Water Utility Hacks Put Internet-Exposed PLCs on the Emergency List
Federal agencies say water and wastewater utilities in at least seven states reported attacks on internet-exposed PLCs, with some operations degraded. The Minnesota response shows why utilities need to remove controllers from public access, verify cellular modem exposure, and preserve manual operating capability.
Gemini Spark’s Chrome Access Turns Browser Agents Into a Trust Test
Google is adding Chrome auto-browse access to Gemini Spark, letting the AI agent use logged-in accounts and saved passwords with permission. The feature makes browser agents more useful, but also raises sharper questions about prompt injection, payment handoffs, and account boundaries.
Microsoft Project Perception Puts AI Agents on the Security Patch Path
Microsoft’s Project Perception enters public preview August 3 with MAI-Cyber-1-Flash inside MDASH, promising lower-cost vulnerability discovery and agentic security workflows. The important question is how much action enterprises should let AI security agents take.
OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Price Cuts Make Model Routing a Cost Test
OpenAI cut GPT-5.6 Luna API prices by 80% and Terra by 20%, while adding a faster premium path for Sol. The change makes model routing, evaluations, cache reuse, and latency budgets a practical cost-control problem for teams building AI agents and developer workflows.
ChatGPT Health Turns Medical Records Into AI’s Next Trust Test
OpenAI is rolling out Health in ChatGPT to U.S. users 18 and older, letting the chatbot draw on Apple Health data and supported medical records with permission. The useful promise is clearer health context; the harder question is whether privacy controls, emergency triage, and user trust can keep up.
Claude Opus 5 Turns Frontier AI Into a Model-Routing Decision
Anthropic released Claude Opus 5 on July 24 with near-Fable performance claims, 1 million-token context, Opus 4.8 pricing, Fast mode, and automatic fallbacks. The practical question for developers and enterprises is not only whether Opus 5 is stronger, but where it belongs in a routed AI workflow.
SourTrade Malvertising Makes Browsers Build Malware in Memory
Confiant says the SourTrade malvertising campaign impersonates TradingView, Solana, and Luno, then uses service workers and shared workers to make a victim’s browser assemble a unique Windows malware file in memory. The technique weakens hash-based detection and gives crypto users another reason to avoid sponsored-download paths.
Qualcomm’s Chip Price Hike Could Make Android Upgrades More Expensive
Qualcomm has reportedly told customers it will raise chip prices by a double-digit percentage for shipments after September 1. The move could push Android phone makers, smart-glasses vendors, and Windows-on-Arm PC builders toward higher prices, tighter specs, or delayed launches.
Check Point SmartConsole Zero-Day Puts Firewall Management on Patch Deadline
Check Point has patched CVE-2026-16232, an actively exploited SmartConsole authentication bypass that can give attackers full administrator access to exposed Security Management servers. The urgent work is not only installing the Jumbo Hotfix, but also restricting Trusted Clients and checking management logs for signs of compromise.
AI Kill Switch Act Would Turn Model Control Into a Federal Requirement
The bipartisan AI Kill Switch Act would require powerful AI developers to keep working controls for throttling, suspending, or shutting down models, while giving DHS emergency authority in catastrophic loss-of-control scenarios. The proposal turns AI safety from a policy promise into a concrete operations requirement.