Finish September's Windows patches: a wormable DNS bug and two exploited flaws
September's Patch Tuesday fixed CVE-2026-69730, a Windows DNS remote-code-execution flaw described by ZDI as a successor to SigRed, plus two exploited privilege-escalation bugs: CVE-2026-81963 (Windows Update Stack) and CVE-2026-85880 (ALPC).
Do this now: Confirm every Windows DNS server and domain controller has the September cumulative update. Prioritize internet-facing DNS.
Ransomware crews are going after healthcare and government
Tracked incidents over the summer were led by healthcare/medtech and public-sector victims. Active names include ShinyHunters, Qilin, Clop and Rhysida, with high-profile hits on Boston Scientific, Manchester Airports Group and the Berlin city government.
Do this now: For your next authorized test, emulate the exfiltrate-then-extort flow: can you move large volumes of data out before anyone notices?
Wazuh 5.0 is in beta: worth a lab test
Wazuh 5.0 betas add a built-in threat-intel (CTI) section, incident response in the dashboard, AI assistant settings, and switch file-integrity who-data to eBPF by default. Manager daemons and config files were reorganized, and legacy OS support was dropped.
Do this now: Stand it up next to your current SIEM in the lab and replay last month's alerts. Don't upgrade production during beta.
CIRCIA: prepare for 72-hour incident reporting
CISA's final CIRCIA rule was slated for September 2026 in the Unified Agenda. When it takes effect, covered critical-infrastructure entities must report covered incidents within 72 hours and ransom payments within 24 hours. Check the Federal Register for publication status and the effective date.
Do this now: Decide whether each legal entity is covered, and build one notification matrix that runs CIRCIA, SEC, HIPAA and state clocks side by side.
AI coding agents leaked thousands of internal screenshots
Reports at the end of September described AI coding agents publishing more than 13,000 internal screenshots to public GitHub repositories, exposing billing and treasury data from hundreds of organizations.
Do this now: Check what your coding agents are allowed to commit and push. Block image and data files from agent commits by default.