The Media Trust Releases 2026 Intelligence Report: “When Advertising Entered the Cyber Conversation”

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 4, 2026 by itnerd

The Media Trust (TMT), a global leader in digital trust and safety for more than 20 years, today released its 2026 Intelligence Report, When Advertising Entered the Cyber Conversation: A Look Back at 2025 and the Digital Safety Imperative for 2026.

The report documents a defining shift in the digital ecosystem: in 2025, advertising infrastructure was no longer viewed solely as a revenue engine. It became increasingly recognized by regulators, media companies, and the public as part of the cyber risk landscape.

High-profile enforcement actions, evolving government policy initiatives, and increased scrutiny of platform accountability, including measures undertaken by major publishers and global technology companies, signal a clear shift. Neutrality is no longer viable. For publishers, platforms, and brands, ignoring malicious activity within advertising systems carries measurable consequences: reputational damage, regulatory exposure, lost revenue, and growing legal liability.

The question entering 2026 is not whether responsibility exists. It is how organizations will operationalize it.

Drawing on proprietary, real-time threat detection data from The Media Trust’s global infrastructure, which analyzes more than 200 billion ads monthly across 100,000+ digital properties, the report details how malvertising, malicious redirects, cloaked landing pages, and AI-enabled manipulation tactics are actively exploiting advertising systems as scalable attack surfaces.

TMT’s data shows these threats are not random. They concentrate geographically, target specific user communities, and follow monetization pathways designed to extract economic value at scale. Digital crime within the ad ecosystem is structured, repeatable, and increasingly automated.

Key Findings from the 2026 Intelligence Report

Advertising as Infrastructure


Advertising systems now operate as high-speed execution environments for third-party code, making them efficient pathways for malware, fraud, and surveillance when exploited.

AI is Accelerating Both Defense and Attack


Artificial intelligence is reshaping the threat landscape. Attackers are using AI to scale evasion and automate malicious campaigns, while real-time defensive AI has become essential to detecting and blocking harmful activity before it reaches users.

Digital Crime is Local


Threat activity is no longer diffuse. State-by-state and global analysis shows digital attacks concentrate geographically, exposing specific regions and communities to disproportionate risk.

The Human Cost is Measurable


Malicious advertising produces direct financial loss, brand damage, and revenue disruption. Beyond economics, manipulation campaigns and scams increasingly affect vulnerable populations with real-world consequences.

Cybersecurity vs. Digital Safety


The report distinguishes system-level security from human-level safety, arguing that compliance alone is insufficient in today’s data-driven advertising ecosystem.

Accountability is Becoming Enforceable


Regulatory scrutiny, advertiser expectations, and governance standards are converging. Organizations that fail to address malicious activity within monetization systems face mounting reputational, financial, and regulatory risk.

A Call for Industry-Wide Responsibility

The report concludes with what The Media Trust calls The Guardian Imperative: protecting people and protecting profit are not competing priorities, they are operationally linked.

When malicious creatives degrade user trust, traffic declines. Fraud diverts advertiser spend, weak enforcement increases regulatory exposure, and diminished user trust impacts long-term monetization. Consumer protection, brand integrity, and revenue performance are structurally connected within the advertising ecosystem, and weaknesses in one area directly affect the others.

The organizations that invest in proactive threat detection, real-time enforcement, and shared intelligence do more than reduce risk. They strengthen long-term monetization resilience.

Availability

The full 2026 Intelligence Report, When Advertising Entered the Cyber Conversation, is now available at: https://info.mediatrust.com/2026-intelligence-report

Forcepoint Secures AI Adoption and Data Everywhere with New ARIA AI Assistant and Endpoint Intelligence

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 4, 2026 by itnerd

Forcepoint today announced major enhancements to its AI-native Data Security Cloud platform, led by ARIA, the embedded Adaptive Risk Intelligence Assistant that uses natural language to create enforcement policies and accelerate incident response across AI-driven workflows. The company also updated its Global Partner Program, aligning incentives and enablement around Data Security Cloud to help partners deploy and scale modern data security for end-users. Together, these innovations advance Forcepoint’s Self-Aware Data Security approach that knows threats as they form, adapts policies and risk scoring in real time and enforces controls wherever data flows.

