Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

AI Shutdown Risk Exposes Governance Gaps and Vendor Dependency ConcernsThe federal government's recent decision to designate Anthropic, maker of the Claude AI platform, as a "supply-chain risk" should raise alarm bells for technology leaders who are tasked with embedding AI systems across the enterprise. Going all-in with a single AI vendor can be risky.

pcTattletale boss Bryan Fleming faces up to 15 years in prison when sentenced later this year The US government has secured a guilty plea from a stalkerware maker in federal court, marking just the second time in more than a decade that the US has managed to prosecute a consumer spyware vendor successfully. …

Networking vendor claims rival helped portray it as a national-security risk in the US TP-Link is suing rival networking vendor Netgear, alleging that the rival and its CEO carried out a smear campaign by falsely suggesting, it says, that the biz had been infiltrated by the Chinese government.…

Conduent Gets Sued; US Government's Cyber Shutdown Woes; Hacktivist Hits RiseThe latest ISMG Editors' Panel tackles: post-hack legal fallout for Conduent after it suffered the year's biggest health data breach, the U.S. government's shutdown complicating its response to the breach of vendor F5 and the rise in attacks targeting Western critical national infrastructure.

Government, financial, and industrial organizations located in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are the target of a new campaign dubbed PassiveNeuron, according to findings from Kaspersky

Proliferating Age Verification Systems a Hacker TargetA vendor breach linked to Discord exposed government ID uploads used in age verification, raising alarms among privacy experts who warn that third-party data collection systems are becoming high-value targets amid rising legislative mandates for online age checks.

‘Universities are being used to proxy offensive government operations, turning research access decisions political’ Censys Inc, vendor of the popular Censys internet-mapping tool, has revealed that state-based actors are trying to abuse its services by hiding behind academic researchers.…

Though the company's video surveillance products will be prohibited for government use, individuals and private businesses can still buy the vendor's products.

PLUS: Broadband blimps to fly in Japan; Starbucks China put ads before privacy; and more! Asia In Brief Canada’s government has ordered Chinese CCTV systems vendor Hikvision to cease its local operations.…

SentinelOne discovered the campaign when they tried to hit the security vendor's own servers An IT services company, a European media group, and a South Asian government entity are among the more than 75 companies where China-linked groups have planted malware to access strategic networks should a conflict break out.…

Panelists Discuss Deepfake, Trust Frameworks, AI Skepticism, Venture Capital WoesFrom RSAC Conference 2025 in San Francisco, ISMG editors wrapped up coverage discussing the impact of U.S. government funding cutbacks, growing deepfake threats, trust challenges in AI adoption and venture capital pressures affecting the cybersecurity vendor market.

Also: Zero-Days Affect Financial Markets, SailPoint IPO Signals Market TrendsIn this week's update, ISMG editors discussed the latest "Modern Bank Heists" report and the evolving threats to financial institutions, fallout from the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency's AI-driven government shake-up, and what SailPoint's IPO signals for the cybersecurity vendor market.

Popular cannabis brand STIIIZY disclosed a data breach this week after hackers breached its point-of-sale (POS) vendor to steal customer information, including government IDs and purchase information. [...]

USB sticks help, but it's unclear how tools that suck malware from them are delivered A cyberespionage APT crew named GoldenJackal hacked air-gapped PCs belonging to government and diplomatic entities at least twice using two sets of custom malware, according to researchers from antivirus vendor ESET.…

High-Assurance Security Tech Boosts Everfox's Government and Infrastructure ToolsEverfox's purchase of Garrison Technology is set to fortify its cybersecurity offerings, especially for government and critical infrastructure. The deal leverages Garrison's advanced hardware security technology to complement Everfox's existing capabilities in threat protection and insider risk.

Technology Giants Vie for Public Sector Customers Amid Microsoft's Recent BreachesGoogle is aiming to poach Microsoft's public sector customers by attacking its competitor over recent high-profile breaches and offering new incentives for federal agencies to reduce the U.S. government's "overreliance on a single technology vendor."

It pays not to be Huawei, and the US military can be lucrative, too Comment A vendor establishing a business unit dedicated to government sales is not new or unusual. But Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia’s decision to do so in the USA this week tells a bigger story about Washington’s paranoia regarding the security of critical communications infrastructure security.…

Living up to its name, Maximus sees a whale of a breach that affects millions of people's sensitive government records, including health data.

Uncle Sam warns sysadmins to get patching as soon as possible A critical security flaw in Ivanti's mobile endpoint management code was exploited and used to compromise 12 Norwegian government agencies before the vendor plugged the hole.…

If you get email from 'Samantha Wolf', congrats: you're important enough to make a decent target An Iranian cyber espionage gang with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has learned new methods and phishing techniques, and aimed them at a wider set of targets – including politicians, government officials, critical infrastructure and medical researchers – according to email security vendor Proofpoint.…