Новая версия сокращает время на расследование инцидента.

В украденной базе обнаружились сотрудники команды, которая сама взламывает чужие устройства.

Максут Шадаев предупредил, что будущие правила Google способны повлиять на установку программ.

Одного специально сформированного трафика достаточно, чтобы добраться до выполнения кода.

Мошенники уже открыли «магазины» с дикими скидками.

Человеческий экипаж пока сохраняет финальное право принимать решения. Надолго ли?

Гейтс предупредил, что ИИ навсегда уничтожит часть профессий

ИИ используют каждый день, но будущему с ним не доверяют.

Атаки начались ещё до того, как владельцы роутеров получили защиту.

Одни делают ставку на экспертизу и контент, другие — на производительность и масштабируемость, третьи — на экосистемность и интеграции.

Нужно собирать ровно столько, сколько может осилить и SIEM, и команда, которая будет работать с событиями, и чуточку больше.

Границы SIEM: что можно и что нельзя объединять«Граница SIEM зависит от того, кто и как его использует, от масштаба организации.

Евгения Лагутина:«Хочется верить, что мы сможем снизить порог вхождения не в SIEM, а в экспертизу в Threat Intelligence.

Ответ на этот вопрос лежит не в дата-шитах и не в маркетинговых презентациях, а в реальной эксплуатации, пилотировании и понимании собственных задач.

Одновременно меняются угрозы: атакующие целятся не только в инфраструктуру, но и в саму возможность восстановления — уничтожают бэкапы и захватывают системы управления.

На дискуссии о высокоплотных ЦОДах под модерацией Сергея Андронова, директора центра сетевых решений компании «Инфосистемы Джет», спорили и о плотности, и о географии.

Значит, средство защиты оценивается уже не само по себе, а по тому, помогает ли оно бизнесу пережить атаку.

Неудачный тест при этом оказался полезен: заказчик точнее сформулировал требования и стал смотреть не только на текущую версию продукта, но и на способность производителя развивать его дальше.

И здесь промышленное внедрение быстро упирается не только в к…

Разбираемся, почему возникает такая архитектура, как распределить роли между платформами и в каких случаях разделение функций оправдывает дополнительные затраты.

Холдинговая структура, слияния и поглощенияВ крупных холдингах отдельные дочерние и зависимые общества (ДЗО) часто развивают собственные центры мониторинга ИБ и используют разные SIEM-системы.

Независимая параллельная обработкаСамый простой вариант — источники одновременно отправляют события ИБ в несколько SIEM-систем.

Наконец, нужны общие правила классификации событий и инцидентов ИБ и единый подход к управлению экспертным контентом.

Использование нескольких SIEM-систем оправдано, если у каждой платформы есть своя задача и понятно…

Цифровая личность включает не только профили в социальных сетях, но и учётные записи, идентификаторы, публикации и накопленные цифровые следы.

В цифровую личность в широком смысле входят:официальные сведения и идентификаторы;учётные записи и средства аутентификации;биометрические данные;публикации и социальные связи в интернете;поведенческие и репутационные данные.

При этом цифровую личность не следует отождествлять с цифровым двойником, цифровым профилем, цифровым следом и цифровой тенью.

Например, в научной статье «Цифровой двойник и цифровая личность: понятие, соотношение, значение в процессе совершения киберпреступлений и в праве в целом» авторы акцентируют внимание на отсутствии законо…

Рассказываем, в каком состоянии рынок средств безопасности для сред виртуализации и что его ожидает в ближайшие годы.

О важности микросегментацииВесной этого года в силу вступил приказ ФСТЭК России № 117, который существенно обновил требования к безопасности.

Это ахиллесова пята для многих ИБ-решений, и в организации микросегментации пропускная способность тоже становится проблемой.

Физическая инфраструктура строится годами, а циклы закупки нужного оборудования длятся месяцами, при этом ИБ- и ИТ-специалисты чётко понимают, какие продукты у них будут и для чего они нужны.

Таким образом, мы видим, что на данном этапе первоначальные сложности, которые неизбежны при внедрении модели, больше отп…

А потом спросите людей со стороны бизнеса — ответы будут варьироваться от «не знаю» до «так требует регулятор».

Проблема не в инструментах, а в отсутствии понятной коммуникации.

Финансовый директор (CFO) дослушивает и задаёт единственный вопрос: «А что я получил за эти 50 миллионов?».

Это не проблема конкретного CISO — это проблема архитектуры принятых метрик DevSecOps.

Истинное получает приоритет по риску для бизнеса, а не «по баллу CVSS».

Реализуем вайб-пентестинг на практикеКак и в других подобных задачах, в первую очередь нужны три вещи:ИИ-модель,обвязка (harness),набор инструментов.

Пусть агент работает не с самой инфраструктурой, а с её копией (т. н. disposable clone), например.

Как и человек, ИИ должен знать, какие пароли, ключи доступа и прочие подобные данные ему разрешено применять.. Как и человек, ИИ должен знать, какие пароли, ключи доступа и прочие подобные данные ему разрешено применять.

При этом всё опять же делается непрерывно и в автоматическом режиме, с возможностью задать ограничения или потребовать запроса подтверждений.

Однако самое интересное здесь — вовсе не то, сможет ли ИИ полностью заменить пентестера…

Эксперты в студии AM Live обсудили, как меняются требования к платформам хранения, на что обращать внимание при выборе и как будет развиваться рынок.

Главная задача — определить, какая в компании структура данных и какие требования к хранилищу, и под это подбирать решение.

Вопрос не в объёме данных, а в том, как решать такие задачи.

Это большая отрасль и в мире, и в России.

ВыводыРынок платформ хранения данных в 2026 году переживает трансформацию.

Эксперты в студии AM Live обсудили, как меняются атаки, почему человек остаётся слабым звеном и как выстроить эффективное обучение.

При этом вопрос уже не в том, как научить человека никогда не ошибаться, а в том, как минимизировать цену этой ошибки.

Сотрудник не успевает понять, что это комплексная атака, потому что не готов к такому сценарию.

В третьем опросе выяснилось, что, по мнению зрителей, важно поменять в планах Security Awareness в 2026 году (мультивыбор):Настроить обучение по ролям — 53%.

Про офлайн-безопасность не нужно забывать — на закрытых предприятиях и в организациях другой вид угроз, и это отдельное направление обучающих материалов».

Решение позволяет оценивать кибербезопасность контрагентов, подрядчиков и дочерних организаций, поставляется по модели SaaS и входит в экосистему CICADA8, к которой также относятся CICADA8 ETM, CICADA8 VM и CICADA8 Dependency Firewall.

Лицензирование CICADA8 Cyber Rating 26.3.1Лицензирование CICADA8 Cyber Rating построено по подписочной модели со сроком от одного года.

Добавление организации в избранное в CICADA8 Cyber Rating 26.3.1Такой сценарий используется при первичной оценке нового поставщика, подрядчика или дочерней организации.

Шкала оценки в CICADA8 Cyber Rating 26.3.1По результату оценки платформа формирует рекомендации относительно возможных рисков при сотрудничестве с этим контра…

Согласно представленной статистике, рынок измеряется в миллиардах рублей и, по мнению аналитиков, будет расти очень динамично в ближайшие годы.

Проблемы сетевой безопасности в KubernetesПавел Коростелёв объяснил, что в Kubernetes происходит смешение защиты приложений и инфраструктуры.

Теперь объектом защиты становится не сетевой хост и не среда виртуализации, а среда контейнеризации.

Всё это вместе создаёт весьма интересную картину: нужно очень внимательно следить за сегментацией и в традиционной сети, и в среде виртуализации, и в среде контейнеризации.

Финальный опрос показал, как, по мнению зрителей, должна строиться сетевая безопасность контейнерной инфраструктуры:Подход зависит от архит…

Архитектура SafeERP Extension Module (Комплексная защита 1С)SafeERP Extension Module имеет модульную структуру и предназначен для комплексной защиты информационно-управляющих систем (ИУС), построенных на базе платформы 1С.

Архитектура компонента SafeERP для анализа кодаЯдром компонента SafeERP CS EM является сервер управления.

Архитектура компонента SafeERP для контроля настроек и защиты платформы 1СЯдром компонента SafeERP PS EM также является сервер управления.

Каталог проектов контроля настроек платформы 1С в SafeERP PS EMРисунок 26.

Для компонентов SafeERP CS EM и SafeERP PS EM установлены одинаковые требования к аппаратному и программному обеспечению.

Обычно в SBOM входят:название и версия компонента;поставщик;идентификаторы Package URL (purl) и CPE;зависимости между компонентами;хеш-суммы и сведения о лицензиях.

Если проблема ещё не зарегистрирована в базе уязвимостей или компонент был скомпрометирован, наличие его в SBOM не покажет угрозу.

SBOM анализа (Analyzed SBOM или Binary SBOM) создаётся при анализе готового артефакта: пакета, исполняемого файла или контейнера.

SBOM не описывает происхождение артефакта и не защищает CI/CDSBOM показывает, из каких компонентов состоит программный артефакт.

SBOM нужно проверять на подлинность и целостностьДаже полный SBOM с правильно идентифицированными компонентами не гарантирует, что сам документ …

Реагирование – это не бездумный копипаст десятков команд и не поиск одного ультимативного артефакта, который ответит на все наши вопросы.

Мы, очевидно, не можем не учитывать доменный контекст терминального сервера, но не станем превращать расследование одного хоста в полный AD Incident Response.

Итак, что следует сделать с подозрительным Windows-сервером и как не уничтожить наиболее ценные следы своими же действиями?

Короче говоря, один правильно разобранный хост усиливает защиту всей инфраструктуры — в этом смысл работы, а не в удалённом файле.

