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Top Targeted Sectors & Attack Trends

Threat Highlights:

• Government/Public: Spike from Cisco firewall exploits; state-backed campaigns confirmed.

• Healthcare: Relatively quiet; ransomware steady, limited new breach disclosures.

• Financial Services: Few visible incidents; regulatory filings lagging from prior breaches.

• Technology & Cloud: Still top target; Red Hat, Intel, and Google AI flaws dominated.

• Industrial/Manufacturing: Slight rise from vendor and supply-chain exposures.

• Ransomware: Broad global spread; EU router and education networks affected.

• Exploits: Still #1 vector; Cisco, Intel, and sudo flaws actively exploited.

• Phishing: Stable overall; retail-focused credential campaigns rising.

CybersecurityHQ: This Week’s Reports Based on Technical Research and Academic Papers

→ Free

1. Session-level identity in AI-driven workflows: The new frontier of enterprise risk 👉 Read the report

→ Pro subscriber-only

1. Enterprise policy for how business units may invoke MCPs 👉 Read the report

2. The rise of “living off the land” attacks in 2025 and how CISOs must retool detection 👉 Read the report

3. Securing the data supply chain in outsourced AI/data services 👉 Read the report

4. The hardware resilience imperative: TEEs and confidential computing strategy for the CISO in 2025 👉 Read the report

And more inside - check out the full list here.

Cybersecurity Stocks

Market Intelligence

The cybersecurity sector ended the week modestly higher, averaging +1.9% (5D), with strength in SaaS-based identity and cloud security leaders offset by lingering softness in consulting and infrastructure-focused names.

Zscaler (+3.1% 5D) and CyberArk (+4.9% 5D) led gains among high-multiple cloud security stocks, supported by sustained enterprise demand for AI-assisted zero trust and privileged access automation. Palo Alto Networks (+5.3% 5D) and Varonis (+5.0% 5D) also rallied on continued optimism around platform consolidation and data security pipelines.

Meanwhile, Gen Digital (-3.1% 5D), Qualys (-1.6% 5D), and Rapid7 (-1.1% 5D) underperformed as investors rotated away from legacy vulnerability and endpoint players. Booz Allen (+0.3% 5D) remained flat amid cost pressures and limited visibility into federal budget allocations.

Year-to-date, Cloudflare (+104%), Zscaler (+74%), and CyberArk (+54%) remain the clear outperformers, reflecting investor appetite for scalable SaaS models and hardware-tied identity security. On the opposite end, Rapid7 (-54%), Tenable (-24%), and Infosys (-24%) continue to struggle amid margin compression and weak guidance.

Forward outlook: Market bifurcation persists — investors continue favoring AI-native and automation-driven security over legacy network vendors. Q3 earnings will hinge on ARR visibility and operating leverage in automation-heavy platforms.

Tactical view: Maintain overweight on ZS, PANW, and CYBR for momentum exposure; watch for potential rebound entries in FTNT and VRNS if broader tech sentiment improves. Avoid mid-cap endpoint and consulting plays until profitability signals stabilize.

Cyber Intel Brief: Key Insights from Leading Security Podcasts

This is what you missed in this week’s Cyber Intel Report sourced from top cybersecurity podcasts and webinars, if you haven’t upgraded your membership: 

• AI-Assisted SOC Operations slash false positives 80% while analyzing 387 incident logs in 4 minutes versus multi-day manual investigation through autonomous threat hunting and behavioral correlation

• Post-Quantum Cryptography hybrid deployment pilots launching Q1 2026 as organizations race against cryptographic collapse timeline with NIST-standardized CRYSTALS-Kyber and Dilithium algorithms

• Continuous Compliance Automation achieves 92% efficiency gains transforming full-day audits into 1-2 hour exercises through pre-mapped controls, automated evidence collection, and real-time gap detection across multiple frameworks

• Zero Trust Micro-Segmentation isolates crown jewel systems with application-layer policies and identity-based access replacing perimeter assumptions as lateral movement becomes primary attack vector

And more insights in this week’s full CISO briefing.

Interesting Read

The Tipping Point: AI Tools Are Now the Primary Exfiltration Vector in the Enterprise
New findings reveal how everyday generative AI use is outpacing all traditional data-loss channels

Recent browser-telemetry analysis from LayerX shows a striking shift in exfiltration behavior: 77% of sensitive data pasted into generative AI tools originates from unmanaged personal accounts, and 40% of uploaded files contain PII or PCI data. The study also found that 67% of AI usage occurs outside enterprise governance, exposing rampant blind spots in workflows that are now doing more damage than phishing or shadow SaaS.

For CISOs and security leaders, the implications are profound:

• Loss before detection: Data leaves the organization through a browser paste flow before existing DLP or CASB solutions even get a chance to engage.

• Governance collapse: Personal accounts, unsanctioned AI tools, and bypassed identity controls now form a porous perimeter.

• New visibility demands: Security metrics must evolve from file transfer counts to prompt-level context, paste flows, and policy triggers.

• Behavioral risk becomes policy risk: The biggest threat may not come from malware—but from someone casually pasting into ChatGPT on their lunch break.

Bottom Line:

For modern CISOs, AI isn’t just a tool—it’s becoming a battleground. As usage accelerates, exfiltration channels move closer to the user’s keyboard than to the network. Those who still treat AI as “emerging” risk discovering too late that the perimeter has already shifted.

→ Read more at BeamStart

Fresh From the Field: Security Resources You Can Use

Social Media Highlights

Stay safe, stay secure.

The CybersecurityHQ Team