Governance, Regulation, Legislation, Geostrategies

UNDP outlines responsible AI use in electoral administration

(DigWatch) UNDP and the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) have published a technical guide on AI in electoral administration to help election authorities assess the responsible adoption of the technology. The publication, From Promise to Practice: AI in Electoral Administration, was produced jointly by UNDP and DPPA’s Electoral Assistance Division. It is intended as a practical resource for electoral management bodies considering how AI could support their work. – https://www.undp.org/publications/promise-practice-ai-electoral-administration-0

UNESCO advances AI ethics training in Mexico’s judiciary

(DigWatch) UNESCO has delivered the first specialised in-person training programme on the ethical use of AI for judicial professionals in Mexico City, aiming to support the responsible adoption of AI across the country’s justice system. More than 50 civic judges, mediators and public defenders took part in the programme, which focused on ensuring AI supports judicial processes in Mexico while respecting transparency, accountability and human rights. – https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/judicial-operators-mexico-strengthen-their-capacities-ethical-use-ai?hub=701

Australia pushes more AI nudify services offline over child safety

(DigWatch) Three more AI-powered ‘nudify’ services have withdrawn access for Australian users after enforcement action by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner under the country’s Age-Restricted Material codes. The codes require AI services that allow users to access or generate age-restricted material, including sexually explicit material, to put appropriate age-assurance measures in place to prevent access by children under 18. –

Spain calls for stronger AI rules in labour relations

(DigWatch) Spain’s Second Vice President and Minister of Labour and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, has called for stronger regulation of AI and algorithmic decision-making in the workplace. Speaking at the University of Oxford, Díaz said the debate should no longer focus on whether AI should be used, but on how to organise its deployment so that labour rights and fundamental rights are protected. – https://dig.watch/updates/spain-calls-stronger-ai-rules-in-labour-relations

Türkiye steps into quantum race with strategic roadmap

(DigWatch) Türkiye has published an updated quantum technology roadmap, setting out 85 priority technology topics across quantum computing, quantum sensing and quantum communication. The roadmap was developed through the Quantum Focus Technology Network (OTAĞ), coordinated by the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye, Secretariat of Defence Industries. The process involved 305 experts from 123 institutions and organisations, including civilian and military stakeholders. – https://dig.watch/updates/turkiye-steps-into-quantum-race-with-roadmap

Amazon announces $48 billion investment in India by 2030

(DigWatch) Amazon has announced an additional $13 billion investment to expand AI and cloud infrastructure in India, bringing its planned investment in the country to $48 billion between 2026 and 2030. The company said the new funding will expand AWS data centre capacity in Mumbai and Hyderabad, giving startups, enterprises and government organisations access to AI chips, managed AI services, cloud technologies and developer tools. – https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-india-investment

Moldova tightens rules on AI in university theses

(DigWatch) Moldova has approved a national framework regulation on academic integrity in higher education, introducing common rules on plagiarism, unauthorised use of AI and other forms of academic fraud. The regulation, approved by the government and developed by the Ministry of Education and Research, sets a single framework that all higher education institutions in Moldova will be required to implement. – https://moldova1.md/p/79402

OECD proposes policy priorities for AI use in SME sustainable finance

(DigWatch) The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a policy paper examining how AI and digital tools can help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) gain better access to sustainable finance, where they remain significantly underrepresented. The paper maps practical applications of AI and digital tools across the entire financing lifecycle, from sustainability data generation and reporting by SMEs to loan origination, credit assessment and portfolio monitoring by financial institutions. The OECD notes that AI has the potential to support the front, middle and back office of lending operations rather than a single stage of the financing process. – https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/leveraging-ai-and-digital-tools-for-sme-sustainable-finance_e8fb0d10-en.html

ECB highlights gap between AI adoption and productivity

(DigWatch) Firms across the euro area are increasingly adopting AI, but only a small share are integrating it deeply enough to generate meaningful productivity gains. Data from the European Central Bank’s SAFE survey shows that although more than 70% of firms report using AI in some form, only 7% have integrated it deeply into their core operations. – https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/blog/date/2026/html/ecb.blog20260624~44f70da110.en.html

Security and Surveillance

OpenAI Reveals GPT-5.6 Sol Cybersecurity Model, Restricts Early Access

(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine) OpenAI has previewed GPT-5.6 Sol, a new flagship model it describes as its “most capable model yet for cybersecurity.” Access however is restricted to a small group of vetted partners at the request of the US government. Announced on June 26, the Sol preview is the first release in OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 series. The company said it briefed US government officials on the models beforehand and, at their request, allowed preview access with partners whose names it shared with the government. The series introduces a new naming scheme with three tiers: the flagship Sol,  a mid-range model called Terra and a cheaper, faster model named Luna. OpenAI said it plans broader availability within weeks, as it works with the government on a cyber executive order framework for future releases. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/openai-gpt-5-6-sol-limited-preview/

Telegram-Based Millenium RAT Campaign Infects 60,000 Devices

(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine) A cheap, Telegram-controlled remote access trojan (RAT) dubbed Millenium RAT has infected over 60,000 Windows devices across more than 160 countries, most of them in the first three months of 2026. New analysis by security firm Group-IB found that the malware’s latest version has been rewritten from the .NET framework to native C++, which helps it evade weaker detection tools. Millenium RAT is sold cheaply as malware-as-a-service (MaaS) and uses the Telegram Bot API to receive commands, so its operators need no server of their own. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/millenium-rat-telegram-60000/

