Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

Agencies and Industry Coordinate Post-Quantum Migration PlansThe White House convened government officials, quantum companies and researchers to accelerate the transition to post-quantum cryptography, align public-private investments and reinforce a 2030 deadline as advances in quantum computing increase risks to today's encryption.

Threat Actor Silently Forwarded Sensitive Emails Matching Strategic TopicsGoogle says Chinese espionage group UNC6508 compromised REDCap environments at North American research institutions, deployed custom malware, stole credentials and covertly forwarded strategically relevant emails through abused compliance rules to support long-term intelligence collection.

Researchers Identified Two Undocumented Variants Used Since 2023Eset uncovered two previously undocumented Windows variants of the China-linked SprySocks backdoor tied to FishMonger and iSoon, revealing expanded espionage capabilities, rootkit-based stealth and continued targeting of government organizations across Asia and Central America.

Also: Gas Station Monitoring Systems Under Attack, Spanish Teen Doxer ArrestedThis week, more happened than fits here: Microsoft tried to make nice with researchers, gas tank gauges under attack in the United States, fake FIFA websites are everywhere. Russia cried cyberespionage, Spanish police arrested a teenage doxer, a Oracle WebLogic flaw was actively exploited.

Agency Expands Research Beyond Safety Testing to Standards and EvaluationThe U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology is expanding one of its largest artificial intelligence initiatives, rebranding the AI Safety Institute Consortium and reopening participation as the Trump administration pushes a more industry-focused approach to AI development and governance.

ARPA-H Program Aims to Speed Up Disease Breakthroughs Using AI-Enabled EcosystemBiomedical research breakthroughs for complex diseases and chronic illnesses can take years to achieve. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is hoping to speed that up ten-fold by creating an artificial intelligence-enabled interoperable research ecosystem.

Alleged Nation-State Hacker Being Held in Houston JailU.S. prosecutors allege 34-year-old Chinese national Xu Zewei operated under China’s Ministry of State Security to hack universities and firms during the pandemic, exploiting VPN and Exchange flaws and exfiltrating research data in a Silk Typhoon campaign.

UPGRADE and DigiSeals Programs at ARPA-H Remain Fully FundedA U.S. federal grant effort to develop autonomous medical device patching platforms for hospitals evaded the budget-cutting knife of the Trump administration. Program boosters hope to automate cyber defenses so that hospitals of any size can more quickly patch vulnerabilities.

J.P. Morgan’s Brian Essex on Why Valuations Drop as Fundamentals Hold SteadyInvestor anxiety over AI's long-term impact is dragging down stock valuations despite steady growth and profitability, while companies focus on long-term valuation assumptions and secure business models, said Brian Essex, executive director of U.S. software equity research at J.P. Morgan.

AWS Researchers Find an Interlock Server Laden With ToolsRansomware hackers exploited a flaw with a maximum vulnerability score in Cisco firewall management software weeks before the networking giant disclosed the vulnerability in early March. The group has focused extensively on critical infrastructure sectors in North America and Europe.

Researchers Tie UAT-9244 Intrusion to Famous Sparrow and Tropic TrooperA China-linked cyberespionage group has been targeting telecommunications providers in South America since 2024 using a set of newly discovered malware tools designed to maintain persistent access to critical communications infrastructure, Cisco Talos researchers found.

Shadow Aeza International Directed Traffic to Malicious AdtechA financially motivated threat actor hacked dozens of domain name system resolvers, connecting them to the infrastructure of a Russian bulletproof hosting service sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury for its criminal links, researchers found.

Feds Warn US May Lose Quantum Race Without Sustained Research FundingFederal scientists told Congress that failure to reauthorize the National Quantum Initiative threatens to unravel coordinated research and development progress, stall commercialization and allow China to surpass U.S. leadership as adversaries accelerate post-quantum capabilities.

Funding at $1.2B Valuation to Propel Federal Market Entry and R&D in GenAITorq secured $140 million in Series D funding at a $1.2 billion valuation to expand its generative AI-powered security operations platform. With backing from Merlin Ventures, Torq will grow internationally, deepen AI research and pursue U.S. federal opportunities including FedRAMP certification.

Foundation for Defense of Democracies Warns Against Aligning With New Cyber TreatyThe United Nations' cybercrime treaty, shaped by Russian and Chinese influence, could legitimize global digital repression by enabling prosecutions of journalists, activists and researchers under vague terms - despite U.S. opposition and mounting civil society alarm, analysts warned Thursday.

Researchers Uncover Covert Chinese Access to US Service Provider InfrastructureMandiant said it has tracked a Chinese-linked espionage campaign using BRICKSTORM malware to quietly embed within U.S. infrastructure and service providers for over a year, exploiting appliance-level blind spots to maintain persistence, evade detection and potentially develop zero-day exploits.

Recent advisories from U.S. federal authorities on vulnerabilities in certain operational technology devices underscore the potential security risks that many healthcare providers frequently underestimate, said Sila Özeren, a security research engineer at Picus Security.

Recent advisories from U.S. federal authorities on vulnerabilities in certain operational technology devices underscore the potential security risks that many healthcare providers frequently underestimate, said Sila Özeren, a security research engineer at Picus Security.

Inskit Researchers Uncover Clusters in Hungary, Saudi ArabiaSecurity researchers uncovered a previously unseen malware cluster associated with Israeli spyware maker Candiru. The company may have rebranded itself to evade sanctions to continue its operations. It continues to operate despite its inclusion in 2021 onto an exports blacklist by the United States.

Over 400 Organizations Breached Via Ongoing ToolShell Attacks, Researchers WarnThe U.S. government agency that maintains and designs America's nuclear weapons was reportedly breached by attackers exploiting zero-day flaws in on-premises Microsoft SharePoint servers, with researchers now counting over 400 victims, including European and Middle Eastern governments.