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Cybersecurity Training and Education Must Evolve to Keep Pace With the Profession
Over the past few decades, cybersecurity has evolved from a niche concern into a global priority, creating a vast and dynamic career field. While we celebrate the journey, let's also focus on how today's cybersecurity professionals will shape the future.

LA County Clinic Delayed Access to Patient's Medical Records During Pandemic
Federal regulators have fined a Los Angeles county mental health clinic $100,000 for failure to provide a patient with timely access to her requested health records during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case is the U.S. government's 51st HIPAA patient right-of-access enforcement action.

Military Says Ship-to-Shore Cranes Made in China Include Dangerous Security Flaws
The United States Coast Guard is continuing to warn of significant security risks embedded in ship-to-shore cranes developed by companies with ties to Beijing while issuing new sensitive requirements for ports operating Chinese-made cranes across the country.

Nightwing's John DeSimone Talks Growth, Threats, National Security and AI Strategy
Nightwing CEO John DeSimone reveals how the company’s independence from Raytheon allows it to better serve customers, invest in intelligence, advanced AI and data solutions, address sophisticated cyber threats, and maintain a no-fail mission approach in the face of rising security threats.

Justice Department Dismantles Cybercrime Hub, Announces Charges and Seizes Crypto
The Justice Department has seized PopeyeTools, a notorious cybercrime marketplace, while announcing criminal charges for three alleged operators behind the website, which generated over $1.7 million in revenue, according to a Wednesday announcement.

Google Does Not Have Material Influence Over Antrhtopic, Agency Says
The U.K. antitrust regulator called off an investigation into a $2 billion partnership between computing giant Alphabet and artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. The .K. Competition and Markets Authority probe sought to understand if the deal forms a "relevant merger situation."

Incident Is Among Growing List of Attacks on Small, Rural Hospitals
An Oklahoma hospital quickly restored its IT systems after a ransomware attack in September, but the 62-bed hospital could not recover some data and later learned that hackers may have accessed the personal information of 133,000 people. The attack is the latest involving a small rural hospital.

Competition Regulator Says WhatsApp Users Could Not Opt Out of Data Sharing
India's Competition Commission has fined social media conglomerate Meta over $25 million for forcing WhatsApp users to agree to a sweeping data sharing policy with other Meta platforms. The agency ordered the company to stop using users' data for online advertising on other Meta platforms.

Experts Call on Feds to Step Up Defense Against Escalating Chinese Threats
A panel of cybersecurity experts and top industry officials pushed lawmakers and the federal government to step up their defenses against escalating cyberthreats from China, citing recent high-profile examples of evidence that Beijing is increasingly targeting the U.S. with sophisticated attacks.

Critical Authentication Flaw Impacts Both Free and Pro Users
A widely deployed five-in-one security plug-in for WordPress websites contained a flaw that hackers could automate into a large-scale takeover campaign. The critical authentication bypass vulnerability takes advantage of a now-patched flaw in the Really Simple Security plug-in.

Water Barghest Group Lists Infected Devices Within 10 Minutes of Initial Compromise
A threat actor with suspected ties to Russian nation-state hackers has listed thousands of IoT devices as proxy networks within minutes of their initial compromise. A campaign that began in 2020 has so far infected 20,000 IoT devices, according to a new report by Trend Micro.

Inspector General Report Reveals 97 Water Systems With Critical Cybersecurity Risks
The Environmental Protection Agency inspector general said over 100 million Americans depend on drinking water systems exposed to cybersecurity flaws that could allow hackers to "disrupt service or cause irreparable physical damage to drinking water infrastructure."

Critical Authentication Flaw Impacts Both Free and Pro Users
A widely deployed five-in-one security plugin for WordPress websites contained a flaw that hackers could automate into a large-scale takeover campaign. The critical authentication bypass vulnerability takes advantage of a now-patched flaw in the Really Simple Security plugin.

Gartner Publishes First Identity Verification MQ as Workforce-Related Uses Multiply
Gartner has recognized Entrust, Incode, Jumio, Socure and Sumsub as identity verification leaders amid a rise in regulatory demands and fraud prevention requirements. Identity verification was historically used for regulated onboarding in industries like banking, gambling and cryptocurrency.

Scrutiny Over Ethics of Profit-Sharing Prompts End to Cyberstarts CISO Compensation
Allegations of conflicts of interest in Cyberstarts’ Sunrise program have sparked debate in the CISO community. While the program connected CISOs with startups for advisory purposes, its profit-sharing incentives drew criticism, leading some participants to resign and the firm to halt compensation.

Also: Anticipating Donald Trump's Second Term; a Surprising Cybersecurity Merger
In the latest weekly update, ISMG editors explored the growing threat of disrupted ransomware attacks as a public health crisis, the potential global impact of a Donald Trump's second presidential term, and implications of the latest big merger in the cybersecurity market.

Researchers Find Exploitable Flaws in the OvrC Platform
Security flaws in a cloud platform for remotely configuring and monitoring Internet of Things gadgets could expose millions of devices to remote code execution hacks. Security researchers at Claroty's Team82 uncovered 10 vulnerabilities in the widely used OvrC cloud platform.

Trump Administration Picks May Test Bipartisan Support for Cybersecurity Agency
Newly empowered Republicans in U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's orbit appear slated to enact far-reaching changes to the federal cyber defense agency, with one senator pledging to act on his long-standing enmity to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Health System's Cyberattack Affected More Than 235,000 Patients, Employees, Others
A New York state court has approved a preliminary $1.5 million settlement of a consolidated proposed class action lawsuit against One Brooklyn Health System following a November 2022 cyberattack that involved theft of sensitive health data belonging to more than 235,000 people.

Australian Government Warns of Nation-State Actors' Plans to Weaponize Malware
The Australian government is alerting critical infrastructure providers that state-sponsored actors are positioning malware in their networks that can be weaponized to disrupt operations during major crises or a military conflict. The hackers employ living-off-the-land technique to avoid detection.