A recent World Economic Forum report found that 66 percent of organizations say AI will have the most significant impact on cybersecurity in the next year, yet most lack formal processes to assess AI risk. As AI reshapes how sensitive information is created, transformed and shared at machine speed across cloud platforms, collaboration tools and AI-driven workflows, this always-on data evolves long after creation, widening the gap between visibility and control.

Today’s Data Security Cloud updates address this gap with AI-aware automation, on-device web intelligence and a redesigned partner program that brings Self-Aware Data Security to market at scale. Rather than relying on static policies or routing traffic through a remote proxy before responding, Forcepoint adapts enforcement in real time, closing the distance between detection and action to keep up with how modern workforces leverage AI tools. 

Data Security Cloud unifies DSPMDLP Cloud, Data Detection and Response (DDR), Web and Email security, CASB, RBI, advanced forensics and risk-adaptive protection under a single-policy framework, extending from endpoint to cloud. The platform eliminates multiple point products, making Self-Aware Data Security a practical, day-to-day reality. 

Data Security Cloud Delivers AI-Aware Protection at the Speed of Data Creation

The enhancements extend protection to follow sensitive information everywhere, across AI pipelines, analytics platforms and collaboration tools. By unifying discovery, classification, prioritization and enforcement in one continuous loop, Forcepoint enables organizations to move toward Self-Aware Data Security — gaining clarity and confidence to tame data sprawl, safely enable GenAI, contain insider risk and simplify compliance. Key innovations include:

Forcepoint Adaptive Risk Intelligence Assistant (ARIA). Embedded in Data Security Cloud, ARIA understands risk across the platform, identifying gaps such as newly adopted copilots without policy coverage, and generates recommended policies in seconds with clear rationale for administrator review. Teams can quickly create or update policies and deploy them across channels from a single interface, reducing time-to-value and policy expertise requirements. ARIA also streamlines incident response by integrating with existing tools like ServiceNow and Slack, while continuously delivering risk insights powered by Forcepoint’s AI Mesh, which discovers and classifies billions of structured and unstructured data elements.

Next-generation Data Security Everywhere agent. The new agent brings adaptive protection and web intelligence directly to the endpoint, inspecting and protecting data on devices, without forcing traffic through a traditional proxy. It manages precise protection for sanctioned AI apps while blocking sensitive information from reaching unsanctioned AI tools and personal cloud storage. It combines adaptive enforcement, investigation, forensics and user-level awareness in a single agent that supports cloud and on-premises environments, allowing organizations to modernize without sacrificing protection.

Expanded coverage for modern analytics, cloud data lakehouses and AI-driven environments. Forcepoint extended structured data security to cloud data lakehouses such as Databricks and Snowflake, deepened integration with Google Workspace and broadened consistent protection across SaaS, hybrid, endpoint, web and email channels.

Global Partner Program Accelerates Data Security Everywhere 

Based on partner feedback, Forcepoint updated its Global Partner Program to align incentives, enablement and deal structures around Data Security Cloud. The redesigned program introduces a simplified three-tier structure with transparent requirements and clearly defined economic benefits at every level, including deal registration margins with no minimum thresholds and deal families aligned to data security use cases. Expanded enablement includes billable capability development to help partners differentiate as trusted data security advisors.

Learn More at AWARE Virtual Event and RSA Conference 2026 

Forcepoint will showcase Data Security Cloud enhancements at the AWARE Spring 2026 virtual event on March 4 and during RSA Conference, March 23–26. Both forums will feature real-world use cases and a closer look at the innovations announced today. Register to access on-demand AWARE content at forcepoint.com/aware. RSA attendees can request in-person meetings and demos.

