Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

Also: AscendEX Shuts Down; Ethereum Foundation on AI Bug HuntingThis week, Ostium paused trading, AscendEX shut down, Ethereum said AI hastens bug hunting, not verification, the United States charged an inmate over seized transfer, ex-Sheriff's deputy jailed for extortion, Tangem card security, Iran-linked wallets sanctions and the U.S. may drop BitClub charges.

Also: Former Hodlnaut CEO Charged and Stake DAO Hit by ExploitEvery week, ISMG rounds up cybersecurity incidents in digital assets. This week, the U.S. sanctioned Iran's largest exchange, ex-Hodlnaut CEO faced charges, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued over a $12.3M AI crypto scam and exploits hit Gravity Bridge, Stake DAO and Gnosis Pay.

The Instagram accounts for the Obama White House and the Chief Master Sergeant of the U.S. Space Force were briefly defaced with pro-Iranian images and messages over the weekend, after instructions began circulating on Telegram showing how to trick Meta's "AI support assistant" bot into resetting account passwords.

Iran's Nimbus Manticore pushes AI-built MiniFast backdoor via phishing and SEO poisoning

Nimbus Manticore accelerated cyberattacks during wartime, using AI-assisted malware, fake Zoom installers, and SEO poisoning. When the United States launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran at the end of February 2026, most analysts expected the country’s cyber apparatus to hunker down and weather the storm. That’s not what happened. Instead, researchers at Check Point have […]

Also, YellowKey Bypasses BitLocker, Škoda Breach, Kingdom Market Operator JailedThis week, U.S. lawmakers urged action on AI, a BitLocker exploit. Škoda, Nvidia’s GeForce NOW partner and telehealth firm OpenLoop reported breaches. Patch Tuesday. A dark market operator sentenced and pro-Ukraine and Iranian-linked hacking. Nitrogen ransomware attack on Foxconn.

Gartner sees accelerating growth in IT spending, powered by cloud and AI infrastructure investment A day after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said the US/Israel/Iran war was creating the worst energy crisis ever faced by the ‌world, Gartner increased its growth forecasts for global IT spending by nearly three percentage points.…

Also: CISA Protocol Concerns, AI Agents Push Past Cybersecurity ControlsIn this week's panel, four ISMG editors unpacked the cyber dimensions of the Stryker attack amid the escalating Iran-Israel-U.S. tensions, the growing controversy around CISA leadership and alleged protocol breaches, and a new set of concerns related to AI agents bypassing security controls.

Also: the Pentagon-Anthropic AI Legal Showdown, the New Reality of Document FraudIn this week's panel, four ISMG editors discuss the cyber activity tied to the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict, the Pentagon's standoff with AI firm Anthropic and a new report that reveals how document fraud reflects deeper weaknesses in verification systems.

Zscaler ThreatLabz assessed with medium to high confidence that an Iranian adversary targeted Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a new cyber-attack

China, Iran, North Korea Hackers Exploit Gemini Across Attack Life CycleState-backed hackers weaponized Google's artificial intelligence model Gemini to accelerate cyberattacks, using the productivity tool as an offensive asset for reconnaissance, social engineering and malware development. Google said it has disabled accounts and strengthened defenses.

The RedKitten campaign distributes lures designed to target people seeking information about missing persons or political dissidents in Iran

Also: Medicare Data Breach; Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit TakeawaysIn this week's update, ISMG editors discussed Iran-linked hackers claiming to steal emails from Trump's inner circle, how to refine application development in the age of AI, and a U.S. Medicare data breach amplifying concerns over the safety, security and privacy of federal health systems.

An Iranian state-sponsored hacking group associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been linked to a spear-phishing campaign targeting journalists, high-profile cyber security experts, and computer science professors in Israel

Meanwhile, next-gen script kiddies are levelling up faster thanks to agentic AI Interview Iran's state-sponsored cyber operatives and hacktivists have all increased their activities since the military conflict with Israel erupted last week – but not necessarily in the way that Amazon chief information security officer CJ Moses expected.…

Malicious Accounts Linked to Malware, Influence OperationsOpenAI is using its artificial intelligence models to detect and counter abuse and has banned accounts associated with malicious state-linked operations. Hackers aligned with Russia, China, North Korea and Iran have used OpenAI's tools for malware development and social media manipulation.

OpenAI has revealed that it banned a set of ChatGPT accounts that were likely operated by Russian-speaking threat actors and two Chinese nation-state hacking groups to assist with malware development, social media automation, and research about U.S. satellite communications technologies, among other things

Report Also Flags Threats Linked to North Korea, IranChinese influence operations are using artificial intelligence to carry out surveillance and disinformation campaigns, OpenAI said in its latest threat report. The report details two major Chinese campaigns that misused AI tools, including OpenAI's own models, to advance state-backed agendas.

And you, China, Russia, North Korea ... Guardrails block malware generation Google says it's spotted Chinese, Russian, Iranian, and North Korean government agents using its Gemini AI for nefarious purposes, with Tehran by far the most frequent naughty user out of the four.…

Google Says Iranian and Chinese Threat Group the Most ActiveIranian and Chinese threat actors are using Google's artificial intelligence application Gemini for vulnerability scanning and reconnaissance activities, with some attempting to bypass security guardrails of the application, the computing giant disclosed.