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AI-fueled attacks pose ‘active threat’ to water, other sectors, U.S. agencies warn
NSA, CISA, FBI, DOE and EPA warn hackers are using AI-generated scripts to actively attack Siemens S7 PLCs across critical-infrastructure sectors.
A joint cybersecurity advisory from the NSA, CISA, FBI, Department of Energy and EPA warns of an active threat campaign targeting water, food, energy, chemical, manufacturing and commercial facilities via Siemens S7 Series programmable logic controllers. The actors use internet scanning to find exposed or poorly protected PLCs, then deploy AI-generated exploitation scripts disguised as legitimate monitoring tools, an OT first that dramatically lowers the expertise required for ICS attacks. Siemens says no new S7 vulnerabilities are involved, only exploitation of misconfigurations, and it is coordinating with CISA's ProductCERT. The warning follows a joint FBI-EPA advisory confirming attacks at water and wastewater utilities in at least 12 states since July 27.
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Week in review: Active Directory security, Patch Tuesday forecast, stopping lateral phishing attacks
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Medusa ransomware tallies hundreds of new victims, says updated advisory on group’s tactics
CISA, FBI, and HHS updated their Medusa ransomware advisory, reporting over 500 victims and detailing the gang's access-broker and exploit tactics.
A joint advisory update from CISA, the FBI, and HHS expands the March 2025 Medusa guidance, drawing on a year of FBI investigations. The ransomware-as-a-service group's known victim tally grew from more than 300 to more than 500 between March 2025 and April 2026, with the Healthcare and Public Health sector frequently hit. Medusa pays access brokers $100 to $1 million, has exploited flaws such as Fortra GoAnywhere and BeyondTrust vulnerabilities, and leverages newly announced exploits within 24 hours, sometimes a week before public disclosure. The group uses living-off-the-land techniques, remote monitoring and management software, and RDP for lateral movement, and has been linked to actors including Microsoft-tracked Storm-1175 and North Korean hackers targeting healthcare.
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Apollo discloses data breach from ongoing wave of attacks hitting financial sector
Apollo Global Management confirmed a breach of cloud platforms by BlackFile-linked social engineering attackers, exposing personal data including Social Security numbers.
Apollo Global Management disclosed that attackers accessed some of its cloud platforms between July 6 and July 10, 2026. The company determined on August 12 that compromised data included names, dates of birth, contact information, home addresses, and Social Security numbers. Google attributed the broader campaign against financial sector organizations to BlackFile, a threat group affiliated with The Com that operates extortion brands Redact, Pink, Helix, and Falcon. Apollo, which manages $1.05 trillion in assets, is the first victim to formally confirm sensitive personal data was compromised in this wave, with Blackstone and Bain Capital also reportedly targeted.
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FBI Disrupts China-Linked QTFY Infrastructure Used to Steal Data From U.S. Organizations
FBI and Lumen disrupted QTFY's QScan and QTRouter botnet platforms used by Chinese state-sponsored hackers to conceal intrusions into U.S. agencies.
The U.S. DoJ announced court-authorized seizure of domains behind QScan and QTRouter, operated by the Chinese state-sponsored group QTFY and employed by Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company. QTFY has been active since May 2018 and targeted NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Energy, DoJ, HHS, NIH, the U.S. Senate, and academic institutions. QScan exploits vulnerable IoT devices, feeding them into QTRouter, an OpenWrt-based proxy obfuscation network likened to an operational relay box (ORB) that masks attack origins. The group exploited zero-days such as Ivanti CSA flaws CVE-2024-8190, CVE-2024-8963, and CVE-2024-9380, plus numerous N-days, and maintained persistence with RATs, web shells, and legitimate credentials.
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The long tail of Clop’s PTC hack is just beginning to emerge
Clop mass-exploited CVE-2026-12569 in PTC Windchill and FlexPLM in early June, claiming data theft from dozens of large organizations.
Clop began sending extortion emails in mid-July after exploiting CVE-2026-12569 in PTC Windchill and FlexPLM, likely as a zero-day in early June before PTC's June 17 disclosure and patch. Confirmed victims include Toast and Zebra, while GE, Philips and Shell are among claimed victims. CISA added the flaw, which allows unauthenticated remote code execution, to its KEV catalog on June 25. ReliaQuest said the group used a custom Windchill-specific web shell for credential theft and large-scale exfiltration, echoing its past MOVEit and Oracle E-Business Suite mass-exploitation campaigns.
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