Written by: Aurora Blum, David Mainor, Rohit Nambiar, Omar ElAhdan, Matthew McWhirt, Will Silverstone, Bhavesh Dhake, Chris Busse Introduction Recent intrusions in which threat actors have been observed weaponizing agentic frameworks to execute highly-automated intrusions has put a spotlight on evolving adversarial use of LLMs. In our September 2026 report, Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) noted that forward leaning adversaries were beginning to transition from basic prompting to agentic…
In this article Stages of AI adoption by North Korean threat actors AI use across North Korean threat operations AI-assisted targeting and reconnaissance AI-assisted social engineering and identity deception AI-assisted software and tooling development AI-assisted operational scaling and analysis Mitigation and protection guidance Microsoft Defender detections As Microsoft Threat Intelligence continues to track how threat actors operationalize AI to increase the speed, efficiency, and…
AI is widening the attack surface of the critical infrastructure facilities and services that state, local, and education (SLED) organizations run. In the final post of our Cybersecurity Awareness Month series, we explain how a whole-of-state security approach can help SLED agencies protect their critical infrastructure. Key takeaways Because cyber attackers prey on under-resourced targets, they often go after SLED organizations, especially those that operate critical infrastructure, including…
In this article What’s happening What is ARTEX? Mitigation and protection guidance References Learn more As early as September 2026, Storm-0940, a China-state aligned actor, used the agentic AI penetration testing framework ARTEX to automate attacks targeting hundreds of organizations globally across a broad range of industries. Several of these Storm-0940 ARTEX-driven attacks have resulted in the actor obtaining privileged access to an organization’s cloud infrastructure – including multiple…
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is ordering federal civilian agencies to stop using DeepSeek products and remove them from government systems. [...]
Our analysis an AI-powered espionage campaign targeting government Linux infrastructure with custom malware, web shells, and advanced credential theft. The post AI-Powered Espionage Campaign Targets Government Linux Infrastructure appeared first on Unit 42.
Photos you take with your phone and some digital cameras can contain hidden information, including where they were taken. You can strip that data out before sharing a photo with someone, which would help to protect your location. But the image itself may still give you away. A company called Graylark says its Raven AI tool can match an indoor photo to a specific property using visual clues alone. No GPS data or view out of the window required. We’ve seen this company before. Its tool, GeoSpy,…
Police tip hotlines already have their fair share of crank callers. Apparently they now have to contend with crank AI agents as well. AI agents have already been caught hacking software companies, breaching an Australian government portal, and trying to hack a Canadian government website. Now Anthropic’s Claude has added a made-up murder tip to the list. Claude’s Haiku 4.5 model filed a false tip in an unsolved Philadelphia homicide via the police department’s online public tip form, Anthropic…
Critical infrastructure faces mounting threats from nation-state groups and AI-driven attacks. In the latest installment of our Cybersecurity Awareness Month blog series, learn how leading cybersecurity agencies, such as CISA, are advising critical infrastructure organizations on ways to protect themselves and the essential services they provide. Key takeaways Critical infrastructure organizations often struggle with asset visibility gaps that create hidden attack vectors. Many older OT systems…
Anthropic announced that its internal AI models undergoing "high-risk and cybersecurity evaluations" no longer have internet access following incidents involving U.S. government websites at the federal, state, and local levels. [...]
Aikido has achieved FedRAMP Moderate authorization, bringing AI-native, automated vulnerability remediation to U.S. federal agencies. Category: Company Updates
Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) are cameras that photograph passing vehicles, read their number plates, and typically log the time, location, and vehicle details. On their own, the images might be used to find a stolen car or locate a suspect. But lately there have been a lot of concerns raised about the way they are used. The main worry is caused by what happens when many cameras feed data into a shared, searchable network: it can create a detailed record of where ordinary people…
According to this year’s Microsoft Digital Defense Report, government agencies and services were the sector most impacted by cyber threats in 2026, accounting for 27% of observed activity, up from 17% in 2025. Governments are also the most frequently targeted sectors for nation-state activity. They are attractive targets because they hold sensitive information, operate essential services, and sit at the center of networks of agencies, contractors, technology providers, and critical…
The artificial intelligence giant acknowledged it botched its response to the incidents and should have done more to promptly notify and work with the Australian government in the days after it discovered the breaches.
