DataBreachToday.com

Operation Checkmate Disrupts One of the Large Russian-Speaking Ransomware Groups
An international law enforcement operation has disrupted BlackSuit, a ransomware group tied to hundreds of victims and ransom demands that exceeded half a billion dollars. The takedown occurred as security experts tracked the rise of a new group called Chaos, which may be a BlackSuit rebrand.

Attackers Stole US Customer Data Using Social Engineering
A malicious actor breached a customer relationship management platform used by Allianz Life Insurance of North America on July 16 and stole personally identifiable information of most of its 1.4 million U.S. customers, financial professionals and some employees, the company said.

Lawsuit Claims BJC Health Shared Patient Info From MyChart Portal Without Consent
A Missouri healthcare system has agreed to pay up to $9.25 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that its use of online tracking tools in its patient portals transmitted sensitive patient information to third-party firms without the patients' knowledge or consent.

SaaS Enhancements Aim to Boost Network Detection, Response for Small Security Teams
Corelight's SaaS platform Investigator is designed to bring scalable network detection and response to smaller security teams. CEO Brian Dye says generative AI workflows and enriched network context help defenders identify threats faster and with greater confidence than ever.

Startup Targets Next-Gen Security Opportunities Beyond Autonomous SOC Agents
Dropzone AI raised $37 million to scale its flagship AI SOC analyst and build new agentic AI tools for cybersecurity operations. CEO Edward Wu says the funding supports demand surges as enterprises shift toward human-augmenting AI to handle alert fatigue and security tool sprawl.

Aeroflot Hit With Wiper Malware, Claim Pro-Ukrainian Hackers From Belarus
Russia's largest airline, Aeroflot, canceled dozens of flights on Monday and delayed more due to an IT disruption. Two pro-Ukrainian hacking groups from Belarus claimed to have wiped stolen extensive customer data before wiping 7,000 physical and virtual servers used by the airline.

Hacking Tactics Linked to Retail, Airline Compromises
The loosely connected band of adolescent cybercriminals tracked as Scattered Spider has joined the VMware hypervisor hacking bandwagon, pivoting into virtual servers through corporate instances of Active Directory. vSphere integration with Active Directory adds a yet another layer of insecurity.

State Seeks Public Input on New Reporting Rules and Regulations for Water Sector
New York State has unveiled a comprehensive set of water and wastewater cybersecurity regulations aimed at bolstering defenses for the vulnerable critical infrastructure sector, in addition to a new competitive investment program to help modernize under-resourced entities.

CEO Ofer Smadari: AI Agents Now Resolving Threat Cases at Scale with Accuracy
With its Revrod acquisition, Torq is pushing deeper into autonomous threat response. CEO Ofer Smadari outlines how AI runbooks and autopilot tech such as Socrates are reducing human workloads and helping security teams scale amid rising alert volumes and phishing attacks.

Tech Standards, Regulatory Levers Have Removed Barriers. What's Still in the Way?
Patients these days have an easier path to securely accessing their electronic health information, thanks in large part to advancements in certain technology standards and a big push by federal regulatory policies in recent years. But obstacles still exist.

OT Experts Advocate for Collaboration and "Adversary-Hostile" National Defenses
OT environments have long been bereft of their traditional shelter from cyberattacks made from hacker ignorance or disinterest. Industrial environments are forefronts for nation-state hacking, the risk heightened by global tensions and the convergence of operational technology with IT counterparts.

2021 Pysa Hack Compromised PHI of Nearly 25,000 Patients
A HIPAA breach investigation into a 2021 attack involving a variant of Pysa ransomware resulted in a $250,000 fine for an upstate New York specialty surgery practice, which also agreed to a corrective action plan that will be monitored by federal regulators for the next two years.

Sean Plankey Dodges Election Security Questions in Senate Confirmation Hearing
Sean Plankey, a former Energy Department and National Security Council cybersecurity official, faced tough questions from lawmakers about President Donald Trump's false claims of voting machine vulnerabilities and election fraud in the 2020 election during his Thursday confirmation hearing.

CEO Hitesh Sheth: New AI Offerings Boost Efficiency, Address Modern Network Needs
President and CEO Hitesh Sheth details how Vectra AI uses triage, stitching and prioritization agents to enhance SOC performance and curb alert fatigue. The network detection and response vendor is expanding AI Analyst via AWS Bedrock and integrations with Zscaler and CrowdStrike.

CIR's Lawrence Gasman on Why Quantum Data Centers Remain Years From Enterprise Use
Quantum data centers could become viable if business use cases emerge, says Lawrence Gasman, founder, Communications Industry Researchers. Technical hurdles, such as physical form factor, environment, cost and photonic interconnects, must be addressed for enterprise adoption.

CEO Jim Rosenthal on Improving Visibility, Remediation for Embedded Software Flaws
BlueVoyant unveiled a new SBOM tool to detect software embedded in third-party products, expanding its supply chain defense. Co-founder and CEO Jim Rosenthal said proactive remediation and deeper insight into data flows are key to combatting AI-powered attacks.

Also: CoinDCX's $44 Million Exploit, Crypto Theft Hit $2.17B in First Half of 2025
This week, Russia crypto laundering in Krygyzstan, CoinDCX lost $44M in a hack, the U.S. sought $7.1M in crypto linked to oil tank investment scam, Ex-NCA officer was jailed for stealing seized bitcoin, crypto thefts hit $2.17B in the first half of 2025 and Trump Media revealed $2B bitcoin holdings.

Also: Clorox Sues IT Vendor Over Password Blunder
This week, XSS forum admin arrested, Clorox sued Cognizant, Lumma Stealer is back, NY regulates water, U.S. maritime cybersecurity rules in effect, new Coyote banking Trojan, a hacker nabbed details of Mexico City auxiliary police, Latin America cyberattacks, and World Leaks stole synthetic data.

The Critical Disciples of Incident Response and Crisis Management in Cybersecurity
If you're looking for a career that lets you serve your community and protect critical systems, cybersecurity may be right for you. It offers more than just technical work. It's a crisis discipline and increasingly, one of the most vital roles in disaster resilience.