• 69% of Brits don't think their bank could detect an AI deepfake impersonating them
• Four in five do at least expect ID verification to get slicker in the next five years
• Most want convenience and are only prepared to wait two extra minutes

More than two in three (69%) Brits worry their bank couldn't distinguish them from an attack designed to impersonate them, according to new Digidentity research.

With rising AI threats targeting businesses and consumers alike, four in five would now expect their bank to have AI deepfake detection tools in place when they're running selfie-based identity checks.

This comes as more and more citizens end up preferring increased security measures like vide-based identity checks – with half (53%) believing that one-time security codes sent by text are no longer sufficient.

Banks aren't fully trusted to spot a deepfake

The fallout from a successful attack can have far-reaching consequences, so it's no surprise UK citizens are scrutinizing their banks. Vicims could face months or years of disputing fraudulent debts or challenging mystery accounts opened in their names, for example.

The report comes after Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey called for social media companies to take greater responsibility for tackling scams.

But there is hope, and citizens feel fairly confident in banks' longer-term strategies. Four in five (79%) expect ID verification processes to become smoother over the next five years despite these systems ultimately having to do more heavy lifting, and with good reason. Three in five (62%) respondents said they'd only be willing to tolerate up to two additional minutes of checks.

However, there are challenges. Banks don't typically run their own verification systems, instead choosing to opt for a third party.

"Banks put their own reputation behind the identity provider they choose," Digidentity UK Country Manager Jonathan Evans wrote. "If that provider lets an imposter through, it is the bank’s relationship with its customer that suffers."

Looking ahead, banks are under the most pressure they ever have been to verify legitimate activity and block malicious attacks, but they're also under equal pressure to deliver experiences that are convenient and quick for the end user despite rising threats.

• There is tech that can turn the radiation from HDMI cables back into video
• AI reduces errors in intercepted signals by over 60%
• Digital is harder to decode than analog, but it's not impossible

Last week we discovered that your videos can give away your location thanks to airplane noises in the background that you can't even hear, and we've known for some years that Wi-Fi routers can be used to spot where people are in a room. So it's not a huge surprise to discover yet another way our tech is betraying us — and this time the culprit is the humble HDMI cable.

A post on X by Psalter shows TempestSDR, which can capture the signal from your HDMI cable and almost recreate the image on another screen, because the cable creates an electromagnetic field that can be read. The quality isn't great, but if you bring AI into the mix you can enhance it to make text readable and images clearer. An AI system especially for the task, called DeepTempest, reduces errors by over 60%.

The video below is quite alarming.

Intercepting or playing with electronic leakage isn't new: 2001's Tempest for Eliza broadcast music to your radio by sending RF signals via your monitor, displaying images that generated specific radio frequencies. What's new is the AI element.

Is it time to don the tinfoil hat?

Not yet. DeepTempest does dramatically enhance images and reduce text errors, but as you can see from the video things are still pretty indistinct — and that's when the cable you're intercepting is right next to you, so you're close enough to see the display that you're intercepting.

You're not going to see much if you're in a van across the street, even if the cable being used is really poorly shielded, unless you've got a seriously powerful scanner.

DeepTempest was developed by Federico Larroca at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay, and it does represent a major step forward: using text capture software DeepTempest was able to reconstruct text with roughly 30% of characters being misinterpreted.

That sounds like a lot but it's not enough to render text incomprehensible to human readers. And that error rate is a whopping 60% lower than the previous state-of-the-art attack.

The word Tempest is used in these systems because it's a US National Security Agency (NSA) codename that refers to spying via electromagnetic leakage, and measures to prevent it.

Those measures are distance, shielding, filtering and masking, and they consider more than just leakage: they also include sounds and vibrations, so for example it's possible to log keystrokes via a phone's motion sensor.

The history of this is fascinating and goes back to the Second World War, where the US military's teleprinters were found to be generating detectable electromagnetic spikes that could be intercepted to capture the text. The recommendation for shielding, filtering and masking comes from the machines' supplier, Bell System, and while technology has advanced somewhat since then the advice is still sound: if you're the kind of person that security services or other shadowy organizations might be interested in, don't buy crappy cables.

Pricier cables have electromagnetic shielding, and while high-end companies used to tell us that was essential because otherwise the audio and video fidelity wouldn't be as pristine as you want… but maybe it's signal leaking out rather than in that people will be more worried about in the modern world.

• Researchers found over 1,400 exposed ARTEX instances online, with many linked to offensive security tooling
• ARTEX combines AI agents with reconnaissance capabilities and has been increasingly adopted in real-world attacks
• Some operators accidentally exposed malware, exploits, credentials, and internal infrastructure through misconfigured servers

Around 1,500 malicious instances of ARTEX were found on the internet, available to anyone who knew where to look, experts have warned.

Security researchers Censys said they identified 1,465 hosts running exposed ARTEX consoles. Of those, 155 (roughly 10%) were also running at least one tool commonly used in cyberattacks, including Cobalt Strike, Vshell, or Adaptix C2. They also found 32 publicly accessible directories on ARTEX hosts, some of which exposed exploit binaries, post-exploitation tools, and other sensitive files.

Usually, the ARTEX console does not require public-facing access, the researchers said, stressing that overall global deployment is “likely higher”.

Hijacking ARTEX

ARTEX is a legitimate penetration testing tool hijacked for malicious purposes, meaning at least some of these instances were set up by threat actors.

