Author: HackWatchit

The U.K.’s thriving £13.2 billion (about US$17.7 billion) cybersecurity sector is set to expand further under the government’s Plan for Change, backed by a new Cyber Growth Action Plan and up to £16 million in funding to fuel innovation and startups. The investment will boost the development of cyber technologies, helping British businesses turn breakthroughs into commercial success.  As part of the new measures, hospitals and energy suppliers are set to boost their cyber defences, protecting public services and safeguarding growth. The government is also ramping up defenses against growing threats, with top cyber experts from defense and big tech…

If features powered by LLMs, you already know how important evaluation is. Getting a model to say something is easy, but figuring out whether it’s saying the right thing is where the real challenge comes. For a handful of test cases, manual review works fine. But once the number of examples grows, hand-checking would quickly become impractical. Instead, you need something scalable. Something automatic. That’s where metrics like BLEU, ROUGE, or METEOR come in. They’re fast and cheap, but they only scratch the surface by examining the token overlapping. Effectively, they tell you whether two texts look similar, not necessarily…

Brian Fehrman (With shout outs to: Kelsey Bellew, Beau Bullock) // In a previous blog post, we talked about bypassing AV and Application Whitelisting by using a method developed by Casey Smith. In a recent engagement, we ran into an environment with even more restrictions in place. Not only did they have AV and Application Whitelisting, but they were also blocking the use of PowerShell and cmd.exe. We have run into a few instances where this was the case. More and more, companies are realizing that normal users don’t need access to cmd.exe, PowerShell, or other cool tools. We feel that these are…

Cybercriminals no longer need zero-day exploits or other vulnerabilities to breach your systems—these days, they just log in. On July 9th at 2:00 PM ET, BleepingComputer and SC Media will co-host a live webinar with identity security expert Darren Siegel of Specops Software (part of Outpost24), exploring how threat actors are increasingly breaching networks by simply logging in with stolen credentials. The webinar “Stolen credentials: The New Front Door to Your Network” will unpack the real-world mechanics behind credential-based attacks and how to stop them before damage is done. Specops Software, part of Outpost24, brings expertise in password security and authentication controls, helping organizations…

What is cybersquatting, and why does it matter? The practice involves registering a domain that copies or closely mimics a real brand or name, usually to cash in on someone else’s work. It can lead to confused site visitors, brand damage, or even scams designed to steal user data. In this guide, we’ll break down what cybersquatting is and when it crosses the line into illegal territory. We’ll also cover four different types of cybersquatting, some real-world cases, and how to avoid them, whether you own a site or just want to browse safely. What is cybersquatting, and when is…

Amazon Linux 2023 (AL2023) has earned FIPS 140-3 Level 1 validation for several of its cryptographic modules. This means it’s now approved for use in systems that need to meet U.S. and Canadian government standards for encryption. FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) 140-3 replaces the older 140-2 version. It sets rules for how cryptographic software and hardware should handle things like encryption, key management, and random number generation. In AL2023, modules such as OpenSSL, the Linux Kernel Crypto API, GnuTLS, NSS, and Libgcrypt are part of the validation process. The Kernel Crypto API is already fully validated, while the others…

A ransomware attack pushed the German napkin firm Fasana into insolvency Pierluigi Paganini June 20, 2025 A cyberattack pushed the German napkin firm Fasana into insolvency, likely worsening existing financial troubles and serving as the final blow. German napkin maker Fasana filed for insolvency after a major cyberattack on May 19 paralyzed its systems, halting over €250K in orders the next day. The napkin factory is located in Stotzheim, Germany, and has 240 employees. The company was forced to halt production and delay May salaries. The German napkin maker is estimated to have lost €2 million in two weeks following…

Online scams are getting worse and more varied. DuckDuckGo knows that, so they’ve made changes. Their built-in Scam Blocker now stops more kinds of scam sites, all without tracking you. How Scam Blocker works (Source: DuckDuckGo) “If you accidentally click a link that would take you to a scam site, DuckDuckGo’s built-in Scam Blocker will stop the page from loading and show you a warning message that allows you to navigate safely away. The DuckDuckGo browser also reduces your malicious ad risk while you browse, blocking tracker-powered ads while before they load,” Peter Dolanjski, Director of Product at DuckDuckGo, explained.…

How can decentralized finance, or DeFi, combine the quest for optimal trading rates with the demand for rapid transaction speeds? 1inch, a prominent DeFi aggregator, has announced its expansion to the Sonic network from Sonic Labs. This integration aims to merge 1inch’s capability to find competitive rates across various decentralized exchanges with Sonic’s focus on high-speed transaction processing. This development is designed to allow users to conduct trades across Sonic and other compatible EVM chains with greater efficiency. The integration means that the Sonic network is now natively supported within the 1inch Wallet and traceable with Portfolio, allowing users to…