NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY AGENCY
Microsoft reports progress in reviving email and other services during a global outage
The outage, which affected a wide range of Microsoft 365 services including Outlook, Teams and AI assistant Copilot, left people, institutions and businesses across the world without access to email and other platforms.
Microsoft struggles to restore services as outage hits companies and governments worldwide
Microsoft's services like Outlook and Teams faced a significant global outage, disrupting operations for numerous users and businesses. Companies from Japan to Australia reported various issues, with Microsoft working urgently to resolve them. Despite some initial restoration of services, problems persisted, affecting email functionalities and productivity. Many governments, including Japan and the Philippines, took steps to ensure communication remained operational amidst the outage.
Microsoft outage disrupts global businesses, government services as recovery efforts falter
A prolonged Microsoft outage disrupted Outlook, Teams and Copilot services worldwide, affecting businesses, airlines and government operations across several countries. More than 130,000 users reported Outlook problems on Downdetector. Microsoft's recovery efforts faced setbacks, while OpenAI and Anthropic also reported connectivity issues involving Microsoft 365 tools.
Help wanted: AI firms court ex-spies as Nvidia drama spotlights security risks
AI companies are increasingly employing former intelligence officers to enhance security measures against espionage. This trend follows concerns about potential security breaches, especially in light of recent incidents involving high-profile executives. Notably, Nvidia has launched an independent investigation into allegations of espionage linked to its CEO. Organizations like OpenAI and Anthropic are actively seeking counterintelligence experts to safeguard their operations.
China’s army-linked university was served Nvidia chips despite US sanctions
A Chinese university with close links to the country's military has purchased two of Nvidia's powerful H200 AI chips despite being on the US export blacklist, according to procurement records reviewed by Reuters. The findings raise fresh concerns over gaps in Washington's export restrictions and China's access to advanced American technology through domestic suppliers. Other Chinese universities and research institutions have also reportedly obtained restricted Nvidia chips or rented computing capacity powered by them.
SBI-led banking alliance comes together to mount a defence to AI threats
Indian Banks' Association, led by State Bank of India, is developing a strategy for cybersecurity in the AI era. The initiative focuses on improving coordination among banks and facilitating timely information sharing. Increasing digitalization has expanded the potential for cyberattacks, urging immediate measures to mitigate risks.
- Go To Page 1

Central cyber security agency warns banks, NBFCs of AI attacks; I4C reveals how hackers are executing multi-crore frauds
I4C has warned banks, NBFCs and fintech firms about AI-powered cyberattacks that enable hackers to execute fraudulent transactions at machine speed. The agency has flagged multi-crore unauthorised fund transfers, urged financial institutions to strengthen API security and directed them to report cyber incidents to CERT-In and RBI within six hours.

Human control must set limits on superintelligence, says OpenAI's Sam Altman
OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman has said that human control over the future must remain a fundamental condition for artificial intelligence (AI) development, arguing that people should not surrender decision-making power to increasingly advanced AI systems.

India’s cooling systems face Europe-style cyber risks, say experts
The concerns follow cyberattacks on supermarket refrigeration systems across Europe, with stores in Sweden, Belgium, Estonia, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg reporting disruptions. Attackers reportedly manipulated refrigeration controls, raising freezer temperatures and switching equipment into defrost mode, forcing stores to discard food stocks. The incidents follow similar attacks on hundreds of supermarkets in France in October.

Cert-In gets Mythos access, being careful with testing: Officials
Government agencies cannot download the AI’s source code or weights for running on their own, completely isolated or ‘air-gapped’ systems. Instead, to use Mythos, they must send their proprietary data, code, or network blueprints over the internet to Anthropic’s cloud servers.

UK cyber chief says the UK will face AI cyberattacks on critical infrastructure by 2028
The UK's National Cyber Security Center warns of potential AI-driven cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure by 2028. Increased sophistication in cyber activities from states like China and Russia poses significant risks. Past incidents highlight vulnerabilities in key sectors such as manufacturing and energy. Organizations must invest in cybersecurity measures to protect against these emerging threats. Failure to act could jeopardize essential services and compromise national security.

Govt mulls giving Cert-In enforceable powers to mandate patching
Last month, two critical flaws in the PHP programming language, discovered with the help of AI, created worldwide panic as hackers targeted the vulnerabilities millions of times, and led to governments including the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan taking down public websites. PHP powers 69.3% of websites worldwide.

Anthropic IPO rocks Indian IT; Why Walmart is in no hurry to list Flipkart
Anthropic’s US IPO filing sent Indian IT stocks lower on Tuesday. This and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.

Indian patch patrol sets out to resolve PHP risk
Two critical security flaws in PHP, the programming language underpinning an estimated 70% of the internet, have triggered emergency cybersecurity measures in India. Banks are auditing applications and preparing backups, while the government is patching official websites. Razorpay has deployed AI-led vulnerability detection and warned merchants about potential breaches.

