A cybersecurity incident forced UNM Health to divert ambulances, cancel appointments, and pause care while it contained the threat. On Monday, October 26, the University of New Mexico Health System (UNM Health) faced the kind of security incident that healthcare leaders dread: one serious enough to change how patients could receive emergency care. A major hospital network in New Mexico worked urgently on Monday to fix a cybersecurity problem. The issue forced it to send ambulances to other hospitals and left the state without a hospital emergency department able to treat the most serious injuries. UNM Health operates New Mexico’s only Level 1 trauma center. These centers treat the most serious and complex injuries. Even a temporary closure can put extra pressure on other hospitals. UNM Health runs New Mexico’s only Level 1 trauma center. That matters because a Level 1 center handles the most complex injuries, and losing even temporary access to it puts pressure on every nearby hospital. The organization told patients not to come to its main Albuquerque hospital and canceled appointments across more than 30 clinics. “The University of New Mexico Health System is experiencing a cybersecurity issue at this time. UNM Health officials are actively working to resolve this issue. Currently, all ambulance traffic is being diverted to other hospitals and all appointments at all clinics today have been cancelled. UNM Health patients should not show up to UNM Health facilities on October 26. Emergencies should be handled by 911 and non-emergencies should be delayed until further notice.” reads the update published by the organization on October 26, 2026. “The cybersecurity threat is affecting the entire University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. “ UNM said its IT security teams identified the threat around 11 a.m. and began containment work. They later said the event affected some end-user devices but did not reach core systems or servers. Leadership activated an Emergency Operations Center, brought in outside support, and notified state and federal law enforcement. That is the right sequence: isolate first, investigate second, communicate continuously. From 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., UN Health temporarily stopped accepting new patients while teams protected the network. “System outages also required the suspension of outpatient surgeries and appointments for the remainder of the day.” This was not an abstract IT problem. Patients arrived for care and were told to reschedule. Staff had to explain, repeatedly, why a hospital visit could not proceed as planned. UNM also canceled classes at its Health Sciences Center and sent nonessential employees home. Medical, nursing, pharmacy, and population health students lost a day of instruction because the institution had to protect its network. Other providers stepped in. Presbyterian Healthcare Services and Lovelace Health System coordinated with UNM and took additional patients, which is exactly what a functioning regional healthcare system should do. UNM Health began restoring its systems on Monday afternoon. By the following day, hospitals, ambulance services and clinics were back to normal. The incident is still under criminal investigation. Employees reported messages claiming that patient, student and staff data had been stolen, but UNM has not confirmed this. The hospital also warned people to watch out for phishing and fraud attempts by attackers exploiting the incident. Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, UNM Health)
Attackers can force Android devices into a continuous boot loop using a specially crafted app that requires no permissions and only needs to be installed. To cause the persistent denial-of-service (DoS), the app triggers a vulnerability that researchers dubbed 'GhostMap' that makes Android map a file into an unallocated memory region. The affected process crashes when it attempts to read from that region. Romanian cybersecurity company Bitdefender discovered the flaw while analyzing an Android banking trojan that kept crashing its emulators when it tried to read an application resource. The researchers demonstrated the vulnerability by creating an app that contains no executable code, requests no permissions on installation, and does not need to be launched on the device. According to the company, Google has been aware of GhostMap since August but closed the issue without releasing a patch, classifying it as "not reproducible."
A Canadian man was extradited to the U.S. to face charges over hacking universities and hijacking their computers to mine cryptocurrency. A Canadian man, Ryan James Roach (35), has been extradicted to the United States to face charges tied to a hacking operation that targeted universities and other schools. Roach was extradited on October 28 and now faces federal charges alongside Mathiew James Stubbings, 41, of Ontario. The indictment alleges that, from June 2016 to December 2019, the two men hacked computers, stole login details, and used victims’ machines to mine cryptocurrency for themselves. “They used virtual private servers in multiple countries, which were registered under false names. These servers transmitted malware and mining software to victim computers and stored stolen login credentials.” DoJ states. “Victims of the scheme included educational institutions in New York, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Massachusetts. Some of the computers damaged by the defendants were located at an institution of higher learning in the Western District of New York.” The targets were not random home PCs. Prosecutors say the pair went after U.S. schools with supercomputers, including institutions in New York, Tennessee, North Carolina and Massachusetts. Some affected computers belonged to a higher-education institution in western New York. “To carry out the scheme, Roach and Stubbings surreptitiously accessed victim computers without authorization, deployed malware to gain control, stole victim login credentials, exfiltrated the data to servers that they controlled, and forcing victim computers to use their processing power to mine cryptocurrency for the financial benefit of the defendants.” DoJ continues. That is a lot of effort to turn someone else’s research hardware into a personal crypto rig. The alleged method was also more