Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news, articles, interviews and videos:
Windows 11’s strongest security defenses can be bypassed without a screwdriver
Researchers from the University of Birmingham and Durham University have found a way to knock down some of the toughest protections in Windows 11 without physically opening or modifying the target machine. The attack assumes the attacker has already gained privileged access to the system.
Police bust cybercrime ring accused of stealing €30 million in four-day spree
German and Brazilian police dismantled an international bank fraud ring blamed for a €30 million cyberattack on a German financial institution, arresting four people in Brazil and pursuing three more suspects in Spain and Bulgaria.
SafePal breach affects 39,798 customers, data allegedly for sale
Cryptocurrency wallet maker SafePal disclosed a data breach that exposed order information for 39,798 customers, including names, email addresses, shipping addresses, phone numbers and purchase details. The company traced the exposure to an authorization flaw in a plug-in used for order tracking. Under certain conditions, the flaw let one customer view another customer’s order information.
Attackers exploit patched macOS Screen Sharing flaw to deploy cryptominer
A recently patched security flaw in Apple macOS is being actively exploited by hackers to bypass authentication, gain root access, and install a cryptominer, the Netherlands’ National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warns.
France’s tax authority admits hackers made off with data on 678,000 individuals
France’s tax authority has disclosed a data breach after an attacker accessed the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP) systems, saying the intrusion exposed data on 678,000 individuals and professionals. The incident came to light after an alleged attacker using the alias “ZeroBytes” took credit on a cybercrime forum and listed a stolen database for sale.
Hacker claims millions of records stolen from corporate Azure tenants
A threat actor known as “TheHatman” claims to have obtained millions of employee records from the Azure environments of several Fortune 500 companies, including McDonald’s, Vodafone, Kyndryl, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), according to Hudson Rock.
Critical GitLab flaw allows attackers to modify or delete public projects (CVE-2026-19478)
GitLab has released patches for two vulnerabilities, including a critical-severity code injection flaw that can be exploited without authentication. The vulnerabilities affect GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE) versions from 18.2 before 18.11.11, 19.0 before 19.0.8, 19.1 before 19.1.6, and 19.2 before 19.2.4.
ChatGPT’s new feature could give infostealers a map of your Mac activity
OpenAI’s new Computer History feature turns recent Mac computer activity into memories ChatGPT and Codex can use, and it’s raising questions about privacy and security along the way. Computer History builds a timeline out of everyday computer use, grouping activity into summaries and noting which apps and websites contributed to each one.
Cyberattack forces UT San Antonio to delay start of fall semester
The University of Texas at San Antonio pushed back the start of its fall semester by three days after a cyberattack targeted its academic network over the weekend. Classes that were due to begin on Wednesday, August 19 will now start on Monday, August 24.
Google’s AI security agents found 100+ critical software vulnerabilities in just two days
Google’s Mandiant has disclosed the workings of an internal tool that uses chains of AI agents to hunt for vulnerabilities in source code, saying it found over 100 verified, high-severity flaws in just two days during a live investigation into stolen corporate repositories.
Medusa ransomware gang has hit over 500 organizations, CISA warns
Medusa ransomware has breached more than 500 organizations since it first appeared in June 2021, the FBI, CISA, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in an updated joint advisory. The update builds on an advisory first issued in March 2025 and draws on FBI investigations conducted as late as April 2026.
Researchers find a loophole that lets expired credit cards make unauthorized payments
A team from the University of Massachusetts Amherst has shown that a contactless credit card keeps working past its printed expiration date, even after the cardholder gets a replacement. They named it the Zombie Card attack and presented the findings at USENIX Security 2026.
US charges 17 Iranian hackers over 31-terabyte academic data theft
The U.S. has charged 17 alleged members of Mabna Institute, an Iranian hacking-for-hire company accused of running a years-long campaign that stole data from American universities, companies, and government agencies. The Southern District of New York case adds eight names to the nine already charged back in 2018.
US agencies warn of AI-powered attacks on Siemens industrial controllers
Threat actors are using AI to write exploit scripts targeting internet-exposed Siemens S7 Series programmable logic controllers (PLCs) used across water, energy, manufacturing, and other critical infrastructure sectors, according to US federal agencies.
Fake Gemini installer delivers Vidar infostealer via Google Colab lure
A malicious executable masquerading as a Google Gemini installer was used to deliver the Vidar infostealer on a company network in the EMEA region, according to Darktrace researchers who investigated the incident.
A $25 template helped scammers build hundreds of phantom bank domains
A phrase on a suspicious website turned into an investigation of phantom banks built to support scams, according to new research from Allure Security. Molly DeQuattro, the company’s VP of Operations, was reviewing a domain that resembled the brand of one of its financial services clients. The page carried none of that client’s branding. It presented an unrelated bank instead.
Citrix urges customers to fix critical NetScaler authentication bypass (CVE-2026-19490)
Citrix has patched two vulnerabilities in NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway, including a critical authentication bypass flaw tracked as CVE-2026-19490, and is urging customers to upgrade affected appliances as soon as possible.
Attackers impersonate popular AI brands to spread malware
Attackers are impersonating popular AI brands like Perplexity, Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot to spread information stealers, backdoors, malicious browser extensions, and other malware, according to Sophos.
