Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

NCSC Chief Says Recent Retailer Hacks Should Be 'Wake-Up Call' for Cyber DefendersThe number of cyberattacks in the United Kingdom surged 50% in the past year, with ransomware continuing to be the top threat. National Cyber Security Centre CEO Richard Horne said recent high-profile hacks at major retailers exposed supply chain vulnerabilities and are a "wake-up call" to defenders.

Also: Google Fixes YouTube Vulnerabilities That Could Have Exposed User EmailsThis week: Microsoft, Ivanti and Google release fixes for critical vulnerabilities and urge priority patching; Lee Enterprises confirms a cyberattack disrupted newspaper operations; and thousands of KerioControl Firewalls exposed to critical remote code execution flaws.

Thousands of devices remain vulnerable, US most exposed to the threat Tens of thousands of fuel storage tanks in critical infrastructure facilities remain vulnerable to zero-day attacks due to buggy Automatic Tank Gauge systems from multiple vendors, say infosec researchers. …

Security Researcher Says Flaw Came From 700 Exposed APIs Belonging to CoxAn independent security researcher discovered a critical flaw in the backend infrastructure of the largest broadband provider in the United States that, if exploited, could have left millions of business customer devices vulnerable to major cyberattacks.

Cyberattack on Aliquippa Water Plant Highlights Vulnerabilities in OT SystemsThe onset of war between Israel and Hamas led to a spike in cyberattacks against operational technology, says Microsoft in a warning to critical infrastructure operators about the dangers of internet-exposed operational technology.

Security updates are tedious and difficult, so users continue to use a weak version of a core protocol and remain exposed to major attacks on critical infrastructure.

Researchers have observed several cyberattacks leveraging a botnet called IZ1H9, which exploits vulnerabilities in exposed devices and servers running on Linux.

Roughly half of all Android-based mobile phones used by state and local government employees are running outdated versions of the operating system, exposing them to hundreds of vulnerabilities threat actors can leverage to perform cyberattacks. [...]

Over 900,000 misconfigured Kubernetes clusters were found exposed on the Internet to potentially malicious scans, some even vulnerable to data-exposing cyberattacks. [...]