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A Latvian national extradited to the United States was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for his "cold case" negotiator role in the Russian Karakurt ransomware group. [...]

A new version of the CloudZ remote access tool (RAT) is deploying a previously unseen malicious plugin called Pheno that hijacks the Microsoft Phone Link connection to steal sensitive codes from mobile devices. [...]

Microsoft and Google are adding new controls for AI agents, as enterprise IT teams try to keep up with tools that can access corporate data and act across business applications.

Microsoft’s Agent 365, made generally available for commercial customers on May 1, is designed to help organizations discover, govern, and secure AI agents, including those operating across Microsoft, third-party SaaS, cloud, and local environments.

Google’s new AI control center for Workspace, announced this week, focuses more specifically on giving administrators a centralized view of AI usage, security settings, data protection controls, and privacy safeguards within Workspace.

The timing reflects a shift in enterprise AI use. Many companies are no longer just testing chatbots, but are beginning to use agents that can reach corporate systems and carry out tasks on behalf of users.

Analysts said the shift changes how CIOs and CISOs should think about AI agents inside the enterprise.

“By placing agent controls alongside identity, access, data, and workload management, vendors are positioning AI governance as an operational discipline owned jointly by IT and security,” said Biswajeet Mahapatra, principal analyst at Forrester. “For CIOs, this means AI agents now need to be managed like any other digital workforce, with lifecycle oversight, cost visibility, and integration into service management.”

For CISOs, that broadens the mandate beyond model risk and data leakage. As agents are given more autonomy, security teams will need a more continuous way to control what they can do and contain the impact when their actions create risk.

The announcements also elevate AI governance to a “core component of all AI-assisted enterprise applications,” signaling to CIOs and CISOs that governance will need to be built into AI deployments as adoption moves from pilots to enterprise-wide enablement, according to Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at Omdia.

Where Microsoft and Google differ

Microsoft Agent 365 and Google’s AI control center address related governance problems, but from different starting points.

“Given how enterprises are increasingly deploying AI in multicloud and hybrid IT environments, these two are complementary,” Su said. “They are highly optimized for AI workloads within their respective environments, meaning enterprises heavily invested in one vendor will find the native AI governance experience to be far smoother.”

According to Mahapatra, enterprises should see the distinction as a matter of platform scope rather than governance maturity. Microsoft’s approach treats AI agents as enterprise actors that require broad organizational oversight, while Google’s controls are more narrowly focused on how AI interacts with collaboration data and user content.

“These are not fully competing approaches because they govern different control planes, but they are not truly complementary either unless an enterprise standardizes on both ecosystems,” Mahapatra said. “Over time, each model reinforces governance capabilities that are tightly coupled to its underlying productivity and data platforms, which increases the risk that AI governance decisions become implicitly tied to vendor choice rather than enterprise architecture strategy.”

Pareekh Jain, CEO of Pareekh Consulting, took a middle view, saying the approaches are both complementary and competitive, especially as enterprises using both Microsoft and Google may find AI governance becoming more closely tied to each vendor’s underlying platform.

Risks left to resolve

The new controls may give enterprises better visibility into AI agents, but analysts said they do not eliminate bigger risks related to shadow AI, third-party integrations, and accountability for autonomous actions.

According to Jain, shadow AI agents can still emerge through developer tools, browser extensions, local assistants, SaaS copilots, and unsanctioned tool connections. Third-party integrations, he said, could also expand faster than security teams can validate them.

“Audit logs may show what happened, but not always why an autonomous agent chose an action,” Jain said.

That leaves enterprises with difficult questions when an agent takes actions that create business or security risks. Better logs do not automatically settle questions of control or responsibility.

Mahapatra said the biggest gaps are likely to remain outside the boundaries of native platforms. Shadow agents created through low-code tools, external APIs, or embedded SaaS applications can bypass central controls and operate with excessive or inherited permissions.

“Third-party integrations often expand agent reach without equivalent visibility into downstream actions or data propagation,” Mahapatra said. “Auditability remains uneven when agents chain actions across systems, making it hard to reconstruct intent versus outcome. Accountability is still unresolved when autonomous agents trigger material business or security impacts, since ownership is split across users, developers, and platform controls.”

