Author: Gary Behan

Microsoft is investigating an Exchange Online authentication outage that is causing email failures, mailbox access problems, and search disruptions for users across its Outlook platform. The company acknowledged the incident, tracked internally as EX1464935, at 5:30 PM UTC, after a wave of reports surfaced on social media.Outage-tracking service Downdetector logged tens of thousands of affected users within hours of the first reports. According to CNET, the Downdetector data shows that 37% of those reporting problems cited difficulties receiving messages, 23% had trouble using the app, and 20% reported issues with the website itself. That spread suggests the disruption is touching…

A Chinese threat actor has repurposed Cisco routers into active surveillance platforms in what incident response company Sygnia describes as a pivot away from Fire Ant Cisco router spying techniques previously focused on virtualisation infrastructure. The group has deployed custom malware, captured live network traffic, and used compromised devices as covert bridges into connected high-value environments, including systems associated with critical infrastructure.From VMware to IOS XR: How Fire Ant Changed TargetsSygnia had previously tracked Fire Ant targeting VMware ESXi and vCenter environments, according to Cybersecurity Dive. The shift to Cisco IOS XR routers, TACACS authentication servers, and Linux management hosts…

Microsoft has confirmed that the KB5120998 mouse reset bug is reverting cursor personalisation settings on Windows 11 systems, with Bleeping Computer reporting that the issue specifically targets non-English Windows 11 installations. For the users caught out, the situation is particularly frustrating: attempts to restore previous cursor settings after the revert are reportedly unsuccessful.Microsoft acknowledged the problem in a statement, explaining that ‘mouse cursor personalization settings are being changed or reverted to certain standard settings’ following the installation of updates released on 27 August 2026, including KB5120998. The company described the issue as causing ‘appearance regressions and intermittent animation changes,’ with…

Microsoft is telling customers to sit tight and ignore Defender Antivirus false alerts that incorrectly report the antivirus has been switched off, following the installation of recent Defender updates. The alerts are wrong: the antivirus is running fine. Microsoft says a fix is coming, but hasn’t said when.The erroneous notifications surface in the Windows Security app and prompt users to ‘Tap or click to turn on Microsoft Defender Antivirus.’ According to Microsoft’s Friday release health dashboard update, the alerts can appear when Windows starts and may recur intermittently throughout a session. They persist even when notification settings are turned off,…

The Manchester Airports Group data breach has been claimed by extortion group FulcrumSec, which told BleepingComputer it took approximately 86 GB of data, and samples reviewed by the outlet suggest the exposed information goes considerably further than MAG’s own disclosure acknowledged. How the Manchester Airports Group Data Breach Unfolded According to TechTimes, Manchester Airports Group detected the unauthorised access on 25 August 2026 and went public two days later on 27 August, a 48-hour disclosure window. In that statement, MAG, the United Kingdom’s largest airport operator, said an unauthorised third party had stolen customer data tied to Manchester, London Stansted,…

Anthropic is making its Claude Code weekly limits permanent from 14 September, but the framing deserves a closer look: users who have enjoyed the current temporary boost will end up with less usage than they have right now, not more. The maths is straightforward once you strip away the positive spin. How the numbers actually stack up Claude Code has been running with a temporary 50% uplift on its standard weekly allowances. Anthropic announced on X that, from 14 September, it will permanently raise those standard limits by 25% for Pro, Max, Team, and seat-based Enterprise plans. That sounds generous…

Brave browser email aliases have arrived in version 1.94, giving users a way to hand over a disposable address when registering for a new service rather than exposing their actual inbox to whatever fate awaits that service’s database. It is a small feature with a pointed rationale: even a browser that isolates cookies and blocks cross-site tracking cannot stop a careless third party from leaking your email address to data brokers or phishing operators.The mechanism is straightforward. A user creates a free Brave Account, registers their primary email address with it, and can then generate up to five aliases at…

The McKesson ShinyHunters data breach came to light on 25 August 2026, the day the company says it discovered the incident, with the extortion group claiming it had already spent four days quietly siphoning roughly 1TB of data from McKesson’s cloud environments. McKesson disclosed the incident in a Form 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, stating that its investigation remains in the early stages and that it has not yet determined whether the incident is material to its financial condition or results of operations.In a separate notice to customers, McKesson confirmed that the attack involved third-party applications…

The NVD enrichment backlog is now a structural problem for enterprise security teams, not a temporary blip. On 15 April 2026, NIST announced a significant overhaul of how it manages vulnerability enrichment in the National Vulnerability Database, moving nearly 300,000 CVEs published before 1 March 2026 into a status labelled “Not Scheduled,” according to Semgrep. The backlog is not the result of negligence; it is the product of volume that the original model was never designed to absorb. Why the NVD Enrichment Backlog Got This Large The numbers behind the decision are stark. According to the Cloud Security Alliance, CVE…

The Hasbro employee data breach has claimed at least 436 victims in Massachusetts alone, with attackers accessing Social Security numbers, financial account details, credit and debit card numbers, and driver’s licence information, according to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office 2026 Data Breach Notification Report. The toy and games giant, which owns brands including Monopoly, Nerf, Transformers and Dungeons & Dragons, has not disclosed the total number of affected employees across all states. What was exposed in the Hasbro employee data breach In breach notification letters filed with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, Hasbro described the compromised information in carefully hedged…