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SpyCloud 2026 Identity Threat Report Finds Non-Human Identities Are Now the Leading Path into the Enterprise

SpyCloud survey of 750 security leaders finds compromised non-human identities are the top enterprise entry point, yet only 36% monitor them.

The 2026 Identity Threat Report surveyed 750 cybersecurity leaders at organizations with 500+ employees across North America and Europe. Compromised non-human identities (31%) were the most cited primary attacker entry point, nearly double phishing (17%), while only 36% of organizations monitor AI agents, service accounts and API keys. 68% of respondents reported identity-based events, averaging eight each, and 91% use AI tools but only 56% have formal governance over their privileges.

GBHackersSep 9, 12:54 UTC · 7d agoResearch 2 sources

Welsh environment regulator's FoI blunder exposes diversity data of 2,000 staff

Natural Resources Wales inadvertently exposed diversity data of about 2,000 current and former staff via a 2021 Freedom of Information spreadsheet published online.

Natural Resources Wales confirmed equality monitoring data of roughly 2,000 employees who worked between April 2013 and March 2018 was inadvertently disclosed in a spreadsheet released in 2021 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The data may have included ethnicity, disability status, religion or belief, sexual orientation, Welsh language ability, and caring responsibilities — special category data under UK GDPR. The breach was reported to the Information Commissioner's Office, the data was removed and permanently deleted, and NRW says it has found no evidence of misuse. The issue was discovered only after a member of the public alerted the regulator on 23 August 2026.

The Register · SecuritySep 7, 11:04 UTC · 9d agoData breach

What the Data Says About AI in Security Operations in 2026

Prophet Security's 2026 survey of 250+ security pros: 40% use AI daily; AI users report 25%+ faster investigations and rising AI-driven attacks.

Prophet Security's State of AI in Security Operations 2026 report, based on a survey of 250+ cybersecurity professionals, found 40% of security teams use AI daily and only 4% have no adoption plans. Teams average 100 daily alerts (up to 1,000 at large firms), leave 28% of alerts uninvestigated, and 60% of respondents said missed alerts led to breaches or downtime. Among AI adopters, 72% report at least 25% faster investigations, 56% observed increased AI-driven attacks, and no respondents grant AI full unsupervised autonomy. Data privacy (44%) and explainability (41%) top the adoption hurdles.

The Hacker NewsAug 27, 11:30 UTC · 20d agoIndustry

18 ways to check whether data can be trusted for AI

ETSI published TR 104 180 defining 18 data quality metrics, including fairness and privacy, to assess whether datasets are fit for AI.

ETSI's technical report TR 104 180 defines 18 metrics across four groups - intrinsic quality, usability and lineage, fairness, and privacy - each with calculation formulas, plus an open-source tool that scores datasets. Testing on an aircraft engine sensor dataset and a US census dataset revealed a roughly threefold gender gap in high earners (about 31% of men versus 11% of women) and two privacy failures: re-identification via age, race, sex, and country, and sensitive fields stored in plaintext. The working group included Sejong University, EGM, TTA, Daejeon University, and CNIT.

Help Net SecuritySep 7, 00:00 UTC · 9d agoAI policy

Personal Info Possibly Compromised at Japan’s Digital Agency

Japan's Digital Agency says unauthorized access to a network system may have compromised personal data of about 246,000 government employees.

Japan's Digital Agency reported that approximately 246,000 sets of personal information, including names and email addresses of government employees, may have been compromised through unauthorized access to a network system operated by the agency. The agency said no secondary damage, such as misuse of the potentially breached data, has been identified so far.

DataBreaches.netSep 11, 16:06 UTC · 4d agoData breach

Recorded Future Launches Impact and Metrics Dashboard

Recorded Future releases an Impact and Metrics Dashboard aggregating risk-reduction, detection, and analyst-efficiency metrics for customer leadership reporting.

The dashboard pulls data from a customer's environment, alerts, integrations, threat detections, and analyst activity into six metric areas: platform-wide security value, threat prioritization, threat detection, digital risk protection, account and credential monitoring, and Recorded Future AI and Insikt Group research usage. It is available now to all Recorded Future customers, who are advised to configure Priority Intelligence Requirements in Settings so reporting maps to their intelligence program. The vendor cites its 2025 ROI Report across nearly 300 customers reporting 351.3% annual ROI and says customers aligning alerting to PIRs identified new threats 65% faster.

Recorded FutureAug 24, 00:00 UTC · 23d agoTools

Massive Vietnam-Linked APIS Database Exposes Passport and Flight Data

Exposed Vietnam-linked APIS database held 220.8 million passenger and crew records with passport and flight data from January 2017 to April 2026.

