The DragonForce cybercrime group's April attack on UK retailer Co-op resulted in $275 million in lost revenue, weeks of empty shelves, and the theft of data from 6.5 million members, including names, contact details, and dates of birth (though passwords and payment information were not compromised). Co-op initially claimed no customer data was affected, but later confirmed the breach after hackers contacted executives via Microsoft Teams and phone, claiming to possess data on 20 million membership scheme participants. In July, the UK's National Crime Agency arrested four suspects aged 17-20 in London and the West Midlands on charges including Computer Misuse Act offenses, blackmail, money laundering, and organized crime participation, with DragonForce also claiming responsibility for attacks on M&S and an attempted breach of Harrods.
Microsoft has discovered a new XCSSET macOS malware variant being used in targeted attacks. It builds on the 2020 threat with advanced features, including stealing Firefox credentials via a modified HackBrowserData, hijacking cryptocurrency clipboard addresses using regular expressions, and increasing persistence through LaunchDaemon entries with AppleScripts and AES-encrypted C2 configurations. The four-stage infection chain uses modular payloads for info theft (vexyeqj/bnk), file exfiltration (neq_cdyd_ilvcmwx), persistence (xmyyeqjx creates fake System Settings apps and disables updates), and browser data extraction (iewmilh_cdyd targets passwords, cookies, and credit cards in Firefox). Security teams should review Xcode projects before use, deploy Microsoft Defender on macOS with cloud protection and PUA blocking, verify clipboard content before pasting sensitive information, and monitor for malicious LaunchDaemon entries (e.g., com.google.plists) and unusual creation of the ~/.root folder.
Luxury department store Harrods was approached by attackers who stole 430,000 customer records. The compromised data contains only basic personal details like names and contact information, along with marketing information such as loyalty card data. Importantly, it does not include passwords or financial information. Harrods has announced that it will not pay the ransom.
Stormshield's CTI team discovered two previously unreported servers (84.200.193[.]20 and 79.132.131[.]184) linked to Iranian APT35 (Charming Kitten) by hunting for a distinctive HTML loading page pattern using ssdeep fuzzy hashing and queries in SilentPush and VirusTotal. The servers, active since July, host 49+ phishing domains impersonating video conferencing services, such as Google Meet, with typosquatting tactics (e.g., meet.go0gle[.]online), primarily targeting Israeli victims based on URL submission patterns. Defenders can track ongoing APT35 infrastructure using simple VirusTotal queries, such as "entity:url url:online/?invitation" or "entity:domain domain:viliam.*", to identify phishing domains that follow consistent naming conventions despite the campaign being publicly documented.
Silent Push identified around 70,000 domains offering rentable subdomains (Dynamic DNS providers) exploited by threat actors due to minimal oversight, cryptocurrency payments, no KYC, and ignoring takedown requests. Major APT groups like APT28, APT29, APT33, Gamaredon, and Scattered Spider extensively use these for C2 infrastructure. While individual malicious subdomains can be blocklisted, parent domains often remain active and spawn new threats. The team created data exports (from the Public Suffix List, afraid[.]org, DuckDNS, NoIP) to help security teams implement risk-based blocking or alerting, balancing security with avoiding disruption to legitimate access.
This article explores how to create a GuardDuty triage agent using PydanticAI and Discord. A user can call the agent using !triage in a Discord channel, and it will investigate a specific alert, IAM user, etc, and provide additional context as well as a verdict. The author was impressed with how well the LLM could triage alerts, but definitely felt that there was a lot of engineering effort in creating the tools and fine-tuning the agent.
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Running AI on your PC is transforming productivity - but like all emerging tech, it comes with some security risk. Learn about the tactics attackers use to gain entry [12] to your endpoints, and how
AIDR Bastion is an open-source GenAI security system that defends against malicious prompts using five detection methods: regex, vector similarity, static analysis, ML classification, and LLM analysis. It supports standard and custom rules, integrating with SigmaHQ, SOC Prime, and mapping to MITRE ATLAS and OWASP Top 10, enabling configurable blocking, notifications, and logging. Built on FastAPI, it offers real-time protection and attack diagnostics, with tools for converting rules for enhanced detection.
EnumEDR is a tool that enumerates EDRs running on a system by enumerating current processes and loaded drivers.
