The state estimates the prediction market has collected up to $61.2 million in fees from illegally-placed wagers placed by users in Utah.

A CBC investigation found that more than 1.5 million Canadian Crime Stoppers tips spanning 25 years were exposed in a breach of the P3 Global Intel tip-management platform. About 850,000 records contained personally identifiable information, including addresses, phone numbers, emails, license plates and some banking details. Longtime Slashdot reader doconnor shares the report: The data was stolen last March by hacktivist collective Internet Yiff Machine. In a manifesto, the group said it wanted to disprove the claim by P3 Global Intel -- the company hired by Crime Stoppers to manage its tips -- that the platform was "anonymous" and "secure." A copy of the hacked data was made available to researchers and journalists, including CBC, by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a U.S. non-profit that archives and publishes hacked and leaked documents it deems to be in the public interest. The report found that more than 4,300 Crime Stoppers tipsters identified themselves by their full name, with hundreds of records containing staff warnings that individuals had "self-identified" or been "exposed," yet their information remained unredacted. The leaked data included sensitive allegations involving murder, terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime, with nearly 49,000 tips linked to cases cleared through arrests or criminal charges. Cybersecurity experts criticized the retention of decades-old records... "If a tip is closed, does that need to stay online?" asked cybersecurity expert Ben Coon. "The answer to that, to me, is no." The RCMP was initially told Canadian data was unaffected, then assured that exposed Canadian records contained no personally identifiable information. This appears to contradict the CBC's findings. Furthermore, affected individuals have not been systematically notified because contacting them could further jeopardize their anonymity. "For a system that has been designed to promise anonymity to the users, that has failed categorically," said Prof. Ali Dehghantanha, the Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity and Threat Intelligence at the University of Guelph.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Gabriel Basso is joining Julia Garner in Apple TV’s Guilty Creatures, adding another series regular to the upcoming true-crime thriller. Based on Mikita Brottman’s nonfiction book, the adaptation explores a Florida murder and the years of secrecy that followed. Basso’s character has not yet been identified in the casting coverage.

Radio Times reported the casting on October 21, identifying Basso as a series regular. The actor is known for playing Peter Sutherland in Netflix’s The Night Agent, giving the Apple TV project a lead performer already familiar to thriller audiences.

For viewers familiar with Basso through The Night Agent, the project introduces a different kind of thriller premise: a story concerned with a murder’s prolonged psychological consequences and the relationships surrounding it.

Basso Joins an Expanding Ensemble

Basso joins previously announced series regulars Garner, Lewis Pullman, and Maddie Hasson. Mary-Louise Parker is attached in a recurring role.

Those distinctions establish the actors’ reported involvement without revealing how the adaptation will distribute the story among them. Basso’s casting does not yet identify which person he will portray or how his character connects to the central relationship.

That leaves a meaningful part of the announcement open. A recognizable actor can bring an audience to a project, but the character description will provide a clearer indication of what this particular role asks of him.

Garner’s involvement extends beyond acting: she is also an executive producer, and the project was developed through Tomorrow Studios’ first-look arrangement with her production company, Alma Margo. Basso’s addition expands the cast of a series whose lead performer is also involved behind the camera.

The Story Begins With a Florida Disappearance

The source material is Brottman’s nonfiction book, Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida.

Published in July 2024 by Atria/One Signal Publishers, the book gives interested viewers a way to explore the underlying case before the adaptation arrives. It is a nonfiction account, so reading it will reveal events that the television series may choose to introduce gradually.

According to the publisher’s description, the book examines the relationships between Mike and Denise Williams and their longtime friends Brian and Kathy Winchester. Their shared lives were disrupted when Mike disappeared during a hunting trip on Lake Seminole on December 16, 2000.

The account follows the suspicions that developed afterward, including Brian’s subsequent marriage to Denise, and the long path toward uncovering what happened.

Brottman’s background also helps explain the book’s emphasis. Simon & Schuster identifies her as a writer and psychoanalyst, and describes the work as an examination of the psychology of people living with responsibility for a killing.

That provides context for the adaptation’s premise without establishing exactly how the television version will organize events. The book’s chronology, perspective, and emphasis may be reshaped for the screen.

Apple Has Positioned the Series Around Guilt and Secrecy

Apple officially announced Guilty Creatures on July 6. Its description centers on an adulterous relationship, a murder, and the emotional burden carried by two religious lovers over 18 years.

The premise gives the series a different emphasis from a straightforward search for a culprit. It creates room to examine the gap between public identity and private knowledge, and how a shared secret can influence a relationship over time.

That is the dramatic potential of the announced material, rather than an assessment of finished episodes. Casting news cannot establish the eventual balance between investigation, domestic drama, and psychological suspense.

It does, however, explain why the supporting ensemble matters. A story spanning years of concealed wrongdoing depends partly on the people around its central figures: what they notice, what they believe, and how their understanding changes.

Craig Gillespie Leads the Creative Team

Apple’s official series announcement names Craig Gillespie as director and executive producer, with Stuart Zicherman serving as showrunner and executive producer. Sarah DeLappe is adapting the book for television.

