Meta was granted a patent in late December that describes how a large language model could be trained on a deceased user's historical activity -- their comments, likes, and posted content -- to keep their social media accounts active after they're gone. Andrew Bosworth, Meta's CTO, is listed as the primary author of the patent, first filed in 2023. The AI clone could like and comment on posts, respond to DMs, and even simulate video or audio calls on the user's behalf. A Meta spokesperson told Business Insider the company has "no plans to move forward" with the technology.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A survey of 512 cybersecurity professionals finds 76% report that over half (54%) of the security incidents that occurred in the past 12 months involved some issue relating to identity management. Conducted by Permiso Security, a provider of an identity security platform, the survey also finds 95% are either very confident (52%) or somewhat confident..

The post Survey: Most Security Incidents Involve Identity Attacks appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Check Point is rolling out a new four-pillar cybersecurity strategy to give security teams an edge in the ongoing AI arms race with threat actors and is making three acquisitions that will play a critical role in getting it going.

The post Check Point Unveils a New Security Strategy for Enterprises in the AI Age appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Pressure is mounting on tech companies to shield users from unlawful government requests that advocates say are making it harder to reliably share information about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) online.

Alleging that ICE officers are being doxed or otherwise endangered, Trump officials have spent the last year targeting an unknown number of users and platforms with demands to censor content. Early lawsuits show that platforms have caved, even though experts say they could refuse these demands without a court order.

In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) accused Attorney General Pam Bondi and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of coercing tech companies into removing a wide range of content "to control what the public can see, hear, or say about ICE operations."

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This article explores the complexities of cyberwarfare, emphasizing the need to reconsider how we categorize cyber operations within the framework of the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC). It discusses the challenges posed by AI in transforming traditional warfare notions and highlights the potential risks associated with the misuse of emerging technologies in conflicts.

The post The Law of Cyberwar is Pretty Discombobulated appeared first on Security Boulevard.

AI is giving online romance scammers even more ways to hide and accelerate their schemes while making it more difficult for people to detect fraud operations that are resulting in billions of dollars being stolen every year from millions of victims.

The post AI is Supercharging Romance Scams with Deepfakes and Bots appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Meta is facing two trials over child safety allegations in California and New Mexico. The lawsuits are landmark cases, marking the first time that any such accusations have reached a jury. Although over 40 state attorneys general have filed suits about child safety issues with social media, none had gone to trial until now.

The New Mexico case, filed by Attorney General Raúl Torrez in December 2023, centers on child sexual exploitation. Torrez’s team built their evidence by posing as children online and documenting what happened next, in the form of sexual solicitations. The team brought the suit under New Mexico’s Unfair Trade Practices Act, a consumer protection statute that prosecutors argue sidesteps Section 230 protections.

The most damaging material in the trial, which is expected to run seven weeks, may be Meta’s own paperwork. Newly unsealed internal documents revealed that a company safety researcher had warned about the sheer scale of the problem, claiming that around half a million cases of child exploitation are happening daily. Torrez did not mince words about what he believes the platform has become, calling it an online marketplace for human trafficking. From the complaint:

“Meta’s platforms Facebook and Instagram are a breeding ground for predators who target children for human trafficking, the distribution of sexual images, grooming, and solicitation.”

The complaint’s emphasis on weak age verification touches on a broader issue regulators around the world are now grappling with: how platforms verify the age of their youngest users—and how easily those systems can be bypassed.

In our own research into children’s social media accounts, we found that creating underage profiles can be surprisingly straightforward. In some cases, minimal checks or self-declared birthdates were enough to access full accounts. We also identified loopholes that could allow children to encounter content they shouldn’t or make it easier for adults with bad intentions to find them.

The social media and VR giant has pushed back hard, calling the state’s investigation ethically compromised and accusing prosecutors of cherry-picking data. Defence attorney Kevin Huff argued that the company disclosed its risks rather than concealing them.

