Governance, Regulation, and Legislation

‘The world is looking to you for clarity’, UN chief tells AI experts

(UN News) Secretary-General António Guterres told the inaugural meeting of a new independent group of experts on Artificial Intelligence convened by the UN that they have a huge responsibility to help shape how it is used “for the benefit of humanity”. “Individually, you come from diverse regions and disciplines, bringing outstanding expertise in AI and related fields. Collectively, you represent something the world has never seen before,” The UN chief told scientists on Tuesday at the first meeting of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI. The 40 experts aim to help close “the AI knowledge gap” and assess the real impact the frontier technology will have across economies and societies so that countries can act with the same “clarity” on a level playing field. – https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/03/1167074

Vietnam AI Law establishes comprehensive risk based governance framework

(DigWatch) Vietnam’s Law on Artificial Intelligence has entered into force, establishing the first dedicated AI legal framework in Southeast Asia. The law centralises oversight and replaces earlier AI provisions in the 2025 Law on Digital Technology Industry. The framework closely mirrors the AI Act adopted by the European Union. It promotes accountability, transparency, and safety in response to risks such as misinformation, copyright infringement, and deepfakes. – https://dig.watch/updates/vietnam-ai-law-establishes-comprehensive-risk-based-governance-framework

Geostrategies

Top Trump ally threatens retaliation over EU space tech law

(Mathieu Pollet – Politico) Washington will retaliate if Europe imposes measures that favor its own satellite companies over American ones, the head of the United States’ communications regulator Brendan Carr told POLITICO. He was responding to the EU’s push to promote homegrown firms over foreign competitors in a series of laws covering defense procurement, space technology, digital supply chains and green tech. Carr joins a growing chorus of U.S. officials railing against the plans in recent weeks, including the U.S.’s EU and NATO ambassadors Andrew Puzder and Matthew Whitaker. The U.S. will not hesitate to push European satellite firms out of the American market if it finds that Europe is doing the same, the Federal Communications Commission chairman warned EU officials. – https://www.politico.eu/article/top-us-donald-trump-ally-threatens-retaliation-over-eu-space-tech-law/

Courts and Litigation

TikTok starts court battle to save China ties

(Ellen O’Regan – Politico) TikTok on Tuesday began a defense of how it handles Europeans’ privacy and data in a court case that will define how Chinese-owned companies in Europe deal with Beijing’s spying laws. The popular social media app is going head to head with the Irish Data Protection Commission — Europe’s most powerful privacy regulator, which oversees tech giants including Meta, X and Google. At stake in the Irish court battle is whether TikTok is allowed to transfer personal data of Europeans to China. – https://www.politico.eu/article/tiktok-fights-to-keep-its-ties-to-china-in-europe/

Defence, Intelligence, and Warfare

Anthropic ban may threaten the military’s AI advantage over China

(Colin Demarest, Ashley Gold, Maria Curi – Axios) Anthropic’s AI tools are now battle-tested, in two radically different military operations — but the Trump administration is still threatening to pull the plug. Why it matters: The international race for AI advantage is not measured in years, but weeks and days. Alienating a leading American AI company and ripping and replacing existing tech could give other countries, especially China, a leg up. Driving the news: AI’s use in Venezuela, leading to the capture of strongman Nicolas Maduro, and in Iran, still ongoing, gives the Defense Department highly sought-after real-world experience. – https://www.axios.com/2026/03/04/anthropic-ai-iran-maduro-pentagon

AI Integration in Operation Epic Fury and Cascading Effects

(The Soufan Center) CENTCOM employed Anthropic’s large language model, Claude, for planning, targeting support, and battlefield simulations just hours after the Trump administration ordered all agencies to cease using Anthropic products. For Operation Epic Fury, Claude was likely accessed via the Department of Defense’s Palantir platforms, which fuse intelligence streams and enable analysts to query large language models for operational planning. Unclear accountability for AI-assisted targeting and weak enforcement of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) raise legal and ethical issues surrounding AI-driven military operations. In a full circle development, Iranian retaliatory strikes hit a data center in the UAE, underscoring the vulnerability of regional digital infrastructure, with various economic and security implications for Gulf states. – https://thesoufancenter.org/intelbrief-2026-march-3/

