security

AI security operations startup Mate Security announced the completion of a $35 million Series A financing round, led by Canaan Partners, with participation from Insight Partners, Team8, and Microsoft's venture fund M12, bringing the total funding to over $50 million.It has been less than a year since the company emerged from stealth mode. Mate Security was founded by former employees of Wiz and Microsoft, and its core product is the "Security Context Graph," which empowers AI security agents with business context by building an organizational knowledge layer, enabling them to make judgments based on actual operational conditions when handling alerts, effectively reducing false positive rates.

According to Jinshi reports, the Polish armed forces stated that due to Russia's airstrikes on Ukraine, Poland has deployed fighter jets for protective reasons.

According to Jinshi reports, the Iraqi Prime Minister has called for an emergency security meeting in response to the current situation after attacks were carried out by Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Anthropic announced that the Claude Mythos Preview model has made breakthroughs in cryptographic research, discovering improved attack methods against the post-quantum digital signature candidate HAWK. HAWK is a post-quantum signature candidate solicited by NIST to combat quantum computer attacks, which has already passed two rounds of expert review. However, Claude reduced the effective key strength of HAWK-256 from 2^64 to 2^38 in just 60 hours, significantly lowering the theoretical cost of cracking. HAWK has not yet been deployed in practice, and this attack currently does not affect any production systems.Claude also discovered an improved attack against 7-round AES, achieving a speed increase of 200 to 800 times. During the research process, Claude independently completed literature reviews, mathematical reasoning, and experimental validation with limited guidance from cryptographers. The HAWK attack took about 60 hours and had an API cost of approximately $100,000; the AES attack was completed independently by Claude, which generated about 1 billion tokens before proposing core innovative ideas. Anthropic researchers then spent hundreds of hours validating the results. Anthropic stated that AI models can now help identify significant flaws in cryptographic algorithms, and the cryptography community may face bottlenecks similar to those in the software vulnerability field—AI-generated research results far exceed human verification capabilities. Anthropic has collaborated with academic institutions to launch the CryptanalysisBench benchmark and coordinated disclosures with NIST authors and government partners. The research team has achieved preliminary results on algorithms such as LEA and Serpent-128. Anthropic warns that as AI capabilities improve, actual attacks against deployed systems may be discovered in the future, necessitating the establishment of response mechanisms in advance.

According to Techcrunch, AI data security company Cyera announced on Tuesday that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire Oasis Security for approximately $1 billion, with the transaction expected to be primarily in cash, and the remainder paid in Cyera shares. Cyera recently completed a $600 million financing round at a valuation of $12 billion.Oasis focuses on non-human identity security, such as AI agents, and was founded in 2022, having raised approximately $195 million in total funding, with investors including Accel, Craft Ventures, and Cyberstarts. Cyera shares some investors with Oasis and has recently acquired Ryft and Genie Security. After the acquisition, Cyera plans to integrate Oasis's technology into a unified identity and data security platform. Cyera has an annual recurring revenue of over $150 million but is far from profitable, having raised approximately $2.3 billion in total funding over five years.

According to Vietnamese media An Ninh Tien Te, the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam proposed to expand the scope of electronic identification subjects in the draft of the "Electronic Identification and Authentication Law," incorporating data, applications, digital assets, and various other assets. The draft stipulates that electronic identification subjects include not only institutions, organizations, and individuals but also extend to physical entities such as products, goods, and equipment, as well as digital resources and digital assets like databases, documents, images, and videos. The identification of digital assets is executed in accordance with the provisions of the Digital Technology Industry Law.The draft also establishes mechanisms for the suspension, restoration, and cancellation of electronic identities and identification codes. The Ministry of Public Security stated that the current electronic identification primarily serves the digital construction of citizens and the government, but in the context of the rapid development of the digital economy and digital society, a unified identification mechanism needs to be established, covering various entities in both physical and digital environments.

Solana Optimistic Network (SOON) announced that the security incident discovered on July 12 has been investigated and resolved. The incident did not involve vulnerabilities in the SOON protocol, sequencer, or user-facing smart contracts, and no user funds were lost. SOON stated that this incident originated from security issues in the off-chain operational environment.According to an investigation by the third-party security company BlockSec, external attackers gained unauthorized access through misconfigured services and further entered part of the internal environment due to insufficient access controls. The impact of the incident was limited to certain operational infrastructure and related processes, and did not involve on-chain user assets, user smart contracts, or SOON network security. After the incident, SOON suspended the sequencer and some services, and initiated a comprehensive security review. During this period, functions such as NFT minting, token claiming, and on-chain withdrawals were temporarily shut down. Currently, SOON has restored NFT minting and token claiming functions, and has resumed mainnet RPC services and block production. The network is now operating normally.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang posted a second tweet on the X platform, announcing the establishment of the "Open Secure AI Alliance," aimed at uniting global technology companies to jointly develop security technologies and tools to protect AI software and AI Agents.Huang stated that attackers already possess cutting-edge AI capabilities, and defenders need to establish a cutting-edge AI ecosystem driven by the global community, combining the advantages of both open and closed-source models to enhance AI security capabilities.He pointed out that in the previous Hugging Face security incident, closed-source AI limited critical forensic work, while open-weight cutting-edge models helped the team control the intrusion event, which is also the reason for establishing the Open Secure AI Alliance.According to NVIDIA, the alliance will collaborate with several companies and institutions, including Adobe, Microsoft, Hugging Face, IBM, NVIDIA, Cloudflare, CrowdStrike, Databricks, Palantir, Red Hat, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, SpaceX, and SK Telecom, to develop new AI security technologies and protective tools.