Yesterday, Stanford psychiatrist Dr. Anna Lembke told the court she believes Meta’s design features are addictive and that the company has been using the term “Problematic Internet Use” internally to avoid acknowledging addiction.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, a separate bellwether case against Meta and Google opened on Monday. A 20-year-old woman identified only as KGM is at the center of the case. She alleges that YouTube and Instagram hooked her from childhood. She testified that she was watching YouTube at six, on Instagram by nine, and suffered from worsening depression and body dysmorphia. Her case, which TikTok and Snap settled before trial, is the first of more than 2,400 personal injury filings consolidated in the proceeding. Plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Lanier called it a case about:

“two of the richest corporations in history, who have engineered addiction in children’s brains.”

A litany of allegations

None of this appeared from nowhere. In 2021, whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked internal Facebook documents showing the company knew its platforms damaged teenage mental health. In 2023, Meta whistleblower Arturo Béjar testified before the Senate that the company ignored sexual endangerment of children.

Unredacted documents unsealed in the New Mexico case in early 2024 suggested something uglier still: that the company had actively marketed messaging platforms to children while suppressing safety features that weren’t considered profitable. Internal employees sounded alarms for years but executives reportedly chose growth, according to New Mexico AG Raúl Torrez. Last September, whistleblowers said that the company had ignored child sexual abuse in virtual reality environments.

Outside the courtroom, governments around the world are moving faster than the US Congress. Australia banned under 16s from social media in December 2025, becoming the first country to do so. France’s National Assembly followed, approving a ban on social media for under 15s in January by 130 votes to 21. Spain announced its own under 16 ban this month. By last count, at least 15 European governments were considering similar measures. Whether any of these bans will actually work is uncertain, particularly as young users openly discuss ways to bypass controls.

The United States, by contrast, has passed exactly one major federal child online safety law: the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), in 1998. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), introduced in 2022, passed the Senate 91-3 in mid-2024 then stalled in the House. It was reintroduced last May and has yet to reach a floor vote. States have tried to fill the gap, with 18 proposed similar legislation in 2025, but only one of those was enacted (in Nebraska). A comprehensive federal framework remains nowhere in sight.

On its most recent earnings call, Meta acknowledged it could face material financial losses this year. The pressure is no longer theoretical. The juries in Santa Fe and Los Angeles will now weigh whether the company’s design choices and safety measures crossed legal lines.

If you want to understand how social media platforms can expose children to harmful content—and what parents can realistically do about it—check out our research project on social media safety.

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We don’t just report on threats – we help protect your social media

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your social media accounts by using Malwarebytes Identity Theft Protection.

Meta Platforms' latest annual report contained an unusual, cautionary note for investors. From a report: The tech giant's auditor, Ernst & Young, raised a red flag over the financial engineering Meta used to keep a $27 billion data-center project off its balance sheet. While EY ultimately blessed Meta's accounting treatment, the firm flagged it as a "critical audit matter." This means it was one of the hardest, riskiest judgments the auditor had to make. Such a warning label is rare for a specific, high-profile transaction at a major audit client. Meta moved the data-center project, called Hyperion, off its books in October into a new joint venture with Blue Owl Capital. Meta owns 20% of the venture; funds managed by Blue Owl own the other 80%. A holding company called Beignet Investor, which owns the Blue Owl portion, sold a then-record $27.3 billion of bonds to investors. The joint venture is known in accounting parlance as a variable interest entity, or VIE. Meta said it isn't the "primary beneficiary" of this entity and so didn't have to put the venture's assets and liabilities on its own balance sheet. Meta's assertion that it lacks power over the venture is debatable and has drawn scrutiny from investors and lawmakers. Meta is a hyperscaler and knows how to run data centers for artificial intelligence, while Blue Owl is a financier. Whether the venture succeeds economically will come down to Meta's decisions and know-how. In its report, EY said auditing Meta's decision "was especially challenging due to the significant judgment required in determining the activities that most significantly affect the VIE's economic performance."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Landmark trials now underway allege Meta failed to protect children from sexual exploitation, grooming, and addiction-driven design.