The message for enterprises is that native controls from Microsoft or Google may help, but they are unlikely to cover the full agent landscape. Companies using multiple clouds, SaaS tools, developer platforms, and browser-based AI assistants will still need governance that extends beyond any single vendor’s console.

The North Korea-aligned state-sponsored hacking group known as ScarCruft has compromised a video game platform in a supply chain espionage attack, trojanizing its components with a backdoor called BirdCallto likely target ethnic Koreans residing in China. While prior versions of the backdoor have primarily targeted Windows users only, the supply chain attack is assessed to have enabled the Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

The North Korean hacker group APT37 has been delivering an Android version of a backdoor called BirdCall in a supply-chain attack through a video game platform. [...]

A critical security vulnerability in Weaver (Fanwei) E-cology, an enterprise office automation (OA) and collaboration platform, has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability (CVE-2026-22679, CVSS score: 9.8) relates to a case of unauthenticated remote code execution affecting Weaver E-cology 10.0 versions prior to 20260312. The issue resides in the "/papi/esearch/data/devops/Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Microsoft has disclosed details of a large-scale credential theft campaign that has leveraged a combination of code of conduct-themed lures and legitimate email services to direct users to attacker-controlled domains and steal authentication tokens. The multi-stage campaign, observed between April 14 and 16, 2026, targeted more than 35,000 users across over 13,000 organizations in 26 countries, Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Hackers have been exploiting a critical vulnerability (CVE-2026-22679) in the Weaver E-cology office automation since mid-March to run discovery commands. [...]

The Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is being increasingly abused to send convincing phishing emails that can bypass standard security filters and render reputation-based blocks ineffective. [...]

An active phishing campaign has been observed targeting multiple vectors since at least April 2025 with legitimate Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) software as a way to establish persistent remote access to compromised hosts. The activity, codenamed VENOMOUS#HELPER, has impacted over 80 organizations, most of which are in the U.S., according to Securonix. It shares overlaps with clusters Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

GameStop yesterday made an unsolicited offer to buy eBay for $55.5 billion. GameStop claims that eBay has underperformed and spends too much on sales and marketing and argues that it would become a stronger company if it cuts costs and is combined with GameStop's physical retail locations.

"GameStop’s ~1,600 US locations give eBay a national network for authentication, intake, fulfillment, and live commerce," GameStop Chairman and CEO Ryan Cohen wrote in a letter to eBay Chairman Paul Pressler.

eBay's market capitalization is over four times larger than GameStop's. GameStop faces skepticism about the viability of its offer but says it will obtain debt financing and pay with a mix of cash and stock.

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella last week announced that the company now has more than 20 million enterprise users paying for Microsoft Copilot, according to TechCrunch. That’s up 33% from the 15 million paying customers Microsoft claimed in January.

The AI assistant is now directly integrated in programs such as Word, Excel, and Outlook and Microsoft is rolling out new agent features that allow Copilot to perform multiple steps automatically directly within documents and presentations.

According to Nadella, the number of questions asked of Copilot per user rose by nearly 20% compared to the previous quarter. Weekly usage is now reportedly on par with the Outlook email service.

Microsoft says one advantage for Copilot is that it is no longer locked to a single provider of AI models. In addition to OpenAI’s GPT models, it now also supports models such as Anthropic’s Claude.

A new study from Harvard Medical School indicates that AI can outperform doctors in initial assessments in emergency care, according to The Guardian. The study, published in the journal Science, compared AI tools with doctors in triage situations — the process in which patients are sorted and prioritized, and where quick decisions must be made based on limited information.

The results show that the AI system identified the correct or nearly correct diagnosis in 67% of cases, compared to 50% to 55% percent for doctors. When more detailed patient data was available, the AI’s accuracy increased to 82%, while the doctors’ accuracy ranged from 70% to 79%.

The AI, based on OpenAI’s model o1, also performed better when it came to developing treatment plans. In a test using clinical cases, the AI achieved 89% accuracy, while doctors using traditional tools such as search engines reached 34%.

However, the researchers emphasized that the results do not mean AI can outright replace doctors. The study included only text-based patient information and did not take into account factors such as body language or the patient’s general condition.

