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AI-Powered App Attacks Are Faster, More Frequent and Harder to Stop

20 May 2026 at 16:37

Digital.aiโ€™s latest threat report warns that agentic AI has erased the distinction between emerging and primary targets, enabling attackers to strike mobile apps within hours of release across every industry.

The post AI-Powered App Attacks Are Faster, More Frequent and Harder to Stop appeared first on SecurityWeek.

On AI Security

20 May 2026 at 16:21

Good report:

Executive Summary: Letโ€™s say you wanted to make sure that your AI is secure. Can you just maximize the security and privacy benchmark and call it a day? Nope, because benchmarks donโ€™t actually work for measuring AI capabilities (even when they are NOT emergent systemic properties like security). So letโ€™s take a step back: how do you measure security in the first place? Good question. Over the last 30 years, security engineering for software evolved from black box penetration testing, through whitebox code analysis and architectural risk analysis to de facto process-driven standards like the Building Security In Maturity Model (BSIMM). Software had a very deep impact on business operations, and it appears that AI is going to have an even deeper impact. Will a software security-like measurement move work for AI? Probably. In the meantime we can make real progress in AI security by cleaning up our WHAT piles and managing risk by identifying and applying good assurance processes. (Spoiler alert: no matter what we do, we still donโ€™t get a security meter for AI, so we need to be extra vigilant about security.)

Top AI Risks Every Security Team Should Be Testing For

11 May 2026 at 15:11

Learn how AI transforms cybersecurity through enhanced threat detection, new attack methods, model vulnerabilities, and the evolving skills teams need in 2026.

The post Top AI Risks Every Security Team Should Be Testing For appeared first on OffSec.

Legacy Windows Tool MSHTA Fuels Surge in Silent Malware Attacks

19 May 2026 at 15:00

Attackers are increasingly abusing Microsoftโ€™s decades-old MSHTA utility to stealthily deliver stealers, loaders, and persistent malware through phishing, fake software downloads, and LOLBIN-based attack chains.

The post Legacy Windows Tool MSHTA Fuels Surge in Silent Malware Attacks appeared first on SecurityWeek.

What to Do When a Third-Party Data Breach Puts Your Website at Risk

By: Sucuri
18 May 2026 at 22:04
What to Do When a Third-Party Data Breach Puts Your Website at Risk

Data breach notification letters have become a familiar routine. They usually start with โ€œWe value your privacyโ€ and offer a year of free credit monitoring. But the most important part is often hidden in the middle:

A list of what actually got out.

A leaked email address is not a leaked admin password. A hashed credential is not a session token. There is no universal post-breach checklist. The right response depends on the data exposed, so read the notice carefully and match your response to the level of exposure.

Continue reading What to Do When a Third-Party Data Breach Puts Your Website at Risk at Sucuri Blog.

OpenAIโ€™s GPT-5.5 is as Good as Mythos at Finding Security Vulnerabilities

13 May 2026 at 13:03

The UKโ€™s AI Security Institute evaluated GPT-5.5โ€™s ability to find security vulnerabilities, and found that it is comparable to Claude Mythos. Note that the OpenAI model is generally available.

Here is the Instituteโ€™s evaluation of Mythos.

And here is an analysis of a smaller, cheaper model. It requires more scaffolding from the prompter, but it is also just as good.

DNSSEC: The Extra Security Layer That Can Break Your Padlock

5 May 2026 at 02:59
DNSSEC: The Extra Security Layer That Can Break Your Padlock

Turning on DNSSEC makes your domain more secure โ€” but if itโ€™s misconfigured, newer certificate validation rules can stop SSL renewals in their tracks.

Hey there,

You know that satisfying click when you finally turn on DNSSEC? It feels like adding a shiny new deadbolt to your domainโ€™s front door. Youโ€™re doing the responsible thing: locking down your DNS against spoofing and hijacks, and making the internet just a bit safer.

Continue reading DNSSEC: The Extra Security Layer That Can Break Your Padlock at Sucuri Blog.

Vulnerability & Patch Roundup โ€” April 2026

Vulnerability & Patch Roundup โ€” April 2026

Vulnerability reports and responsible disclosures are essential for website security awareness and education. Automated attacks targeting known software vulnerabilities are one of the leading causes of website compromises.

To help educate website owners about potential threats to their environments, weโ€™ve compiled a list of important security updates and vulnerability patches for the WordPress ecosystem this past month.

The vulnerabilities listed below are virtually patched by the Sucuri Firewall and existing clients are protected.

Continue reading Vulnerability & Patch Roundup โ€” April 2026 at Sucuri Blog.

Utahโ€™s New Law Targeting VPNs Goes Into Effect May 6th

1 May 2026 at 01:33

Update, May 11, 2026: Utah has agreed to not enforce the VPN law until Sept. 3, 2026 after Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub.com, challenged the law in court.

For the last couple of years, weโ€™ve watched the same predictable cycle play out across the globe: a state (or country) passes a clunky age-verification mandate, and, without fail, Virtual Private Network (VPN) usage surges as residents scramble to maintain their privacy and anonymity. We've seen this everywhereโ€”from states like Florida, Missouri, Texas, and Utah, to countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, and Indonesia.ย 

Instead of realizing that mass surveillance and age gates aren't exactly crowd favorites, Utah lawmakers have decided thatย VPNs themselves are the real issue.

