The security & privacy stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
Fake MyChart emails and texts promise a free Medicare health kit, then ask for card numbers or logins. Your real MyChart account was not hacked.
Read more: Fake MyChart messages offer a free Medicare kit to steal your infoForbes says the way a company scores its fraud checks can hide real losses, including sales lost when honest customers get blocked by mistake.
Read more: Many companies may be judging their fraud checks the wrong wayThe FTC says scammers are calling as agency staff, claiming your phone number was used in international crime, then handing you to fake police.
Read more: Fake FTC callers say your phone number was used in a crimeA new survey says 96% of security teams use or test AI, yet many have not checked whether their data, rules and oversight are ready for it.
Read more: Most security teams now use AI, but few check if they're readyA man in Puente Genil, Spain, gave bank details to a fake Iberdrola caller using a +400 number. Police say the new prefix does not prove a call is real.
Read more: Scam callers pose as a power company using Spain's new 400 phone prefixRadnor police say scammers called members of religious groups posing as leaders and asked for gift card donations. Others posed as police. Here is what to know.
Read more: Scammers pose as police and clergy to get money from localsStores in four European countries reported fridge and freezer temperatures changed remotely. Any business with connected cooling should check how it is protected.
Read more: Hackers are raising the temperature in European supermarket freezersAttackers are using a top-severity GitLab flaw to take over servers, and Shadowserver still sees more than 1,000 unpatched ones online weeks after a fix.
Read more: Over 1,000 GitLab servers still open to a known, active attackFake ChatGPT Plus billing emails lead to a counterfeit checkout page where a scammer watches live and can then ask for your bank's one-time code.
Read more: Fake ChatGPT billing emails steal card details and bank codesO2 is rolling out free AI call blocking that stops suspected scam calls before the first ring, with over 3 million blocked each week expected.
Read more: O2 now blocks suspected scam calls before your phone ringsA warning is spreading across Sussex about scammers posing as Amazon. A familiar name is not proof, so check any contact yourself before you act.
Read more: Warning in Sussex about scammers pretending to be AmazonMicrosoft says attackers posing as IT staff on Teams gained remote control of PCs, then used weak certificate settings to act as privileged accounts.
Read more: Fake IT help on Teams lets hackers take over company networksCriminals are locking files on Synology storage boxes that have not been updated, and asking for thousands of dollars to unlock them.
Read more: Home and office storage boxes are being locked by hackersMinnesota has banned crypto kiosks after scammers used them to move victims' money. Here is what changed and the one phone call rule to remember.
Read more: Minnesota bans crypto kiosks after scammers used them to drain savingsOpenAI began letting some US Pro users text their ChatGPT helper on October 28, 2026, but the messages are not end-to-end encrypted, so keep them short.
Read more: ChatGPT Now Texts You, But Those Texts Are Not Fully PrivateIvanti has patched two more flaws that hackers chained to break into Connect Secure devices, including ones already fully updated. Businesses that use it should act.
Read more: Ivanti fixes two more flaws hackers used to break into company networksReporting a phishing email takes about a minute and helps protect others. Official guidance names where to send it and what to leave alone.
Read more: How to report a phishing email and what to do nextCisco Talos found a Windows data thief that asks AI chatbots to rank victims by how much money they could bring in. Here is what it takes and what to do.
Read more: New data-stealing virus uses AI to pick out the richest victimsAI-made celebrity videos are pushing people into fake investment apps, and the money vanishes when they try to withdraw it. Here is how the trap works.
Read more: Fake celebrity videos are luring people into bogus investmentsAARP has a page on protecting yourself from fraud, but only its menu loaded, so the actual tips are not yet confirmed. One link points to real scam stories.
Read more: A Guide to Protecting Yourself From Fraud, From AARPResearchers got AI assistants to lift their own spending limits and send money to an attacker. Email codes did not stop them.
Read more: Researchers fooled AI assistants into raising spending limits and sending moneyA fake sheriff's lieutenant talked a 79-year-old Oregon man into feeding $40,000 in cash to a Bitcoin machine. His daughter's instinct stopped it from going further.
Read more: Fake 'Lieutenant' scam cost a 79-year-old Oregon man $40,000Microsoft's Clarity data shows checkout appears in 25% of AI-assisted site visits versus 15% of human ones, but it cannot say who clicked or whether anyone bought.
Read more: AI shopping helpers reach checkout more often than people doA text that seems sent to the wrong person can be the first step in a scam. Even a polite reply can start a chat that ends with lost money.
Read more: A text sent to the wrong number may be the start of a scam