The story of ARTEX is similar to that of the now infamous Cobalt Strike. It was released by a developer called Autumn-27, who also authored ScopeSentry - a tool Censys describes as a “widely used Chinese asset-discovery and vulnerability-scanning platform”.

The researchers described ARTEX as an “AI agent layer on top of that recon foundation”. In other words - it is an LLM-powered version of Scope Sentry that syncs assets found by the tool’s domains, subdomains, IPs, ports, and endpoints.

ARTEX was released in late July 2026 and quickly gained popularity. On October 7, security researchers CrowdStrike reported seeing it used in malicious attacks and a day later, the developer distanced themselves from the illicit activity and stressed the tool was built for testing within authorized asset scopes. They then turned it into a closed-source tool with no further releases. However, despite the repository being taken down, Censys claims archived copies, translations, and different rebrands are still circulating.

Since then, numerous researchers observed it being used in different attacks. The CrowdStrike report described an unidentified threat actor using ARTEX to target South Korean financial institutions. The attacker, believed to be a financially-motivated Chinese actor (as opposed to being a state-sponsored one), compromised a broker-facing loan inquiry service at one bank and an employee mobile system at another. In both instances, they walked away with sensitive data.

They used ARTEX with DeepSeek v4.1-flash as their primary AI model, while also running Claude Code and Grok. The researchers found the operation in part because the attackers left publicly accessible directories where they exposed prompts, session histories, and ARTEX configuration files.

Censys later said the directories had been left exposed in mid-August, roughly seven weeks before CrowdStrike published its findings. File names also suggested they were targeting payment and gaming services, as well.

At one point Microsoft linked it to Storm-0940, a China-aligned threat actor responsible for compromising ConnectWise Cloud Backup customer environments. Apparently, the threat actors used ARTEX to automate scanning, password spraying, and OAuth application abuse, peaking at 2,900 sign-in attempts per minute at one point. Some Microsoft’s customers were allegedly seeing privileged cloud access granted in less than three hours.

Exposing their own infrastructure

Now, Censys says ARTEX is being paired with other offensive tools. At least 70 hosts were seen running both ARTEX and CyberStrikeAI, and others were seen deploying PentAGI, HexStrike AI, and RedAmon. Ironically enough, the researchers also found some actors had inadvertently exposed sensitive information through poorly secured directories. One installation exposed the operator’s entire home directory, including SSH configuration files and shellac command history, while others contained Windows lateral movement tools, malware implants, reverse-shell scripts, and exploit code.

Censys also stressed that not all of the exposed instances are malicious. They also said that roughly 650 of the detected hosts belonged to two groups of identically configured hosting infrastructure, leaving approximately 815 unique installations.

• Attackers are actively exploiting the Plex2Shell vulnerability chain to compromise internet-exposed NAS devices
• QNAP urges immediate updates, as older Plex Media Server versions allow remote code execution and full device takeover
• Systems exposed before patching may already be compromised and require credential resets and full remediation

QNAP has issued a security advisory warning users to install the latest version of the Plex Media Server app on their Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices.

It says older versions are being actively abused in the wild using the dreaded Plex2Shell vulnerability chain.

“Plex has confirmed that these vulnerabilities are being actively and widely exploited,” the company said in the advisory. “QNAP urges all users running Plex Media Server on a QNAP NAS to update immediately and to review their devices as described below.

What is a QNAP NAS and what does it have to do with a flaw in Plex?

A Network Attached Storage device is a dedicated system allowing users to store, back up, and share files across a network. Essentially it’s a series of hard drives connected to a local network for easy access. Consumers and businesses alike often use it as an alternative to subscription-based cloud storage models, and sometimes even to stream audio and video files.

One popular way to do that is via a software application called Plex Media Server, which allows users to organize and stream their personal collection of movies, TV shows, music, and other multimedia content. By installing Plex on their NAS, and a compatible player app on a smartphone and similar device, users can access their media libraries over a local network or remotely via the internet.

This last part - via the internet - is where trouble was recently found.

Earlier in November 2026, Plex disclosed having fixed four vulnerabilities in Media Server versions 1.43.2 and older: CVE-2026-96652, CVE-2026-96654, CVE-2026-96655, and CVE-2026-96656. Separately, these four are relatively dangerous. Chained together, they allow unauthenticated threat actors to execute arbitrary code with the highest privileges, remotely. In other words, they can use Plex Media Server to take over the QNAP NAS and, if they choose to, access and steal sensitive content found there. These four have been given the nickname Plex2Shell.

Plex released a fix in September 2026, and a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit was made available a few weeks later. Since then, multiple security companies reported seeing Plex2Shell abused in the wild, mostly to install proxy software and cryptocurrency miners. The latter might not be particularly useful, given that most miners require powerful GPU units, but the former could prove lucrative.

Patching Plex

A proxy network allows cybercriminals to route their traffic through legitimate residential infrastructure, helping them not just to hide their identities and whereabouts, but also to launch disruptive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. As such, residential proxy services are always in demand, and can earn their operators a hefty sum.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added all four bugs to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on October 20, and gave Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies a mere three-day window to apply the fix or stop using Plex entirely.

That being said, Plex addressed the flaws in Media Server version 1.43.3 (build 1.43.3.10861), which can now be downloaded via QNAP’s App center. The company confirmed that the bugs exist only in Plex Media Server, QTS and QuTS operating systems were not affected. Still, Plex said if the NAS device was reachable from the internet while running older versions of the software, updating is not enough and the NAS should be treated as compromised.

