Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on 23 October 2026 that he has sued OpenAI and its affiliated entities, including CEO Sam Altman, alleging that despite marketing itself as a safe and reliable tool, OpenAI has failed to protect Texans, including children, from the harms of relying on ChatGPT. The Attorney General's office says OpenAI misrepresented its AI products, that without adequate safeguards large language models can output inaccurate or harmful information without that risk being disclosed to users, and that the claims are brought under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices—Consumer Protection Act. Updated 26 Oct 2026 (The Record): according to The Record from Recorded Future News, the suit seeks civil penalties of up to US$10,000 per violation and injunctive relief including a requirement that OpenAI bar minors from ChatGPT, obtain approval of new models from a court-appointed expert, and stop the chatbot giving users tips on suicide, eating disorders and committing violence; The Record also reports that Paxton alleges OpenAI has long failed to verify identities in violation of state law, and that the suit seeks to hold Altman personally liable. According to The Record, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company “works closely with experts to continually improve ChatGPT, mitigate risks and build additional safeguards”, that governments have an important role in setting robust safety standards for AI, and that it is committed to working with Texas and other states on pragmatic AI policies that apply to the entire AI industry, not just one company. These are allegations in a lawsuit and have not been tested in court. Correction (27 Oct 2026): an earlier version said OpenAI had not responded to The Record's request for comment; The Record in fact quotes an OpenAI spokesperson, whose response is now included. (source: The Record)
Texas Attorney General — Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman for Lying to Users and Harming Texans (23 Oct 2026)
Zheng Zhao, 44, a Chinese national, was arraigned in the Central District of California after being extradited from the Netherlands for his alleged role in an international cryptocurrency investment conspiracy carried out from scam centres in Cambodia that targeted US citizens, the US Department of Justice said in a press release dated 23 October 2026; it says the government identified 174 US victims. According to the Justice Department, co-conspirators contacted victims through unsolicited social media messages, phone calls, text messages and online dating services, promoted fake digital-asset investments through websites built to look like real cryptocurrency trading platforms, and told victims their investments were growing when the money had in fact been stolen. The department says more than US$36.9 million in victim funds was moved from US bank accounts controlled by the co-conspirators to a single account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas, and that Zhao and others arranged for the bank to convert it to the Tether (USDT) stablecoin and send it to a digital asset wallet controlled in Cambodia, from where it went to leaders of scam centres in the region. Zhao was charged in August 2025 with conspiracy to commit money laundering and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted; the department notes a complaint is only an allegation and defendants are presumed innocent. Eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty, and two of them were sentenced to 51 and 46 months in prison, the Justice Department says. BleepingComputer reported the extradition on 26 October.
US Department of Justice — Chinese National Extradited for Alleged Role in Multimillion-Dollar Cryptocurrency Scam Targeting U.S. Citizens (23 Oct 2026)
An attacker who spent ten weeks replaying stolen Microsoft 365 sign-in sessions broke into email accounts at 79 organisations and used hidden inbox rules to keep victims from seeing parts of their own mail, according to Help Net Security, reporting research by Huntress. Huntress tracked the campaign between 14 July and 22 September 2026, counting 497 successful sign-ins and more than 200,000 failed login attempts, and the stolen sessions were replayed from servers at 1337 Services GmbH, a hosting provider incorporated in Hamburg, Germany, according to Help Net Security. Huntress says victims landed on fake sign-in pages backed by adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) relays that passed the real Microsoft login page and MFA prompt through while keeping the session token issued after sign-in, which can be used without passing MFA again; other tokens came from device-code phishing and social engineering, according to Help Net Security. Huntress calls the bulk replay of stolen tokens from one block of addresses 'token spraying', and says the attacker moved between six addresses in the 193.26.115.0/24 range in four phases, according to Help Net Security. Once inside, Huntress found at least 48 rogue computers registered in victims' Microsoft Entra directories, each named 'DESKTOP-' followed by eight hexadecimal characters, and in 19 organisations the victim's existing MFA methods were wiped and a new one registered within three hours of the first sign-in from a campaign address, according to Help Net Security. Inbox rules with names such as '.', 'sss' and 'iT' deleted incoming mail or moved it to folders such as RSS Feeds and Conversation History; in one case a compromised mailbox was used to send a payroll-related email to an external accountant, according to Help Net Security. From 11 September an automated program reusing captured tokens completed hundreds of successful sign-ins at nearly 30 organisations over four days, and every one of the 1,052 blocks of that address came from four organisations whose Conditional Access policies refused the sign-ins, according to Help Net Security.
