Governance, Regulation, and Legislation

Technical challenges in Australia’s under-16s social-media ban

(Meg Tapia – ASPI The Strategtist) The technology meant to enforce Australia’s under‑16 social media ban has stumbled. What began as a watershed moment for online safety—protecting young Australians online—risks becoming a cautionary tale of haphazard technology deployment and a generation pushed into digital shadows. When Australia’s social media ban for children under the age of 16 went live on 10 December, it carried the weight of parental and global expectations. The Australian government determined it needed to take back power from major technology companies and platforms and protect children online. The first-of-its-kind legislation had bipartisan support and the world’s attention. Two months later, the reality looks less like a carefully orchestrated policy triumph and more like inexperienced bouncers checking IDs at a nightclub, unable to distinguish between a mature-looking underage teenager and a youthful-looking adult. – https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/technical-challenges-in-australias-under-16s-social-media-ban/

Russian Directive Expands Internet Control

(Luke Rodeheffer – The Jamestown Foundation) A Kremlin directive takes effect on March 1, allowing the Russian Communications Authority to reroute national internet traffic in the event of a cyberattack or crisis. This announcement comes amid widespread complaints about a growing lack of reliability in internet connections and legislation that shields telecommunications providers from responsibility for service disconnections caused by Federal Security Service (FSB) actions. The scope of Russia’s emerging state system for the prevention and liquidation of computer attacks (GosSOPKA) continues to expand to include all state information technology (IT) systems, including municipal agencies. – https://jamestown.org/russian-directive-expands-internet-control/

Geostrategies

Middle Powers Must Win the AI Deployment Race

(Broderick McDonald, Connor Attridge and Alexandra MacEachern – RUSI) The AI Race is often framed as a contest over which countries – primarily the US and China – can develop ever larger and more powerful models. But this overlooks a more mundane reality: deploying AI at scale often matters as much, or more, than a slightly more powerful model. In certain military domains, models which are milliseconds faster than adversaries may be required. But for the overwhelming majority of use cases – from manufacturing, to healthcare, to shipping – models that are simply near the front of the pack can unlock the benefits of AI when they are meaningfully integrated into existing workstreams at scale. This is particularly critical for middle powers, like the UK and Canada, who lack the scale and resources needed to keep pace with the US and China. Instead of trying to compete with superpowers to build Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), middle powers must focus on winning the deployment race. This means embedding AI across our economies and militaries through narrower and less flashy applications that solve specific, real-world problems – from automating labour-intensive agricultural practices, to improving productivity in ship building, or expanding access to high-quality personalised healthcare. However, for AI adoption to be trusted and accepted, it must be deployed with safety front-of-mind. Safety is not orthogonal to integrating AI, it is the tracks on which it progresses. – https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/middle-powers-must-win-ai-deployment-race

Security and Surveillance

Ransomware payments dropped in 2025 as attack numbers reached record levels: Chainalysis

(Jonathan Greig – The Record) The number of ransomware victims paying up to unlock systems is falling significantly even as the total number of incidents increases. Blockchain research company Chainalysis released its annual analysis of the ransomware economy on Thursday, finding that while claimed attacks grew by 50%, victim payment rates dropped to a record low of 28%. Chainalysis tracked about $820 million in payments to ransomware actors in 2025 but noted the figure is expected to rise to $900 million as they attribute more incidents and payments to ransomware gangs. In 2024, the figure was initially tracked as $813 million and eventually grew to $892 million as more payments were discovered. – https://therecord.media/ransomware-payments-chainalysis-cybercrime

After years of government cyber trouble, UK turns to automated scanning to speed fixes

(Alexander Martin – The Record) The British government said Thursday it has slashed the time required to fix some of the most serious cyber vulnerabilities across the public sector, pointing to a new automated monitoring service as evidence that Whitehall is finally getting a grip on long-troubled digital defenses. Called the Vulnerability Monitoring Service, the system operates as a central scanning platform that continuously checks internet-facing systems used by public bodies, from central government departments to health and local authorities, for signs of known security weaknesses. Officials from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said the service covers around 6,000 organizations and is leading to about 400 confirmed vulnerabilities being processed and resolved each month. – https://therecord.media/united-kingdom-vulnerability-scanning-cyber

PowerSchool, Chicago Public Schools to settle student data privacy lawsuit for $17 million

(Suzanne Smalley – The Record) The education software company PowerSchool and Chicago Public Schools have agreed to pay $17.25 million to settle a proposed class-action lawsuit that accused them of violating students’ privacy by eavesdropping on their communications, court documents show. The plaintiff, a student identified as Q.J., on Monday asked an Illinois federal judge to approve the proposed settlement and end what the motion called a “first-of-its-kind action that arises out of the alleged unlawful wiretapping of, and eavesdropping upon, school students while they used school-mandated education technology products.”. The lawsuit argued that PowerSchool Holdings, its subsidiary Hobsons, Inc. and the analytics firm Heap Inc. collected sensitive personal data about millions of students by covertly recording their communications. – https://therecord.media/powerschool-cps-settle-proposed-class-action