Those users are advised to complete a clean reinstall, compromise check, and credential reset.

The exact number of internet-accessible QNAP NAS devices is difficult to determine, but according to figures from BitSight, there are tens of thousands of them, right now. That does not mean all of them are vulnerable (many might not be running Plex Media Server to begin with), but the theoretical attack surface is quite large.

Via BleepingComputer

• Crédit Mutuel Arkéa confirms cyberattack led to the theft of roughly $133 million from the bank itself
• Attackers reportedly converted stolen funds into cryptocurrency and laundered them across multiple services and blockchains
• Bank says customer assets were unaffected, while investigators continue probing the third-party compromise

Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, a major French banking and financial services group, has confirmed it recently suffered a cyberattack that resulted in the theft of around $133 million.

The stolen money apparently did not belong to customers, but rather to the bank itself, and was converted into cryptocurrency to be siphoned out more easily.

The attack was first spotted by ZachXBT, a cryptocurrency analyst and blockchain fraud investigator who issued an alert on November 2 2026. “An EU entity is suspected of losing $106M+ from multiple centralized exchange accounts yesterday (Nov 1),” he said at the time. “The suspected stolen funds were withdrawn as USDC & USDT by an illicit actor.”

Blockchain as the tech of choice for both sides

It appears the attackers converted fiat currency into different cryptos before sending them out. As ZachXBT explained, the threat actor was “aggressively swapping” USDC (a stablecoin currency, one whose value is pegged to that of the US dollar) for ETH (Ethereum) and transferring the tokens to instant exchanges such as WellWallet and Keyrex. Some of the funds were converted to XMR (Monero, a known privacy-first token whose transactions are notoriously difficult to track) via Wagyu, and later bridged “across multiple chains.”

The irony is pbvious - blockchain and cryptocurrencies are often perceived as the go-to platforms for financial fraud and while many defend it by saying the fraud conducted via fiat is magnitudes larger, the fact remains the crooks transferred dollars to cryptos during theft.

On the other hand, the attack was not even discovered (at least publicly) until it hit the public blockchain where analysts like ZachXBT were able to see it and report on it.

A day later, ZachXBT issued an update, saying he identified an additional $27M+ of withdrawals, bringing the total amount stolen to $133M+.

“My working theory is a large financial institution in Western Europe was exploited and it’s currently being covered up,” he said. “No proper incident disclosure has resulted in $30M+ being laundered away which could have been frozen by EU law enforcement,” he added, suggesting that Crédit Mutuel Arkéa handled the situation poorly.

In his reports, however, he never mentions the name of the organization targeted. Crédit Mutuel Arkéa released a brief statement on November 4, saying it suffered an attack which it later managed to contain.

“As soon as this attack was detected [...] the decision was made, as a precautionary measure, to temporarily suspend certain transactions in order to secure operations and prevent any further fraudulent movements,” the announcement reads.

“This incident is closed and is now under control. Operations are being gradually resumed over the course of the morning, after the group and its subsidiaries ensured that checks had been carried out and enhanced security measures had been put in place.”

Not Lazarus

In an FAQ published a day later, the company said the attackers “went through the platform of one of our service providers and thus reached Crédit Mutuel Arkéa directly.” It did not want to say which service provider that is, but ruled out Fortuneo since that name was apparently being mentioned in local press.

The attackers used Arkéa's own account to carry out transactions with other banking players, it said, confirming that customer funds are safe and unaffected.

“We would like to reassure all our customers that this incident has no consequences for their assets. It only led to a delayed execution of certain transfer operations,” the FAQ further states.

The bank did not want to confirm the amount of money that was stolen, but commenting on ZachXBT’s $133 million figure, said it can “simply validate the order of magnitude.” In other words - it’s a close estimate.

So far no threat actors claimed responsibility for this attack, and chances are none will. ZachXBT believes this was not the work of notorious North Korean actors Lazarus Group.

Via BleepingComputer

• Iris Ohyama discloses breach affecting 7.7 million individuals after attackers compromised its ecommerce platform
• Exposed data included personal details and some encrypted passwords, prompting password reset recommendations
• Company continues investigating the attack, with no ransom demand, attribution, or confirmed misuse reported

Major Japanese consumer goods manufacturer Iris Ohyama has confirmed suffering a cyberattack which saw it lose data on 7.7 million people.

The company first disclosed the breach on October 29, 2026 when it confirmed “unauthorized access on the e-commerce site” Iris Plaza. At the time, the company said its investigation was ongoing, and that it would temporarily suspend the site to ensure customer safety. While it was looking into possible data leaks, it stressed that credit card information was not taken.

A week later, Iris Ohyama came forward with a more detailed report, in which it said that on October 28, if found “suspicious files” on an external cloud service it used. The subsequently launched investigation confirmed that the attackers stole sensitive data on 7.7 million people, which included member data on approximately 5.8 million people, and non-member data on 1.9 million.

Member data included names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, genders, dates of birth, and encrypted passwords (for some users). The non-member data was limited to names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses.

Hashed passwords and stolen credentials

The fact that the passwords were encrypted is good news, since it means the accounts cannot be accessed that easily. However, the company did not say which encryption or hashing method it used, so it is possible that the attackers could break some of them offline. It is thus no wonder the company warned users to update their login credentials, especially for those who use the same password for other services.

