Threat Beat

Skip to content SPECIAL THREATS TO CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN IRAN CONFLICT | READ MORE → Downtown Dallas (Pixabay) By • Sep 09, 2026 Iranian hackers who recently took credit for an array of attacks on U.S. water systems claimed that they were behind an AT&T outage across major Texas cities on Monday and vowed to “intensify” critical infrastructure attacks in the run-up to Friday’s 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces struck three Iranian crude oil carriers, Sept. 5, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched ballistic missiles toward two U.S. Navy warships patrolling regional waters.

(Adrian Swancar / Unsplash) By Li Yuan • Sep 08, 2026 The Chinese Communist Party has spent years trying to make “positive energy” the dominant mood of the country’s internet. Online platforms, it dictates, should amplify narratives of economic achievement, gratitude toward the party and confidence in China’s future. Discontent has occasionally erupted after disasters, scandals or particularly brutal government actions. But something feels different lately. The pessimism is persistent.

By Roque Ruiz, Daniel Kiss and Emma Brown • Sep 08, 2026 NATO airspace in Europe is now an active front line. Almost every week this summer brought new reports of drone incursions over the alliance’s eastern frontier and North Atlantic Treaty Organization jets mobilized to shoot them down. In total, 16 NATO countries have reported airspace violations by drones — or found remnants of drones — in their territory over the past two years.

(Florian Wehde / Unsplash) By Daryna Antoniuk • Sep 08, 2026 German authorities are investigating another trove of data stolen from Berlin’s government network after hackers published login credentials and other information over the weekend. The latest release follows a cyberattack discovered in mid-August that compromised two Berlin ministries responsible for urban development and housing, and for transport, mobility, climate protection and the environment.

By Alessandro Mascellino • Sep 08, 2026 The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned that employees using unapproved AI tools can expose corporate data and create security risks that organizations may struggle to detect and manage. The NCSC blog post, published on September 7, said shadow AI was likely to persist as employees adopted new services faster than organizations could assess them and provide approved alternatives.

By Dustin Volz • Sep 08, 2026 A small team of researchers at Calif, a security company based in Palo Alto, Calif., recently built a hacking tool in a little more than a week that could run roughshod across WeChat, the social media and messaging platform ubiquitous in China. “This bug is exceptional,” said Thai Duong, the chief executive of Calif, which says it builds hacking tools not to sell them but to bolster cyberdefense.

By Ax Sharma • Sep 08, 2026 An Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) database holding more than 220 million passenger and crew records, including passport numbers and flight details, was accessible online through a chain of security misconfigurations. The system appears linked to a Vietnamese organization, according to the researchers who discovered it.

By Eduardo Baptista • Sep 08, 2026 At the World Humanoid Robot Games in China last month, robots jumped, boxed and danced. Some fleet-footed bots ran faster than Usain Bolt over 100 meters. Spectators cheered the machines’ improving capabilities and their meme-worthy stumbles. Two days after the Games ended, the People’s Liberation Army’s official newspaper drew its own conclusions from the show.

Utah Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer Nate Kruse, cyber warfare technician assigned to the 174th Cyber Protection Team, analyzes data from a cyber attack during Exercise Wolverine at Roland R. Wright Air National Guard Base, April, 30, 2026. (Utah National Guard photo by Sgt.