Governance, Regulation, and Legislation
Why human remain the real advantage in the AI era?
(DigWatch) AI is quickly becoming part of everyday business operations. Companies are already using it to analyse data, optimise campaigns and manage complex digital systems. Greater automation, however, is also revealing a simple reality: the human side of leadership is becoming even more important. AI performs well when speed and scale are needed. Systems can process huge volumes of information and detect patterns far faster than people. Planning in many industries is already shifting from broad demographics toward signals based on behaviour and intent. Operational complexity is another area where AI is proving useful. Modern digital ecosystems involve multiple platforms and formats, from programmatic advertising to retail media and connected television. Automation can handle forecasting, pacing and reporting, freeing teams to focus on strategy and interpretation. – https://dig.watch/updates/why-human-remain-the-real-advantage-in-the-ai-era
Human made labels emerge as industries react to AI expansion
(DigWatch) Organisations around the world are developing certification labels designed to show that products or creative work were made by humans rather than AI. New badges such as ‘Human made’, ‘AI free’ and ‘Proudly Human’ are appearing across books, films, marketing and websites as industries respond to the rapid spread of AI tools. At least eight initiatives are now attempting to create a label that could achieve global recognition similar to the Fair Trade mark. Experts warn that competing definitions and inconsistent certification systems could confuse consumers unless a universal standard is agreed upon. – https://dig.watch/updates/human-made-labels-emerge-as-industries-react-to-ai-expansion
Geostrategies
Strategic Snapshot: U.S.–PRC Tech Rivalry
(The Jamestown Foundation) Under General Secretary Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has made technology competition the focus of its long-term struggle against the West. The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) has codified the fusion of national planning, security strategy, and technological control under Xi’s direct command. The plan, whose early chapters are dedicated to building a modern industrial system, accelerating tech self-reliance and cultivating new productive forces, and deepening informatization and intelligentization, highlights a range of priority high-tech sectors. These include artificial intelligence (AI), quantum, biotechnology, connected devices and the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and open-source technologies, among others. The Party believes that seizing the “commanding heights” in these areas is critical to ensuring long-term dominance (Xinhua, March 13). Xi has directed the Party-state system to advance a whole-of-nation approach to promoting strategic sectors. This is seen in the mechanisms embedded in the Party’s seven national development strategies, of which the military–civil fusion development strategy the most important, coordinating the system to diffuse innovation throughout the pillars of the Party’s power. It also involves boosting competitiveness through securing supply chains, promoting innovation, and ensuring that critical technologies remain in reliable hands. “Reverse constrainment,” or the selective weaponization of trade, has emerged as one tactic to adapt to the competitive international environment; but the Party deploys a variety of other tools in pursuit of supply chain sovereignty, technological dominance, and ultimately victory in international technological competition. Looking forward to 2030, Xi is preparing the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for sustained confrontation. State investment, flexible regulatory environments, and courting foreign capital support reliable supply chains. “Command innovation,” or state investment in targeted sectors, serves the Party’s goal of global technological dominance. The CCP hopes that these strategies, combined with its weaponization of trade dependencies, will create the conditions necessary for victory in U.S.–PRC competition. – https://jamestown.org/strategic-snapshot-u-s-prc-tech-rivalry/
China prioritises AI and tech self-reliance in new five-year plan
(DigWatch) A new five-year development plan approved by lawmakers in Beijing places innovation and advanced technology at the centre of future economic growth. The strategy is designed to strengthen technological capabilities and position China as a leading global tech power. The plan outlines ambitions to upgrade China’s industrial sector, expand domestic research capacity, and reduce reliance on foreign technologies. Priority sectors include AI, robotics, aerospace, biotechnology, and quantum computing. Officials see these industries as key drivers of economic growth over the coming decades. – https://dig.watch/updates/china-tech-innovation-five-year-plan
Seoul deepens ties with global AI developers
(DigWatch) South Korea is pursuing a partnership with AI company Anthropic as part of a national strategy to strengthen technological capabilities. Officials are working toward a memorandum of understanding with the developer of the Claude AI system. The initiative follows discussions between South Korea’s science minister and Anthropic’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, during an AI summit in New Delhi. Authorities are also preparing for the company’s planned office opening in the city in 2026. – https://dig.watch/updates/seoul-deepens-ties-with-global-ai-developers
France pushes EU AI gigafactories to support European technology
(DigWatch) In the EU, France is calling for planned European AI ‘gigafactories’ to focus on testing and scaling European technologies rather than primarily increasing demand for hardware from companies such as Nvidia. The large computing facilities are intended to provide the infrastructure needed to train advanced AI systems. However, officials in France argue that the projects should strengthen Europe’s technological capabilities rather than reinforce reliance on foreign suppliers. – https://dig.watch/updates/france-pushes-eu-ai-gigafactories-to-support-european-technology
