Zombie user account let hackers control the city’s water
Failing to disable a former employee’s account was a huge mistake
Discover how to navigate and recover from infosec errors with the latest news, expert insights, and best practices on our Information Security Mistakes tag.
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Background for this topic.
Mistake is an unintentional action or decision that can lead to a security breach or create a vulnerability within an information security system. In the context of information security, a mistake might involve errors such as misconfiguration of security software, the use of default passwords, improper disposal of sensitive information, or accidentally sharing confidential data. These actions can provide opportunities for threat actors to exploit weaknesses in a system's defense, potentially leading to unauthorized access, data breaches, or loss of sensitive information.
Weekly headline count for the current query.
Failing to disable a former employee’s account was a huge mistake
Many healthcare sector organizations are delaying to even begin contemplating - let alone strategizing - how to mitigate post-quantum risk - but procrastination is a major mistake, said Ali Youssef, director of emerging tech security, at Henry Ford Health.
Bungled link handed over sensitive docs, and when recipient didn't cooperate, police opted for cuffs Dutch police have arrested a man for "computer hacking" after accidentally handing him their own sensitive files and then getting annoyed when he didn't hand them back.…
Every week brings new discoveries, attacks, and defenses that shape the state of cybersecurity. Some threats are stopped quickly, while others go unseen until they cause real damage
In cybersecurity, the line between a normal update and a serious incident keeps getting thinner. Systems that once felt reliable are now under pressure from constant change. New AI tools, connected devices, and automated systems quietly create more ways in, often faster than security teams can react. This week’s stories show how easily a small mistake or hidden service can turn into a real
AI Failures May Hide in Ways that Safety Tests Don't MeasureWhen an AI chatbot tells people to add glue to pizza, the error is obvious. When it recommends eating more bananas - sound nutritional advice that could be dangerous for someone with kidney failure - the mistake hides in plain sight.
Most people know the story of Paul Bunyan. A giant lumberjack, a trusted axe, and a challenge from a machine that promised to outpace him. Paul doubled down on his old way of working, swung harder, and still lost by a quarter inch. His mistake was not losing the contest. His mistake was assuming that effort alone could outmatch a new kind of tool
You’ve probably already moved some of your business to the cloud—or you’re planning to. That’s a smart move. It helps you work faster, serve your customers better, and stay ahead
Imagine this: Sarah from accounting gets what looks like a routine password reset email from your organization’s cloud provider. She clicks the link, types in her credentials, and goes back to her spreadsheet. But unknown to her, she’s just made a big mistake. Sarah just accidentally handed over her login details to cybercriminals who are laughing all the way to their dark web
The danger isn’t that AI agents have bad days — it’s that they never do. They execute faithfully, even when what they’re executing is a mistake. A single misstep in logic or access can turn flawless automation into a flawless catastrophe
Every October brings a familiar rhythm - pumpkin-spice everything in stores and cafés, alongside a wave of reminders, webinars, and checklists in my inbox. Halloween may be just around the corner, yet for those of us in cybersecurity, Security Awareness Month is the true seasonal milestone
AI security reviews add new risks, say researchers App security outfit Checkmarx says automated reviews in Anthropic's Claude Code can catch some bugs but miss others – and sometimes create new risks by executing code while testing it.…
In cybersecurity, precision matters—and there’s little room for error. A small mistake, missed setting, or quiet misconfiguration can quickly lead to much bigger problems. The signs we’re seeing this week highlight deeper issues behind what might look like routine incidents: outdated tools, slow response to risks, and the ongoing gap between compliance and real security
The second max score this week for Netzilla - not a good look If you're running the Engineering-Special (ES) builds of Cisco Unified Communications Manager or its Session Management Edition, you need to apply Cisco's urgent patch after someone at Switchzilla made a big mistake.…
The sprawling social media and gaming platform says that being considered a Chinese military business must be a mistake.
Emeraldwhale gang looked sharp – until it made a common S3 bucket mistake A criminal operation dubbed Emeraldwhale has been discovered after it dumped more than 15,000 credentials belonging to cloud service and email providers in an open AWS S3 bucket, according to security researchers.…
Legitimate emails misclassified in software snafu Updated Many administrators have had a trying Monday after getting spammed out with false malware reports by Microsoft.…
An individual in Turkey is behind a new information stealer that researchers have recently observed in multiple attacks.
And reveals the small mistake that bricked 8.5 million Windows boxes CrowdStrike has hired two outside security firms to review the Falcon sensor code that sparked a global IT outage last month – but it may not have an awful lot to find, because CrowdStrike has identified the simple mistake that caused the incident.…
If it can happen to folks that run social engineering defence training, what hope for the rest of us? Cybersecurity awareness and training provider KnowBe4 hired a North Korean fake IT worker for a software engineering role on its AI team, and only realized its mistake once the guy started using his company-provided computer for evil.…