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Transparent Tribe Launches New RAT Attacks Against Indian Government and Academia

The threat actor known as Transparent Tribe has been attributed to a fresh set of attacks targeting Indian governmental, academic, and strategic entities with a remote access trojan (RAT) that grants them persistent control over compromised hosts.

“The campaign employs deceptive delivery techniques, including a weaponized Windows shortcut (LNK) file masquerading as a legitimate PDF document and embedded with full PDF content to evade user suspicion,” CYFIRMA said in a technical report.

Transparent Tribe, also called APT36, is a hacking group that’s known for mounting cyber espionage campaigns against Indian organizations. Assessed to be of Indian origin, the state-sponsored adversary has been active since at least 2013.

Cybercriminals Abuse Google Cloud Email Feature in Multi-Stage Phishing Campaign

In response to the findings, Google has blocked the phishing efforts that abuse the email notification feature within Google Cloud Application Integration, adding that it’s taking more steps to prevent further misuse.

Check Point’s analysis has revealed that the campaign has primarily targeted manufacturing, technology, financial, professional services, and retail sectors, although other industry verticals, including media, education, healthcare, energy, government, travel, and transportation, have been singled out.

“These sectors commonly rely on automated notifications, shared documents, and permission-based workflows, making Google-branded alerts especially convincing,” it added. “This campaign highlights how attackers can misuse legitimate cloud automation and workflow features to distribute phishing at scale without traditional spoofing.”

Glacier loss to accelerate, with up to 4,000 disappearing each year by 2050s

Thousands of glaciers will vanish each year in the coming decades, leaving only a fraction standing by the end of the century unless global warming is curbed, a study showed on Monday.

Government action on climate change could determine whether the world loses 2,000 or 4,000 glaciers annually by the middle of the century, according to the research.

A few degrees could be the difference between preserving almost half of the world’s glaciers in 2100—or fewer than 10%.

AI model uses social media posts to predict unemployment rates ahead of official data

Social media posts about unemployment can predict official jobless claims up to two weeks before government data is released, according to a study. Unemployment can be tough, and people often post about it online.

Researcher Sam Fraiberger and colleagues recently developed an artificial intelligence model that identifies unemployment disclosures on social media. The work is published in the journal PNAS Nexus.

Data from 31.5 million Twitter users posting between 2020 and 2022 was used to train a transformer-based classifier called JoblessBERT to detect unemployment-related posts, even those that featured slang or misspellings, such as “I needa job!” The authors used demographic adjustments to account for Twitter’s non-representative user base, then forecast US unemployment insurance claims at national, state, and city levels.

Technological Disruption: Strategic Inflection Points From 2026

By Chuck Brooks

Quantum Computing and the Dismantling of Cryptographic Foundations Quantum technology may be the most transformative long-term influence on the horizon. Although large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers may remain years from realization, their expected influence is already transforming cybersecurity strategies. As quantum technology advances, the risk of “harvest now, decrypt later” assaults suggests that today’s encrypted sensitive data could become vulnerable in the future.

From 2026 to 2030, enterprises will increasingly recognize that cryptographic agility is vital. The move to post-quantum cryptography standards means that old systems, especially those in critical infrastructure, financial services, and government networks, need to be fully inventoried, evaluated, and upgraded.

AI-based tool predicts future cardiovascular events in patients with angina

Reduced coronary blood flow, measured with an artificial intelligence-based imaging tool, predicted future cardiovascular events in patients with suspected stable coronary artery disease. These findings were presented at EACVI 2025, the congress of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI).

Stable coronary artery disease (CAD) refers to the common syndrome of recurrent, transient episodes of chest symptoms, often manifesting as angina. Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is a noninvasive heart scan that is used as the first-line investigation for patients with suspected stable CAD.

