Author: HackWatchit

Photo by Jeffrey Workman on Unsplash First, let’s define the scope of the challenge: Imagine that we want to track the growth in your customer base over time. We create a measure to count customers based on their first order, identifying new customers for each month. But now, we want to create a visualization of this measure with a waterfall visual, and we get something like this: Figure 1 – Initial Waterfall chart in Excel (Figure by the Author) But we need something more. We need the initial value, which is the customer count as of the end of the…

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have announced more than $100 million in grant funding to help states, tribes, and local governments bolster their cybersecurity defenses. The grants will play a critical role in enhancing cybersecurity resilience by providing resources to strengthen network security and reduce cyber risks.  The Notice of Funding Opportunity is made up of two separate grants – the Fiscal Year 2025 State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP) and the Tribal Cybersecurity Grant Program (TCGP). The SLCGP makes $91.7 million available to state and local governments for…

 Microsoft faces ongoing, systemic cybersecurity failures rooted in blind spots within its very organizational design. These vulnerabilities repeatedly result in serious product blunders and damaging breaches. This has once again become evident with the continuing Microsoft Recall debacle where an OS feature was not developed with the benefit of security design inputs, that took into account user or attacker behaviors, and a patchwork of controls had to be overlaid to shore up exploitable capabilities. The Microsoft Recall feature, when first announced by company executives, was roasted by the cybersecurity and privacy communities as being seriously dangerous to the users. Recall…

Chainlink has introduced a new product called Data Streams, which delivers live pricing data for major US equities and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) directly onto blockchain networks.According to an Aug. 4 statement, Data Streams is designed to offer live, low-latency data on major US stocks and ETFs, including popular assets like SPY, QQQ, NVDA, AAPL, and MSFT.These data streams are now live across 37 blockchain networks, enabling the creation of innovative use-cases such as tokenized stock trading, perpetual futures, and synthetic ETFs.Chainlink’s data streamData Streams aggregate real-time data from multiple primary and backup sources to ensure continuous uptime. This information is…

The conversation around the UK’s Online Safety Act has transformed over the past week. Since it came into force last Friday (25th July 2025), there has been a lot of public outcry, including a petition, which was signed by over 400,000 people, calling for The Act to be scrapped altogether. The UK government has since rejected this idea, with no sign of backing down. In parallel, consumers have scrambled to find work arounds. VPN usage spiked in the UK, with sign-ups to one service surging by more than 1400%. Many are also calling into question the security of the organisations…

Amazon has begun offering used vehicles through its Amazon Autos platform, starting with Hyundai dealers in Los Angeles.  Consumers can now browse, compare and purchase used and certified preowned Hyundai vehicles directly on Amazon, according to a company blog post on Monday (Aug. 4). More car brands and cities will follow in the coming months. Amazon is offering a 3-day, 300-mile return policy and a minimum 30-day, 1,000-mile limited warranty for used car purchases. All fees will be included in the price, along with vehicle history. Buyers can go to a participating dealer for a test drive.  The program expands…

A new cybercrime campaign, dubbed JSCEAL, is actively targeting people who use cryptocurrency apps, reveals the latest research from security research firm Check Point Research (CPR). The malicious operation, which has been active since at least March 2024, has served more than 35,000 misleading ads in the first half of 2025 alone. Researchers believe the total reach of this campaign is estimated to be around 3.5 million users within the European Union and likely over 10 million users worldwide. The campaign lures victims with fake ads that impersonate almost 50 popular crypto trading apps. When a user clicks on one…

In this Help Net Security interview, Aayush Choudhury, CEO at Scrut Automation, discusses why many security tools built for large enterprises don’t work well for leaner, cloud-native teams. He explains how simplicity, integration, and automation are key for SMBs with limited resources. Choudhry also shares how AI is beginning to make a difference for mid-market companies in managing risk and compliance. What are some specific examples of security tooling or vendor approaches that simply don’t scale down to the needs of leaner, cloud-native teams? One of the biggest challenges for lean, cloud-native teams is the widening cybersecurity skills gap. Hiring,…

The cyber defense community is at a crossroads that is magnified by cyber criminals’ adoption of AI and ransomware-as-a-service. With year-after-year of the IBM Cost of Data Breach report showing the time to discover and contain a breach hovering around 200 days, it’s obvious that AI and ransomware-as-a-service is not fully responsible for current situation. They’ve made a bad situation worse but aren’t solely responsible. With millions of dollars being invested in cyber security platforms, it’s reasonable to ask why is so much still getting through and not being found. The best way to find the answer is to examine…