US Federal Insurance Regulator Confirms Data Breach Via Oracle Flaw

(Kevin Poireault – Security Affairs) The US National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has suffered a security breach that has exposed US citizens’ credit rating data. The breach was detected on June 11 and the non-profit association for the US federal insurance system disclosed it to the public on June 17. In its latest update, posted on June 26, the NAIC confirmed that an unauthorized actor gained access to “a portion” of its environment through the exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability in Oracle PeopleSoft, which NAIC uses for internal financial reporting purposes. The incident was the result of “a broad campaign to exploit a vulnerability in PeopleSoft that was unknown to the developer or software users at the time, which affected multiple organizations,” the NAIC added. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/us-insurance-regulator-confirms/

Russian Hackers Accused of Destructive Cyber-Attack on Jaguar Land Rover

(Beth Maundrill, Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine) Security experts and practitioners have weighed in on a new report claiming that Russia was behind the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) breach last year. The New York Times report cited people close to the investigation in its story on June 26 linking Russian hackers to the incident, which is estimated to have cost the British economy £1.9bn ($2.5bn). Microsoft, which was tracking the Russians, reportedly raised the alarm with JLR. However, while the report didn’t explicitly link the Putin regime with the attack, experts have been more forthright. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/russian-hackers-destructive-jaguar/

Ethical AI Is an Operational Discipline, Not a Philosophy

(Mike Wilkes – Infosecurity Magazine) On November 24, 2021, Chen Zhaojun of the Alibaba Cloud Security Team discovered the Log4j vulnerability and privately reported it to the Apache Software Foundation. The truly haunting detail isn’t that Log4j existed, as spectacular as that supply chain failure was. It’s that the world reportedly learned about it only because an attacker was sloppy: they left behind a single file that should have been deleted. That’s the part defenders should sit with. Not the CVSS score. Not the patch frenzy that followed. What was left behind mattered more than what was found. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/opinions/ethical-ai-operational-discipline/

SSU and FBI Uncover Russian Cyber Espionage Operation Against Officials and Military Personnel

(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), working jointly with the FBI, has formally exposed a sustained Russian intelligence campaign targeting the messaging accounts of government officials, military personnel, politicians, and activists across Ukraine, Europe, and the United States. The operation is ongoing. The goal isn’t disruption; it’s intelligence collection. “Cyber ​​experts of the Security Service of Ukraine together with the Federal Bureau of Investigation exposed Russian special services in systematic cyberattacks on messengers of officials, military personnel, politicians and activists from Ukraine, Europe and the USA.” read the alert by SSU. “The purpose of these ‘hacks’ is to gain access to sensitive information of a military, political and economic nature that was exchanged between users, as well as to steal their personal data.” – https://securityaffairs.com/194399/intelligence/ssu-and-fbi-uncover-russian-cyber-espionage-operation-against-officials-and-military-personnel.html

KDDI Data Breach Impacts up to 14.2 Million Email Accounts at Six ISPs

(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) KDDI Corporation disclosed a data breach that exposed up to 14.2 million email accounts across six Japanese internet service providers. KDDI Corporation is one of Japan’s largest telecommunications companies. It employs more than 60,000 people and generates annual revenue of roughly ¥5.9 trillion (about US$40 billion). The company provides mobile, fixed-line, broadband, cloud, data center, IoT, and digital services, operating primarily in Japan while serving enterprise customers across Asia and other international markets. The company detected the intrusion on June 17, quickly blocked the attackers, and launched an investigation. According to KDDI, the breach was caused by a vulnerability in third-party software used by its email system. The company is continuing its investigation while assessing the full impact of the incident. – https://securityaffairs.com/194387/data-breach/kddi-data-breach-impacts-up-to-14-2-million-email-accounts-at-six-isps.html

StegoAd: How 119 Fake Browser Extensions Stole Credentials and Ran Ad Fraud for Two Years

(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) Microsoft just shut down one of the more technically clever malicious extension campaigns it’s ever documented. The operation, named StegoAd, ran 119 extensions on the Edge Add-ons store, racked up roughly 2.6 million installs, and stayed alive for at least two years. The threat actor behind it has been active since 2021. “Over the past several years, the Microsoft Edge Extensions Security team has tracked a persistent threat actor operating one of the most technically sophisticated malicious browser extension campaigns we have encountered.” reads the report published by Microsoft. “We call it StegoAd, a name combining steganography and ad injection, the two pillars of the campaign’s methodology”. The extensions looked completely normal. Ad blockers, VPNs, translators, video downloaders, they all worked. They earned positive reviews. The malicious payload didn’t activate until days after installation, which is exactly how the campaign survived multiple detection sweeps. – https://securityaffairs.com/194409/malware/stegoad-how-119-fake-browser-extensions-stole-credentials-and-ran-ad-fraud-for-two-years.html

Europol highlights technology-driven organised crime threats

(DigWatch) The European Commission, Europol and the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU have presented a new assessment of Europe’s most threatening organised criminal networks, warning that they are becoming increasingly adaptive, technologically advanced and deeply embedded across the region. The report finds that organised crime is expanding across multiple sectors, including drug trafficking, cybercrime, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, fraud and money laundering. – https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1463