IT News Analysis

1

Google Says Gmail and Photos Data Shared With AI Search Could Be Used for Targeted Ads

Google has updated its privacy policy to spell out that using personalized artificial intelligence (AI) features in Search or Gemini could allow the company to serve targeted ads to users based on their activity on other connected Google services. "You may choose to allow certain Google services, including services like Search or Gemini Apps, to access data from other Google services you use, such as Google Photos and Workspace apps like Gmail and Drive, in order to provide you with a more personalized experience, subject to the policies and settings of the accessing service," reads a policy update effective October 16, 2026. "For example, Search may process some of the data that you allow Search to access to personalize content, including ads." Google also notes in its revised policy that "We don't show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Google Photos, unless you choose to make data from these services available to ...

Oct 24, 2026

2

What the FBI Wants From Private-Sector Defenders, Straight From the Source

Hear the FBI's Brett Leatherman with SANS CEO James Lyne 12/15 at SANS CDI 2026, a week of hands-on training.

3

Researchers Push Over 2 Million Updates to Remotely Disable Popcorn Time Updater That Could Fuel a Botnet

Between November 2025 and March 2026, the Dutch security firm Eye Security pushed more than 2 million updates to computers it did not own to switch off a background updater that it said could have allowed an outsider to take over the machine. The updater belongs to Time4Popcorn , an abandoned copy of Popcorn Time, a free app that streamed pirated films and TV over BitTorrent. Popcorn Time was popular about a decade ago, and the original shut down in 2014, but several copies kept running under the same name. A separate, legal project that took the Popcorn Time name in early 2025 is unrelated to it. Eye Security, which monitors client networks for threats, found the updater during a routine threat hunt: a program called Updater.exe on one client's laptop kept trying to reach a web address that was no longer registered. The firm registered the address itself to see what would connect, and about 50 requests a second poured in. It later laid out the operation, which it named ...

Oct 24, 2026

4

Brotli Decoder Flaw Behind Node.js RCE Also Affects Bun, Python and Other Widely Used Software

A memory-corruption flaw in Google's Brotli decoder sits in many programs that unpack Brotli-compressed data, among them Bun, the Python Brotli and brotlicffi packages, and Envoy proxies set up to decompress Brotli. Tracked as  CVE-2026-111497 , the flaw allows crafted compressed data to overwrite past the end of a buffer and corrupt a program's memory, potentially causing a crash, a memory leak, or the execution of attacker-controlled code. Imperva researchers have shown that code can run on one unpatched Node.js build . The same has not been demonstrated on the other software, and no real-world attacks have been reported. The flaw was  first disclosed on October 21 , when Node.js and Google shipped fixes, and more have followed product by product since. Because the bug is in Google's decoder and each program ships its own copy of it, every one has to update that copy on its own. Brotli is a compression format from Google, used across the web to ...

Oct 24, 2026

5

CISA Flags Two Actively Exploited Critical Flaws in Collabora Online and Arista VeloCloud

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday added two vulnerabilities impacting Collabora Online Built-in CODE Server and Arista VeloCloud Orchestrator (VCO) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ), citing reports of active exploitation in the wild. The critical-severity vulnerabilities are listed below - CVE-2026-110447 (CVSS score: 9.2) - An operating system command injection vulnerability in Collabora Online – Built-in CODE Server (aka richdocumentscode) when used within the NextCloud platform that could allow remote code execution via "proxy.php" when the CODE local document server isn't running. (Fixed in September 2026 in version 26.4.303) CVE-2026-114625 (CVSS score: 9.9) - An SQL injection vulnerability in on-premise versions of Arista VeloCloud Orchestrator that could allow a remote attacker to access privileged internal functionality. (Fixed in October 2026  in versions 5.2.3.18, 6.1.3.10, and 6.4.2.12) As r...

Oct 24, 2026

6

BlackX UEFI Bootkit Bypasses Secure Boot on Patched Windows Systems Missing Revocations

Diplomatic organizations in Central Asia have been targeted by a sophisticated new Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) bootkit called BlackX . The activity, which singled out diplomatic entities in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan in early 2026, is suspected to be orchestrated by a China-linked state-sponsored hacking group known as APT41 , Kaspersky said in a technical report published this week. The primary objective behind deploying the malware is to undermine Microsoft Windows startup defenses, along with third-party security solutions, while maintaining long-term, covert access to compromised devices. Notably, BlackX is assessed to be an updated version of BlackLotus , a notorious bootkit that was first observed being advertised on cybercrime forums in late 2022, before its existence was officially confirmed by ESET in March 2023. BlackLotus is designed to exploit a now-patched Secure Boot bypass vulnerability tracked as CVE-2022-21894 (CVSS score: 4.4...

Oct 23, 2026

7

Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for CPS Security, 2026

Prioritize cyber-physical systems security amid rising threats, regulations, vulnerabilities and emerging technologies.

8

Ruby Fixes Three Regex Engine Bugs Responsible for Four Critical GitLab RCE Flaws

Ruby has released versions 4.0.9, 3.4.12, and 3.3.13 to fix three bugs in Onigmo, the regular expression engine built into the language. The bugs lie behind four critical security flaws that GitLab patched over the past month. GitLab found that a specially crafted pattern could corrupt memory while Ruby compiles it, potentially leading to code execution on its own servers. Ruby says any application that builds a regular expression from text an attacker controls is affected, not just GitLab. Which Applications Are Affected In  its advisory , Ruby said an application is affected only if it compiles a regular expression from a string an attacker controls. That happens when a program passes such a string to Regexp.new, Regexp.union or Regexp.compile, or places it inside a pattern through interpolation, as in /#{input}/. Applications that only use regular expressions written by their own developers are not affected. Ruby fixed the bugs in 4.0.9, 3.4.12, and 3.3.13. The...

Oct 23, 2026

9

Exposed Infrastructure Reveals How Ransomware Affiliates Used AI Agents to Execute Intrusions

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven intrusion ecosystem run by affiliates of the INC and The Gentlemen ransomware groups. Central to the operation is an "Autonomous Red Team Kill Chain Framework" referred to as Phantom. The threat actor is assessed to be Russian-speaking and functions both as an intrusion and data-extortion operator, as well as an infrastructure provider supporting different partners across the ransomware ecosystem. "The operators exploited edge and remote-access systems at scale, including FortiClient EMS, SimpleHelp, cPanel, and VPN gateways," SOCRadar said . "They used AI-managed knowledge bases to track victims, stolen credentials, and campaign progress." A notable aspect that defines the campaign is its "AI-executed, human-approved operating structure" in which a human operator provides a victim-specific prompt and reviews every step, while the intrusions themselves are e...

Oct 23, 2026

10

Hackers Breach Enterprise Firewalls and VPNs, Exposing Over 70,000 Credentials

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a large-scale campaign that has targeted exposed network edge devices such as Fortinet FortiGate and Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect firewalls. "Artifacts from this investigation also indicate that operators in this campaign have obtained access to numerous organizations worldwide, and have attempted to further compromise some victims, resulting in persistent remote access and data exfiltration," according to a joint investigation published by Group-IB and NyxLab. The widespread exploitation activity has been attributed to a threat actor known as k0t, who also goes by the aliases CryptoFeel, Member19, and QazWsxShop. The cybercriminal actor was first seen in the wild on October 22, 2025. The threat actor is assessed to share connections with ransomware groups such as Qilin and The Gentlemen, likely operating as an initial access broker or an affiliate. Analysis of the threat actor's dark web activity reveals a k...

Oct 23, 2026