Cato Networks says it has discovered a new attack, dubbed “HashJack,” that hides malicious prompts after the “#” in legitimate URLs, tricking AI browser assistants into executing them while dodging traditional network and server-side…
Just what an embattled chancellor needs on the eve of a tax-raising budget: a leading retailer upping its profits forecast and singing about the joys of the UK economy.
Unfortunately, only the first bit is true. Kingfisher, owner of B&Q and Screwfix (and similar businesses in France and Poland), raised its profit expectations for its current financial year from £480m-£540m to £540m-£570m.
But it definitely didn’t ooze confidence in the UK outlook. Rather, Kingfisher noted “softening market conditions” and added: “We continue to be mindful of inflation, uncertainty ahead of the autumn budget and the softening labour market.”
In other words, the group is saying its improvement in the profits department is a self-help job, which is fair. Like-for-like sales in the UK in the last quarter were up 3%. It is winning market share in the UK (where it helps that Homebase went into administration a year ago), grabbing a bigger slice of the professional “trade” market and improving its e-commerce game. The slick Screwfix operation continues to be streets ahead of its direct rivals. Meanwhile, the recently troubled French operation (Castorama and Brico Dépôt) is being restructured, which helped slightly to off-set local “weak consumer sentiment” that sounds several degrees worse than in the UK.
Take a step back and Kingfisher’s progress can be regarded as a parable of the retail scene in two ways. First, it is proof that a basically well managed operator in a strong competitive position can prosper even under subdued economic conditions. For other examples, think Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Next. All have been great shares to own in the 12 months since Rachel Reeves’s last budget, never mind the increase in employers’ national insurance and the rest of it.
The other aspect is more nuanced. On one hand, the ridiculously long and chaotic build-up to the budget has plainly sapped consumer confidence – a CBI distributive trades survey on Tuesday confirmed what we already knew. On the other hand, there still remains a basic level of resilience if Kingfisher is a guide. “Softening” is not the same as outright soft. For that, give thanks for four cuts in interest rates since last October’s budget. Lower mortgage costs matter particularly in DIY businesses for big-ticket items such as kitchens and bathrooms.
So one can – just about – sketch out an optimistic scenario for consuming-facing companies in which Reeves avoids inflation-raising howlers such as last year’s NICs rises and clears the way for the Bank of England to cut interest rates faster. The gilts market has half-bought that story in recent weeks as yields have fallen from their scary September highs.
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The alternative, though, is not good from businesses’ point of view. The prospect of rate cuts is virtually the only big-picture factor running in their favour as they contemplate pressure on wages and fixed costs. Remove lower borrowing costs and there’s little to stop softening conditions turning soggy very quickly. Kingfisher, to repeat, can handle most outcomes. But consumer sentiment across the retail landscape looks fragile.
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Agentic AI trained on the judgement of elite security analysts automates high-impact workflows to keep public sector defenders ahead of AI-accelerated threats
AUSTIN, Texas – November 25, 2025 – CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) today announced that CrowdStrike® Charlotte AI has achieved Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) High Authorization. With this designation, CrowdStrike is transforming public sector defense for the AI era, automating the time-consuming tasks better suited for machines. Trained on the judgement of elite security analysts, Charlotte AI is now available to federal, state, and local agencies through the Falcon® platform in GovCloud, elevating defenders from alert handlers to orchestrators of the agentic SOC.
“Government agencies face some of the most advanced cyber threats in the world and demand the highest level of protection,” said Michael Sentonas, president of CrowdStrike. “By bringing Charlotte AI to GovCloud, security teams can automate high-impact workflows with the expertise of the industry’s best SOC operators, stopping sophisticated threats at the speed of AI with precision and control.”
The public sector is under relentless attack, with adversaries weaponizing AI to accelerate every stage of the threat chain and collapse the defender’s window to act. Trained on years of real-world decisions from Falcon® Complete and incident response engagements, Charlotte AI thinks, reasons, and acts like an elite analyst at machine speed, always under defender control. This flips time in defenders’ favor, eliminating high-friction tasks and enabling analysts to focus on the strategic decisions that strengthen security.
Delivered through the FedRAMP-authorized Falcon platform, the first Charlotte AI capabilities available in GovCloud include:
Detection Triage Agent: Triages security detections with over 98% accuracy1, eliminating more than 40 hours of manual work per week on average2 to scale SOC operations and accelerate response to the most critical threats.
Charlotte AI Actions in Falcon Fusion SOAR: Enables analysts to use a drag-and-drop interface to embed AI reasoning into playbooks. For example, determining device containment based on company policies and generating tailored communications for executives, technical teams, and customers, with automatic translation for global reach.
The FedRAMP High Authorization validates that Charlotte AI meets FedRAMP’s most rigorous security and compliance standards, providing data confidentiality, integrity, and availability across mission-critical U.S. government operations.
To learn more about Charlotte AI, visit here. To learn more about CrowdStrike’s ongoing commitment to meeting the highest independent and government-led cybersecurity and information management standards, visit the CrowdStrike Compliance and Certification Page.
About CrowdStrike
CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD), a global cybersecurity leader, has redefined modern security with the world’s most advanced cloud-native platform for protecting critical areas of enterprise risk – endpoints and cloud workloads, identity and data.
Powered by the CrowdStrike Security Cloud and world-class AI, the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform leverages real-time indicators of attack, threat intelligence, evolving adversary tradecraft and enriched telemetry from across the enterprise to deliver hyper-accurate detections, automated protection and remediation, elite threat hunting and prioritized observability of vulnerabilities.
Purpose-built in the cloud with a single lightweight-agent architecture, the Falcon platform delivers rapid and scalable deployment, superior protection and performance, reduced complexity and immediate time-to-value.
CrowdStrike: We stop breaches.
Learn more: https://www.crowdstrike.com/
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Start a free trial today: https://www.crowdstrike.com/trial
1Accuracy rating is a measure of Charlotte AI triage decisions that match the expert decisions from the CrowdStrike Falcon Complete Next-Gen MDR team.
2Calculated by multiplying the average number of alerts triaged by Charlotte AI by a 5-minute triage time per alert as estimated by the Falcon Complete team. Individual results may vary based on factors such as total alert volume.
Human chromosomes (artificially coloured) vary widely from cell to cell, according to an investigation of the DNA in more than 100 cells from a single person. Credit: Cavallini James/BSIP/Science Photo Library
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