The invasion of Ukraine by Russia prompted an unprecedented number of individuals to join patriotic cyber gangs. Therefore, to protect civilians, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has published rules of engagement for civilian hackers involved in conflicts. According to the ICRC, this is not the first time civilian hackers have operated in an armed conflict, nor will it be the last.

The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) will use the $500,000 funding from the Google Cybersecurity Clinics Fund to train new cybersecurity professionals and provide public services. The funding from Google[.]org, the company's philanthropic arm, is part of a $20 million partnership with the Consortium of Cybersecurity Clinics announced by Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, in June. RIT's cybersecurity clinic will deploy student teams to provide free cyber assessment services and resources to community groups, including nonprofits, small businesses, municipal organizations, and schools.

In a recent experimental breakthrough in secure quantum communication, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi have achieved a trusted-node-free Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) up to 380 kilometers in standard telecom fiber with a low Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER). Low QBER enables the Differential Phase Shift (DPS) QKD scheme to be resistant to collective and individual attacks. This article continues to discuss IIT Delhi's experimental breakthrough in secure quantum communication.

Oospy, a short-lived spyware operation that emerged earlier this year after its predecessor Spyhide was compromised, has ceased operations. In July, Oospy appeared online as a rebranding of the phone monitoring app called Spyhide, which enabled the surveillance of tens of thousands of Android device owners. After a security breach exposed the operation and its administrators, Spyhide was shut down.

A cybersecurity program at Boise State University in Idaho called the Cyberdome is extending its services to rural schools and governments. The program aims to help address technology workforce challenges by training the next generation of cyber professionals. It is a partnership with Steller Cyber's Open XDR platform, a threat detection software powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

According to a PwC survey, as cybersecurity threats increase, organizations are eager to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for revenue growth and productivity efforts. However, threat actors are scaling up generative AI-powered attacks. Almost three-quarters of organizations plan to use generative AI for cybersecurity defense within the next year. At the same time, most respondents (52 percent) believe that generative AI will contribute to "catastrophic cyberattacks" within the next 12 months.

BastionZero's OpenPubkey is a new cryptographic protocol designed to strengthen the open-source software (OSS) ecosystem. It is now a Linux Foundation open-source project. Additionally, Docker is integrating OpenPubkey for container signing. This cryptographic technology aims to provide increased security via zero-trust passwordless authentication. OpenPubkey provides this authentication by making a client-side modification to OpenID Connect, which is an OAuth 2.0 framework-based authentication protocol.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) aims to ensure the nation's cybersecurity in several ways, including through collaborative efforts to support and advance the mission of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the development of tools to identify potential vulnerabilities in the nation's critical infrastructure systems and networks, and the implementation of solutions to improve cybersecurity-related risk analysis processes and assessment.

According to Microsoft researchers, human-operated ransomware attacks have increased by more than 200 percent since September 2022, signaling a shift in the cybercrime underground. Unlike automated attacks launched through malicious phishing documents, human-operated attacks typically involve actively exploiting Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tools that enable hackers to leave behind less evidence. Microsoft warned that the increase in these types of incidents could indicate a rise in ransomware hackers working for multiple gangs to maximize their profits.

Cl0p, the Russia-linked ransomware group, added another US-based company to its MOVEit Transfer attack victims list. Flagstar Bank notified affected individuals that attackers accessed their data via Fiserv, a company the bank uses for payment processing and mobile banking. The unauthorized activity in the MOVEit Transfer environment occurred between May 27 and May 31, 2023, before the public disclosure of this vulnerability. During this time, unauthorized actors accessed vendor files transferred via MOVEit, which included Flagstar Bank and related institution customer information.