Governance, Regulation, Legislation, Geostrategies

OECD report warns AI skills gaps could widen labour inequalities

(DigWatch) The OECD has warned that stronger skills policies will be needed to prevent AI from widening labour-market inequalities. In its policy paper Skills in the AI age, the organisation says AI (DigWatch) Digital tools and AI can help governments turn thousands of human rights recommendations into concrete action, but only if technology remains firmly guided by human expertise and institutional cooperation, speakers concluded during a WSIS Forum 2026 session on scaling digital tools for human rights monitoring. The discussion brought together representatives from Costa Rica, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), academia, and civil society to examine how digital platforms, AI-assisted analysis, and improved data management can enhance the implementation of recommendations issued by UN human rights mechanisms. – https://dig.watch/updates/wsis-2026-data-implementation-human-rights

UN explores how AI can scale human rights implementation

(DigWatch) Digital tools and AI can help governments turn thousands of human rights recommendations into concrete action, but only if technology remains firmly guided by human expertise and institutional cooperation, speakers concluded during a WSIS Forum 2026 session on scaling digital tools for human rights monitoring. The discussion brought together representatives from Costa Rica, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), academia, and civil society to examine how digital platforms, AI-assisted analysis, and improved data management can enhance the implementation of recommendations issued by UN human rights mechanisms. – https://dig.watch/updates/wsis-2026-data-implementation-human-rights

Universal acceptance key to multilingual internet, UNESCO and ICANN say

(DigWatch) The internet cannot be truly inclusive until every valid domain name and email address works regardless of language or script, speakers said during a WSIS Forum 2026 session marking the launch of UNESCO and ICANN’s joint policy brief on universal acceptance (UA). The discussion brought together representatives from UNESCO, ICANN, and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), who argued that multilingual internet infrastructure has become increasingly important not only for digital inclusion but also for the future development of AI. While internationalised domain names (IDNs) and multilingual email addresses have long been supported by global technical standards, implementation remains far from complete. Speakers stressed that closing this gap now requires stronger political commitment, procurement policies, and coordinated action from governments, industry, academia, and civil society. – https://dig.watch/updates/wsis-2026-session-unesco-icann-policy-brief

ILO urges skills investment as AI reshapes ASEAN workforce

(DigWatch) The International Labour Organization (ILO) has published a report examining how generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping labour markets across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The study estimates that nearly 80 million workers, representing 22.9% of total employment in the region, work in occupations with more than minimal potential exposure to GenAI. However, the ILO stresses that there is currently no evidence of large-scale job displacement. Only 3.3% of ASEAN workers, around 11.7 million people, are employed in occupations with the highest level of GenAI exposure, while roughly two-thirds of employment remains in occupations with no identified exposure. – https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/ai-may-affect-nearly-80-million-workers-asean-region-large-scale-job

European Parliament updates Digital Agenda for Europe factsheet

(DigWatch) The European Parliament has updated its factsheet on the Digital Agenda for Europe, outlining how the EU’s digital policy has shifted from setting strategic goals to implementing rules on platforms, data, digital identity, AI and cybersecurity. The factsheet says digital platforms and emerging technologies continue to reshape how Europeans work, communicate, shop and learn. Since 2024, the EU has focused on implementing legislation designed to strengthen digital security, promote fair competition and support digital sovereignty alongside the green transition. The updated overview of the Digital Agenda for Europe situates current policy within a longer trajectory, from the 2010 Digital Agenda and the 2015 Digital Single Market strategy to the 2030 Digital Compass and the Digital Decade framework. Together, these initiatives set targets for digital skills, public services, business transformation and resilient digital infrastructure. – https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ftu/pdf/en/FTU_2.3.3.pdf

Global groups call for stronger AI accountability rules

(DigWatch) Global organisations have called for AI governance frameworks that prioritise trust, information integrity and child safety, backed by enforceable accountability from AI companies. The European Broadcasting Union delivered the message alongside Fondation Abeona, the Global Trust Challenge and 5Rights Foundation at a side event of the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva. The groups warned that AI companies are increasingly shaping how people access and evaluate information, while traditional markers of editorial accountability, such as bylines and editorial principles, may become less visible to audiences. – https://dig.watch/updates/global-groups-call-for-stronger-ai-accountability

Swiss AI users report stronger workplace gains, Microsoft says

(DigWatch) Swiss AI users are reporting stronger workplace productivity gains than their global peers, according to Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index. The company said 65% of AI users in Switzerland say they can now produce higher-value analytical and creative work that would not have been possible a year ago, compared with 58% globally. The results point to a growing divide between organisations that introduce AI tools and those that redesign work around AI. – https://news.microsoft.com/source/emea/2026/07/swiss-ai-users-outperform-global-peers-on-productivity/