Linux security usually comes down to access controls and permissions, but those controls only work if the platform enforcing them holds up. What happens when the control layer most Linux environments depend on fails?

A malicious version of the PyTorch Lightning package published on the Python Package Index (PyPI) delivers a credential-stealing payload targeting browsers, environment files, and cloud services. [...]

Small and medium-sized businesses recognize the transformative nature of AI, with two-thirds of respondents in a recent ASUS survey agreeing AI is creating a significant evolution in business practices, and some even calling it “generational.” The question, then, is how best to realize AI’s potential.

For SMBs, following a simple, three-pronged strategy is a good way to get started on your AI journey, says Shawn Chang, General Manager, System Business Group, ASUS North America.

Step 1: Conduct an IT tool audit

Chances are, your employees are already using myriad AI tools, whether IT knows it or not. A survey by Business.com found 84% of SMB employees use chatbots, 67% use AI-powered search, and 41% use image generators, for example.[1] Likewise, 60% of respondents to the ASUS survey already use AI tools for virtual meetings, including automated transcripts, real-time translations, and AI-driven noise cancellation.

The key is to ensure employees use trusted applications and that multiple groups aren’t paying for the same application, which requires an audit to identify which tools are in use, Chang says.

An audit can be as simple as conducting a survey asking which AI tools employees rely on and why, or employing a third-party tool to conduct a company-wide audit. Both are also valuable for determining which apps employees are actually using.[2]

Step 2: Identify one workflow to automate or accelerate

The next step is to identify a workflow that will benefit from AI, whether that means automating it entirely or accelerating it. “Good candidates are tasks that happen frequently and employ structured data, such as spreadsheets or highly formatted text,” Chang says.

It’s best to start with a low-risk process – just in case. That said, a task that has broad application across the organization is a good fit as well, so numerous employees can quickly see the benefit. So, something that touches many employees – such as HR or IT-related tasks – can be a good candidate.

The task must be measurable, and you should define ahead of time what success looks like, whether it’s time saved, fewer required resources, or the like. As food for thought, respondents to the ASUS survey report AI delivers a variety of results, including:

• Increases in productivity and efficiency – 68%
• Superior data analytics and insights – 61%
• More informed decision-making – 56%
• Greater responsiveness to customer needs – 45%

Step 3: Equip your team with hardware built for AI workloads

As you delve in, you will soon learn that many AI applications can benefit from more powerful computers, namely AI PCs. AI PCs have specialized neural processing units (NPUs) to offload compute-intensive tasks from CPUs, along with plenty of memory and the ability to run AI models on the device itself, rather than constantly relying on cloud resources.

AI PCs are catching on in a big way, with Gartner predicting they will represent 55% of the total PC market in 2026, up from 16% in 2024, and will be the norm by 2029.[3]

“Devices like the ASUS Expert Series, which offer up to the Series 3 Intel® Core™ Ultra X9 processor, deliver the power needed for these workloads without draining your battery or slowing down other applications,” Chang says. “They will help your company adopt AI applications that drive greater efficiency, enabling you to better compete with larger organizations.”

Learn more about what your SMB peers think about AI. Download “The Future of SMB Report: Harnessing the Potential of AI PCs.”

[1] “2026 Small Business AI Outlook Report,” January 20, 2026, Business.com.

[2] “18 Application Monitoring Tools to Consider In 2026,” April 15, 2026, CloudZero.

[3] “Gartner Says AI PCs Will Represent 31% of Worldwide PC Market by the End of 2025,” August 28, 2025, Gartner.

Progress Software has released updates to address two security flaws in MOVEit Automation, including a critical bug that could result in an authentication bypass. MOVEit Automation (formerly Central) is a secure, server-based managed file transfer (MFT) solution used to schedule and automate file movement workflows in enterprise environments without requiring any custom scripts.  The Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Cybersecurity firm Trellix disclosed a data breach after attackers gained access to "a portion" of its source code repository. [...]

Apple last week nixed its long-held “net cash neutral” target, a move analysts see as giving the company more flexibility to make massive infrastructure investments or acquisitions. Naturally, as AI is the only thing that seems to matter in tech these days, commentators rushed to speculate on potential acquisition targets in the AI space.

The thing is, this may not be about AI. 

