Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Phishing is still the top initial access vector, accounting for more than half of cyberattacks observed during Q2 2026, according to a new report from Cisco Talos.

A study has found that AI chatbots can be more effective at social engineering than human scammers, WIRED reports. The researchers looked at a form of romance scam commonly known as “pig butchering,” in which scammers spend weeks or months building a relationship with the victim before tricking them into sending money for a phony investment scheme.

AI is making social engineering attacks significantly more effective, according to a new report from cyber insurance firm Resilience. These attacks were behind more than 85% of losses in the first half of 2026, compared to less than 20% during H1 2024. “Losses tied to phishing, social engineering, and transfer fraud have climbed from 17.7% of incurred losses in H1 2024 to 85.3% in H1 2026, the single largest increase in the report’s five half-year comparison,” Resilience says.

As the Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) region continues its rapid digital acceleration, Guam stands at a unique strategic intersection. Serving as a critical hub for telecommunications, government services and regional defense, the island’s cybersecurity posture is no longer just a local concern, it is a cornerstone of regional stability. I have observed a proactive shift toward onboarding various agencies to a unified security framework.

Social engineering remains a central part of modern cyberattacks, according to a new report from CrowdStrike. Attackers are increasingly turning to voice phishing because it bypasses traditional security controls and leaves little forensic evidence, since the social engineering takes place over the phone.

Americans are now losing an estimated $148 billion each year to online scams, a 22% increase compared to 2024, according to a new report from the Consumer Federation of America (CFA). The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) tracked $20.8 billion in losses last year, but the CFA notes that the actual losses are much higher.

For years, cybersecurity has had a familiar villain: the external attacker. The hacker breaking through the firewall, stealing credentials or exploiting an unpatched vulnerability. It is the scenario we have trained for, built defenses around and spent decades trying to prevent. But the next major breach may not begin with someone breaking into your environment at all, it may begin with an AI agent that already has access.

Phishing is a form of social engineering that has evolved beyond simple lures into complex, multi-stage attacks exploiting trusted software, cloud identities and business platforms to bypass traditional security. Attackers leverage these campaigns to deliver trojans capable of stealing credentials and also establishing remote code execution, which might serve as a gateway for lateral movement.

A new report commissioned by IBM has found that one in four breaches is now AI-enabled, up 56% from last year. “Most AI-driven attacks reported in the study targeted critical infrastructure sectors (62%), with financial services and energy organizations experiencing the highest concentration, raising the risk of broader systemic disruption,” the report says. “Financial services breaches were reported to cost on average $6.3 million, while energy breaches cost on average $5.2 million.

For years, ransomware was treated mostly as a malware problem. A user clicked something bad, files were encrypted, a ransom note appeared and everyone had a very bad week. That version still exists, of course, because cybercriminals love recycling old hits. But ransomware has changed significantly over the last year.