InfoSec News 13JAN2026

General

• Cisco switch crashes were caused by the order of records in DNS responses. Yes, definitely strong defensive programming there!
  • https://www.cloudflarestatus.com/incidents/rk3dgkmy89kc
  • https://www.itnews.com.au/news/cloudflare-dns-reply-change-crashed-cisco-sme-switches-622895
• BreachForums leaks again, with more Shiny Hunters/Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters infighting.
  • https://www.resecurity.com/blog/article/doomsday-for-cybercriminals-data-breach-of-major-dark-web-foru
• [UK] The opposition have pledged to implement an under-16’s social media ban, following Australia’s lead.
  • https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/12/conservatives_social_media_ban/

Getting Techy

• Turning an old 3.5” floppy drive and floppy disks, into a Smart TV controller
  • https://blog.smartere.dk/2026/01/floppy-disks-the-best-tv-remote-for-kids/
  • https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/12/danish_dev_floppy_drive_remote/
• ReverseSociety dig into how NSO Group’s Predator spyware for iOS works – the architecture and pluggable framework for implant capabilities. Whilst it lists the capabilities available in the sample that was reverse engineered, it does not look into the implementation of any of those capabilities.
  • https://blog.reversesociety.co/blog/2025/predator-ios-malware-surveillance-framework-part-1

Geo-Politics

• [IR] The Internet blackout in Iran is expected to continue, due to the large number of protests around the country.

The blackout began on January 8 after a series of large, economy-focused protests that kicked off on December 28 expanded to multiple major cities and provinces. On January 9, the Iranian government confirmed that it enacted the internet blackout due to the "prevailing conditions in the country."

• https://therecord.media/internet-monitoring-experts-say-iran-blackouts-continue
• [SE] An ex-military contractor has been detained in Sweden, on suspicion of spying for Russian Intelligence. Minimal detail available so far, other than that “the government was involved in the case because it concerns national security”.
  • https://therecord.media/sweden-detains-it-consultant-russia

AI

• OpenAI's "ChatGPT Health" may have been an effort to get ahead of Anthropic's Claude for Healthcare, and spoil their release. Anthropic's release seems a lot more rounded. Anthropic’s solution covers the full chain – not just patients, but providers as well – and utilises the Skills framework that has been so successful in other agentic use-cases.

Claude has added what it calls “connectors” to give the AI access to platforms and databases that can speed up research processes and report generation for payers and providers, including: the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Coverage Database; the International Classifications of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10); the National Provider Identifier Registry; and PubMed

• Advancing Claude in healthcare and the life sciences \ Anthropic
• (Anthropic) https://archive.md/o6AJ7
• https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/12/anthropic-announces-claude-for-healthcare-following-openais-chatgpt-health-reveal/
• Also from Anthropic “Cowork”, using the structure of Claude Code – sandboxed agent, with access to folders – to perform non-coding tasks. With the Skills framework, this can be a quite powerful way to operate – build up from sets of low-level skills, to a complex task, all customised to that user.
  • https://claude.com/blog/cowork-research-preview
  • (Claude) https://archive.md/dIVPO
  • https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/12/anthropics-new-cowork-tool-offers-claude-code-without-the-code/
• After much speculation, it appears that Google Gemini will be used to power some of Apple’s AI, including Siri. Unclear how this will differ – if at all – from existing ChatGPT integration, or if it’s simply another LLM option.
  • https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/company-announcements/joint-statement-google-apple/
  • https://www.itnews.com.au/news/apple-google-strike-gemini-deal-for-revamped-siri-622923
  • https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/12/googles-gemini-to-power-apples-ai-features-like-siri/
  • https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/12/apple_taps_google_gemini_siri/
• Indonesia and Malaysia reported as the first countries to ban Grok due to the generations of disturbing images.

“The government views the practice of non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and the security of citizens in the digital space.”

• https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/11/indonesia-blocks-grok-over-non-consensual-sexualized-deepfakes/
• [UK] Office of Communications (Ofcom) have “opened an investigation” into X, however no bans yet.
  • https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/investigation-into-x-internet-unlimited-company-and-its-compliance-with-duties-to-protect-its-users-from-illegal-content-and-child-users-from-harmful-content
  • https://therecord.media/uk-launches-formal-investigation-x-grok-images
  • https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/12/xai_grok_uk_regulation/
• OpenAI wants to learn from the past work of its contractors.

OpenAI is asking contractors to describe tasks they’ve done in their current job or in the past and to upload real examples of work they did, according to an OpenAI presentation about the project viewed by WIRED
The company emphasizes multiple times in instructions that the examples contractors share should reflect “real, on-the-job work” that the person has “actually done.”

• (Wired) https://archive.is/AAGAJ