Secure World News

In a significant move toward accountability, Qantas Airways has reduced short-term bonuses for its executive leadership, cutting 15% from their pay in light of a recent cyber breach that compromised customer data for millions. So, what happened, and what does it all mean for CISOs, their teams, and the broader corporate ecosystem?

“AI is coming for my job” is a common refrain from many tech workers today. We’ve all heard that the entry level jobs are going to be performed by AI and that most low-skill jobs in technology will be either completely performed by AI or at least augmented enough to reduce the amount of team members required to perform the tasks.

Cybercriminals are abusing Grok AI, the conversational assistant built into X (formerly Twitter) to spread malware through a campaign researchers have dubbed “Grokking.” The scheme was uncovered by Guardio Labs researcher Nati Tal, who found that attackers are leveraging Grok’s trusted status on the platform to amplify malicious links hidden in promoted ads.

What began as a quiet investigation into suspicious Salesforce activity has escalated into one of the most significant SaaS supply chain incidents of the year.

Cyber threats are evolving at a pace that traditional security testing methods struggle to match. From sophisticated phishing campaigns to adaptive malware and zero-day exploits, attackers are leveraging advanced tools, and increasingly artificial intelligence (AI), to outsmart defenses. In response, cybersecurity teams are turning to AI-powered testing to strengthen their protective measures.

In the last few years, we’ve seen an uncomfortable trend: the very companies entrusted to safeguard the digital world sometimes end up as high-profile victims themselves.

Phoenix Police Department (PPD) has launched Versaterm’s CallTriage, an AI-powered conversational platform handling non-emergency (Crime Stop) calls. Several aspects make this deployment noteworthy to cybersecurity professionals, particularly those focused on public-sector AI governance, trust, and resilience.

When Mandiant releases its M-Trends report, the industry pays attention. The 2025 edition, presented at the SecureWorld Critical Infrastructure Virtual Conference on August 28th, sheds light on the tactics, techniques, and campaigns that shaped the past year—and the implications for defenders tasked with protecting IT and OT systems.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finalized a landmark set of rules requiring public companies to disclose cybersecurity incidents with unprecedented transparency and speed. These disclosures—and disclosure governance—are now mandatory and not just recommended. Here’s what cybersecurity professionals need to understand.

The embedded software landscape is undergoing a seismic shift. According to Black Duck’s newly-released State of Embedded Software Quality and Safety 2025 report, based on a survey of 785 development and security professionals worldwide, the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and supply chain transparency is redefining how companies develop, deploy, and secure software.

Farmers Insurance has disclosed a data breach affecting 1.1 million customers, with stolen data including names, addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, and in some cases, the last four digits of Social Security numbers. The incident, detected in late May 2025, is reportedly linked to the widespread Salesforce social engineering campaign that has already ensnared multiple large enterprises across industries.

Mobile banking trojans are evolving, and Hook v3 is a stark reminder of how sophisticated and dangerous these threats are becoming. Zimperium’s zLabs research sheds light on just how advanced these attacks have grown, and what security professionals need to know to defend against them.

You’ve built a career on securing networks, defending against APTs, and patching vulnerabilities. You’ve seen it all, from sophisticated malware to zero-day exploits. Yet, when you get a call from a family member, the threat landscape shifts entirely. Suddenly, you’re on the front line of a very different kind of cybersecurity crisis: explaining phishing scams, password managers, and why “your account will be deleted!” is a classic red flag.

Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs has uncovered a highly-sophisticated phishing campaign targeting Microsoft Windows systems with a high-severity risk profile. The campaign uses deceptive emails, malicious JavaScript droppers, and a stealthy loader—UpCrypter—to deploy a suite of Remote Access Tools (RATs), enabling deep system compromise.

As the automotive industry leans further into digital transformation—embracing connected systems, software-defined vehicles (SDVs), AI, and over-the-air (OTA) capabilities—the imperative for robust cybersecurity has never been more urgent.

According to a recent presentation by Roger A. Grimes, Data-Driven Defense Evangelist at KnowBe4, current cyber defenses have failed to significantly mitigate threat actors and the threats they pose. In the SecureWorld webcast discussion, titled “Taming the Hacker Storm: Your Framework for Defeating Cybercriminals and Malware,” Grimes outlines a framework for a new, pervasive, selective trust-based ecosystem to combat cybercrime. 

It’s 2 a.m. and the owner of a small manufacturing shop jolts awake to a phone call. Her email system is locked, customer orders are frozen, and the attacker is demanding $25,000 in Bitcoin by morning. For years, this business owner assumed cybercriminals only targeted the big guys. But in reality, their size made them the perfect mark. It’s a changing landscape, and it’s high time we covered the increasing amount of risks SMBs face from cybercriminals. 

The latest SecPod Q2 2025 Vulnerability Report highlights a concerning escalation in enterprise risk. With a 15% rise in total vulnerabilities this quarter, and a disproportionate 13% classified as critical or high severity, the findings underscore a growing attacker advantage and shrinking time-to-exploit.

The U.K. has backed away from its demand that Apple build a backdoor into its encrypted iCloud services, according to comments from U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The move, which followed months of negotiations involving U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, represents a significant shift in how far allied governments are willing to press for access to encrypted data.

The recent breach of data from Workday’s third-party CRM system is more than just another headline; it’s a powerful case study in the evolution of cybercrime. The incident, linked to the notorious extortion group ShinyHunters, underscores a critical reality: a company’s attack surface now extends far beyond its own network and into the hands of its employees and third-party vendors.