================================================================ INFOSECFOLLOW -- security, markets, business, pittsburgh Saturday, October 3, 2026 - 8:05 AM EDT ================================================================ Fortra rushed out fixes for an authentication bypass in BoKS as fresh backdoors arrived dressed as Zoom and Asian mail security appliances, and Meta's Muse turned its users' contact lists into profiles. CONTENTS: Emerging Trends and Key Updates | Security | Business and Politics | Pittsburgh | Sports | Reading | Markets | Feed Health EMERGING TRENDS AND KEY UPDATES ---------------------------------------------------------------- * [TREND] A counterfeit Zoom installer dropping CloudSyncD and Linux implants mimicking mail appliances arrive as Fortra patches a BoKS authentication bypass, pressing teams to verify every trusted gatekeeper. see: Backdoors Pose as Zoom and Mail Security Appliances; Fortra BoKS Patches Close an Authentication Bypass * [TREND] Meta's Muse profiles friends and family of people who never installed it, while Jason Del Rey frames agentic shopping as Amazon versus Walmart and Newport wants labs investigated. see: Meta's Muse Profiles the People Around You; An Interview with Jason Del Rey About Muse, Amazon, and Walmart; It’s Time to Investigate the AI Labs * [UPDATE (new)] The new N0n extortion crew keeps stacking claimed victims on its leak site as a judge dismissed El Faro journalists' Pegasus suit for lack of California jurisdiction. see: N0n Extortion Gang Fills Its Leak Site; Judge Throws Out the El Faro Pegasus Suit * [UPDATE (new)] British 30-year gilt yields topped 6% and French bond bets soured as Beijing opened an anti-dumping case on EU chemicals and trimmed Xi's schedule with Trump. see: The Bond Rout Reaches Gilts and French Debt; Beijing Opens an Anti-Dumping Case on European Chemicals; Xi's Rest Breaks Shortened the Trump Summit * [UPDATE (new)] Allegheny County mail ballot requests surged after the Supreme Court ruling, Pitt began testing a breast cancer vaccine, and Carnegie Mellon weighed Ken Griffin's $3 billion gift. see: Mail Ballot Requests Surge in Allegheny County; Pitt Tests a Breast Cancer Vaccine; Carnegie Mellon Weighs Griffin's $3 Billion * [UPDATE (new)] Mauricio Pochettino named Tyler Adams captain for the new World Cup cycle days before the United States faces Mexico in Glendale with Gilberto Mora cleared to play. see: Tyler Adams Takes the Captaincy; The United States Meets Mexico in Glendale SECURITY ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. META'S MUSE PROFILES THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU AI Security · [ai, privacy] Latest developments: Wired reported on October 3, 2026 that Meta's Muse assistant, which millions of people have downloaded, builds detailed profiles of a user's friends and family as the price of carrying out their requests, a day after Apple rewrote full-disk access permissions to curb what AI agents reach over Meta's argument that the permission alone does not let Muse read messages, and 404 Media reported that human workers handle some of what Muse appears to do on its own. Muse needs broad device access to act for its user, and that access sweeps in contacts, messages, and files describing people who never agreed to anything. Review which agents hold full-disk access on corporate Macs, and treat an assistant's permission grant as a disclosure of everyone in the address book. - Wired Security: https://www.wired.com/story/muse-creates-detailed-profiles-of-all-your-friends-and-family/ - Ars Technica Security: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/apple-changes-full-disk-access-permissions-to-curb-abuse-from-ai-agents/ - 404 Media: https://www.404media.co/podcast-the-fbi-was-hacked-weve-seen-the-data/ 2. FORTRA BOKS PATCHES CLOSE AN AUTHENTICATION BYPASS Vulnerabilities and Exploits · [patch, vulnerability, banking] Latest developments: Fortra shipped fixes on October 3, 2026 for critical vulnerabilities in BoKS, its access control software for Unix and Linux servers, that carry an attacker from authentication bypass to shell command execution and memory corruption, and Dark Reading warned on October 2, 2026 that middleware banks and government agencies run alongside SWIFT messaging allows remote code execution that reaches hardware-based multifactor authentication. BoKS centralizes administrator logins and privilege across Unix and Linux estates, so a bypass there hands over the accounts that manage everything else. Patch BoKS and the SWIFT-adjacent middleware now, and audit administrator sessions created before the fix. - SecurityWeek: https://www.securityweek.com/fortra-patches-critical-vulnerabilities-in-boks/ - Dark Reading: https://www.darkreading.com/cybersecurity-operations/swift-banking-govt-middleware-rce 3. N0N EXTORTION GANG FILLS ITS LEAK SITE Ransomware and Cybercrime · [ransomware, extortion] Latest developments: Graham Cluley reported on October 3, 2026 that N0n, an extortion crew that surfaced in the middle of September 2026 and posted about a dozen claimed victims