The post Child exploitation, grooming, and social media addiction claims put Meta on trial appeared first on Security Boulevard.

AI is revolutionizing cybersecurity, raising the stakes for CISOs who must balance innovation with risk management. As adversaries leverage AI to enhance attacks, effective cybersecurity requires visibility, adaptive strategies, and leadership alignment at the board level.

The post AI is Rewriting the Rules of Risk: Three Ways CISOs Can Lead the Next Chapter  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The Nancy Guthrie case reveals data retention issues in cloud technology, as investigators recovered footage from a Google Nest camera that should have been deleted, emphasizing the need for stronger cybersecurity measures for IoT devices

The post The FBI Recovered “Deleted” Nest Cam Footage — Here’s Why Every CISO Should Panic appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Darktrace researchers caught a sample of malware that was created by AI and LLMs to exploit the high-profiled React2Shell vulnerability, putting defenders on notice that the technology lets even lesser-skilled hackers create malicious code and build complex exploit frameworks.

The post Hackers Use LLM to Create React2Shell Malware, the Latest Example of AI-Generated Threat appeared first on Security Boulevard.

A global survey of 1,813 IT and cybersecurity professionals finds that despite the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, cybersecurity teams still spend on average 44% of their time on manual or repetitive work. Conducted by Sapio Research on behalf of Tines, a provider of an automation platform, the survey also notes that as..

The post Survey: Widespread Adoption of AI Hasn’t Yet Reduced Cybersecurity Burnout appeared first on Security Boulevard.

A global survey of 4,149 IT and security practitioners finds that while three-quarters (75%) expect a quantum computer will be capable of breaking traditional public key encryption within five years, only 38% at this point in time are preparing to adopt post-quantum cryptography. Conducted by the Ponemon Institute on behalf of Entrust, a provider of..

The post Survey Sees Little Post-Quantum Computing Encryption Progress appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Versa has enhanced its SASE platform by integrating text analysis and optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities to better identify sensitive data and improve cybersecurity. The updates aim to provide deeper insights for teams dealing with AI-related data risks, reduce false positives, and enable effective incident response through AI-driven alert correlation.

The post Versa SASE Platform Now Prevents Sensitive Data From Being Shared With AI appeared first on Security Boulevard.

This article examines the widespread collection of personal data and the legal challenges individuals face from third-party subpoenas. It discusses key court rulings on government access to personal information and highlights the complexities of data privacy in the digital age.

The post How the Supreme Court’s “Third Party” Subpoena Doctrine Empowers Governments to Seize Sensitive Information Without Your Knowledge appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Cloud security titan Zscaler Inc. has acquired SquareX, a pioneer in browser-based threat protection, in an apparent move to step away from traditional, clunky security hardware and toward a seamless, browser-native defense. The acquisition, which did not include financial terms, integrates SquareX’s browser detection and response technology into Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange platform. Unlike traditional..

The post Zscaler Bolsters Zero-Trust Arsenal with Acquisition of Browser Security Firm SquareX appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The cybersecurity landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift as chief information security officers (CISOs) shift their 2026 budgets to artificial intelligence (AI) and realign traditional defense strategies. Nearly 80% of senior security executives are prioritizing AI-driven solutions to counter increasingly sophisticated threats, a new report from Glilot Capital Partners reveals. The survey, which polled leaders..

The post AI Revolution Reshapes CISO Spending for 2026: Security Leaders Prioritize Defense Automation appeared first on Security Boulevard.

LayerX researchers say that a security in Anthropic's Claude Desktop Extensions can be exploited to allow threat actors to place a RCE vulnerability into Google Calendar, the latest report to highlight the risks that come with giving AI models with full system privileges unfettered access to sensitive data.

The post Flaw in Anthropic Claude Extensions Can Lead to RCE in Google Calendar: LayerX appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Threat actors using LLMs needed only eight minutes to move from initial access to full admin privileges in an attack on a company's AWS cloud environment in the latest example of cybercriminals expanding their use of AI in their operations, Sysdig researchers said.

The post Attackers Used AI to Breach an AWS Environment in 8 Minutes appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Microsoft has released LiteBox, an experimental open-source library OS designed to sandbox applications while reducing their exposure to host systems. Written in Rust and published under the MIT license, LiteBox reflects the company’s efforts to upgrade software security as confidential computing gains adoption. LiteBox takes a different path from traditional virtualization or container technologies. Rather..

The post Microsoft Unveils LiteBox, a Rust-Based Approach to Secure Sandboxing appeared first on Security Boulevard.

There is a time window for every act of online fraud. When a transaction occurs, a fraud system must review it and decide if it’s legitimate before the payment clears or if the account could be compromised. That window happens in a blink, often one-tenth of a second or less. During that time, models must..

The post Fraud Prevention Is a Latency Game appeared first on Security Boulevard.

In 2026 stolen credentials and unmanaged machine identities drive breaches—small buys, phone scams, and weak IAM make identity the real perimeter; prioritize inventory, least privilege, and stronger auth.

The post Why Attackers no Longer Need to Break in: The Rise of Identity-Based Attacks  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

By 2026 humans remain cybersecurity’s weakest—and most vital—link as AI-enabled social engineering rises; prioritize behavioral design, real‑time interventions, and leadership.

The post The Human Layer of Security: Why People are Still the Weakest Link in 2026  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Start PQC pilots now—not to prove readiness but to surface interoperability, vendor, inventory, and skills gaps so organizations can manage post-quantum migration risks.

The post Your PQC Pilot Might Fail, and That’s Okay  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Alan discovers how the Super Bowl acts as a live-fire exercise in cybersecurity, requiring seamless coordination to manage massive attack surfaces and ensure integrity and trust in real time.

The post The Other Offense and Defense appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Unit 42 researchers say an Asian threat group behind what they call the Shadow Campaigns has targeted government agencies in 37 countries in a wide-ranging global cyberespionage campaign that has involved phishing attacks and the exploitation of a more than a dozen known vulnerabilities.

The post Threat Group Running Espionage Operations Against Dozens of Governments appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Orchid Security today added an ability to conduct audits to its platform that enables cybersecurity teams to track behaviors of specific identities. Company CEO Roy Katmor said Identity Audit is designed to make it possible to unify proprietary audit data captured from unmanaged applications with audit logs data collected from third-party identity and access management..

The post Orchid Security Adds Ability to Audit Behaviors by Identity appeared first on Security Boulevard.

As the enterprise world shifts from chatbots to autonomous systems, Operant AI on Thursday launched Agent Protector, a real-time security solution designed to govern and shield artificial intelligence (AI) agents. The launch comes at a critical inflection point for corporate technology. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2026, 40% of enterprise applications will feature..

The post Operant AI’s Agent Protector Aims to Secure Rising Tide of Autonomous AI appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Action depends on truth. Truth is hard to come by. There’s an old trope: “You can’t protect what you can’t see.” This burning need for total visibility has led to an abundance of security data across every domain. But abundance doesn’t equal clarity. One tool says a device is patched, another says it’s vulnerable. HR..

The post Asset Intelligence as Context Engineering for Cybersecurity Operations appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Permission sprawl is colliding with AI regulations, creating new compliance risks across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The post The Compliance Convergence Challenge: Permission Sprawl and AI Regulations in Hybrid Environments appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Securing AI agents can’t fall on customers. Platform providers must own data protection, prompt injection defense and agent guardrails.

The post Securing Agents Isn’t the Customer’s Job, It’s the Platform’s appeared first on Security Boulevard.

