Purdue University researchers have launched a multidisciplinary project to model, simulate, and analyze Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), aiming to improve system robustness and make system analysis more scalable and effective. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is sponsoring the multiphase $6.5 million project named "FIREFLY," through its FIRE (Faithful Integrated Reverse Engineering and Exploitation) program.

The Daixin Team ransomware gang claimed responsibility for a recent cyberattack against Omni Hotels & Resorts, threatening to publish sensitive customer information if a ransom is not paid. A warning was issued in October 2022 about the Daixin Team cybercrime gang launching ransomware attacks against the US Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) sector. Since then, the group has been linked to a number of incidents involving the theft of Patient Health Information (PHI) and Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

 Cybersecurity researchers at vpnMentor have uncovered a significant data exposure concerning nearly 300,000 taxi passengers in the UK and Ireland.  The researchers found a non-password-protected database containing personal details.  These records, belonging to Dublin-based iCabbi, a dispatch and fleet management technology provider, were left vulnerable to potential exploitation.  The researchers noted that the exposed database contained 22,745 records and .csv documents with customers’ names, emails, phone numbers, and user IDs.

A recent incident in West Africa further highlights the ongoing threat posed by the LockBit ransomware. With stolen administrator credentials, cybercriminals have deployed a customized variant of the ransomware that can self-propagate. They compromised corporate infrastructure using privileged access, demonstrating the continued risk posed by the leaked LockBit 3.0 builder. The builder was leaked in 2022, but attackers, even those without advanced programming skills, continue to use it to create customized versions.

Millions of people and companies could soon benefit from the full power of next-generation quantum computing because of a breakthrough by scientists at Oxford's Department of Physics that ensures security and privacy. A new study details the advancement, which promises to unlock the transformative potential of cloud-based quantum computing. In the new study, the researchers use an approach called "blind quantum computing." The approach connects two completely different quantum computing entities securely. Their new methods are scalable to large quantum computations.

Claroty analyzed the Industrial Control System (ICS) malware "Fuxnet," used recently by Ukrainian hackers in an attack on a Russian underground infrastructure company. The hacker group known as "Blackjack," which is suspected to be affiliated with Ukraine's security services, claimed to have launched attacks on several critical Russian organizations. The hackers targeted Internet Service Providers (ISPs), utilities, data centers, and Russia's military, allegedly causing damage and stealing sensitive information.

Before Iran's missile attack against Israel, the pro-Iranian cyber gang "Handala" claimed to have breached radar systems and sent 500,000 text messages to Israeli citizens. Iran-backed cyberattacks have increased recently, with multiple hacker groups now turning their attention to Israeli targets. Hackers, who have previously targeted the Israeli government and private institutions, shared screenshots of an allegedly compromised RADA system. According to Israeli officials, the number of cyberattacks against the country has increased threefold in recent weeks.

Palo Alto Networks has started releasing hotfixes for a zero-day vulnerability that has been actively exploited since March 26th to backdoor PAN-OS firewalls.  The "maximum severity" security flaw, CVE-2024-3400, affects PAN-OS 10.2, PAN-OS 11.0, and PAN-OS 11.1 firewalls with device telemetry and GlobalProtect (gateway or portal) enabled.  The company noted that unauthenticated threat actors can exploit it remotely to gain root code execution via command injection in low-complexity attacks that don't require user interaction.

Juniper Networks recently published dozens of advisories detailing more than a hundred vulnerabilities in Junos OS, Junos OS Evolved, and other products.  Three of the advisories are marked as "critical severity," and all address security defects in third-party software used in the affected products.  The first advisory resolves nine vulnerabilities in the open source data transfer tool cURL, including four critical severity issues.  Two of the critical bugs were disclosed in 2018 and two in 2023.