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Telegram-Based Marketplace Closes After Prince Group Founder's Arrest
Telegram marketplace Tudou Guarantee, which processed over $12 billion in fraud transactions, has ceased operations following the arrest of Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi, who was extradited to China in January. Elliptic said it was the third-largest illicit marketplace of all time.

Crackdown Targets Multiple Members of Cybercrime Group, Including 'Hash Crackers'
Police raided two suspected members of the notorious Black Basta ransomware group - tied to over 600 victims worldwide and many millions in ransom payments - in Ukraine and issued an international arrest warrant for the Russian national suspected of being the operation's founder and ringleader.

Feds Pushing HIPAA Regulated Entities to Bolster Security Risk Management
Federal regulators are advising regulated healthcare firms and their third-party vendors to harden systems, software and medical devices to better safeguard protected health information. Hardening is a necessary measure for protecting data privacy security - but also in protecting patient safety.

5x Revenue Growth, $1B Valuation Fuel Investment in Code Security Innovation
Backed by DST Global, Aikido Security's $60 million Series B will fund global expansion and boost its AI-powered security tools. CEO Willem Delbare said the firm's autonomous pen-testing and code remediation capability cuts cost, boosts software resilience and already outperforms humans.

eSync Alliance Chair Shrikant Acharya on How Standardization Can Prevent Breaches
Over-the-air updates are an irreplaceable part of software-defined vehicles, giving manufacturers a convenient way of remotely fixing and upgrading vehicles. If not appropriately secured, over-the-air updates can become a gateway for data theft, malware injection, vehicle theft and even injury.

Analysts Say Pentagon Must Add Guardrails to Musk's Grok in Military Systems
Cybersecurity analysts said Elon Musk's Grok artificial intelligence model lacks compliance with key federal AI risk frameworks, which will likely force the Pentagon to rely on containment measures while conducting adversarial testing and restricting access to prevent unpredictable or unsafe behavior when embedding the model across its systems.

Israeli Startup Novee's Custom AI Agents Mimic Human Attackers to Scale Detection
Novee launched with $51.5 million in funding to build AI agents trained to find and fix vulnerabilities. Its proprietary model combines human-led research, prompt engineering and simulations to offer scalable penetration testing as AI-fueled threats outpace traditional tools.

Suit Alleges Competitor Lets 'Shell Firms' Exploit National Data Exchanges
Electronic health records giant Epic Systems is accusing a rival health information network vendor, Health Gorilla, of enabling a syndicate of "sham" entities "masquerading" as healthcare providers to improperly access patient records from national health data exchanges in pursuit of money.

Lumen Spotted More Than 500 Command and Control Servers Since October
A major U.S. internet service provider said it's blocked incoming traffic to more than 550 command and control servers botnets identified over the past four months that administer the Kimwolf and Aisuru botnets.

New Agency Focuses on Public Programs, Ignores Private Sector Fraud
Citing recent high-profile arrests of fraud rings in Minnesota, President Donald Trump announced the creation of National Fraud Enforcement division in the Department of Justice. Sounds nice, but will it make a difference without deeper coordination with banks, payment platforms and businesses?

Joint US, UK and Five Eyes Guidance Flags OT Exposure as National Risk
U.S. and allied cyber agencies issued new guidance warning that insecure operational technology connectivity - driven by remote access, third-party vendors and IT integration - remains a major threat vector, enabling cyber intrusions to escalate into physical disruptions.

Also, Venezuela Cyberattack, Endesa Confirms Breach and Telegram IP Leak
This week, a software flaw caused the Verizon outage. U.S. cyberattack in Venezuela. ICE identities published online. BreachForums users leaked. Spanish energy provider Endesa data breach. Telegram privacy risk. A MuddyWater upgrade. Dutch man sentenced for hacking a maritime port. A ServiceNow patch.

Funding at $1.2B Valuation to Propel Federal Market Entry and R&D in GenAI
Torq secured $140 million in Series D funding at a $1.2 billion valuation to expand its generative AI-powered security operations platform. With backing from Merlin Ventures, Torq will grow internationally, deepen AI research and pursue U.S. federal opportunities including FedRAMP certification.

Forrester's Sandy Carielli on Quantum Readiness, Key Steps for Successful Migration
Quantum security migrations are multi-year, cross-functional projects that touch product, infrastructure and supply chains. While the scope of migration can be daunting, CIOs can follow several practical steps to make the project more manageable, said Forrester's Sandy Carielli.

Ransomware Gang Money Message Claimed It Exfiltrated 4.7TB of Firm's Data
Pharmacy services firm PharMerica will pay at least $5.27 million - plus millions more on enhancing its security - as part of a preliminary class action settlement approved this week by a federal court involving a 2023 data theft incident the company reported as affecting 5.8 million individuals.

Misstatement Claims Tossed in Class-Action Securities Case After CrowdStrike Outage
A U.S. district judge tossed most claims from investors accusing CrowdStrike of misrepresenting its software testing rigor before a July 2024 outage. The judge said two statements about federal compliance could plausibly be misleading, but said plaintiffs failed to establish intent or recklessness.

Scenario Planning Must Model Disruption, Strengthen Cyber Basics, Build Redundancy
IT organizations know how to plan for outages, but even the most rigorously designed strategy is vulnerable to the shifting winds of geopolitics. CIOs and technology leaders need to know how their organizations will respond to geopolitical disruptions, and scenario planning needs to be a priority.

How to Deal With Having Influence Without Authority in Cybersecurity Roles
In some cybersecurity organizations, expertise and visible leadership don't reside in the same role. Usually, the person with the most influence on cybersecurity decisions is the owner, but it does not always work out that way. Fortunately, there are things you can do to change that for your career.

Stealthy Group Taps Blockchain 'EtherHiding' to Facilitate Victim Communications
The DeadLock ransomware group, a newly emerged digital extortion group, is using blockchain smart contracts to store proxy server addresses for facilitating ransomware negotiations with victim organizations. The technique suggests the group is made up of experienced cybercriminals.