Cert-In and states rush to patch PHP flaws across govt portals
Last week, two critical cybersecurity flaws in the PHP programming language were discovered with the help of AI. Subsequently, Cert-In issued advised organisations to apply security patches. Thousands of state government portals, district administration websites, municipal corporation services, and public grievance redressal systems in India have historically relied on content management systems and frameworks based on the PHP programming language.

'Tech debt coming due': AI-found flaw signals chaos ahead
The vulnerability to potential hackers was found by using a powerful model from OpenAI in one of the most high-profile demonstration of AI's cyber capabilities.

AI is finding software flaws faster, and so are hackers: Inside the PHP scramble
Governments and companies across Europe and Asia have taken services offline while they patch two vulnerabilities that researchers discovered with AI models, as exploitation attempts rise into the millions.

Ukraine joins NATO's NSPA partnership, gains access to Alliance contracts for defence industry
Ukraine officially joined the NATO Support and Procurement Agency's Security Cooperation Support Partnership to strengthen defense collaboration. This partnership allows Ukrainian defense companies to access NATO contracts and resources for their operations. A recent Industry Day in Kyiv gathered around 150 Ukrainian companies to discuss procurement trends and opportunities. Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister highlighted the unique access this partnership grants to the NSPA's services.

PHP security vulnerabilities: Indian govt rushes to fix official websites, banks audit apps
Banks have begun auditing applications for weaknesses, taking some non-critical services offline and preparing backups to divert traffic if parts of their websites or mobile applications experience downtime, according to executives.

Australian agency mulled firing KPMG over data-handling rule breach, documents show
KPMG Australia breached its contract with Services Australia by transferring sensitive material outside the secure government environment, prompting consideration of termination of their engagement. Although no data breach occurred, Services Australia has not awarded new audit work to KPMG since the incident, which raised significant concerns about the firm's trustworthiness and compliance with data protocols.

What is a PHP vulnerability? Security flaws prompt shutdowns of major websites amid global cybersecurity response
Two critical vulnerabilities in PHP have prompted the shutdown of several websites across multiple countries. Cybersecurity teams are actively working to secure these potentially affected systems using emergency fixes provided by the PHP Foundation. Major organizations, including Wikimedia and government sites in Finland and the Netherlands, have taken precautions. Researchers utilized artificial intelligence to identify these security flaws, showcasing both its benefits and risks.

From eMudhra to PHP: Breach spree hits tech infrastructure, AI emerges as threat multiplier
Recent cybersecurity incidents have raised concerns among companies and government agencies regarding digital certificates and critical software vulnerabilities. A security breach at eMudhra impacted its global digital certificate business but was managed promptly. Additionally, critical vulnerabilities in PHP temporarily led to the shutdown of various websites for security updates. A supply-chain attack compromised the LiteLLM Python package, affecting its users significantly.

Explained: What is PHP and why did it take government websites offline?
The developers of PHP said on Wednesday they would release patches for two critical vulnerabilities, and EU cybersecurity officials warned organisations unable to apply the fixes to take affected websites offline. Here is what you need to know:

How an AI model discovered critical safety flaws in government websites
A significant number of websites, including those managed by the French government and Wikimedia, faced downtime due to identified vulnerabilities in PHP, a popular web development language. Cybersecurity experts from Wiz and Calif employed AI to pinpoint these urgent flaws. In response, PHP developers swiftly issued patches, urging users to promptly update their systems.

SBI data leak: Is your bank account safe? What was breached and should you worry?
SBI bank data breach: Country's largest bank, SBI, is investigating a suspected data leak involving nearly 4,000 customer records identified on the dark web. Here is what information was exposed, whether your bank account is safe and the precautions customers should take.

Special team to probe eMudhra incident; impact on Indian websites, applications very limited: Govt
The ministry said the reported security incident pertains to eMudhra’s global certificate business, and its impact on Indian websites is very limited.It also said some social media accounts were indulging in fear-mongering about the impact.

PHP vulnerability 2026 CVE-2026-109619 patch: Why are government, school, hospital websites going offline, new PHP updates are live
PHP vulnerability 2026 CVE-2026-109619 patch is available now. US National Security Agency andgovernment websites in Europe and elsewhere went offline on Wednesday after the disclosure of critical vulnerabilities.

From Rome to Washington, why governments are pulling DeepSeek off official systems
At least eight governments, now including the US, have restricted the Chinese AI company's products. Most cite the same concern – user data stored in China, where the law gives the state wide powers to access it.

Govt plans sovereign AI infrastructure with tighter control over data, GPUs
Not-so-sensitive yet relatively important categories will be managed through a new framework in which the state may own the hardware such as GPUs while private sector companies may run and operate it, the officials told ET.
Load More