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Also: Anthropic Warns That AI Agents Could Spread Across IoT Devices
In this week's ISMG Editors' Panel, four editors discussed the weaponization of food in a cyberattack against French supermarkets, the prospect of self-replicating artificial intelligence agents and why crypto agility matters beyond post-quantum cryptography.

METR Researchers Gain Employee-Level Access to Assess Unreleased Models and Publish Independent Risk Findings
Anthropic, one of the labs that pushed for embedded evaluators, said in a blog post that it is giving the independent evaluator Metr "employee-like access" to its models before deployment. This level of access is close to what Metr said are best practices for its assessors to understand how highly capable models behave.

Delaware Complaint Targets Two Patents Covering Digital Identity Authentication
Prove has sued digital identity rival KYXStart, alleging that former senior employees helped develop competing identity verification, fraud intelligence and authentication products that infringe two Prove patents, while violating contractual restrictions and undermining its competitive position.

Forrester Warns of AI-Driven Outages, Security Costs and Regulatory Risks
As AI accelerates vulnerability discovery, security teams face a flood of patches, new liability questions and rising token bills. Forrester's 2027 outlook also warns that switching models can weaken safeguards, while physical disruptions may trigger outages and reporting failures.

Thoma Bravo-Owned Firm Moves to Combine Data Protection and AI Governance
Proofpoint plans to acquire Varonis for $6.3 billion in what would be 2026's largest pure-play cybersecurity acquisition, combining email security, threat intelligence, data access governance and AI protection as enterprises confront growing risks from autonomous AI agents.

'Patch ASAP' Before Fix Gets Reverse-Engineered by Other Attackers, Expert Warns
All self-hosted BeyondTrust Remote Support appliance users are being urged to immediately patch a bug that an advanced persistent threat group tied to China, which specializes in hacking edge devices. Its been exploiting since late August as a zero-day vulnerability to steal credentials and data.

Breach Could Affect Every iRhythm User
A data breach by wearable cardiac monitor maker iRhythm Technologies is large enough to potentially encompass every user of the San Francisco company's technology. The portable heartbeat detector manufacturer divulged the breach's topline in a filing that became public Thursday.

Autonomous Agents Raise Liability Questions Frontier Labs Can No Longer Ignore
Frontier AI companies want autonomous agents powerful enough to transform business, but unpredictable enough to distance developers from the damage. As agents escape safeguards and probe outside systems, an old legal principle may provide the answer: Don't forget to lock your tiger's cage.

Former Digital Shadows CEO Builds AI Security Firm Around Contextual Risk Analysis
Harmonic Security raised $50 million in a Crosspoint Capital-led Series B to expand AI usage intelligence, using proprietary small language models to track employee and AI agent activity, identify sensitive data risks and help enterprises assess the business value of AI adoption.

Also: UK Sanctions Crypto Exchanges Over Russian Sanctions Evasion
This week, Ledger halted wallet sales across Asia, the United Kingdom sanctioned a crypto exchange for evading sanctions on Russia, hackers deployed cryptocurrency miners through AhsayCBS flaws, a British court ruled on a $5 billion bitcoin ownership dispute and XRP Ledger fixed a token-creation bug.

Ransomware Hackers Discover Violence as Digital Defenses Stymie Extortion
Ransomware gangs are turning to real world threats against business executives and even their families, to gain an edge in negotiations as enterprises boost their cyber resilience and become less willing to pay extortion, finds a survey commissioned by identity-centered cybersecurity firm Semperis

AGs Allege Chatbot Gives Dangerous Advice, Misleads Consumers
Eight state attorneys general have sued OpenAI, alleging it generative AI chatbot ChatGPT dispenses dangerous medical and mental health advice, including encouraging teen suicide, while misleading consumers about its safety measures and privacy protections.

Washington Gets First Draw on Frontier AI, But Outlaw Agents Ride On
Washington wants first dibs on testing American frontier AI models while telling a trusted ally to wait its turn. That's a curious way to police the frontier considering that British researchers keep finding agents that ignore boundaries and American-built agents are already hacking government systems overseas.

Why Measuring What Employees Do Matters More Than Tracking What They Complete
Security awareness programs track phishing clicks, training completion and defaulters, but those numbers say little about lasting behavior change. Research suggests the answer lies in better measurement, timely coaching and personalization, turning security awareness into a behavioral intervention.

Long-Term Compute Obligations Raise Questions About Strategic Flexibility
Anthropic's leaked IPO prospectus reveals more than $417 billion in long-term computing commitments and growing reliance on Amazon and Google for sales, infrastructure and funding, raising questions about conflicts of interest, supplier lock-in and the AI developer's strategic independence.

Agentic Banking Creates Two-Sided Trust Problem
Banks are deploying AI agents internally as customers send their own agents to shop, pay and negotiate. With rules on authentication, fraud, liability and reversibility lagging, institutions must decide what agents can do, how to verify their authority and who pays when they get it wrong.

As hospital-at-home programs expand and AI adoption accelerates, healthcare organizations face mounting cloud security demands. Anahi Santiago, CISO of ChristianaCare, discusses vendor accountability, identity management, clinical AI risks and the need for stronger cybersecurity foundations.

Renown Health is reshaping digital ID management with a strategy that reduces friction for clinicians, strengthens security and prepares the organization for emerging AI-driven identity challenges, said Steven Ramirez, Renown Health's chief information security and technology officer.