Those that do use the same passwords across various platforms are also at risk of having all of them compromised, since threat actors are known for trying out the stolen combinations across a multitude of services.

We don’t know who targeted Iris Ohyama, and to what end. No threat actors have yet claimed responsibility for this attack, the data has not yet leaked to the dark web, and we’ve found no evidence it was used in phishing or social engineering attacks.

In a statement given to BleepingComputer, the company said it received no direct communication from the threat actors, no ransom demands, and did not know who they were.

We also don’t know which third-party cloud service Iris Ohyama used, which malware was used, or how it was planted there. In the meantime, the company notified the country’s data protection watchdog agency, as well as local law enforcement authorities.

Targeting Japanese organizations

Over the last few months, Japanese organizations have experienced a barrage of cyberattacks, targeting firms of different sizes and in different industries. Just last month, we reported on an attack on GMO, a data breach incident at Japanese Burger King, and a malware attack on Daiichi Kosho. The GMO attack was particularly worrisome, since the company urged its customers to “unplug any cords connected to your PC”.

Burger King Japan also recently lost sensitive data on 11.18 million customers, most of which were using the company’s official smartphone app, while a malware attack on Daiichi Kosho’s supply chain resulted in the compromise of 8.7 million of both customers and employees.

All of these are large organizations and major enterprises, and Iris Ohyama is no exception. The company is a large consumer goods manufacturer, known for household appliances and everyday products, and has been around for decades offering air conditioners, vacuum cleaners, kitchenware, lighting, pet food and accessories, as well as different food products like rice and water.

For the financial year 2025, the company reported an annual revenue of $1.53 billion, with a headcount of more than 6,300. It also has a substantial international presence, with manufacturing and distribution operations in the US, Europe, China, and South Korea.

• Hackers have shared data concerning Russian casualties in its war with Ukraine on a Russian state website, while also stealing 23TB of data
• Russian state statistics agency Rosstat admitted its servers were targeted over the Halloween weekend
• The organization’s electronic document management system was also hacked and exfiltrated

Russian casualty figures in its war with Ukraine have been kept under wraps since 2024, but have now been displayed on the website of Russian state statistics agency Rosstat following a major breach of security.

Rosstat admitted to a breach over the weekend of October 29 to November 1, 2026, but has yet to admit to any form of exfiltration - despite hacker groups Belarusian CyberPartisans and Silent Crow confirming around 23TB of data was taken.

As well as the casualty figures, the Silent Crow group and its collaborators have boasted of hacking and stealing a document management system, and also claimed to have taken control of vehicles.

Specialized units

The details of what is being considered a successful hack by its perpetrators were published on Telegram. The Silent Crow account explained that “access was gained to a large part of the IT infrastructure of the department, including the central office, regional units and the Main Interregional Center for the Processing and Dissemination of Statistical Information.”

Rosstat reported that its information resources were targeted over the Halloween weekend, says Kommersant (translated from Russian). “The infrastructure worked normally: monitoring systems in a timely manner alerted about suspicious activity, which allowed to quickly start the response.”

The organization’s confirmation added: “Compromising databases and leakage of information protected by law has not been identified.”

Cybersecurity experts, on-site experts, and “specialized units in the field of information security and law enforcement agencies are establishing the vector of the attack and identify the sources of the threat,” the department added.

During its prolonged access to Rosstat's servers, the Cyberguerillas BY and Silent Crow groups revealed human casualties to Russian military personnel since the beginning of the war in Ukraine as 1,584,910.

It also revealed a loss of 587,409 UAVs, demonstrating that this is a classification of combat asset that is in far greater use than tanks, artillery, and manned aircraft.

In supporting its claim of stealing 23TB of data across electronic document management and other databases, the group stated (translated) “The scale of the incident goes far beyond the compromise of individual servers or user accounts. After all, it is about penetration into the infrastructure of the federal department with access to central and regional systems, internal circuits and data sets of public and official value.”

Access to domain controllers of Rosstat unlocked access to the organization’s main data, eventually allowing the hackers to compromise virtualization systems like VMware ESXi, along with infrastructure management systems.

The casualty figures are not likely to be verified by official sources in Russia.

• Microsoft fixes high-severity Paint vulnerability that could allow remote code execution through crafted image files
• Security updates are delivered through the Microsoft Store, leaving some users temporarily stuck on vulnerable versions
• Users should verify their Paint version and install the latest update as soon as it becomes available

Microsoft has addressed a high-severity vulnerability in Paint that allowed threat actors to run malicious code remotely. However, fixing the issue doesn’t seem to be a straightforward process for users, as the patched version, surprisingly, remains unavailable for download for some people.

Tracked as CVE-2026-83844 and with a severity score of 8.1/10 (high), this bug was described by the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) as an “out-of-bounds read in Windows Paint [that] allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code over a network.”

In theory, a threat actor could create a special image that, if opened via paint, can trigger the flaw and execute malicious code on an affected system.

How to patch Paint

The bad news is that Microsoft added AI into Paint, which makes the idea of malicious packages triggered through the app a lot more viable. The good news is that Microsoft did not publish technical details about the flaw, explaining how one might pull off this kind of attack, and given that there are no confirmed cases of in-the-wild exploitation, or publicly available exploit code, all of this still remains in theoretical domain.

CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog does not have this bug listed, meaning there are no confirmed cases of attacks, especially against government entities.

