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