Author: HackWatchit

In brief Musk’s X Corp. and xAI claim Apple’s exclusive ChatGPT integration gives OpenAI “billions of user prompts” while completely blocking competitors. The lawsuit accuses Apple of manipulating App Store rankings to favor ChatGPT despite Grok ranking second in “Productivity.” Xai and X Corp. are seeking billions in damages and court orders to end the exclusive arrangement. Elon Musk’s X Corp. and xAI filed a federal antitrust lawsuit Monday against Apple and OpenAI, claiming the tech giants entered an exclusive arrangement that blocks competitors from iPhone AI integration while cementing lopsided dominance in the chatbot market.The complaint, filed in the…

Researchers have shown how popular AI systems can be tricked into processing malicious instructions through an indirect prompt injection attack that involves image scaling.  Image scaling attacks against AI are not a new concept, but experts at cybersecurity research and consulting firm Trail of Bits have now shown how the technique can be leveraged against modern AI systems.  AI products, particularly those that can process large images, often automatically downscale an image before sending it to the core AI model for analysis.  Trail of Bits researchers showed how threat actors can create a specially crafted image that contains a hidden…

Researchers have developed a novel attack that steals user data by injecting malicious prompts in images processed by AI systems before delivering them to a large language model. The method relies on full-resolution images that carry instructions invisible to the human eye but become apparent when the image quality is lowered through resampling algorithms. Developed by Trail of Bits researchers Kikimora Morozova and Suha Sabi Hussain, the attack builds upon a theory presented in a 2020 USENIX paper by a German university (TU Braunschweig) exploring the possibility of an image-scaling attack in machine learning. How the attack works When users…

post after a while, and I want to start with something that bit me early on. When I was building and shipping my first Generative AI product, I did what most of us do. I hard-coded the prompts. It worked until it didn’t. Every time I wanted to tweak the tone, improve the wording, or fix a hallucination, it meant pushing code and re-deploying the service. This made fast iteration nearly impossible and left product folks completely out of the loop. Eventually I realised that prompts should be treated like content, not code. What Breaks When Prompts Live in the Code At…

Palo Alto Networks has been named a Leader in the 2025 IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Incident Response Services. Global organizations face increasingly intense cyberattacks that cause millions, or even billions, of dollars in disruption costs. Our 2025 Unit 42 Global Incident Response Report found that 86% of Unit 42 Incident Response investigations involved business disruption. These attacks are not just a financial concern but can also pose significant risks to business continuity, reputation and legal standing. Attackers are beginning to weaponize AI throughout the entire attack chain, from reconnaissance to initial access and discovery. This allows them to operate with…

FortiGuard Labs warns of a global phishing campaign that delivers UpCrypter malware, giving hackers complete control of infected Windows systems and raising serious security concerns. A major new cybersecurity alert has been issued by FortiGuard Labs, the research division of Fortinet, following its discovery of a highly dangerous phishing campaign. The findings from this research were shared with Hackread.com ahead of its publication on August 25, 2025. The attack is designed to trick Microsoft Windows users into unknowingly installing powerful malware that can give hackers complete control over their computers. The campaign, which FortiGuard Labs’ telemetry shows is operating on…

Terry Gerton Benjamin, I want to start with you and with the basics. What is this new maritime cybersecurity rule from the Coast Guard, and what do agencies need to know about it? Benjamin Nashed Sure, so this rule was published back in January of 2025, actually, and it’s kind of a game-changer for U.S.-flagged vessels, outer continental shelf facilities and pretty much everyone regulated under the Maritime Transportation Security Act. And the way it sort of works is, there’s three phases to it. It’s going to happen over the next three years. It begins with sort of a reporting…

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released its initial public draft of NIST SP 1331 ipd – Quick-Start Guide for Using CSF 2.0 to Improve Management of Emerging Cybersecurity Risks. The draft focuses on how organizations can strengthen their ability to anticipate and manage emerging cyber threats by leveraging established risk management practices alongside the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0. It also underscores the need to align these practices with enterprise risk management (ERM), enabling organizations to address potential risks proactively rather than reactively. The publication is the latest in a series of CSF 2.0 quick-start…

Docker fixes critical Desktop flaw allowing container escapes Pierluigi Paganini August 25, 2025 Docker fixed a critical flaw in the Docker Desktop app for Windows and macOS that could potentially allow an attacker to escape the confines of a container. Docker fixed a critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-9074 (CVSS score of 9.3), impacting Docker Desktop app for Windows and macOS. An attacker can exploit the flaw to potentially escape the confines of a container. According to DockerDoc, a malicious container could access the Docker Engine and launch containers without the socket, risking host file access, even with Enhanced Container Isolation (ECI)…