Welcome to your essential briefing on threats at the intersection of cybersecurity and critical infrastructure, brought to you by Neeve, the edge cloud security platform for smart buildings, making built spaces secure, intelligent, and sustainable.

This Week’s Cyber Insights

• 🔥 Operational Technology Ransomware Crisis

• 🤖 AI Transforms Cybercrime Into Autonomous Threat …

• ⚠️ AI Hallucinations Create False Attack Signals i …

• ⚡ AI Powers 36,000 Cyberattacks Per Second in Glob …

• 📰 Further Alerts & Insights

🔥 Operational Technology Ransomware Crisis

Facility managers face an unprecedented threat landscape as ransomware groups pivot aggressively toward operational technology systems. New intelligence from Honeywell's 2025 Cyber Threat Report reveals a staggering 46% increase in OT-targeted attacks during Q1 2025, with the Cl0p ransomware syndicate emerging as the dominant threat actor targeting manufacturing, water treatment, and energy facilities.

• 2,472 new ransomware victims reported in Q1 2025, adding to 6,130 incidents documented in 2024

• Over half of SEC-disclosed cybersecurity incidents (30 of 55 cases) were direct attacks on OT systems

• W32.Worm.Ramnit trojan surged 3,000% as attackers weaponize it to harvest OT credentials

• USB-based attack vectors account for 25% of successful infrastructure breaches

• Agriculture and food production facilities face exponential increases in targeting

🤔 The Bigger Picture: 

With new SEC reporting mandates requiring disclosure of material cybersecurity incidents, facility operators can no longer treat OT security as optional. Organizations must immediately implement Zero Trust architecture and AI-enhanced monitoring to detect threats before they disrupt operations.

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🤖 AI Transforms Cybercrime Into Autonomous Threat Economy

Artificial intelligence has fundamentally transformed cybercrime from opportunistic attacks into a sophisticated $10.5 trillion industry—equivalent to the world's third-largest economy. The recent ransomware attack on Synnovis, which forced cancellation of 12,000 NHS medical procedures and caused long-term patient harm, demonstrates how AI-enhanced attacks now threaten human safety in addition to business operations.

• Voice phishing attacks surged 442% as AI generates perfect accent replications and real-time conversation

• Scattered Spider group's attack on Marks & Spencer resulted in £600 million market cap loss

• Ben Gurion University researchers developed universal "jailbreaking" techniques for all major AI systems

• "Dark LLMs could democratize dangerous knowledge at unprecedented scale" warn security researchers

• Agentic AI will achieve "level three autonomy" within two years, enabling fully autonomous attack campaigns

🤔 The Bigger Picture:

Facility managers must prepare for AI adversaries capable of autonomous reconnaissance, social engineering, and system exploitation. Traditional security awareness training becomes insufficient when AI can generate perfect impersonations of executives, vendors, and technical support personnel..

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⚠️ AI Hallucinations Create False Attack Signals in Critical Infrastructure

Security operations teams face a dangerous new challenge as AI-powered threat detection tools generate false attack signals that could trigger unnecessary shutdowns of critical infrastructure. AI hallucinations—where large language models produce incorrect, misleading, or biased information—pose significant risks when integrated into cybersecurity tools that make decisions about operational technology environments.

• AI models can recommend defensive changes that actually introduce risk instead of fixing problems

• False attack signals particularly dangerous in OT environments where plant shutdowns are costly and complex

• Hallucinations occur when models skip important threat characteristics or misidentify benign activity as malicious

• Healthcare and education sectors face elevated risks from AI-generated false positives

• Current AI collaboration requires 80/20 human-machine interaction, with majority of tasks needing human verification

🤔 The Bigger Picture:

For facility managers, AI hallucinations represent a critical operational risk where false threat detection could trigger emergency shutdowns or manual failovers. Organizations must implement "four-eyes" review processes similar to code development, ensuring human verification before AI-recommended security actions impact operational systems.

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⚡ AI Powers 36,000 Cyberattacks Per Second in Global Infrastructure Assault

Artificial intelligence has weaponized cybercrime to unprecedented scales, with new Fortinet research revealing 36,000 automated attack scans per second targeting critical infrastructure globally. The dramatic 16.7% year-over-year increase in automated scanning represents a fundamental shift as threat actors leverage AI to "shift left" toward vulnerable digital assets earlier in attack lifecycles, specifically targeting Remote Desktop Protocol, IoT systems, and Session Initiation Protocols.

• Automated scanning activity increased 16.7% with 36,000 scans per second recorded globally

• Over 1.7 billion stolen credentials now circulating on dark web following 500% increase in compromised system logs

• Compromised credentials for sale increased 42% as cybercriminals exploit massive credential databases

• United States targeted in 61% of ransomware incidents, followed by UK (6%) and Canada (5%)

• RansomHub emerged as most active group claiming 13% of victims, followed by LockBit 3.0 (12%) and Play (8%)

🤔 The Bigger Picture:

AI-powered threat actors are systematically targeting infrastructure protocols that facility managers rely on for remote access and IoT device management. The massive scale of automated reconnaissance means traditional perimeter defenses become ineffective against AI adversaries capable of identifying vulnerabilities faster than human security teams can patch them.

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Further Alerts & Insights