DataBreachToday.com

Review Finds Access Control, Incident Response Gaps for 2 DHHS Data Repositories
A lack of access controls, poor record request handling, weak incident response plans and other security deficiencies related to two critical data repositories are potentially putting millions of Utahans sensitive personal and health information at risk, said a state audit report.

AI Agents Target Anti-Money Laundering at Major Global Banks, Cut Manual Probes
Bretton AI has raised $75 million in Series B funding led by Sapphire Ventures to scale AI agents for anti-money laundering sanctions and KYC compliance. CEO Will Lawrence says the company is targeting large banks with automation designed to reduce manual investigations and improve auditability.

Also: Spanish Hacker Granted Russian Asylum, Microsoft Patches Zero-Days
This week, a CISA warning, Nest footage in Nancy Guthrie case, Signal phishing. Spanish hacker, Russian asylum. Spanish ministry services offline. BYOVD ransomware. The Conduent breach hit Volvo. Microsoft patched zero-days. ZeroDayRAT targeted devices. The SmarterMail breach. Another Fortinet flaw.

Plaintext Emails Trigger Police Probes Into Potential Leaks of State Secrets
A trove of documents connected to American financier Jeffrey Epstein published by the U.S. Department of Justice show that the rich and powerful who orbited the now-deceased convicted child sex offender practiced horrible operational security.

Also: SafeMoon CEO Gets 8 Years for Fraud, SBF Seeks New Trial
This week, a 20-year sentence in a $73 million scam, SafeMoon CEO got eight years for fraud, Sam Bankman-Fried sought a new trial, Epstein's early crypto investments, a U.K. lawsuit against HTX, a probe of a Trump-linked crypto deal, a crypto-linked home invasion and a $43 billion Bithumb error.

Critics Say Regulation Amendments Would Chip Away at Fundamental Rights
A slew of amendments to European tech regulations touted by the European Commission as necessary for boosting continental competitiveness is receiving pushback from privacy watchdogs unhappy with changes that could water down EU privacy laws.

Accel-Led Funding Round Fuels AI-Native Detection and Response
Vega raised $120 million led by Accel to expand its AI-native security operations platform. The funding will boost product development and global go-to-market efforts as enterprises seek faster threat detection, broader analytics and support for complex multi-cloud and on-premises environments.

Why Modern Threat Modeling Must Account for State Control of Infrastructure
CISOs for decades viewed governments as partners. That assumption is weakening. Today, state control over infrastructure needs be part of threat modeling and business continuity planning for global security leaders - and it's time for CISOs to reassess dependencies and trust boundaries.

Singapore Signals Heightened Vigilance Against State-Linked Threat Actors
Singapore conducted a yearlong, multi-agency cyber defense operation to expel UNC3886 from all four major telecom providers after the advanced threat actor accessed segments of critical communications infrastructure and extracted limited technical data without disrupting services.

AI Is Transforming Economics But Enterprise IT Architecture Issues Are Still Here
While AI systems such as Claude lower the marginal cost of writing code and automating discrete tasks, especially when it comes to early-stage work including prototyping and front-end design, the idea that AI will lay waste to the industry is overblown, analysts say.

Accel-Led Funding Round Fuels AI-Native Detection and Response
Vega raised $125 million led by Accel to expand its AI-native security operations platform. The funding will boost product development and global go-to-market efforts as enterprises seek faster threat detection, broader analytics and support for complex multi-cloud and on-premises environments.

Acting Chief Tells Lawmakers Most Staff Would Be Furloughed Amid Partial Shutdown
More than half of the U.S. cyber defense agency's workforce would be furloughed under a DHS funding lapse, the agency's acting chief warned Wednesday, pausing incident reporting rulemaking, security assessments and proactive cyber programs while significantly limiting operations.

Attackers that want to use artificial intelligence tools to build ransomware or help run their cyber operations risk getting much less than they bargained for, said security expert Candid Wuest, in part because they'll still rely on known tactics that can be readily spotted and blocked.

Ransomware Gang Everest Claims It Has Leaked All Stolen Data
A revenue cycle management software firm is notifying an undisclosed number of patients of several medical diagnostic labs that their sensitive information, including diagnoses and treatments, was stolen in a November hack. Ransomware gang Everest Group claims it has leaked all the data.

European Commission Rejects Claims of Reduced Multi-Cloud Competition
The European Commission has unconditionally approved Google's takeover of cloud security vendor Wiz, saying customers will retain alternatives in the cloud infrastructure and security markets even as critics warned the $32 billion deal could entrench Google's ecosystem.

Nation State Hackers Escalating Attacks on US Defense Industrial Base, Report Says
A new report from Google Threat Intelligence Group warns that state-backed hackers are escalating attacks on the defense industrial base, shifting from classic espionage to supply-chain compromise, workforce infiltration and battlefield-adjacent cyber operations.

Redmond Rolls Out 2 Desktop Security Initiatives
Microsoft is touting changes to Windows meant to ensure better runtime security and user prompts when apps access sensitive desktop resources such as files, a camera or microphone. Other controls include blocking legacy authentication protocols to ensure use of multifactor authentication.

Enabling Practical Endpoint Control Without Productivity Trade-offs
Removing local admin rights often creates helpdesk and user friction. An identity-first model reduces risk while keeping business operational. Join CyberArk's practical webinar session to learn how identity-first endpoint control replaces standing admin rights with just-in-time access.