Whether or not the bug remains theoretical depends on two main things: how potent the bug is, and how easy it is to leverage. With that in mind, it’s worth mentioning that Microsoft classified the attack vector for this flaw as “Network, with no privileges required”, meaning threat actors with previously obtained low-privilege access could use this bug to escalate their privileges or deploy dangerous malware. Both scenarios could lead to credential theft, wire fraud, or even ransomware attacks.

On the other hand, it marked the bug’s complexity as “High”, suggesting that exploiting it is not that easy of a feat. That could limit abuse to state-sponsored actors, or for-profit hacking groups with deeper pockets and plenty of resources.

It is also worth mentioning that Microsoft moved Paint from Windows to a standalone Microsoft Store app. Consequently, the security fix isn't distributed through the regular Windows Update mechanism, and users must update Paint through the Microsoft Store themselves (unless automatic app updates are enabled).

The company apparently included a fix in Paint version 11.2605.91.0. However, Neowin reports that despite releasing a newer version, Microsoft was still offering a vulnerable one on its app Store - 11.2605.81.0. The problem was apparently evident to multiple people, enough for them to open a discussion on Reddit. One user even shared a PowerShell output showing that Paint remained on a vulnerable version, despite them checking for updates through the store.

Different people, different versions

We looked for Paint in the Microsoft Store at press time, and saw version 11.2609.401.0 being offered, with November 5 being the date of the newest update. Neowin also said that for some Reddit users, this was the version carrying the fix, instead. It is possible that Microsoft opted for a staggered release instead of a global rollout, which is why some people were late to be offered the patch.

To make sure your systems are secure, simply looking at Microsoft Store might not be enough. Instead, users should double-check their Paint version using PowerShell, using this command: Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Paint | Select-Object Name, Version. Those that still see the older version should keep an eye on Microsoft Store for the patch and follow Microsoft’s Security Update Guide for the vulnerability. Those who are worried about being targeted could set up temporary restrictions on certain image attachments or remove Paint entirely from the system.

Via Cybernews

• AI-themed phishing campaigns found using fake OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX events to steal corporate credentials
• Attackers combine device-code phishing, reverse proxies, and MFA bypass techniques targeting Microsoft and Google accounts
• Researchers warn employee interest in AI tools is increasingly being exploited as a high-success phishing lure

If you suddenly get invited to an exclusive SpaceX event and even offered free access to Grok Heavy, kindly turn it down, as this is most likely part of a new phishing attack that’s been circulating around the web.

A report from security researchers Push Security found threat actors are using different AI-themed lures to get people to share their corporate login credentials.

As per Push’s report, threat actors were recently seen creating fraudulent websites for nonexistent events: an OpenAI Academy livestream, a private SpaceX briefing on AI marketing, an Anthropic presentation at AWS re:Invent, and similar.

People who landed on these pages were told they can get free goodies, as well: a free ChatGPT Pro subscription, access to Grok Heavy, and even shares of SpaceX. However, to claim these rewards, the victims were first told to log in - using either their Microsoft, or Google account.

And this is where the scam lies. Instead of actually logging in and getting the rewards, all victims would be doing is sharing their login credentials with the hackers.

"Employees want access to the latest AI tools, making them excellent bait for attacks," Push Security said in its analysis of the campaign.

Kali365 and VoidProxy

Push says threat actors are using two phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platforms in this campaign, called Kali365 and VoidProxy. Depending which route they choose (Microsoft or Google), they get served a different path, both ending in credential exposure.

Those that choose to continue with their Microsoft credentials trigger an attack through Kali365. The victim receives a device code and instructions to enter it on Microsoft’s legitimate device login page. Once the victim signs in and approves the request, Microsoft issues an authentication token to the attacker’s Kali365 session. The fake event page then redirects the victim to a fake Microsoft sign-in page operated by VoidProxy, which captures additional credentials and session cookies.

Those that choose “Continue with Google” trigger a different technique. Here, the victim is shown a reverse-proxied version of Google’s legitimate sign-in page, operated by VoidProxy. The proxy relays the authentication process while capturing the victim's password, MFA response, and session cookie, which allows the attackers to grab an authenticated session without needing to move past MFA.

Push doesn’t know exactly how the links are distributed. It’s safe to assume they’re being moved through phishing emails, social channels, or Telegram groups. What we do know is that the attackers are using Google and Zapier to shorten the links and redirect the visitors, in order to avoid being detected by security scanners and URL reputation systems.

Abusing the trends

"All of these detection evasion techniques, plus the MFA-bypassing AiTM and device code phishing payloads, mean this attack is designed to get around or through the controls that most organizations rely on to stop phishing attacks today," Push said.

It’s now been five years since the first version of ChatGPT was released, and since then the tool has captivated people from all walks of life, and was successfully used in countless phishing campaigns. In the past we’ve reported on campaigns involving Claude installation pages promoted through search advertisements, as well as malicious links disguised as legitimate AI content (shared conversations, downloadable artifacts, and custom GPTs).

In July 2026, ANY.RUN reported fake event invitations impersonating Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic, hosted on legitimate Zoom event pages. More recently, Cofense observed a campaign revolving around fake Anthropic invitations distributed through GoTo Webinar.

As these tools get better, and as they penetrate deeper into every aspect of our private and business lives, they will be abused by threat actors more and more.

