it's Thursday, February 19. I'm Artie Fisher, and this is your CXO Daily cybersecurity intelligence briefing.

Today, elevated signals stand out in several key areas: large-scale data exposures in global financial services, ransomware disruption intensifying across industrial operations, renewed regulatory scrutiny around foreign-linked security risks in the technology supply chain, and complex AI-driven attack vectors putting compliance and governance under fresh strain.

We begin with a sharp focus on data security in the financial sector, where breaches have escalated both in scale and consequence. According to Bleeping Computer and Security Affairs, Figure, a prominent fintech firm, has suffered a breach affecting nearly one million customer accounts, while the French Ministry confirmed unauthorized access to data tied to 1.2 million bank accounts. A parallel report by Wired Cybersecurity reveals the existence of a database now leaking 2.7 billion Social Security numbers alongside 3 billion passwords, painting a picture of systemic risk for fraud and identity theft. These incidents illustrate not only the enormity of data at risk, but also recurring weaknesses: insufficient controls around privileged data, lagging access reviews, and legacy systems that become soft targets. Executive liability is front and center, as the scale of these breaches implicates regulatory exposure well beyond regional borders. For leaders in any sector handling sensitive personal or financial data, this highlights a critical risk pattern—proliferation of credentials, combined with incomplete deprovisioning, leads directly to mass compromise and severe downstream consequences for customer trust and compliance posture.