Binance founder CZ responded to the question "Why not acquire smaller CEXs" by stating that acquiring centralized exchanges is different from other businesses. Once a hack occurs after the acquisition, it is difficult to determine whether it is a backdoor left by the previous team or a new issue, thus the security and compliance risks are higher. He emphasized that acquiring CEXs is still possible, but the due diligence and risk control processes are more complex.

According to Cointelegraph, Binance's Chief Security Officer Jimmy Su stated that Binance conducts red team testing internally every month to assess the overall security awareness of employees.Testing scenarios include impersonating recruiters, sending free meeting invitations, and enticing employees to submit personal information. Employees who fail the test must undergo corrective training, and the test results will also be included in performance evaluations; if an employee fails severely multiple times, they may face termination.

Regarding the details of the withdrawal announcement released by Bitmart, WOO X ambassador Baki posted on the X platform, "BitMart is restricting user withdrawals for security reasons, and its operation to disable the automatic withdrawal function may result in a large number of users being unable to complete fund withdrawals. The platform has changed the withdrawal process to manual review, requiring users to submit account identity and KYC information verification, login device and IP address and account security status verification, withdrawal address and blockchain transaction risk review, source of funds and transaction history review, Travel Rule compliance and sanctions screening, and other regulatory checks. If necessary, additional documents such as proof of identity, proof of address, proof of source of funds, or proof of ownership of the withdrawal address may also be required."Baki suggested that users with P2P options could withdraw to their bank accounts through that channel; he also emphasized that the crypto market is not decentralized but controlled by a few large groups, exchanges, and funders.

According to official news, OKX, in collaboration with Elliptic, SlowMist, and OttoSec, has released the "Web3 Security and Risk Control Report for the First Half of 2026." The report points out that the focus of Web3 attacks is gradually shifting from smart contract code to more complex scenarios such as signature processes, user devices, operational infrastructure, and AI Agents.Data shows that in the first half of 2026, the OKX risk control system intercepted over 5.7 million high-risk transactions, including approximately 2.41 million transactions related to hacking and theft, about 1.48 million transactions related to phishing, and around 990,000 transactions related to fraud. The OKX Web3 on-chain intelligence label library currently has over 1 billion labels, covering more than 420 chains, and has integrated capabilities such as address screening, transaction monitoring, and sanction address control into infrastructures like DEX and Exchange OS.In addition, in terms of user protection, OKX has intercepted over 7 million visits to risky websites, completed over 200,000 device risk assessments, identified over 60,000 high-risk apps, and intercepted or alerted on over 4 million high-risk signature operations. The report also introduces the "risk control pre-positioning" design in scenarios such as Exchange OS, Outcomes, RWA, and Agentic Wallet.

Nine financial institutions and Bitcoin companies announced the joint establishment of the Bitcoin Security Alliance, with founding members including Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, BlackRock, Block, Blockstream, Coinbase, Fidelity, Galaxy, and Strategy, covering the entire chain of institutions such as custody, trading, infrastructure, payments, and asset management.The alliance commits to providing a total of $15 million in funding over the next three years to support developers and researchers in the field of Bitcoin security, including long-term work to prepare Bitcoin for the future era of quantum computing. Each member independently decides which developers, researchers, or organizations to direct their funding towards. The daily operations of the alliance are coordinated on a voluntary basis by Brink Executive Director Mike Schmidt, with Brink being a nonprofit organization that funds Bitcoin open-source developers.The alliance clearly states that it does not formulate or direct Bitcoin protocols, does not express opinions on specific protocol changes, and does not represent Bitcoin or its developers—Bitcoin development continues to be carried out by a globally decentralized community of contributors. Its positioning is to emulate the model of industry organizations that have long supported open-source software, providing resources and attention to developers without controlling the underlying work.Strategy CEO Phong Le stated, "As long-term holders, ensuring the security of Bitcoin for generations is our greatest incentive"; BlackRock's Global Head of Digital Assets Robert Mitchnick pointed out that the work of Bitcoin core developers is "extremely important," and this commitment will provide "significant additional funding" for Bitcoin's long-term security needs. The alliance will also serve as a reliable source of information for investors, the public, and the media in the field of Bitcoin security, with plans to publish and continuously update materials related to Bitcoin security in the coming months.