Via BleepingComputer

• Researchers bypassed ChatGPT Lockdown Mode, showing prompt-injection attacks could evade built-in protections
• The flaw enabled sandbox escapes that could support data theft, phishing, malware delivery, or malicious popups
• OpenAI patched the issue server-side, highlighting risks in AI application layers beyond the model itself

OpenAI was recently forced to upgrade ChatGPT's 'Lockdown Mode' after researchers found a way to bypass the security protection and pull off different cyberattacks through the tool.

When analyzing Lockdown Mode, security researchers Check Point Research (CPR) found a way to bypass the protections and still end up pulling sensitive data. They’re saying it was also possible to deploy malware this way, too.

“The finding raises a broader enterprise security issue: AI security controls are only as strong as the wider application environment around them,” CPR warned.

Lockdown mode

One of the most common ways AI tools and agents are abused is called “prompt injection”. By injecting a prompt into content the AI is supposed to analyze, threat actors can take over the tool and have it do their bidding.

For example, a prompt to “exfiltrate all contact information” can be hidden in a phishing email so that when the victim asks their AI agent to go through all unread emails and sort them out, the tool ends up exposing sensitive data to the attackers.

To tackle this challenge, OpenAI introduced Lockdown Mode, an optional advanced security setting in ChatGPT that adds safeguards for users handling highly sensitive information.

When enabled, Lockdown Mode restricts connections to external services and limits (or entirely disables) certain features, such as live web browsing, Deep Research, Agent Mode, or file downloads. That way, the risk of sensitive data getting exposed via prompt injection is reduced.

The researchers said the bug was found in the way ChatGPT code blocks showed HTML page previews. Code blocks are specially formatted sections that display code separately from regular text, in order to preserve its structure and make it easier to copy or edit. Since running user-controlled HTML and JavaScript is inherently risky practice, OpenAI made sure this content was placed in a sandbox and separated from the main ChatGPT application.

This sandbox, CPR later explained, prevented rendered content from directly accessing ChatGPT cookies, or local storage. It also controlled any attempts to communicate with external resources by prompting for user approval.

But popups were handled differently. “The HTML preview used nested sandboxed frames, and while ChatGPT intercepted direct attempts to open new windows, the underlying sandbox permissions still allowed popups and permitted them to escape the sandbox,” it was said.

Significant findings

Therefore, by creating a separate nested frame within the rendered page, CPR was able to access unmodified popup functions and bypass all of the restrictions placed on the original HTML preview. All of the content opened this way was no longer under sandbox rules, effectively bypassing Lockdown Mode.

The researchers said the finding was significant because it opened the doors to more than just data exfiltration prompt injection attacks. Credential theft, and even malware delivery, were not ruled out.

“An attack could potentially originate from a malicious prompt, malicious GPT or shared chat, depending on the scenario,” they said. More creative threat actors could also turn it into a useful phishing machine, since they could control the content displayed in the popup window, inside an environment the users generally trust. But perhaps the most dangerous scenario was the so-called “zero-click” attack, in which the popup would appear without the user’s gesture.

CPR disclosed their findings to OpenAI, which implemented additional safeguards to disable the Lockdown Mode workaround. However, the researchers still urged organizations to work on gaining more visibility into AI usage, make sure they control sensitive data exposure, and “look beyond model security” to consider the applications, runtimes, connectors, and other components surrounding the model as part of the overall AI attack surface.

• Chainalysis disclosed a cyberattack that exposed customer data, including hashed passwords and account information
• Company took key services offline, forced password resets, and required additional security measures
• Investigation continues as Chainalysis restores systems and assesses the full impact of the breach

Blockchain data analysis platform Chainalysis has disclosed suffering a disruptive cyberattack that forced it to shut down some of its services to prevent further damage, as sensitive data from all of its customers - including hashed passwords - were stolen.

On October 30 2026, the company issued a notification saying it was a target of an attack, “similar to many other tech platforms in recent weeks,” but “unrelated to the recent crypto theft involving Binance.”

At first, it did not look like a particularly dangerous hit - the initial investigation did not find evidence of unauthorized access to investigation content, authentication credentials, or session tokens.

On-path attack

The unnamed attackers used “offensive agentic techniques”, Chainalysis said, but believed at the time that investigation content (such as graphs, notes, or cases), transaction or query results, passwords in clear text, MFA secrets, or user session tokens were not compromised.

It did confirm non-sensitive data (user IDs, full names, email addresses, and organization role labels for users provisioned on the platform) as accessed.

On November 4, Chainalysis shared an update, confirming that this was a much bigger hit than initially believed.

“Today, we confirmed that as a part of this incident, an “on-path attack” exposed a subset of customer passwords, including yours,” the company said in an email sent to affected parties. “This attack vector has been contained and remediated.”

“Given this sensitive and urgent information, we are requiring you to reset your password.”

Users were locked out of their accounts and were forced to reset them using the standard Chainalysis login page. At roughly the same time, it also took down three products, Reactor, Data Solutions and Chain (Beta) “out of an abundance of caution”, and KYT (the user interface and API), other address screening products and the login page “due to abnormal activity.”

The company said it will require additional protections to access accounts, including having every user reset their passwords and rotate API keys as appropriate.

Chainalysis has now said it started restoring access to KYT and Address Screening, albeit partially, and that customers should expect to regain access “over the next several hours”, because it was “proceeding carefully” and monitoring each phase. Users looking to regain their access as soon as possible are invited to submit their trusted IP address via email and prepare to reset their credentials.

No word from the perpetrators (yet)

The company said it was still working “around the clock” to harden its systems and restore access to Reactor and Data Solutions. “We recognize the disruption this incident has caused and appreciate your continued patience and partnership as we work to restore our services safely,” Chainalysis said.