Switzerland is at the centre of a quiet rebellion in chip design
(DigWatch) A Swiss-based open-source technology is quietly challenging the semiconductor industry’s concentration of power, in which most of the world’s digital devices depend on instruction set architectures licensed by just two companies: Intel in the US and ARM in the UK. The RISC-V International Association, headquartered in Zurich since 2020, maintains an open-source alternative that allows chip designers to build without paying licensing fees or seeking permission from governments that control proprietary architectures. – https://dig.watch/updates/switzerland-is-at-the-centre-of-a-quiet-rebellion-in-chip-design
Britain targets quantum leadership with £1bn investment
(DigWatch) UK Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Liz Kendall has announced a £1bn funding package to boost UK quantum computing and retain domestic talent. The initiative reflects growing concern over the country’s ability to compete globally, particularly after the US established dominance in AI. – https://dig.watch/updates/britain-quantum-leadership-with-1bn-investment
Nvidia’s race to outpace physics
(Amy Harder – Axios) Nvidia’s chips are improving at such a staggering pace that it defies any historical comparison. Without these gains — which are drawing increased attention as AI transforms society — physics would slam the brakes on the data center boom. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Monday he expects the company to reap “at least” $1 trillion in revenue for its newest chips through 2027. It posted record sales and earnings last month, fueled by skyrocketing orders from Big Tech data center companies. Nvidia has historically dominated the market. But its cumulative share has dropped from 100% in the first quarter of 2022 to 65% in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the research and consultancy firm SemiAnalysis. – https://www.axios.com/2026/03/17/nvidia-ai-chips-physics
Security and Surveillance
Energy Department set to release its first-ever cyber strategy
(Suzanne Smalley – The Record) The top Energy Department official for cybersecurity on Tuesday said the agency is for the first time planning to release a strategic plan to lay out how the department intends to better protect the energy grid. Alex Fitzsimmons, the acting director of the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER), said the plan is meant to supplement the recently-published national cyber strategy and will focus on how the agency will strengthen the “security resilience” of the energy sector. The importance of partnerships with the private sector and how to bolster them will be at the heart of the strategic plan, Fitzsimmons said. – https://therecord.media/energy-department-set-to-release-first-ever-cyber-strategy
‘CursorJack’ Attack Path Exposes Code Execution Risk in AI Development Environment
(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine) A method that could enable code execution through manipulated installation links in an AI development environment has been identified by security researchers. The technique, dubbed CursorJack by Proofpoint Threat Research, centres on the abuse of Model Context Protocol (MCP) deeplinks within the Cursor Integrated Development Environment (IDE), potentially allowing attackers to install malicious components or execute arbitrary commands under certain conditions. The findings, based on controlled testing as of January 19, 2026, show that exploitation is not automatic. Instead, it depends on user interaction and system configuration. A single click on a crafted link, followed by approval of an installation prompt, may be sufficient to trigger the behaviour in some environments. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cursor-jack-attack-path-ai/
Surge in Nation State Attacks on UK Firms Amid Cyber Warfare Fears
(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine) Over half (54%) of UK companies were hit by nation state attacks last year as IT leaders grew increasingly fearful of AI-powered threats, according to a new report from Armis. The security vendor’s 2026 Armis Cyberwarfare Report was based on interviews with 1900 global IT decision-makers (ITDMs), including 500 from the UK, alongside proprietary data from Armis Labs. It revealed an increase in the number of UK ITDMs reporting state-sponsored attacks, up from 47% in last year’s report. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/nation-state-attacks-uk-firms/
Average Number of Daily API Attacks Up 113% Annually
(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine) APIs now represent the “dominant” attack surface for global organizations, with 87% registering a related security incident last year, according to Akamai. Now in its 12th year, the security vendor’s latest State of the Internet (SOTI) report was produced from analysis of its own data. The average number of API attacks per organization in 2025 was 258, up 113% from 121 in 2024, it found. Some 61% of API attacks last year involved unauthorized workflows and abnormal activity, up from 30% in 2024. Akamai said this indicates a shift from traditional web-based to behavior-based attacks. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/average-number-daily-api-attacks/
UK Cyber Monitoring Centre Sets Its Sights on US Expansion One Year After Launch
(Kevin Poireault – Infosecurity Magazine) One year after its creation, the UK’s Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC) is looking to expand to the US. The UK-based nonprofit was established by a team of experts in February 2025 to assess the economic and financial impact of major cyber incidents occurring in the UK. The Centre’s approach mirrors the methodologies used for physical events, such as the Richter scale for earthquakes and the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale for hurricanes. The CMC’s own scale (categories 0 to 5) categorizes cyber incidents based on how many people were affected and the overall financial impact. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/uk-cyber-monitoring-centre-us/