On May 6, 2026, Utah will become, to EFFโ€™s knowledge, the first state in the nation to target the use of VPNs to avoid legally mandated age-verification gates. While advocates in states like Wisconsin successfully forced the removal of similar provisions due to constitutional and technical concerns, Utah is proceeding with a mandate that threatens to significantly undermine digital privacy rights.ย 

What the Bill Does

Formally known as the โ€œOnline Age Verification Amendments,โ€ Senate Bill 73 (SB 73) was signed by Governor Spencer Cox on March 19, 2026. While the majority of the bill consists of provisions related to a 2% tax on revenues from online adult content that is set to take effect in October, one of the more immediate concerns for EFF is the section regulating VPN access, which goes into effect this coming Wednesday.

The VPN Provisions

The new law explicitly addresses VPN use in Section 14, which amends Section 78B-3-1002 of existing Utah statutes in two primary ways:

  1. Regulation based on physical location: Under the law, an individual is considered to be accessing a website from Utah if they are physically located there, regardless of whether they use a VPN, proxy server, or other means to disguise their geographic location.
  2. Ban on sharing VPN instructions: Commercial entities that host "a substantial portion of material harmful to minors" are now prohibited from facilitating or encouraging the use of a VPN to bypass age checks. This includes providing instructions on how to use a VPN or providing the means to circumvent geofencing.

By holding companies liable for verifying the age of anyone physically in Utah, even those using a VPN, the law creates a massive "liability trap." Just like we argued in the case of the Wisconsin bill, if a website cannot reliably detect a VPN user's true location and the law requires it to do so for all users in a particular state, then the legal risk could push the site to either ban all known VPN IPs, or to mandate age verification for every visitor globally. This would subject millions of users to invasive identity checks or blocks to their VPN use, regardless of where they actually live.ย 

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"Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

In practice, SB 73 is different from the Wisconsin proposalย in that it stops short of a total VPN ban. Instead, it discourages using VPNs by imposing the liability described above and by muzzling the websites themselves from sharing information about VPNs. This raises significant First Amendment concerns, as it prevents platforms from providing basic, truthful information about a lawful privacy tool to their users.ย 

Unlike previous drafts seen in other states, SB 73 doesn't explicitly ban the use of a VPN. Under a "don't ask, don't tell" style of enforcement, websites likely only have an obligation to ask for proof of age if they actually learn that a user is physically in Utah and using a VPN. If a site doesnโ€™t know a user is in Utah, their broader obligation to police VPNs remains murky. So, while SB 73 isnโ€™t as extreme as the discarded Wisconsin proposal, it remains a dangerous precedent.

Technical Feasibility

Then there is also the question of technical feasibility: Blocking all known VPN and proxy IP addresses is a technical whack-a-mole that likely no company can win. Providers add new IP addresses constantly, and no comprehensive blocklist exists. Complying with Utahโ€™s requirements would require impossible technical feats.

The internet is built to, and will always, route around censorship. If Utah successfully hampers commercial VPN providers, motivated users will transition to non-commercial proxies, private tunnels through cloud services like AWS, or residential proxies that are virtually indistinguishable from standard home traffic. These workarounds will emerge within hours of the law taking effect. Meanwhile, the collateral damage will fall on businesses, journalists, and survivors of abuse who rely on commercial VPNs for essential data security.

These provisions won't stop a tech-savvy teenager, but they certainly will impact the privacy of every regular Utah resident who just wants to keep their data out of the hands of brokers or malicious actors.

Uncharted Territory

Lawmakers have watched age-verification mandates fail and, instead of reconsidering the approach, have decided to wage war on privacy itself. As the Cato Institute states:ย 

โ€œThe point is that when an internet policy can be avoided by a relatively common technology that often provides significant privacy and security benefits, maybe the policy is the problem. Age verification regimes do plenty of damage to online speech and privacy, but attacking VPNs to try to keep them from being circumvented is doubling down on this damaging approach."

Attacks on VPNs are, at their core, attacks on the tools that enable digital privacy. Utah is setting a precedent that prioritizes government control over the fundamental architecture of a private and secure internet, and it wonโ€™t stop at the stateโ€™s borders. Regulators in countries outside the U.S. are still eyeing VPN restrictions, with the UK Childrenโ€™s Commissioner calling VPNs a โ€œloophole that needs closingโ€ and the French Minister Delegate for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs saying VPNs are โ€œthe next topic on my listโ€ after the country enacted a ban on social media for kids under 15.

As this law goes into effect, we are entering uncharted territory. Lawmakers who canโ€™t distinguish between a security tool and a "loophole" are now writing the rules for one of the most complex infrastructures on Earth. And we can assure that the result won't be a safer internet, only an increasingly less private one.

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Fast16 Malware

30 April 2026 at 12:22

Researchers have reverse-engineered a piece of malware named Fast16. Itโ€™s almost certainly state-sponsored, probably US in origin, and was deployed against Iran years before Stuxnet:

โ€œโ€ฆthe Fast16 malware was designed to carry out the most subtle form of sabotage ever seen in an in-the-wild malware tool: By automatically spreading across networks and then silently manipulating computation processes in certain software applications that perform high-precision mathematical calculations and simulate physical phenomena, Fast16 can alter the results of those programs to cause failures that range from faulty research results to catastrophic damage to real-world equipment.โ€

Another news article.

Lots of interesting details at the links.

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