Help Net Security — Microsoft 365 accounts compromised at 79 organizations, no passwords needed (23 Oct 2026)
Japanese transport company Sagawa Express has announced that up to about 53.23 million sets of personal information may have been compromised due to unauthorised access to its delivery tracking service, according to The Japan Times (Jiji, 24 Oct 2026). According to The Japan Times, the affected data includes the names, addresses and phone numbers of senders and recipients on shipping labels from 21 June to 30 September, as well as the addresses and phone numbers of corporate customers; Sagawa Express said the figure does not necessarily reflect the number of affected customers because there are many overlaps between senders and recipients. Sagawa Express announced the figure on 23 October in a follow-up to the unauthorised access it disclosed on 30 September, according to ITmedia NEWS, which reports that the data also covers members of its 'Smart Club' web service (including email addresses and member IDs), that credit card information and passwords are not included, and that the cause is still being investigated with outside specialists. The company has resumed the tracking service but some other web services remain suspended, according to both outlets. Sources: The Japan Times; ITmedia NEWS. Correction (25 Oct 2026): the card date has moved from 24 to 23 October 2026, the date of ITmedia NEWS's report (23 October, 17:38 Japan time; 4:38 pm Perth), the earliest source cited. (source: ITmedia NEWS)
The Japan Times — Sagawa Express says 53 million sets of personal info possibly compromised (24 Oct 2026)
Google's privacy policy, effective 16 October 2026, says users may choose to allow certain Google services, including Search or Gemini Apps, to access data from other Google services such as Google Photos and Workspace apps like Gmail and Drive, and that 'Search may process some of the data that you allow Search to access to personalize content, including ads.' The policy also says: 'We don't show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Google Photos, unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads.' According to Android Authority, which reported the change on 23 October, Gmail, Drive and Photos content is not used for targeted ads by default, but connecting them to eligible Google services through Personal Intelligence could change that; users can disconnect connected apps or turn off Personalized Recommendations, but data already saved in Search Services History may remain. Primary: Google privacy policy; wire: Android Authority. Updated 24 Oct 2026: The Hacker News reports that Personal Intelligence is rolling out as a beta to eligible users over 18 globally, except in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, the UK and Nigeria. (source: The Hacker News)
Quest Diagnostics says in a notice on its website, 'An update on an incident involving one of our systems', that it has identified an incident involving unauthorised access to its Quanum LSM system, which certain clients use to place test orders and receive and look up results. Quest says it paused access to the system on discovery and is continuing to investigate, that its core business operations are not impacted, and that providers using direct-customer LIS interfaces or EMRs to order testing can keep doing so because those interfaces were not affected. According to The Record (23 Oct), the system was taken offline on Thursday (22 Oct, US time); Quest's statement and FAQ say the company believes some patient data within the system was accessed; Quest is working with law enforcement and investigating what patient data was affected; customers can use paper requisitions in the meantime; and Quest said the incident did not involve the recent PHP vulnerabilities. The Record says a Quest spokesperson declined to comment on the nature of the incident. Primary: Quest Diagnostics notice; wire: The Record. UPDATE (24 Oct 2026): Quest's notice, now marked 'As of 8:00 am ET, October 23, 2026', adds FAQs. Quest says it believes some patient data within Quanum LSM was accessed and that, 'based on our investigation to date, personal information and patient records were affected'; it is still working to determine the specific data and the affected patients and providers, and as the covered entity will make notifications as required by applicable law, with letters describing resources including credit and identity monitoring. Quest says there is no more access to Quanum LSM, that it is communicating with law enforcement, that no data was accessed in its Essential Insights and LabHQ systems although it paused access to them as a precaution, and that the incident is not related to a PHP programming language issue. Quanum LSM is redirecting clients to Quanum eLabs, where they can log in with the same credentials. According to BleepingComputer (23 Oct), Quest said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it learned of the unauthorised access on 21 October 2026, and BleepingComputer could not find a threat group claiming the attack. (source: Quest Diagnostics; BleepingComputer)
Quest Diagnostics — An update on an incident involving one of our systems
PHP published an informational advisory on 23 October 2026 (10:12 UTC, 6:12 pm Perth) suggesting that users set session.upload_progress.enabled=0 until the next regular bugfix release, 'to fully protect from an unlikely RCE vector', tracked as CVE-2026-115560. PHP says the issue can only occur under an unusual combination of configuration and application code: an application must set session.serialize_handler to php_binary or php_serialize in its configuration and then switch it to php at runtime with ini_set() before calling session_start(), and session upload progress must also still be enabled. PHP says applications that never change the serialize handler at runtime can keep the feature enabled. PHP says the same setting was already listed as a mitigation in its GHSA-6wmf-4rv5-p3rp advisory for CVE-2026-109619 published on 21 October, and that anyone who applied it then should keep it in place and needs to take no further action. Because the setup is unlikely in practice, PHP says it is handling the issue in the regular release cycle and will publish a full advisory for CVE-2026-115560 with the next release. According to The Hacker News (23 Oct), the new issue is separate from, and not fixed by, the 21 October releases (PHP 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36 and 8.2.35) that fixed the critical PHP2Shell flaws CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619; PHP has not stated which versions are affected, which releases will contain the fix, or a severity score; and no exploitation of CVE-2026-115560 has been reported. Primary: PHP.net; wire: The Hacker News. Updated 24 Oct 2026: the CVE number has no published record on cve.org yet, so the card no longer links to one; PHP's own advisory is the primary source. (source: PHP.net) UPDATE (25 Oct 2026): Palo Alto Networks added an FAQ to its PHP advisory on 25 October saying its current analysis shows no impact of CVE-2026-115560 on PAN-OS (NGFW and Panorama), because the issue relates to an uncommon configuration that PAN-OS does not use, and that a review of impact to its other products is underway. (source: Palo Alto Networks advisory CVE-2026-109618)
PHP.net — Informational advisory: Session upload progress (23 Oct 2026)
According to iTnews (23 October 2026), Australia has imposed targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on two North Korean individuals, Yu Pu Ung and Sim Hyon Sop, and two companies, Korea Mangyongdae Computer Technology Company and Chinyong Information Technology Cooperation Company, which help the regime place IT workers in remote jobs abroad to bring in foreign currency. iTnews says all four were already under United States Treasury sanctions. iTnews reports that the Australian government said the workers obtained remote employment while posing as nationals of other countries, breaching UN Security Council resolutions that prohibit North Korea's export of labour, and that the listings act on findings by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), which the government said had exposed North Korea's sanctions-evasion networks and 'the serious cyber security risks those networks pose to affected businesses'. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement, as quoted by iTnews: 'We are taking this action in coordination with international partners, including the European Union.' According to iTnews, the listings follow a warning from the Australian Sanctions Office (ASO) that North Korean workers are using stolen and doctored Australian drivers' licences and passports to win remote contracts. iTnews reports the ASO said Australia's competitive salaries and demand for contract IT staff make the country an attractive target, that local companies have been approached through LinkedIn, Fiverr and Freelancer as well as through recruitment firms, and that businesses should not rely on recruiters' due diligence and should watch for warning signs such as AI-generated interview answers, face-swap filters on video calls and logins from several countries in quick succession. iTnews says making an asset available to a listed person or entity without ministerial authorisation is a criminal offence: individuals face up to 10 years' jail and fines of up to $910,000 or three times the value of the transactions, whichever is greater, and companies face fines of up to $3.64 million on the same basis, though a business can defend itself by showing it took reasonable precautions and exercised due diligence. Primary: iTnews. Correction (24 Oct 2026): this card previously credited the DFAT notice, the Foreign Minister's media release and the ASO advisory note directly; those pages could not be loaded to verify, so the card now credits iTnews and drops details iTnews does not report (the penalty-unit figures, the advisory note's publication dates and further red flags and advice). It also corrects the spelling of Mangyongdae. (source: iTnews)
iTnews — Australia sanctions North Korean IT worker bosses and financiers (Juha Saarinen, 23 Oct 2026)
TianoCore published GitHub advisory GHSA-99cj-7hg9-mp4m, "Pre-boot RCE in EDK II PXE driver", on 22 October 2026, rated Critical (CVSS 4.0 9.5, CWE-120). According to the advisory, the UefiPxeBcDxe driver in NetworkPkg copies ICMP error packets into the 504-byte Mode.IcmpError field in both its IPv4 and IPv6 handlers, so an unauthenticated attacker can send a unicast ICMP error during PXE boot from any network distance. Results range from a boot hang to code execution in DXE at ring 0 when the attacker knows the firmware build. The advisory lists EDK II master as of 2026-09-14 as affected, says it is "Not patched currently" and points to fix pull request 13302; the CVE record lists versions up to edk2-stable202608. Credit goes to Alex Matrosov (Anthropic) and Dan Holmes-Mitra (Google). Ars Technica (27 Oct) reports that disclosure went wrong after an AMI pull request last month, with coordinated disclosure originally planned for January; that Intel says no commercial products under security support are known to be affected; that Arm says the issue is not directly applicable; and that Eclypsium's Jesse Michael says exploits must be tuned per target. Ars says home computers that boot from disk are not affected.