Identity Drift: The Hidden Risk in Hybrid Active Directory Environments
(Dominique Adam – Infosecurity Magazine) Remote and hybrid work have changed how and where users authenticate. Devices aren’t always connected to the corporate network and VPN use is often inconsistent. Crucially, not every password reset happens while a machine has line-of-sight to a domain controller. Identity drift occurs in this gap, when a user’s credentials aren’t fully aligned across every system that can authenticate them. Understanding how these credentials persist is critical to closing gaps that attackers are quick to exploit. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/blogs/identity-drift-risk-in-hybrid-ad/
CL-STA-1087 targets military capabilities since 2020
(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) A suspected China-linked espionage campaign, tracked as CL-STA-1087, has targeted Southeast Asian military organizations since at least 2020, using AppleChris and MemFun malware. “The activity demonstrated strategic operational patience and a focus on highly targeted intelligence collection, rather than bulk data theft. The attackers behind this cluster actively searched for and collected highly specific files concerning military capabilities, organizational structures and collaborative efforts with Western armed forces.” reads the report published by Palo Alto Networks. “The objective-oriented tool set used in the malicious activity includes several newly discovered assets: the AppleChris and MemFun backdoors, and a custom Getpass credential harvester.” – https://securityaffairs.com/189553/apt/cl-sta-1087-targets-military-capabilities-since-2020.html
From Windows to macOS: ClickFix attacks shift tactics with ChatGPT-based lures
(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) ClickFix is a growing social engineering technique that tricks users into manually executing malicious commands, bypassing traditional protections. Once mainly targeting Windows, it is now increasingly affecting macOS, with recent campaigns deploying infostealers like AMOS and MacSync. Researchers note the evolving tactics, likely driven by both defensive measures and broader tech trends. Sophos researchers analyzed three ClickFix campaigns targeting macOS users with the MacSync infostealer. In November 2025, attackers relied on relatively “classic” ClickFix techniques. Victims searching for ChatGPT-related tools were lured via malicious Google-sponsored links leading to fake OpenAI/ChatGPT pages. These pages instructed users to copy and execute obfuscated Terminal commands, which ultimately downloaded and ran the MacSync infostealer. The approach was straightforward but effective, relying heavily on user trust and deception. – https://securityaffairs.com/189542/cyber-crime/from-windows-to-macos-clickfix-attacks-shift-tactics-with-chatgpt-based-lures.html
Attack on Stryker’s Microsoft environment wiped employee devices without malware
(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) A recent cyberattack on medical technology giant Stryker targeted its internal Microsoft environment and remotely wiped tens of thousands of employee devices without using malware. The company confirmed that its medical devices were not affected and remain safe to use. However, electronic ordering systems are still offline, forcing customers to place orders manually through sales representatives. Last week, Pro-Palestinian hacktivist group Handala claimed responsibility for a disruptive cyberattack against medical technology firm Stryker. The group claimed it wiped more than 200,000 servers, mobile devices, and other systems, forcing the company to shut down offices across 79 countries. The hacktivists also claimed they exfiltrated about 50TB of corporate data from the company’s infrastructure. – https://securityaffairs.com/189535/hacking/attack-on-stryker-s-microsoft-environment-wiped-employee-devices-without-malware.html
Cyber Operations as Iran’s Asymmetric Leverage
(The Soufan Center) Iran-linked cyber proxies and hacktivists have become highly active since Operation Epic Fury, showing resilience even as the IRGC and the MOIS have been battered by the U.S. and Israel. The MOIS-linked Stryker cyber-attack demonstrates that Iran retains high-end offensive capability and can impose psychological and operational costs far from the battlefield. Iran’s cyber strategy focuses on asymmetric cost imposition, aiming at psychological impact and subsequent resource exhaustion. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) will monitor current U.S. cyber operations for future conflict modeling in Taiwan. – https://thesoufancenter.org/intelbrief-2026-march-17/
Defence, Intelligence, and Warfare
The coming compute war in Ukraine
(Clara Kaluderovic – Atlantic Council) It’s May 2026 in the Kharkiv sector of Ukraine. A Ukrainian commander launches eight hundred autonomous drones—a coordinated swarm of air and ground systems programmed to suppress enemy air defenses, identify and strike artillery positions, and exploit gaps in Russian lines. The operation depends on real-time coordination: sensors feeding targeting data to strike platforms, movement algorithms synchronizing advance rates, and machine learning systems adapting to Russian countermeasures. Eighteen minutes into the mission, Russian electronic warfare assets sever the swarm’s tactical ground uplinks to Western cloud infrastructure. The swarm doesn’t abort—it continues operating on preprogrammed instructions. But it can’t adapt. Russian forces rapidly move their artillery and air defense systems. Ukrainian sensors detect the movement but can’t retask strike drones without cloud connectivity. The algorithms that would normally coordinate sensors with shooters can’t execute. What should have been a precisely synchronized operation devolves into hundreds of individual platforms executing obsolete instructions against targets that have already moved. This scenario hasn’t transpired yet. But the conditions that could make it inevitable are already in place. The war in Ukraine is often described in the language of weapons: air defense systems, artillery pieces, drones, and munitions. Yet a less visible element will shape the next phase of the conflict just as decisively as any piece of military hardware: the infrastructure to create and harness computational power, or compute. – https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/the-big-story/the-coming-compute-war-in-ukraine/
