Top stories.
- Cyberweapons assisted US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
- ShinyHunters extortion group publishes data allegedly stolen from Harvard and UPenn.
- Substack warns of data breach.
Cyberweapons assisted US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
The Record reports that the US military used cyber capabilities to disrupt Iranian air missile defense systems during last year's US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites. An anonymous source familiar with the operation said, "Military systems often rely on a complex series of components, all working correctly. A vulnerability or weakness at any point can be used to disrupt the entire system." US operators, assisted by intelligence from the NSA, targeted an "Achilles heel" that prevented Iran from launching surface-to-air missiles at the American bombers.
The sources didn't elaborate on the specifics of the attack. A Cyber Command spokesperson told the Record, "US Cyber Command was proud to support Operation Midnight Hammer and is fully equipped to execute the orders of the Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of War at any time and in any place."
ShinyHunters extortion group publishes data allegedly stolen from Harvard and UPenn.
The ShinyHunters extortion group has published data allegedly stolen from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, TechCrunch reports. Both schools disclosed data breaches in November 2025 after falling victim to social engineering attacks. The ShinyHunters say they've published the data because the universities refused to pay a ransom.
UPenn is analyzing the leaked data, while Harvard hasn't responded to a request for comment. TechCrunch says the data appears to match the information that the universities said was stolen, which included personal information of students and alumni.
Substack warns of data breach.
Publishing platform Substack is notifying users of a breach that exposed their email addresses and phone numbers, BleepingComputer reports. The incident occurred in October 2025, and Substack discovered the breach this past Tuesday. Substack CEO Chris Best said in a breach notification email, "On February 3rd, we identified evidence of a problem with our systems that allowed an unauthorized third party to access limited user data without permission, including email addresses, phone numbers, and other internal metadata. This data was accessed in October 2025. Importantly, credit card numbers, passwords, and financial information were not accessed."
Substack warns users to be on the lookout for suspicious emails or text messages.