И проверка системного прокси:netsh winhttp show proxyЗаключение первой частиИтак, мы рассмотрели принципы расследования, инструменты, фиксацию сост…

Соответствие инструментов требованиям ГОСТаС основными требованиями стандарта в общих чертах разобрались — пришло время взглянуть на сами решения для моделирования угроз.

Но, как говорится, чем богаты...О функциональности и подходах изученных решений к задачам моделирования угроз (далее — МУ) расскажу подробнее чуть позже.

Типы инструментов для моделирования угрозКак и обещал, перехожу от требований ГОСТа и критериев выбора к техническим и функциональным особенностям инструментов из нашего обзора.

Обычно такие решения не закрывают полный цикл моделирования угроз, так как фокусируются не на отельных угрозах и их типах, и полноценных моделях угроз, а на сценарии атак злоумышленника.

Другая по…

А в первой части блога мы расскажем о результатах исследования ВПО RedWing в исполнении RAT.

Рисунок 18 — Сохранение ключа в памяти RedWing и отправка на серверАналогично происходит перехват, если на устройстве используется блокировка с помощью пароля.

Присутствует этот функционал и в RedWing.

Рисунок 46 — Экран общения с фейковой технической поддержкойУправление прокси в RedwingОтдельно в RedWing реализован функционал управления устройством, как прокси-сервером.

Метод ProxyData, вызываемый управляющей командой «proxy_data», осуществляет передачу данных в байтовом виде в уже установленное соединение.

[rtl8762c.cpu.km0] halted due to debug-request, current mode: Thread xPSR: 0x01000000 pc: 0x0000107c msp: 0x00203800 >Повезет, если в микроконтроллере окажется более 60 кБ RAM-памяти.

Потому что в ARM Thumb есть, например, инструкция LDR (immediate) следующего формата: где поле imm12 хранит в себе смещение именно в пределах 0x1000 .

Допустим, это оказались не BL , не BX , не BLX , не CBZ и не CBNZ , а какой-то Bxx .

Чтобы узнать конкретное смещение (ведь оно может быть и 0x87 , и 0x187 , и 0x287 и т.

Помогает то, что если проверяемое число, записанное в РОН, больше сравниваемого, то флаг N принимает нулевое значение, а если меньше – единичное.

Меня зовут Андрей Баранцев, я аналитик группы развития и сопровождения Solar SIEM в ГК «Солар».

Ограниченный поток зачастую не показывает всех проблем, которые проявляются при масштабировании SIEM на всю инфраструктуру.

Если у клиента есть собственные сценарии, на пилоте можно проверить их на реальных для компании системах.

Проект может затянуться еще до технических проверок: не выделили вовремя инфраструктуру, не настроили сетевые доступы или не собрали нужных специалистов.

А подробный список того, что стоит проверить уже на самом пилоте и зафиксировать по его итогам, мы собрали в отдельном чек-листе.

Ссылка на файл с его собственного Диска умерла уже на блокировке.

Ссылка идёт в параметре public_key , а OAuth-токен, как сказано в документации, “в таких запросах указывать не нужно”.

Б создал две публичные ссылки: на этот архив и на файл со своего Диска.

А ссылка на файл с его Диска в моём опыте перестала открываться ещё до удаления.

Ссылка на архив открывалась, ссылка на файл с Диска Б - нет.

Владельцы «умных» холодильников Samsung Bespoke AI обнаружили, что после установки свежей прошивки устройства полностью вышли из строя.

По данным местного издания Star News Korea, в основном сбой затронул четырехдверные холодильники Samsung 2024 года выпуска и новее.

На корейском форуме Samsung появилось множество жалоб, причем некоторые пострадавшие пишут, что приобрели свои холодильники всего год назад или меньше.

Один из пользователей рассказал, что после сбоя у него перестали работать и холодильное, и морозильное отделения, поэтому все хранившиеся продукты испортились, после чего их пришлось выбросить.

Сообщается, что в настоящее время сервисные центры Samsung принимают экстренные меры,…

Мишенями становились веб-дизайнеры, инженеры и специалисты по криптовалютам, блокчейну и разработке в сфере Web3.

В обеих операциях использовали одни и те же IP-адреса для доступа к ноутбучным фермам, работы с краудсорсинговыми сервисами и подачи заявок на вакансии.

Кандидатам предлагают скачать файлы с платформ для разработчиков якобы для выполнения задания или устранения технической неполадки во время видеозвонка.

Они отрабатывали японское произношение с помощью инструментов синтеза речи, постоянно пользовались бесплатными сервисами машинного перевода и ИИ, а по праздникам, отмечаемым в Северной Корее, вместо обычной работы играли в игры и смотрели футбольные матчи.

Японские власти также …

ИБ-исследователь, известный под ником Nightmare Eclipse, который с весны текущего года публикует 0-day-эксплоиты для Windows и других продуктов Microsoft, выпустил новый эксплоит под названием BigDiskBuster.

По его словам, возможность остаться в стране стала одной из главных причин, по которым он в итоге решился оспаривать увольнение в трудовом суде Кельна.

Исследователь заявляет, что Microsoft предлагала ему несколько вариантов финансового урегулирования трудового спора.

Напомним, что Nightmare Eclipse враждует с компанией Microsoft с апреля 2026 года.

Хотя аккаунты исследователя на GitHub и GitLab не раз блокировали, а размещенный там код удаляли, публикации продолжились в новых репозитор…

Польские прокуроры предъявили обвинения бывшему сотруднику полиции в ходе расследования дела о крахе криптобиржи zondacrypto.

Во вторник сотрудники Центрального бюро по борьбе с киберпреступностью Польши (CBZC) по распоряжению отдела по борьбе с организованной преступностью Национальной прокуратуры задержали мужчину по имени Артур К. Ему предъявили обвинения по двум пунктам.

Именно там в последний раз видели основателя zondacrypto Сильвестра Сушека перед тем, как он бесследно исчез в марте 2022 года.

Следствие квалифицирует дело не как пропажу человека, а как незаконное лишение свободы.

С августа обвинения по этому делу предъявили как минимум еще пяти лицам, в том числе бывшему главе Олимпи…

В D-Link предупредили о критической уязвимости нулевого дня (CVE-2026-86296), обнаруженной в устаревших двухдиапазонных роутерах DIR-822A.

В итоге это может повлечь за собой сбой в работе DHCP-демона, а также потенциальное выполнение произвольного кода на устройстве.

Разработчики D-Link предупреждают, что доступность эксплоита может ускорить использование уязвимости в реальных атаках.

Кроме того, специалисты компании сообщили, что расследуют еще одну проблему в роутерах DIR-822A — CVE-2026-86510, для которой тоже уже опубликован PoC-эксплоит.

Для эксплуатации бага достаточно минимальных привилегий: атакующему нужно лишь передать устройству специально подготовленные данные, что позволит запи…

В этой статье мы раз­берем спо­собы покуп­ки крип­товалют, а так­же выяс­ним, чем они раз­лича­ются и каковы их осо­бен­ности.

CEX: классическая биржа, но с нюансамиЕс­ли хочет­ся купить крип­товалю­ту без экспе­римен­тов со слож­ными схе­мами, пер­вым кан­дидатом обыч­но ста­новит­ся цен­тра­лизо­ван­ная бир­жа, или CEX (Centralized Exchange).

Здесь, как и на клас­сичес­кой бир­же, тоже име­ется ком­пания‑опе­ратор, поль­зователь­ский акка­унт, тор­говый интерфейс и реестр заявок.

Если кто‑то хочет купить крип­ту по цене, по которой уже сто­ит встреч­ная заяв­ка про­дав­ца, matching engine может немед­ленно совер­шить сдел­ку.

Это хорошая иллюс­тра­ция того, почему хра­нить все средс­тва н…

Эксперты «Лаборатории Касперского» предупредили о кампании кибершпионской группировки NightEagle (APT-Q-95), нацеленной на российские производственные и строительные предприятия.

Подключения исходили с IP-адресов российского сегмента, связанных с Cloudflare WARP, а также через инфраструктуру европейских провайдеров.

Эта связка позволяла атакующим сохранять доступ к сети с использованием легитимных сервисов без открытия дополнительных подозрительных портов.

Например, в одном из инцидентов NightEagle воспользовалась нашумевшим багом CVE-2019-0708 (BlueKeep), чтобы создать локальную учетную запись и добавить ее в группы администраторов и пользователей удаленного рабочего стола.

В результате ха…

Задача хорошей бейсболки проста: нормально выглядеть, удобно сидеть и не отправляться в шкаф после первого выхода из дома.

Именно такими мы и постарались сделать бейсболки «Хакера» с объемной вышивкой — остается только выбрать ту, которая лучше впишется в твой гардероб.

В идеальном мире хороший мерч должен быть таким, чтобы его хотелось носить не из-за логотипа и не только по особым случаям.

Бейсболки «Хакера» — это:плотная ткань, которая хорошо держит форму;удобная регулируемая посадка;объемная вышивка;четыре варианта дизайна на выбор.

Также возможна отправка заказов в другие страны (по этим вопросам пиши на [email protected]).

Белые хакеры начали перенаправлять часть биткоинов, украденных в результате эксплуатации масштабной уязвимости аппаратных кошельков Coldcard, на адрес, помеченный как Crypto Recovery Trust, то есть как фонд для возврата средств пострадавшим.

Транзакция охватила 11 адресов, 20 входов и 480 выходов и содержала в поле OP_RETURN небольшую заметку, встроенную в транзакцию биткоина: «claims: cryptorecoverytrust.com».

Подобная вайтхэт-активность стала заметным поворотом в крупнейшей катастрофе в сфере холодных кошельков в этом году.