Finland opens consultation on platform work legislation implementing EU rules

(DigWatch) Finland’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has opened a public consultation on a draft Platform Work Act that would transpose the EU Platform Work Directive into national law. The consultation runs from 8 July to 28 August 2026. A tripartite working group with representatives from government ministries, employer organisations, trade unions and occupational safety authorities prepared the draft act. The group did not reach a unanimous position. – https://dig.watch/updates/finland-opens-consultation-on-platform-work-rules

NVIDIA says nations should build AI around local priorities

(DigWatch) NVIDIA says countries are increasingly building AI around domestic infrastructure, local data, skilled workforces and national business ecosystems. According to the company, this approach allows governments and industries to develop AI systems that reflect local languages, cultures, regulations and public priorities. NVIDIA said national AI capabilities now go beyond computing infrastructure. Countries are also developing foundation models trained or fine-tuned on local datasets, helping systems better reflect regional dialects, cultural context and specific domains. – https://dig.watch/updates/nvidia-says-nations-should-build-ai-around-local-priorities

Japan reviews AI search use of news content

(DigWatch) Japan’s Fair Trade Commission has launched a review of how generative AI search services use news content, examining concerns over unauthorised use of articles and compensation for publishers. The survey will gather information from around 370 domestic news organisations, including newspapers, publishers, broadcasters and news agencies. The review will also include discussions with major technology companies, including Google and LY Corp. Regulators want to understand how AI-powered search services access, display and potentially monetise news content produced by publishers. – https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2026070801068/

India in the AI Race: Why Compute Will Decide Power

(Amal Chandra – Observer Research Foundation) India’s artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions are substantial and increasingly visible. The country has emerged as a major hub for AI applications, digital public infrastructure, and large-scale deployment of AI-enabled services. AI adoption across healthcare, agriculture, logistics, education, finance, and governance is accelerating, supported by India’s vast digital population, rich multilingual data, and deep engineering talent. Yet beneath this optimism lies a structural weakness: India remains heavily dependent on foreign computational infrastructure. It has talent, data, and growing demand for AI—but lacks compute capacity commensurate with its ambitions. This gap may prove decisive. The global discourse on AI has largely been dominated by models—oscillating between the promise of large language models, the risks of autonomous systems, and the race towards artificial general intelligence. Governments debate regulation, companies unveil ever-larger models, and investors pour capital into AI applications. But beneath this visible layer lies a deeper strategic reality: AI power is increasingly shaped not merely by who designs the best algorithms, but by who controls the infrastructure that makes those algorithms possible. In the emerging political economy of AI, compute—advanced chips, GPU clusters, hyperscale data centres, high-speed interconnects, cooling systems, and reliable energy—is becoming the primary bottleneck for frontier AI development. Data and algorithms remain indispensable, but unlike data, compute is scarce, capital-intensive, and geographically concentrated. While model architectures can often be replicated, training and deploying frontier AI systems require access to enormous computational resources, industrial supply chains, and power infrastructure. This marks a profound shift in digital power. The internet era was shaped by control over data and platforms. The AI era is increasingly defined by control over compute. –  https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/india-in-the-ai-race-why-compute-will-decide-power

Security and Surveillance

INTERPOL Operation First Light Nets 5,811 Arrests and Seizes $293 Million

(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) INTERPOL coordinated a four-month operation across 97 countries and territories that ended with 5,811 arrests and the interception of USD 293 million in illicit assets. Operation First Light 2026 ran from January 15 to April 30, 2026, targeting social engineering scams and the money laundering operations that process the proceeds. Over 142,000 victims were identified globally during the operation. “A global anti-fraud operation involving 97 countries and territories has led to the arrest of 5,811 individuals and the interception of USD 293 million in illicit assets.” reads the press release by INTERPOL.”Operation First Light 2026 (15 Jan 2026 – 30 April 2026), coordinated by INTERPOL, focused on combatting social engineering scams and associated money laundering activities”. The operation covered business email compromise, romance scams, investment fraud, sextortion, and impersonation schemes. In total, 152,808 cases were analyzed, 31,014 bank accounts blocked, and 15,606 suspects identified. – https://securityaffairs.com/195056/security/interpol-operation-first-light-nets-5811-arrests-and-seizes-293-million.html

