DataBreachToday.com

Lumen Spotted More Than 500 Command and Control Servers Since October
A major U.S. internet service provider said it's blocked incoming traffic to more than 550 command and control servers botnets identified over the past four months that administer the Kimwolf and Aisuru botnets.

New Agency Focuses on Public Programs, Ignores Private Sector Fraud
Citing recent high-profile arrests of fraud rings in Minnesota, President Donald Trump announced the creation of National Fraud Enforcement division in the Department of Justice. Sounds nice, but will it make a difference without deeper coordination with banks, payment platforms and businesses?

Joint US, UK and Five Eyes Guidance Flags OT Exposure as National Risk
U.S. and allied cyber agencies issued new guidance warning that insecure operational technology connectivity - driven by remote access, third-party vendors and IT integration - remains a major threat vector, enabling cyber intrusions to escalate into physical disruptions.

Also, Venezuela Cyberattack, Endesa Confirms Breach and Telegram IP Leak
This week, a software flaw caused the Verizon outage. U.S. cyberattack in Venezuela. ICE identities published online. BreachForums users leaked. Spanish energy provider Endesa data breach. Telegram privacy risk. A MuddyWater upgrade. Dutch man sentenced for hacking a maritime port. A ServiceNow patch.

Funding at $1.2B Valuation to Propel Federal Market Entry and R&D in GenAI
Torq 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.

Forrester's Sandy Carielli on Quantum Readiness, Key Steps for Successful Migration
Quantum security migrations are multi-year, cross-functional projects that touch product, infrastructure and supply chains. While the scope of migration can be daunting, CIOs can follow several practical steps to make the project more manageable, said Forrester's Sandy Carielli.

Ransomware Gang Money Message Claimed It Exfiltrated 4.7TB of Firm's Data
Pharmacy services firm PharMerica will pay at least $5.27 million - plus millions more on enhancing its security - as part of a preliminary class action settlement approved this week by a federal court involving a 2023 data theft incident the company reported as affecting 5.8 million individuals.

Misstatement Claims Tossed in Class-Action Securities Case After CrowdStrike Outage
A U.S. district judge tossed most claims from investors accusing CrowdStrike of misrepresenting its software testing rigor before a July 2024 outage. The judge said two statements about federal compliance could plausibly be misleading, but said plaintiffs failed to establish intent or recklessness.

Scenario Planning Must Model Disruption, Strengthen Cyber Basics, Build Redundancy
IT organizations know how to plan for outages, but even the most rigorously designed strategy is vulnerable to the shifting winds of geopolitics. CIOs and technology leaders need to know how their organizations will respond to geopolitical disruptions, and scenario planning needs to be a priority.

How to Deal With Having Influence Without Authority in Cybersecurity Roles
In some cybersecurity organizations, expertise and visible leadership don't reside in the same role. Usually, the person with the most influence on cybersecurity decisions is the owner, but it does not always work out that way. Fortunately, there are things you can do to change that for your career.

Stealthy Group Taps Blockchain 'EtherHiding' to Facilitate Victim Communications
The DeadLock ransomware group, a newly emerged digital extortion group, is using blockchain smart contracts to store proxy server addresses for facilitating ransomware negotiations with victim organizations. The technique suggests the group is made up of experienced cybercriminals.

3 Major Tech Firms Shipped Vulnerable Open-Source Tools to Hugging Face
Researchers discovered remote code execution vulnerabilities in three AI libraries from Apple, Salesforce and Nvidia used by models with tens of millions of Hugging Face downloads, allowing attackers to hide malicious code in model metadata.

$420M Deal Enables Web Detection and Response, Secures AI-Driven Browser Activity
CrowdStrike is bolstering its Falcon platform with browser-native web detection and response by acquiring Seraphic for $420 million. The technology helps protect AI workflows by securing any browser against data leakage, session hijacking and other web-based threats.

Cause Unknown But Many Previous Outages Due to Software Misconfiguration
Verizon customers along the Eastern Seaboard and Southern parts of the United States lost mobile phone connectivity Wednesday in an incident that appears to have peaked around 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

University of Hawaii Cancer Center Paid Ransom
Cancer patients who participated in University of Hawaii Cancer Center studies during the 1990s may soon receive a notification that ransomware hackers stole their data in an August 2025 incident. Experts said the hack spotlights concerning risks involving compromises of medical research data.

Startup Targets MSSPs and MDR Vendors, Shadow AI Detection and Global Growth
WitnessAI has raised $58 million to scale its AI network and agent protection platform worldwide. The funding will help the firm build MSSP-ready offerings, detect unauthorized AI agents and enforce security policies across employee and customer LLM use cases.

Analysts Warn Foreign Adversaries Gaining Footholds in US Networks
Cyber policy analysts told lawmakers that the United States' cyber deterrence efforts are failing, allowing China and others to embed in critical infrastructure networks with minimal cost, while calling for faster, coordinated offensive actions across federal agencies.

Experts on How CIOs Can Avoid 'Geopolitical Lock-In' in AI, Cloud and Supply Chains
Geopolitical instability is a part of reality in 2026, and the stakes are high for CIOs who must rely on global supply chains to develop IT, artificial intelligence, cloud and cybersecurity strategies.

How UX Decisions Are Becoming Regulatory Liabilities for CISOs
Children's data is entering a new regulatory era where dark patterns, defaults and monetization choices can signal breached fiduciary duty. As privacy, safety and consumer laws converge globally, CISOs must treat manipulative UX, consent flows and retention practices as core security and governance risks.