To learn more about Forcepoint Data Security Cloud, read the announcement blog and visit the platform page. More details about the Global Partner Program can be found on this blog and the partner page.

Check Point Software Launches Dedicated Canada Data Region, Enabling Full Data Residency for Canadian Organizations

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 4, 2026 by itnerd

Check Point today announced the launch of a dedicated Canada data region for its Check Point Web Application Firewall (WAF), ensuring that all configurations, logs, and security processing remain fully within Canada.

This launch enables Canadian organizations, particularly those in regulated industries, to meet strict data residency, privacy, and sovereignty requirements, while maintaining enterprise-grade application and API security. Organizations can now protect applications and APIs within Canada using Check Point’s AI-powered Web Application Firewall to stop threats early, reduce compliance complexity, and eliminate cross-border data exposure. The Launch highlights Check Point’s continued investment in locally hosted security aligned with national regulations. 

Key benefits of the Canada data region include:

  • Full Canadian data residency for logs, configurations, and inspection data
  • Local performance with reduced latency
  • Prevention-first security that blocks known and unknown threats
  • Reduced operational overhead and improved security efficiency

This milestone is particularly significant for finance, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure organizations that must comply with increasingly stringent regulatory and privacy frameworks.

Check Point WAF leverages AI-powered, prevention-first architecture to protect applications and APIs from both known and zero-day threats — without relying on signatures, emergency patching, or manual rule tuning. Key performance highlights include:

  1. 99.5% detection rate with near-zero false positives
  2. 90%+ of deployments operating in full prevention mode
  3. Fully automated protection requiring no manual tuning
  4. Proactive blocking of zero-day attacks in advance

Its effectiveness has been validated through the WAF Comparison Project 2026, which assessed 14 leading WAF vendors under real-world conditions. Check Point WAF has also been recognized as a Leader/Fast Mover in the GigaOm Radar and included in the Gartner WAAP Market Guide.

Check Point WAF’s Canada data region is now available for eligible customers and partners.

Check Point will showcase the new data region and discuss its prevention-first approach to application security during its concurrent keynote session and throughout the exhibition at the Victoria International Privacy & Security Summit (VIPSS) in Victoria, BC, March 4–5, 2026.–

Guest Post: Why SK Square Invested in Hammerspace: Data Orchestration for AI at Global + Sovereign Scale

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 4, 2026 by itnerd

By Molly Presley, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing at Hammerspace

AI infrastructure has hit a new hard limit and it’s not compute, it’s data. As organizations scale training and inference, the bottleneck has increasingly become the ability to find, govern, and deliver the right data to the right GPUs fast enough – across sites, clouds, and jurisdictions.

That’s why TGC Square, the overseas investment arm referenced in SK Square’s announcement this week, invested in Hammerspace: to back a platform purpose-built to eliminate data fragmentation and data-path friction, all while making sovereignty enforceable in the real world.

In the AI era, performance isn’t limited by how many GPUs you can buy; it’s limited by whether data can reach those GPUs fast enough. That’s why SK Square invested in Hammerspace: to back a data orchestrator that can logically unify distributed data and then move the right data to available GPUs without interrupting access. In a world where datasets span sites, clouds, and jurisdictions, orchestration is how you turn fragmented storage into an AI-ready data plane – globally and in sovereign environments.

AI Needs Distributed Data
AI pipelines don’t stay neatly inside one storage system, data center, or geographic location. Data is created in one place, enriched in another, and consumed wherever GPU capacity exists. The common “fix” is to duplicate datasets into new AI silos per region or per cluster.

That approach creates a familiar failure mode:

  • More copies → more drift
  • More silos → more policy gaps
  • More manual governance → more operational risk
  • More storage sprawl → more cost and slower AI cycles

Global namespace + orchestration is what makes Sovereign AI real: one consistent view of data everywhere, with policy-driven control over where each file can live, move, and be computed on, so data stays where it must, access is provable, and AI runs at full speed.

