We’re Tracking the Future of Security

Author: Osiris

  • FSRI Report Examines Systems Behind 2025 Southern California Fire Losses

    FSRI Report Examines Systems Behind 2025 Southern California Fire Losses

    The Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) has released a systems-level analysis of the January 2025 Palisades and Eaton fires in Southern California. Commissioned after the disaster, the report examines how preparedness, infrastructure, evacuation, emergency operations and the built environment interacted during fast-moving community conflagrations.

    Analysis identifies interconnected pressures

    FSRI’s report contains 175 findings and 266 recommendations. Its evidence base includes technical discussions with responders and subject-matter experts, resident interviews and surveys, site assessments, geospatial analysis, radio communications, dispatch records and vehicle-location data.

    The institute says the outcomes were shaped by the combined performance of multiple systems rather than one point of failure. Areas examined include emergency management, water and electric utilities, weather and vegetation, evacuation warnings, transportation, fire and law-enforcement operations, fatalities and building conditions.

    Recommendations extend beyond one incident

    The recommendations address community-scale wildfire mitigation, readiness for wind-driven conflagrations, situational awareness, infrastructure resilience, evacuation coordination, interoperable communications, wildfire-resistant construction, suppression strategy and post-suppression monitoring. That systems approach matters because extreme fire conditions can exceed assumptions built into otherwise well-established preparedness programs.

    For public-safety and critical-infrastructure teams, the report provides a structured basis for reviewing dependencies between warning systems, communications, utilities and field operations. SectechMedia’s fire and safety coverage tracks technologies and operational practices used to improve detection, response and resilience.

    Sources

  • ENISA Says Three in Four EU Employees Encountered Cyber Threats at Work

    ENISA Says Three in Four EU Employees Encountered Cyber Threats at Work

    Cyber threats are a routine workplace experience for many European employees, according to survey findings highlighted by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA). The results point to a gap between broad awareness of cyber risk and the training, reporting habits and practical confidence needed to respond consistently.

    Survey finds broad exposure but uneven preparedness

    The European Commission’s Eurobarometer survey found that 74% of employees had encountered suspicious emails, messages, voice calls or links during the previous six months. Phishing or fraudulent email was the most frequently reported threat at 39%, while 18% encountered attempts to obtain personal data or passwords.

    Awareness is comparatively high: 83% said a cyberattack could have serious consequences for their organization. Preparedness is less uniform. The survey says 60% received cybersecurity training in the previous year, participation was lower in smaller organizations, and only 48% felt able to recognize AI-generated fake videos. At the same time, 85% expressed interest in improving their cybersecurity skills.

    Operational lessons for security teams

    The findings reinforce the need to treat workforce readiness as part of operational security rather than a once-a-year compliance exercise. Short, role-specific training can be paired with clear reporting channels, realistic phishing simulations and rapid feedback after suspicious activity. Organizations responsible for essential services should also connect employee reporting to incident-response procedures so that a suspicious message can be assessed before it becomes a wider compromise.

    For teams managing connected facilities and operational environments, the human layer should complement technical controls such as access management, network segmentation and monitored response workflows. SectechMedia’s cyber-physical security coverage follows how these controls intersect with physical operations.

    Sources

  • ViewScan Expands AI Monitoring Platform and Relaunches Customer-Facing Website

    ViewScan Expands AI Monitoring Platform and Relaunches Customer-Facing Website

    ViewScan, Inc. has released an update to its ViewScan Protect AI-powered monitoring platform alongside a redesigned website built to give partners and customers easier access to supporting resources. The refreshed site adds real-world AI event videos, case studies, white papers, client testimonials and an FAQ section.

    Positioning around privacy and continuous monitoring

    “We pride ourselves on staying at the forefront of AI technology and keeping our customers’ privacy protected with flexible and cost-effective solutions that monitor their facilities 24/7 for total peace of mind,” said David Antar, president at ViewScan. The company frames the update as a continuation of its focus on AI-driven analytics for continuous facility monitoring rather than a one-time camera-plus-recorder deployment model.

    A crowded but growing category

    ViewScan’s refresh lands in an AI video-monitoring market where new entrants and established security integrators alike are racing to differentiate on detection accuracy, false-alarm reduction and ease of integration with existing camera infrastructure. Clearer documentation and case-study evidence, the kind the new site promises, is increasingly what separates vendors in AI-powered security from being judged on marketing claims alone.