Security and Surveillance

Sprawling FBI, European operation takes down Leakbase cybercriminal forum

(Martin Matishak – The Record) The FBI and European law enforcement agencies carried out a global crackdown on a cybercrime forum where criminals bought and sold stolen credentials and exploits of software vulnerabilities. The operation targeted Leakbase, a subscription-based crime forum and marketplace that has operated since 2021 where compromised credentials, personally identifiable information and other sensitive information were sold. The FBI and its partners conducted 100 law enforcement actions against 45 targets across more than a dozen countries, including shutting down hosting infrastructure from the Netherlands to Malaysia and seizing and redirecting the forum’s domains to bureau-controlled servers. – https://therecord.media/leakbase-cybercrime-fbi-europe-takedown

Global Takedown Neutralizes Tycoon2FA Phishing Service

(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine) Investigators claimed today to have taken out another key player in the global cybercrime supply chain after seizing infrastructure linked to phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) operation Tycoon 2FA. The effort was led by Microsoft and Europol and supported by a range of industry partners, including TrendAI, Cloudflare, Coinbase, Crowell, eSentire, Health-ISAC, Intel471, Proofpoint, Resecurity, The Shadowserver Foundation, and SpyCloud. Over 300 domains linked to Tycoon2FA were seized in the operation, according to TrendAI. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/global-takedown-tycoon2fa-phishing/

From phishing to Google Drive C2: Silver Dragon expands APT41 playbook

(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) Check Point researchers have identified Silver Dragon, an APT group tied to the China-linked group APT41, targeting government entities in Europe and Southeast Asia since mid-2024. The group gains initial access by exploiting public-facing servers and sending phishing emails with malicious attachments. It maintains persistence by hijacking legitimate Windows services and uses tools like Cobalt Strike and Google Drive-based command-and-control to evade detection. The attack chain rely on AppDomain hijacking, malicious service DLL deployment, and weaponized LNK attachments. – https://securityaffairs.com/188895/apt/from-phishing-to-google-drive-c2-silver-dragon-expands-apt41-playbook.html

Surge in Attacks on Surveillance Cameras Linked to Iranian Hackers

(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine) A surge in attempts to compromise internet-connected surveillance cameras across the Middle East has been identified during the ongoing regional conflict, with activity attributed to infrastructure linked to Iranian threat actors. The targeting, which began intensifying on February 28, has affected Israel, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE and Cyprus, with additional focused activity observed in parts of Lebanon on March 1. The findings, released by Check Point Research (CPR), point to a coordinated campaign against devices manufactured by Hikvision and Dahua. The researchers said the pattern of activity aligns with Iran’s established military doctrine of using compromised cameras to support operational planning and battle damage assessment following missile strikes. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/iran-attacks-surveillance-cameras/

Multi-Stage “BadPaw” Malware Campaign Targets Ukraine

(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine) A newly identified malware campaign leveraging a Ukrainian email service to build credibility has been uncovered by cybersecurity researchers. The operation begins with an email sent from an address hosted on ukr[.]net, a popular Ukrainian provider previously abused by the Russian-linked threat actor APT28 in past campaigns. According to an advisory by researchers at ClearSky,  who have named the malware “BadPaw,” the attack is triggered when a recipient clicks a link claiming to host a ZIP archive. Instead of initiating a direct download, the victim is redirected to a domain that loads a tracking pixel, allowing the attacker to confirm engagement. A second redirect then delivers the ZIP file. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/badpaw-malware-targets-ukraine/

Data breach at University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center impacts 1.2 Million individuals

(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) A 2025 ransomware attack targeting the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center compromised the personal information of about 1.2 million individuals. The attack hit the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center on August 31, 2025, impacting servers that support research operations but not clinical care or patient services. Officials engaged with the threat actors to obtain a decryption tool and secure assurances that exfiltrated data was destroyed, but did not disclose whether a ransom was paid. “On or about August 31, 2025, UHCC learned that it was the victim of a cyberattack isolated to specific systems that support its Epidemiology Division.” reads General Incident Overview. “The unauthorized third party encrypted large amounts of data, and provided proof that it had potentially exfiltrated a portion of that data. There was no impact to information held by the UHCC’s Clinical Trials operations, patient care or any other divisions, and there was no impact to student records.” – https://securityaffairs.com/188876/data-breach/data-breach-at-university-of-hawai%ca%bbi-cancer-center-impacts-1-2-million-individuals.html

