Governance, Regulation, Legislation, Geostrategies

 

UK launches £2 million satellite environmental monitoring fund – The UK Space Agency has launched a £2 million funding competition to support businesses adopting satellite-based technologies for environmental monitoring and emissions verification. Published on 19 October 2026, the call forms part of the existing Unlocking Space for Business programme, with grants ranging from £150,000 to £400,000 per project. – https://dig.watch/updates/uk-satellite-environmental-monitoring

 

Malaysia plans dedicated data centre legislation – Malaysia plans to draft a Digital Infrastructure (Data Centre) Bill for submission to Cabinet in 2027. Economy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said on 19 October 2026 that the proposed legislation would help align industry growth with the country’s electricity and water supply capacity. The proposal forms part of a strategic regulatory plan agreed by the National Economic Action Council of Malaysia at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. The agreement followed the Ministry of Digital’s presentation of the National Strategic Direction Towards Sustainable Data Centre Development. – https://dig.watch/updates/malaysia-plans-dedicated-data-centre-legislation

Republic of Korea develops an AI system to identify wildlife in national parks – Republic of Korea’s Korea National Park Service (KNPS), under the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, has developed an AI-based system to identify wildlife species in national parks, with plans to deploy it in the field. Known as Bandal Lens AI, the system can automatically recognise 17 mammal species, including Asiatic black bears, gorals and foxes, with reported accuracy exceeding 90%. – https://dig.watch/updates/republic-of-korea-ai-wildlife-national-parks

Terrorism – Counter Terrorism

UN highlights terrorist use of AI at women-focused MENA workshop – At the regional workshop, ‘Women at the heart of the fight against terrorism: Addressing emerging terrorism challenges in the Middle East and North Africa’, held in Tangier, Morocco, from 7 to 9 October 2026, UN Assistant Secretary-General Natalia Gherman, Executive Director of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), underlined the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI), online platforms and digital financial services by terrorist actors. Creating new challenges for counter-terrorism authorities across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), these issues featured prominently in the workshop, which was joined by women police officers and counter-terrorism practitioners to discuss evolving threats, regional cooperation and the role of women in prevention and response, and was organised by INTERPOL and Morocco’s General Directorate of National Security, with funding from the Government of Canada. – https://dig.watch/updates/un-terrorist-use-of-ai-mena-women-workshop

Security and Surveillance

Nikkei data breach affected over 1.8 million records – Japanese media company Nikkei has disclosed a data breach affecting more than 1.8 million records. The company, known for its financial news publications, including The Nikkei and the Financial Times, said attackers accessed a cloud service used for system development. On the morning of October 7, the hackers used previously stolen credentials to gain access. Nikkei has published details of the incident in an official statement. – https://securityaffairs.com/201369/data-breach/nikkei-data-breach-affected-over-1-8-million-records.html

 

Microsoft Treats AI Agents as Insider Threats in New Security Framework – Microsoft published a detailed blog post explaining how organizations should secure AI agents. Microsoft sees them as a growing insider threat, not just a possible risk in the future. AI agents are not dangerous by nature, but they can access critical systems and may fail, be manipulated, or be compromised. “The most trustworthy agentic system will not be the one with the model we trust most. It will be the one designed that enables us to trust the model least.” said Satya Nadella. This is not just a theory. It is a principle that should guide how organizations design and secure AI systems. – https://securityaffairs.com/201336/ai/microsoft-treats-ai-agents-as-insider-threats-in-new-security-framework.html

AfD Email Breach Exposes 421,000 Messages in Anonymous Online Archive– Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) confirmed on October 19 that its hosting provider was hacked in September and that mailboxes were copied. By the time the confirmation reached Bild, a website called hexane.cchad already been online for hours offering an index of what it claims are 421,179 internal party emails. “In September 2026 there was a hacking attack on a hosting provider used by our party.” By then the website hexane.cchad been online for several hours with an index of what it says are 421,179 of the party’s emails. In place of the emails, the site shows summaries written by software, sorted into categories that include racism and antisemitism and graded from Low to Critical. International Cyber Digest (ICD), a cybersecurity news account on X, examined it on 19 October and reported that the index includes Gauland’s mailbox and that the newest message is dated 12 September 2026. According to the summaries ICD relayed, Gauland, the party’s 85-year-old honorary chairman and former co-leader, forwarded a 2018 email about a “Hitler pilgrimage” by a former judge on the party’s internal court in Thuringia.” AfD told told Bild. “A district board member sent a Christmas card with a swastika and the words “Heil Hitler”. Staff at the party’s Berlin headquarters discussed luring a photographer to an event and throwing him out by force, in a thread signed off “hail and victory”. – https://securityaffairs.com/201346/data-breach/afd-email-breach-exposes-421000-messages-in-anonymous-online-archive.html

 

Japan approves bill proposing remote police access to devices linked to organised crime – The Japanese government approved a bill on 16 October 2026 to amend the Police Duties Execution Act, proposing a new investigative measure known as remote analysis. The legislation would allow police officers, subject to judicial authorisation, to remotely obtain information from communications devices linked to serious organised criminal activity. The measure primarily targets anonymous and loosely organised criminal networks known as tokuryu. – https://dig.watch/updates/japan-bill-allows-remote-police-access-to-devices

 

Defence, Military

AI on track to ‘crowd out’ human decision-making in warfare – Artificial intelligence is already being widely used on the battlefield, and the role of human judgment in military operations is shrinking rapidly, the head of the UN’s independent disarmament research institute warned on Tuesday. In a briefing at UN Headquarters in New York, UNIDIR Director Robin Geiss had a stark question for journalists: “Are we going to let machines target and kill human beings?” he asked, warning that AI was increasingly “on track to crowding out human decision-making” in the sector. The UN Secretary General has been repeatedly urging stakeholders to make sure we do not cross this “moral red line.” – https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/10/1168636

 

The Emerging Need to Protect Critical Infrastructure and VIPs from Weaponized AI Drone Threats – Generative Artificial Intelligence (GEN-AI), when used for malicious and criminal purposes, is predominately recognized for its analytical, mission planning, and propaganda value. GEN-AI now also offers coding capability to extremists, terrorists, and insurgents, which provides them with PHY-AI capabilities that can translate into drone (and robot) weaponization. Weaponized consumer drones can increasingly be created with advanced facial and object targeting capabilities which would allow them to be launched as ‘fire and forget’ weapons directed at CI and VIPs. A synthesis of C-UAS and C-AI will be required to deter, respond to, and mitigate this emerging threat. – https://thesoufancenter.org/intelbrief-2026-october-19/