The Basis for the Investment 
Hammerspace addresses the modern AI constraint with data orchestration within a global namespace that turns fragmented data sets into a unified data estate – across distributed environments while staying within sovereign boundaries. Our unique data platform can:

  • Orchestrate data in place by indexing and leveraging file metadata, so teams can use distributed datasets without disruptive migrations or creating new storage silos.
  • Orchestrate access through a global namespace so users and applications see one consistent view of data across on-premises, multi-site, and cloud environments.
  • Orchestrate policy-driven outcomes so data movement, placement, performance, durability, and compliance behaviors are automatically enforced, and continuously re-evaluated as infrastructure and requirements change.

AI Data Access: Controlled Participation, Not Copied Isolation
AI only delivers value when the right data can be found, accessed, and delivered to GPUs quickly.  This is more complex, requires more humans, and is much slower when that data is spread across sites, clouds, and storage systems. The instinctive response is to copy everything into a dedicated “AI zone” or per-cluster silo. That creates delays, duplicate datasets, and governance drift.

Hammerspace takes a different approach: one global namespace for access, paired with policy-driven orchestration that determines what data can be used where, by whom, and under what conditions—at file granularity. Teams get the speed and simplicity of local access, without forcing new silos or breaking the guardrails that matter in regulated and sovereign environments.

Proven in Demanding Environments
Hammerspace has been adopted in high-scale, high-performance environments, including top-tier customers referenced in the announcement such as Meta and Los Alamos National Laboratory, where data bottlenecks pose an existential threat to productivity and compute ROI.

And it’s driven by deep systems expertise: David Flynn previously founded Fusion-io, which was acquired by SanDisk — experience that shows up in a platform built to remove I/O friction instead of adding new layers of overhead.

The Flynn Factor
Hammerspace was founded and is led by Flynn, a first mover who sees what infrastructure must become next and builds it before the market even has the language for it. Flynn invented the PCIe flash model at Fusion-io (the NVMe precursor) and sold it to SanDisk. Hammerspace is the next act: a global namespace data orchestrator engineered to remove I/O friction and feed GPUs at full speed—without creating new silos or breaking sovereignty.


Hisense Leads Global TV Shipments in 2025 Across 100-Inch and Laser TVs

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 4, 2026 by itnerd

Hisense has reaffirmed its leadership in the global large-screen TV market. According to Omdia’s full-year 2025 global shipment data, Hisense ranked No. 1 worldwide in the 100-inch-and-above TV segment for three consecutive years (2023–2025), with global shipment share reaching 57.1 per cent in 2025.

Hisense also maintained its No. 1 position in the global Laser TV category in 2025, marking seven consecutive years of worldwide leadership, with a global market share of 70.3%. These results confirm Hisense’s dominance across the most strategically important large-screen categories, where both scale and technological capability matter.

This sustained leadership is driven by Hisense’s long-term commitment to advanced display technologies, most notably the innovation of RGB Mini-LED. As the originator of RGB Mini-LED, Hisense has led the technology’s evolution from early research to large-scale commercialization, establishing clear advantages in colour accuracy, brightness control and viewing comfort on ultra-large screens.

Omdia’s CES 2026 recap further supports this trajectory, identifying RGB Mini-LED TVs as a key driver of the industry’s next growth phase, with rapid expansion expected from 2026 — reflecting a broader shift toward technologies where Hisense has long held leadership.

Looking ahead, Hisense is uniquely positioned to extend this advantage. It is the only brand with a complete display technology ecosystem spanning RGB Mini-LED, TriChroma Laser and Micro-LED, enabling a comprehensive approach to next-generation visual innovation. At CES 2026, Hisense showcased the 116UXS, the first TV powered by RGB Mini-LED evo, alongside the UR8 and UR9 RGB Mini-LED lineups and the Laser Projector XR10, all recognized with multiple CES awards.

