Governance, Regulation, Legislation, Geostrategies

Trump DOE loans $5B to nuclear plants that will power data centers – The Trump administration is giving Constellation Energy $5 billion in loans to expand nuclear generating capacity at eight power plants by 1.1 gigawatts. Most or all of the additional power from seven of those facilities has already been bought by Google, Meta, or Amazon. Constellation said it plans to use the financing to “uprate” 11 existing reactors, an industry term for expanding capacity at a reactor, often by using more highly enriched uranium and by upgrading equipment to handle the increased power levels. – https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/28/trump-doe-loans-5b-to-nuclear-plants-that-will-power-data-centers/

 

ASEAN launches AI labour intelligence projects to track emerging jobs– The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has launched the ASEAN Labour Statisticians Network (ALSN) to strengthen regional cooperation on labour market intelligence and workforce planning. Announced in Singapore on 27 October, the initiative aims to help member states anticipate changes in employment and skills demand arising from artificial intelligence (AI), digitalisation, platform work and the green transition. Singapore will coordinate the network from 2026 to 2030. – https://dig.watch/updates/asean-ai-labour-emerging-jobs

 

EU launches digital climate tools under new resilience framework – The European Commission has presented a new climate resilience framework, accompanied by a proposed European climate resilience law and digital tools designed to help authorities, businesses and communities assess climate risks and plan adaptation measures. Announced on 27 October, the initiative aims to establish a more coordinated approach to managing the growing impacts of climate change across the EU. The framework introduces three online resources, including the European Climate Viewer, which helps users understand projected climate conditions across different European regions. The Navigator of Climate Resilience Tools directs users towards relevant resources based on their location, sector and climate risks, while the Mission Solutions Explorer presents adaptation solutions developed through the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. – https://dig.watch/updates/eu-digital-climate-tools-framework

 

Spain revises proposed data centre sustainability rules – Spain’s government revised its proposed data centre decree on 26 October 2026, introducing greater flexibility in renewable electricity requirements and compliance timelines, according to RTVE. The changes retain the proposed sustainability objectives while giving operators more time and options to meet them. The main applicability threshold rises from 1 megawatt (MW) to more than 10 MW, focusing the requirements on larger facilities. The revised proposal was submitted to the Council of State of Spain. – https://dig.watch/updates/spain-revises-data-centre-sustainability-rules

 

San Diego ratifies temporary data centre moratorium – In the USA, San Diego City Council unanimously ratified a temporary moratorium on new data centre development on 27 October 2026. The vote followed Mayor Todd Gloria’s executive order of 22 October. The order directed City staff to advance a temporary moratorium to be considered by the Council. Gloria said residents should not absorb unnecessary costs or neighbourhood impacts. – https://dig.watch/updates/san-diego-ratifies-data-centre-moratorium

Security, Surveillance

South Korea’s financial industry hit by fresh wave of cyberattacks – South Korea’s financial institutions have been hit by another wave of cyberattacks, highlighting the growing risk of AI-driven hacking in Asia. The latest incidents affect brokerages Daishin Securities and Mirae Asset Global Investments, as well as the crypto exchange Bithumb. The incident comes roughly a month after a series of cyberattacks targeting South Korean financial institutions, raising concerns about vulnerabilities beyond just the country’s banking systems. Security researchers linked the September wave of attacks on South Korea to a suspected China-based hacker who relied on an AI penetration testing tool called Artex, though officials are still investigating the root cause of the latest breaches. – https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/28/south-koreas-financial-industry-hit-by-fresh-wave-of-cyberattacks/

 

Attackers Hide Malware Behind Signed ChatGPT and Claude Binaries– Attackers have used fake ChatGPT and Claude desktop applications hosted on GitHub to distribute a malware chain that abuses legitimate signed binaries to evade security protections. In research published October 27, Check Point said it had tracked the campaign, which it calls Yoba, for two months, though an earlier variant posing as the Cursor coding agent appeared in early June. The fake projects impersonated artificial intelligence (AI) applications including GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra and Claude Opus. Their releases sat in GitHub repositories with GitHub Pages landing pages, and some of the repositories appeared among Google’s top results, most likely through search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/attackers-hide-malware-behind/

 

