Cybersecurity Stocks Q1 Earnings: Okta Revenue Beats, Palo Alto Networks Leads Growth

Japan's National Police Agency announced on September 18 that a person believed to be a North Korean IT worker applied in May 2025 for an engineer position at the domestic cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer. The applicant attached a résumé to the recruitment form under someone else's identity and applied directly rather than through an intermediary, but the company noticed suspicious behavior and responded, so no hiring or damage resulted. According to the National Police Agency, the applicant accessed the recruitment form using multiple VPN services, listed a Gmail address as contact information, and stated in the résumé a broad range of skills in programming languages, blockchain, and cloud services, along with graduation from a European university and work experience in cities in Europe and Asia. In an online interview, the applicant said they were from Malaysia and living in Finland, but refused to relocate to Japan or work on-site, or said they would agree only if it were six months out, insisted on being paid in cryptocurrency, frequently checked another monitor during the interview, and at times another person's voice could be heard from behind. The National Police Agency and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation believe that the cyberattack group WaterPlum's activities and some of the foreign-currency earning operations by North Korean IT workers are centrally linked to the Workers' Party of Korea's Bureau 313, and the IP addresses used by the group's attackers, the North Korean IT workers, and the applicant to bitFlyer matched.

Meta Platforms rolled out Muse, an AI agent that can autonomously send emails, sell a car, and book travel on a person's behalf, Reuters reported on September 9, 2026. The agent, modeled on the open-source system OpenClaw, is available initially only in the U.S. through a dedicated app or WhatsApp, and is designed to access apps across email, calendar, payments, health, shopping, and smart-home categories as the centerpiece of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's "personal superintelligence" strategy. Meta launched Muse with a free tier and $20 and $100 monthly subscription options for heavier users, positioning the product as a new revenue stream beyond advertising. The launch follows a delay from April to improve security, and Meta added an autonomous safety agent that monitors Muse's actions, though internal testing uncovered an incident in which Muse exposed private iCloud photos and employees reported repeated logouts, monitoring failures, and inconsistent performance. Meta expects AI infrastructure spending to exceed $130 billion this year and has seen a 40% increase in technical and security incidents linked to AI, while its hedge fund holder count slipped to 254 in the second quarter from 262 in the first even as combined position value rose to $43.75 billion from $41.70 billion.