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The Justice Department charged 17 Iranian Mabna Institute hackers over $3.4 billion in stolen research as federal agencies warned that attackers now build critical-infrastructure exploits with AI-assisted code.
Latest developments: CareCloud raised its breach toll to 3.7 million patients, Latvia disclosed a theft of records on 1.2 million people that forced official resignations, and Sakura Internet reported intruders reached data on up to 1.36 million accounts.
CareCloud told regulators a hacker who spent eight hours inside one electronic health record environment exposed data on 3,756,469 patients, far above an initial 350,000 estimate; Latvia's road traffic agency lost records on two-thirds of the country's population; and Japan's Sakura Internet exposed data on up to 1.36 million accounts through its sales management system.
Sources: BleepingComputer · The Record · The Record · BleepingComputer · ↑ top
Latest developments: The Justice Department unsealed charges against 17 alleged Mabna Institute hackers tied to the Iranian government, and the State Department offered $10 million bounties on five of them.
The Justice Department indicted 17 alleged members of Iran's Mabna Institute, a hacking-for-hire firm, accusing them of stealing $3.4 billion in intellectual property from dozens of US universities and breaching email accounts at federal agencies.
Sources: BleepingComputer · SecurityWeek · The Record · ↑ top
Latest developments: The NSA and FBI said the campaign behind CISA advisory AA26-231A leans on AI-assisted development to generate the scripts that exploit known Siemens S7 flaws.
The NSA, FBI, CISA, and partner agencies warn that threat actors exploit Siemens S7 series programmable logic controllers running US critical infrastructure, and caution that the targeting reaches PLCs beyond Siemens; operators should inventory S7 devices and apply the advisory's mitigations.
Sources: The Record · BleepingComputer · CISA Advisories · ↑ top
Latest developments: Researchers detailed SilkParasite, a previously unreported espionage operation that wields seven remote access tool families, five documented for the first time, against Central Asian governments.
SilkParasite, a Chinese-nexus group researchers link to FamousSparrow, spear-phishes government bodies across Central Asia and deploys seven RAT families, including five new ones: DriveSilkRAT, CookiETagRAT, NomadRAT, GoginRAT, and NodeEdgeRAT.
Sources: Dark Reading · The Hacker News · ↑ top
Latest developments: Hunt.io disclosed Operation CameraSwarm, a 35-day campaign that compromised more than 14,530 Dahua IP cameras, reconstructed from a 407 MB exposed attacker working directory.
Attackers hijacked more than 14,530 Dahua IP cameras between June 17 and July 22, 2026, mostly in Ukraine and Russia, using credential attacks, two authentication-bypass flaws, and a peer-to-peer relay technique; camera owners should reset credentials and patch firmware.
Sources: BleepingComputer · The Hacker News · ↑ top
Latest developments: CISA formally added the MLflow flaw CVE-2026-64849 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, a day after researchers reported active scanning, and SANS observed probes hunting the cloud metadata endpoint the bug abuses.
CISA cataloged CVE-2026-64849, a server-side request forgery flaw in the open-source MLflow AI platform, as actively exploited; attackers use such flaws to reach the cloud metadata service at 169.254.169.254 and steal IAM role credentials and service account tokens.
Sources: CISA Advisories · SANS Internet Storm Center · ↑ top
Latest developments: The Treasury Department said August 19 it would ramp up buybacks of longer-dated bonds; yields dove and stocks rose as Washington moved to calm a market where borrowing costs had hit their highest in nearly two decades.
Long-dated Treasury yields had climbed to almost twenty-year highs on debt and inflation worries, and federal debt crossed $40 trillion the same week; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled Washington's willingness to intervene in the market that anchors global borrowing costs.
Sources: FT Markets · WSJ Markets · FT Markets · ↑ top
Latest developments: The Federal Reserve released minutes August 19 from its July meeting showing 'many' FOMC members thought a rate increase would soon be warranted if inflation stays elevated.
With July consumer prices up 3.4% year over year, the Federal Open Market Committee expressed rising concern over persistent inflation and a readiness to raise borrowing costs, a hawkish tilt for a Fed under Chairman Kevin Warsh.
Sources: FT World · FT World · ↑ top
Tonight: Chance Showers And Thunderstorms, low 64F.
Thursday: Patchy Fog, high 78F.
Thursday Night: Slight Chance Showers And Thunderstorms then Areas Of Fog, low 60F.
Latest developments: UPMC surgeons have begun using a newly FDA-approved artificial iris implant to restore normal vision for patients whose irises were destroyed by traumatic eye injuries.
Injuries from baseball, hockey, lacrosse, tennis, and squash can shatter the eye's iris; UPMC ophthalmologists now implant the recently approved device to rebuild sight for those patients.
Latest developments: The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission added a new diamond interchange connecting the turnpike and State Route 981 in Mount Pleasant Township to its 2026-27 capital plan, ending years of discussion.
The interchange in Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, aims to lift connectivity and economic development in the area; a separately proposed interchange in Penn Township remains on pause.
Latest developments: Cranberry Township, Butler County, holds a special election to fill a vacant Pennsylvania House seat, pitting Democrat Brandon Dukes against Republican Scott Timko.
The contest decides who represents Cranberry Township in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, filling a seat left open in the closely watched chamber.
Latest developments: The Westmoreland County Transit Authority board votes Thursday, August 20, on a nearly 25% fare increase for its Go Westmoreland shared-ride program.
The shared-ride service carries seniors and residents on social-service benefits across Westmoreland County, and the proposed increase would raise their fares by almost a quarter.
Latest developments: The National Weather Service confirmed August 19 an EF-0 tornado in the Orchard Hills section of Kiski Township, Armstrong County, the 30th tornado of 2026 in its coverage area and a new annual record.
The 85-mph EF-0 from Sunday's storms pushed the NWS Pittsburgh office—which covers western Pennsylvania and parts of eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia—past its previous record of 29 tornadoes in a single year.
Sources: KDKA · TribLive · ↑ top
Latest developments: The Post-Gazette reported August 19 that young quarterbacks Will Howard and Drew Allar will take center stage in Friday's preseason game against the New York Jets.
With Aaron Rodgers and the veterans expected to rest, the Steelers hand extended reps to Will Howard and Drew Allar, the young passers Mike McCarthy is evaluating behind them.
Sources: Post-Gazette Steelers · ↑ top
Latest developments: ESPN reported the United States will enter next month's Under-20 Women's World Cup without several of its biggest age-eligible stars.
The U.S. under-20 women aim for their first Under-20 Women's World Cup title since 2012, a run complicated by the absence of several of their top age-eligible players.
Sources: ESPN Soccer · ↑ top
Latest developments: United States forward Haji Wright will miss up to 12 weeks with a quad injury, ESPN reported, a major blow to newly promoted Coventry City.
Wright, a U.S. men's national team striker, tore up his schedule with a quad injury as Coventry City returns to the Premier League, an absence that could stretch to three months.
Sources: ESPN Soccer · ↑ top
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