Anthropic highlight contradictions for the US
(Kenton Thibaut – Atlantic Council) Chinese commentators are taking particular glee in the dispute between Anthropic and the US Department of Defense given Anthropic’s previous criticisms of China. Chinese narratives are focused on how companies such as Anthropic touted their importance to national security yet are now raising concern when the military demands access to their technologies. These narratives do reveal a contradiction that arises when US AI firms who promote trust, safety, and independence as their core advantages also work with the national security state. – https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/dispatches/chinese-narratives-around-anthropic-highlight-contradictions-for-the-us/
Trump’s Cyber Strategy Falls Short on China, Iran, and the Threats That Matter Most
(Matthew Ferren – Council on Foreign Relations) The White House’s recently released cyber strategy is strikingly short, with just four pages of substance—roughly one-seventh the length of the Biden administration’s 2023 strategy. National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross has described it as a high-level statement of intent, with action items to come. But the brevity also reflects a fraying cyber apparatus that is, at best, still finding its footing and, at worst, suffering from institutional neglect. This strategy arrives at a precarious moment. The United States faces longstanding and intensifying cyber threats—from Chinese espionage and pre-positioning on critical infrastructure to ransomware campaigns that disrupt essential services—that demand sustained attention and investment. The president’s war of choice with Iran adds new urgency. Tehran-linked groups are already threatening cyberattacks on U.S. networks, and the White House’s ability to coordinate national cyber defenses will face an immediate test. Yet the administration’s surface-level treatment of these challenges casts doubt on how seriously the administration takes the cyber threat, and whether it has the capacity to address them. Key cyber leadership posts remain vacant, and the agencies responsible for implementation have been disrupted by budget cuts and personnel turnover. – https://www.cfr.org/articles/trumps-cyber-strategy-falls-short-on-china-iran-and-the-threats-that-matter-most
Frontiers
How IBM is making quantum-centric supercomputing accessible to scientists
(DigWatch) IBM has published a detailed reference architecture for quantum-centric supercomputing, providing a blueprint for integrating quantum processing units (QPUs) into existing high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure without disruptive changes to current systems. The release marks a significant step toward realising the vision articulated by physicist Richard Feynman, who argued decades ago that accurately simulating nature would require quantum-mechanical computation. The architecture describes how quantum and classical systems, including CPUs, GPUs, and QPUs, can work together across multiple layers, from application and middleware tools such as Qiskit and CUDA through to resource management systems that orchestrate workloads in real time. – https://dig.watch/updates/how-ibm-is-making-quantum-centric-supercomputing-accessible-to-scientists
AI tool could help detect domestic violence risk years earlier
(DigWatch) Researchers in the United States have developed an AI system designed to help doctors identify patients who may be at risk of intimate partner violence. The tool analyses hospital data to detect patterns associated with abuse, potentially enabling healthcare professionals to intervene earlier. Intimate partner violence refers to abuse from current or former partners and can lead to serious injuries, chronic pain, and long-term mental health problems. According to the European Commission, 18 percent of women who have had a partner reported experiencing physical or sexual violence from a partner in 2021. – https://dig.watch/updates/ai-domestic-violence-detection
AI and robotics could offset impact of aging populations in Asia
(DigWatch) Declining fertility rates have long been considered a major risk to economic growth, but analysts suggest the outlook may not be entirely negative for several advanced Asian economies. Rising investment in AI and robotics is increasingly viewed as a way to offset labour shortages caused by ageing populations. According to analysts at Bank of America Global Research, technological innovation driven by AI and robotics could support productivity growth even as workforces shrink. Strong ecosystems in semiconductors, technology hardware, and industrial machinery allow some countries in the region to deploy advanced technologies faster and at lower cost than many other parts of the world. – https://dig.watch/updates/ai-and-robotics-aging-population-asia
Google Earth AI supports disease forecasting and public health planning
(DigWatch) Researchers are increasingly combining geospatial data with predictive modelling to anticipate health risks. In that context, Google has introduced new capabilities within Google Earth AI designed to help public health experts forecast outbreaks and identify vulnerable communities. The system integrates environmental information such as weather patterns, flooding and air quality with population mobility data and health records. – https://dig.watch/updates/google-earth-ai-supports-disease-forecasting-and-public-health-planning