Connected Systems

09/09/2026

Your office security camera, smart TV and video doorbell are small computers on your network, and most still have the password they came with. Change the default password on each, turn on automatic updates, and switch off remote access you don't use.

08/09/2026

Google put out an emergency Chrome update in June 2026 for a flaw attackers were already using. Just visiting a bad web page is enough to get hit, no clicking needed. Click the three dots, Help, About Google Chrome, then Relaunch. Updates only take effect once you restart.

Google released security updates for 74 Chrome vulnerabilities, including CVE-2026-11645, a high-severity V8 out-of-bounds memory access flaw.

08/09/2026

Police shut down SocGholish in June 2026, the fake 'your browser is out of date' pop-ups that infected thousands of businesses. They seized 106 servers and cleaned 15,000 hacked sites. The trick will come back, so teach your team: a real update never comes from a website pop-up.

SocGholish, an operation that's been delivering malware to users via fake software updates, has suffered a major blow.

07/09/2026

One of the questions I hear more often is: "Can I trust AI to tell me whether something is a scam?" 🤔

Until recently, I'd have been cautious with that.

AI is brilliant at explaining things, but when it comes to cyber security, being almost right isn't good enough.

That's why I think this latest development is interesting.

Norton has integrated its Genie scam detection tool into both Claude and ChatGPT.

It means people can ask an AI assistant to help assess whether an email, text message, website or online offer looks suspicious 👀

The AI isn't giving its own opinion, it’s drawing on Norton's scam detection technology, which looks for things like impersonation, pressure tactics, suspicious links, and requests for sensitive information.

It's combining the conversational side of AI with technology that's specifically designed to identify scams 🔎

But I don't think people should stop thinking for themselves.

If an email claims your bank account is about to be closed or a supplier suddenly wants you to change their payment details, you should still check independently.

Tools like this could become useful as a second opinion though.

Online scams are becoming much harder to spot than they were a few years ago.

Criminals are using AI to write more convincing emails, create more believable websites, and remove the spelling mistakes that used to give them away 🤖

Anything that helps people pause and sense-check what they're looking at must be a positive step.

I can als

04/08/2026

If a website tells you to press Windows+R and paste in a command to 'verify you're human,' close the tab. That's a scam called ClickFix, and it installs malware the second you hit Enter. No real website ever asks you to run a command. CAPTCHAs just make you click pictures.

ClickFix attacks are delivering BabaDeda, Lorem Ipsum, and Potemkin loaders to deploy stealers, RATs, and ransomware-linked tooling.

03/08/2026

“We’ve always done it this way” sounds harmless.

But then simple jobs start taking twice as long as they should.

People end up chasing information, repeating tasks, and working around processes that no longer really fit the business.

Those little inefficiencies become part of everyday working life, and they’re costing time, money, and energy…

03/08/2026

Your cyber insurance might not pay out. Insurers now require MFA, real endpoint protection, tested backups, and security training, and if you claimed to have them but didn't, they can deny the claim. Read your policy's conditions now, not after an attack.

02/08/2026

Anyone can send an email that looks like it's from your company. Three DNS records stop it: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. The catch is DMARC is often set to 'monitor only,' which watches spoofing happen without blocking it. Ask your IT provider: is ours set to reject, or just none?

01/08/2026

For years, the advice has been simple: “Be careful what you click on in Google.”

Now we might need to start saying the same thing about AI 🤖

Microsoft has warned that cyber criminals are finding ways to manipulate AI tools into recommending fake software downloads.

And honestly, it makes sense when you think about how people use the internet now.

A lot of us don’t search the way we used to anymore 🔦

Instead of typing something into Google and scrolling through websites, people are asking AI questions directly…

“What’s the best tool for checking PC temperatures?”�
“Where can I download this app?”�
“What software should I use for…?”

The problem is that attackers are adapting to that behaviour.

Researchers found criminals creating fake websites pretending to be popular tools.

Somehow, they’re managing to get these malicious sites recommended by AI systems.

Instead of tricking search engines, they’re now trying to trick AI.

And if someone trusts the recommendation and downloads the file, malware gets installed on the device.

In some cases, that malware gives the attacker remote access to the computer. They can then explore the network and steal data.

They may even install something called a “crypto jacker”.

That’s software which uses your computer’s power to mine cryptocurrency for the attacker.

Your machine slows to a crawl while somebody else profits from your electricity bill 💸

The bigger point here is that cyber crimina

01/08/2026

Many ransomware groups delete your backups before they lock your files, so paying becomes the only way out. Keep one backup copy offline with its own login, separate from your admin password, and test a restore this month. If you've never tried it, you don't know it works.

INC Ransomware Emerges as Major RaaS Threat in 2026 with 830+ Victims Since 2023 | Read more hacking news on The Hacker News cybersecurity news website and learn how to protect against cyberattacks and software vulnerabilities.