This Week in IT Security
Welcome back to the itpick weekly news roundup — your no-fuss guide to what’s actually worth knowing in tech this week. It’s been a busy one, with a dramatic AI milestone, a genuinely unsettling hacking story, and Apple quietly making macOS a bit safer. Let’s get into it.
Hackers Physically Broke Into Hotel Rooms to Backdoor Laptops
This one reads like a spy thriller, but it’s very real. A Chinese state-linked hacking group targeted executives attending an agricultural industry conference in China earlier this year. Rather than sending dodgy emails or probing company networks, the attackers broke into hotel rooms while executives were at dinner, booted their laptops from a USB stick, and installed backdoor software — all without leaving obvious signs of entry.
Security firm CrowdStrike tracked the campaign and found the attack exploited a known vulnerability that many organisations simply hadn’t patched, despite a fix being available. The method — sometimes called an “evil maid” attack — is a reminder that physical security matters just as much as digital defences.
For small businesses sending staff to conferences or trade events, this is a wake-up call. Enable full-disk encryption on company laptops, set a BIOS password to prevent booting from external drives, and make sure your team knows to keep devices with them or locked away securely. A VPN like NordVPN is essential for securing your connection when on the road, but it won’t help if someone’s already had physical access to your machine.
What this means for you: Keep your laptop with you at events, and make sure your IT team has actually applied available patches — not just downloaded them.
OpenAI Launches GPT-6 Astra — and Claims We’ve Reached AGI
OpenAI made headlines this week with the release of GPT-6 Astra, which the company is billing as the dawn of artificial general intelligence (AGI) — the long-held goal of building AI systems capable of outperforming humans across a wide range of economically valuable tasks. That’s a big claim, and it’s already sparked plenty of debate about what AGI actually means in practice.
What’s less controversial is that the model appears to be a significant leap forward in capability, particularly for complex reasoning and coding tasks. For everyday users and small businesses, that means AI tools built on top of GPT-6 Astra — productivity apps, writing assistants, and business automation tools — are likely to get noticeably smarter in the coming months.
If you’re already using AI-powered tools like Notion or Grammarly, expect to see improvements trickle through as developers integrate newer models. It’s worth reviewing what AI tools you’re actually using and whether they’re giving you real value — because the pace of change right now is genuinely rapid.
What this means for you: AI tools are about to get more capable — now’s a good time to explore how they could save you time in your day-to-day work.
Apple Is Clamping Down on AI Agents Snooping Through Your Mac
Apple has announced changes to how macOS handles Full Disk Access — a permission setting that gives apps the ability to read virtually everything on your machine, including emails, messages, files, and browsing history. The concern is that some AI agent apps have been requesting this permission and using it far more broadly than users realise.
Apple’s tightening of these controls is a sensible move, but it’s also a good reminder to check which apps on your Mac currently have Full Disk Access enabled. You can find this under System Settings > Privacy & Security. If something you don’t recognise or actively trust has that permission, revoke it.
If you’re running Mac security software like Intego, it will typically flag unusual app behaviour and help you keep on top of what’s accessing what on your system. Don’t rely on Apple to catch everything — a bit of regular housekeeping goes a long way.
What this means for you: Go and check your Mac’s Full Disk Access settings today — you might be surprised what’s been quietly granted permission.
That’s your week in IT. Between physical laptop attacks at conferences, the biggest AI launch in years, and Apple quietly plugging a privacy gap, it’s clear that security and artificial intelligence are more intertwined than ever. We’ll be back next week with more of the same — plain English, no hype, just the stuff that actually matters to you and your business. Stay safe out there.