Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Insights from Attempted Intelligence, Episode 2, hosted by Matt Duren, SVP of AI and data, KnowBe4 and Harlan Parrott, VP of AI innovation, KnowBe4. AI data centers are one of the most debated topics in the world right now. Some people worry about the energy and water it takes to run them. Others see the foundation for the next wave of AI advances. Both camps have a point. On episode two of the Attempted Intelligence podcast, Matt and Harlan each picked a side and debated it.

The third quarter of 2026 saw the highest number of ransomware attacks to date, with 2,627 total attacks, according to a new report from Comparitech.

Researchers at Fortra are tracking a surge in phishing attacks targeting bank accounts via remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools. “Hybrid phishing-to-RMM campaigns have emerged as a potent method to target North American financial institutions, with a focused interest in business commercial banking accounts,” Fortra says.

South Africans who fall victim to cybercrime now have more support available. MiDO Academy, The Cyber Helpline (UK) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched the pilot of The Cyber Helpline in South Africa, a free, confidential service providing practical guidance and compassionate support to individuals affected by online fraud, investment and employment scams, hacked accounts, phishing and smishing, social media fake profiles, sextortion, online harassment, identity theft, malware and ransomware incidents.

I want to start with a confession that most security leaders will recognize but few will say out loud: almost everyone reuses passwords. Not the reckless or the untrained. Everyone including, if we are honest, a fair number of people in our own profession. For years, our industry's response to this has been some version of finger-wagging. Use unique passwords, make them longer, add a symbol and change them every 90 days. Do not write them down.

For years, we described phishing as an email problem: an attacker writes a convincing message, sends it to thousands of people and waits for someone to click. That model is now outdated. Microsoft’s disruption of YAM Store, CoGUI and Iron Man exposed something much larger: a cloud-based impersonation industry.

A phishing campaign is targeting YouTubers with phony sponsorship offers, according to researchers at ESET. The emails are personalized to each target, making specific references to their channels, and are designed to trick users into granting access to their Google accounts. “One such recent campaign impersonates Hollyland, a legitimate manufacturer of wireless transmission and audiovisual equipment,” ESET says.

In part one of this NIS2 series, we examined why vendor questionnaires fall short and how third-party breaches impact downstream organizations across Europe. But what happens after a supplier containment phase ends? The long-term danger lies in how attackers leverage exfiltrated supplier data to launch hyper-targeted social engineering attacks against an organization’s employees. A supply chain incident does not end when a service provider detects, contains, or recovers from an attack.

91% of Americans have been targeted by a scam, and 17% have fallen victim to one, according to a new survey by Consumer Reports. Notably, 20% of respondents said the latest scam they encountered was personalized, indicating that attackers are increasingly using automation and public or leaked information to craft targeted phishing attacks.

The above was a quote from a young South African responder to our survey on cybercrime perceptions. Notice what's missing: there is no villain, underground or dark web. Just a skill, a community and a sense of finally being good at something. That is the picture that emerges from Crime or Career? Youth voices on cybercrime across the Global South, our new report developed in cooperation with the Global South Cyber Academies Network (CAN).