Kirsten Doyle

Several U.S. municipalities reported cyber incidents this week, disrupting key public services. In Texas, Kaufman County (just outside Dallas) said a cyberattack discovered Monday took down multiple county systems. A local news outlet reported that courthouse computers were among those affected. In La Vergne, Tennessee, officials are investigating a network intrusion that shut down city operations. Since the attack was detected on Friday, government offices have remained closed, online payment systems for water bills and property taxes have been taken offline, and court hearings have been postponed. And in Indiana, Dekalb County disclosed last month that a cyber incident left…

IBM says it has reached a major step forward in making quantum computing more practical and affordable. In a research paper set for release today, the company told Reuters that one of its core quantum algorithms can now run in real time on chips made by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The algorithm is designed to tackle one of quantum computing’s biggest challenges: high error rates that can overwhelm calculations before they produce meaningful results. By running the algorithm on a widely available AMD field-programmable gate array (FPGA) rather than a costly, custom-built chip, IBM says it’s paving the way for…

When we shared the first article in this series, the response was overwhelming. From security professionals to everyday users, one message came through: people want practical, real-world ways to stay safe online. So, as the month draws to a close, we decided to do a second edition, one that looks at other questions, challenges, and ideas. Cybersecurity awareness doesn’t end with a single campaign or a list of best practices. It’s an evolving mindset. The threats and tools change, and so must our approach. In this follow-up, we look at how the experts move beyond awareness toward lasting digital resilience. …

A sophisticated one-day spearphishing operation has targeted humanitarian organizations and regional government bodies in Ukraine. The campaign, tracked as PhantomCaptcha, was uncovered by SentinelLabs in collaboration with the Digital Security Lab of Ukraine. Bad actors masquerading as the Ukrainian President’s Office sent weaponized PDF attachments to members of the International Red Cross, Norwegian Refugee Council, UNICEF, and Ukrainian regional administrations.   Opening the PDF led to a fake Cloudflare captcha page, part of a carefully staged infection chain that deliverd a WebSocket-based RAT hosted on Russian-owned infrastructure. Despite what must have been months of preparation, the operation was active for only…

A zero-day that Microsoft patched in July remained active long after the fix. China-based attackers weaponized the SharePoint “ToolShell” flaw (CVE-2025-53770) to break into a Middle Eastern telecom and a string of government networks across Africa and South America, researchers at Symantec and Carbon Black say.   Two days after Microsoft published emergency patches, intruders had a foothold. On 21 July, the adversaries dropped a webshell and moved fast to sideload backdoors and trojans, turning trusted binaries into door openers. That rapid follow-on shows how quickly exploit code can be weaponized once a vulnerability is public. Well-known Tools and Techniques Across…

Salt Typhoon, a China-linked espionage group, has once again surfaced, this time in the systems of a European telecommunications provider. Darktrace spotted the signs early: a faint digital pulse of DLL sideloading, a whisper of Citrix exploitation, the careful footsteps of an adversary that knows how to stay unseen. Salt Typhoon is no newcomer. Active since at least 2019, the group (also known as Earth Estries, GhostEmperor, and UNC2286) has spent years burrowing into critical infrastructure. From telecoms to energy grids and government systems, it has moved through more than 80 countries. The campaign’s hallmarks are precision and patience: custom…

Late Sunday, Japanese retailer Muji confirmed that “logistics failures” had disrupted its online store and subscription services. It happened because its logistics partner, Askul, was taken offline by a ransomware attack.  Askul, a major player in Japan’s e-commerce and logistics space, said the infection triggered a systemwide outage. Orders, shipments, and even customer service functions have been halted as investigators assess the damage and possible data exposure. The company’s announcement lists nearly every core function as suspended. Online shopping carts lead to error screens. Fax orders fail to send. New user registrations, returns, and catalog requests are paused. Even pharmaceutical…

Envoy Air, a regional carrier owned by American Airlines, has confirmed it was the target of a sophisticated ransomware attack attributed to the Clop cybercrime group. The breach, which happened in August 2025, exploited a zero-day vulnerability in Oracle’s E-Business Suite, one of the most severe flaws to hit enterprise software this year.  Clop, which first listed “American Airlines” on its dark web leak site on October 16, misidentified the victim. Envoy operates under the American Eagle brand, serving as a regional arm of the airline giant. The distinction matters little to attackers, but it underscores a pattern that’s becoming…

An international law enforcement operation in Latvia has brought down a major cybercrime-as-a-service network. Seven suspects were arrested, most of them Latvian nationals. The coordinated action, codenamed SIMCARTEL, took place on 10 October. Police from Latvia, Austria, and Estonia worked alongside Europol and Eurojust. Investigators say the group was behind thousands of scams across Europe, defrauding victims through sophisticated telecom schemes. More than 3,200 cases have been reported (roughly 1,700 in Austria and 1,500 in Latvia) with losses nearing €5 million. Authorities seized the network’s infrastructure, including 1,200 SIM box devices and 40,000 active SIM cards used to mask and…

The internet cannot be separated from modern life. It’s a shared utility that connects, informs, and empowers us. But the more we rely on it, the greater the risks become. Every click, login, or search leaves a trail, and each device, app, or interaction can open the door (sometimes obvious, often unseen) to data breaches, identity theft, or other digital threats. “Stay Safe Online” has become a survival skill. This year, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is at a turning point. The tools that once protected us (antivirus, passwords, firewalls) now have to share space with generative AI, autonomous agents, and a digital underground where nation-state…