All news with #news tag

🔎The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched Firm Checker, a consumer-facing tool to verify whether a financial firm is authorised and whether its contact details match the regulator's records. The FCA says its Financial Services Register contains additional information on firms not covered by the tool, including crypto restrictions, historic fines and permissions. Industry commentators welcomed the move but warned the tool is not a silver bullet and called for broader action to tackle social engineering and money-mule networks.

💡 The Foundry expert network now lets IT and business leaders build a visible B2B personal brand across German-language platforms such as CSO Deutschland, Computerwoche, and CIO.de. Contributors can publish technical or opinion pieces after topic coordination and may reach audiences beyond the German-speaking region. Apply to join to share perspectives on vendors, digital sovereignty, and management or security practices.

🔒 Investigators from the Cybercrime Center Baden-Württemberg, the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police (LKA) and BaFin said they have shut down more than 3,500 phone numbers believed to be used by investment, grandchild and fake-police scammers. The affected landline, mobile and VoIP numbers were disabled by providers, and about 350 Austrian numbers were taken offline in coordination with Vienna. The measure is part of Operation Herakles, intended to dismantle the technical infrastructure of fraud networks and protect consumers.

🔒 Security researchers uncovered malicious extensions on the Microsoft Visual Studio Code Marketplace that delivered stealer malware while posing as a dark theme and an AI assistant. Koi Security reported the extensions downloaded additional payloads, captured screenshots, and siphoned emails, Slack messages, Wi‑Fi passwords, clipboard contents and browser sessions to attacker servers. Microsoft removed the packages in early December 2025 after investigators linked them to a publisher using multiple similarly named packages.

🛡️ Two malicious Visual Studio Code extensions on Microsoft's Marketplace, Bitcoin Black and Codo AI, were found delivering an information-stealing payload that can capture screenshots, harvest credentials and crypto wallets, and hijack browser sessions. Published under the developer name 'BigBlack', Codo AI remained live with under 30 downloads at the time of reporting while Bitcoin Black showed a single install. Researchers at Koi Security observed that Bitcoin Black uses a wildcard activation and executes PowerShell or a hidden batch script to download a DLL and executable that leverage DLL hijacking to run the infostealer as 'runtime.exe'.

🔒Three Ukrainian nationals were arrested in Poland after police discovered a cache of devices alleged to be capable of interfering with strategic IT and telecommunications systems. Officers seized a Flipper Zero, a K19 RF/GS detector, antennas, laptops, numerous SIM cards, routers, portable drives, and cameras. The suspects, aged 39–43, face charges including fraud, computer fraud, and possession of tools intended for criminal activity, and are detained pending trial.

🤝 Microsoft announced a collaboration with Beazley that designates Microsoft Incident Response as an approved incident response provider for Beazley’s InfoSec and Media Tech policies. This alignment brings technical responders, insurers, brokers, and legal counsel together to accelerate detection, containment, and recovery. Microsoft Incident Response, supported by Microsoft Threat Intelligence and direct engineering access, offers streamlined invoicing aligned to insurance standards. Eligible incident response services used during a cyber event are considered reimbursable, helping customers secure faster claims and recovery.

🔔 OpenAI says recent ChatGPT Plus suggestions are app recommendations, not ads, after users reported shopping prompts — including Target — appearing during unrelated queries like Windows BitLocker. Daniel McAuley described the entries as pilot partner apps introduced since DevDay and part of efforts to make discovery feel more organic. Many users, however, view the branded bubbles as advertising inside a paid product.

🚨 Cloudflare is experiencing an outage that is causing many websites to return an 500 Internal Server Error. The fault appears to be server-side and affects requests routed through Cloudflare, so users see an error page instead of normal content. Engineers at the provider are investigating the root cause and working to restore normal operations. This remains a developing situation and impacted sites may be unavailable until services are recovered.

🔔 Momberger – Lack & Technik warns customers of a targeted email fraud campaign that began on December 1. The company says unauthorized access to an email account was used to send forged messages requesting payment of fictitious invoices; only existing customer addresses were targeted. Momberger urges recipients not to pay, open links, or attachments, and says systems have been secured while additional protections and authorities are involved.