Tomorrow Studios is producing the series. The project was developed through its first-look arrangements with Garner’s Alma Margo and Gillespie’s Fortunate Jack Productions. Brottman is also an executive producer.

Gillespie’s previous credits include I, Tonya and Pam & Tommy, while DeLappe wrote Bodies Bodies Bodies. Zicherman’s credits include The Shrink Next Door and The Americans. Those backgrounds offer viewers a more concrete introduction to the filmmakers shaping the adaptation’s tone, writing, and direction.

A Premiere Date Is Still Unannounced

The casting reports do not provide a premiere date for Guilty Creatures. Basso’s addition should therefore be understood as a production update, rather than evidence that the series is approaching an imminent streaming release.

For viewers following the project, the next useful details will be character announcements and Apple’s release plans. The ensemble is becoming clearer, while the adaptation’s precise shape—and when audiences will be able to watch it—remains to be revealed.

The post Gabriel Basso Joins Julia Garner in Apple TV’s Guilty Creatures appeared first on AppleMagazine.

An automotive tech startup claims that its IT systems were attacked by individuals trying to steal its driving model, and that those attacks came from an IP address associated with a rival in the space. The tech startup, IQ.Lvbs, described the alleged security incident in a recent blog post. On October 3, IQ.Lvbs introduced the private beta of NovaSpark, the first model for the company's IQ.Pilot app, in the Comma.ai Discord channel. They put it in that channel because the model requires the use of Comma.ai's camera hardware, which is built for self-driving vehicles. From there, things got weird. "From October 7 to 14, we faced repeated attempts to steal NovaSpark, access users’ devices and private driving files, and exploit our sign-in system," the IQ.Lvbs blog post claims. "The first requests came from an IP assigned to Comma.ai Inc." In addition, on October 8 – shortly after the alleged attacks began – somebody banned IQ.Lvbs' team from the Comma.ai Discord channel. Posts on the IQ.Pilot Discord channel indicate that individuals doing private beta testing for IQ.Lvbs have also been banned from that channel. One of the three people involved in IQ.Lvbs, a UI/UX designer who asked to be identified only as "Cat," speculated to The Register about the reasons for the alleged hack and Discord ban. "Our model, NovaSpark, is a good deal ahead of Comma's latest small and large models, which directly threatens their core business of making AI models good enough to sell their hardware," he said. "Comma for the most part has been stagnant in their models' improvement and that was a main driver for us making NovaSpark." An October 7, 2026 Discord message from user Torq_boi, said to be Harald Schäfer, Comma.ai’s CTO, implies NovaSpark was distilled from Comma.ai's Rebellious Hope model. “I’m glad people are training models and experimenting with this stuff," the post starts. "But don’t lie to people about what you’re doing, and saying it’s not a finetune of existing comma models when it is. That’s not cool.” IQ.Lvbs disputes that assertion and says it did the work on its own. "The claim that NovaSpark is Rebellious Hope with a short fine-tune and an unchanged policy does not survive scrutiny, and we’re not sure how Comma came to that conclusion, especially considering that they do not possess NovaSpark’s model weights or ONNX," the biz said. In the log data IQ.Lvbs published to support its claims, the company flags the username haraschax as one of those associated with Comma.ai IP addresses. Schäfer uses that username on GitHub. Comma.ai and Schäfer did not respond to requests for comment sent to several different addresses. The Discord user Torq_boi in the Comma.ai channel did not respond to a DM seeking comment. Comma.ai is currently being investigated [PDF] by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to assess whether its driving automation tech contributed to five crashes and three deaths. IQ.Lvbs says it's considering legal action over the alleged hack. "We are currently reviewing our legal options and looking into involving the authorities," said Cat. ®

