Energy industry titan Halliburton has filed an 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, acknowledging that an unauthorized third party accessed some of its systems. As a part of its response, Halliburton took certain systems offline, according to the 8-K. Halliburton has not confirmed the exact nature of the attack, but ransomware is among the possibilities. Determining whether any data was exfiltrated will likely be a part of Halliburton’s investigation.

Extremist communities see damaging power substations as a way to fuel unrest and ultimately overthrow the United States. Power companies, including Duke Energy, have raced to increase their defenses. The NERC recently involved more than 250 participants in an emergency simulation that assessed grid reliability, and the Department of Energy said in January it will dedicate $70 million to boost resiliency. Yet, the attacks remain difficult to defend against, and researchers warn that hyper-partisanship around the election is poised to inspire more extremists.

Torrential rains turned streets into raging rivers in parts of Connecticut and New York’s Long Island, trapping people in cars, covering vehicles in mud, and sweeping two women to their deaths. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, who declared a state of emergency, said more than 100 people were evacuated by search and rescue teams. Numerous roads were closed in the area, many because of washed-out bridges, including parts of routes 34 and 67. Twenty-seven state roads were closed. The Waterbury branch of the commuter Metro-North Railroad also remained closed due to flooding and damage from a mudslide, officials said.

A federal prison inmate and two other people were charged with conspiring to mail drugs to a penitentiary in California where a mailroom supervisor died on August 9 after opening a letter that prosecutors said was laced with fentanyl and other substances. According to prosecutors, a prisoner at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater, California, plotted with two other people to send him drugs that he could sell at the prison. They disguised the shipment as “legal mail” from a law office, investigators said.

CISA in partnership with the FBI, MS-ISAC, and HHS have published a joint cybersecurity advisory, alerting organizations about RansomHub, a ransomware-as-a-service variant that has, since its inception in February this year, encrypted and exfiltrated data from at least 210 victims in multiple critical infrastructure sectors, including the water and wastewater sector.

Aquarion Water Company is asking residents in Bethel, Oxford, Beacon Falls, Seymour and Newtown, Connecticut, to conserve water after storms and flooding damaged the infrastructure of well fields, including pumps and wiring. The well fields are in the process of being repaired, affecting about 24,000 customers total.

Analysts believe Russia is mapping undersea fiber optic cables that transfer data between continents. Officials speculate that the nation may have already carried out attacks on telecommunications and GPS networks on a smaller scale. NATO thinks Russia may have plans in place to target those networks in retribution for the West’s support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Researchers accused Chinese government-linked hackers of exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in network management platform Versa Director in an effort to breach internet service providers and tech companies in the United States. CISA Director Jen Easterly has said earlier this month that escalating tensions between China and Taiwan have led Beijing to seek ways to launch destructive attacks against the island nation and its allies — including the United States.

The U.S. Department of State is offering a reward of $2.5 million for information leading to the arrest of Volodymyr Kadariya, the cybercriminal associated with an alleged scheme to transmit the Angler Exploit Kit (AEK) along with other malware. The payloads delivered by Angler typically included various types of malware, such as ransomware (like CryptoWall and TeslaCrypt), banking trojans, information stealers, and other forms of malicious software designed to either steal data or hold systems hostage for ransom.

The government of Iran is coordinating with ransomware gangs in attacks on organizations in the United States, Israel, Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates, according to an advisory published by U.S. federal agencies. The FBI, Defense Department and CISA said that as of August, Iranian threat actors continue to target the education, finance, healthcare, and defense sectors in addition to government entities. The actors have partnered with affiliates of the NoEscape, Ransomhouse and AlphV ransomware operations — eventually taking a percentage of ransom payments.

Microchip Technology’s manufacturing facilities, IT systems and order fulfillment were disrupted by a cyberattack, the Arizona-based chipmaker said in a securities filing. “As a result of the incident, certain of the company’s manufacturing facilities are operating at less than normal levels and the company’s ability to fulfill orders is currently impacted,” Microchip President and CEO Ganesh Moorthy said. Microchip has about 125,000 customers across the industrial, auto, aerospace and defense, communications and computing markets.

Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor Corporation has confirmed yet another third-party data breach exposing sensitive information, after a threat actor leaked the stolen trove on an infamous dark web hacking forum. The cyber incident became public knowledge when ZeroSevenGroup claimed to have breached a Toyota U.S. branch and posted 240 GB of the allegedly stolen data on BreachForums.