Among respondents, 32% reported having been targeted by cyberattacks. Large firms in Japan were more likely to be affected at 41.9%, compared to 30.3% for small and medium-sized businesses and just 28.1% for small firms.
Interestingly, while larger firms showed a higher lifetime rate, cyber incidents over the past month were more common among smaller enterprises. Around 6.9% of SMEs and 7.9% of small firms were affected, compared to the overall rate of 6.7%.
Teikoku Databank warned of a sharp increase in risk for small businesses, which often lack the robust cybersecurity infrastructure of larger corporations.
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In Virginia’s Data Centre Alley, Visa operates a high-security fraud command centre to protect $15 trillion in annual transactions — nearly 15% of the global economy. With cybercrime growing more sophisticated, the company has spent $12 billion in five years to bolster its AI-powered defences.
‘From lone hackers to criminal syndicates generating hundreds of millions, fraud today is highly structured,’ said Michael Jabbara, Visa’s global head of fraud solutions. Some groups now operate like corporations, with risk managers and customer support.
Much of today’s fraud preys on emotions. Scammers trick people into making payments by posing as romantic interests or sellers. Victims are often lured into schemes run by trafficked workers in scam centres in Myanmar.
Once card details are stolen, criminals test them across websites using recurring micro-charges. These fly under the radar for months, draining money slowly but steadily. Some operations mimic tech firms, offering fraud-as-a-service tools on the dark web.
‘You can buy a full toolkit — the software, instructions, bot access and even a mule network,’ Jabbara said. Brute-force payment attacks are now industrial in scale, enabled by the same cloud infrastructure that powers startups.
Visa’s defence includes round-the-clock global monitoring centres in Virginia, London and Singapore. Inside its Cyber Fusion Centre, teams handle millions of threats daily, mostly stopped automatically. But it’s an arms race — one that never sleeps.
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A US federal court has ordered OpenAI to preserve nearly all user chats with ChatGPT, including those that users had deleted. The decision comes as part of The New York Times’s ongoing copyright lawsuit, triggering widespread privacy concerns.
The ruling means that millions of personal conversations, previously thought erased, will remain accessible during litigation. These exchanges may include medical queries, relationship issues, and other private matters shared in confidence.
Privacy advocates argue that users were not notified or allowed to object. Critics warn the US ruling sets a dangerous precedent, enabling mass data preservation in lawsuits unrelated to most users.
The Times claims users may have deleted chats to hide copyright infringement. Lawyers and privacy experts counter that people delete chats for legitimate, non-infringing reasons and should retain control over their data.
Legal experts call the preservation order excessive, noting it undermines trust in AI tools and could lead to a chilling effect on their use. The decision could reshape how user privacy is treated in tech litigation for years.
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After a formal filing by the Independent Publishers Alliance, Google has faced an antitrust complaint in the European Union over its AI Overviews feature.
The group alleges that Google has been using web content without proper consent to power its AI-generated summaries, causing considerable harm to online publishers.
The complaint claims that publishers have lost traffic, readers and advertising revenue due to these summaries. It also argues that opting out of AI Overviews is not a real choice unless publishers are prepared to vanish entirely from Google’s search results.
AI Overviews were launched over a year ago and now appear at the top of many search queries, summarising information using AI. Although the tool has expanded rapidly, critics argue it drives users away from original publisher websites, especially news outlets.
Google has responded by stating its AI search tools allow users to ask more complex questions and help businesses and creators get discovered. The tech giant also insisted that web traffic patterns are influenced by many factors and warned against conclusions based on limited data.
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The EU has confirmed it will enforce its originally scheduled AI Act, despite growing calls from American and European tech firms to delay the rollout.
Major companies, including Alphabet, Meta, ASML and Mistral, have urged the European Commission to push back the timeline by several years, citing concerns over compliance costs.
Rejecting the pressure, a Commission spokesperson clarified there would be no pause or grace period. The legislation’s deadlines remain, with general-purpose AI rules taking effect this August and stricter requirements for high-risk systems following August 2026.
The AI Act represents the EU’s effort to regulate AI across various sectors, aiming to balance innovation and public safety. While tech giants argue that the rules are too demanding, the EU insists legal certainty is vital and the framework must move forward as planned.
The Commission intends to simplify the process later in the year, such as easing reporting demands for smaller businesses. Yet the core structure and deadlines of the AI Act will not be altered.