Kinryū Labs discovered an exposed Elasticsearch cluster named 'pax-info' containing 220.8 million passenger and crew records, about 107 GB across 29 indices, hosted on IP space assigned to Viettel in Hanoi. The records include names, birth dates, nationalities, passport numbers, and detailed flight information from airlines across Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. Researchers reported the exposure on June 3 and the database was secured by June 8 with Singapore Airlines coordinating; no evidence of theft was found, but missing server logs mean access cannot be ruled out.

Security AffairsSep 8, 11:01 UTC · 8d agoData breach

Canada’s Hospital for Sick Children attacked by cybercriminals again as employee data stolen

Canada's Hospital for Sick Children reported a data theft incident exposing current and former employee data via a third-party application.

The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Canada's largest pediatric health center, disclosed that hackers stole personal information of current and former employees, job applicants, and SickKids Foundation staff, likely through a third-party software application. The attack briefly took down the hospital's careers website but did not involve clinical systems or patient information. Affected individuals were notified and offered two years of credit monitoring. The hospital was previously hit by ransomware in 2022.

The RecordAug 21, 15:02 UTC · 25d agoData breach in the wild

McDonald’s Employee Data Appears in Leak, Seller Claims 1.7M Records Stolen

A seller offers 1.7 million McDonald's employee records allegedly taken from its Azure tenant via compromised credentials; an 8,000-row sample verifies as genuine.

A forum seller named TheHatman posted an 8,000-row sample of McDonald's employee directory data, claiming a 1.7 million-record haul pulled directly from the company's Azure tenant using compromised credentials. Ransomnews analysis found authentic Entra ID export artifacts, including genuine domains, tenant-internal addresses, encoding errors, and truncated HR fields, but could not verify the data's age or the 1.7 million figure. The same seller listed nine datasets in 16 days covering about 3.6 million records across McDonald's, Vodafone, Gap, hotels, and IT outsourcers, suggesting infostealer-driven credential resale. No passwords or hashes appear in the sample, so the primary risk is social engineering.

Security AffairsAug 17, 07:58 UTC · Aug 17, 2026Data breach in the wild1

Terminated employee cost company hundreds of thousands of dollars because nobody revoked access

A terminated employee's unrevoked access let him delete files and corrupt a database, costing the company hundreds of thousands of dollars and weeks of delays.

The Register's PWNED column recounts an anecdote from Yad Senapathy, CEO of the Project Management Training Institute, about a company with 1,000+ employees where a terminated employee's credentials were never revoked. The former worker retained shared admin credentials and used them to delete files, lock accounts, and corrupt a database, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage and weeks of project delays. The takeaway is that unclear offboarding responsibility and unreviewed admin access enabled the sabotage.

The Register · SecuritySep 3, 07:00 UTC · 13d agoIndustry

PurpleDelta's Fraudulent Employment Operations

Recorded Future details North Korean cluster PurpleDelta using AI-generated personas and ChatGPT assistants to infiltrate companies via fraudulent employment.

Recorded Future profiles PurpleDelta, a North Korean IT worker threat cluster, in a new research report. The group uses AI-generated personas, sophisticated tradecraft, and custom ChatGPT assistants to obtain employment at target organizations and operate covertly. The report includes key indicators of compromise and recommended mitigation strategies for defenders.

Recorded FutureAug 18, 00:00 UTC · 29d agoThreat actor

Securing Data in the AI era

Wiz published guidance arguing AI adoption reshapes data risk, urging teams to identify what data is connected to AI services and exposed.

Wiz published a viewpoint on how AI adoption changes the context of data risk. The post argues that understanding what data is connected to AI systems, what is exposed, and why is now critical for managing that risk. No specific incident, vulnerability, or product release is described in the available text.

Wiz BlogAug 14, 12:19 UTC · Aug 14, 2026Industry

Researching Employment Scams

Schneier highlights research into North Korean fake-employment IT-worker scams that embed operatives in remote roles for long-term insider access.

The post discusses research into employment scams in which fabricated remote workers, associated with North Korean IT-worker schemes, embed in organizations for months or years to exfiltrate data or position for financial theft. Researchers used controlled sandbox environments to observe operatives syncing personal accounts and working under false identities. Commenters also note reverse scams targeting desperate job seekers through high-pressure MLM and door-to-door sales schemes.

Schneier on SecuritySep 3, 11:18 UTC · 13d agoPhishing & fraud

CenterPoint Energy Confirms Data Breach Exposing Customers’ Personal Information

CenterPoint Energy confirmed an unauthorized third party accessed customer personal data via an external system, disclosed in an SEC Form 8-K filing.

CenterPoint Energy disclosed in a September 14, 2026 Form 8-K that an unauthorized third party obtained personal information of some customers through one of the company's external systems. The company learned of the incident after an online post claimed possession of a customer dataset, then activated incident-response protocols and engaged external forensic specialists. Electric and gas delivery operations were unaffected and the company does not expect a material financial impact, though response, notification, and compliance costs are being incurred. The number of affected customers, data types, and threat actor remain undisclosed as the investigation continues.