By leading critical technology transitions in large-screen displays and transforming them into premium viewing experiences, Hisense is setting the visual benchmarks for the next generation of high-end screens worldwide.

For more information, please visit hisense-canada.com

Kognitos Bridges the AI Trust Gap with Governed, Deterministic Execution for the Autonomous Enterprise

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 3, 2026 by itnerd

Kognitos today announced new platform enhancements designed to help enterprises move artificial intelligence (AI) from experimentation into real operational execution. Built in direct response to customer feedback, the latest release enables AI systems to perform mission-critical work with deterministic behavior, explicit human control, and full auditability, addressing the core trust barriers that have kept AI confined to pilots.

Enterprises have already demonstrated that AI can analyze data, interpret language, and generate recommendations at scale. Yet despite widespread experimentation, most organizations still stop short of allowing AI to execute core business processes. Customers state that the limitation is not intelligence, but predictability. 

Probabilistic AI systems often behave inconsistently at the edges, evolve silently over time, or embed business logic directly into prompts, creating a ‘Spaghetti Spiral,’ a tangled, brittle execution path that cannot be easily traced, governed, or audited. As a result, AI initiatives frequently stall at the final stage, or the ‘95% wall,’ the point at which AI works in pilots, but fails when edge cases, exceptions, and compliance requirements determine whether it can be trusted in production.

Kognitos is purpose-built for business processes that cannot run on probabilistic logic, where every step must be predictable, every outcome traceable, and every decision explainable. As the deterministic, agentic AI for enterprise operations, Kognitos closes the gap between what large language models can assist with and what production-grade execution actually demands.

From AI experimentation to governed execution

Kognitos’ latest platform release directly addresses the gap between AI experimentation and production execution by introducing a governed model that separates AI-assisted reasoning from live operational behavior. In this model, AI can interpret intent, plan workflows, and assist with design, but execution is performed by a deterministic, symbolic runtime that runs only explicitly approved logic.

Rather than relying on prompt chains or opaque agents, Kognitos uses Executable Natural Language, often described as English-as-Code, to express business logic in plain English Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). These SOPs become the authoritative source of truth for execution, allowing organizations to define exactly what an automation is permitted to do, using language that business, IT, and compliance teams can all understand.

Once approved, these executable specifications function as versioned, human-readable contracts. Automations execute exactly as written, every time, and cannot change unless a human explicitly authorizes a revision. This approach enables developers to guarantee deterministic behavior at runtime, while allowing business users to own and evolve their operational logic safely.

Eliminating hallucinations, logic rot, and silent behavior drift

Businesses consistently cite silent behavior drift and untraceable ‘logic rot’ as major blockers to scaling AI in production. In many AI-driven systems, execution logic evolves implicitly as models adapt or prompts change, making it difficult to explain outcomes or reproduce past behavior.

Kognitos eliminates this risk by anchoring all execution to a symbolic layer that remains constant at runtime. Every automation run is associated with a specific version of its English specification, allowing teams to trace outcomes back to exact instructions. Past executions can be replayed deterministically, and all changes are recorded in a complete audit history showing who approved which logic and when.

By separating reasoning from execution, Kognitos ensures hallucination-free execution for deterministic rules, while eliminating the ‘Token Tax,’ the cost, latency, and variability introduced when large language models are used for simple, deterministic decisions.

Turning exceptions into institutional memory

Another critical pain point seen in AI systems today is the repetitive handling of exceptions. In many organizations, teams resolve the same edge cases repeatedly, with little knowledge retained and senior staff pulled into ongoing firefighting.

The new platform enhancements introduce a governed learning loop that treats exceptions as assets rather than failures. When an automation encounters an unknown condition, execution halts instead of guessing. AI proposes a resolution, a human reviews and approves it in plain English, and the approved logic is stored as part of the organization’s exception knowledge, without polluting the core process definition.

