In Other News: Apple Improving Malware Detection, Cybersecurity Funding, Cyber Command Chief Fired

SecurityWeek’s cybersecurity news roundup provides a concise compilation of noteworthy stories that might have slipped under the radar.

We provide a valuable summary of stories that may not warrant an entire article, but are nonetheless important for a comprehensive understanding of the cybersecurity landscape.

Each week, we curate and present a collection of noteworthy developments, ranging from the latest vulnerability discoveries and emerging attack techniques to significant policy changes and industry reports.

Here are this week’s stories:

Hitachi Energy vulnerabilities

CISA has published two advisories describing vulnerabilities in Hitachi Energy products. One advisory describes two high-severity and two medium-severity flaws in RTU500 series products that can be exploited for DoS attacks. The second advisory describes three medium-severity vulnerabilities in the TRMTracker application that can allow remote command execution, web cache poisoning, and sensitive information disclosure.

Apple improvements for malware detection

Apple security expert Patrick Wardle reported that upcoming versions of macOS will make it easier for security products to detect when a piece of malware may be trying to bypass Transparency Consent and Control (TCC), the framework that manages access to sensitive user data on macOS. In most cases, macOS malware bypasses TCC by tricking the user into clicking a button to allow a TCC exception. In order to allow security products to detect potential TCC attacks, Apple is adding TCC events to the Endpoint Security system. Some issues identified in the beta version of macOS still need to be addressed, but Wardle is hopeful.

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Microsoft warns of tax-themed phishing

Microsoft is warning users about phishing campaigns using tax-related themes. Threat actors are leveraging URL shorteners and QR codes in malicious attachments to lead users to phishing pages, RATs and other malware.

Sam’s Club targeted in ransomware attack

Walmart-owned supermarket chain Sam’s Club has launched an investigation after the Cl0p ransomware group added it to its leak website. Cl0p stole data recently from many organizations through the exploitation of a vulnerability in Cleo software, but it’s unclear if Sam’s Club is a victim of the Cleo attack.

Canadian national charged over US Republican Party hacking

Canadian national Aubrey Cottle has been charged over the alleged theft of data from the Texas Republican Party in 2021. Cottle is accused of hacking into a third-party hosting company’s systems to deface and download a backup of the party’s web server, which contained personal information. The information was then distributed and made available for download.

Cybersecurity professor targeted by FBI

XiaoFeng Wang, a top privacy and data security expert and a cybersecurity professor at Indiana University for over 20 years, was fired recently by the university, the same day the FBI searched his home. Wang and his wife have disappeared, but their attorney says they are safe. Wired reported that the professor faced an inquiry related to funding from China before disappearing. Wang’s legal team is not aware of any charges being brought against him.

Quantum random number generator achieves NIST validation
A quantum random number generator (QRNG) made by quantum computing company Quantinuum is the first software QRNG to achieve NIST validation. The news comes shortly after researchers announced that they managed to generate truly random numbers using a quantum computer.

Cybersecurity funding in Q1 2025

Cybersecurity recruitment firm Pinpoint Search Group has released its Q1 2025 cybersecurity funding report. A total of $2.2 billion was raised in Q1 2025, a 4% drop compared to the $2.3 billion raised in Q1 2024. According to Pinpoint, 85 funding rounds were tracked in Q1 2025, representing a 12% raise in funding volume compared with the first quarter of 2024.

Trump fires head of NSA and Cyber Command

The Trump administration this week fired Gen. Timothy Haugh, who has served as the head of the NSA and Cyber Command since February 2024. Lt. Gen. William Hartman, deputy of Cyber Command, is expected to replace Haugh. The decision to replace Haugh appears politically motivated.