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Clop Ransomware Group Targeted NHS Barts Health in August
A National Health Service hospital is seeking assistance from the U.K. High Court to stymie a potential data leak tied to a ransomware hack. The hospital, NHS Barts, said ransomware group Clop targeted its network in August.

WormGPT 4 Sells for $50 Monthly, While KawaiiGPT Goes Open Source
The cybercrime-as-a-service model has a new product line, with malicious large language models built without ethical guardrails selling on Telegram for $50 monthly or distributed free on GitHub. Others groups are taking the open-source route.

Plan Calls for Updated HIPAA Regs, Grants, Training, Enhanced Breach Reporting Data
Four U.S. lawmakers - including the chair of the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee - are taking another stab with a bipartisan bill aimed at strengthening cybersecurity in healthcare. That includes bolstering HIPAA, and providing cyber grants and training to the sector.

Outage Briefly Took Down Zoom, LinkedIn and Other Websites
Content delivery network giant Cloudflare is investigating a brief outage early Friday that took down multiple websites. The incident marks the second outage in the span of a month, although the causes are unrelated. It stemmed from how Cloudflare's web application firewall parses requests.

US Cyber Defense Agency Faces Procedural Delays Blocking Director Confirmation
Sean Plankey's stalled nomination leaves the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency without a Senate-confirmed director amid rising state-linked threats, as unrelated congressional holds tied to telecom and contracting fights freeze the process with no resolution in sight.

Bankrupt Firm Plans to Use the Settlement Money to Pay Off Cyber Claims
As part of its ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, 23andMe Holding Co. - now named Chrome Holding - has reached a settlement with its cyber insurers for the carriers to buy back $16.5 million of the consumer genetics testing firm's unused cyber policy. What will the company do with the funds?

Enterprises Are Reimagining Org Roles, Risk Management and Skillsets in the AI Race
Organizations are beginning to reimagine how leadership roles should be structured, aligned and empowered as they grapple with regulatory pressures, the unpredictable nature of AI systems, and the need for operational resilience in an increasingly uncertain business climate.

Also, Microsoft Badly Patches LNK Flaw, Australian Sentenced for 'Evil Twin' Hack
This week, the React flaw, a belated Windows fix, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's Signal group posed operational risk, more North Korean npm packages. An Australian jailed for Wi-Fi "evil twin" crimes. The US FTC will send $15.3 million to Avast users. A London council said attackers stole data.

Chinese-Linked Malware Campaign Targets Critical Environments With Weak Monitoring
U.S. and Canadian cyber authorities say Chinese state-backed actors used a backdoor dubbed BRICKSTORM to maintain long-term access into critical infrastructure, exploiting VMware environments to exfiltrate credentials and evade detection through encrypted covert channels.

Plan Aims to Modernize Workflow, Expand AI Use Across Agencies, Improve Cyber
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday unveiled "version 1" of a strategic plan to implement artificial intelligence as a "practical layer" across the department and its agencies aimed at helping to break down silos, improve collaboration and increase efficiencies.

Security Minister Dan Jarvis Endorses Security Researcher Protections
The U.K. government is considering amending its three-decade-old hacking law to include a "statutory defense" cover for security researchers. The announcement comes amid concerns that the law penalizes white hat hackers for essential security practices.

Also: Anthropic Warns of Autonomous AI Exploits on Blockchain
This week, authorities shutter Cryptomixer, Anthropic warns about autonomous AI exploits, U.K. plans ban on crypto political donations, Do Kwon seeks leniency, Lazarus Group suspected in Upbit theft, Balancer's post-exploit plans and Yearn recovers some hacked amount.

AI in OT May Trigger Cascading Infrastructure Failures
The U.S. cyber defense agency warned that machine learning and large language model deployments can introduce new attack surfaces across critical infrastructure sectors in a document setting out principles for safely integrating AI into operational technology.

Skills Needed: Enterprise Architecture, Configuration and Vulnerability Management
When a critical vulnerability surfaces in ERP systems such as the Oracle E-Business Suite flaw, attackers can go well beyond a single compromised server. The flaw exposed the need for cyber professionals who understand enterprise architecture, secure configuration and vulnerability interpretation.

Federal Cuts Threaten Grid Security as Nation-State Hackings Escalate, Analysts Say
Cybersecurity leaders told Congress that U.S. energy systems are already compromised by state-backed actors - chiefly China - and warned that shrinking federal support for grid security programs threatens to worsen exposure as utilities face escalating threats with limited resources.

Mirion Medical Says Bugs Are Fixed in New Release of BioDose/NMIS Software
U.S. federal authorities are warning that several high-severity vulnerabilities discovered in Mirion Medical Co. inventory tracking software used by nuclear medicine departments could allow attackers to modify program executables and gain access to sensitive information.

Organizations are adopting agentic artificial intelligence as the next phase of AI. Kim Basile, CIO of Kyndryl, explains how organizations can prepare teams to work with agentic AI, emphasizing culture, training and governance as the crucial drivers of AI readiness and adoption.

Marquis Software Solutions Says Ransomware Group Hit SonicWall Device, Stole Data
Marketing and compliance software maker Marquis Software Solutions, which counts over 700 banks and credit unions as customers, said a ransomware group breached its SonicWall firewall and stole hundreds of thousands of individuals' personal details, including Social Security numbers.

China Still Relies on US Technology, Experts tell Senate
Washington spent years constructing export barriers around America's most sensitive artificial intelligence technology. Witnesses told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that China is finding ways to move around them. Where one pathway closes, Beijing opens another.