Medical device firm UFP says backup data systems deployed following cyberattack

(Jonathan Greig – The Record) A large medical device manufacturer reported a cyberattack to federal regulators on Tuesday evening, warning investors that some company data was stolen or destroyed. UFP Technologies filed a notice with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) explaining that the company discovered a cyberattack on February 14 that required it to isolate some IT systems, launch an investigation and eventually restore data using backups. The company said it initially discovered suspicious activity before calling in assistance from outside cybersecurity experts. – https://therecord.media/ufp-technologies-medical-devices-sec-filing-cyberattack

Chinese prosecutors raise alarm about growth of domestic IP theft

(Alexander Martin – The Record) A senior official at China’s top prosecutorial agency said that Beijing is stepping up criminal enforcement against commercial espionage and technology leaks to protect domestic innovation. Liu Taizong, deputy director-general of the intellectual property department at the country’s top prosecutorial agency, said on Tuesday that prosecutors nationwide are increasing cases involving alleged theft of trade secrets and key technologies, as reported by state media. From 2021 through 2024, authorities handled more than 1,200 business secret infringement cases, Liu said, with another 232 cases in the first 11 months of 2025, adding that enforcement is focusing on sectors including artificial intelligence, biomanufacturing and energy, as officials seek to counter what he described as growing risks of technology leakage. – https://therecord.media/china-domestic-ip-theft-crackdown

Exploitable Vulnerabilities Present in 87% of Organizations

(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine) Eighty-seven percent of organizations have at least one exploitable software vulnerability in production, affecting 40% of all services, a new report from DataDog has revealed. The observability and security specialist revealed the findings in its State of DevSecOps Report, which is based on telemetry from tens of thousands of applications and additional datasets. It noted that vulnerabilities are most common in Java services (59%), followed by .NET (47%) and Rust (40%). However, not all CVEs need prioritizing. DataDog claimed that only 18% of critical dependency vulnerabilities stay critical after adjusting the severity score according to runtime and CVE context. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/exploitable-vulnerabilities-in-87/

UK’s Data Watchdog Gets a Makeover to Match Growing Demands

(Kevin Poireault – Infosecurity Magazine) A forthcoming update to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is about to introduce major changes in the governance of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The national data protection regulator will move from a single-leader model – under the status of corporation sole, with a commissioner at its head – to a board-run government agency. This shift is designed to meet the agency’s growing scope and expanding workload and bring more diverse expertise to data protection. Paul Arnold, who has been working at the ICO for the past 28 years, was named the first CEO of the new ICO structure in the summer of 2025 – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/uk-data-watchdog-ico-makeover/

44% Surge in App Exploits as AI Speeds Up Cyber-Attacks, IBM Finds

(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine) There has been a 44% increase in cyber-attacks exploiting public-facing applications, IBM X-Force has warned. The newly published the 2026 IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index report points to missing authentication controls and AI-enabled vulnerability scanning as major drivers behind the spike. Vulnerability exploitation emerged as the leading cause of incidents in 2025, accounting for 40% of cases observed by IBM X-Force. At the same time, active ransomware and extortion groups grew 49% year over year, signalling a more fragmented ecosystem. Publicly disclosed victim counts rose by roughly 12%. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/app-exploits-surge-ai-speeds/

Hackers abused Cisco SD-WAN zero-day since 2023 to gain full admin control

(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) A critical Cisco SD-WAN vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-20127 (CVSS score of 10.0), has been actively exploited since 2023. The flaw affects Catalyst SD-WAN Controller and Manager and allows remote, unauthenticated attackers to bypass authentication and gain full administrative access by sending a crafted request to vulnerable systems. “This vulnerability exists because the peering authentication mechanism in an affected system is not working properly. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted requests to an affected system.” reads the advisory. “A successful exploit could allow the attacker to log in to an affected Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller as an internal, high-privileged, non-root user account. Using this account, the attacker could access NETCONF, which would then allow the attacker to manipulate network configuration for the SD-WAN fabric.” – https://securityaffairs.com/188540/security/hackers-abused-cisco-sd-wan-zero-day-since-2023-to-gain-full-admin-control.html

Google GTIG disrupted China-linked APT UNC2814 halting attacks on 53 orgs in 42 countries