There’s an old joke in enterprise tech: IT giveth, and security taketh away. At its best, IT exists to empower people – to give employees faster, better, smarter tools to do their jobs. As we know no good deed goes unpunished, though, and security inevitably shows up afterward to clean up the risk created by..

The post IT Gives, Security Takes Away, and Configuration Drift Is the Hidden Cost appeared first on Security Boulevard.

It is the artificial intelligence (AI) assistant that users love and security experts fear. OpenClaw, the agentic AI platform created by Peter Steinberger, is tearing through the tech world, promising a level of automation that legacy chatbots like ChatGPT can’t match. But as cloud giants rush to host it, industry analysts are issuing a blunt..

The post The ‘Absolute Nightmare’ in Your DMs: OpenClaw Marries Extreme Utility with ‘Unacceptable’ Risk appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The chatbot era has ended. For two years, we’ve interacted with digital assistants that summarize emails and suggest recipes, but the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) now draws a definitive line between machines that talk and machines that act. Their newly released Request for Information (RFI) signals a fundamental paradigm shift in how..

The post Beyond the Chatbot: Why NIST is Rewriting the Rules for Autonomous AI appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Hospitals are adopting Gen AI across EHR workflows, but hallucinations, bias, and weak governance pose real patient safety risks.

The post How Hospitals’ Use of GenAI is Putting Patients at Risk Without Realizing It appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Cybersecurity shouldn’t block mission outcomes. Cross Domain Solutions show how secure data access enables speed, trust and better decisions.

The post Rebrand Cybersecurity from “Dr. No” to “Let’s Go” appeared first on Security Boulevard.

In the rapidly changing landscape of cybersecurity, AI agents present both opportunities and challenges. This article examines the findings from Darktrace’s 2026 State of AI Cybersecurity Report, highlighting the benefits of AI in enhancing security measures while addressing concerns regarding AI-driven threats and the need for responsible governance.

The post Navigating the AI Revolution in Cybersecurity: Risks, Rewards, and Evolving Roles appeared first on Security Boulevard.

A massive “invisible workforce” of autonomous digital workers has arrived in the corporate world, but new research suggests it may be operating largely out of control. Large enterprises across the U.S. and UK have already deployed 3 million AI agents, according to a study released by Gravitee, an open-source leader in API and agentic management...

The post The ‘Invisible Risk’: 1.5 Million Unmonitored AI Agents Threaten Corporate Security appeared first on Security Boulevard.

French authorities raided the Paris office of X and summonsed Elon Musk to France for question regarding nonconsensual and sexually suggestive deepfakes generated by xAI's chatbot and posted to X as the global firestorm surrounding them escalates.

The post French Police Raid X Paris Office, Summon Musk Over Grok Deepfakes appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Explore the transformative role of self-healing AI in cybersecurity. This article delves into its integration within DevSecOps, the balance between AI autonomy and human oversight, industry applications, and the challenges of implementation in protecting complex digital environments.

The post Self-Healing AI for Security as Code: A Deep Dive Into Autonomy and Reliability  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The influence of Chinese money laundering networks has skyrocketed since 2020, with the operations now moving almost 20% of all illicit cryptocurrency being laundered last year, according to Chainalysis researchers. In 2025, they processed more than $16 billion, or about $44 million a day.

The post Fast-Growing Chinese Crime Networks Launder 20% of Illicit Crypto: Chainalysis appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The rise of artificial intelligence has rendered portions of your current cybersecurity playbook obsolete. Unless Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) act quickly to reorient their thinking, they may be unaware of and unprepared to face emerging AI-related threats. Learn how to secure your organization’s AI usage and ensure implementation won’t have negative consequences. The Serious..

The post Reorient Your Thinking to Tackle AI Security Risks appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Several threat clusters are using vishing in extortion campaigns that include tactics that are consistent with those used by high-profile threat group ShinyHunters. They are stealing SSO and MFA credentials to access companies' environments and steal data from cloud applications, according to Mandiant researchers.

