All news with #news tag

🎄 This Christmas episode of The AI Fix examines whether chatbots agree that Santa Claus exists, testing responses from popular conversational AIs and Google's seasonal features. The hosts discuss a string of Waymo robotaxi incidents that sparked PR headaches, Microsoft's reduced ambitions for Copilot amid low usage, and research suggesting future programmers may rely more on psychological prompt design than traditional coding. Hosts: Graham Cluley and Mark Stockley.

🤖 The editorial teams of Computerwoche, CIO and CSO reflect on a turbulent 2025 shaped by the rapid rise of AI, economic uncertainty and geopolitical friction. They call out major flops such as widespread AI‑justified layoffs (Surfshark estimates 200,000+ jobs lost) and the growing use of AI by cybercriminals, while noting positive trends: pragmatic CIOs focusing on data quality, innovative change management like Mobilezone, and sizable sovereignty investments such as Schwarz IT.

⚠️ Cloudflare has opened a company‑wide "Code Orange: Fail Small" initiative after two network incidents in November and December 2025 that disrupted customer traffic. The program prioritizes three workstreams: require controlled rollouts for configuration changes, review and harden failure modes across services, and overhaul break‑glass procedures to remove circular dependencies. Changes will be delivered iteratively, using existing Health Mediated Deployments (HMD) and updates to Quicksilver to stage and validate configuration updates before global propagation.

⚠️ Microsoft is investigating a widespread incident affecting Microsoft Teams, with thousands of users reporting messaging delays, failed sends, and issues with other service functions. The outage began around 2:30 PM ET and is impacting users across the United States and Europe. Microsoft says it is observing recovery in telemetry, is continuing analysis to identify impacted scenarios and determine root cause, and will share updates; this is a developing story.

📅 Google Cloud’s 2025 roundup highlights a year of fast-moving AI and infrastructure innovation, from major model releases to accelerator and networking expansions. The blog chronicles product launches like Gemini 3, Veo 3, Ironwood TPUs, and Vertex AI enhancements alongside security work, research, and high-profile customer stories. It traces month-by-month developments, acquisitions and partnerships, and guidance for enterprises adopting agentic AI and cloud-scale systems.

🔍 Cloudflare’s H1 2025 transparency update explains how the company is evolving its approach to unauthorized streaming and related copyright claims, combining technical controls, automation, and partnerships with rightsholders. The post highlights a service-specific abuse model that treats hosted content differently from sites using Cloudflare’s CDN and security layers, and describes expanded use of APIs and automated detection. Cloudflare also reiterates its refusal to implement public DNS blocking while describing limited geoblocking in jurisdictions where orders meet human rights and proportionality tests.

✈️ A man reportedly boarded a British Airways flight at London Heathrow without a ticket or passport. Sources say he tailgated through to the security screening area and passed screening without being detected carrying banned items. At check-in he allegedly deceived a BA agent by posing as a family member whose passports and boarding passes had already been inspected. Authorities are investigating potential procedural and access-control failures.

🚨 French authorities arrested a Latvian crew member after discovery of a remote access tool aboard the Italian passenger ferry Fantastic, owned by Grandi Navi Veloci. A Bulgarian crewmember was released without charge. The malware was detected and neutralized by GNV while the ship was docked in Sète, and France's DGSI seized items for forensic analysis. Investigators are treating the case as suspected foreign interference and continue cooperation with Italian authorities.

🔒 Cybernews reports researchers found an unsecured 16 TB MongoDB instance exposing roughly 4.3 billion personal and professional records. The dataset included names, emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn profile details, employment history, education, social accounts and profile images — data consistent with large-scale LinkedIn scraping. The operator secured the database two days after discovery on 25 November 2025, but ownership and the full exposure window remain unknown.

🔔 This week's ThreatsDay Bulletin highlights a rapid reshaping of old tools and fresh abuse of familiar systems across fraud, malware, and infrastructure. Notable incidents include a cross-border scam ring dismantled in Ukraine that defrauded hundreds for over €10 million, the modular SantaStealer infostealer sold as malware-as-a-service, and a WhatsApp device-linking hijack dubbed GhostPairing. Security teams should verify linked sessions, reduce exposed management endpoints, and prioritize timely patching and credential hygiene.

⚠️The temporary, widespread outage of the German Bundestag's IT systems was reportedly not caused by a cyberattack. A letter to MPs and parliamentary IT officers says the immediate trigger was an overload between two data centers, and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has been involved with no findings of an attack so far. The precise technical fault is still under investigation.

🔒 Google has announced it will retire its Dark Web report feature, stopping new dark‑web scans on January 15, 2026 and fully discontinuing the tool on February 16, 2026. The company said feedback showed the report provided only general information and lacked clear, actionable next steps, so it will delete related data when the feature is retired and offers users an option to remove their monitoring profile immediately. Google launched the service in March 2023 and expanded it to all account holders in July 2024, and it now recommends stronger protections such as passkeys for phishing‑resistant MFA and using Results about you to manage personal information in Search.

🔔 Google is discontinuing its Dark Web Report, halting new monitoring on January 15, 2026 and removing stored results on February 16, 2026. The feature notified users when their email addresses or other personal data appeared on the dark web and consolidated potential exposures for faster response. Google said user feedback indicated the report did not provide clear, actionable next steps, and it will instead focus on tools such as Google Password Manager, Password Checkup, Security and Privacy Checkups, Passkey, and 2-Step Verification. Users can also use the Results about you tool to find and request removal of personal information from Search.

🎤 This post lists Bruce Schneier’s confirmed speaking engagements through March 2026, with dates and locations for public talks, a book signing, academic lectures, and industry appearances. Notable entries include a public talk and signing at the Chicago Public Library on February 5, Capricon 44 in Chicago (February 5–8), the Munich Cybersecurity Conference on February 12, Tech Live: Cybersecurity in New York on March 11, the Ross Anderson Lecture at Cambridge on March 19, and RSAC 2026 in San Francisco on March 25. Some speaking times remain TBD and the list is maintained on the page.

🔒 The anti-piracy coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) dismantled the MKVCinemas streaming piracy network and 25 related domains after the sites drew 142.4 million visits between 2024 and 2025. ACE identified the platform operator in Bihar, India, who agreed to cease operations and transfer domain control; all MKVCinemas sites now redirect to ACE's Watch Legally portal. The action also disabled a widely used file-cloning tool that had allowed distribution of pirated media across India and Indonesia.

🏆 Check Point's Infinity Global Services (IGS) concluded its inaugural Cyber Park World Championship, organized with community partner CheckMates and training specialist Cympire. Hundreds of participants worldwide competed in realistic cyber ranges, demonstrating technical mastery, incident response skills, and effective teamwork under pressure. The event showcased hands-on cyber simulations within IGS training programs and crowned the first global winners, reinforcing Check Point's commitment to upskilling defenders and strengthening the security workforce.

🔎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.