PCWorld reports that Google's Threat Intelligence Group documented state-sponsored hackers from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran exploiting Gemini AI for cyberattacks. These malicious actors leverage Gemini's capabilities for surveillance, target identification, vulnerability discovery, and debugging exploit code, including developing WinRAR exploits. Google restricts access for identified bad actors, but the report highlights AI's dual-use nature and emerging cybersecurity challenges. "AI" systems aren't just great for raising the price of your electronics, giving you wrong search results, and filling up your social media feed with slop.

AI coding platform's flaws allow BBC reporter to be hacked The BBC has been shown a significant - and unfixed - cyber-security risk in a popular AI coding platform. Orchids is a so-called vibe-coding tool, meaning people without technical skills can use it to build apps and games by typing a text prompt into a chatbot. Such platforms have exploded in popularity in recent months, and are often heralded as an early example of how various professional services could be done quickly and cheaply by AI. But experts say the ease with which Orchids can be hacked demonstrates the risks of allowing AI bots deep access to our computers in exchange for the convenience of allowing them to carry out tasks autonomously. The BBC has repeatedly asked the company for comment but it has not replied.

Suspected Chinese state-backed hackers hijacked the Notepadd++ update infrastructure to deliver a backdoored version of the popular free source code editor and note-taking app for Windows. Infrastructure delivering updates for Notepad++--a widely used text editor for Windows--was compromised for six months by suspected China-state hackers who used their control to deliver backdoored versions of the app to select targets, developers said Monday. "I deeply apologize to all users affected by this hijacking," the author of a post published to the official notepad-plus-plus.org The post said that the attack began last June with an "infrastructure-level compromise that allowed malicious actors to intercept and redirect update traffic destined for notepad-plus-plus.org." The attackers, whom multiple investigators tied to the Chinese government, then selectively redirected certain targeted users to malicious update servers where they received backdoored updates.

Security News This Week: Jeffrey Epstein Had a'Personal Hacker,' Informant Claims Plus: AI agent OpenClaw gives cybersecurity experts the willies, China executes 11 scam compound bosses, a $40 million crypto theft has an unexpected alleged culprit, and more. As the standoff between the United States government and Minnesota continues this week over immigration enforcement operations that have essentially occupied the Twin Cities and other parts of the state, a federal judge delayed a decision this week and ordered a new briefing on whether the Department of Homeland Security is using armed raids to pressure Minnesota into abandoning its sanctuary policies for immigrants. Meanwhile, minutes after a federal immigration officer shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last Saturday, Trump administration officials and right-wing influencers had already mounted a smear campaign, calling Pretti a "terrorist" and a "lunatic ." As part of its surveillance dragnet, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been using an AI-powered Palantir system since last spring to summarize tips sent to its tip line, according to a newly released Homeland Security document. DHS immigration agents have also been using the now notorious face recognition app Mobile Fortify to scan the faces of countless people in the US--including many citizens .

Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini Google said it provided its hardware partners with recommended fixes in September. Google told Engadget its affected Pixel Buds are already patched. Now would be a good time to update all your Bluetooth audio devices. On Thursday, reported on a security flaw in 17 headphone and speaker models that could allow hackers to access your devices, including their microphones. The vulnerability stems from a faulty implementation of Google's one-tap (Fast Pair) protocol .

Ubisoft, one of the world's largest games developers, says it's working to fix an apparent hack on popular online shooter Rainbow Six Siege. Servers for the tactical multiplayer game were taken offline on Saturday and Sunday after in-game currency thought to be worth millions of pounds was distributed to players. The company has since restored service, but suspended the game's marketplace until further notice and warned players they may face queues when trying to log on. In a statement on X, Ubisoft said it would continue to make investigations and corrections over the next two weeks. Rainbow Six Siege, commonly referred to as R6, has been a success story for Ubisoft, which is also behind the Assassin's Creed and Far Cry series.

The names of two partial owners of firms linked to the Salt Typhoon hacker group also appeared in records for a Cisco training program--years before the group targeted Cisco's devices in a spy campaign. Cisco's Networking Academy, a global training program designed to educate IT students in the basics of IT networks and cybersecurity, proudly touts its accessibility to participants around the world: "We believe education can be the ultimate equalizer, enabling anyone, regardless of background, to develop expertise and shape their destiny in a digital era," reads the first line on its website. That laudable statement, however, reads a bit differently when the "destiny" of those students appears to be owning a majority stake in companies linked to one of the most successful Chinese state-sponsored hacking operations ever to target the West--and many of Cisco's own products . That's the surprising conclusion of Dakota Cary, a researcher at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne and the Atlantic Council, who, like many security analysts, has closely tracked the Chinese state-sponsored hacker group known as Salt Typhoon . That cyberespionage group gained notoriety last year when it was revealed that the hackers had penetrated at least nine telecom companies and gained the ability to spy on Americans' real-time calls and texts, specifically targeting then-presidential and vice presidential candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance, among many others.

Cybersecurity was already a nightmare. Listen to more stories on the Noa app. Earlier this fall, a team of security experts at the AI company Anthropic uncovered an elaborate cyber-espionage scheme. Hackers--strongly suspected by Anthropic to be working on behalf of the Chinese government--targeted government agencies and large corporations around the world. And it appears that they used Anthropic's own AI product, Claude Code, to do most of the work.

Plus: State-sponsored AI hacking is here, Google hosts a CBP face recognition app, and more of the week's top security news. The United States issued a seizure warrant to Starlink this week related to satellite internet infrastructure used in a scam compound in Myanmar. The action is part of a larger US law enforcement interagency initiative announced this week called the District of Columbia Scam Center Strike Force. Meanwhile, Google moved this week to sue 25 people that it alleges are behind a "staggering" and "relentless" scam text operation that uses a notorious phishing-as-a-service platform called Lighthouse. WIRED reported this week that the US Department of Homeland Security collected data on Chicago residents accused of gang ties to test if police files could feed an FBI watchlist--and then, crucially, kept the records for months in violation of domestic espionage rules .

The makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Claude claim to have caught hackers sponsored by the Chinese government using the tool to perform automated cyber attacks against around 30 global organisations. Anthropic said hackers tricked the chatbot into carrying out automated tasks under the guise of carrying out cyber security research. The company claimed in a blog post this was the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign. But sceptics are questioning the accuracy of that claim - and the motive behind it. Anthropic said it discovered the hacking attempts in mid-September.