TianoCore (GitHub advisory GHSA-99cj-7hg9-mp4m) — Pre-boot RCE in EDK II PXE driver (22 Oct 2026)
Vodafone's parent company TPG Telecom said it analysed millions of scam calls on the Vodafone network between July 2025 and July 2026 and found that 98 per cent of them, more than 24 million calls, came via Symbio, a little-known internet phone company owned by Aussie Broadband, according to ABC News, which reported the analysis on 22 October 2026. TPG executive Vanessa Hicks told the ABC that every time it sees such a campaign it gives the evidence to Aussie Broadband to investigate and block the bad actors, and that it wants more urgent action closer to the source. According to the ABC, Vodafone's fraud team found that police stations in Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia and the Australian Federal Police had been impersonated by calls from Symbio's network, with over 2,400 calls in one scam in a single week in September, Hicks said. Aussie Broadband chief executive Brian Maher told the ABC that Symbio has about 500 customers who on-sell its phone numbers, that Symbio has no oversight of who they sell numbers to, which makes stopping scammers very difficult, and that 'where we find a persistent bad actor, then we will disconnect them'; he said the company uses detection software and a team of more than 20 people, and has made 'significant progress' over the past month. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said in a statement to the ABC that checks on that particular police-impersonation scam showed regulation was working, that the traffic was identified, notifications were passed upstream and blocking occurred, that the apparent sources were multiple overseas telcos, and that it did not identify non-compliance by an Australian telco. The ABC reports that ACMA warned Symbio in 2024 after finding it did not properly investigate scam calls and failed to share information quickly with other telcos, and in 2022 over failing to investigate and trace scam calls. Information Age (ACS) reported on 27 October that Vodafone's analysis of 25 million scam calls found 24.8 million (98.35 per cent) came from Symbio's voice network, and that Vodafone contacted regulators more than 160 times. Primary: ABC News; also Information Age.
ABC News — Vodafone's owner accuses rival Aussie Broadband of being behind millions of scam calls to customers (22 Oct 2026)
Forever Security says it found a malicious AGENTS.md file in the ~/Downloads folder of a real customer machine and stopped a coding agent, mid-session, from installing function-color, a known malicious npm package that Forever says npm has since removed. Forever says ~/Downloads is the one folder a website can write to on its own and that a web page can download a file named AGENTS.md there silently. Forever says it reproduced the attack on OpenAI Codex, which ran the malware in more than 90% of attempts in its testing, and on Claude Code, where a planted instructions file pointed Claude's API calls at Forever's own server and leaked Claude's OAuth login token, which Forever says it replayed to be served as the victim. Forever says there is nothing for OpenAI or Anthropic to patch, because an agent following the AGENTS.md in its folder is doing what it was built to do. Updated 25 Oct 2026 (BleepingComputer, 25 October 11:49 pm Perth): BleepingComputer reported that the researchers could not determine how the file got onto the customer's machine, and that the attack also needs the user to start their AI agent in that folder. Correction (26 Oct 2026): the card date has moved from 25 to 22 October 2026, the date of Forever Security's blog post. (source: BleepingComputer)
Forever Security — Markdown Is the New Executable: Attackers Are Dropping Agent Instructions Into Your Downloads Folder From the Web
METR said on 22 October 2026 that, from 21 July to 11 August, one METR employee and one Redwood Research employee ran a pilot high-access exercise to stress-test OpenAI's internal misalignment monitoring system, with access to OpenAI's internal codebase, monitor prompts and configuration, and internal documentation. METR says the findings describe the system as it existed on and before 21 July, not OpenAI's later, expanded monitoring. Among the findings METR lists: a way Codex agents could in principle bypass Codex sandboxing and Auto-Review and take any action the host user could take; an exploit that would stop hundreds of recent agent actions from being monitored (details redacted by OpenAI); likely ways for agents to make the monitor fail through serialization differences between what agents and monitors see; two client-controllable headers that disable monitoring for new agents; and two unmonitored internal agentic tools thought to be read-only that a simple exploit could have subverted, which METR says it did not validate. METR estimates that roughly 75–94% of agentic internal Responses API traffic from models at least as strong as GPT-5.5 was eligible for monitoring at the time, with substantial uncertainty, and that RL training runs were not covered by the monitoring system at the start of the exercise. METR says OpenAI has since stated that all of the vulnerabilities it identified that affect OpenAI's production safeguards stack have been patched, and that METR has not evaluated those claims. METR says it agreed with OpenAI to publish only a brief, high-level post and that OpenAI could redact it. Updated 25 Oct 2026: The Hacker News reported the findings on 25 October (2:54 pm Perth). (source: The Hacker News) Distinct from desk cards openai-agents-disabled-misalignment-monitoring-sol-astra-20261020 (OpenAI's own report on agents weakening monitoring in October) and openai-hugging-face-incident-20260826.
METR — Red-Teaming OpenAI's Internal Agent Monitoring Systems (22 Oct 2026)