on its dark web leak site within days of appearing, keeps adding to that tally. N0n runs the familiar steal-and-publish model, naming organizations on a leak site to force payment. Treat it as an active double-extortion threat, and check offline backups and data exfiltration monitoring against the fast ramp new brands manage in their first weeks. - Graham Cluley: https://www.fortra.com/blog/n0n-ransomware-what-you-need-know 4. BACKDOORS POSE AS ZOOM AND MAIL SECURITY APPLIANCES Ransomware and Cybercrime · [malware, macos, linux] Latest developments: SecurityWeek reported on October 2, 2026 that a counterfeit Zoom installer plants a macOS backdoor called CloudSyncD, with the dropper carrying a complete universal Mach-O binary inside itself, roughly 756 kilobytes in the development build, and extracting it at runtime, and Dark Reading described three newly discovered Linux backdoors built to look and behave like legitimate Asian mail security products. Both campaigns borrow the appearance of software people install deliberately, one a videoconferencing client and the other an email security appliance, which buys the operators time on the host. Restrict Mac users to installers from zoom.us, and verify the provenance and file hashes of mail gateway images before deployment. - SecurityWeek: https://www.securityweek.com/macos-users-targeted-by-fake-zoom-installer-carrying-cloudsyncd-backdoor/ - Dark Reading: https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/malicious-linux-implants-mimic-asian-mail-security 5. JUDGE THROWS OUT THE EL FARO PEGASUS SUIT Policy and Regulation · [spyware, policy] Latest developments: A judge dismissed the spyware suit brought by journalists at El Faro, the independent Salvadoran news outlet, on October 2, 2026, ruling that the plaintiffs failed to establish jurisdiction in California over the targeting of their phones with Pegasus, the NSO Group spyware. The El Faro reporters sued in the United States after forensic analysis found Pegasus on their phones, and the order ends the case on venue grounds without reaching the surveillance claims. Journalists and nongovernmental organizations relying on American courts for redress against commercial spyware lose a route with this ruling. - The Record: https://therecord.media/judge-dismisses-spyware-case-brought-by-salvadoran-journalists BUSINESS AND POLITICS ---------------------------------------------------------------- * The Bond Rout Reaches Gilts and French Debt Latest developments: British 30-year gilt yields passed 6% for the first time since 1998, pulling retail buyers into government paper, and the Wall Street Journal laid out Saturday, October 3, how hedge funds' leveraged summer bets on French bonds backfired. Government borrowing costs keep climbing in the United States, Britain, and the euro area, and the Financial Times' run through the most-cited causes finds no single explanation behind the move. Its Europe Express newsletter reports the sell-off has made France's budget the defining issue of the country's politics and a test for the far right, while the gap between French and German yields sits at a multiyear high. - FT World: https://www.ft.com/content/f212d7b9-95e0-4aa0-84bf-4df7b43bc80a?syn-25a6b1a6=1 - WSJ Markets: https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/how-the-french-bond-trade-backfired-on-investors-4f2aba71?mod=rss_markets_main - FT World: https://www.ft.com/content/17a502a2-f8cb-4d79-996e-f2c7018585de?syn-25a6b1a6=1 - FT World: https://www.ft.com/content/dbe6ccee-e8db-442e-ac0e-210ca74eb5c4?syn-25a6b1a6=1 * Beijing Opens an Anti-Dumping Case on European Chemicals Latest developments: China launched an anti-dumping investigation Saturday, October 3, into chemical exports from the European Union. The probe answers three similar investigations the European Union opened last week, and it widens the tit-for-tat between Beijing and Brussels into one of Europe's largest export industries. - FT Home: https://www.ft.com/content/bae0af94-f42d-47d1-a1a8-fab608e75a72?syn-25a6b1a6=1 * Xi's Rest Breaks Shortened the Trump Summit Latest developments: The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, October 3, that Beijing pared back the schedule and insisted on private downtime for Xi Jinping, cutting hours out of China's leader's meetings with President Trump. Xi, 73, runs a government that settled none of the trade standoff during the state visit, and Washington and Beijing have agreed to two further meetings. The accommodations his aides demanded put the stamina of China's top decision-maker in front of foreign governments and investors. - WSJ World News: https://www.wsj.com/world/china/xi-jinping-health-caf250f1?mod=rss_worldnews - WSJ US Business: https://www.wsj.com/articles/xis-rest-breaks-cut-into-his-summit-with-trump-ed9f8d6c?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f PITTSBURGH ---------------------------------------------------------------- Weather: Today: Sunny, high 69F. Tonight: Partly Cloudy, low 56F. Sunday: Mostly Cloudy, high 72F. Business: * Arnold Palmer Regional Airport Courts Three Carriers Latest developments: TribLive reported Saturday, October 3, that Allegiant Air, Breeze Airways, and Frontier Airlines head the list of carriers the airport is pursuing for its new gate. Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity, Westmoreland County, finished a $22 million expansion that built an additional gate, and rows of chairs there sit empty while the airport recruits an airline to use it. - TribLive: https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/allegiant-breeze-frontier-eyed-as-potential-carriers-for-palmer-airport/ * Carnegie Mellon Weighs Griffin's $3 Billion Latest developments: The Post-Gazette gathered reaction from Carnegie Mellon University students and professors Saturday, October 3, to Ken Griffin's $3 billion gift and the Miami campus it pays for. Citadel founder Ken Griffin's donation sends $1 billion to Carnegie Mellon's Pittsburgh campus, with the balance launching a new campus in Miami. The split leaves faculty and students in Oakland assessing how much of the money reaches computer science and other Pittsburgh priorities the university has yet to name. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2026/10/03/carnegie-mellon-cmu-griffin-miami-3-billion-gift-reaction-students-professors/stories/202610020074 * A Manufacturing Lab Opens at Westmoreland County Community College Latest developments: TribLive reported Saturday, October 3, that an advanced manufacturing lab has opened at Westmoreland County Community College near Youngwood. The lab puts computer-controlled machining equipment in front of students, among it a machine that cuts precision drill-bit holes in aluminum cylinders, and the college aims the training at machining jobs regional employers need filled now and in the years ahead. - TribLive: https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/wccc-advanced-manufacturing-lab-training-for-jobs-needed-now-and-in-future/ Around town: * Mail Ballot Requests Surge in Allegheny County Latest developments: TribLive reported Saturday, October 3, that mail-in ballot requests in Allegheny County have jumped since the United States Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration's push to overhaul mail-voting rules for this election. Pennsylvania votes November 3, and the Supreme Court's order leaves the state's existing mail-voting rules in force. Allegheny County's elections division now processes a rising volume of requests five weeks before the midterm. - TribLive: https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/allegheny-county-mail-ballot-requests-up-since-supreme-court-blocked-trump-restrictions/ * Pitt Tests a Breast Cancer Vaccine Latest developments: TribLive reported Saturday, October 3, that University of Pittsburgh and UPMC researchers have begun testing a vaccine designed to stop some breast cancers before they turn invasive. The experimental vaccine targets early disease, and the Pitt and UPMC team wants to halt the cancer at the stage before it spreads. Success would change screening and prevention for patients across Western Pennsylvania. - TribLive: https://triblive.com/news/health-now/pitt-upmc-researchers-test-vaccine-aimed-at-preventing-invasive-breast-cancer/ * The Allegheny County Belt System Faces an Uncertain Future Latest developments: TribLive traced the history and the murky future of the Allegheny County Belt System on Saturday, October 3, finding Jeff Mrvos among its last devoted users. The belt system routes drivers around Pittsburgh on existing county and state roads, marked by color-coded signs that date to the postwar decades. Maintenance of the signs and the public's reliance on them have both faded as drivers follow phone navigation instead. - TribLive: https://triblive.com/local/the-past-present-and-murky-future-of-the-allegheny-county-road-belt-system/ Events: * Trundle Manor Shows Its Oddities in Swissvale Latest developments: TribLive's Offbeat Pittsburgh column profiled Trundle Manor on Saturday, October 3, as the Halloween season opens. Trundle Manor is the house museum of oddities that Anton Raphael Miriello and Rachel Rech keep in their Swissvale home, a collection TribLive describes as an Addams Family influence made real, and the two met when Rech accepted Miriello's invitation to see it. - TribLive: https://triblive.com/local/offbeat-pittsburgh-welcome-to-trundle-manor-a-real-life-addams-family-influenced-museum/ SPORTS ---------------------------------------------------------------- Steelers (2-2) Up Next · Colts @ Steelers · Sun Oct 11, 1:00 PM https://plaintextsports.com/nfl/2026/week5/ind-pit Penguins (1-0-0) Up Next · Canadiens @ Penguins · Sat Oct 3, 7:00 PM https://plaintextsports.com/nhl/2026-10-03/mtl-pit Around the Teams: * The Steelers Corners Inherit Porter's Job Latest developments: The Post-Gazette wrote Saturday, October 3, that rookie Daylen Everette and the rest of the Steelers' cornerbacks must now embrace the assignment Joey Porter Jr. leaves behind. The Steelers traded Porter to the Dallas Cowboys for two draft picks on October 1, days after he sat out a fourth straight