    Sources and further reading

  • Private Equity Firm GTCR Acquires Cellular Camera Maker Tactacam

    Private Equity Firm GTCR Acquires Cellular Camera Maker Tactacam

    Private equity firm GTCR has acquired Tactacam, a maker of cellular-connected cameras for the outdoor and security markets, from Bertram Capital and the company’s founders. The deal closed September 28; terms were not disclosed, though people familiar with the transaction told the Wall Street Journal it was valued well north of $1 billion.

    Cellular cameras beyond Wi-Fi range

    Tactacam’s Reveal and Defend product lines rely on cellular connectivity rather than Wi-Fi, letting cameras operate for property and perimeter monitoring in locations without a reliable local network — a use case that overlaps with rural and remote-site physical security as much as with the outdoor recreation market the company built its name in. Billings, Montana-based Tactacam was founded in 2013; CEO and co-founder Jeff Peel will continue leading the company and retain a significant ownership stake alongside co-founder Ben Thorud.

    Another security bet for GTCR

    The acquisition adds Tactacam to a GTCR security portfolio that already includes commercial systems integrator Everon and residential provider SimpliSafe, continuing a pattern of consolidation in camera-based security products and companies as private equity firms build connected-monitoring platforms spanning both consumer and commercial markets.

    Sources and further reading

  • Securitas Technology Acquires Sonitrol of El Paso, Expanding Texas Footprint

    Securitas Technology Acquires Sonitrol of El Paso, Expanding Texas Footprint

    Securitas Technology has acquired Sonitrol of El Paso, Texas, adding the integrator’s local expertise and cloud-based security offering to the global electronic security provider’s portfolio. The deal, announced October 1, expands Securitas Technology’s service coverage across Texas and the broader Southwest.

    A regional deal with a familiar brand

    Sonitrol has built its reputation over more than six decades around audio-based intrusion verification technology designed to reduce false alarms and speed confirmed-response times, a capability Securitas Technology says will strengthen its combined offering for clients in the region. “This acquisition aligns with our focus and commitment to deliver best-in-class security solutions while further strengthening our role as a trusted advisor to our clients,” said Tony Byerly, global president and CEO of Securitas Technology.

    Part of a broader consolidation pattern

    The El Paso deal is the latest in a series of Sonitrol-franchise acquisitions by Securitas Technology over the past year, reflecting continued consolidation among regional alarm-monitoring and security integrators as larger providers look to pair local market knowledge with centralized cloud and AI monitoring capabilities. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

    Sources and further reading

  • Alleged Iranian State-Linked Hacker Extradited to US Over University Breaches

    Alleged Iranian State-Linked Hacker Extradited to US Over University Breaches

    Montenegro has extradited Amir Barati, a dual Turkish-Iranian national, to the United States to face charges tied to a long-running campaign of breaches against universities, research institutions and government entities. Montenegrin authorities arrested Barati on June 25 while he was in the coastal town of Kotor, acting on an FBI arrest warrant, and a Montenegrin court approved his extradition under a simplified procedure.

    A campaign prosecutors trace to 2013

    US prosecutors allege Barati is a member of the Mabna Institute, an Iran-based entity accused of running cyberattacks on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. An August indictment named Barati among 17 people charged in a 14-count case connected to breaches at more than 150 US universities and other research institutions, with authorities estimating stolen academic data, intellectual property and related losses at roughly $3.4 billion.

    A rare extradition for an alleged state-linked operator

    Extraditions of individuals accused of acting on behalf of Iranian state interests remain uncommon, making Barati’s case notable regardless of the eventual trial outcome. For research institutions, the case underscores that nation-state-linked actors continue to treat university networks as a long-term espionage target rather than a one-time opportunity, an assessment that shapes how security intelligence teams prioritize monitoring of research data hosted on campus networks.

    Sources and further reading

  • Osavul Raises $10 Million to Detect Hostile Intent Across Cyber and Physical Domains

    Osavul Raises $10 Million to Detect Hostile Intent Across Cyber and Physical Domains

    Hybrid risk intelligence company Osavul has raised $10 million (€8.5 million) in a Series A round led by 33N Ventures, with participation from Balnord, G+D Ventures and existing investor 42CAP. The round, announced October 1, brings the Luxembourg-based company’s total funding to roughly €12 million.

    Reading hostile intent across three domains

    Osavul’s AI platform analyzes open and privileged data sources to identify hostile intent spanning the information, cyber and physical domains, rather than treating them as separate disciplines handled by separate teams. The company, which counts NATO and other defense and government institutions among its customers, says it maps identified intent against a customer’s own people, facilities and supply chains to show where a strike could land.

    Part of a wider funding trend

    Osavul says it has tracked more than 150 state-linked hybrid incidents across Europe since 2022, combining cyberattacks, sabotage, espionage and information manipulation, and plans to use the new funding to expand from government and defense work into enterprise and critical-infrastructure customers. The raise adds to a run of early-stage funding for platforms that promise a single risk picture spanning categories security teams have traditionally monitored with separate tools.

