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Emerging artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies being applied in the health and wellness space that are not necessarily covered by HIPAA but instead fall under a variety of tough new state privacy laws that are being enacted, said attorney Lily Li of Metaverse Law.

Latest AI Model Improves Coding Capabilities But Has a Penchant for Blackmail
Startup Anthropic has birthed a new artificial intelligence model, Claude Opus 4, that tests show delivers complex reasoning and code-writing capabilities, but it also has a Machiavellian streak for solving office problems and a penchant for whistleblowing in response to perceived wrongdoing.

Teenager Charged With Stealing K-12 Student and Faculty Data, $3 Million Extortion
Massachusetts teenage college student Matthew Lane has been accused of hacking into K-12 student information system platform provider PowerSchool and holding stolen student and faculty data for ransom. Prosecutors said Lane has agreed to plead guilty to multiple charges tied to two hack attacks.

Police Take Down 300 Servers Worldwide, Neutralize 650 Domains
Law enforcement in a European-led operation against malware often used as a precursor to ransomware took down 300 servers worldwide, police said Friday. The crackdown is the latest action under Operation Endgame targeting ransomware and botnet ecosystem.

Malicious Packages Hide Scripts for Mapping Enterprise Networks
A hacking campaign is spreading malicious reconnaissance scripts already downloaded more than 3,000 times from the JavaScript runtime environment npm repository, warn researchers. The reconnaissance script is likely a harbinger of worse things to come.

Police Take Down 300 Servers Worldwide, Neutralize 650 Domains
Law enforcement in a European-led operation against malware often used as a precursor to ransomware took down 300 servers worldwide, police said Friday. The crackdown is the latest action under Operation Endgame targeting ransomware and botnet ecosystem.

Buyout Targets Deeper US Penetration, Digital Risk Intel, Ransomware Defense
Cognyte’s $4 million buy of GroupSense boosts its North America strategy, enhancing its investigative analytics platform with deep and darkweb threat insights and access to U.S. government and enterprise customers. The deal will enhance Cognyte’s analytics platform and threat protection offerings.

Labour Government Blames Tories
British law firms representing low-income criminal defendants and civil litigants are having to work for free for weeks or decline new cases as the fallout of a cyberattack against the U.K. Legal Aid Agency forced the agency to yank its online portal offline.

Global Collaboration Leads to Drug, Firearm Bust
U.S. and European officials Thursday touted a global operation to disrupt the criminal darkweb, announcing the arrest of 270 accused darkweb vendors and buyers across 10 countries. "Operation RapTor" resulted in the confiscation of more than $200 million and more than two metric tons of drugs.

Also: Privacy on the Line in 23andMe Sale; Google Leads Cyber Aid Charge
In this week's update, ISMG editors unpacked CrowdStrike's escalating legal troubles following its global outage, the fate of consumer DNA data as 23andMe's assets hit the auction block, and why tech giants are banding together to pressure Washington for faster, smarter foreign cyber aid.

Identity Experts Adam Preis and Troy Leach
As enterprises deploy AI-powered systems, legacy identity frameworks struggle to keep up, leaving gaps in visibility, control and accountability. Adam Preis and Troy Leach joined editors at ISMG to discuss how AI agents and machine identities are redefining identity security.

Did Marlboro-Chesterfield Pathology Pay Cybercrime Gang Safepay a Ransom?
A North Carolina pathology practice is notifying nearly 236,000 patients of a hacking incident discovered in January. Marlboro-Chesterfield Pathology says it "took steps" to ensure the hackers deleted its stolen data. Newcomer ransomware group Safepay is apparently the culprit in the attack.

Gigamon 2025 Survey: 17% Increase in Attacks as Public Cloud Vulnerabilities Mount
AI is transforming enterprise landscape, organizations report a 17% jump in cyber breaches over the past year. Security teams struggle with visibility gaps while adversaries weaponize AI to strike harder and faster, according to the Gigamon 2025 Hybrid Cloud Security Survey.

DanaBot Used to Steal and to Spy
A top figure in the Russian cybercrime gang behind DanaBot infected his own computer with the malware, allowing an FBI agent to search an image of his system, U.S. federal prosecutors disclosed Thursday in indictments and an announced disruption of the malware's infrastructure.

BSI Cites New Technologies, Geopolitical Tensions as Key Risk Factors
Mounting decentralization and digitization put electricity grids at risk of hacking that could cause power outages, the German cybersecurity agency warned Wednesday. Technologies such as internet-connected solar power inverters and a tense geopolitical situation sparks increased concern.

Deal Aims to Target Identity and AI Risks, SaaS Blind Spots With Unified Security
By acquiring Suridata, Fortinet plans to introduce SaaS Security Posture Management to its SASE platform. The update provides end-to-end visibility into SaaS apps, identity threats and AI plugin misuse, making SSPM a vital control plane in cloud-first security strategies.

Also: Signal Blocks Recall, Europe Sanctions Stark Industries
This week, Qakbot leader indicted, Signal blocked Recall and a judge said Trump illegally removed watchdogs. Ivanti and Palo Alto hacks linked, Stark Industries sanctioned, Marks and Spencer's hack costs 300M pounds. Pro-Ukraine hackers hit a Russian clinic and an outbreak of PureRAT in Russia.

Hacker Demanded $20M Ransom to Delete Stolen Personal, Financial Information
A months-long data breach led to the theft of personal and financial information of nearly 70,000 Coinbase customers. Coinbase said the breach dates back to December and was aided by bribery schemes targeting the company's overseas customer support agents.

Cyber Education Needs to Go Beyond the Checklist to Prepare Future Professionals
AI is redefining how organizations work, learn and defend themselves. But while the tech is moving fast, training strategies meant to prepare security professionals often lag far behind. That gap is persistent, pervasive and reshaping the very nature of cybersecurity careers.