Author: HackWatchit

Picture this: You’ve just arrived at a bustling airport, exhausted from your journey but excited for your vacation. While waiting for your connecting flight, you pull out your phone to share that first travel selfie or check your hotel reservation. You spot the airport’s free Wi-Fi network and connect without a second thought. What you don’t realize is that you may have just handed cybercriminals the keys to your digital life.  Tourist hotspots—airports, hotels, cafes, and popular destinations have become hunting grounds for hackers who exploit the very convenience that makes these locations attractive to travelers. The combination of rushed…

The federal government faces a huge challenge when it comes to federal identity management. Since the creation of the first smart card initiative 30 years ago, threats have increased and the country’s digital identity infrastructure has fallen behind private industry while spending an increasing amount on security efforts. Federal identity efforts are highly disconnected from the security employed in state government and industry. This disconnect has shown itself in the growing impact of suspicious activity tied to identity theft. In 2023, there were $400 billion in suspicious banking transactions, an increase from $212 billion in 2021, and pandemic-era unemployment fraud…

In my last article, we dove into Google’s Titans — a model that pushes the boundaries of long-context recall by introducing a dynamic memory module that adapts on the fly, kind of like how our own memory works. It’s a strange paradox. We have AI that can analyze a 10-million-word document, yet it still fumbles questions like: “How many ‘r’s are in the word strawberry?” The problem isn’t the AI’s brain; it’s the eyes. The first step in how these models read, tokenization, essentially pre-processes language for them. In doing so, it strips away the rich, messy details of how…

A new INTERPOL report has sounded the alarm over a dramatic increase in cybercrime across Africa, with digital crime now accounting for a significant proportional of all criminal activity across the continent.The report, published this week, paints a sobering picture with two-thirds of surveyed African countries reporting that cybercrime represents a medium-to-high proportion of their total reported crime.In parts of Western and Eastern Africa, that proportion has skyrocketed, reaching or exceeding 30%. The most reported cyber threats – according to the report – are online scams, ransomware, business email compromise, and digital sextortion, with suspected scam notifications rising an eye-opening 3000%…

I don’t know how I got there, but a few days ago I found myself looking at an article on the new “features” that Microsoft has implemented for BitLocker on Windows 10.  The most noteworthy of the features that really captured my attention was that there is a new group policy for configuring pre-boot recovery. I know that doesn’t sound all that exciting by itself, but if you combine that with another feature introduced in Windows 8 where the OS drive can now be encrypted without a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) and even without a USB drive; you have a recipe…

Google Cloud has donated its Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol to the Linux Foundation, which has now announced a new community-driven project called the Agent2Agent Project. A2A was originally developed by Google Cloud as a protocol specification, SDK, and tooling set that made communication between AI agents possible. The protocol allows AI agents from different vendors to discover each other, share capabilities and context, and securely collaborate on complex tasks. AI agents are AI-powered tools like chatbots, coding aids, autonomous agents, etc. With the AI ecosystem evolving rapidly and more agents sprouting from different sources, the need for interoperability and seamless cross-service…

The National Security Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published on Tuesday a joint cybersecurity information sheet underscoring the urgent need to adopt memory safe programming languages to strengthen software security and reduce vulnerability risks. Memory safety is fundamental to secure software development and must be part of any comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. Shifting to memory safe languages offers a direct path to reducing exploitable flaws and improving overall software resilience. Titled ‘Memory Safe Languages: Reducing Vulnerabilities in Modern Software Development,’ the new guidance stresses that improving national cybersecurity requires more than developer discipline or coding best practices.…

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a highly advanced malware campaign targeting WordPress websites, capable of stealing credit card details, user logins, and even profiling victims. Discovered on May 16, 2025, by the Wordfence Threat Intelligence Team, this malware is packaged as a deceptive WordPress plugin and uses never-before-seen anti-detection methods. A particularly innovative tactic involves hosting a live management system directly on the infected websites, making it harder to spot. A Long-Running and Growing Threat This sophisticated operation has been active since at least September 2023, reveals Wordfence’s official blog post. Researchers analyzed over 20 samples of the malware, revealing shared…

What is a bait and switch scam, and what are the signs of one? It all starts with a tempting offer, a cheap laptop, a freebie in an ad, or a major discount. But once you’re drawn in, the deal disappears, and you’re led to a worse or pricier option. It’s not just deceptive; it’s illegal. These scams often appear in online shopping, car sales, phone plans, and other areas. But once you know what to watch for, they’re easy to avoid. Below, we’ll go over examples, the laws that ban this tactic, and how to protect yourself or pursue…