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

• 🔒 Hidden VPN Family Links Risk 700M Users

• 🛡️ Four Defense Strategies Against AI Attacks

• 🏭 Bridgestone Hit by Second Major Attack

• 📰 Further Alerts & Insights

🔒 Hidden VPN Family Links Risk 700M Users

Academic research reveals hidden connections between 21 seemingly independent VPN apps among Google Play Store's most downloaded, exposing shared security vulnerabilities and undisclosed ownership ties affecting over 700 million users.

• Three VPN families share identical codebases, infrastructure, and security flaws despite appearing as competing independent services in app stores

• Hard-coded Shadowsocks credentials embedded in APKs enable attackers to decrypt user traffic when same passwords are reused across multiple apps

• Apps use outdated ciphers without proper IV protection, significantly reducing encryption effectiveness and opening doors to cryptographic attacks

• All three families vulnerable to blind on-path attacks allowing network attackers to infer information about VPN connections even with tunneling active

🤔 The Bigger Picture:

VPN security flaws directly impact facility remote access and building automation networks that rely on these services. Building operators must audit VPN solutions for proper encryption standards and avoid apps with undisclosed ownership, as compromised VPN connections can expose facility management systems to unauthorized access.

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🛡️ Four Defense Strategies Against AI Attacks

Organizations must strengthen foundational cybersecurity practices beyond AI-driven tools to counter sophisticated threats, as business email compromise losses rise 23% year-over-year while cybercriminals leverage generative AI for personalized phishing and deepfake scams.

• Enhanced employee training should include deepfake recognition and phishing simulations, teaching staff to question unusual requests involving financial transactions or confidential data

• Strengthen identity verification with multi-factor authentication across critical systems and secondary verification channels like direct phone calls with pre-agreed codewords to prevent voice spoofing

• Monitor and manage AI tool usage through audits and clear data-sharing policies to prevent unintended exposure of sensitive information to unsecured AI-powered chatbots

• Assess cyber insurance coverage specifically for AI-enhanced threats including BEC, ransomware, and deepfake scams with clearly defined policy language for emerging attack vectors

🤔 The Bigger Picture:

Defense-in-depth strategies become critical as AI democratizes sophisticated attacks while potentially exposing facility data through unsecured AI tools. Building operators must balance AI adoption benefits with security risks, implementing multiple redundant controls rather than relying on single AI-powered security solutions.

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🏭 Bridgestone Hit by Second Major Attack

Tire manufacturing giant Bridgestone Americas confirms cyberattack disrupted operations at multiple North American manufacturing facilities, forcing production halts while employees were given choices between unpaid leave or on-site maintenance work during incident response.

• Attack impacted production capabilities across facilities including South Carolina plants, with Mayor of Joliette, Quebec suggesting all North American factories were affected

• Manufacturing disruption forced employee decisions between staying for preventive maintenance with full pay or going home without compensation during operational shutdown

• The company characterizes incident as "limited" and contained early through comprehensive forensic analysis, with business operations reportedly returning to normal

• Second major cybersecurity incident for Bridgestone following 2022 LockBit ransomware attack that also forced production shutdowns

🤔 The Bigger Picture:

Repeated attacks on major manufacturers highlight persistent vulnerabilities in industrial operations and supply chain dependencies. Facility managers must develop robust incident response plans that address workforce management during cyber incidents while maintaining critical building systems and manufacturing operations.

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Further Alerts & Insights