(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) Google, with industry partners, disrupted the infrastructure of UNC2814, a suspected China-linked cyber espionage group that breached at least 53 organizations in 42 countries. The group has been active since at least 2017, and was spotted targeting governments and global telecoms across Africa, Asia, and the Americas, making it a highly prolific and elusive threat. UNC2814 is likely linked to additional infections in more than 20 other nations. “Last week, Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG), Mandiant, and partners took action to disrupt a global espionage campaign targeting telecommunications and government organizations in dozens of nations across four continents.” reads the GTIG’s report. “The threat actor, UNC2814, is a suspected People’s Republic of China (PRC)-nexus cyber espionage group that GTIG has tracked since 2017. “ – https://securityaffairs.com/188521/apt/google-gtig-disrupted-china-linked-apt-unc2814-halting-attacks-on-53-orgs-in-42-countries.html

Deputising UK Counter-Cybercrime Operations

(Gareth Mott – RUSI) ​The paper ‘Exploring Cyber Deputisation: Enhancing UK Cyber Statecraft Against Organised Cybercrime’ examines the potential of deputising private sector entities to conduct disruptive cyber operations against serious and organised cybercrime targeting the UK. Amid escalating cyber threats and constrained public resources, the paper explores the feasibility of a modern-day ‘letters of marque’ approach to bolster the UK’s cyber defence capabilities. ​Drawing on international comparisons and academic debates, the paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the benefits, risks, and legal considerations of cyber deputisation. – https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/insights-papers/deputising-uk-counter-cybercrime-operations

Defence and Intelligence

Big Tech’s Moment of Truth on AI Safety

(Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat – Just Security) The Pentagon has given leading AI company Anthropic until Feb. 27 to abandon its AI safety limits or face extraordinary punitive measures. If Anthropic refuses—as it has signaled it will—Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act, use the government’s contracting power to blacklist Anthropic from the defense ecosystem, and turn to Google, OpenAI, or xAI to fill the gap. Those companies have now been handed an unexpected choice: step in and profit or stand with Anthropic and demonstrate that the industry’s safety commitments are more than marketing. There is only one right answer. Anthropic has so far declined the Defense Department’s request that its flagship model, Claude, be made available for all “lawful purposes,” an expansive formulation that could encompass applications such as mass domestic surveillance and the operation of fully autonomous weapons. Anthropic has insisted on retaining contractual limits regarding those two uses. Defense officials have pushed back, arguing that those constraints are incompatible with national security needs. – https://www.justsecurity.org/132536/big-techs-moment-truth-ai-safety/

As US tech giants become cable giants, it’s time we pay attention to our seabeds

(Elisabeth Braw – Politico) Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a thoughtful and stirring speech at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, speaking of “a rupture in the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a harsh reality, where geopolitics, where the large, main power, geopolitics, is submitted to no limits, no constraints.” Though he didn’t mention the U.S. by name, it was clear Washington’s recent behavior had driven him to this conclusion. The speech didn’t please U.S. President Donald Trump, who went on to call Carney ungrateful and threatened to impose 100-percent tariffs on Canada if it struck a trade deal with China — even though Washington itself has been conducting a series of trade talks with Beijing. Trump appears willing to harm America’s allies in ways that once seemed inconceivable, and threats — as we’ve learned — are his way, with many of them are directed at allies. The threat against Canada, for example, came just days after Trump reminded luminaries at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he was very serious about annexing Greenland. And that was after he’d threatened new U.S. tariffs against European nations voicing support for Denmark. Tariffs for European friends are, of course, already a reality. In late January, the U.S. president told an interviewer he imposed 39 percent tariffs on Switzerland after its president “rubbed me the wrong way.”. All of this is why we need to start looking somewhere we haven’t had to before: at the bottom of the ocean, at undersea cables — more specifically, at the U.S. firms owning undersea cables. Google & Co. aren’t just tech giants, they’re now cable giants too. And if the White House were to instruct them to disconnect the nations it wanted to hurt, those countries would find themselves in very serious trouble. – https://www.politico.eu/article/us-tech-giants-become-cable-giants-time-pay-attention-seabeds/

What happened after Elon Musk took the Russian army offline

(Ibrahim Naber – Politico) “All we’ve got left now,” the Russian soldier said, “are radios, cables and pigeons.”. A decision earlier this month by SpaceX to shut down access to Starlink satellite-internet terminals caused immediate chaos among Russian forces who had become increasingly reliant upon the Elon Musk-owned company’s technology to sustain their occupation of Ukraine, according to radio transmissions intercepted by a Ukrainian reconnaissance unit and shared with the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, to which POLITICO belongs. The communications breakdown significantly constrained Russian military capabilities, creating new opportunities for Ukrainian forces. In the days following the shutdown, Ukraine recaptured roughly 77 square miles in the country’s southeast, according to calculations by the news agency Agence France-Presse based on data from the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. – https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/25/elon-musk-russian-army-starlink-00793742