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The group’s draft statement highlights growing frustration with tech giants using vast amounts of unlicensed content to train AI models.
Despite making progress on digital policy, BRICS once again stalled on a long-standing ambition to reduce reliance on the US dollar.
After a decade of talks, the bloc’s cross-border payments system remains in limbo. Member nations continue to debate infrastructure, governance and how to work around non-convertible currencies and sanctions.
China is moving independently, expanding the yuan’s international use and launching domestic currency futures.
Meanwhile, the rest of the bloc struggles with legal, financial and technical hurdles, leaving the dream of a unified alternative to the dollar on hold. Even a proposed New Investment Platform remains mired in internal disagreements.
In response to rising global debt concerns, BRICS introduced a Multilateral Guarantees Initiative within the New Development Bank. It aims to improve credit access across the Global South without needing new capital, especially for countries struggling to borrow in dollar-dominated markets.
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A surge in cyberattacks is fuelled by global instability, with businesses worldwide now facing heightened risks. A new report by GlobalData warns that rising geopolitical tensions are giving state actors, terrorists, hacktivists and cybercriminals more opportunities to strike.
Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have created a volatile digital landscape. Cyberattackers are exploiting weakened defences, targeting both national infrastructure and private enterprises.
‘Those not after money are often motivated by revenge,’ the report states. The key perpetrators are disgruntled employees, unhappy customers, and ideologically driven hackers. While some attackers aim to cause reputational harm or attract attention, others seek to turn off critical systems.
Nation states, in particular, use cyberwarfare as a strategic tool against rival governments. Businesses are warned to prepare for disruption as cyber threats become more frequent and sophisticated. The report concludes that no organisation is immune in today’s digital and geopolitical uncertainty climate.
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The European Commission’s latest plan to strengthen hospital cybersecurity has drawn attention from regional authorities across the EU, who say they were excluded from key decisions.
Their absence, they argue, could weaken the strategy’s overall effectiveness.
As those directly managing hospitals and public health, they warn that top-down decisions may overlook urgent local challenges and lead to poorly matched policies.
The Commission’s plan includes creating a dedicated health cybersecurity centre under the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) and setting up an EU-wide threat alert system.
Yet doubts remain over how these goals will be met without extra funding or clear guidance on regional involvement.
The concerns point to the need for a more collaborative approach that values regional knowledge.
Without it, the EU risks designing cybersecurity protections that fail to reflect the realities inside Europe’s hospitals.
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SK Telecom has announced a major cybersecurity initiative worth KRW 700 billion, designed to restore trust and enhance information security after a recent incident.
The company’s new programme, called the Accountability and Commitment Program, includes four elements to protect customers and reinforce transparency.
A central part of the initiative is the Information Protection Innovation Plan, which involves a five-year investment to build a world-class cybersecurity system.
The project will follow the US National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework and aims to position SK Telecom as Korea’s leader in information security by 2028.
To further support affected customers, the company is upgrading its Customer Assurance Package and introducing a Customer Appreciation Package to thank users for their patience and loyalty.
A subscription cancellation fee waiver has also been included to reduce friction for those reconsidering their service.
SK Telecom says it will maintain its commitment to customer safety and service reliability, pledging to fully address all concerns and enhance security and service quality across the board.
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Ooredoo has unveiled a new sovereign AI cloud service powered by NVIDIA Hopper GPUs, hosted locally in Qatar’s data centres. The move supports the country’s broader aim to advance digital transformation and position itself as a regional leader in AI innovation.
The service accelerates AI adoption across key sectors such as energy, finance, logistics, healthcare and smart cities. As an NVIDIA Cloud Partner, Ooredoo now provides customers access to cutting-edge GPU technology and the NVIDIA AI Enterprise platform for developing and scaling AI solutions.
Use cases include real-time financial analysis, supply chain optimisation and chatbot development, all supported by high-performance cloud computing infrastructure operated by Syntys. These capabilities aim to deliver robust local AI services that meet national security and sovereignty requirements.
The initiative aligns with the Qatar Digital Agenda 2030 and the National AI Strategy, which advocate for local hosting, advanced digital infrastructure and responsible AI development. Ooredoo’s CEO, Sheikh Ali Bin Jabor Al-Thani, said the project will drive economic growth and innovation across all levels of society.
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