Critical Microsoft Entra ID vulnerability exploited in the wild (CVE-2026-69836)
Microsoft has patched a critical remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2026-69836) in Entra ID, reportedly exploited in the wild. Entra ID is Microsoft’s cloud identity service, formerly Azure Active Directory, that verifies logins and controls access to Microsoft 365, Azure, and connected third-party apps.
A hollowed out data layer is making CISOs fly blind into AI attacks
The security industry is currently transitioning to an era where both offense and defense are AI-led, and every SOC operates at machine speed. However, what most CISOs have not yet reckoned with is that the AI defenders they are about to deploy will inherit a data foundation that two years of ingestion cost pressure has quietly hollowed out. The result is a security industry heading into an AI era with less visibility than it had five years ago.
Download: 2026 Credential Risk Report
85% of cybersecurity professionals consider compromised credentials a primary attack path—yet only 19% continuously monitor active credentials and automatically remediate exposure. The 2026 Credential Risk Report examines where credential security programs fall short and what it takes to move toward Continuous Credential Defense.
When companies get specific about AI, revenue growth looks different
Companies that provide specific evidence of how they use AI tend to record stronger revenue growth. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Larridin examined a study universe of 564 companies across 12 industry sectors. Individual analyses used smaller samples depending on data availability.
Product showcase: ScamNet looks for warning signs in suspicious calls and shady links
ScamNet: Anti-Scam Suite is a consumer security app from Synaptrex Technologies that helps users detect and block scams involving phone calls, text messages, websites, and other suspicious content. The app is available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with features varying by platform. Call protection is available on iPhone, while tools such as Visual Intelligence are supported on iPhone and iPad. The app is free with optional ScamNet+ subscriptions.
Hazmat: Open-source containment for AI agents
Hazmat is an open-source tool that runs AI coding agents inside a separate account on your own machine. It wraps the harnesses people use: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cursor Agent, and several more, plus any script you write yourself.
Attackers turn to AI for help identifying files worth stealing
AI tools are being used by cyber attackers to write malicious code, build tools that harvest credentials, search compromised networks, identify valuable business information, manage technical infrastructure and generate commands during intrusions. Gambit Security researchers examined three unrelated threat actors that show how AI can support different stages of a cyberattack.
Google’s open-source HEIR lets AI work with data it can’t see
Google’s researchers and engineers developed the Homomorphic Encryption Intermediate Representation (HEIR) compiler project, an open-source compiler toolchain and development platform for homomorphic encryption. It can convert pre-trained AI models designed to operate on unencrypted data into models that process encrypted inputs.
OpenAI tightens defenses after AI agents breach research environment
Following the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident, in which an agentic collective autonomously penetrated OpenAI’s research infrastructure and another company’s production infrastructure by chaining together multiple weaknesses, OpenAI began strengthening its safety requirements. The weaknesses included previously unknown vulnerabilities and credentials leaked online.
Google’s $10,000 refund test shows why AI agents need zero trust
Google’s open-source autonomous Customer Support & Returns Agent, built using the Agent Development Kit (ADK) and Gemini, demonstrates how developers can apply zero-trust security principles to AI agents that interact with sensitive systems and take real-world actions.
Banks look for fraud signals in customer behavior
Banks are dealing with more fraud in which customers authorize payments after being manipulated by criminals. ThreatMark’s Fraud Readiness Benchmark 2026 describes a banking environment where social engineering, reimbursement requirements and growing case volumes are changing fraud operations.
OpenAI puts major frontier AI training run on hold over cyber risks
OpenAI temporarily paused reinforcement learning (RL) training on its latest models intended for deployment for two weeks while it hardened and red-teamed research environments and expanded monitoring. The move followed the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident and preliminary evidence that the company’s upcoming Astra model may meet the Critical cybersecurity capability threshold under its Preparedness Framework.
8,539 reasons to rethink how vulnerabilities get patched
The window for responding to newly disclosed security flaws is getting shorter. Exploit code can appear quickly, exploitability can be tested soon after disclosure, and organizations have a growing number of weaknesses to sort through. Rapid7’s Q2 2026 Threat Landscape Report counted 8,539 high- and critical-severity vulnerability disclosures, twice the number recorded a year earlier.
AI is making fraud harder to spot and identity harder to prove
Online fraud has become a routine concern for consumers and businesses that rely on digital accounts, payments and customer service. Experian’s 2026 U.S. Identity & Fraud Report describes a market where scams extend across messages, websites, documents, voices, images and account activity.
OpenAI previews privacy-focused system for detecting AI misuse
OpenAI is previewing Private Safety Processing with early customers seeking greater certainty about how their data will be protected as AI systems become more capable. The system identifies patterns across related interactions while restricting OpenAI personnel from accessing the underlying content. The company plans to start rolling it out and publish a technical white paper in September.
AWS limits AI agents’ data access, even when manipulated
AWS has detailed an approach for propagating user authorization context through AI agents, allowing access controls to be enforced by infrastructure and downstream services rather than relying on the agent itself.
Nearly half of enterprises have no one leading PQC migration
Enterprises believe they are prepared for the security challenges posed by quantum computing, but gaps in ownership, testing and visibility could complicate their transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC), according to new research from Axiad.
Cybersecurity jobs available right now: August 18, 2026
We’ve scoured the market to bring you a selection of roles that span various skill levels within the cybersecurity field. Check out this weekly selection of cybersecurity jobs available right now.
New infosec products of the week: August 21, 2026
Here’s a look at the most interesting products from the past week, featuring releases from F5 Networks, Intezer, Netscout, and Tufin.
