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Deal Would Help Cisco Expand Footprint Beyond Authentication, ITDR and ISPM
Cisco's cyber M&A dry spell could soon come to an end, with the company reportedly in talks to acquire New York-based non-human identity startup Astrix Security for between $250 million and $350 million. That would represent at least a 25% premium to the startup’s last valuation of around $200 million.

Nation-State Hits Now Comprise Majority of Serious Incidents Probed by Government
British intelligence officials said they investigate about four major incidents per week, with the majority involving nation-state actors. Officials said the shape and scope of how cyberattacks are being wielded by the nation's adversaries continues to change as fast as the technology evolves.

AI Enthusiasts Haven't Used Model to Probe for Vulns, Source Tells Bloomberg
An unauthorized group of users gained access to Claude Mythos Preview artificial intelligence model and have regularly used it since the day that AI firm Anthropic revealed the model's existence while pronouncing it too dangerous to release to the public, reports Bloomberg.

Pact Is Among Other Similar Biotech, AI Firm Collaborations to Speed Up Drug R&D
Merck has struck a multi-year deal with Google Cloud worth up to $1 billion to enhance the pharmaceutical and life sciences giant's digital backbone "as an AI-enabled enterprise." The initiative includes deploying an agentic AI platform across R&D, manufacturing, commercial and corporate functions.

TrendAI's Tom Kellermann on Defending Against Agentic Attacks, APT Collaboration
AI-driven threats now operate with speed, scale and persistence. Defenders need expanded telemetry, a global research team and an advanced XDR platform to predict and suppress adversaries defenders, said Tom Kellermann, vice president of AI security and threat intelligence at TrendAI.

How We Talk About AI Says as Much About Human Cognition as It Does About Them
The debate about AI consciousness misses the point. Asking better questions about what these systems are reveals as much about human thinking as about the technology itself.

France Invokes Geopolitical Instability to Mandate 2030 Deadline
A working quantum computer is probably at least a decade away. The rush to adopt encryption algorithms that can withstand the onslaught of a qubit attack has already begun, with European countries feeling variable levels of urgency. "Sooner is better in principle," an analyst said.

House Democrats Are the Latest to Raise Data Collection Privacy, Security Alarms
A plan by the U.S. federal agency that oversees federal benefits that would require insurers to hand over the identifiable health data of civil servants received pushback from House of Representatives Democrats who said it throws up privacy and security risks.

French Vendor's QShield Offering Protects Edge Systems From Reverse Engineering
Aircraft manufacturer Airbus plans to acquire 100-person French cybersecurity vendor Quarkslab to strengthen sovereign European defenses by protecting aerospace and defense software, data and edge systems from AI-driven reverse engineering and exploitation.

Overhaul, Restructuring Puts Cyber at Core of Digital Warfare
Defense officials told House lawmakers the newly-released budget request positions cyber as a core warfighting domain, funding expanded offensive operations, AI-driven capabilities and a major Cyber Command overhaul as adversaries shift from espionage to pre-positioned disruptive attacks.

Cisco's Jeetu Patel on How Machine-Speed Threats Drive Need for AI-Led Security
Cisco's Jeetu Patel explains how AI models are compressing exploit timelines to minutes, forcing a shift to machine-speed defense, real-time enforcement and deeper ecosystem collaboration to secure critical infrastructure and stay ahead of adversaries.

New Rules Will Jolt Maritime Cybersecurity Market Amid Geopolitical Anxiety
A Coast Guard rule imposing standards on operational technology systems in ports and larger U.S.-flagged commercial vessels is poised to supercharge the maritime cybersecurity market - a boon granted by concern that shipping is a weak target for a world roiled by mounting geopolitical tensions.

Complaints Allege Tempus AI Lacked Consent to Use, Share Data With Pharma Cos.
A healthcare artificial intelligence firm that sells genetic information from an acquired database holding the results of millions of screening tests faces multiple putative class action lawsuits in Chicago federal court. Genetic data resists attempts to de-identify it, plaintiffs say.

KPMG Survey Finds Organizations Must Transform Ops to Scale AI
A new KPMG survey shows that while most enterprises have an AI strategy, only a small fraction are seeing real ROI. Enterprises getting it right are embedding AI into operations, governance and workforce development from the start.

UPGRADE and DigiSeals Programs at ARPA-H Remain Fully Funded
A U.S. federal grant effort to develop autonomous medical device patching platforms for hospitals evaded the budget-cutting knife of the Trump administration. Program boosters hope to automate cyber defenses so that hospitals of any size can more quickly patch vulnerabilities.

Officials Warned New Models Could Accelerate Cyber Risks Faster Than Rules
Global finance officials meeting in Washington warned that advanced artificial intelligence models could expose structural weaknesses across banking and payment systems, speeding vulnerability discovery and cyber exploitation faster than regulators can build guardrails.

Tyler Buchanan Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and Identity Theft
A senior figure in the Scattered Spider cybercrime group pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft on Friday in US federal district court. The plea marks the conclusion of a digital crime spree by Tyler Robert Buchanan.

Optimizing Value and Utility Hinges on AI Scaffolding, Says Aisle's Ondrej Vlcek
While the world is in "awe" of how Mythos can find vulnerabilities and chain together exploits, the next step is to identify how to build the best cybersecurity pipelines and scaffolding to get maximum value from all AI models used inside an organization, said Aisle CEO Ondrej Vlcek.

Also: NY State Regs Test Resilience vs Compliance, OT Security Nears Breaking Point
In this week's panel, four ISMG editors explore the industry's response to Anthropic's Mythos AI breakthrough, whether tighter New York state cybersecurity rules are driving real resilience or simply compliance, and why operational technology security is fast becoming a critical frontline concern.