Now that Apple has confirmed John Ternus as its next CEO, the market can stop treating the company’s cash shift as speculative and start treating it as strategic. Ternus, a hardware‑first leader by background, understands the value of services and has pledged to expand Apple’s services business. 

Services, services, services

The great thing about services is that they provide the company with a solid and predictable revenue stream to insulate it from fluctuations in product-driven business. We’ve seen this in the last few years, with Apple’s dramatically climbing services income acting as a cushion against slow product quarters, empowering the company to return successive record results. There is no doubt the high margins generated by services oils Apple’s business machinery.

“I look forward to continuing to expand that and continuing to look for the kinds of services where we’re really finding the opportunities between the hardware and software,” Ternus said, pointing particularly at Apple Pay. 

Years of watching the company tells me that Apple tends to leave the truth in plain sight if you happen to be sensitive to it; I read that statement as suggesting the company is preparing to introduce its latest Apple Pay service updates.

Apple Card for the rest of us?

The most widely awaited of these would be the introduction of an upgraded Apple Card service with a new provider. The limitation of the Apple Card (other than the waning enthusiasm of card partner, Goldman Sachs and the long journey to find a new partnership with JP Morgan Chase) is that it is still only available in the US, despite global interest. It is challenging for Apple to meet that interest due to a smorgasbord of different data, financial services, and local regulations. Apple Card in India, for instance, would be challenged by local regulations that forbid banking partners from storing transaction data, while in Europe the reward structure would need to be revised to consider the much lower interchange fees charged for credit card transactions there. 

Ultimately, whoever Apple works with on the service would have to accommodate credit risk and it’s probable the computer company will need to underwrite some of that risk. If it wants to expand this service internationally — perhaps with the provision of additional banking services in some nations — this would be a good use of Apple’s ongoing money mountain, enabling it to deepen its move into financial services.

A world of opportunities

Of course, Apple Card is far from the only service that could benefit from Apple’s decision to use cash more strategically. Beyond any potential AI acquisitions, the company could also take positions in streaming entertainment partners, for example; the ever-speculated on Disney purchase is just one of a multitude of options there, but Netflix also seems within Apple’s multi-billion dollar reach.

Apple also has the good fortune to sit at the crossroads of technology, the liberal arts, and health, so it could think about health insurance as a potential space for services expansion. Also, given the company’s continued move to rebuild its business along the lines of a closed loop manufacturing chain, at what point does it make sense for it to invest in its own clean energy supply? 

Stop to think about it and there really are a ton of highly profitable options for major Apple investments that could drive the business forward, and many of these have nothing much to do with AI (except, of course, software). Perhaps that’s a good thing. 

Smart about AI

The rapid pace of AI development and deployment almost certainly mean the fundamentals of the AI landscape will change swiftly. Server-based AI might remain the interaction for most of us, but high-value services will inevitably be found in on-premises, sovereign, ultra-secure, and/or edge device AI. 

That rapid evolution means a billion spent on an essential component today could be meaningless in five years. Plus, with a multitude of emerging AI companies, it’s inevitable some — potentially with valuable technologies — will fail. 

In this context, it makes sense for Apple to crouch, tiger-like, waiting to jump in to make strategic acquisitions as the competitive environment forces some of the smaller AI players to the wall. Apple won’t be alone in any potential bidding wars, but its decision to use its cash flow strategically means it might nail some of those deals. 

Coming soon?

The timing of Apple’s news about its handling of cash matters. Now that shareholders have been told to expect it, the business can change direction. 

Should we expect any immediate moves? If the company has any quick plans, it’s possible we may learn more at WWDC in June — or perhaps at the big iPhone reveal this fall, when the Cook-Ternus transition is complete. Ultimately, Apple’s next phase won’t be defined solely by what it does acquire, but in which parts of the business it chooses to invest.

Please follow me on social media: BlueSky,  LinkedIn, or Mastodon.

This week, the shadows moved faster than the patches. While most teams were still triaging last month’s alerts, attackers had already turned control panels into kill switches, kernels into open doors, and open-source pipelines into silent delivery systems. The game has shifted from breach to occupation. They’re living inside SaaS sessions, pushing code with trusted commits, and scaling Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]