AI Raises the Cybersecurity Stakes — But People Still Open the Door

(John Eccleshare – Infosecurity Magazine) When people think about cybersecurity, they often picture a hooded figure in a dark room, hammering away at a keyboard, trying to break through a digital perimeter. It’s a familiar image, and an increasingly misleading one. Today’s reality isn’t man vs. machine; it’s human vs. human. What is different today, is you no longer need to be deeply technical or exceptionally skilled to play the attacker. It’s here that AI is lowering the barrier to entry and changing the rules of engagement. Yes, generative AI has given security professionals new ways to accelerate detection and response. But it’s also given bad actors a powerful upgrade in their ability to deceive. Well-written phishing emails, deepfake voice calls, and highly targeted social engineering attacks are now faster to produce and harder to detect. The tools of the trade are persuasion, misdirection, and manipulation, which means your people, not your perimeter, continue to be the most exposed surface area. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/opinions/ai-cybersecurity-people-open-door/

Calls for Global Digital Estate Standard as Posthumous Deepfake Fraud Risk Grows

(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine) A lack of standardization in the way governments and tech firms handle the digital accounts of the deceased could invite fraud and exploitation, the OpenID Foundation has warned. The standards body released a report yesterday calling for a new framework to close systemic gaps across platforms, jurisdictions and industries. The Unfinished Digital Estate, warned that no consistent global standards exist to ensure that devices and email, social media, cryptocurrency and other accounts are both accessible to the right people and protected after the account owner dies. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/digital-estate-post-death-deepfake/

Adecco Group Global Head of IT Security Alex Gomez on Balancing Cybersecurity, AI and Innovation

(Danny Palmer – Infosecurity Magazine) As one of the largest human resources and recruitment firms in the world, The Adecco Group depends on highly secure and efficient systems to support its global operations. With more than 35,000 employees, over 100,000 client organizations, and two million people placed into temporary and permanent roles every year, Adecco operates on a global scale. At the helm of the group’s global IT security, risk and compliance operation is Alex Gomez who has responsibility for ensuring that employees, contractors and clients stay secure in an environment where emails and file sharing are key to business. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/interviews/adeccos-alex-gomez-interview/

Deepfake scams target Indian global executives

(DigWatch) A deepfake video of Bombay Stock Exchange chief executive Sundararaman Ramamurthy circulated on social media in India, falsely offering stock advice to investors. The exchange moved quickly to report and remove the content, warning the public not to trust fake investment clips. Cybersecurity experts say such cases are rising sharply, with one US firm estimating a 3,000 percent increase in deepfake incidents over two years. Executives in the US and the UK have also been impersonated using AI-generated audio and video. – https://dig.watch/updates/deepfake-scams-target-indian-global-executives

AI Cybersecurity stability framework unlocks advanced Non Human Identity management

(DigWatch) AI is increasingly positioned as a key driver of cybersecurity stability. By analysing large volumes of data and detecting anomalies in real time, AI helps organisations strengthen defence systems and respond faster to evolving digital threats. Modern cybersecurity challenges are closely linked to the rise of Non-Human Identities (NHIs), including machine accounts, tokens, and automated credentials. These identities require continuous monitoring and secure lifecycle management to prevent unauthorised access and data breaches. – https://dig.watch/updates/ai-cybersecurity-stability-framework-unlocks-advanced-non-human-identity-management

Frontiers and Markets

Medical chatbots spark powerful debate over serious health risks and benefits

(DigWatch) Medical chatbots are rapidly becoming part of digital healthcare as technology companies expand AI tools into health services. Companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic are introducing chatbot features designed to answer medical questions using personal data. Medical chatbots can analyse information from medical records, wearable devices and wellness applications. By incorporating details such as prescriptions, age and prior diagnoses, they aim to provide more personalised responses than a standard internet search. However, companies stress that these tools are not substitutes for professional medical care. They are not intended to diagnose conditions but rather to summarise results, explain terminology and help users prepare for appointments. – https://dig.watch/updates/medical-chatbots-spark-powerful-debate-over-serious-health-risks-and-benefits