GodDamn Ransomware Uses PoisonX to Blind Security Software

(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) Symantec’s Threat Hunter Team found a new ransomware family called GodDamn that first appeared in the wild on May 21, 2026, and analyzed an attack that took place in early June. The group behind it, which Symantec tracks as Hyadina, has been running ransomware operations since March 2022. GodDamn is their third product: Monster came first, Beast followed in June 2024, and now this. The lineage isn’t speculation. Symantec researchers noticed significant code overlap between GodDamn and Beast, and the operational toolset, including AnyDesk for remote access, NirSoft-based credential stealers, and the same avoidance of targets in CIS countries, runs consistently across all three iterations. “Analysis of a recent GodDamn ransomware attack indicates that this seemingly new ransomware is in fact the latest rebrand of the Beast ransomware, which in itself was a rebrand of the Monster ransomware, which was first seen in 2022.” reads the report published by Symantec. “The Symantec Threat Hunter Team tracks the developer behind these ransomware families as Hyadina.” – https://securityaffairs.com/195042/malware/goddamn-ransomware-uses-poisonx-to-blind-security-software.html

AssuranceAmerica Breach Exposes 7 Million Driver’s Licenses After Employee Account Hack

(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) U.S. auto insurer AssuranceAmerica has confirmed a data breach affecting nearly 7 million people, making it the largest known theft of Americans’ driver’s license information in 2026. “In a data breach notice sent to customers and seen by TechCrunch, AssuranceAmerica said it discovered hackers in its computer systems on March 17.” TechCrunch reported. “The company concluded its investigation on June 15, finding that the hackers had stolen customers’ names, contact information, and driver’s license numbers”. The company operates across more than a dozen states through a network of over 9,500 independent agents, handling large volumes of customer identity and vehicle data. Notification letters go out July 10. – https://securityaffairs.com/195027/data-breach/assuranceamerica-breach-exposes-7-million-drivers-licenses-after-employee-account-hack.html

Fake VPN and 7-Zip Apps Turn Victims Into Residential Proxy Nodes

(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) Infoblox’s threat research team started pulling on a single thread in early 2026: a fake version of the 7-Zip archive utility hosted at 7zip[.]com instead of the real site, 7-zip[.]org. The researchers uncovered a years-long operation they’re calling Lurking Lizard, a threat actor running every layer of a criminal residential proxy business, from infecting victim devices all the way through to selling access to them and writing fake reviews to drive more traffic to their own storefronts. The concept of residential proxies is simple. A small piece of software on your device can route other people’s internet traffic through your connection, making it appear to originate from your IP address rather than theirs. Companies sell this capability. Lurking Lizard does the same thing, except the people whose devices are enrolled didn’t agree to it. – https://securityaffairs.com/194990/malware/fake-vpn-and-7-zip-apps-turn-victims-into-residential-proxy-nodes.html

UK Treasury highlights economic value of cyber resilience

(DigWatch) HM Treasury has published a report arguing that cyber resilience in financial services should be treated as a strategic capability rather than simply a compliance requirement or technical cost. The report, The Value of Resilience: Cyber Resilience in Financial Services, brings together evidence on the economic and operational value of resilience, focusing on the growing impact of cyber disruption across the financial sector. The report argues that cyber risk has intensified as financial institutions become more dependent on digital infrastructure, third-party providers, cloud services and shared technologies. It cites the Bank of England’s 2026 H1 Systemic Risk Survey, in which 82% of UK banks, insurers and asset managers identified cyberattacks as one of the financial system’s a top five risks. – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-value-of-resilience-cyber-resilience-in-financial-services/the-value-of-resilience-cyber-resilience-in-financial-services

ECB urges banks to prepare for AI cyber threats

(DigWatch) The European Central Bank has called on major euro area banks to prepare action plans to address AI-enabled cybersecurity threats. In a letter to bank CEOs, ECB Banking Supervision said emerging AI models can identify software vulnerabilities and generate functioning exploits at unprecedented speed. The ECB warned that AI is compressing the time between vulnerability discovery and exploitation, with potentially serious implications for the confidentiality, integrity and resilience of banks’ ICT systems. – https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/press/letterstobanks/shared/pdf/2026/ssm.2026_letter_on_AI_enabled_cybersecurity_threats.hu.pdf

ESRB urges EU action on frontier AI cyber risks in finance

(DigWatch) The European Systemic Risk Board has warned that frontier AI models could strain cyber resilience in the EU financial system by increasing the speed, scale and sophistication of cyberattacks. The warning follows the ESRB General Board’s assessment that systemic cyber risk has risen to ‘severe’, up from ‘elevated’ earlier this year. The ESRB defines frontier AI models as advanced AI models capable of materially affecting offensive or defensive cyber operations. – https://www.esrb.europa.eu/news/pr/date/2026/html/esrb.pr260707~4e1b68241a.en.html