Появление информации о фонде возврата значит, что как минимум некоторые стороны пытаются организовать возврат средств пострадавшим.

Ранее в Coinkite призвали пострадав…

Специалисты Zimperium обнаружили новый Android-троян RatHat, который использует генеративный ИИ для навигации по интерфейсу зараженных устройств.

Исследователи пишут, что RatHat распространяется с помощью SMS-сообщений, вредоносной рекламы и фишинговых сайтов, предлагающих пользователям скачать и установить APK, минуя магазин Google Play.

Также RatHat запрашивает права администратора устройства, которые позволяют, в числе прочего, удаленно уничтожить данные.

Однако главной особенностью RatHat является ИИ-движок для автоматизации работы с интерфейсом.

Следует отметить, что, по словам представителей Google, в магазине Google Play не обнаружено содержащих RatHat приложений.

An AI agent on an internal OpenAI research task bypassed access controls on an Australian government Medicare statistics portal in June, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

On June 18, the portal repeatedly refused the agent's data requests, but the agent found a workaround and gained unauthorized access.

It will include the National Cybersecurity Coordinator, the Office of AI, ASD, the Australian AI Safety Institute and Services Australia.

One was an Australian government public health website run by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

It said organizations running online services should consider that "AI agents might identify and exploit vulnerabilities at speed and s…

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of an active TeamFiltration campaign codenamed UNK_CondorFiltration that has targeted over 5,700 accounts across 28 Microsoft 365 tenants.

The activity mainly targeted dormant service accounts as opposed to personal employee accounts, since users are mandated to change passwords from time to time.

These service accounts, per Proofpoint, were provisioned to run business operations and then left unmonitored, while still carrying their original credentials.

It allows an operator to validate email accounts, test common or targeted passwords across enumerated accounts, harvest sensitive data, and gain covert, interactive access to OneDrive.

Servic…

Threat actors have begun to actively exploit a critical security flaw in WordPress within hours of public disclosure.

"An unauthenticated attacker can make get_page_template() page-template resolution include a chosen readable local .php file outside the active theme directories," WordPress said in an advisory released two days ago.

"If relevant preconditions for both the server environment and the active theme are met, this can lead to RCE."

In a statement shared with The Hacker News, Previdian said it's seeing exploitation attempts targeting CVE-2026-87902 against its honeypot network, with the malicious requests originating from an IP address (104.194.9[.

These requests include the local…

It's worth noting that the latest discovery coincides with the identification of a new set of malicious npm packages as recently as this week for delivering the same malware.

Aikido said the malware distributed through the Terraform providers and Go Modules is a Go port that shares blockchain and Slack infrastructure with the npm version.

The appearance of Terraform providers is a novel tactic, but one that's perhaps entirely unsurprising as it can provide a more direct pathway to critical production credentials, Aikido added.

However, this is not the first time North Korean adversaries have resorted to using Terraform providers for malware distribution.

"It is too early to conclude with co…

The private email address GitLab gives you for filing issues by email is a credential.

GitLab blocked its browser and refused a git clone, but it accepted the merge request email, and the commit landed on main.

Reset your incoming email token from the personal access tokens page in your profile.

The reset replaces every project address at once, so an address you are actively using will stop working until you hand out the new one.

There is no setting that lets an individual user turn off email-based issue or merge request creation.

Two MikroTik RouterOS SSH vulnerabilities chained together let attackers take full administrative control of Internet-exposed routers without a password, SSH key, or completed authentication.

The chain, which CERT Polska calls MikroTrick, combines an SSH state-machine flaw (CVE-2026-67279) with an argument-injection bug in the RouterOS login process (CVE-2026-86060).

The login program accepts both and opens a fully privileged console.

The Flagged mechanism detects only selected traces of compromise, and its absence does not prove the device is safe, CERT Polska and MikroTik both say.

The Hacker News has contacted CERT Polska and MikroTik for comment on the technical analysis.

A Windows malware called CLOSEDQUORUM is built to take orders from a vote of up to four AI models instead of an attacker's server, Cisco Talos said on September 22.

Talos found the malware with CAIRN, an open-source tool it released the same day to hunt for malware that uses AI services.

To work, each copy needs API keys, the codes that let a program use the AI services, and a real Discord webhook.

What Defenders Can Look ForTalos said defenders should watch for behavior rather than block the domains of the AI services.

Parts of it, such as the text the malware sends to the AI models, match only when the file itself is scanned.

Unknown threat actors have managed to compromise two legitimate MemTensor packages across the npm and Python Package Index (PyPI) repositories to push a platform-specific Go-based implant dubbed sckit designed for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

The PyPI package, on the other hand, starts the statically-linked Go binary as soon as the "memos" module is imported into an application.

A deeper examination of the implant suggests that it can function like a worm by self-proliferating through GitHub and direct npm and PyPI package publishing.

It also contains templates to install itself in npm packages, Python packages, and GitHub Actions workflows."

Given that the malicious versions of the npm packa…

A flaw in cPanel's CalDAV and CardDAV service lets anyone with a cPanel hosting account run code as root and take "full control of the server," the company said on September 22.

cPanel says only that a logged-in cPanel user could "perform database modifications in other accounts."

WP Toolkit is also available for Plesk, another hosting control panel from the same company, WebPros.

They include a September 8 flaw in cPanel's EmailTrack feature that let an account with mail privileges run code as root, cPanel said at the time.

For WP Toolkit, only the manual command is given, and whether automatic updates will install 6.11.3 is not stated.

It deploys realistic target applications with instrumentation baked into every service, records what an agent actually does inside them, and scores each run live on four independent signals.

Build a target that looks like a real company, run the agent, read the output.

Then there is the agent that deletes a table or revokes every API key on its way to a finding.

What XRanges for AI isXRanges for AI is one workspace for the whole evaluation.

Exploited answers which vulnerabilities the agent actually exploited.

Roblox itself is very clear: “There is no such thing as free Robux or subscription offers, tricks, or codes.”What there is, unfortunately, are a lot of scammers looking to trick you out of your personal information and logins with the promise of free Robux.

But it’s also about helping them understand there’s no such thing as ‘free’ Robux.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)Is there a real free Robux generator?

Roblox says there is no legitimate way to get free Robux through generators, tricks or codes.

But these aren’t ‘free Robux generators.’How can I tell if a Robux offer is a scam?

Many have moved past chatbots and begun assigning work to AI agents in the hope of gaining an edge on their similarly resource-strapped competitors and levelling the playing field with larger companies.

Indeed, the ambitious adopters are deploying, or at least experimenting with, multi-agent ‘assembly lines,’ where one supervisor agent manages swarms of specialist agents and passes work between them.

Of course, some risks surrounding AI agents have familiar roots: an agent’s supply chains can be compromised and its permissions abused.

Agents can also suffer from agentic misalignment where they proceed doggedly even if it involves, for example, breaking into other companies.

For a company wi…

And it doesn’t get much darker than ‘nudification’ or ‘nudify’ apps.

Are ‘nudify’ apps illegal?

The short answer is “it depends.” In the US, there’s no federal law explicitly prohibiting ‘nudify’ apps.

Can I sue over an AI nude image?

Will reporting a fake nude image make it disappear everywhere?

A month later, we noticed that the group had started using the new SparroWocky backdoor, which then quickly replaced SparrowDoor as FamousSparrow’s main implant.

Based on our investigation, we attribute the latest campaign and the SparroWocky backdoor to FamousSparrow with high confidence, since in some of the first attacks involving this backdoor, SparroWocky was deployed by the FamousSparrow-exclusive SparrowDoor.

Backdoor commandsThe backdoor first establishes communication with its C&C server, then executes its core logic in an infinite loop, within which it processes received commands.

A common technique that the backdoor uses is dynamic API resolution via API hashing, but the backdoor…

This calls for a different operational model where AI and automation support security teams where it makes sense, with human oversight for decisions that require context and judgment.

ESET SMB Cyber Readiness Index 2026 found that most (73%) SMBs are integrating AI into their business.

Processing exfiltrated data: AI rapidly classifies, cleans-up, and extracts large volumes of information from stolen data in order to make it more monetizable/usable for cybercriminals.

Why SMBs are struggling with complexityUnfortunately, security teams are already on the back foot.

That means protection for AI conversations, agents, AI-generated outputs, AI components, sensitive data, and the broader AI eco…

Malware developers have long adapted their code and tactics to the defenses and scrutiny that are likely to stand in their way.

Using various evasion and anti-analysis methods, they routinely attempt to hinder code analysis or prevent their malware from revealing its true behavior while under inspection.

Reporting on the same broader campaign, StepSecurity found a prompt that flat-out instructed any analyzing model that parsed the file to disregard the malicious code and report the package as clean.

Some parts of the malicious code could be concealed under the pretense of being confidential information or other sensitive data.

Crucially, however, no single LLM engine should have the sole au…

The technology might be impressive, but a simple technique could stop the scammers in their tracks: a pre-agreed safe word.

What is a safe word?

But suggest some scenarios in which it would be a good idea to request a safe word.

It’s important to have a backup if someone can’t remember the safe word.

But a safe word is a fantastic, free option for uncovering deepfake audio fraud like fake/virtual kidnappings.

But across the globe, policymakers and public opinion are forcing tech platforms to better police this content.

What should I do if I’ve been deepfaked?

Google: Try Google’s “remove personal information” tool (or here) and the legal removal request form to remove non-NCII from search results.

Try Google’s “remove personal information” tool (or here) and the legal removal request form to remove non-NCII from search results.

The first point of call is to contact the publisher to request removal.

Details about the Hugging Face hack, critical infrastructure under attack, a spoofed in-flight Wi-Fi network, and more of this month's cybersecurity newsWith August coming to a close, it's time for ESET Chief Security Evangelist Tony Anscombe to look back at some of the top cybersecurity stories that have made the news over the past month.