⚠️ Microsoft is investigating a known issue that prevents customers from downloading Microsoft 365 desktop apps from the Microsoft 365 homepage, with failures reported since November 2. The company says a recent service update introduced a code defect affecting the license check process, and it has tagged the situation as an incident. A fix has been developed and is being validated in Microsoft's internal environment, and the company promised an update on deployment timing by 6:30 PM UTC. Microsoft is also addressing a separate issue causing some users to be unable to open Excel attachments in the new Outlook client due to filename encoding errors.

🛡️ CISA launched the Industry Engagement Platform (IEP) to create a structured, two-way channel between the agency and companies, researchers, and academia to present emerging cybersecurity and infrastructure technologies. The platform lets organizations build customizable technology profiles and upload capability overviews to connect with the right CISA subject-matter experts. Participation does not confer preferential contract consideration, but informs CISA market research and mission needs.

🎟️ Registration is now live for Google Cloud Next, returning to Las Vegas April 22–24, 2026. Secure early bird pricing at $999 for a limited time and join a global community of builders, engineers, and business leaders for keynotes, deep-dive sessions, hands-on labs, demos, hackathons, and workshops. Expect practical AI-focused content and collaborative networking designed to deliver actionable insights and skills.

📝 OpenAI is internally testing an 'ads' feature in the ChatGPT Android beta that references bazaar content, search ad entries and a search ads carousel. The leak, spotted in build 1.2025.329, suggests ads may initially be confined to the search experience but could expand. Because the assistant retains rich context, any placements could be highly personalized unless users opt out. This development may signal a major shift in ChatGPT's monetization and the broader web advertising landscape.

🔒 An Australian man was sentenced to seven years and four months for operating an evil twin Wi-Fi network that targeted airline passengers and airport patrons in Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide. He deployed a WiFi Pineapple to clone legitimate SSIDs and present phishing captive portals that harvested social media credentials, then used those accounts to access victims' private messages and intimate images. Forensic analysis of seized devices recovered thousands of stolen images, videos, credentials and records of fraudulent Wi‑Fi pages.

🔍 A prolific operator known as "Rey," one of three administrators of the Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters (SLSH) Telegram channel, has confirmed his real-world identity after investigative outreach. Rey is tied to the recent release of the group's new RaaS offering ShinySp1d3r, which he says is derived from Hellcat ransomware code modified with AI tools. Reporting shows Rey made multiple operational security mistakes that allowed analysts to link him to a shared family PC in Amman, Jordan, revealing his name as Saif Al‑Din Khader and that he is a mid‑teens minor who says he is cooperating with law enforcement.

🚨 Crisis24 confirmed its CodeRED emergency-notification platform was breached, disrupting alerts for state and local governments, police, and fire agencies nationwide. The company decommissioned the legacy environment and is rebuilding from a March 31, 2025 backup, so recent accounts may be missing. Crisis24 says the incident was contained to CodeRED, but names, addresses, emails, phone numbers and passwords were stolen; no public posting has been confirmed.

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⚠️ Microsoft is investigating an Exchange Online outage (incident EX1189820) preventing customers from accessing mailboxes via the classic Outlook desktop client, with reports of server connection and login failures. The company says impact is specific to users in Asia Pacific and North America and has classified the event as an incident in the admin center. As a workaround, affected users are advised to use Outlook on the Web while Microsoft analyzes the issue.

🎧 In Episode 78 of The AI Fix, hosts Graham Cluley and Mark Stockley examine a string of headline-grabbing AI stories, from a fact-checked “robot spider” scare to Anthropic’s claim of catching an autonomous AI cyber-spy. The discussion covers Claude hallucinations, alleged state-backed misuse of US AI models, and concerns about AI-driven military systems and investor exuberance. The episode also questions whether the current AI boom is a bubble, while highlighting real-world examples like AI-generated music charting and pilots controlling drone wingmen.