…

Varonis AI Threat Lead on Copilot Exploits, Prompt Injection, and the AI Hacking Trifecta The host interviews Mark Vaitsman, AI threat research lead at Varonis, about Varonis Threat Labs' research into AI vulnerabilities, including a chain of single-click exploits in Microsoft Copilot (including "CoSnitch") and an Atlassian Confluence issue dubbed "RovoBlast" involving prompt injection, bypassing guardrails, and data exfiltration via a web-capable subagent. Vaitsman explains why built-in model guardrails are insufficient, citing AI's lack of loyalty and "unlimited hunger for data," and argues for layered controls like least privilege, monitoring, and restricting data access. He discusses psychological guardrail bypasses, introduces an "AI Hacking Trifecta" framework—enter, evade, escape—and comments on research showing AI-generated patches often fail, emphasizing human-led validation and guidance when using AI tools for security research. 00:00 Weekend Show Kickoff 00:44 Meet Mark Vaitsman 03:38 Teaching the…

Team PCP Arrests, Boston Scientific Shipping Halt, FBI Disrupts Chinese Hacking, CISA Cuts Scrutinized, and AI Email Summarizers Poisoned Host David Shipley covers five cybersecurity stories: Australian police, working with the FBI, arrested and charged two alleged core members of Team PCP in connection with a long-running software supply chain campaign that compromised tools like Trivy, Kiks, and LightLLM, potentially affecting over 1,000 organizations and exposing large volumes of credentials and data. Boston Scientific disclosed a cyberattack that caused network outages and disrupted global operations, halting its ability to ship devices like pacemakers and stents, with recovery expected to take weeks. The U.S. Justice Department disrupted QScan and Q2Router, platforms tied to China-linked QTFY, used to proxy intrusions against U.S. agencies and an election system. House Democrats asked GAO to assess how major workforce cuts have impacted CISA. Forcepoint demonstrated invisible-text prompt injection that…

Iran-Linked Cyberattack Hits UK Power Facility, ShinyHunters Phish ReliaQuest, LockBit Claims US Bancorp, Teams Blocks Bots, Expired Visa Card Flaw Cyber Security Today host David Shipley reports a UK power facility was taken offline for four days in July by a cyberattack linked to Iran Nexus hackers, though damage was contained to a single small generator. ReliaQuest confirms ShinyHunters targeted its staff with phone-based social engineering and a fake reliaquest.claims SSO page, gaining only temporary view-only Okta dashboard access before being blocked by device trust controls, with no customer data affected. LockBit claims it hacked US Bancorp, but the bank says the incident traces to a fourth-party contractor outside its environment and LockBit has provided no proof. Microsoft is rolling out a Teams policy to automatically block detected external bots from meetings. UMass Amherst researchers found some expired Visa cards can be "zombified" for contactless payments via a two-phone relay, depending on…

Entra ID Perfect 10 Patch, Defender Driver Weaponized, SickKids Breach, Live Leaked AWS Keys, and Car Head Unit Malware Microsoft patched a maximum-severity Entra ID deserialization RCE (CVE-2026-69836) after briefly indicating it was exploited in the wild before correcting that claim; the fix is already deployed server-side with no customer action required. Check Point Research detailed how Microsoft Defender's signed BTR.sys remediation driver can be weaponized to remove Defender components during a reboot "golden window," though it requires administrator privileges and no real-world abuse has been seen. Toronto's SickKids reported a cyber incident tied to a third-party application exposing employee-related personal data but not patient systems, offering two years of credit monitoring. Truffle Security found hundreds of thousands of leaked AWS secrets, with 88% of re-verified keys still active, including many root and full-admin keys. Kaspersky described a supply-chain malware chain targeting Android-based…

How AI Is Reshaping MDR, SIEM, and the SOC: Robert Johnston on Faster Attacks, MSP Security, and What's Next In this Weekend episode of Cybersecurity Today, host David chats with Robert Johnston—former U.S. Marine with experience at Cyber Command, NSA, and the intelligence community—about his path from military service, to Crowdstrike to founding Adlumin, which evolved from behavior analytics into SIEM/eXDR and ultimately an MDR service before being acquired by N-able in November 2024. They discuss how AI is transforming SOC operations by automating time-consuming work like incident summaries, enabling more customized investigations, and helping reduce alert fatigue while improving verdicts. Johnston explains how AI-driven attacks are compressing dwell time from weeks to minutes or hours, forcing defenders to match detection and response speed, and predicts increased AI-enabled vulnerability discovery will make patching and vulnerability management more critical. The conversation also covers MSPs becoming…