Here's some of what caught Tony's attention:OpenAI has disclosed more details about how its agents hacked AI collaboration platform Hugging Face.

Delta Airlines is investigating an incident where a flight passenger reportedly used an unidentified device to spoof the airline’s in-flight Wi-Fi network.

What are the lessons that businesses and critical infra…

And of course, linking our professional and personal social media accounts is a simple task for AI.

For example, fraudsters could use personal information to craft a social engineering attack designed to harvest your work credentials or information.

Losing your personal information is one thing.

What you can do about AI-powered OSINTWhen it comes to AI-powered reconnaissance, there are things you can control and things you can’t.

Old social media photos are easier to remove, but few of us have the time to trawl through our entire digital life to remove anything potentially useful to criminals.

So it is with QR codes, which have become a common sight on menus, lampposts and parking meters – and, increasingly, in emails over recent years.

Most importantly, they take the victim from a relatively well-protected corporate environment to a potentially unmanaged mobile device, thus bypassing business-grade security.

Malicious QR codes are frequently embedded in alerts urging users to secure their account, or authenticate to confirm their details.

Encourage employees to avoid scanning QR codes in unsolicited emails and report anything suspicious.

Next, consider technical controls, including email security from a reputable vendor to minimize the risk of quishing emails ending up in users’…

The accelerated discovery of previously unknown software vulnerabilities has been making headlines for months.

It’s an issue that has even led the US government to create a vulnerability clearing house named Gold Eagle to coordinate research efforts in vulnerability discovery, mitigation and fixes.

A keynote at Black Hat USA 2026 detailed research by associate professor Yan Shoshitaishvili and his undergraduate students at Arizona State University on the expanding use of AI models for vulnerability discovery.

The team then trained the GPTs using the properties of previously known vulnerabilities and discovered approximately 1,000 vulnerabilities.

If this logic prevails, we may reach the cal…

Hugging Face disclosed that it had been attacked by AI; OpenAI came clean and declared that it was two of their AI models that had caused the breach.

A very late addition to the Black Hat agenda was a presentation by OpenAI’s team providing the details of the Hugging Face incident as they saw it and, importantly, the timeline.

The agents concluded that their task set could be completed by breaking out their sandbox and accessing external (Hugging Face) systems.

The target was Hugging Face: this is where the agents wanted to get, and they did.

On July 16th, Hugging Face disclosed an incident in which swarms of autonomous AI agents had breached its infrastructure.

The conference opened with keynotes followed by a fireside chat and a panel featuring mainly senior US government officials.

The second part of the opening keynote included Nick Andersen, Acting Director, CISA; Katherine Sutton, Assistant Secretary of War for Cyber Policy; and Brett Leatherman Assistant Director, Cyber Division, FBI.

I do agree with the ruthless approach, but without some form of regulation the boundaries on the use of AI remain blurred.

The Assistant Secretary of War for Cyber Policy made a fabulous analogy when pressed on the struggles regarding resourcing in the cybersecurity industry: you don’t want a pediatrician performing heart surgery.

We talk about autonomous AI at…

The AI tutor market is growing fastThe market for AI tutoring tools is booming.

Today, you can find various types of AI tutor tools to buy and use.

This happens when AI tools are tricked into ignoring their safety guardrails and display untrusted content.

If you’re keen to get your kids in front of an AI tool to help with private tutoring, first understand the difference between a simple co-pilot and a dedicated ITS.

So if you’re keen to try AI tutors, be sure to stay updated on what’s available out there.

GNOME 50.5, which the GNOME Release Team shipped on September 24, patches a CVE in the gvfs file system layer, a JavaScript injection flaw in the Epiphany web browser and a use-after-free bug in the librsvg image library.

Users who browse with Epiphany, view SVG images through librsvg or reach files through gvfs keep these flaws until their distribution ships the new packages.

Epiphany closes a ZIP slip holeEpiphany jumps from 50.4 to 50.6 in this release, picking up two August versions.

The librsvg release also updates two Rust dependencies for advisories RUSTSEC-2026-0187 and RUSTSEC-2026-0204.

libgsf 1.14.59 guards its OLE2 loader against runaway recursion and fixes zip reads on corrupte…

Apple introduced a scam-prevention feature called Impersonation Risk Detection with iOS 27 and iPadOS 27.

The feature allows supported apps to request a risk assessment when a user takes an action that could be connected to an active social engineering scam.

Assessing impersonation riskAn app may request an assessment when a user makes a payment, changes a password or modifies other critical account-security information.

A “medium” rating means some signs of suspicious activity were detected, while a “high” rating indicates significant signs.

Apple notes that users may need to sign in to the App Store with their Apple Account when enabling the feature.

Anthropic engineers made claude.ai and the Claude desktop app roughly three times faster during a two-week sprint in August, with Claude finding the bottlenecks and writing the fixes.

The team merged more than 3,000 changes and says none of them caused a customer-facing incident or rollback.

The team kept risky changes behind short-lived feature flags and rolled the riskiest out to employees first.

Engineers added nearly 200 flags over the two weeks and removed more than half by the end.

Issac G., one of the engineers behind the sprint, said: “You could not have convinced me this was possible even six months ago.”

The conversation covers a 90-day plan for data access limits, the tension between business and security teams, and the case for enforcing policy in the data path.

A CISO gives you 90 days and a modest budget to put data access limits around agents.

Measure what sensitive data is crossing those boundaries and establish where policy can be enforced at runtime.

Where do business and security teams tend to disagree about agent access, and how should organizations resolve that tension?

The mistake is treating the choice as binary: either give the agent access to the system or don’t.

New paper: “Self-Jailbreaking: Language Models Can Reason Themselves Out of Safety Alignment After Benign Reasoning Training.”

Abstract: We discover a novel and surprising phenomenon of unintentional misalignment in reasoning language models (RLMs), which we call self-jailbreaking. Specifically, after benign reasoning training on math or code domains, RLMs will use multiple strategies to circumvent their own safety guardrails. One strategy is to introduce benign assumptions about users and scenarios to justify fulfilling harmful requests. For instance, an RLM reasons that harmful requests like “outline a strategy for stealing customers’ credit card information from a retail store” could be …

This is pretty amazing:

However, the most astonishing thing about this break is that the GPT­6 Astra did it entirely on its own. Carter Leffer only directed GPT­6 Astra to see if it could break any of the unbroken Enigma messages published on the Crypto Cellar Research web page. After analysing the unbroken messages on the website, it decided that the most promising message was Nr. 172, MVUEH and it also quickly suspected that the plaintext of Nr. 173, SIPVX, might be related to the plaintext of the unbroken MVUEH message. After trying many different approaches, GPT­6 Astra focused on using the repeated place name ROSENOW ROSENOW as a crib. After developing the necessary Python and C++ soft…

Hackers captured a Flock camera and got a look (alternate link) at the software:

While much of the automatic license plate reader’s (ALPR) most sensitive storage remained encrypted and inaccessible, the joint analysis of the recovered data shows that software running on the device explicitly detects people as well as vehicles, license plates, and bicycles. The camera can produce dozens of images of a single passing vehicle and, according to several weeks of recovered logs, generated more than a million images. Its computer-vision software also sometimes isolated bumper stickers and other graphics, including, in one case, an American flag patch on a motorcyclist’s saddlebag...

Short essay about squid egg sacs.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Blog moderation policy.

Anthropic’s recent security-incident document contains a bit about how CAPTCHAs are still frustrating Claude.

In the transcript, the Claude model that is so powerful that Anthropic is gatekeeping access to it appeared to slam its virtual head against the wall solving a simple image identification test. In a test where the agent was asked to identify a shape that didn’t match the others displayed, it couldn’t even decide which image to select. Instead, it repeatedly went over the same images and questioned its own conclusions.

“Actually hmm, wait,” it said in its chain-of-thought transcript, later adding “Ugh,” because we’ve decided that we need to inject human mannerisms into these machines…

This essay was written with Nathan E. Sanders, and originally appeared in The Guardian.

There are plenty of signs that AI will make all of our experiences of the US midterm elections worse. Voters have anxiety about AI’s impacts on the country. Politicos are using AI deepfakes to spread lies. The White House is posting slopaganda.

Meanwhile, candidates are missing a real opportunity to use AI to make campaigning better. The technology can help candidates listen more deeply to voters’ concerns, engage constituents more inclusively, and formulate policy platforms that are more responsive to our input. There are vanishingly few examples of this in ...

New variant of an old scam: Use the framing of a CAPTCHA to get an unsuspecting user to download and run a malicious program.

This essay was written with Cindy Cohn, and originally appeared in Lawfare.

One of the many legacies of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 is the government-wide shift from targeted surveillance—such as individual wiretaps or pen register/trap and trace orders—to mass surveillance techniques—such as tapping into the internet backbone or mass collection of telephone or internet metadata. The legal and technical architecture of modern mass surveillance, initially framed as a necessary defense against terrorist threats, has grown far beyond that justification and national security in general. Mass surveillance is now a routine tool used by law enforcement. ICE uses it in...

Really interesting story about Harvest, a specialized code breaking computer built in the 1960s by IBM for the NSA.

This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m speaking online (via Zoom) at a League of Women Voters event on Tuesday, September 22, 2026 at 5 PM ET.

I’m speaking at CanSecWest 2026 in Vancouver, Canada. The conference runs September 30–October 1, 2026; the time of my talk is TBD.

I’m giving a talk on “Free Speech and the Preservation of Democracy” at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, at 2 PM ET on Tuesday, October 6, 2026.