An OpenAI agent didn’t take “no” for an answer when it encountered a government website’s access controls. It got through, prompting Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to raise his concerns directly with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The BBC reports that an OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access to an Australian government statistics portal while carrying out internal research. It is yet another incident that turns abstract concerns about autonomous AI behavior into a concrete cybersecurity…
OpenAI agents targeted public data providers in multiple countries, probing some for vulnerabilities and exploiting a security weakness in an Australian government portal while performing information-retrieval tasks as part of a research project. [...]
For the latest discoveries in cyber research for the week of 21st Setpember, please download our Threat Intelligence Bulletin. TOP ATTACKS AND BREACHES Japan’s Digital Agency, which operates the Government Solution Service used by multiple ministries, has confirmed a data breach after attackers exploited a vulnerability in a VPN appliance. Approximately 246,000 records were exposed, including names and contact details belonging to government officials and contractors, while financial…
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has seized the domains of 12 deepfake websites in what it called the largest known seizure of celebrity deepfake sites in history. The sites, which marketed themselves as deepfake pornography platforms, hosted AI-generated videos of over 1,200 people, including those in the public eye, ranging from politicians to actors, musicians, and social justice advocates. At least one allowed users to create their own deepfakes by grafting real faces and bodies…
Australia’s move from the Essential Eight to an outcomes-based cybersecurity model will push organizations from conducting periodic point-in-time, checklist compliance assessments to having continuous evidence of a solid security posture.Key takeawaysThe Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) is moving from the Essential Eight cybersecurity framework to a new outcomes-focused Essentials series covering enterprise IT, cloud, operational technology (OT), and potentially agentic AI.The Essential…
Anthropic detected and disrupted a Russia-linked cyber-espionage group that used its AI tool Claude in a hacking campaign targeting more than 20 government, intelligence, diplomatic and defense organizations.
Executive Summary Since the release of our May 2026 report detailing adversarial misuse of artificial intelligence (AI), Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has observed forward leaning adversaries transition from basic prompting to agentic AI workflows and AI-enabled automation. In these operations, human-in-the-loop latency is dramatically reduced, compressing the traditional window for defenders to respond. In Q2 2026, GTIG observed threat actors compromise a cloud resource, then plan,…
You can’t patch everything. So what do you fix first? Findings in Q2 2026 have changed traditional answers.The latest Quarterly Threat Landscape Report from Rapid7 Labs shows vulnerability disclosures still surging while attackers use automation and AI-assisted tooling to compress the time between disclosure and exploitation. The gap that patch cycles were built to fill is closing. Speed and volume are overwhelming security teams that have relied on traditional patch cycles and reactive…
Tenable’s Research Special Operations (RSO) team has been tracking a cluster of agentic AI threat activity since late July 2026. The Taiwan autonomous AI cyber attack confirmed what the cluster data already showed: near-autonomous offensive AI has crossed from theoretical risk to operational reality.Key TakeawaysTaiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs confirmed a near-autonomous AI cyber attack in July 2026 in which autonomous agents mapped 21 connected government systems, compromised 85 accounts,…
For the latest discoveries in cyber research for the week of 27th July, please download our Threat Intelligence Bulletin. TOP ATTACKS AND BREACHES Nichirei, a Japan-based frozen-food supplier and logistics company, has experienced a ransomware attack that disrupted shipping operations and affected approximately 5,000 customers. KFC Japan warned of possible shortages. Nichirei confirmed personal data theft, while the RansomHouse group claimed responsibility and published a subset of the stolen…
For years, the cyber security industry tracked AI as a force multiplier: something that made existing attack techniques faster, cheaper, and more accessible. That framing was accurate. But the Annual AI Security Report 2026 from Check Point Research documents a transition that goes further. AI has crossed from assistant to operator. Where it once helped attackers prepare, it now runs the operation. Key observed findings AI has crossed from development aid to live attack operator. It now does…
TrendAI™ Research has identified two emerging threat campaigns—SHADOW-AETHER-040 and SHADOW-AETHER-064—that use agentic AI to drive intrusion operations against government and financial organizations in Latin America, marking these among the first cases we have observed of AI agents executing attacks from initial access to data exfiltration.
A deeper look at the first three pillars and outlining how our capabilities directly support government agencies working to bring this strategy to life.