January 26, 2026 Cyber Threat Intelligence Briefing
This week’s briefing covers: Dive deeper.
Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance
The Latest Cybersecurity News & Insights From Around The World
Proud to be Data Privacy Week 2026 Champions with the National Cybersecurity Alliance
We are proud to be Data Privacy Week 2026 Champions with the National Cybersecurity Alliance. Stay tuned all week as we share practical tips, real-world insights, and expert perspectives from our teams and special guests across WatchGuard Tech All-Stars. A few simple reminders to start: Privacy is about choice, awareness, and control. And it starts with the everyday decisions we all make online.
The SMB Paradox: Most Targeted, Least Prepared for Cybersecurity
For years, the prevailing myth among small and midsize businesses (SMBs) was that they were too small to be a target. That myth has been definitively shattered. The reality is sobering: SMBs now account for a disproportionate share of cyber incidents and data exposure. In fact, research cited in the Guardz 2025 SMB Cybersecurity Report found that 43% of U.S. SMBs have experienced a cyberattack, including 27% hit within the past year.
What You Need to Know about the Minnesota Department of Human Services Data Breach
The Minnesota Department of Human Services (MN DHS) is a vital part of the state’s health plan industry. It is responsible for managing public health, welfare programs, and social services within the state, ensuring support for vulnerable populations and that millions of residents have seamless access to healthcare. The recent MN DHS data breach directly impacted FEI Systems, the managing vendor of MnCHOICES, one of the department’s network systems.
What You Need to Know about the Illinois Department of Human Services Data Breach
The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) is one of the state’s largest agencies, with over 15,000 employees. Created in 1997, it provides residents with streamlined access to integrated services, especially those who face multiple barriers to self-sufficiency and others who are striving for economic independence.
The Strengths and Shortcomings of AI Control Tower
This is why platforms like ServiceNow AI Control Tower are showing up in governance roadmaps. Control Tower helps organizations standardize how AI systems are requested, reviewed, cataloged, and managed across their lifecycle. It can bring order to chaos. But there’s a second, equally important reality: the strongest governance workflow in the world can’t govern what it can’t see.
The Evolution of Endpoint Protection in Response to Advanced Threats
Endpoint protection helps keep everyday devices safe. In an organization, various types of endpoints are used, like desktops, laptops, and servers. These devices are often the first targets that attackers try to use to break into an organization’s infrastructure. In the past, protection meant blocking known viruses. That approach worked when threats were easy to recognize. Now, attacks have become more advanced and harder to detect.
Intel Chat: Visual Studio Code, Sinkholes reversal, Chinese pen-testing & FortiSIEM zero-day [286]
In this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we discuss some intel being shared in the LimaCharlie community. Support our show by sharing your favorite episodes with a friend, subscribe, give us a rating or leave a comment on your podcast platform. This podcast is brought to you by LimaCharlie, maker of the SecOps Cloud Platform, infrastructure for SecOps where everything is built API first. Scale with confidence as your business grows.
Why CVEs Alone Don't Explain Risk | Ed Amoroso & Garrett Hamilton on Actionable Security
Vulnerability data isn’t the starting point. Context is. Ed Amoroso and Garrett Hamilton unpack why CVEs on their own don’t explain risk. What matters first: ⇢ What assets actually exist⇢ How controls are deployed and configured⇢ What the live posture looks like, not last month’s report With that context in place, vulnerabilities stop being noise and start becoming decisions. Garrett also makes a critical point near the end: many security tools are excellent at producing findings, but far less effective at helping teams resolve them.
Safe agentic commerce starts with KYA and dynamic IDV
Product, fraud, and trust and safety teams at online merchants and marketplaces have been fighting bots for a long time. While there were occasional disagreements about how “bad” bots were (a purchase is a purchase, some might say), the general consensus often ranged from suspicious to block them all. But not anymore. As AI-powered browsers and agents become more commonplace, online merchants have to prepare for a world where agentic commerce is a standard sales channel.