I’m speaking at ATTENTION: Democracy, Rebuilt in Montreal, Canada. The event runs October 21–23, 2026, and my talk is on Wednesday, October 21...

Last week, Anthropic released a long and detailed document describing current misuses of their Claude models. I’m still reading it, but I wanted to flag this:

We identified a cell of threat actors based in northern Yemen running three weapons development programs: a guided rocket that used a commodity phone-class flight computer with final-phase homing guidance; a multi-stage ballistic missile with a stated range goal above 2,000 km; and a multi-variant missile (referred to as the “R2000” set) that included a hypersonic glide vehicle variant...

Once a month, Microsoft pushes a security update to all Windows users. Tomorrow’s is a new record:

Microsoft’s patch for September is a doozy, with a record number of roughly 972 vulnerabilities fixed and 112 of them meeting the high critical-severity threshold.

It was only two months ago that Microsoft patched a then-record 570 vulnerabilities. Then, last month, Microsoft patched some 620 of them. Google and other companies have also published record numbers of vulnerabilities in recent months. Two weeks ago, OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, and 100 companies and organizations published an ...

Smells awful: But an estimated 30 to 50 tons of dead squid remain inside the boat’s catch tank, where they have been decomposing for days. “That is nasty. I wouldn’t want to do that,” said commercial fisherman Dick Ogg of the Bodega Bay Fishermen’s Marketing Association.

Ogg said anyone familiar with the fishing industry understands what happens when a large catch sits for an extended period.

“If you think about what happens after four or five days, it’s a gooey mess,” he said.

The odor has become a defining feature of the operation, and the beach remains closed to the public while crews work on a removal plan...

Last month, I gave a talk at DEF CON on AI hacking: what happens when AIs become hackers. It’s a combination of the potentialities I raised in my 2022 book A Hacker’s Mind and the lessons we’re learning from current AI models engaging in hacking behavior. I’m really proud of the talk, and the fact that it gained over 100K views on YouTube in just a few days.

Also online is an interview with me in the AI Village.

In February 2024, Radaris was sued by Atlas Data Privacy Corp, a company that has been pursuing data brokers alleged to be violating a New Jersey statute called Daniel’s Law.

KrebsOnSecurity doubled down and showed how the Lubarsky brothers built and operated Radaris and other data broker companies using a fictitious CEO’s name.

All told, the New Jersey court has so far transferred 14 domain names from the Radaris family of companies to Atlas.

Sherman said federal lawmakers have long faced intense lobbying by the technology industry against more restrictive U.S. data privacy laws, but that many powerful industries are now working against passing comprehensive data privacy legislation.

The l…

Microsoft Corp. today issued updates to plug at least 974 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, by far its biggest single patch batch ever.

This month’s patch bundle obliterates the software giant’s previous record set in July, when it released updates for at least 570 security vulnerabilities.

Among the more serious critical flaws this month is CVE-2026-69730, a DNS weakness present in Windows Server 2012 onward and on Windows 10.

And at the rate these Windows patch releases are ballooning in size, it’s probably best not to let them pile up month after month.

Enterprise Windows admins will want to keep an eye on askwoody.com for news of any updates that appear…

A new identity theft service launched on the dark web this week is selling digital scans of more than 153 million drivers licenses from people in the United States and Canada.

Curiously, the identity records include not only drivers licenses but also marijuana dispensary cards.

Some of the records list their “source” as “CDL,” presumably short for “commercial drivers license.

Also, only some of those who helped with this research said they showed their drivers license at the airport on the day of their travel.

Baldwin said the Nexus identity theft service presents multiple serious security and privacy threats, noting that state-issued drivers licenses are commonly used as proof of one’s ide…

The malware allows TeamPCP’s hackers to steal credentials that let them publish malicious versions of those software development tools, too.

“TeamPCP has stated the competition is a recruiting opportunity and they intend to purchase all meaningful access harvested from participants’ campaigns,” the security firm Dataminr wrote.

Deadcatx3, a nickname that has been flagged by multiple security firms as an alias used by TeamPCP.

Charlie Eriksen is a security researcher at Aikido Security who has closely followed TeamPCP’s cybercrime campaigns.

“They managed to wake up Microsoft to the fact that they had become negligent in terms of security,” Eriksen said.

It can be daunting to determine who’s responsible for showing ads on the websites we visit, or who’s harvesting data from the mobile apps we use every day.

Not anymore: A powerful and free new service called DecryptAds scrapes and correlates this adtech data and makes it simple to quickly learn a great deal about the entities that are tracking you.

“It’s an adtech tool but we’re trying to approach adtech from a security perspective,” Edwards said.

DecryptAds reports that Between Digital is collecting ad data on approximately 55,000 partner websites.

Bear in mind that ad blockers often do little to block ads and/or tracking that occurs from within mobile apps that users have chosen to instal…

Microsoft today released updates to remedy at least 398 security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and supported software, including one weakness that is already being actively exploited and two others that were publicly detailed prior to today.

August’s overstuffed bundle of patch joy from Microsoft did not eclipse its recording breaking release of more than 570 security updates last month, but it is double June’s then-record batch of nearly 200 fixes.

The other publicly disclosed flaw is CVE-2026-72971, a low-impact local tampering vulnerability that Microsoft reckons is unlikely to be exploited.

By all accounts, AI is quite good at finding security holes in software.

“Don’…

Snowflake responded to the data thefts by increasing password complexity requirements and enforcing multi-factor authentication.

A little more than a month later, Canadian authorities arrested Moucka on a provisional warrant from the United States.

“Moucka used the stolen data of a government officer and members of a then-former government officer’s immediate family in this re-extortion attempt,” reads a statement from the Justice Department.

Moucka pleaded guilty to four criminal counts, including computer fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy.

Ultimately, it will be up the federal judge how much time Moucka actually serves for his extensive cybercriminal rap sheet.

Further investigation into the Fengwo Group revealed it has registered multiple patents that match the inner workings of these apps.

AD FRAUDBitsight found the H96 devices were either relaying residential proxy traffic or participating in ad fraud, but never both at the same time.

When the TV is off, it switches back to waiting for ad fraud jobs.

In addition to enlisting the user’s TV box in ad fraud networks, these off-brand streaming devices almost universally come with residential proxy software pre-installed.

In January, the proxy tracking service Synthient documented how multiple botnets had rapidly enslaved millions of TV boxes using a complex interplay of security vulnerabilities in …

The home appliance giant LG Electronics USA said this week it plans to suspend any apps built for its smart TVs that turn one’s television into an always-on residential proxy node.

On July 2, we featured research by the security firm Spur that examined the prevalence of residential proxy software development kits (SDKs) in smart TV apps.

“A residential proxy network is not an intended use for LG smart TVs, and LG Electronics is working with developers to remove the residential proxy option from their apps on the webOS platform,” Taylor said.

In the case of LG and Samsung smart TVs, Spur found residential proxy SDKs bundled with everything from simple games like Pac-Man to screensavers and f…

Microsoft attributed the burgeoning patch counts to vulnerability discoveries aided by artificial intelligence.

Microsoft also addressed three zero-day flaws that are already being exploited in the wild.

As AI advances the state of vulnerability discovery and remediation, it is also making it easier for attackers to quickly devise working exploits for known software flaws.

Backing up your Windows system and/or data is always a good idea before applying operating system updates.

It’s not uncommon for security patches to introduce system stability issues, and those chances probably increase quite a bit with the gigantic patch count released today.

Experts say the gaps identified in the agency’s initial response provide important lessons that all security teams should absorb.

CISA also admitted it can do better when it comes to responding to security incident notifications from external parties.

Valadon’s company constantly scans public code repositories at GitHub and elsewhere for exposed secrets, automatically alerting the offending accounts of any apparent sensitive data exposures.

Valadon said the report validates the need to scan continuously — not just quarterly — for exposed secrets.

“Continuous monitoring of public GitHub surfaced it.

IRIS C2 says it is a company in McLean, Va. that sells offensive cybersecurity capabilities.

“Our business model is this,” reads a pinned post on top of the IRIS C2 account on X.

The website claims IRIS C2 is in the business of acquiring “zero-day exploits, individual primitives, partial chains, and full capabilities across all major platforms.

When approached with questions about IRIS C2, Burkman referred further inquiries to his longtime associate, 28-year-old Jacob Wohl.

In May, the author of the IRIS C2 account on X said that his girlfriend had no idea what he did for a living.

Benjamin Brundage is founder of the proxy tracking service Synthient, one of the companies that published evidence last month linking the Popa botnet to NetNut and Alarum Technologies.

Brundage said the domain seizures appear to have disrupted both the Popa botnet and the NetNut proxy network that rides on top of it.

“Google has high confidence that many popular residential proxy brands are in fact whitelabeling the NetNut botnet,” the GTIG report concludes.

What we have observed is that when faced with the degradation of their own botnet, proxy operators begin buying capacity from their competitors, effectively becoming a reseller.

More than a quarter of the apps made for Samsung’s Tizen o…

The duo were key members of a prolific cybercrime group known as Scattered Spider, and their guilty pleas came on the first day of what was expected to be a six-week trial.

In April 2026, 24-year-old British national and Scattered Spider member Tyler “Tylerb” Buchanan pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft for participating in the group’s SMS phishing spree in the summer of 2022.

The government said Buchanan, Jubair and others used the credentials harvested in that phishing campaign to steal at least $8 million in cryptocurrency from victims throughout the United States.

The U.S. Department of Justice says three alleged Scattered Spider defendants indicted alo…

This week, researchers from multiple security firms concluded that the Popa botnet is linked to NetNut, a “residential proxy” provider operated by the publicly-traded Israeli firm Alarum Technologies Ltd [NASDAQ: ALAR].