Hound is a language-agnostic AI code auditor that autonomously builds and refines adaptive knowledge graphs for deep, interactive code reasoning.
Google Cloud's record-breaking bugSWAT event brought together 20 elite security researchers who submitted 130 reports, uncovering 91 vulnerabilities across the platform. The event resulted in approximately $1.6 million in bounty rewards (with 100% bonuses applied), pushing Google's total Cloud VRP payouts to ~$2.5M for 2025. High-severity findings included a network egress filter bypass that enabled SSRF attacks and SQL injection vulnerabilities in database connectors, both of which have now been patched.
The Department of Defense (DoD) unveiled a new Cybersecurity Risk Management Construct to replace its previous risk management system. The new system defines a five-phased lifecycle which includes: a design phase which incorporates security from the outset, a build phase where secure designs are implemented to achieve Initial Operating Capacity, a test phase where validation and stress testing are performed before Full Operating Capacity, an onboarding phase where automated continuous monitoring is activated, and finally an operations phase where real-time dashboards and alerting mechanisms provide immediate detection and response.
Windows 10 will reach end-of-life on October 14. Microsoft had previously announced that users who enabled Windows Backup would be entitled to a year of free extended security updates. This move drew some controversy due to its requiring the use of OneDrive to receive security updates. Following pressure from the Euroconsumers consumer advocacy group, Microsoft has dropped the Windows Backup requirement for European users, but will still require the use of a Microsoft account.
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Predicts which of your websites and applications are most likely to be vulnerable to attacks. Correlates runtime-validated DAST findings with broader ASPM data, evaluating exploitability, reachability, and
The fire at South Korea's National Information Resources Service datacenter was sparked by a lithium-ion battery replacement gone wrong.
Microsoft Edge will introduce malware detection in November to automatically identify and revoke malicious sideloaded extensions installed via Developer Mode.
The UK Metropolitan Police secured a conviction against Zhimin Qian, also known as "Bitcoin Queen," for a multibillion-pound Bitcoin fraud scheme that defrauded 128,000 Chinese investors between 2014 and 2017 by promising 100 to 300 percent returns.
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Every day when your executives aren't posting on LinkedIn is a missed opportunity for your brand. You can't force it, but there are practical ways to make it easier, deliver impact, and motivate executives to keep going.
Last month, over 40% of full-time US employees received AI-generated workslop - content that looks useful but fails to advance tasks. On average, 15.4% of work qualifies as workslop, mostly exchanged between peers, with 18% coming from direct reports to managers. Sending workslop damages perceptions of colleagues, with roughly half seen as less creative, capable, and reliable, 42% as less trustworthy, and 37% as less intelligent.
Over 10% of global professionals and nearly 20% of US workers hold jobs that didn't exist in 2000. About 85% of US professionals could see a quarter of their skills reshaped by AI. 58% of marketing professionals report AI is making them more efficient. There has been a 140% increase in new skills added since 2018 and a 100% growth in AI literacy this past year. Many are pivoting into flexible, high-impact roles or self-employment, where 65% of US self-employed feel in control of their careers.
Set up 3 campaign groups: TOF, MOF, and BOF. TOF builds audiences with thought-leader videos, normal videos, or single-image ads for retargeting. MOF nurtures warm leads with zero-click ads, ungated case studies, or video testimonials to build trust. BOF drives demos, leads, or signups using single-image ads to lead forms, conversation ads, or direct-to-calendar landing pages. Focus each campaign on one objective and a single ideal customer profile to keep targeting simple.
To create strong content, start by identifying unique qualities that make you stand out and drive your top clients to buy, rather than generic table stakes like “great service”. Form a small cross-functional team, gather input from leaders, employees, and loyal customers, and list all potential differentiators. Remove anything common, expected, or boring, then narrow to 3 memorable differentiators. Use these consistently across all content, including blogs, newsletters, webinars, and social media by highlighting why they matter, why generic traits do not, and how they impact clients, applying them throughout the funnel from awareness to conversion.
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As buyers expect personalized experiences, marketers face growing pressure to deliver. Webflow's definitive guide [9] breaks down UX principles, optimization strategies, and real-world examples to help teams create websites that convert.
