Weekly Cybersecurity Recap - 2 February 2026

Introduction

Cybersecurity risks continue to intensify across industries as attackers exploit technical gaps, human trust, and growing digital complexity. From critical infrastructure and supply chains to AI-driven deception and social engineering, organizations are facing a wider and more interconnected threat landscape.

This roundup highlights the most significant developments from across sectors, showing how attackers are evolving tactics while defenders reassess long-standing assumptions around resilience, visibility, and emerging technologies.

Critical Infrastructure & Sector Exposure

Manufacturers fortify cyber defenses in response to dramatic surge in attacks

Manufacturing remains the most targeted critical infrastructure sector, driven by increased IT/OT convergence and expanding network complexity. While energy and healthcare often dominate policy discussions, cybersecurity firms consistently report that manufacturing environments are hit more frequently than other sectors.

The combination of legacy systems, operational disruption sensitivity, and limited security maturity continues to make manufacturers attractive targets, prompting industry leaders to invest more aggressively in improving cyber posture.

Survey of 100+ Energy Systems Reveals Critical OT Cybersecurity Gaps

A global study of substations, power plants, and control centers revealed persistent cybersecurity weaknesses across operational technology environments. The findings point to recurring technical and organizational issues that leave energy infrastructure exposed to cyber threats.

With data drawn from more than 100 installations worldwide, the analysis underscores how foundational security gaps continue to put critical energy systems at risk of disruption.

Threat Campaigns & Social Engineering

Mandiant Finds ShinyHunters-Style Vishing Attacks Stealing MFA to Breach SaaS Platforms

Mandiant identified an expansion in financially motivated attacks using voice phishing combined with fake credential-harvesting sites. The campaigns mimic legitimate enterprises to collect SSO credentials and multi-factor authentication codes.

This approach enables attackers to bypass identity controls and gain unauthorized access to SaaS environments, reflecting a continued shift toward human-centric attack vectors.

Hackers Use ‘rn’ Typo Trick to Impersonate Microsoft and Marriott in New Phishing Attack

Threat actors are leveraging homoglyph attacks by registering domains that visually replace the letter “m” with “rn,” creating nearly indistinguishable fake websites. The tactic exploits how modern fonts render characters, making deception harder to detect.

By impersonating trusted brands like Microsoft and Marriott, attackers increase the likelihood of credential theft through highly convincing phishing pages.

Cyber Security Council urges public to report fraudulent messages

The Cyber Security Council warned of increasing scam activity targeting citizens through fraudulent messages. Authorities emphasized the importance of deleting suspicious communications, blocking unknown senders, and avoiding interaction.

The guidance reinforces that rapid reporting and public awareness remain critical defenses against widespread scam campaigns.

Supply Chain & Trusted Platform Risk

eScan Antivirus Update Servers Compromised to Deliver Multi-Stage Malware

Attackers compromised eScan’s update infrastructure to distribute a persistent downloader to enterprise and consumer systems. Upon detecting unauthorized access, the vendor isolated affected servers and took them offline for remediation.

A patch has since been released to reverse malicious changes, and impacted organizations have been advised to coordinate directly with the vendor to ensure systems are fully remediated.

AI, Policy & Emerging Technology Risk

NIST’s AI guidance pushes cybersecurity boundaries

New guidance from NIST signals a departure from treating AI as conventional software for cybersecurity purposes. Long-held assumptions that existing controls can simply be adapted for AI systems are being re-examined.

As AI introduces fundamentally new risk dynamics, organizations are being pushed toward more novel approaches to governance, control, and risk management.

AI, Deepfakes Are Top Risks for Financial Crime Specialists

Financial crime experts warn that AI-generated content and deepfakes are accelerating fraud and eroding trust across financial systems. Criminals are increasingly using AI to enhance deception and scale social engineering attacks.

Investigators expect these challenges to intensify as AI tools become more accessible and sophisticated.

Strategic Outlook & Future Risk

From Quantum to AI Risks: Preparing for Cybersecurity's Future

As the industry moves into 2026, cybersecurity leaders face a convergence of persistent threats and emerging challenges. Social engineering remains a dominant risk, with attackers continually refining methods to exploit human behavior.

At the same time, advances in AI and other technologies are reshaping both defensive strategies and attacker capabilities.

Out-of-the-Box Expectations for 2026 Reveal a Grab-Bag of Risk

Security teams are being urged to rethink conventional wisdom about attacker-defender dynamics. Rather than a simple escalation cycle, the threat landscape is becoming more fragmented and unpredictable.

Preparing for 2026 will require organizations to balance emerging risks with new opportunities, avoiding overreliance on outdated assumptions.