AI Is Turning CISOs Into Business-Risk Translators, Says Nvidia’s Head of Cyber – In the AI era, cybersecurity leaders must explain how AI-related risks connects to business goals and help executives understand who is responsible for accepting those risks, according to Nvidia’s head of cybersecurity policy, Mark Weatherford. Speaking at ISC2 Security Congress 2026, in Denver, Colorado, on October 26, Weatherford argued that the broad adoption of AI in the workplace, including in cybersecurity workflows, has transformed the CISO role from a security gatekeeper to a business-risk translator. As organizations weigh AI adoption, CISOs must help executives understand the tradeoffs and clarify who owns the risk, he said. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ai-is-turning-cisos-into/

 

Energy Giant Engie Notifies Customers of Supply Chain Breach – One of the world’s largest natural gas suppliers has notified an undisclosed number of customers that their personal data may have been compromised in a recent breach. French multinational Engie employs over 90,000 people across 30 countries, supplying gas, nuclear power, and renewables. Its revenue in 2025 was almost €72bn ($80bn). According to screenshots of the customer notification posted to X, the compromised data could include: full name, postal and email address, telephone number, unique IDs for energy supply (PCE/PDL), customer ID, and contract number. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/energy-giant-engie-supply-chain/

 

Stop Counting Vulnerabilities and Start Measuring Risk Reduction – Historically, cybersecurity teams have relied on numbers to demonstrate progress. Vulnerabilities patched, alerts investigated, penetration tests completed, incidents detected mean time to respond: these metrics have value. They tell us whether security teams are working and processes are functioning. What they do not necessarily tell us is whether an organization is becoming more secure. A team can patch thousands of vulnerabilities and still leave open the handful that provide an attacker with a viable route to a critical system. It can process more alerts than ever while analysts spend hours investigating issues that pose little meaningful threat. It can complete a penetration test and demonstrate improvement, only for a change in the environment the following week to introduce a whole new attack path. The problem is that we have become very good at measuring security activity. We now need to become better at measuring security outcomes. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/opinions/counting-vulnerabilities-risk/

 

Three Japan-Focused Cyberattacks Show How Hackers Use AI – In autumn 2026, Japanese companies and other organizations reported a series of data leaks involving their web systems. On October 9, Japan’s National Cybersecurity Office issued a warning to businesses, while the head of the ruling party’s cybersecurity team described cyberspace as being in a “state of emergency”. Researchers at Trend Micro studied three attack infrastructures to understand how hackers use AI. Their findings show three different approaches, ranging from limited AI assistance to systems that use AI agents to manage almost an entire attack. The researchers looked at files that attackers left on servers anyone could reach. These included attack scripts, lists of targets, logs, and records of commands. The files showed attacks on organizations in Japan and other countries. – https://securityaffairs.com/201913/ai/three-japan-focused-cyberattacks-show-how-hackers-use-ai.html

Defence, Military

Policy proposal would require firms to disclose how they use AI to develop new models – Artificial intelligence companies would have to report how they use their own technology to build new AI models under a proposal aimed at helping Washington track AI advances and whether developers are adequately testing their safety. The plan, developed by Americans for Responsible Innovation and shared first with Nextgov/FCW, would require major developers to submit quarterly reports to a new Commerce Department office and disclose significant research changes within four business days. The group, which advocates for federal AI oversight, wants officials to know how much research AI is performing and how closely people are supervising it. The proposal arrives as the White House deepens its involvement with AI companies while resisting calls for a broad new regulatory regime. President Donald Trump this month tapped Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to lead the “Super Intelligence Force,” a task force coordinating government engagement with developers and other groups and assessing the technology’s risks. The executive order creating the group was signed late last month. Clayton’s group is already working on how companies alert the government when something goes wrong. Following its first formal meeting, it assigned Pentagon technology official Emil Michael to develop protocols for labs to report breaches, hacks and other cyber issues. It also commissioned a study of risks involving cybersecurity, biological threats and control of AI systems. – https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2026/10/policy-proposal-would-require-firms-disclose-how-they-use-ai-develop-new-models/416833/?oref=d1-featured-river-secondary

 

Saab naval radar with 155-mile range resists jamming to detect aircraft and missiles – Saab says Sea Giraffe AMB D can detect, track, and classify air targets at up to 155 miles and surface targets at up to 30 Miles. The radar incorporates electronic counter-countermeasures designed to help resist jamming. Its modular, software-defined architecture is intended to support integration with other naval systems and ongoing capability updates. – https://interestingengineering.com/military/saab-unveils-sea-giraffe-amb-d-radar