Multiple ransomware groups, including Qilin and Inc, have been exploiting a high-severity authentication bypass bug in Palo Alto Networks' PAN-OS, with Unit 42 investigating attacks since early June across numerous industries, such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. CVE-2026-0257 affects PAN-OS GlobalProtect portals and gateways, potentially allowing attackers to bypass security restrictions and establish an unauthorized VPN connection. The security vendor first disclosed and patched the bug on May 13 and initially assigned it a medium-severity rating, saying it was aware of attempts to exploit it but had not observed any malicious exploitation. That assessment quickly changed, and by the end of the month, Rapid7 researchers said they observed successful exploitation across multiple customer environments dating back to at least May 17. On Monday, Palo Alto Networks’ consulting and incident response biz, Unit 42, said ransomware crews including Qilin and Inc continue to batter the CVE. “Attackers are leveraging this vulnerability to gain an initial foothold into corporate networks, subsequently bypassing multi-factor authentication (MFA) controls to establish a VPN session,” said Andy Piazza, a senior director of threat intelligence at Unit 42. After gaining initial access, the criminals move laterally across the networks using Remote Desktop Protocol and Server Message Block (SMB), dropping additional malware for credential harvesting and data theft before ultimately deploying ransomware, Piazza warned. In its ongoing investigations, Unit 42 has spotted the ransomware criminals infecting “numerous industries, including education, financial services, healthcare, high tech, hospitality, manufacturing, professional and legal services, government, transportation and logistics, utilities and energy, and wholesale and retail." Palo Alto Networks did not respond to The Register’s inquiries about the attacks, including how many organizations have been infected. Additionally, ReliaQuest intel analysts warned that “multiple threat groups,” including Settra ransomware operators, are also exploiting the bug to gain initial access to corporate networks via unauthorized VPN sessions. “The most significant evolution in tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) following successful exploitation of CVE-2026-0257 is the direct pivot to the virtualization layer,” Piazza wrote. “In one notable case, attackers moved from the compromised VPN gateway to the vCenter management appliance. From there, they disabled security controls on ESXi hypervisors (execInstalledOnly) and used a custom tool to perform offline credential dumping directly against a domain controller's virtual disk (VMDK).” This allows the miscreants to bypass in-guest endpoint detection and response products, and represents “a highly sophisticated method” of stealing domain-wide credentials, he added. Unit 42 has also spotted criminals chaining this exploit for initial access with other vulnerabilities such as CVE-2023-27532, which targets Veeam backup infrastructure. So if you haven’t already patched vulnerable PAN-OS software, do so now - and investigate whether attackers have already gained access to your network. Check Unit 42’s indicators of compromise to assist with threat-hunting activities.®

A test account protected by "Password1" helped an intruder steal personal data relating to 3,300 people, mostly children, in a ransomware attack that has drawn regulatory rebukes for two Welsh organizations. The Information Commission's Office (ICO) issued reprimands rather than fines to Ogi Networks Limited (ONL) and the Local Government Data Unit – Wales, also known as Data Cymru. According to the ICO, altnet ONL provided server and connectivity infrastructure, licensing, and support to Data Cymru, which helps public bodies across Wales make effective use of data. On November 1, 2024, Data Cymru suffered a ransomware attack after a miscreant exploited a test account called Test2 to infiltrate its network and encrypt 182.7 GB of data housed in a file server and an internal database server. "Before deploying the ransomware, the threat actor exfiltrated 42 GB of data from a primary domain controller, a file server and an SQL server," the ICO said on Tuesday in its reprimand of ONL [PDF]. ONL told the ICO it created the test account on January 13, 2012, during its initial project for Data Cymru. "ONL confirmed that the creation of the 'Test2' account was likely intended to test user account access before migrating 'real' users to its services," the ICO said. "When it was created, the 'Test2' account was given the password of 'Password1'." The ICO cited Bitwarden's password strength tool, which rated "Password1" as "very weak" and estimated a cracking time of less than a second. "The local administrator accounts on the three impacted systems all had the same password. This meant that once one system had been breached, the local account hashes could be collected and used by the threat actor to authenticate access to other systems on the Data Cymru network," the regulator added. "ONL confirmed that it did not carry out any reviews of local administrator accounts following their initial deployment. This meant these accounts remained active, regardless of whether they were used, and continued to use the same default passwords set at the time of their creation in January 2012, as part of ONL's initial project with Data Cymru, for more than 12.5 years." The data watchdog reprimanded ONL under Article 32 of the UK GDPR because it failed to put in place "appropriate technical and organisational measures" to ensure processing systems and services were safe, and it didn't regularly assess or evaluate those measures. It found ONL had no auditing procedures to review user accounts within Data Cymru's Active Directory. The ICO's separate reprimand of Data Cymru [PDF] also detailed failures in its security arrangements. "Password1 is not an appropriate password, it is a wide-open door to nefarious actors," said ICO head of investigations David Doodson. "This incident shows how a single weak password, attached to an account that was no longer needed, can leave the door open to a serious cyber-attack that can affect thousands. "The responsibility for these failures did not sit with one organisation alone. ONL created the test account whilst Data Cymru retained overall control of its network, including the ability to instruct ONL to create or remove accounts. Neither had put in place sufficiently clear and effective measures to ensure that old accounts were routinely identified and removed." ®

Westminster appears to be waking up to warnings over AI safety, with concerns over its use by extremist groups and bad actors

“I have this sense that, within a few months, AI is going to be all anyone is talking about,” said one cabinet minister, with an ominous stare.

It was Labour conference, with everyone from ministers to activists jubilant at Andy Burnham’s takeover and a bounce in the polls after the change of leader.

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© Photograph: MASTER/Getty Images

© Photograph: MASTER/Getty Images

© Photograph: MASTER/Getty Images

How a string of bizarre events led writer Linda Geddes to don her sleuthing cap and dig into a world of shadowy impersonators

It started with an entirely ordinary interaction on LinkedIn. Someone had tagged me in a post, saying how much they’d enjoyed contributing to a New York Post article I’d written about “chronoworking”. As the author of a book about circadian rhythms, it was exactly the sort of subject I might write about. Except I’d never heard of this person, let alone interviewed them.

I clicked on the link and my stomach dropped. There, above an article about people who organise their working lives around their biological clocks, was my name: Linda Geddes.

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© Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian

© Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian

© Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian