In a co-ordinated public-private operation between law enforcement agencies and cybersecurity industry partners, Tycoon 2FA - one of the world's most prolific phishing-as-a-service platforms - has been dismantled. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.
Apply AI webinars sectoral deep dive - Agrifood, climate & environment Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/05/2026 - 14:30 19 March 2026 This session focuses on how the Commission, together with the private sector, aims to accelerate AI adoption across the agrifood sector, as well as the intersection between AI, climate and environment. This is part of a series of Apply AI thematic webinars. Join the live stream on our YouTube channel to find out how farmers, industry, researchers and other stakeholders can contribute to shaping priorities for Europe’s agrifood, climate and environment ecosystems. Engage in the conversation by submitting questions in advance or during the session via Slido. Agenda 14:00 - 14:45 (CET) Apply AI Agrifood 14:45 - 15:00 (CET) Short break 15:00 - 15:45 (CET) Apply AI Climate & Environment Download the slides for both sessions below. Moderator Andrea Hak, Stakeholder Communication Expert at the AI Office, DG CONNECT Speakers - Agrifood Pierluigi Londero, Head of Unit Data Governance, DG AGRI Doris Marquardt, Programme Officer EU Policies, Contact person for Agriculture in the DG, DG CONNECT Speakers - Climate & Environment Tsitlakidis Charalampos, Head of Sector, Destination Earth, DG CONNECT Irina Sandu, Director of Destination Earth (DestinE), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Agrifood The webinar will discuss how the Commission aims to accelerate AI adoption across the agrifood sector and translate innovation into impact on the ground, enhancing sectorial competitiveness and public goods. Among others, a marketplace for AI-based solutions for the agri-food sector will be introduced and funding will be devoted to capacity building in the development of agriculture specific foundation models (e.g., LLMs). AI is already reshaping agricultural production and can transform the way food is produced, benefiting the environment, climate and people. AI supports farmers, for instance through AI-driven advisory tools and handy applications that turn data into tailored recommendations. These help producers to make better and faster decisions accounting for local conditions, and increasing resource efficiency, e.g. saving water, and effectiveness. A new wave of opportunities is emerging, boosting precision farming, powering robots, and smartening machinery for field work. AI can also contribute to reducing reporting obligations and other administrative burdens. Climate & Environment AI has a long track record in environmental monitoring, forecasting, and Earth observation. It can enhance early-warning systems and aid disaster response as well as decision-making for resilience and climate preparedness. Ground-breaking initiatives such as Destination Earth provide high-resolution and interactive simulations with unprecedented predictive power through AI-driven applications. Downloads Apply AI Climate & Environment (PDF) Download Related topics Creating a digital society Environment Smart and Sustainable Communities Artificial intelligence {"service":"share","version":"2.0","color":true,"networks":["x","facebook","linkedin","email","more"]}
Commission holds first meeting of Special Panel on child safety online Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/05/2026 - 08:08 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hosted the first meeting of the Special Panel on child safety online. AdobeStock ©myboys The panel, announced in the 2025 State of the Union address, will provide expert recommendations to better protect and empower children online and will explore the need for potential harmonised age restrictions to access social media. President Ursula von der Leyen said: For decades, we have made the real world safer for children and we must do the same in the digital world. The positive opportunities that technology offers cannot come at the cost of their safety, health or happiness. In Europe, tech platforms already have a responsibility to ensure the safety of users and we will continue to ensure they do so. But we must also do more to protect and empower our young people online. That is why I have convened this panel: to forge a strong, realistic, European approach to keep our children safe in the digital age. Read the full press release and find further information about the special panel on child safety online. Related to child safety online, you can also read more about: the Digital Services Act (DSA) and its Guidelines on the protection of minors the Safer Internet Centres under the Better Internet for Kids Strategy (BIK+) the Cyberbullying Action Plan the EU Age Verification solution the Communication on a comprehensive approach to mental health the EU rules to combat child sexual abuse online Related topics Better Internet for Children Strengthening trust and security Online platforms and e-commerce {"service":"share","version":"2.0","color":true,"networks":["x","facebook","linkedin","email","more"]}
When a top cybersecurity firm discovered it had a leak, you would expect the FBI to be called. Instead, the person put in charge of the investigation was the actual leaker... who promptly sent an innocent colleague into a career-ending ambush. In this episode, we unravel the jaw-dropping tale of a defence contractor caught selling zero-day exploits to a Russia-linked broker. Plus: are nation states quietly poisoning AI models to bend reality itself? We explore how “foreign information manipulation interference” could target not just social media users, but the large language models we increasingly trust for answers — and what that might mean for truth, trust, and the future of online influence. All this, and much more, in episode 457 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity veteran Graham Cluley, and special guest Carl Miller.
Commission seeks feedback for draft guidance to assist companies in applying the Cyber Resilience Act Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/04/2026 - 09:10 Opening: 03 March 2026 Closing: 31 March 2026 The draft guidance clarifies the obligations and the scope of the rules with a particular focus on facilitating compliance by microenterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises. AdobeStock © ipopba Main link https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/16959… Related topics Cybersecurity {"service":"share","version":"2.0","color":true,"networks":["x","facebook","linkedin","email","more"]}
South Korea's National Tax Service (NTS) has found itself in the middle of a deeply embarrassing - and costly - blunder after accidentally handing thieves the master key to a seized cryptocurrency wallet. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.
In early January 2026, KrebsOnSecurity revealed how a security researcher disclosed a vulnerability that was used to assemble Kimwolf, the world's largest and most disruptive botnet. Since then, the person in control of Kimwolf -- who goes by the handle "Dort" -- has coordinated a barrage of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), doxing and email flooding attacks against the researcher and this author, and more recently caused a SWAT team to be sent to the researcher's home. This post examines what is knowable about Dort based on public information.
A new report claims that the cost of insider security incidents has surged 20% in two years, reaching an average of US $19.5 million per organization annually, with no sign that the alarming figure is flattening. Read more in my article on the Fortra blog.
There is a certain poetic justice in a cybersecurity-related story that has emerged from Moscow this week: A man has been accused of trying to extort money... from a notorious Russian ransomware gang. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.
When the mysterious operator of an internet archiving-service decided to silence a curious Finnish blogger, they didn’t just send a stroppy email - they allegedly weaponised their own CAPTCHA page to launch a DDoS attack, threatened to invent an entirely new genre of AI porn, and tampered with parts of their own archive to smear the blogger's name. In this episode, we unravel how a website designed to preserve history may have trashed its own credibility - and how Wikipedia responded when trust went out the window. Plus a ransomware gang shoots itself in the foot with a classic case of buffoonery, accidentally corrupting the very keys victims would need to decrypt their data. When even the criminals can’t unlock your files, what happens next? All this, a surprisingly zen Pick of the Week, and a gloriously splenetic rant against web forms, on episode 456 of the award-winning "Smashing Security" podcast, with cybersecurity veteran Graham Cluley and special guest Paul Ducklin.
Amid a privacy backlash, a US $10,000 reward has been offered for anyone who can find a way to run Ring doorbell cameras locally, cutting off the flow of video data to Amazon's servers. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.
Spain's police force has announced that it has arrested a 20-year-old man who they claim managed to book luxury hotel rooms worth up to €1,000 a night for just one euro cent. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.
Most phishing websites are little more than static copies of login pages for popular online destinations, and they are often quickly taken down by anti-abuse activists and security firms. But a stealthy new phishing-as-a-service offering lets customers sidestep both of these pitfalls: It uses cleverly disguised links to load the target brand's real website, and then acts as a relay between the target and the legitimate site -- forwarding the victim's username, password and multi-factor authentication (MFA) code to the legitimate site and returning its responses.
Could America turn off Europe's internet? That’s one of the questions that Graham and special guest James Ball will be exploring as they discuss tech sovereignty. Could Gmail, cloud services, and critical infrastructure really become geopolitical leverage? And is anyone actually building a Plan B? Plus we explore if Meta is quietly plotting to turn its smart glasses into face-recognising surveillance specs? With reports of internal memos suggesting they plan to launch controversial features while everyone’s distracted by political chaos, we ask: is this innovation really wanted by the public... or something far creepier? All of this, and much more, in episode 455 of the award-winning "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity veteran Graham Cluley, joined this week by journalist and author James Ball.
Police in The Netherlands say they have arrested a 40-year-old man on suspicion of hacking... after police officers accidentally sent him a link granting him access to their own confidential documents Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.
For the past week, the massive "Internet of Things" (IoT) botnet known as Kimwolf has been disrupting the The Invisible Internet Project (I2P), a decentralized, encrypted communications network designed to anonymize and secure online communications. I2P users started reporting disruptions in the network around the same time the Kimwolf botmasters began relying on it to evade takedown attempts against the botnet's control servers.
Microsoft today released updates to fix more than 50 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, including patches for a whopping six "zero-day" vulnerabilities that attackers are already exploiting in the wild.
A prolific data ransom gang that calls itself Scattered Lapsus ShinyHunters (SLSH) has a distinctive playbook when it seeks to extort payment from victim firms: Harassing, threatening and even swatting executives and their families, all while notifying journalists and regulators… Read More »