New Zealand's National Cyber Security Centre published its annual cyber threat report on the 24th, stating that China is the most persistent and highly capable state-sponsored cyber threat to the country. The report revealed that it had identified activity suspected of originating from foreign states that puts New Zealand's classified information at risk, and noted that the state-backed cyber activity appeared to be linked to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Of 369 cyber incidents judged to be potentially of national significance in the year to June 2026, 86 were believed to be state-sponsored. It also warned that geopolitical competition is increasingly playing out in the South Pacific, saying it was aware of state-sponsored cyber espionage in the region targeting governments and infrastructure.
Zscaler Launches Agentic SOC AI Security Platform With Anthropic and OpenAI
Zscaler launched its Agentic SOC, an AI-first security operations platform that combines proprietary telemetry, a large decoy mesh network, and integrated zero trust controls with third-party tools to detect and contain threats at machine speed. The platform uses AI agents co-developed with Anthropic and OpenAI, trained on a decade of frontline SOC experience and powered by more than 750 billion daily zero trust transactions to automate complex threat investigation and response. The launch follows the June expansion of Zscaler's Zero Trust SASE with the ZAgent Framework and new browser, endpoint, and cloud controls, both moves deepening Zscaler's role as an integrated security and AI operations platform. Zscaler's narrative projects $5.1 billion revenue and $132.0 million earnings by 2029, yielding a $196.95 fair value, a 6% downside to its current price, while some of the lowest estimate analysts assume revenue of about US$5.2 billion and earnings near US$50 million by 2029 and worry that acquisitions and aggressive AI investment around Agentic SOC could keep margins subdued even if topline keeps growing.
Palo Alto Networks Shares Rise 3% on Launch of Unit 42 Continuous Frontier AI Defense
Palo Alto Networks shares jumped 3% after the cybersecurity platform provider launched Unit 42 Continuous Frontier AI Defense, an agentic offensive security service designed to perpetually find and fix enterprise exposures. The new service integrates gated capability models, including Anthropic's Claude Mythos 5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6-Cyber, to proactively combat threat actors using AI for accelerated exploitation. Management disclosed that during internal deployments the tool found a year's worth of exposures in just three weeks, and in customer assessments it identified vulnerabilities in 100% of environments, with 37% rated high or critical. The shares were trading at $386.43, up 3.2% from the previous close, and are up 115% since the beginning of the year, close to a 52-week high of $396 from August 2026.
BlueVoyant Launches Microsoft Defender XDR ISOC Deployment Service
BlueVoyant announced its Microsoft Defender XDR ISOC Deployment Service, one of the first deployment solutions in the market built to help enterprises adopt the newly announced Integrated Security Operations Center in Microsoft Defender. The service expands BlueVoyant's solution to cover the full scope of ISOC readiness, spanning Defender deployment and configuration across Endpoint, Identity, Office 365, Cloud Apps and Entra ID Identity Protection, walkthroughs of ISOC custom detections, workbooks, automation and user and entity behavior analytics, and use-case engineering to develop and refine detection rules, workbooks and automations. Customers and prospects can begin with BlueVoyant's ISOC Readiness Assessment, a no-cost engagement to prepare for ISOC deployment. The service is available now, with implementation aligned to customer eligibility, agreed scope and Microsoft's phased rollout. BlueVoyant, a premier Microsoft Security partner, supports more than 2,500 customer deployments in Microsoft-native environments worldwide.
