Cybersecurity Today Weekend Month in Review: August 2026

AI Agents Hacking, Passkey Phishing, and Water Utility Attacks

In this weekend month-in-review episode of Cyber Security Today, Jim is joined by David Shipley and Laura Paine to recap major July developments. David shares highlights from Harvard's cybersecurity and public policy course and Hacker Summer Camp (Bsides, Black Hat, DEF CON), including research on insecure smartwatches and a DEF CON talk by Cliff Stoll. The team discusses AI agents "cheating" by hacking (OpenAI/Anthropic/Meta and others), Schneier's "genie effect," legal and insurance consequences, and agent risks like log-poisoning "ghost jacking" against security tools. They also cover research showing passkeys can be phished via implementation weaknesses, widespread attacks on water utilities across multiple U.S. states and Quebec, and a Russian campaign targeting public Wi‑Fi. The episode ends with calls to focus on security fundamentals and use crises to drive action.

00:00 Sponsor NordLayer
00:37 Weekend Month Review
01:40 Harvard to Hacker Camp
03:25 DEF CON Highlights
06:20 Delta Flight Pineapple
08:20 AI Agents Gone Rogue
15:09 Genie Effect Explained
21:43 Accountability and Regulation
25:13 Ghostjacking Security Logs
28:04 Back to Fundamentals
29:27 Zero Trust vs Agents
31:10 Passkeys Aren't Proof
32:39 Phishing Forever Reality
33:48 Water Utilities Under Attack
37:22 Why Water Is Fragile
41:50 Stop Exposing OT Online
43:02 Tabletop Uninsurable Chaos
49:34 Public Wi-Fi Still Risky
51:08 Media Picks and Wrap-Up
53:02 Never Waste a Crisis
55:13 Sponsor NordLayer