Chainalysis is a blockchain analytics company that governments, law enforcement agencies, and other businesses use to track and investigate cryptocurrency transactions.

Using its tools, the police were able to trace stolen funds, identify illicit activity, and investigate numerous cryptocurrency-related crimes. It is considered a rather important organization in the crypto cybersecurity chain because it provides much of the intelligence infrastructure that helps authorities and businesses understand who is moving crypto and where.

At this moment, we don’t know if this will result in an extortion attempt. No threat actors have claimed responsibility for this attack, and the data has not yet emerged anywhere on the dark web. Chainalysis has not mentioned being reached out by the attackers or even trying to get in touch with anyone.

• Researchers spot White House network traffic being routed through dozens of residential proxy services
• Findings suggest a device on government infrastructure may have been enrolled in a proxy network
• Security experts warn proxy services on sensitive networks could enable abuse, anonymity, and potential lateral movement

The IT network at the White House was seen routing traffic for at least 28 residential proxy services, meaning there is a strong chance government infrastructure is being abused by (malicious) third parties, cybersecurity experts are warning.

Security researchers at Layer3 Intel published a new report, saying they saw 236 instances of residential proxy traffic originating from AS2650. That is the name of an autonomous system registered to the Executive Office of the President, the federal agency that hosts the White House network.

The researchers observed the traffic between October 5 and November 3 2026, and said that in 26 of the 30 days of observation, six IP addresses kept appearing.

Dozens of proxies

“This is public access,” the researchers said. “Anybody can obtain it by signing up to a public residential proxy service, paying a few dollars and sending requests through it.”

Residential proxy is a service with a self-explanatory name: paying customers can route their internet traffic through devices connected to residential internet connections (households, essentially), making it appear as though their requests originate from those connections rather than their own. They are not malicious per se, and have legitimate uses, but they’ve become popular among cybercriminals looking to hide their identities, evade security controls, and distribute malicious traffic.

Now, according to Layer 3 intel, 28 different residential proxy providers were able to route traffic through the White House network. The researchers cross-checked the IP addresses against public databases maintained by residential proxy detection companies Spur and Synthient, and both identified them as proxy exits.

Apparently, the researchers did not set out to analyze the White House’s network. Instead, they said they were testing a newly launched platform that “gives researchers a global view of residential proxy and anonymized internet activity,” and stumbled upon the activity while requesting rotating access through residential proxy services.

The cybersecurity community did not seem all too surprised with the news. In a Reddit discussion, IT experts shared their experience with senior leadership, both in public and private sector organizations, saying many were happily sacrificing security for convenience, opting not to install 2FA, or leaving their devices and email inboxes wide open.

One reader suspected someone in the White House “probably installed a sketchy free app on their phone, and now strangers are browsing the internet through the building's connection.”

The timing of the activity is also worth a mention. Around half of the observed connections happened between 5pm and midnight, Eastern time, with almost no activity recorded during the early morning. Layer3 Intel surmised that a device was regularly connecting to the White House network during evening hours, potentially one compromised by a residential proxy SDK.

Reaching internal systems

“That pattern suggests a person rather than a public guest Wi-Fi network: someone regularly on the White House network late into the evening, whose device is infected with a proxy SDK,” the researchers explained.

The researchers also pointed out that poorly secured proxy SDKs can allow internal network access and lateral movement. “This is how past botnets have spread,” they said. “If an SDK on this network has the same kind of flaw, anyone buying proxy access could use it to reach internal systems.”

There are plenty of other unanswered questions, too. For example, the researchers acknowledged that the data only shows network exits, not specific devices. Therefore, they don’t know if the activity is coming from a personal device, a guest network, or an entirely different source.

The White House discovery was not the only unusual thing Layer3 Intel laid out in its report. They also reported seeing residential proxy activity in some of the most remote players on the planet: Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote South Atlantic territory. The researchers saw 413 IP addresses and more than 32,000 observations on these locations, involving Elon Musk’s Starlink internet, as well as local internet service provider Sure Saint Helena.

The researchers also detected activity related to residential proxy networks in Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, the Chagos Islands, Tokelau, South Georgia, Pitcairn and Svalbard.

• OpenAI used AI agents to analyze the Linux kernel, uncovering 948 distinct privilege-escalation vulnerabilities
• The automated pipeline generated exploits, validated findings, and helped create patches for Linux maintainers
• Researchers say AI is increasingly capable of finding and prioritizing serious software flaws at scale

OpenAI has spent more than a million dollars to analyze the Linux kernel code, and found thousands of vulnerabilities, including countless privilege escalation flaws that could have been quite problematic for the popular operating system.

The AI company published a new in-depth report describing how it built a five-stage pipeline that helped it surface thousands of vulnerabilities, identify which ones were actually dangerous, helped create patches, and ended up securing the Linux ecosystem some more.

The pipeline covered vulnerability discovery, dynamic validation, exploitability assessment, patch generation, and human review, and once it was done, it found 948 privilege escalation flaws in the Linux kernel.

Guerilla marketing

“The Linux kernel underpins Android devices, cloud infrastructure, supercomputers, and other systems used by billions of people,” OpenAI said.

“With more than 40 million lines of code, the kernel exposes a broad attack surface through system calls, networking, filesystems, and device drivers. We chose Linux to study how effectively frontier models could find vulnerabilities and demonstrate their security impact in a codebase of this scale and importance.”