Over time, this creates a living runbook of how the organization operates, enabling exceptions to be resolved automatically and ensuring that critical expertise survives turnover.

Designed for shared ownership across business and IT

The enhancements are designed for operationally complex environments such as finance, accounting, manufacturing, and enterprise operations, where workflows span multiple teams and require strict governance.

Kognitos supports two complementary adoption paths into the same platform. Developers and IT teams gain a deterministic execution engine they can trust to behave consistently under regulatory and operational constraints. Business users and process owners gain a plain-English interface for defining, reviewing, and evolving their own automations without relying on prompt engineering or specialized scripting.

Because both groups work against the same human-readable logic, governance and collaboration improve rather than fragmenting across tools.

Availability

These enhancements are available as part of Kognitos’ current release. To help organizations evaluate readiness, Kognitos is offering a Trust Gap Assessment that enables enterprises to identify where existing AI initiatives may be constrained by predictability, governance, or auditability.

Dynabook Canada Expands Nationwide Distribution Through TD SYNNEX

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 3, 2026 by itnerd

Dynabook Canada Inc. has signed a nationwide distribution agreement with TD SYNNEX, expanding access to its business‑class laptop portfolio across Canada. The partnership improves product availability for resellers and system integrators while consolidating procurement through TD SYNNEX’s national channel.

The agreement responds to customer demand for predictable supply, longer device lifecycles, and consistent support. Through TD SYNNEX’s distribution network, partners can access Dynabook’s Portégé and Tecra laptops more efficiently, supporting faster deployment for commercial customers.

The partnership builds on TD SYNNEX’s existing relationship with Sharp Electronics of Canada’s business technology portfolio and aligns with Sharp Corporation’s broader strategy in the Canadian market. As a Sharp subsidiary, Dynabook manages product design, engineering, and testing centrally in Japan, supported by dedicated Canadian sales and service operations.

Dynabook Canada will continue to focus on delivering business laptops engineered for durability, security, and lifecycle consistency, supported by local infrastructure and national distribution coverage.

Learn more: https://ca.dynabook.com

First-Party Fraud Jumps 32 Per Cent as Canadians Report Growing ‘Fraud Fatigue’ Says Equifax

Posted in Commentary on March 3, 2026 by itnerd

The rate of first-party fraud in Canada rose 32 per cent year over year, moving from 0.25 per cent at the end of 2024 to 0.33 per cent by Q4 2025, according to Equifax Canada’s Market Pulse Fraud Trends and Insights. First-party fraud involves individuals using their own legitimate identity to misrepresent information for financial gain.

The increase comes as a new Equifax Canada Fraud Survey conducted for Fraud Prevention Month reveals that Canadians are feeling increasingly worn down by the steady stream of scams and fraud attempts in their daily lives.

Nearly three in ten Canadians surveyed, 28 per cent, describe the daily volume of fraud attempts as a “manageable annoyance.” More than one-quarter say they feel numb to suspicious messages and delete them without reviewing them. Sixteen per cent report feeling “anxious and tired” trying to determine what is real and what is fake, while five per cent say they feel “completely burnt out.”

More than four in five Canadians surveyed, 83 per cent, are concerned that technology can now be used to create fake legal documents such as pay stubs, insurance claims, or identification that appear convincingly real.

Identity theft and impersonation scams remain top concerns. Two-thirds of Canadians believe identity theft, 67 per cent, and impersonation and phishing scams, 64 per cent, are among the most worrisome forms of fraud today. Digital payment scams follow at 59 per cent, with investment and romance fraud at 46 per cent.

The findings highlight how pervasive fraud risk has become. Six in ten Canadians say they feel most vulnerable online. One-third report feeling at risk while using public Wi-Fi, and one-quarter feel vulnerable at home. Only a small minority say they never feel vulnerable.

Despite heightened awareness, risky behaviours persist. Nearly four in ten Canadians admit they have accidentally clicked on a fraudulent link in an email or text message. Half say they know someone who has experienced identity theft. Many report difficulty keeping pace with evolving scams, underscoring the need for ongoing education and stronger protections.

