Ascension discloses new data breach after third-party hacking incident
Ascension, one of the largest private healthcare systems in the United States, is notifying patients that their personal and health information was stolen in a December 2024 data theft attack, which affected a former business partner. The health network operates 142 hospitals nationwide, has over 142,000 employees, and has reported a total revenue of $28.3 billion in 2023. “On December 5, 2024, we learned that Ascension patient information may have been involved in a potential security incident. We immediately initiated an investigation to determine whether and how a security incident occurred,” Ascension says in data breach notifications sent to affected individuals.
Banking Outage Leaves Customers Without Account Access
A major outage at financial technology provider Fiserv has left customers of dozens of banks and credit unions unable to access basic online banking services, including checking account balances, sending payments through Zelle, and receiving direct deposits. Fiserv, one of the largest backend service providers in the U.S. financial system, with 10,000 customers, began experiencing issues early Friday morning, with problems escalating by 7 a.m. ET. The outage has affected everything from mobile app functionality to ACH processing, online bill payments, and money transfers.
Largest bank in the world issues stark security warning about technology that billions use every single day
JPMorganChase, the largest bank in the world, has warned about the dangers of SaaS technology used by organizations across the world every single day. Writing in an open letter, CISO Patrick Opet outlined growing concerns that the speed of SaaS adoption has outpaced security development. In particular, Opet noted that vendors have prioritized rapid feature delivery over secure architecture, creating systemic vulnerabilities across the software supply chain.
People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies
Less than a year after marrying a man she had met at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kat felt tension mounting between them. It was the second marriage for both after marriages of 15-plus years and having kids, and they had pledged to go into it “completely level-headedly,” Kat says, connecting on the need for “facts and rationality” in their domestic balance. But by 2022, her husband “was using AI to compose texts to me and analyze our relationship,” the 41-year-old mom and education nonprofit worker tells Rolling Stone. Previously, he had used AI models for an expensive coding camp that he had suddenly quit without explanation — then it seemed he was on his phone all the time, asking his AI bot “philosophical questions,” trying to train it “to help him get to ‘the truth,’” Kat recalls. His obsession steadily eroded their communication as a couple.
Defense contractors to pay $8.4 million over charges of failing to meet federal cyber standards
U.S. defense contractors Raytheon and Nightwing Group agreed to pay the government $8.4 million to settle allegations that Raytheon violated the terms of a contract with the Defense Department by not having ample cybersecurity protections. According to the settlement agreement, from August 2015 through June 2021 the company’s CODEX division — short for Cyber Offense & Defense Experts — used a network that did not adhere to the government’s cybersecurity standards and which held non-classified defense information. Raytheon, which according to the Thursday agreement does not admit to being at fault, allegedly failed to develop a “system security plan” describing security measures.
NSC official: Trump administration will ‘change the script’ on offensive side
A top White House official on Thursday said the Trump administration will work at “destigmatizing and normalizing” the use of offensive cyber as a tool of national power. “It’s not offense for offense’s sake, but being able to respond in kind, if we’re the victim of foreign aggression, being able to have our own offensive response or to use offense in support” of traditional military activities, Alexei Bulazel, the senior director for cyber on the National Security Council, said during a keynote discussion at the RSA Conference.