The post ShinyHunters Leads Surge in Vishing Attacks to Steal SaaS Data appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The BreachForums marketplace has suffered a leak, exposing the identities of nearly 324,000 cybercriminals. This incident highlights a critical shift in cyberattacks, creating opportunities for law enforcement while demonstrating the risks associated with breaches in the cybercriminal ecosystem.

The post BreachForums Breach Exposes Names of 324K Cybercriminals, Upends the Threat Intel Game appeared first on Security Boulevard.

A “scary” vulnerability in Broadcom Wi-Fi chipsets could lead to long-term instability and affect how an organization operates.

The post Flaw in Broadcom Wi-Fi Chipsets Illuminates Importance of Wireless Dependability and Business Continuity  appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Explore StrongestLayer's threat intelligence report highlighting the rise of email security threats exploiting trusted platforms like DocuSign and Google Calendar. Learn how organizations can adapt to defend against these evolving cyber risks.

The post StrongestLayer: Top ‘Trusted’ Platforms are Key Attack Surfaces appeared first on Security Boulevard.

ReversingLabs this week published a report that finds there was a 73% increase in the number of malicious open source packages discovered in 2025 compared with the previous year. More than 10,000 malicious open source packages were discovered, most of which involved node package managers (npms) that cybercriminals were using to compromise software supply chains...

The post Report: Open Source Malware Instances Increased 73% in 2025 appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Meta plans to test exclusive features that will be incorporated in paid versions of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It confirmed these plans to TechCrunch.

But these plans are not to be confused with the ad-free subscription options that Meta introduced for Facebook and Instagram in the EU, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland in late 2023 and framed as a way to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Digital Markets Act requirements.

From November 2023, users in those regions could either keep using the services for free with personalized ads or pay a monthly fee for an ad‑free experience. European rules require Meta to get users’ consent in order to show them targeted ads, so this was an obvious attempt to recoup advertising revenue when users declined to give that consent.

This year, users in the UK were given the same choice: use Meta’s products for free or subscribe to use them without ads. But only grudgingly, judging by the tone in the offer… “As part of laws in your region, you have a choice.”

That ad-free option, however, is not what Meta is talking about now.

The newly announced plans are not about ads, and they are also separate from Meta Verified, which starts at around $15 a month and focuses on creators and businesses, offering a verification badge, better support, and anti‑impersonation protection.

Instead, these new subscriptions are likely to focus on additional features—more control over how users share and connect, and possibly tools such as expanded AI capabilities, unlimited audience lists, seeing who you follow that doesn’t follow you back, or viewing stories without the poster knowing it was you.

These examples are unconfirmed. All we know for sure is that Meta plans to test new paid features to see which ones users are willing to pay for and how much they can charge.

Meta has said these features will focus on productivity, creativity, and expanded AI.

My opinion

Unfortunately, this feels like another refusal to listen.

Most of us aren’t asking for more AI in our feeds. We’re asking for a basic sense of control: control over who sees us, what’s tracked about us, and how our data is used to feed an algorithm designed to keep us scrolling.

Users shouldn’t have to choose between being mined for behavioral data or paying a monthly fee just to be left alone. The message baked into “pay or be profiled” is that privacy is now a luxury good, not a default right. But while regulators keep saying the model is unlawful, the experience on the ground still nudges people toward the path of least resistance: accept the tracking and move on.

Even then, this level of choice is only available to users in Europe.

Why not offer the same option to users in the US? Or will it take stronger US privacy regulation to make that happen?

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We don’t just report on threats – we help protect your social media

Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your social media accounts by using Malwarebytes Identity Theft Protection.

MIND extends its data loss prevention platform to secure agentic AI, enabling organizations to discover, monitor, and govern AI agents in real time to prevent sensitive data exposure, shadow AI risks, and prompt injection attacks.

The post MIND Extends DLP Reach to AI Agents appeared first on Security Boulevard.