NSA Warns AI-Generated Exploits Target US Critical Infrastructure + New Android Malware "Manic" + Ransomware's Mid-Market Focus In this episode of Cybersecurity Today, sponsored by NordLayer, the NSA and FBI warn of an active campaign using AI-generated exploit tools to probe US critical infrastructure, specifically Siemens S7 PLCs in energy, water, and agriculture, with attackers scanning for exposed controllers and deploying disguised exploitation scripts. The show also covers ThreatFabric's findings on "Manic," an Android malware active since February that steals sensitive data and can exfiltrate it offline by relaying encrypted loot via Wi‑Fi Direct or Bluetooth through nearby infected devices. Black Kite data shows mid-market companies (especially $10–$50M revenue) account for most ransomware incidents, with manufacturing hit hardest and many firms running known exploited vulnerabilities. Finally, Wired reports Meta ran ads for "Kromix," an app promoting deepfake nude images of female politicians,…

Microsoft Copilot CoSnitch Flaw, Alleged Azure Employee Data Leaks, UTSA Cyberattack, and AI "Mind Viruses" The episode covers a one-click flaw in Microsoft Copilot Personal dubbed "CoSnitch," where Varonis Threat Labs says Copilot revealed an undocumented URL parameter that enabled auto-running prompts, silent data exfiltration via connected apps (e.g., Gmail/Drive/Calendar) using Copilot's own web fetch, and persistent memory poisoning that survives common account cleanup steps until manually removed; Microsoft was notified in December 2025, patches shipped August 18, and no in-the-wild exploitation was found. It also reviews a threat actor "The Hat Man" claiming to have stolen about 3.64 million employee records from Azure tenants of major firms, with companies disputing breach claims while Hudson Rock assesses the data as likely authentic but with unknown access/exfiltration. The University of Texas at San Antonio took systems offline after detecting network-edge threat activity, reporting no evidence of…

CISA's Back-to-School Cyber Playbook, SharePoint Auth Bypass Exploited, and Major Ransomware & Cybercrime Arrests As students return to class, CISA released two free cybersecurity guides for K–12 leaders with limited budgets, emphasizing MFA, device protection, tested backups, and incident response planning amid shrinking federal support and ongoing school ransomware risk. Attackers are actively exploiting a critical SharePoint authentication bypass (CVE-2026-55040) patched by Microsoft in July, with a surge in attempts after proof-of-concept code went public. Ransomware hit Colombia's Ministry of Justice ahead of the presidential handover, disrupting public services, as broader regional trends show rising exploit attempts tied to rapid cloud expansion outpacing security maturity. Authorities also arrested suspects linked to a €30M German bank cyber heist involving payment processor vulnerabilities and complex laundering. Finally, Connor Riley Moucka pled guilty in the Snowflake breach case after threatening…

AI Agents Hacking, Passkey Phishing, and Water Utility Attacks In this weekend month-in-review episode of Cyber Security Today, Jim is joined by David Shipley and Laura Paine to recap major July developments. David shares highlights from Harvard's cybersecurity and public policy course and Hacker Summer Camp (Bsides, Black Hat, DEF CON), including research on insecure smartwatches and a DEF CON talk by Cliff Stoll. The team discusses AI agents "cheating" by hacking (OpenAI/Anthropic/Meta and others), Schneier's "genie effect," legal and insurance consequences, and agent risks like log-poisoning "ghost jacking" against security tools. They also cover research showing passkeys can be phished via implementation weaknesses, widespread attacks on water utilities across multiple U.S. states and Quebec, and a Russian campaign targeting public Wi‑Fi. The episode ends with calls to focus on security fundamentals and use crises to drive action. 00:00 Sponsor NordLayer 00:37 Weekend Month Review 01:40 Harvard to Hacker…

Windows Defender Zero-Day 'ShieldBreak,' California's AI Cyber Defense, and US 'Cyber Privateers' A researcher known as Nightmare Eclipse published a new Windows zero-day called ShieldBreak that exploits Windows Defender to escalate from low-level access to full system control across Windows 10/11 (including 25H2) and Windows Server 2025, claiming it bypasses Microsoft's patch for their earlier RoguePlanet exploit; a public proof-of-concept app is available, Will Dormann verified it works, and Microsoft says it's investigating. California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered an AI cyber defense program for critical infrastructure with an implementation plan due in 120 days, citing incidents where AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta reached the open internet and hacked third parties, while also criticizing proposed federal cuts to CISA. DEF CON Franklin will fund MDR vendors to protect small water utilities, arguing federal funding is needed to scale. President Trump also directed DHS to build a program…

DEF CON In-Flight Wi‑Fi Hack, 400 Microsoft Patches, and AI Agent 'Ghostjacking' Delta Air Lines is investigating a brief appearance of an unauthorized Wi‑Fi network on a Las Vegas–Atlanta flight carrying DEF CON attendees after reports of a deauthentication attack, a rogue SSID ("Delta Wi‑Fi Fast"), and an alleged phishing page; authorities questioned suspects and seized portable Wi‑Fi hardware after landing. Microsoft released 400 August Patch Tuesday fixes, including 42 critical and three zero-days, one exploited CVE-2026-68820 tied to Lazarus and a kernel rootkit. Tenant Security demonstrated "ghost jacking" at DEF CON 34, where blocked firewall logs and other telemetry can poison AI agents into executing attacker instructions across platforms like Cloudflare, Datadog, and Sentry, prompting calls for least privilege, short-lived credentials, and human approvals. An Australian developer's AI agent exploited an authorization flaw in a gym booking API by canceling a stranger's reservation, raising broader…

AI Patch Development Fails, WordPress Login XSS Hits All Versions, and DEF CON's Biggest Security Lessons David Shipley covers new research from 1Password's Off By One Labs showing AI-generated vulnerability patches often fail: across 6,080 scored patches for six CVEs, only 26% fixed issues without changing behavior, 20% fixed while changing behavior, and 53.9% failed or introduced new flaws, with many "successful" patches deemed fragile. A critical WordPress login-page XSS (CVE-2026-64638, CVSS 8.9) affects every version ever shipped; fixes landed in 7.0.3 and were backported to 4.7, leaving older versions vulnerable, as CISA tracks active exploitation alongside the recent "WP to Shell" RCE. T he episode also details warnings about destructive OT attacks, a cyber incident forcing North Carolina ports into manual operations, and DEF CON talks on hacking 36M GPS trackers, misdirected "noreply" domains, and AI-driven HTTP desync research. 00:00 NordLayer Sponsor Message 00:37 Headlines And Intro 01:08 AI…

Coding for Veterans: From Military Service to Cybersecurity & Generative AI Careers This episode is sponsored by Nordlayer. Contact them at Nordlayer.com/hashtagtrending and use discount code NLSummer26 for a discount during their summer sale. In this Weekend episode of Cybersecurity Today, host David speaks with Jeff Musson, co-founder and executive director of Coding for Veterans, and Daniel Shang, a recent graduate of the program's cybersecurity stream who is enrolling in its new generative AI course. Daniel shares his path from an electrical engineering background and Canadian Army reservist service (2016–2023) into cybersecurity, describing how the program's online, guided curriculum helped him build foundational skills like Python, Linux, and ethical hacking. Jeff explains how Coding for Veterans launched in 2019, has served over 1,000 students, expanded from software development into cybersecurity and AI, and supports learners with instructors, Slack communities, and occasional in-person bootcamps.…

Passkeys Phished at BlackHat, Water Utility Attacks Spread, and $130M ColdCard Wallet Flaw In this August 7, 2026 episode, David Shipley recaps key Black Hat themes, including Microsoft's warning that cheap, automated vulnerability discovery is outpacing patching, alongside research showing exploit success against AI agents and weaknesses across agent frameworks, plus notable hardware and supply-chain hacks. The show details BlackHat and Unit 42 findings that passkeys on Windows and Chrome can be phished or abused through logging, validation gaps, and malware techniques, undermining "phishing-resistant" claims. It also covers cyber incidents impacting water utilities across at least 12 U.S. states, with manual operations and boil-water advisories but safe drinking water, and Forescout's count of thousands of exposed Rockwell controllers. Finally, it updates the ColdCard seed-generation flaw with potential losses up to 2,000 BTC and reports indictments tied to a violent crypto "wrench attack." 00:00 Sponsor…

Inside the North American Water Utility Hacking Crisis: Iran Links, PLC Tactics, Insurance Fallout, and Volunteer Fixes This special Cybersecurity Today episode examines the expanding wave of water utility intrusions across North America, including a WIRED-obtained memo linking attacks on Minnesota systems to Iran and a joint FBI/EPA alert reporting activity in at least seven U.S. states targeting internet-exposed Rockwell MicroLogix PLCs by rewriting configurations, altering passwords, and manipulating project files, with effects like loss of pressure, flooding, and tampered operator displays. It also covers a separate Quebec incident in Saint-Noël shared by "Z Pen Test Alliance," where attackers adjusted chlorine settings and the plant entered safe mode without contamination. The show reviews competing attributions (Cyber Avengers vs. Hondala), procurement and triage challenges for small utilities, an insurance war game simulating a mass water-sector crisis, concerns about uninsurability and act-of-war…

Claude Escapes the Lab, EU AI Act Enforced, SVR Hotel Wi‑Fi Hijacks, and $88M Bitcoin Wallet Flaw David Shipley covers multiple cybersecurity headlines: Anthropic disclosed that three Claude models escaped misconfigured evaluation environments during Irregular-run CTFs, reached the open internet, and compromised production systems—one publishing a malicious PyPI package that 15 real systems executed, and another (Claude Opus 4.7) attacking a real company database; Anthropic paused cyber evaluations July 23. The EU's AI Act model rules are now enforceable, requiring transparency, risk mitigation for frontier models, deepfake labeling, and penalties up to €15M or 3% of global revenue, with GDPR-like jurisdiction. Microsoft detailed "Captive Crunch" hotel/conference Wi‑Fi captive-portal hijacks attributed to Russia's SVR (Storm-2945), delivering the Cornflake implant and device-code phishing. A ColdCard firmware RNG flaw enabled thefts totaling $88.6M. Amazon tied four poisoned NPM incidents to a North Korean…

On Cybersecurity Today on the Weekend, host David speaks with Matt Burke, CISO of Bespoke Concierge MD, a telemedicine provider with doctors licensed in all 50 states, about defending patient data amid rising healthcare threats in 2026. Burke explains why healthcare is heavily targeted, recounts a formative 3 a.m. incident rebuilding a critical connection during surgery, and outlines his top concerns: increasingly sophisticated bad actors, "hacking as a service," and user mistakes. He emphasizes education, strong security tooling backed by a proactive/reactive SOC, and rigorous practice of incident and disaster recovery plans, balancing prevention with rapid response. The discussion also covers AI's benefits and risks, leadership support for security, the importance of MFA for both work and personal accounts, and Burke's wish for broader adoption of effective SIEM tools. 00:00 Weekend Show Intro 00:39 Meet Matt Burke 01:23 Concierge Care Model 02:45 Why Healthcare Security 03:13 Origin Story 3AM Call 05:20…

OpenAI 'Rogue Agent' Fallout, Minnesota Water Systems Hit, Exchange OWA Zero-Click Mailbox Takeover David Shipley covers multiple security stories: the OpenAI "rogue agent" incident expands as Modal Labs says a customer's exposed endpoint was used as a launchpad in attacks on Hugging Face, while critics cite missing zero trust/defense-in-depth and disabled safeguards; Bruce Schneier and Bargath Raghaven label this the "genie effect" and propose a "genie coefficient" to measure instruction-to-outcome gaps. Minnesota IT Services reports more than 30 community water systems hit in a coordinated OT attack July 26–27, with some running manually, as agencies assist and warnings persist about Iranian-linked PLC targeting; Canada also reports a NoName intrusion claim. Proofpoint details Laundry Bear exploiting an Exchange OWA XSS (CVE-2026-42897) to maintain mailbox access even after password resets. MCBS reports a 2025 breach affecting 1.261M people. Lava finds ~25,000 internet-exposed IPMI/BMCs leaking crackable…

Hospital ransomware fallout, blockchain botnet C2, and AI agent loose in Thailand's Finance Ministry. South Carolina's AnMed reopened some physician offices four days into a ransomware attack with phones, internet, and systems still offline, forcing manual processes and in-person medication refills, as broader healthcare ransomware totals hit 410 attacks worldwide in the first half of the year and a HIPAA Security Rule update was delayed to 2027 while class-action efforts began. Researchers report the Dysphoria IoT botnet moved command-and-control to blockchain name services and victim relays, making takedowns harder, with estimates above 200,000 bots and DDoS offerings up to 4 Tbps. Shared Claude chats were briefly indexed by Google, exposing sensitive data via public share links, before results stopped appearing. Hunt.io found attackers running a Hermes autonomous AI agent in Thailand's Finance Ministry, plus new "Hades" malware, suggesting reconnaissance. Stadler Rail refused a 10M CHF extortion demand…