GBHackers11:40 UTC · 3h agoData breach 4 sources

35 Actionable Password Statistics for Businesses in 2026 | Huntress

Huntress compiles 2026 password statistics showing 94% of 19 billion leaked passwords were reused and 37% of identity threats used stolen credentials.

Huntress published a compilation of password security statistics drawing on sources including Cybernews, Verizon's 2026 DBIR, IBM, and Bitwarden. Cybernews found 19 billion exposed passwords from roughly 200 incidents between April 2024 and April 2025, with only 6% unique and 94% reused across accounts. Huntress telemetry reports 37% of identity-based threats in 2026 involved stolen or suspicious credentials, while Verizon cites credential abuse in 39% of breaches. The piece argues weak and reused passwords remain a top entry point and recommends improved password hygiene.

HuntressSep 10, 13:00 UTC · 6d agoIndustry

Hackers Expose Data of 1.2 Million Heights Finance Customers

Heights Finance is notifying over 1.2 million customers that hackers accessed a third-party cloud platform holding contact, bank and government ID data.

Heights Finance, a U.S. consumer lender, discovered unauthorized access on May 7, 2026 to a third-party cloud platform used to store customer data; its internal loan management systems and operations were not affected. Exposed data varies by person and may include contact details, financial and bank account information, government IDs and dates of birth for customers, loan applicants, inquirers, and former borrowers of Curo Management and related brands. The company is offering 24 months of free credit monitoring and identity protection; dark web monitoring found no evidence of publication and no threat actor has claimed responsibility.

Security AffairsAug 18, 17:55 UTC · 28d agoData breach in the wild

When companies get specific about AI, revenue growth looks different

A Carnegie Mellon and Larridin study of 564 companies links specific AI disclosures to 8 points higher revenue growth, not margins.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Larridin analyzed 564 companies across 12 sectors using 478 10-K filings, more than 30,000 classified job postings and an AI maturity tracker. Companies at the top of 'narrative concreteness', meaning they named deployed AI systems with measurable outcomes, were associated with 8.0 percentage points higher year-over-year revenue growth, while no public AI signal predicted operating margins or risk-adjusted stock returns. AI infrastructure suppliers outperformed matched peers by about 32 percentage points over four months. The authors stress the findings show association, not causation.

Help Net SecurityAug 17, 00:00 UTC · Aug 17, 2026AI industry

SpyCloud 2026 Identity Threat Report Finds Non-Human Identities Are Now the Leading Path into the Enterprise

SpyCloud's 2026 survey of 750 security leaders finds compromised non-human identities are the top enterprise entry point, yet only 36% monitor them.

SpyCloud's Identity Threat Report, based on a survey of 750 cybersecurity leaders at organizations with 500+ employees, found compromised non-human identities (31%) were nearly twice as likely as phishing (17%) to be the primary attacker entry point. 68% of organizations reported identity-based events averaging eight each, while 95% believe they have visibility into AI and NHI exposures but only 36% actually monitor them. The report also found 91% use AI tools with internal access but only 56% have formal governance, and introduces an Identity Threat Protection Maturity Model.

CSO OnlineSep 9, 12:00 UTC · 7d agoIndustry

Hackers Frequently Target Healthcare and Finance Orgs

A new Huntress survey indicates threat actors frequently target healthcare organizations and banks because of the highly personal data they hold.

Huntress published survey findings indicating that healthcare organizations and banks are frequent targets for threat actors. The piece attributes this to the highly personal information these sectors handle. The article is framed around cyberattack readiness rather than a specific incident.

HuntressSep 1, 14:00 UTC · 15d agoIndustry

How a team of entity maintainers monitors, connects and scores entities in Elastic Security

Elastic Security explains how background 'maintainer' jobs build user, host and service entities from raw logs and drive identity resolution and risk scoring.

Elastic Security Labs describes the internal background jobs, called maintainers, that each own one piece of every user, host and service record in Elastic Security. The maintainers construct entities from raw logs, resolve identities across sources and compute risk scores, and the write-up explains how the team keeps this entity machinery consistent.

Elastic Security LabsAug 24, 00:00 UTC · 23d agoTools

US and Canadian court data exposed in Thomson Reuters breach

Thomson Reuters disclosed a breach of its C-Track court platform exposing sealed court records and personal data across 12+ US states and Canada.

Thomson Reuters disclosed that an unauthorized party obtained files from C-Track, its court case management platform, affecting courts in at least 12 US states, the US Virgin Islands and Canada. The company discovered the activity on June 30 and evidence indicates access ran from March through June; the intrusion method, attacker identity and number of affected people remain unknown. Exposed data may include names, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, medical information, dates of birth and health insurance details, including some sealed or redacted court records. Affected individuals are being offered 12 months of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection.

The RecordSep 3, 12:04 UTC · 13d agoData breach in the wild 2 sources