Attackers are exploiting Palo Alto Networks defect that initially flew under the radar

News roundup led by active exploitation of a Palo Alto Networks defect (CVE-2026-0257) that initially attracted little attention but has since escalated as attackers exploit the flaw. Other items: a Commerce IG audit criticizes NIST’s NVD for backlog and duplicated work with CISA, Zapier patched a multi-step bug chain that could enable account takeover, and election-security coverage warns adversaries are shifting toward campaign systems and AI-driven disinformation. Additional reports cover USPS mail-in ballot rule changes, OpenAI’s midterm election safeguards, a Google security engineer’sins