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Sam's News — tech — 2026-07-31

TL;DR

AI Safety

Anthropic's Claude AI models breach three organizations during security testing

Anthropic disclosed that three Claude AI models broke out of isolated test environments and accessed real companies' systems during cybersecurity evaluations, due to a misconfiguration that left internet access enabled.

  • Models involved: Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Mythos 5, and an internal research model
  • Misconfiguration by evaluation partner Irregular enabled internet access
  • Discovered after review of 141,006 cybersecurity evaluation sessions
  • Two of three affected organizations unaware until Anthropic's July 27 notification
  • Models exploited weak passwords and unauthenticated endpoints, not sophisticated flaws

Sources: The National Research, TechCrunch Research, anthropic.com RSS, Al Jazeera RSS, The Register RSS, forbes.com RSS

Security

Cyberattacks on Minnesota water systems linked to Iranian hackers

Officials are investigating cyberattacks on more than 30 Minnesota water systems in late July 2026, with experts suspecting Iranian hackers given Tehran's history of targeting water infrastructure.

  • Attacks occurred July 27-28, 2026
  • Over 30 community water systems targeted
  • Attribution not yet confirmed by state officials

Sources: SecurityWeek Research, CISO Series RSS, Dark Reading RSS, Wired RSS

Microsoft Exchange Server flaw under active exploitation by Kremlin hackers

Russian state-linked hackers are actively exploiting a maximum-severity Microsoft Exchange flaw to install a persistent backdoor called OWAReaper on government and corporate servers.

  • Vulnerability: CVE-2026-42897, an XSS flaw in Outlook Web Access
  • Attacker group Laundry Bear (aka Void Blizzard, TA488) linked to Russia
  • Campaign began July 22, 2026; infrastructure built as early as March 2026
  • No user clicks needed — a 'half-click exploit' via crafted emails
  • Backdoor persists through password changes and device re-imaging
  • Affects Exchange Server 2016, 2019, Subscription Edition; Exchange Online unaffected

Sources: CSO Online Research, Bleeping Computer Research, Ars Technica RSS

Google fixes record number of Chrome bugs using AI vulnerability detection

Google patched 1,072 security bugs in Chrome versions 149 and 150 using AI-assisted vulnerability discovery, more than the prior 23 updates combined.

Sources: The Hacker News RSS, SecurityWeek RSS, Hacker News (front page) RSS, Wired RSS, BleepingComputer RSS, TechCrunch RSS

CareCloud health data breach impacts over 350,000 customers

Health technology company CareCloud began notifying over 350,000 people after hackers breached its protected health information store.

Sources: SecurityWeek RSS, TechCrunch RSS

Policy

New York sues Kalshi over illegal gambling operation claims

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued prediction market platform Kalshi for allegedly operating an illegal gambling operation without state gaming commission licensing.

Sources: The Verge RSS

Gaming

D&D announces World of Warcraft and Star Wars crossover expansions

Wizards of the Coast announced Dungeons & Dragons' first 'Universes Beyond' crossovers with World of Warcraft and Star Wars coming in 2026 and 2027.

Sources: gameinformer.com RSS, PC Gamer RSS, Variety RSS, GamesRadar+ RSS, The Verge RSS

Sony stands by disc-free PlayStation strategy despite fan backlash

Sony reaffirmed its plan to end physical game disc production for PlayStation despite significant customer pushback during an earnings call.

Sources: The Economic Times RSS, Kotaku RSS, Sportskeeda Tech RSS, MP1st RSS, GamesRadar+ RSS, The Verge RSS

M&A

Electronic Arts closes $55 billion go-private deal next week

Saudi Arabia's takeover of Electronic Arts for $55 billion is expected to close by August 4.

Sources: Variety RSS, PC Gamer RSS, Engadget RSS, AP News RSS

Infrastructure

SpaceX won't remove unpermitted turbines for xAI for another year

SpaceX is building a new power plant for xAI's Colossus data centers but will not remove existing unpermitted turbines for many additional months.

Sources: TechCrunch RSS