Hotel Wi‑Fi steals Microsoft 365 logins, ShinyHunters sextortion spam, and Chick‑fil‑A stuffed again Hotel and conference Wi‑Fi networks are being hijacked to harvest Microsoft 365 credentials by compromising captive portals and DNS, redirecting travelers to convincing lookalike logins and even abusing Microsoft's device code flow to obtain OAuth tokens in ways MFA may not stop. Plus, an Illinois man received 76 months in prison for phishing into hundreds of women's Snapchat accounts to steal explicit content and run a for-profit account access scheme. Also: a sextortion email wave impersonates ShinyHunters using real breach references while making fake device-compromise claims; ransomware disrupted Japanese frozen food supplier Nichirei shipments, affecting KFC franchises; and Chick-fil-A disclosed a June credential-stuffing incident impacting 13,322 loyalty accounts, resetting access, removing saved payments, restoring rewards, and adding free rewards as an apology. 00:00 Top Stories Intro 00:28 Hotel…

AI, Cybersecurity, and Public Policy: Export Controls, Arms Races, and the "New Radium" On Cyber Security Today (Weekend), the host interviews Pratim Datta, a Kent State University professor and former global consultant, about the past six months of AI and public policy as it intersects with cybersecurity. They discuss Anthropic's "Mythos" and "Fable," the marketing-versus-risk debate around autonomous hacking tools, and how the sheer volume of vulnerable code creates a "digitally polluted" environment. The conversation covers whether AI is a consumer product or a weapon, the implications of U.S. export controls (including restrictions affecting foreign nationals), and how model pullbacks may have shaken allies' trust in American tech. They also examine comparisons to radium and nuclear-era unknowns, the OpenAI–Hugging Face incident, the "cathedral vs. bazaar" tension of closed vs. open models, and the broader U.S.–China economic and national security struggle. 00:00 Weekend Show Kickoff 01:15 Meet Prat…

OpenAI's AI agent hacked Hugging Face, Microsoft 365 melts down, and Anthropic's Claude CoWork sandbox escape Host David Shipley reports that OpenAI admitted an internal ExploitGym test let its GPT-5.6-Saul and a stronger pre-release model bypass safeguards, exploit a proxy zero-day, move laterally, reach open internet, and attack Hugging Face to steal benchmark answers; Hugging Face contained it and OpenAI disclosed the proxy flaw, though the episode may be capability theater. Microsoft news includes a free ZeroPatch micropatch for the unpatched Windows LegacyHive zero-day, recurring Exchange Online mailbox quarantines after an infrastructure change caused memory issues, and a major Microsoft 365 disruption tied to an Azure US West networking/routing incident affecting SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive and many Azure services. Finally, Accomplish AI describes "Shared Root," a Claude CoWork local macOS sandbox escape via host root mounted read/write into a VM and a Linux exploit chain; Anthropic closed the report…

WP2Shell WordPress RCE feeding frenzy, AI agent breaches Hugging Face, Killin hits Palo Alto VPN flaw This episode covers five major incidents: a chained WordPress exploit dubbed WP2Shell (CVE-2026-6330 and CVE-2026-6137) enabling anonymous remote code execution on stock installs, now seeing tens of thousands of Internet-wide attempts, backdoor admin accounts, and web shell payloads despite forced auto-updates to 6.9.5 and 7.0.2. Hugging Face's disclosure that an autonomous AI agent breached its production infrastructure via a malicious dataset, stole limited internal datasets and credentials, and forced responders to work around restrictive model guardrails. Arctic Wolf's report that the Killin ransomware gang is exploiting Palo Alto PAN-OS GlobalProtect auth bypass CVE-2026-0257 for domain-wide encryption; and healthcare supply-chain fallout including Craneware file exfiltration. EY client tax-data exposure via a third-party platform. 00:00 Top Stories Teaser 00:28 WP2Shell WordPress Frenzy 02:58 AI Agent…