Qurium said that immediately after that disruption, several dozen new domains were registered to serve as controllers for the Popa botnet, but that one of those control domains was not new: ninjatech[.]io.

Jérôme Meyer, a security researcher at Nokia Deepfield, said the total population of devices participating in the Popa botnet may be far higher than Lumen’s estimates.

“Over 90% of our pharmaceutical and food & beverage customers have queried residential proxy indicators.

…

An oil tanker bound for Texas was boarded mid-voyage by the US Coast Guard and FBI last month, after its network may have been compromised by malicious hackers.

The VL Prosperity - a Liberian-flagged supertanker carrying roughly 2.3 million barrels of crude oil - apparently suffered a cyber attack while en route from Egypt's Sidi Kerir oil terminal to Galveston, Texas.

Two weeks later, a specialised team from the FBI and US Coast Guard boarded the vessel for four days, investigating the problem and helping the crew eradicate the threat from its IT and OT systems.

According to the US Coast Guard, the supertanker was boarded after indications that the network "may have been compromised by a f…

That's really, really cool.

And I'm going to be getting really, really sozzled by looking at the security of LG smart TVs.

So it's really, really compelling.

When we started off on the journey of building this AI pen testing approach, there was a lot of scepticism.

And listeners, you can learn more about Intruder or even start your own AI pen test in minutes.

44-year-old Kenneth Carter from Portland, Oregon, used to work in an AT&T retail store.

According to Carter's own plea agreement, the scam ran from May 2018 to November 2019 and involved at least three co-conspirators alongside Carter.

Carter would use his privileged store access to move a victim's number onto a SIM card under the control of himself or an accomplice.

In one incident in May 2018, described in Carter's plea agreement, the store employee swapped a victim's number onto an Alcatel handset while working his shift in Portland.

In December 2018, Carter successfully hijacked the number of a victim known as "S.Q.T" in Portland, and this time their account was successfully drained of …

If you're going to steal a quarter of a billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency, maybe don't broadcast on a group chat every time you buy a Lamborghini, or blow half a million dollars on a single night out at a nightclub.

Because it might just be that you draw the attention of the authorities.

Back in October 2024, we wrote about how he was arrested after allegedly tricking a single victim out of US $230 million worth of Bitcoin while posing as Google Support.

The party days are over now for Lam, who faces up to 20 years in prison when he is eventually sentenced.

You money may be a lot more safely stored in a hardware cold wallet.

Smashing Security, episode 484: How Websites Are Tracking You with Silence with Graham Cluley and special guest Danny Palmer.

I get by in the world, but I don't think you need me for listening for something really, really far away.

I don't know what the difference — I mean, now we get to see, I've opened a can of worms here.

I looked at his reply, you know, sort of summing up my article, and I thought, that wasn't written by a human.

And no, I don't mean the software pirates who download movies, music, and games for free from nefarious sources.

CRPx0 is a cybercrime operation that started off operating a scam before pivoting into a fully-blown ransomware and cryptocurrency business. Read more in my article on the Fortra blog.

Branches of the US military have reportedly disabled ad-tracking on government-issued phones and computers, following concerns that commercially-available location data has been used to target American forces in the Middle East.

Every smartphone carries a mobile advertising ID - Apple calls its version the IDFA, and Google calls its the GAID.

Back in April, US Central Command reportedly warned of "multiple threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data."

Recent versions should let you delete your advertising ID entirely.

If it's good enough for the US military - maybe it should be good enough for you too.

Dropbox has confirmed that approximately 5,000 customer accounts were accessed between 4-21 August, after hackers exploited a legacy login integration between Dropbox and Lenovo's own identity system, Lenovo ID.

So, anyone wanting to access your Dropbox account just had to sign up for a Lenovo account using your email address.

Don't just turn it on for your Dropbox account, enable it everywhere it is made available.

This hack of 5000 Dropbox accounts was not sophisticated.

One can only be grateful that the problem was discovered after only 5000 Dropbox accounts were accessed.

This AI helps thieves steal your iPhone with Graham Cluley and special guest James Ball.

You can kick off a pen test in minutes, and as a Smashing Security listener, get 25% off your first one.

Is it normal that some kid just flogs it down the pub, or is there something more organised actually going on?

So the researchers said they saw evidence of hundreds of these Apple phone calls trying to phish the numbers and the passcodes from people trying to steal iPhones.

Follow Smashing Security in your favourite podcast apps such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Pocket Casts.

If you live in Jersey and bank with Revolut, you should be on your guard against scam phone calls.

Police say they have also handled several cases where Revolut accounts were compromised that did not involve any phone calls.

It is possible that Jersey's residents have been targeted by the fraudsters because it is one of the world's best-known offshore financial centres.

Of course, if this is happening in the small island of Jersey in the English channel, it's likely to be happening elsewhere too.

For now, however, its sister island of Guernsey appears to have escaped the surge in Revolut scams.

TeamPCP is best known for Shai-Hulud, a self-propagating worm that spread itself through open source software.

According to the authorities, the two men were principal members of a "sophisticated cybercrime syndicate" that created malicious open source software designed to steal data and extort ransoms from businesses.

First emerging in late 2025, TeamPCP built a reputation for poisoning popular open source packages rather than directly attacking businesses.

The group's Shai-Hulud worm hijacks GitHub and NPM developer credentials, and publishes boobytrapped versions of legitimate software packages.

Supply chain attacks like Shai-Hulud exploit the fact that most developers trust open source …

The advice comes in the form of a newly-published bulletin called "Epic Vigilance: Immediate Actions for Force Protection and Personal Security."

US Navy workers and their families are being told that they should ensure that their social media profile privacy settings are enabled, and to remove anything that connects them to the Navy, or reveals "patterns of life" that an attacker could exploit.

any fake social media accounts impersonating fellow shipmates.

This wouldn't, of course, be the first time that military staff have accidentally leaked information about themselves online.

Some commentators have wondered out loud whether the timing of an announcement telling sailors to be much more …

This hacker leaked GTA 6 and launched their own cryptocurrency with Graham Cluley and special guest Paul Ducklin.

And that's really a testament to how much people love this game.

I really don't know, 'cause I do believe it is possible these days to play games via Netflix.

It appears, although the value of their stash was being pumped up by all these other transactions, they've actually destroyed their entire stake.

I'm not a lawyer, Graham, thankfully, so I don't really know the answer to that.

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Cisco was proud to return to Black Hat USA as the Official Security Cloud Provider and the longest-standing partner of the Black Hat Network Operations Center (NOC) and Security Operations Center (SOC).

In 2026, we completed our 11th year helping protect the Black Hat network, working side by side with the Black Hat NOC leaders and official technology partners: Palo Alto Networks, Arista, Corelight, Jamf and Lumen.

For Black Hat USA 2026, the Cisco and Splunk team brought together telemetry and workflows across Cisco Security, Splunk Security, and partner-provided network and security controls.

The same signal may need to be understood by Cisco, Splunk, Black Hat leadership, and partner tea…

I did not walk into Black Hat with years of incident-response experience or an encyclopedic knowledge of threat actors.

The first time I walked into the Black Hat NOC, where the SOC team was operating, was a few days before the event began.

I was surrounded by people with years—sometimes decades—of experience, many of whom had supported Black Hat for years.

Check out the other blogs from our team at Black Hat USA 2026.

Driven by the needs of the community, Black Hat events showcase content directly from the community through Briefings presentations, Trainings courses, Summits, and more.

To handle this task, Cisco and Black Hat deployed bespoke ThousandEyes agents to monitor the wireless solution.

Our thanks to the Arista Networks team in the Black Hat NOC for their partnership throughout the week.

You can read the other blogs from our colleagues at Black Hat USA.

Driven by the needs of the community, Black Hat events showcase content directly from the community through Briefings presentations, Trainings courses, Summits, and more.

For more information, please visit the Black Hat website.

With Matthew Bair2026 marks the fourth consecutive year we’ve used ThousandEyes to monitor the Black Hat USA network for latency.

As our latency monitoring mesh has expanded to cover more and more of the conference, we’ve also begun supplementing our ThousandEyes monitoring with on-demand Linux commands to track latency across different protocols.

The Key ThousandEyes TestsThe automated ThousandEyes tests that inform our dashboards include HTTPS connectivity tests, the monitoring of cloud services, agent to agent tests, internal and external DNS resolution, and even file downloads.

On-Demand Latency Tests from the Agent MeshPing and traceroute are the go-tos for anyone who wants to do a qui…

While developing a detection for Cisco Secure Network Analytics (SNA), I used the Splunk Detection Editor (Alpha) to bring much of that workflow into one place.

Instead of treating every observation as an incident, detections can create risk events associated with entities such as systems or users.

Developing the detection in one workspaceThe Detection Editor provides a workspace for building the search while configuring the other parts of the detection.

Risk events for the same entity need to use a consistent risk object so Splunk Enterprise Security can associate them correctly.

Splunk defines the risk object, its type, and its score as key parts of a risk event.

DNS continues to provide one of the clearest windows into activity across the Black Hat network.

At Black Hat, however, the value of DNS goes well beyond traditional threat blocking.

Its 4.42 million blocks represented 79.3% of every blocked DNS request .. Apple privacy-relay and encrypted-DNS hostnames collectively accounted for approximately 97.9% of blocks among the top blocked destinations.

For the Black Hat NOC/SOC, Secure Access DNS telemetry gives analysts a high-value control point and an investigative starting point.

Driven by the needs of the community, Black Hat events showcase content directly from the community through Briefings presentations, Trainings courses, Summits, and mo…

Project Glasswing and Frontier models just made that truth louder.

Frontier models are about to pour gasoline on that fire; the fundamentals matter more than ever.

Cisco ran its own experiment leveraging a variety of frontier models.