ChatGPT's Instant Checkout lets users buy products directly in chat from US Etsy sellers. Shopify merchants are coming soon. Single-item purchases are currently supported, with multi-item carts planned. ChatGPT acts as an AI agent, securely passing order, payment, and shipping details to merchants, who handle fulfillment and customer support. The system uses the open-sourced Agentic Commerce Protocol, allowing merchants to work across platforms and payment processors without changing their existing systems.
Google will deprecate version 1 of Postmaster Tools today, removing the IP and Domain Reputation charts that gave marketers simple deliverability indicators. The replacement in version 2 is the Compliance Status dashboard, which uses green or red checks to show whether a sending domain meets Gmail's standards. The dashboard covers 6 technical requirements, such as SPF, DKIM, DMARC, TLS, DNS records, and one-click unsubscribe, as well as two behavioral measures: user-reported spam rates below 0.3% and honoring unsubscribes within 48 hours.
Social media algorithms amplify emotional content, especially anger, which spreads faster than joy and fuels division. This incentivizes creators to produce outrage while platforms profit from engagement. China counters this by promoting “positive energy” and knowledge-sharing on Douyin, but similar government control in the West would be biased and untrusted. Removing algorithms could reduce amplification but would hurt platform engagement and revenue.
Advertising has evolved from rational product demos in the 1960s to jingles, celebrity glamour, quirky storytelling, relatable brand characters, and cinematic, emotional campaigns. The 2020s began with covid-era “sadvertising” but shifted back to culturally relevant, emotionally resonant work. Across decades, the constant is that effective ads connect meaningfully with audiences and evoke emotion.
Teenage Engineering built a $25M+ business by positioning itself as an anti-brand brand that values emotion and experience over technical specifications. It targets design-conscious tech enthusiasts, professional musicians, and social media creators. Its marketing relies on distinctive product design, organic social media exposure, and collaborations with brands like IKEA, Nothing, and Panic Inc. It has created a devoted global community and redefined what professional creative tools can look like.
A cheeky ad from Merriam's social team.
Write like you're whispering secrets to your favorite client and gut-check with the “Coffee Table Test.”
OpenAI is building in-house capabilities to support ad buying, attribution, and campaign management directly within ChatGPT.
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Notion just released 25 ready-to-use AI agent prompts [4] that cover your entire product development cycle.
China has become the global leader in robotics by combining scale, precision manufacturing, and rapid iteration. To stay competitive, the US and its allies must foster freer experimentation and collaborate on a resilient robotics supply chain.
Answer Engine Optimization shifts from keywords to prompts, emphasizing clarity, structure, and citations for AI agents. Fast publishing, comparison content, and off-site syndication drive higher AI visibility, stronger leads, and better conversion rates.
Growth never “arrives”. Goals move, structures block, loops collapse, and retention beats acquisition every time. The best companies unify around one metric, build lovable products, and embrace the messy, temporary nature of growth.
Tech employees often feel trapped in endless busywork, hoping AI will free them to do higher-value work. Yet new tools usually replace one kind of tedium with another, so the grind rarely goes away.
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For PMs building production-ready AI agents who need to move beyond high accuracy to high adoption. Join us live to learn architectural patterns that create magical user experiences, not just smart responses. Deep dive into actual implementation using battle-tested open source tools like Strands while leveraging production services from AWS.
Vanity metrics like DAU create illusions of progress, while value metrics reveal true customer outcomes, retention, and revenue alignment. Shifting to outcome-based measures drives better decisions, sustainable growth, and product impact.
AI hallucinations damage trust and sales. PMs can combat this with structured AI evaluations - setting goals, testing against ground truth, scoring outputs, and continuously monitoring to ensure reliability.
Starting with simple AI tasks builds prompt skills and workflow design. This helps PMs gradually gain confidence to create effective AI-driven solutions.
Large companies often fail at AI due to rigid workflows, talent gaps, and weak internal builds. Startups succeed by delivering adaptive tools, small high-value wins, and measurable business outcomes quickly.
PM prompt toolkit for research, strategy, and analytics with crisp, cited, table-ready outputs.
Cultural alignment in new offices thrives on seeding, rotation, autonomy, and local trust.
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Skip the complex integrations. The name.com API lets you build domain search, registration, and management directly into your app with clean API calls that just work.