Canadians overwhelmingly agree that combating fraud demands collective responsibility:

  • 88 per cent say public and private sectors must work together to combat financial crime
  • 83 per cent believe the media should do more to raise awareness about how scams operate80 per cent support stricter penalties for scammers
  • 62 per cent believe everyday scams help fund more serious criminal activity

When asked what would help them stay safer, respondents pointed to stronger safeguards and education:

  • 68 per cent say banks should implement stronger security measures to protect accounts
  • 63 per cent want governments and companies to use more sophisticated fraud solutions
  • 59 per cent support mandatory education in schools and broader public awareness campaigns

Auto insurance fraud is also on Canadians’ radar, with nearly half concerned that fraudulent activity is contributing to higher premiums for honest drivers.

Equifax surveyed 1,570 Canadians ages 18 to 65 from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, 2026. A probability sample of the same size would yield a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Attackers turn to “Vibe Hacking” and Flat-Pack Malware, according to HP’s latest Threat Insights Repor

Posted in Commentary on March 3, 2026 by itnerd

HP Wolf Security’s latest Threat Insights Report is live this morning and it reveals attackers are turning to vibe hacking, flat-pack malware and low-effort AI-built attacks to outpace and bypass business defenses.

The report highlights how AI is enabling attackers to scale and accelerate campaigns, prioritizing cost, effort and efficiency over quality.

Notable campaigns highlighted in the report include:

  • Vibe-Hacking Scripts Using Booking.com Redirects: Attackers are using AI to generate ready-made infection scripts – known as vibe-hacking – to automate malware delivery. In one campaign a fake invoice PDF triggered a silent download before redirecting victims to Booking.com to appear legitimate.
  • Flat-Pack Malware Speeds Up Campaign Building: Threat actors are assembling attacks using inexpensive, off-the-shelf malware components, likely purchased from hacker forums – allowing them to quickly build, customize, and scale campaigns with minimal effort.
  • Malware Hidden in Fake Teams Installer ‘Piggyback’ Attack: Campaigns using search engine poisoning and malicious adverts to promote fake Microsoft Teams websites. Victims download an installer where hidden malware runs alongside the real app, giving attackers backdoor access

Here is a blog about the report from the HP Wolf Security team.

Pentagon picks Grok AI…. Which Likely Isn’t A Good Thing

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 3, 2026 by itnerd

The US Pentagon recently approved Elon Musk’s Grok AI for classified military operations while threatening Anthropic with penalties for refusing to remove ethical safeguards from its Claude AI.

Jurgita Lapienytė, chief editor at Cybernews had this to say:

Safety rules are being thrown out.

    “For the fear of its Claude being used for the surveillance of American citizens or used to develop mass weapons, the US leading AI company has backed out of the deal with the Pentagon, and is now facing penalties for standing its ground. Yes, the government shouldn’t allow any company to dictate the terms for defence operations. But should AI companies be punished for having safety rules? If the biggest market players are forced onto their knees, smaller companies will stop having safety rules, too. Will being “safe” become bad for business?”

    Machines making kill decisions.

      “Currently, AI is not only untrustworthy but also very dangerous when unsupervised. In military operations, it can also be used to dehumanize operations by offering gamified experiences for officers and soldiers, and shifting personal responsibility.”

      Approval based on politics, not security.

        “You’d expect your government to pick the best technology and go to great lengths to discuss the best possible solutions for American citizens and defense goals. What seems to have happened here is that, in the heat of public discussion, another company got fast-tracked, while at the same time it’s facing hefty fines and even bans in other countries.”

        This might be a security issue for other countries, too.  

          “When the world’s most powerful military starts using AI without being transparent about exactly how, one can begin to wonder just how much US operations overseas are influenced by the algorithm. Every country in conflict with the US should keep a close eye on this development.”