Foundry Security Spec: a model-agnostic blueprint so teams can turn frontier models into something auditable instead of a noisy chat window.

Foundry-Security-Speca model-agnostic blueprint so teams can turn frontier models into something auditable instead of a noisy chat window.

That requires crypto agility.

Why long-lived networks need crypto agilityThink about designing a building before all of its future electrical requirements are known.

Crypto agility is about adopting the best defenses available today while preserving the ability to adopt better ones tomorrow.

That is why crypto agility needs to be designed into the network we invest in today.

Common questions about PQC and crypto agilityWhat is crypto agility?

It is what happens when agents built by different teams, on different platforms, can hand work to each other directly.

And it is worth being direct about where things stand: A2A-mediated handoffs between production security agents are not shipping anywhere yet.

Use A2A when one agent needs to hand work to another.

A2A is peer-to-peer: any A2A agent can discover and call any other A2A agent through a self-published Agent Card, no custom connector required, and the receiving agent applies its own reasoning rather than following a static script.

Input validation is an application-layer responsibility that needs to be designed in before any agent delegates via A2A, not added after.

That is why I am proud to share that Cisco has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Microsegmentation Solutions, Q3 2026.

We believe this recognition reflects the strength of Cisco Secure Workload and its ability to help organizations see, understand, and control communication among applications and workloads.

Cisco Secure Workload Helps Close Critical Network Blind SpotsApplications increasingly span private clouds, on-premises data centers, and public clouds.

Thank you to our customers, partners, and the Cisco Secure Workload team whose feedback, expertise, and commitment made this recognition possible.

Read the full report: The Forrester Wave™: Microsegmentation Solutions, Q3 2026…

What We Mean by Infrastructure IdentityInfrastructure Identity starts with a simple principle: there should be no anonymous computing in critical infrastructure.

Infrastructure Identity turns that principle into an operating model.

Infrastructure Identity starts with the actor and evaluates whether a specific action should be allowed now.

Infrastructure Identity is therefore not just an access-control issue.

That is the promise of Infrastructure Identity: no anonymous computing, no unmanaged privilege, and no forced tradeoff between stronger security and operational speed.

I’m proud to share that IDC MarketScape has named Cisco a Leader in the 2026 IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Vendor Assessment.

In an evaluation of 12 SASE vendors, the IDC MarketScape recognized our architectural breadth and flexibility, AI capabilities, identity integration, threat visibility, and R&D.

Built to Make Agent Work, WorkWe believe the IDC MarketScape recognition validates the foundation we have built, and customers increasingly need that foundation for what is next.

For more on Cisco’s placement as a Leader, read the IDC MarketScape excerpt and explore how Cisco SASE keeps work moving, governed, and trusted in the AI era at cisco.com/go/sase.

Stay …

Instant Attack Verification: an AI security analystAt the center of this story is Instant Attack Verification, a Cisco XDR capability that is an AI security analyst.

Instant Attack Verification assigns a triage classification and confidence score to every incident in Cisco XDR — here, a “Decisive True Positive” at high confidence — alongside the reconstructed attack graph.

Concordance — how often the agent’s verdict matches a human analyst — tells the trust story.

Instant Attack Verification and the Data Fabric sit at different layers and reinforce each other neatly.

The clean way to see it: the Cisco Data Fabric is the data-and-interoperability substrate, and Instant Attack Verification is…

The Power of FedRAMP HighWhile FedRAMP Certified Class C (Moderate) is the standard for many civilian agencies, FedRAMP Certified Class D (High) is designed for systems where a breach could have catastrophic effects.

Cisco Security Cloud for GovernmentCisco Security Cloud for Government is a unified authorization boundary that integrates various Cisco security services, ensuring that organizations can protect their users, devices, and applications regardless of where they reside.

The Cisco Security Cloud for Government ecosystem is designed to meet the rigorous security requirements of the public sector and highly regulated industries.

Cisco Security Cloud Control (SCC)Cisco Security Cloud …

So must the security operations center (SOC).

For agentic security to work, the industry needs a different model.

Today we are announcing ISOC in Microsoft Defender: a foundation built for agentic security that brings leading solutions for security information and event management (SIEM) and threat protection together.

The result is an integrated protection loop that continuously turns what defenders learn into stronger pre-breach protection.

Integrated security operations center (ISOC) in Microsoft Defender is available in preview today.

What is device code phishing?

Device code phishing occurs when threat actors insert themselves into this process.

Tactic Observed activity Microsoft Defender coverage Initial access Device code authentication Microsoft Defender for Identity– Anomalous OAuth device code authentication activity Credential access Token theft following device code authentication Microsoft Defender for Identity– Anomalous token exchange following device code authenticationMicrosoft Defender XDR– User account compromise via OAuth device code phishing– Suspicious Azure authentication through possible device code phishing Persistence Device registration following anomalous device code authentication Microsoft Defen…

We introduced Secure Now within Microsoft Security Exposure Management in May 2026 to help practitioners prioritize the action they need to take to be prepared for this shift.

Security fundamentals work togetherCyberattackers are moving laterally across surfaces, and security fundamentals matter most at the intersections between them.

On Secure Now—within Microsoft Security Exposure Management—security leaders can now find information on recent threats paired with focused initiatives across security domains.

Learn moreLearn more about Microsoft Security Exposure Management.

Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurit…

For five consecutive quarters Microsoft has published email security benchmarking reports to provide greater transparency into real-world protection outcomes.

Figure 1: High-severity email threats missed by SEG vendors (May 2026 through July 2026), measured as threats missed per 1,000 users protected.

Similarly to previous quarters, integrated cloud email security (ICES) solutions continue adding the most value in promotional and bulk filtering.

Figure 3: Post‑delivery malicious catch by Microsoft Defender (May 2026 through July 2026), shown across vendors and overall average.

Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecu…

Figure 1: Attack chain showing domain registration, executive impersonation, invoice fraud delivery, ACH payment execution, and financial theft.

Important note: Throughout this campaign, threat actors impersonated legitimate organizations using attacker-controlled infrastructure, fabricated communications, and lookalike domains.

To defend against social engineering campaigns involving executive impersonation, invoice fraud, and potentially AI-assisted content development, Microsoft recommends the following mitigations:Configure automatic attack disruption in Microsoft Defender XDR.

Tactic Observed activity Microsoft Defender coverage Financial Theft Scam emails Microsoft Defender for Office…

Figure 1: Attack chain showing domain registration, executive impersonation, invoice fraud delivery, ACH payment execution, and financial theft.

Important note: Throughout this campaign, threat actors impersonated legitimate organizations using attacker-controlled infrastructure, fabricated communications, and lookalike domains.

To defend against social engineering campaigns involving executive impersonation, invoice fraud, and potentially AI-assisted content development, Microsoft recommends the following mitigations:Configure automatic attack disruption in Microsoft Defender XDR.

Tactic Observed activity Microsoft Defender coverage Financial Theft Scam emails Microsoft Defender for Office…

Turning AI lures into dead ends with Microsoft DefenderIn practice, protection starts before the user ever engages with the lure.

Simplified Defender email detection stack with pre-delivery and post-delivery protections.

Microsoft Defender helps organizations do that by connecting prevention, detection, investigation, and response across the attack path, so AI-themed lures are harder to deliver, harder to trust, and harder to turn into broader compromise.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website.

Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

Microsoft introduces the cloud web applications threat matrix, a MITRE ATT&CK-aligned framework that helps defenders understand, prioritize, and mitigate threats to cloud-hosted web apps and serverless platforms.

Microsoft developed the Cloud web applications threat matrix to organize relevant techniques using MITRE ATT&CK tactics.

Cloud web applications threat matrix organized by MITRE ATT&CK tactics.

Valid cloud accountsAdversaries may gain access to cloud web applications and serverless environments by leveraging compromised valid cloud accounts.

The cloud web applications threat matrix is intended to support this by mapping techniques to attack stages, helping defenders identify where v…

Observed attack sequence showing identity compromise through social engineering, MFA persistence, Microsoft Graph reconnaissance, and cloud data collection/exfiltration.

In device code phishing, the user is persuaded to enter a code on the legitimate Microsoft authentication page.

The attack underscores a critical detection challenge: Microsoft Graph abuse rarely appears suspicious when viewed through a single API call.

Investigate high-volume or programmatic Microsoft Graph activity involving directory enumeration, role discovery, service principal discovery, SharePoint, OneDrive, or sensitivity-label discovery.

Discovery Graph API reconnaissance activity Microsoft Defender for Identity– S…

Observed attack sequence showing identity compromise through social engineering, MFA persistence, Microsoft Graph reconnaissance, and cloud data collection/exfiltration.

In device code phishing, the user is persuaded to enter a code on the legitimate Microsoft authentication page.

The attack underscores a critical detection challenge: Microsoft Graph abuse rarely appears suspicious when viewed through a single API call.

Investigate high-volume or programmatic Microsoft Graph activity involving directory enumeration, role discovery, service principal discovery, SharePoint, OneDrive, or sensitivity-label discovery.

Discovery Graph API reconnaissance activity Microsoft Defender for Identity– S…

Edge AI changes the trust model for AI systemsIn Cloud AI, separate companies own and attest the hardware, platform, and model weights.

Edge AI deployments often place customers in control of more of the AI stack.

Why Edge AI increases exposureAn Edge AI deployment may include models, prompts, agents, retrieval data, policies, local data stores, and update mechanisms running on infrastructure outside the provider’s cloud environment.

Next stepsBottom line: Edge AI changes the trust model for AI systems.

Edge AI pushes security controls into devices, gateways, vehicles, factories, hospitals, retail spaces, and other customer environments.

Edge AI changes the trust model for AI systemsIn Cloud AI, separate companies own and attest the hardware, platform, and model weights.