involved than a single phishing email. The indictment says they looked for weaknesses in victims’ networks, used servers and compromised machines from one victim to hide their tracks, and then moved through the network once inside. The duo used sophisticated techniques and tools to conduct reconnaissance and expand their access within the network. The charges include conspiracy to obtain information from and damage protected computers, obtaining information from a protected computer, and intentional damage to a protected computer. Each carries up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors also allege the pair damaged at least 10 protected computers in one year and caused at least $5,000 in losses. Roach appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark W. Pedersen and is being held pending a detention hearing. Extradition proceedings for Stubbings continue in Canada. The FBI, the Justice Department’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and the Office of International Affairs worked on the case. For security teams, the useful part is not the alleged crypto-mining. It is the reminder that universities remain attractive targets because they hold powerful computing resources, broad networks, and plenty of people with access. Patch quickly, watch for unusual processing load, and treat credential theft as a serious incident rather than a nuisance. “The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.” DoJ concludes. Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon Pierluigi Paganini (SecurityAffairs – hacking, University Supercomputers)
Apple has revealed that it plans to start checking public iCloud links for harmful content starting with iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3, macOS 27.3, and visionOS 27.3. The change specifically applies to scenarios where users share iCloud content, such as photos in iCloud Photos or files in iCloud Drive, by sharing a link and making it accessible to "Anyone with the link." When users choose this option,
DreamHost is warning of a data breach after attackers gained access to its File Manager platform for two months and stole customers' FTP/SFTP usernames and passwords. This follows the American web hosting provider and domain registrar's announcement that it suffered a cybersecurity incident requiring users to reset their email and FTP/SFTP passwords. In a data breach notification, DreamHost now says the breach extended from August 2026 to October 23, 2026, the day it was discovered. "We discovered that an unauthorized third party accessed the server that runs our web-based File Manager at files.dreamhost.com," reads the notification. "The unauthorized third party exploited a vulnerability in that software and was able to access the FTP/SFTP usernames and passwords of individuals who logged into this File Manager between approximately August 2026 and October 23, 2026."
The developers of Goddess of Victory: NIKKE have confirmed that hackers tampered with the game's PC launcher scripts in a supply-chain attack, distributing malware capable of stealing credentials and cryptocurrency wallet data. According to a notice published on X, a client update was issued on November 4 at 02:30 (UTC +9) to address the issue. "We have identified an issue indicating that the PC Launcher's script files may have been tampered with by a third party," reads the statement on X. "Accordingly, client fixes and an update were implemented on November 4 at approximately 02:30 (UTC+9). We are currently investigating the scope of the impact caused by this issue, and we will provide further details regarding follow-up measures in a separate notice." Goddess of Victory: NIKKE is a popular sci-fi shooter RPG developed by the South Korean firm Shift Up for Windows, iOS, and Android.
A large-scale watering hole attack associated with Russian hackers has been targeting iOS and Android users visiting compromised sites or fake ones impersonating legitimate portals. The campaign used multiple high-profile websites in the U.S., Ukraine, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria that delivered the same payload for profiling visitors and their devices. This initial stage allows the attacker to determine the browser version to deploy "platform-specific n-day exploit chains without user interaction." Researchers at cybersecurity company Sekoia attribute the operation with moderate-to-high confidence to APT29 (aka Midnight Blizzard), a Russian threat group that was recently linked to hotel WiFi attacks. Based on their findings, compromised legitimate sites belong to a Ukrainian gas producer, a U.S. chemical industry trade association, and a Bulgarian military-related site.
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of an OpenAI Codex jailbreak bundle that's designed to modify an artificial intelligence (AI) agent's trusted instructions to insert advertisements for a third-party AI gateway. The phenomenon has been codenamed prompt adware by Check Point Research. Called Haiou (meaning Seagull in Chinese), the jailbreak modifies OpenAI Codex's configuration
A critical Android flaw could allow an attacker to run code on a phone without any user action remotely, Google said in its November security bulletin. The flaw, CVE-2026-58868, affects Android 14 through 17. Phones get the fix with security patch level 2026-11-01 or later, which phone makers and carriers send on their own schedules. As of November 4, Google's bulletin did not report
Large language model hijacking attacks, also known as LLMjacking, are generating large fraudulent cloud charges, with some organizations losing more than $100,000 per day. Companies can record costs as high as $1 million due to fraudulent calls using stolen API keys, researchers at Google's Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) and Mandiant in analyzed incidents. Based on their observations, there are "two distinct operational clusters coordinating to compromise and monetize enterprise LLM infrastructure." The researchers identified two categories of threat actors: those who scan for publicly exposed LLM endpoints and those who steal valid API keys from unprotected machines. After gaining initial access, the attackers sell it to services known as LLM mixers, which provide their subscribers with unauthorized access to LLMs.
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