Web3 security company CertiK released the "2026 First Half Wrench Attack Report." The report shows that in the first half of 2026, a total of 52 publicly verified wrench attack incidents were recorded globally, an increase of 33.3% year-on-year; related losses amounted to approximately $124 million, an increase of about 11.8 times compared to the same period last year.The report points out that attackers are shifting from exploiting technical vulnerabilities to targeting asset holders and their real-world relationship networks, with home invasion incidents rising from 1 in the first half of 2025 to 20, accounting for 41% of the total incidents during the same period. Europe has become a high-frequency attack region, with 33 incidents occurring in France, accounting for 63.5% of global cases.CertiK states that as real-world risks become a significant challenge for digital asset security, businesses and high-value individuals need to establish a more comprehensive protection system. CertiK has launched operational security services to help identify risks related to the exposure of information such as identity, home, residence, and travel trajectory; at the same time, through CertiK Security Workspace, it correlates off-chain intelligence, on-chain transactions, and AML risk signals to support institutions in tracking and analyzing cybercrime activities.In addition, CertiK is strengthening cooperation with international law enforcement agencies such as Interpol and Europol to provide technical support for cross-border attack investigations and security policy research.

Cryptocurrency financial services company Galaxy Digital announced the establishment of a $5 million Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative, funding developers to research solutions to address future quantum computing threats. The program is open for applications starting today, with funding directions including quantum-resistant signature algorithms, wallet migration tools, and security audits.Galaxy stated that it hopes to attract more institutions to jointly invest and research, accelerating Bitcoin's transition to quantum-resistant cryptography. According to CryptoQuant data, if future quantum computers have the capability to crack Bitcoin's existing cryptographic algorithms, approximately 6.9 million BTC (equivalent to about $46.1 billion at current prices) may face the risk of theft. Although the industry generally believes that quantum computing does not pose an immediate threat to the Bitcoin network, related preparations should be initiated as early as possible due to the need for long-term collaboration among developers, wallets, exchanges, and users for protocol upgrades.

According to South Korean media Maeil Business, data from the Financial Supervisory Service of Korea shows that during the first phase of the CBDC pilot project led by the Bank of Korea, financial authorities did not conduct any independent security verification, and only the participating banks conducted their own pre-security reviews.Before the project launched, only an IT vulnerability self-assessment was conducted for the participating banks, executed by the Financial Security Institute, SK Shields, and self-inspection teams from Woori Bank and NongHyup Bank, forming an evaluation model of "self-check by the regulated entities." The central bank acknowledged external doubts about the security of the deposit tokens in the pilot result report and responded that the pre-review was sufficient, but critics pointed out that this explanation was a self-assessment and not an independent third-party verification.

According to official news, the ENS DAO has approved the proposal to activate a new security committee, with a term of two years. The committee consists of eight members and has veto power, allowing it to cancel proposals during the waiting period after malicious proposals are passed but before execution. The committee's authority is limited to canceling transactions within the time lock and cannot access treasury funds, submit proposals, or rewrite approved proposals.The committee can only exercise its power under emergency conditions specified in its charter. ENS points out that governance itself may become an attack surface—voting rights can be borrowed to initiate attacks, proposal codes can hide malicious behavior, and credential leaks can be used to push harmful transactions. The new committee adopts a 5-of-8 multi-signature, requiring at least five members' agreement to cancel a proposal, and must seek DAO voting for extension after the two-year term.

According to GlobeNewswire, AI security startup Neo announced the completion of a $100 million financing round, led by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Craft Ventures and Merlin Ventures.It is reported that the company positions itself as an "Agentic Software Control" company, dedicated to building a real-time control layer for enterprises, helping security operations teams (SecOps) manage and protect the rapidly proliferating AI agents, AI applications, browsers, identity systems, and intelligent capabilities in traditional software. The new funds will be used to expand the engineering and marketing teams and accelerate the expansion of enterprise customers.

According to Bits.media, Kaspersky security researchers have discovered new malware OkoBot, which steals cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases and credentials through about 20 modules. Attackers use ClickFix social engineering techniques to trick users into executing malicious commands and spread the malware through GitHub repositories disguised as legitimate tools like SQL Server Management Studio.OkoBot's modules include: SeedHunter, which injects into hardware wallets like Trezor and Ledger, displaying a fake interface when recovering recovery phrases; MC Keylogger, which records keyboard and clipboard activity; and OkoSpyware, which tracks wallet passwords and records window videos.Once attackers obtain the recovery phrases, they can gain complete control over the victim's cryptocurrency assets, making it nearly impossible to recover the funds. Kaspersky stated that OkoBot has been active for over a year, with most victims located in Brazil, Vietnam, Canada, Mexico, and Turkey. Attackers have also implemented geographical blocking on IP addresses from Russia and CIS countries.