U.S. state governments are taking on a larger role in cybersecurity to help protect local communities and essential services. Many states are building state-led cyber defense programs, including cybersecurity clinics, regional security operations centers (RSOCs), and state cyber corps programs…
Category: Help Net Security
Lessons for organizations from the Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report
This is my favourite time of the year, not just because spring is here and the promise of summer is on the way. But also, because one of my must reads each year gets published. There are a few must…
OpenHack: Open-source AI-powered vulnerability research
Source-guided vulnerability research increasingly leans on coding harnesses such as Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor to drive agent-based reviews of application code. A new MIT-licensed project from the Dutch security firm Hadrian, called OpenHack, packages that approach into a file-based…
Boards want cyber risk in dollars, not CVE counts
In this Help Net Security video, Ziv Levi, SVP of Technology at CYE, explains why translating cyber risk into dollars is one of the most pressing tasks for security leaders. Boards and executives want cyber exposure described in business terms,…
Turns out the C-suite loves shadow AI
Senior decision-makers are the heaviest users of unapproved AI tools, and they continue using them despite being aware of the security and privacy risks linked to shadow AI, according to TrustedTech’s Shadow AI in the Workplace report. The study found…
Week in review: GitHub breached via poisoned VS Code extension, critical NGINX flaw exploited
Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news, articles, interviews and videos: TeamPCP breached GitHub’s internal codebase via poisoned VS Code extension Following TeamPCP’s claim that they’ve breached GitHub’s own private code repositories, the Microsoft-owned company launched…
$20 per zero-day is already the WordPress plugin reality
Vulnerability researchers have spent the past year arguing about whether AI agents can find real bugs at scale or whether they mostly generate noise. A pipeline built in three days by researchers from TrendAI and CHT Security supplies an answer,…
Deleted Google API keys keep working for up to 23 minutes, researchers warn
Google API keys are credentials that let applications access Google services, from Maps to the Gemini AI. If a key is leaked, an attacker can use it to make API calls, rack up charges, and, if Gemini is enabled, access…
Kore.ai unveils AI-native platform for enterprise multiagent systems
Kore.ai has launched the new-generation Kore.ai Agent Platform Artemis edition, the AI-programmable, AI-native foundation that builds, governs, and optimizes the agents, systems, and workflows running across the enterprise. The platform launches initially on Microsoft Azure, with broader cloud availability to…
Proton Pass adds monitored credential sharing for AI agents
Proton Pass, a secure, end-to-end encrypted password manager, added credential sharing through AI access tokens, allowing users to give AI agents access to selected items and monitor activity. To gain access, an agent must provide a reason for the request…
GitLab 19.0 adds AI workflows, secrets management, and self-hosted model support
GitLab released GitLab 19.0 with expanded secrets management, agentic merge request workflows, improved CI pipeline visibility, support for self-hosted open-source models, and supply chain visibility enhancements. Engineering organizations shipping more code than ever are confronting the AI Paradox firsthand, as…
Versa extends zero trust principles to AI agents and MCP workflows
Versa has introduced a patent-pending zero trust architecture for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), applying zero trust principles to AI execution. The company said every AI-generated action is validated against user identity, role-based access controls, and system policies before execution,…
Suspected KimWolf botnet admin arrested over DDoS-for-hire operation
U.S. and Canadian authorities arrested and charged a Canadian man accused of operating the KimWolf DDoS botnet, a service linked to attacks that infected more than one million devices worldwide. Jacob Butler, 23, of Ottawa, Canada, also known online as…
Keepnet contributes voice and SMS phishing data to the 2026 Verizon DBIR
Keepnet, an Extended Human Risk Management (xHRM) platform, today announced that its voice and SMS phishing simulation data contributed to the 2026 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR). The 2026 edition is the first to include voice and SMS phishing…
CISA’s new KEV nomination form opens reporting to vendors and researchers
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency launched a new nomination form that lets researchers, vendors, and industry partners report known exploited vulnerabilities for possible inclusion in its KEV catalog. The form gives outside contributors a direct way to submit vulnerabilities…
Meet Fractal, an OS made for microarchitecture reverse engineering
Probing how a CPU isolates user code from kernel code is messy work. Researchers patch kernels, write drivers, or boot stripped-down bare-metal programs, and any of those choices change variables they were trying to hold still. Fractal, a new operating…
Microsoft 365 users targeted by new phishing threat that bypasses MFA
Microsoft 365 access tokens are being targeted by an emerging Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS) platform called Kali365, the FBI is warning. First observed in April 2026, Kali365 has been distributed through Telegram, allowing cybercriminals to obtain Microsoft 365 access tokens and bypass…
Downtime has become a $600 billion business problem
The average cost of downtime has reached $600 billion for the Global 2000, a 50% increase in two years. According to Splunk’s The Hidden Costs of Downtime report, unplanned outages and service degradation cost each company an average of $300…
The new economics of fraud: Cheaper, faster, more convincing
Scams have become one of the fastest-growing consumer risks, driven by AI-enabled impersonation, social engineering, and sophisticated attack methods, according to Visa’s Spring 2026 Biannual Threats Report. Criminals redirect efforts toward trust and third parties Fraud involves behavioral manipulation, fragmented…
New infosec products of the week: May 22, 2026
Here’s a look at the most interesting products from the past week, featuring releases from ASAPP, Babel Street, CTERA, Forward, Riverbed, and Trust3 AI. Babel Street targets AI-driven threats with new agentic investigation capabilities Babel Street has launched Insights Investigator,…