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Sean Cairncross Confirmed in 59-35 Senate Vote Despite Lacking Technical Experience
The United States has a new national cyber director after a tense Senate vote ended months of political and procedural delays, allowing the Trump administration to push forward with its sweeping overhaul of federal cybersecurity priorities.

Security Experts Call for Coordinated Autonomy Over Complete Integration
One team quotes Shakespeare. The other speaks in Morse Code. Now, imagine forcing them to write a play together. Yet IT and OT organizations are being asked to work as one. Is full integration really possible, or should we keep them at respectful distance for security reasons?

Orange Cyberdefense's Dominic Trott on Investor Hesitancy, Geopolitical Obstacles
The United Kingdom has a strong track record of supporting startups and building successful organizations, but U.K. cybersecurity startups still face hurdles, said Dominic Trott, director of strategy and alliances for the U.K. region at Orange Cyberdefense.

Threat Actor Maintains Long-Term Stealthy Access
Chinese nation-state hackers penetrated mobile telecom networks across Southeast Asia likely in order to track individuals' location, say security researchers. One tell about the hackers' intentions was deployment of a custom-made network scanning and packet capture utility tracked as CordScan.

Russian Intelligence Tied to SSL Stripping Attacks Designed for Eavesdropping
Russian intelligence since 2024 has been using their country's internet service providers to run adversary-in-the-middle attacks designed to infect diplomats inside the country's borders with intelligence-gathering malware, Microsoft warns.

Xu Zewei, Suspected Silk Typhoon Hacker, to Remain in Italian Prison
Prosecutors at a Milan court on Friday rejected a house arrest request by lawyers of a Chinese national awaiting possible extradition to the United States in Italy, citing flight risk. Italian authorities arrested Xu Zewei, 33, of Shanghai, in July after his arrival at Milan's Malpensa Airport.

Red-Hot Startup Noma Security to Deepen Protection for AI Models and Agents
With agentic AI deployments accelerating, Noma Security’s $100 million Series B will fuel development of risk management and runtime protection features. CEO Niv Braun said demand for securing agentic AI has surged among Fortune 500 firms and healthcare and financial institutions.

US Alleged Illumina 'Knowingly' Sold Feds Systems Containing Vulnerabilities
Genomics sequencing firm Illumina Inc. has agreed to pay $9.8 million to resolve False Claims Act whistleblower allegations that it sold software and systems containing cybersecurity vulnerabilities over more than seven years to government agencies.

New Funding, Platform Expansion Aim for Predictive, Autonomous Threat Defense
Safe's $70 million Series C will fund expanded capabilities across its cyber risk quantification, exposure management and third-party oversight tools. The company says its agentic AI vision – cyber AGI – will transform how enterprises manage and mitigate cyberthreats.

Also: Rethinking IT-OT Integration; Previewing Black Hat 2025
In this week's update, four ISMG editors discussed the latest on the ToolShell exploit and the rise of Warlock ransomware, why IT-OT integration may not be the best answer for industrial security and what to expect next week from ISMG Studio at Black Hat Conference 2025.

The use on online tracking tools on the health-related websites and apps of HIPAA and non-HIPAA regulated entities continues to be a lightning rod due to a long list of ongoing data privacy, regulatory and legal concerns, said partner and attorney Elizabeth Hodge of the law firm Akerman.

Investor Umesh Padval on Platform Power, Scaling Fast and Global AI Plays
Q2 2025 saw AI dominate global VC funding, grabbing $47.5 billion of the $94.6 billion raised. AI Investor Umesh Padval breaks down what makes AI infrastructure startups worth betting on - from platform depth and speed to regional ecosystems and exit timing.

AI Tools Can Steal Crypto Autonomously, Even From Audited Code
Armed with just a smart contract address, researchers developed an autonomous artificial intelligence tool that can scan for vulnerabilities, write working exploits in the Solidity blockchain programming language and siphon funds. "It behaves more like a human hacker," said its co-creator.

Security Experts Laud Project Zero's Push for Greater Transparency, Faster Patches
Google is trying out a new approach to publicizing flaws found by its in-house bug hunters meant to get patches more rapidly into end users' hands. Under a trial policy effective immediately, Google's Project Zero team will publish a general alert to the public within seven days.

GenAI Chooses Insecure Code Nearly Half the Time, Veracode Finds
There's been little improvement in how well AI models handle core security decisions, says a report from application security company Veracode. Large language models introduce vulnerabilities in nearly half of test cases when asked to complete secure code tasks, it found.