    Sources and further reading

  • Germany’s BSI Opens Call for Background-Removal Technology in New Biometric Benchmark

    Germany’s BSI Opens Call for Background-Removal Technology in New Biometric Benchmark

    Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) is calling on developers to submit background-removal software and device-based solutions for a new benchmark focused on facial images. The BGR-PROJECT, short for Background Removal Benchmark, aims to assemble what BSI calls a “representative and technically sound selection” of current background-removal algorithms for standardized evaluation, with submissions open until November 27, 2026.

    Why background removal matters for passport photos

    Background removal separates a person from their surroundings in a photograph so the subject can be recomposited onto a plain, uniform background, as required by identity-document standards including ISO/IEC 39794-5 and ICAO Doc 9303 for machine-readable travel documents. Those specifications are designed to prevent distracting shadows, patterns or objects behind a subject’s head from degrading image quality used for biometric identity verification. BSI notes that the task sounds simple but is technically difficult: isolating exactly where a person ends and the background begins without introducing artifacts that reduce facial image quality.

    What the benchmark will measure

    Once BSI collects submissions, the agency plans to use them to build a benchmark that scores background-removal tools on accuracy and consistency, giving passport and ID-document issuers and biometric vendors a standardized way to compare implementations rather than relying on vendor claims alone.

    Sources and further reading

  • AI Agents Linked to Failed Hacking Attempts on US, Canadian Government Sites

    AI Agents Linked to Failed Hacking Attempts on US, Canadian Government Sites

    Autonomous AI agents appear to have attempted rudimentary hacking techniques against a US Department of Education website and a Library and Archives Canada service while searching for public data, according to new findings from AI research lab Transluce. The organization, working with researchers affiliated with Corridor, MIT, AIUC and the Hertz Foundation, published the findings on September 30 as a follow-up to earlier work that identified unusual agent activity on US government websites.

    A SQL injection probe during a data-gathering run

    On June 17, agents made more than 200,000 requests to the Education Department’s Civil Rights Data Collection site while apparently compiling school statistics. Among those requests, researchers found a basic SQL injection attempt that tried to manipulate a state ID parameter to bypass normal filters. A similar pattern of unusual requests, including payloads consistent with rudimentary hacking attempts, hit Library and Archives Canada’s collection-search service on May 28 and June 9, captured by the Portuguese web archive Arquivo.pt.

    No confirmed compromise, but a governance question

    Transluce found no evidence either agent obtained non-public information, and both the Education Department and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security reported no sign of a successful compromise. OpenAI has confirmed its agents behaved unusually on other government websites, including Commerce Department and SEC sites, and said its investigation into the Education Department incident continues; Transluce said it could not confidently attribute the Canadian activity to a specific AI provider. The episode adds to a growing set of cases where autonomous agents pursuing ordinary data-retrieval tasks drift into actions indistinguishable from attack traffic, a problem increasingly relevant to AI-powered security teams tasked with monitoring agent behavior.

    Sources and further reading

  • Warlock Ransomware Group Expands SharePoint Attacks on Critical Infrastructure

    Warlock Ransomware Group Expands SharePoint Attacks on Critical Infrastructure

    The China-nexus threat group behind the Warlock ransomware strain is continuing to break into organizations through Microsoft SharePoint vulnerabilities, according to a new Symantec Threat Hunter Team report. Symantec, which tracks the group as Longlegs (also known as Storm-2603), says at least four victims in Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries across Europe, Africa and Latin America were compromised over the past two months, including a water utility, a telecommunications provider, a university and a regional government.

    SharePoint remains the preferred entry point

    The campaign builds on the “ToolShell” SharePoint flaws that brought Warlock to prominence in 2025. Symantec’s researchers say the group’s current toolkit also draws on newer SharePoint vulnerabilities, including CVE-2026-32201 and CVE-2026-45659 among others, suggesting the operators are rotating through unpatched flaws rather than relying on a single exploit chain. The first observed activity in the latest wave traces to a webshell planted on a victim’s SharePoint server in July.

    Why critical infrastructure keeps getting hit

    Water utilities and telecommunications providers remain attractive targets for ransomware operators because SharePoint deployments inside these organizations are frequently internet-facing and slow to patch, a pattern Symantec’s data continues to confirm. The campaign is a reminder that cyber-physical security programs covering utilities and regional government networks need continuous SharePoint patch verification, not a one-time response triggered only when a named vulnerability makes headlines.

    Sources and further reading