While the efforts are certainly commendable (especially the fact that the entire ordeal cost roughly $1.21 million in API credits), the report also reads like guerilla marketing for the company’s latest cyber model. After all, the report never mentions its name, apart from the fact that it is an “upcoming cyber model” that found 900+ flaws, which is then compared to GPT 5.5-Cyber which “developed 24 local privilege escalation exploits.”

That being said, the results cannot (and should not) be ignored. The first stage used AI agents to identify security-relevant parts of the kernel and scan them for potential flaws, and within 12 hours, more than 2,300 candidates emerged. Then, OpenAI used additional agents to generate proof-of-concept (PoC) code and test each candidate. The entire process lasted 30 hours, and the system successfully reproduced 1,724 findings (roughly 75% of the initial candidates), while just 3% of the remaining findings apparently came from incorrect model analysis.

In the next step, the agents ranked the vulnerabilities by impact, developing 1,169 working local privilege escalation exploits and 291 PoCs demonstrating information disclosure. After eliminating double entries and false positives, the researchers arrived at 948 distinct escalation flaws and built patches for them.

OpenAI said its researchers reviewed all of the generated exploits and patches before reaching out to Linux kernel maintainers. Following guidance from the Linux community, the team ranked the flaws by priority, and some seem to have already been patched. The remaining findings are currently being addressed, it was said.

New exploitation techniques

“We provide the model with the relevant source code and prompt it with best practices in patch writing, such as performing static checks on the patch, following the software development practices used in nearby code, and performing variant analysis to make sure the patch is complete,” OpenAI explained the process.

Not all of the vulnerabilities were “brand new”, so to speak. OpenAI said Linux maintainers already patched 61 of the identified privilege elevation flaws by the time it completed its analysis, while another 43 had staging patches. Just under 300 (roughly a third) were being reported and discussed publicly, which is also worth putting into context.

On top of it all, the team examined 166 exploitation techniques and found 10 that were previously undocumented. They include kernel memory manipulation, page grooming, and privilege escalation through data-only attacks. OpenAI decided not to share the details on these flaws until they are fixed, in order not to give threat actors the upper hand.

• DreamHost discloses breach exposing FTP/SFTP credentials and some webmail account session data
• Attackers exploited a vulnerability in the company’s File Manager service to access customer accounts
• DreamHost reset affected passwords, offered credit monitoring, and urged users to strengthen account security

Popular web hosting provider DreamHost has confirmed threat actors walked away with login credentials to its customers’ hosting accounts, as well as webmail accounts.

It is now urging organizations to take steps to protect themselves, as it works to tighten up on security and make sure these things never happen again.

In a copy of a data breach notification letter sent to affected organizations, DreamHost said that roughly two weeks ago it discovered unauthorized third-party access to the server that runs its web-based File manager at files.DreamHost.com.

Access to the manager was compromised during August 2026, the company further said, adding that the threat actors walked in by exploiting a vulnerability in that software.

Payment data secure

The flaw, which the company did not detail or describe, granted the attackers access to FTP/SFTP usernames and passwords of logged-in individuals. Furthermore, they were able to reach some webmail systems and grab session information - including credentials - of a “limited number” of webmail users.

Cybercriminals having access to login credentials means that whatever information is stored inside File Manager and the webmail should also be considered compromised. Furthermore, it means the emails can be used to disseminate spam, launch phishing attacks, or even engage in highly disruptive Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks that could be almost impossible to detect.

DreamHost did not discuss the identity of the attackers, and did not say if they reached out with an extortion attempt. “We believe this as a deliberate attack, and our team worked around the clock to contain it,” is all it said on the matter.

The investigation is still ongoing so the information is inconclusive, but DreamHost said there is currently no evidence that the attackers accessed control panel login information or customer billing details. The company allegedly doesn’t store full payment card numbers and only retains a secure token representing the payment card information. This token cannot be used to make purchases elsewhere.

“However, our investigation is ongoing, and if we discover any significant additional information, we will update this post,” DreamHost said.

DreamHost’s response

In response to the incident, DreamHost said it “took steps” to stop the attackers from further accessing its systems, and to address the exploited vulnerability.

Active sessions of users who may have been affected have been terminated, and their passwords were reset. Therefore, if you try to log into your DreamHost account and see that the password was reset, consider your data breached. DreamHost claims to have implemented “additional security measures” to prevent such incidents from happening again, although it did not say exactly what was done.

“DreamHost also is working closely with outside legal advisors and security and forensics experts to ensure the incident is properly addressed,” it said.

In the meantime, it urged customers to review their statements and notify the police of any suspicious activity, as well as to obtain and monitor their credit card reports. The company also advised users place a fraud alert on their credit report. Detailed steps on what customers can do to defend themselves can be found on this link.

Finally, DreamHost offered all affected individuals one year of free credit report monitoring and identity theft protection services through Equifax which is more or less standard practice in these situations.

So far, no threat actors claimed responsibility for the breach, and the data has not yet leaked to the dark web.

This is not the first cybersecurity incident DreamHost has experienced. In 2012, attackers gained access to one of its database servers, potentially exposing customer FTB and shell-access passwords. The company responded by resetting affected passwords, although it reported no evidence of significant malicious activity against customer accounts. Five years later, in 2017, the company suffered a major Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against its DNS infrastructure, resulting in widespread connectivity issues for customers.

Via BleepingComputer