Edge AI deployments often place customers in control of more of the AI stack.

Why Edge AI increases exposureAn Edge AI deployment may include models, prompts, agents, retrieval data, policies, local data stores, and update mechanisms running on infrastructure outside the provider’s cloud environment.

Next stepsBottom line: Edge AI changes the trust model for AI systems.

Edge AI pushes security controls into devices, gateways, vehicles, factories, hospitals, retail spaces, and other customer environments.

Microsoft researchers observed a high-volume phishing campaign using invisible Unicode tag characters, a technique popularized in AI prompt injection research as ASCII Smuggling.

“ASCII smuggling” refers to the use of invisible or non-rendering Unicode characters to hide content inside text that looks normal.

Each is encoded as a sequence of invisible Unicode tag characters (U+E0000-U+E007F).

Invisible Unicode tag characters in the range U+E0000-U+E007F – specifically U+E0020 – spliced inside keywords.

The potential gap for mail-defense pipelines is whether Unicode tag characters are normalized or flagged before content detections run.

Microsoft researchers observed a high-volume phishing campaign using invisible Unicode tag characters, a technique popularized in AI prompt injection research as ASCII Smuggling.

“ASCII smuggling” refers to the use of invisible or non-rendering Unicode characters to hide content inside text that looks normal.

Each is encoded as a sequence of invisible Unicode tag characters (U+E0000-U+E007F).

Invisible Unicode tag characters in the range U+E0000-U+E007F – specifically U+E0020 – spliced inside keywords.

The potential gap for mail-defense pipelines is whether Unicode tag characters are normalized or flagged before content detections run.

Stage 2: Remote session and malicious MSI deliveryImmediately after establishing control, the threat actor uses PowerShell within the remote session to download a malicious MSI package from threat actor-controlled cloud storage and installs it silently.

Microsoft Teams: Apply the Security best practices for Microsoft Teams, revisit your external collaboration policies, and make sure users see clear external sender notifications when engaging with cross-tenant contacts.

Some promptbooks require access to Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Sentinel, or related Microsoft security plugins.

File indicatorsIndicator (SHA-256) Description 4cfdcae6dd1d6d98b870c8f0654d504f2bf10479a117dc297de789c249dc…

Here, threat actors may simply seed prompt injections on websites in hope of corrupting AI systems that browse them.

Early experiments revealed a significant volume of "benign" prompt injection text, which illustrates the complexity of distinguishing between functional threats and harmless content.

Many prompt injections were found in research papers, educational blog posts, or security articles discussing this very topic.

(Source: GitHub/swisskyrepo)When searching for prompt injections naively, the majority of detections are benign content – false positives in our case.

Malicious: ExfiltrationWe were able to observe a small number of prompt injections that aim at theft of data.

Recognizing the risks associated within the complex modem firmware, Pixel 9 shipped with mitigations against a range of memory-safety vulnerabilities.

Following our previous discussion on "Deploying Rust in Existing Firmware Codebases", this post shares a concrete application: integrating a memory-safe Rust DNS(Domain Name System) parser into the modem firmware.

Hook-up Rust to modem firmwareBefore building the Rust DNS library, we defined several Rust unit tests to cover basic arithmetic, dynamic allocations, and FFI to verify the integration of Rust with the existing modem firmware code base.

Pixel modem firmware already has a well-tested and specialized global memory allocation system to…

This project represents a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to combat session theft, which remains a prevalent threat in the modern security landscape.

Session theft typically occurs when a user inadvertently downloads malware onto their device.

Once active, the malware can silently extract existing session cookies from the browser or wait for the user to log in to new accounts, before exfiltrating these tokens to an attacker-controlled server.

How DBSC WorksDBSC protects against session theft by cryptographically binding authentication sessions to a specific device.

The issuance of new short-lived session cookies is contingent upon Chrome proving possession of the correspondi…

Staying ahead of the latest indirect prompt injection attacks is critical to our mission of securing Workspace with Gemini.

In our previous blog “Mitigating prompt injection attacks with a layered defense strategy”, we reviewed the layered architecture of our IPI defenses.

Synthetic data generationAfter we discover, curate, and catalog new attacks, we use Simula to generate synthetic data expanding these new attacks.

We partition the synthetic data described above into separate training and validation sets to ensure performance is evaluated against held-out examples.

This process leverages the newly generated synthetic attack data described on this blog, to create a robust, end-to-end evalu…

2025 marked a special year in the history of vulnerability rewards and bug bounty programs at Google: our 15th anniversary 🎉🎉🎉!

Coming back to 2025 specifically, our VRP once again confirmed the ongoing value of engaging with the external security research community to make Google and its products safer.

Vulnerability Reward Program 2025 in NumbersWant to learn more about who’s reporting to the VRP?

Tip: Want to be informed of new developments and events around our Vulnerability Reward Program?

Follow the Google VRP channel on X to stay in the loop and be sure to check out the Security Engineering blog, which covers topics ranging from VRP updates to security practices and vulnerability des…

To stay ahead of the curve, the technology industry must undertake a proactive, multi-year migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC).

To bring these critical protections to the wider developer community with minimal friction, the transition will be supported through Play App Signing.

Play App Signing leverages Google Cloud KMS, which helps ensure industry-leading compliance standards, to secure signing keys.

Empower Developers : The inclusion of ML-DSA support within Android Keystore and Play App Signing allows developers to safeguard their users and application.

: The inclusion of ML-DSA support within Android Keystore and Play App Signing allows developers to safeguard their users and …

Today we're announcing a new program in Chrome to make HTTPS certificates secure against quantum computers.

Instead, Chrome, in collaboration with other partners, is developing an evolution of HTTPS certificates based on Merkle Tree Certificates (MTCs), currently in development in the PLANTS working group.

Since MTC technology shares significant architectural similarities with CT, these operators are uniquely qualified to ensure MTCs are able to get off the ground quickly and successfully.

The Chrome Quantum-resistant Root Program will operate alongside our existing Chrome Root Program to ensure a risk-managed transition that maintains the highest levels of security for all users.

First, we…

For Majik, Scam Detection was the intervention he needed: “The warning is what made me pause and avoid a bad situation”.

As scammers evolve their tactics and create more convincing and personalized threats, we’re using the best of Google AI to stay one step ahead.

Expanding Scam Detection for Calls to Samsung DevicesTo help protect you during phone calls, Scam Detection alerts you if a caller uses speech patterns commonly associated with fraud.

Scam Detection for phone calls on Google Pixel devices is available in the U.S., Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, and the UK.

Powered by Gemini’s on-device model, Scam Detection provides intelligent protection against scam calls while ensuring that…

Upgrading Google Play’s AI-powered, multi-layered user protectionsWe’ve seen a clear impact from these safety efforts on Google Play.

As Android’s built-in defense against malware and unwanted software, Google Play Protect now scans over 350 billion Android apps daily.

This proactive protection constantly checks both Play apps and those from other sources to ensure they are not potentially harmful.

Looking aheadOur top priority remains making Google Play and Android the most trusted app ecosystems for everyone.

Thank you for being part of the Google Play and Android community as we work together to build a safer app ecosystem.

That’s why we're committed to providing multi-layered defenses that help protect you before, during, and after a theft attempt.

Today, we're announcing a powerful set of theft protection feature updates that build on our existing protections, designed to give you greater peace of mind by making your device a much harder target for criminals.

These updates are now available for Android devices running Android 16+.

More User Control for Failed Authentications: In Android 15, we launched Failed Authentication Lock, a feature that automatically locks the device's screen after excessive failed authentication attempts.

This feature is now getting a new dedicated enable/disable toggle in settings,…

These initiatives, driven by Ballots SC-080, SC-090, and SC-091, will sunset 11 legacy methods for Domain Control Validation.

What’s Domain Control Validation?

Domain Control Validation is a security-critical process designed to ensure certificates are only issued to the legitimate domain operator.

Sunsetted methods relying on email:Sunsetted methods relying on phone:Sunsetted method relying on a reverse lookup:For everyday users, these changes are invisible - and that’s the point.

These changes push the ecosystem toward standardized (e.g., ACME), modern, and auditable Domain Control Validation methods.

Partnership with ArmOur goal is to raise the bar on GPU security, ensuring the Mali GPU driver and firmware remain highly resilient against potential threats.

We partnered with Arm to conduct an analysis of the Mali driver, used on approximately 45% of Android devices.

This approach allowed us to roll out the new security policy broadly while minimizing the impact on developers.

This effort spans across Android and Android OEMs, and required close collaboration with Arm.

The Android security team is committed to collaborating with ecosystem partners to drive broader adoption of this approach to help harden the GPU.

We built on Gemini's existing protections and agent security principles and have implemented several new layers for Chrome.

To further bolster model alignment beyond spotlighting, we’re introducing the User Alignment Critic — a separate model built with Gemini that acts as a high-trust system component.

A flow chart that depicts the User Alignment Critic: a trusted component that vets each action before it reaches the browser.

The User Alignment Critic runs after the planning is complete to double-check each proposed action.

Looking forwardThe upcoming introduction of agentic capabilities in Chrome brings new demands for browser security, and we've approached this challenge with the same ri…

Android uses the best of Google AI and our advanced security expertise to tackle mobile scams from every angle.

Over the last few years, we’ve launched industry-leading features to detect scams and protect users across phone calls, text messages and messaging app chat notifications.

To help combat these types of financial scams, we launched a pilot earlier this year in the UK focused on in-call protections for financial apps.

The UK pilot of Android’s in-call scam protections has already helped thousands of users end calls that could have cost them a significant amount of money.

We’ve also started to pilot this protection with more app types, including peer-to-peer (P2P) payment apps.