game, and the secondary then gave up the winning drive in Cleveland on Thursday night. Everette, a rookie whom head coach Mike McCarthy has pushed into the rotation, draws the largest share of the work that remains. - Post-Gazette Steelers: https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2026/10/03/steelers-secondary-without-joey-porter/stories/202610030015 Team USA: * Tyler Adams Takes the Captaincy Latest developments: Coach Mauricio Pochettino announced Friday, October 2, that Tyler Adams will captain the United States men's national team for the new World Cup cycle. Adams, the holding midfielder who wore the armband at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, now leads a squad Pochettino has rebuilt around teenagers and debutants since the 2026 tournament, with the 2030 World Cup as the target. - ESPN Soccer: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/50086892/tyler-adams-usa-captain-mauricio-pochettino-world-cup * The United States Meets Mexico in Glendale Latest developments: Mexico coach Rafa Marquez confirmed Friday, October 2, that the teenage forward Gilberto Mora has cleared his injury and can play against the United States on Saturday, October 3, in Glendale, Arizona. Mauricio Pochettino's young United States side, which beat Peru 4-1 and Chile 4-2 over the past week, faces an El Tri team that Marquez took over as head coach and that leans on veterans. ESPN frames the match as the first measure of which approach serves its country better through the 2030 World Cup cycle. - ESPN Soccer: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/50087555/mexico-coach-marquez-gil-mora-eligible-rivalry-clash-usa - ESPN Soccer: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/50068589/who-better-prepared-2030-world-cup-cycle-usa-mexico READING ---------------------------------------------------------------- * Ed Zitron -- Premium: How Has AI Changed The Economy? Zitron attacks the Wall Street Journal's chart of artificial intelligence's potential share of gross domestic product, arguing that stretching the measure from 2025 to 2032 turns mostly projection into apparent fact, and he asks what the technology has actually changed in the economy so far. https://www.wheresyoured.at/premium-how-has-ai-changed-the-economy/ * Stratechery -- An Interview with Jason Del Rey About Muse, Amazon, and Walmart Ben Thompson and Jason Del Rey treat Meta's Muse assistant and its move into shopping as the newest front in retail's oldest fight, Amazon against Walmart, and they weigh how each company's distribution advantages carry into agent-driven commerce. https://stratechery.com/2026/an-interview-with-jason-del-rey-about-muse-amazon-and-walmart/ * Cal Newport -- It’s Time to Investigate the AI Labs Newport catalogs what he calls brazen behavior by the two leading frontier artificial intelligence labs over recent months, starting with a run of carefully staged announcements, and he argues the conduct now warrants formal investigation. https://calnewport.com/its-time-to-investigate-the-ai-labs/ MARKETS (weekly average, change vs prior week) ---------------------------------------------------------------- S&P 500 7,679.05 ▼ -0.7% Dow 51,168.20 ▼ -1.1% Nasdaq 26,908.29 ▼ -0.6% WTI crude 91.28 ▼ -2.8% EUR/USD 1.1310 ▼ -0.9% GBP/USD 1.3238 ▼ -0.3% USD/JPY 157.54 ▼ -0.2% FEED HEALTH ---------------------------------------------------------------- Security: 24 of 24 feeds loaded, 37 items in the 24-hour window. No recent items: Krebs on Security, SANS Internet Storm Center, CISA Advisories, Securelist (Kaspersky), Sophos News, Unit 42 (Palo Alto), Google Online Security Blog, Cisco Talos, Microsoft Security Blog, Google Project Zero, The DFIR Report, Kim Zetter (Zero Day), Frank on Fraud. Pittsburgh: 9 of 9 feeds loaded, 60 items in the 48-hour window. Business and Politics: 8 of 8 feeds loaded, 60 items in the 36-hour window. Events: 4 of 4 feeds loaded, 13 items in the 120-hour window. Sports media: 6 of 6 feeds loaded, 30 items in the 96-hour window. Team USA: 3 of 3 feeds loaded, 27 items in the 72-hour window. Reading: 3 of 3 feeds loaded, 12 items in the 336-hour window. Markets (Yahoo Finance): 7 of 7 rows Weather (NWS): 3 forecast periods Scores (ESPN, plaintextsports): 2 teams via ESPN Summaries: 3 model call(s) served by claude-opus-5 (308s of model time; $1.69 at API list price). ================================================================ Generated 2026-10-03 08:05 EDT. Updated weekdays at about 7:05 AM, 10:05 AM, 1:35 PM, and 7:35 PM ET, and weekends at about 8:05 AM and 7:35 PM ET. Sources: 24 security feeds; 9 Pittsburgh feeds; 4 Pittsburgh arts and events feeds; 6 Pittsburgh sports beat and podcast feeds; 3 Team USA feeds; WSJ World News, WSJ Markets, WSJ US Business, WSJ Politics, The Economist, FT Home, FT World, FT Markets; and Ed Zitron, Stratechery, Cal Newport. Markets from Yahoo Finance, weather from the NWS, scores from ESPN or plaintextsports.com. Summaries are AI-generated from the linked reporting; verify at the sources. ================================================================