#cyberattacks

#cyberattacks

2025 has been a transformative year for cybersecurity, with emerging technologies and evolving threats changing the landscape as we once knew it. Reflecting on the year, there are several trends that come to my mind, both good and bad. Organizations prepared for a quantum future, foreign adversaries and cybercriminals alike made strategic moves, and industries as a whole found themselves targeted with waves of cyberattacks (such as the case with the retail sector).

The Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russian embassy in Thailand also did not respond to requests for comment, but Russia's consul general in Phuket, Yegor Ivanov, told Russian state news agency Tass that the consulate had "received notification of the arrest of a Russian citizen on charges of committing an information technology crime." "He was arrested on November 6 and transferred to Bangkok that same day," Ivanov said, without providing further details.

Russian tanks rolled toward the borders of Georgia, the battle had already begun-shaped decisively by large-scale cyberattacks and cognitive warfare. Weeks before the first shots, cyberspace erupted with coordinated attacks crippling Georgian government and media websites, including distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and defacements. Simultaneously, state-controlled and aligned media saturated both domestic and international audiences with fabricated narratives portraying Georgian aggression, warnings of impending genocide in South Ossetia, and accusations blaming the U.S. for encouraging Georgian belligerence through NATO membership promises.

Cloudflare's latest internet disruptions report reads like a global disaster log, with exam-related shutdowns, natural calamities, stray bullets, and even a Starlink software failure all taking chunks out of global connectivity. In its Q3 2025 internet disruption summary, the content delivery network said it observed "a wide variety of known causes" for global outages between July and September - from government-directed shutdowns in Sudan, Syria, and Iraq to cable cuts in Angola, Haiti, and the United Arab Emirates, along with power failures, cyberattacks, and natural disasters.

OpenAI has intensified its efforts to combat the misuse of artificial intelligence. In a new report, the company reveals that it has dismantled several international networks in recent months that were using its models for cyberattacks, scams, and political influence. The analysis shows how malicious actors are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their use of AI, while OpenAI is simultaneously expanding its defense mechanisms.

A juvenile suspected of being involved in cyberattacks against multiple Las Vegas casinos was arrested last week, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced. The attacks were attributed to the infamous hacking group Scattered Spider, and the FBI, which took over the investigation, identified a teenage male as a suspect. The unnamed teenager, the Las Vegas police say, surrendered to the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center on September 17, and was booked on identity theft, extortion, and computer intrusion charges.

There's too much potential for devastating losses, and loss in power is too significant and unpredictable. Look at what Russia is facing just in its efforts against Ukraine.

Iran is now in the midst of a near-total national internet blackout, indicating significant disruptions amid ongoing military conflicts.