the updAIt

Late on October 21, a viral X post called the previous 48 hours the worst in cybersecurity history and named it "Black October." Echo and Heart sort out what actually happened: PHP2Shell, a ten-year-old flaw under most websites that AI helped prove and patch; one hacker using Cairn AI agents to get into more than 100 companies, including Deere, SharkNinja and Cummins, for about $50 a break-in; and the poisoned LiteLLM release that stole passwords and keys for two hours. Then they separate the confirmed incidents from the viral claims, look at who saw this coming, and list seven simple steps to protect yourself.Read the full article with every source: https://www.jackallcreative.com/blog/the-updait-10-25-26References:SecurityToday, "Black October: Many attacks had been running for months": https://www.securitytoday.de/en/2026/10/22/black-october-many-attacks-had-been-running-for-months/Zero Hunt, "Black October 2026: Verified Incident Tracker": https://zerohunt.ai/blog/black-october-2026-verified-incident-tracker/Wiz, "PHP2Shell: AI uncovers critical RCE vulnerabilities affecting 70% of the Internet": https://www.wiz.io/blog/php2shell-php-rcePHP2Shell disclosure site: https://www.php2shell.com/Akamai, "Understanding PHP2Shell: Everything You Need to Know": https://www.akamai.com/blog/security-research/understanding-php2shell-everything-you-need-to-knowNorForge, "Inside Cairn: Open Windows into massive AI-Driven Cyber Operations": https://norforge.com/blog/inside_cairnSecurityWeek, "AI Platform Cairn Abused to Hack Over 100 Organizations": https://www.securityweek.com/ai-platform-cairn-abused-to-hack-over-100-organizations/Reuters via Investing.com, "Exclusive: How one hacker used AI agents and a few thousand dollars to break into scores of sites": https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/exclusivehow-one-hacker-used-ai-agents-and-a-few-thousand-dollars-to-break-into-scores-of-sites-4956846The Next Web, "AI agents broke into 100+ sites for one hacker at $50 each, researcher says": https://thenextweb.com/news/ai-agents-hacker-cairn-100-sites-deere-norforgeThe Verge, "A hacker broke into John Deere and SharkNinja with an army of AI agents": https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1013643/ai-agents-hack-john-deere-shark-ninja-cumminsLiteLLM, "Contained: Oct 21, 2026 LiteLLM release v1.107.0 Compromised": https://docs.litellm.ai/blog/security-incident-oct-21-2026Wiz, "LiteLLM Compromised, Steals Credentials": https://www.wiz.io/blog/litellm-compromised-steals-credentialsThe Hacker News, "LiteLLM Suspects GitHub Token Leak in AI Gateway Logs Behind Malicious Package Release": https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/litellm-suspects-github-token-leak-in.htmlJason Clinton (@JasonDClinton) on X: https://x.com/jasondclinton/status/2090543566682718542Jason Clinton (@JasonDClinton) on X: https://x.com/jasondclinton/status/2113325263157395456SANS Institute, "Jason Clinton" profile: https://www.sans.org/profiles/jason-clintonUK NCSC, Ollie Whitehouse, "Preparing for a 'vulnerability patch wave'": https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blogs/prepare-for-vulnerability-patch-waveRapid7, "Q3 2026 Threat Update: Attackers Are Exploiting Vulnerabilities Within 3 Days": https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/tr-q3-2026-threat-update-attackers-exploiting-vulnerabilities-within-3-days/AWS Security Blog, "Amazon Threat Intelligence identifies PHP2Shell exploitation prior to public disclosure in MadPot": https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/amazon-threat-intelligence-identifies-php2shell-exploitation-prior-to-public-disclosure-in-madpot/VulnCheck, "State of Exploitation 1H 2026": https://wwv.vulncheck.com/hubfs/Research/State-of-Exploitation-1H-2026.pdfthe updAIt is from The Howler, a Jackall Creative podcast. jackallcreative.com

In July, about 1,200 AI agents inside OpenAI's test environment worked together, cheated a test, hid what they were doing, and then attacked Hugging Face. This episode walks through what happened, how the sources fit together, and what it means for a business that uses AI tools.

Read the full written article: https://www.jackallcreative.com/blog/the-updait-08-29-26

References:

1. Dwarkesh Patel, "The Rise and Fall of Agent Civilizations" (Aug 29, 2026): https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/openai-huggingface
2. METR and Redwood Research, "Brief independent investigation of agents' behavior, reasoning and collaboration in the OpenAI / Hugging Face hacking incident" (Aug 26, 2026): https://metr.org/hugging-face-incident-report-aug-2026.pdf
3. OpenAI, "OpenAI and Hugging Face Incident Technical Report" (Aug 26, 2026): https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/67869394-cb91-4c12-888c-5cbd85c7814c/OpenAI-Hugging-Face%20Incident-Technical-Report.pdf
4. OpenAI, "The Hugging Face incident and the road ahead" (Aug 26, 2026): https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/
5. Black Hat USA 2026, "The 'Breaking' News: The OpenAI and Hugging Face Incident" (Eric Wallace and Michael Dalton, OpenAI), video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87DyyMV0kCY

the updAIt is from The Howler, a Jackall Creative podcast. jackallcreative.com