Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

Patch Rollout Slows and Ransomware Incident Volume Rises, Finds Latest Verizon DBIRThe frequency of hackers exploiting vulnerabilities in hardware and software to gain initial access to a victim's environment continues to surge, and half of all successful breaches also now involve some type of "ransomware action," according Verizon's 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report.

Patch Now, as Scans and Hack Attempts Happening 'at Scale,' Security Experts WarnHacker interest is high in a days-old vulnerability in widely used web application framework React, with dozens of organizations already falling victim to it, cybersecurity experts warn. React is used by an estimated two-fifths of the world's top 10,000 websites.

Researchers See 'Acceleration' in Existing Threats, Ongoing Criminal SuccessCybercrime so far this year can be summarized as featuring "more of everything," with researchers tracking increases in the number of ransomware and data breach victims, credentials stolen by infostealers, and new vulnerability disclosures with exploits coming to light.

Akira Ransomware Exploited MFA-Protected SonicWall SSL VPNs, Say ResearchersSonicWall said it is probing a surge in attacks against its Gen 7 firewalls, running various firmware versions, which have SSL VPN enabled. Researchers said attackers may have been exploiting a zero-day vulnerability and that multiple victims have been infected with Akira ransomware.

Trellix's John Fokker Advises CISOs to Prioritize Patching, MFA, Network VisibilityThreat actors aren't rushing to adopt AI tools to exploit vulnerabilities. "They still prefer a victim with weak passwords, bad MFA, bad patching. It is the easiest way to make money for criminals so they don't have to invest in AI," said John Fokker, head of threat intelligence at Trellix.

Also: Conviction in £1.5M Fraud, Sentencing in Torture and Theft CaseThis week's stories include a critical Ethereum vulnerability, conviction in a £1.5M fraud, sentencing in a torture and crypto theft case, SEC's new roadmap, Jan crypto stats, Coinbase social engineering victims, and U.S. lawmakers' digital assets working group.

Chinese Hackers Hitting Unpatched Products From Microsoft, Sophos, Fortinet, IvantiChinese nation-state hackers who surreptitiously gained "broad and full" access to telecommunications networks in the U.S. and dozens of other countries have regularly exploited known flaws in their networking gear that the victims failed to patch, security experts have warned.

Officials Say Chinese Hackers Maintained 'Broad and Full' Access to Telecom SystemsFederal officials told reporters Friday that ongoing investigations into the Salt Typhoon cyberespionage campaign have identified a ninth victim company affected by the attack, in which hackers maintained "broad and full" access to vulnerable communications infrastructure across the country.

Exploitation Requires Victim to Print On Rogue PrinterAttackers can exploit a series of vulnerabilities in the OpenPrinting Common Unix Printing System utility to remotely execute arbitrary code on certain machines. Major Linux distributions reacted Friday by releasing patches. Exploitation requires a victim to attempt to print from a malicious device.

Hackers Target OpenMetadata Platforms Running on Cloud Kubernetes EnvironmentsHackers who appear to be Chinese are exploiting vulnerabilities in the OpenMetadata platform running as workloads on Kubernetes clusters to download cryptomining software, warned Microsoft. "I want to buy a car," the hackers tell victims in a note and solicit monero donations.

Also: A Widespread Linux Bootloader VulnerabilityThis week, the U.S. banned AI robocalls, researchers discovered a Linux bootloader flaw, France investigated health sector hackings, the feds offered money for Hive information, Verizon disclosed an insider breach, Germany opened a cybersecurity center, and cyberattack victims reported high costs.