AI tools and FFR-CT explained While CCTA clearly shows blockages in coronary arteries, it is limited in its ability to estimate reduced blood flow, which is necessary to diagnose angina. An artificial intelligence-based tool has been developed that analyzes CCTA images and provides an estimate of blood flow, termed CT-derived fractional flow reserve (FFR-CT).

Advancing Computers to Think Like Humans: Neuromorphic Meshing Explained

#neuromorphic #computing #futuretech

By Chuck Brooks, Skytop Contributor / December 3, 2025

Chuck Brooks serves as President and Consultant of Brooks Consulting International. Chuck also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in the Cyber Risk Management Program, where he teaches graduate courses on risk management, homeland security, and cybersecurity.

Chuck has received numerous global accolades for his work and promotion of cybersecurity. Recently, he was named the top cybersecurity expert to follow on social media, and also as one top cybersecurity leaders for 2024. He has also been named “Cybersecurity Person of the Year” by Cyber Express, Cybersecurity Marketer of the Year, and a “Top 5 Tech Person to Follow” by LinkedIn” where he has 120,000 followers on his profile.

As a thought leader, blogger, and event speaker, he has briefed the G20 on energy cybersecurity, The US Embassy to the Holy See, and the Vatican on global cybersecurity cooperation. He has served on two National Academy of Science Advisory groups, including one on digitalizing the USAF, and another on securing BioTech. He has also addressed USTRANSCOM on cybersecurity and serves on an industry/government Working group for DHS CISA focused on security space systems.

AI Bathroom Monitors? Welcome To America’s New Surveillance High Schools

This isn’t a high-security government facility. It’s Beverly Hills High School.

District superintendent Alex Cherniss says the striking array of surveillance tools is a necessity, and one that ensures the safety of his students. “We are in the hub of an urban setting of Los Angeles, in one of the most recognizable cities on the planet. So we are always a target and that means our kids are a target and our staff are a target,” he said. In the 2024–2025 fiscal year, the district spent $4.8 million on security, including staff. The surveillance system spots multiple threats per day, the district said.

Beverly Hills’ apparatus might seem extreme, but it’s not an outlier. Across the U.S., schools are rolling out similar surveillance systems they hope will keep them free of the horrific and unceasing tide of mass shootings. There have been 49 deaths from gunfire on school property this year. In 2024, there were 59, and in 2023 there were 45, per Everytown for Gun Safety. Between 2000 and 2,022,131 people were killed and 197 wounded at schools in the U.S., most of them children. Given those appalling metrics, allocating a portion of your budget to state of the art AI-powered safety and surveillance tools is a relatively easy decision.

Inside SpaceX’s Pre-IPO Share Buyback and Who Gets Access

SpaceX is preparing for a potential IPO by buying back shares from institutional holders and allowing existing shareholders to sell shares, while its affiliate company Tesla is making progress in autonomous driving technology with plans to launch robo-taxis in multiple cities ## Questions to inspire discussion.

SpaceX Investment Access.

🔐 Q: How can individual investors access SpaceX shares before the IPO?

A: Investors must be accredited with liquid net worth over $1M (excluding home) and can access shares through special purpose vehicles (SPVs) that charge upfront fees and 10% carry on returns.

💰 Q: What is the minimum investment required to buy SpaceX shares directly?

A: Direct SpaceX share purchases require $50M-$1B investments due to SEC’s 2,000 shareholder cap for private companies, making SPVs the only option for smaller investors.

Continue reading “Inside SpaceX’s Pre-IPO Share Buyback and Who Gets Access” | >

Russia-Linked Hackers Use Microsoft 365 Device Code Phishing for Account Takeovers

A suspected Russia-aligned group has been attributed to a phishing campaign that employs device code authentication workflows to steal victims’ Microsoft 365 credentials and conduct account takeover attacks.

The activity, ongoing since September 2025, is being tracked by Proofpoint under the moniker UNK_AcademicFlare.

The attacks involve using compromised email addresses belonging to government and military organizations to strike entities within government, think tanks, higher education, and transportation sectors in the U.S. and Europe.

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