Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Some incidents make security teams wince, not because of a complex exploit, but because they were entirely preventable. This one starts with a contractor getting fired. In May 2021, Maxwell Schultz, a contract IT worker from Ohio, was terminated. Instead of moving on, he re-entered his former employer’s network by impersonating another contractor and using their credentials.

In today’s AI-driven world, machine identities are multiplying faster than humans can manage them. Every API key and automation script is a digital identity, often with standing access privileges that attackers can exploit through leaked credentials or misconfigured policies. Recent research shows that non-human identities (NHIs) now outnumber human users by more than 80:1 across enterprise cloud environments.

For nearly a decade, we’ve been building Nucleus with a clear mission: to help security teams make faster, smarter, and more business-aligned decisions about what to fix first. When we started, the world called it vulnerability management. Today, the industry calls it exposure assessment. To us, that evolution isn’t just semantics, t’s the culmination of years spent redefining how organizations understand and reduce risk.

Data security is non-negotiable. Transport Layer Security (TLS) authentication stands as the cornerstone for the protection of data in transit. When it comes to protecting enterprise APIs, systems, and identities, the importance of TLS auth cannot be overstated.

HashJack is a newly discovered indirect prompt injection technique that conceals malicious instructions after the # in legitimate URLs. When AI browsers send the full URL (including the fragment) to their AI assistants, those hidden prompts get executed. This enables threat actors to conduct a variety of malicious activities.

Black Friday is only days away, and despite many stores sneaking holiday decorations onto their shelves since mid-September, it marks the official start of the December shopping frenzy. The coming days will not only bring a massive surge in sales, but also an equally large spike in cyber threats. For retailers of all sizes, this peak season is prime time for cybercriminals to exploit vulnerabilities.

The landscape of application development is moving faster than ever, driven by AI and cloud-native technologies. While this rapid innovation creates opportunity, it also expands the attack surface, making robust security non-negotiable. As a security leader, you understand that effective application security testing software is the foundation of a strong defense. But in the face of escalating threats, are the basic tools still enough?

Our intelligence team has uncovered a fresh escalation in state-sponsored cyber espionage targeting enterprise update infrastructure. A critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), designated CVE-2025-59287, is now actively exploited by Chinese-linked advanced persistent threat ( APT) groups. These actors leverage the flaw to deploy ShadowPad, a modular backdoor long favored in espionage operations.

A previously known malware strain, SHA1-HULUD, has resurfaced with a large-scale software supply-chain attack targeting the NPM ecosystem. More than 300 open-source NPM packages were maliciously modified within a short window, leading to the theft of sensitive credentials and over 20,000 compromised GitHub repositories.

The fireside chat with Crocs CISO Lena Taylor at our Denver event brought together cybersecurity professionals, allies, and leaders for an evening of honest insight and community. From redefining work-life balance to knowing when to pursue new opportunities, Lena shared grounded, real-world wisdom that resonated far beyond career advice. Here’s a look at the biggest takeaways from the discussion and why the night left such a lasting impression.