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Singapore’s cybersecurity authorities and the nation’s four major telecommunications providers spent nearly a year countering an advanced cyber espionage campaign attributed to the China-linked threat actor UNC3886. The adversary leveraged a zero-day firewall exploit and stealthy rootkits to infiltrate parts of the telcos’ networks — including Singtel, StarHub, M1, and Simba Telecom — in an operation aimed at gaining persistent access and technical insights rather than immediate data theft or service disruption. Through close collaboration between government agencies, private sector incident responders, and national incident management bodies under “Operation Cyber Guardian,” defenders successfully contained and expelled the intruders with no evidence of customer data compromise or service outages. The incident underscores the strategic importance of telecommunications infrastructure as a target for state-linked cyber actors and highlights the critical role of public-private coordination, proactive threat detection, and resilience planning in defending national digital infrastructure.

Key Points

LINK https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/singapore-major-telcos-fend-chinese-hackers

OpenClaw Supply Chain Attack Targets Developers: A supply chain compromise affecting OpenClaw and Cline users highlights ongoing risks in developer ecosystems. https://www.darkreading.com/application-security/supply-chain-attack-openclaw-cline-users

CISA Adds Two Actively Exploited Vulnerabilities: CISA included two new flaws in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, urging immediate patching. https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/cisa-adds-two-actively-exploited.html

MetaMask Wallets Targeted in ‘Contagious Interview’ Campaign: Researchers uncovered a campaign surgically tampering with MetaMask wallets to siphon cryptocurrency assets. https://sp4rk.medium.com/beyond-the-backdoor-how-contagious-interview-is-surgically-tampering-with-metamask-wallets-0314ae901d85

Abu Dhabi Finance Summit Data Leak Exposes Global Figures: A reported data leak tied to an Abu Dhabi finance summit exposed details of high-profile attendees, raising concerns over event cybersecurity practices. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/data-leak-abu-dhabi-finance-summit-exposes-global-figures-ft-reports-2026-02-17/

South Africa’s Land Bank Faces Ransom Claim: Land Bank declined to confirm a reported R50 million ransom demand as investigations into a cyber incident continue. https://iol.co.za/business-report/companies/2026-02-15-land-bank-declines-to-confirm-r50m-ransom-claim-as-cyber-investigation-continues/

Tulsa Airport Issues Data Security Incident Notice: Tulsa International Airport disclosed a data security incident potentially affecting personal information. https://flytulsa.com/news/notice-of-data-security-incident/

Canada Goose Investigates Leak of 600,000 Customer Records: Hackers claim to have leaked customer data tied to Canada Goose, prompting an internal investigation. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/canada-goose-investigating-as-hackers-leak-600k-customer-records/

Japanese Tech Giant Advantest Hit by Ransomware: Semiconductor equipment maker Advantest confirmed a ransomware attack impacting operations. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/japanese-tech-giant-advantest-hit-by-ransomware-attack/

Singapore Mounts Largest Multi-Agency Operation Against APT UNC3886: Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency led a coordinated national response to counter activity by APT actor UNC3886 targeting telecommunications infrastructure, highlighting the strategic importance of telecom resilience. https://www.csa.gov.sg/news-events/press-releases/largest-multi-agency-cyber-operation-mounted-to-counter-threat-posed-by-advanced-persistent-threat--apt--actor-unc3886-to-singapore-s-telecommunications-sector/

Australian Defence Signs Major Contract with Palantir: Australia’s Defence Department awarded its largest-ever data analytics contract to Palantir, strengthening intelligence integration and operational data capabilities. https://www.crikey.com.au/2026/02/17/australian-defence-department-palantir-biggest-ever-contract/

AFP Warns of 48-Hour Romance Scam Campaign: Australian Federal Police detailed how business email compromise and romance scams rapidly escalate financial losses within days, urging heightened awareness. https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/48-hour-rom-con-how-business-romance-scams-target-heart-and-wallets

Researchers Warn AI Tools Can Be Abused as Covert C2 Channels: Security researchers demonstrated how AI assistants such as Grok and Copilot could be manipulated into covert command-and-control channels, raising new enterprise security risks. https://www.csoonline.com/article/4134419/hackers-can-turn-grok-copilot-into-covert-command-and-control-channels-researchers-warn.html

FBI Reports Surge in ATM Jackpotting Cases: U.S. authorities report nearly 1,900 ATM jackpotting incidents, with organized groups exploiting physical and logical vulnerabilities. https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/fbi-reports-1900-atm-jackpotting.html

Former Google Engineers Indicted in Theft Case: U.S. prosecutors charged three former Google engineers in connection with alleged intellectual property theft. https://thehackernews.com/2026/02/three-former-google-engineers-indicted.html

Fake CoreTax Apps Target Indonesian Users: Fraudulent mobile apps impersonating tax platforms are stealing credentials and financial data from Indonesian victims. https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/fake-coretax-apps-fraud-indonesia/

Ukrainian National Sentenced in North Korean IT Worker Scheme: A U.S. court sentenced a Ukrainian national for operating a laptop farm that helped North Korean IT workers generate illicit income. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/ukrainian-national-sentenced-laptop-farm-scheme-generated-income-north-korean-it-workers

EU Parliament Blocks AI Features Over Cyber and Privacy Concerns: Lawmakers halted the rollout of certain AI-enabled features within parliamentary systems, citing cybersecurity and data protection risks. Officials raised concerns about potential data leakage, model misuse, and compliance with EU privacy rules, signaling growing caution around AI integration in sensitive government environments. https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-parliament-blocks-ai-features-over-cyber-privacy-fears/

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission Opens Investigation into X: Ireland’s regulator has launched a formal inquiry into X (formerly Twitter) over potential GDPR violations, examining how user data may have been processed or shared. The probe underscores continued regulatory scrutiny of major tech platforms operating within the EU. https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/news-media/press-releases/data-protection-commission-opens-investigation-x-xiuc

CISA Threat Hunting Leader Departs for Private Sector: A senior CISA official overseeing threat hunting operations is leaving for a private-sector role, marking another leadership shift within the U.S. cyber agency as it navigates workforce retention challenges. https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2026/02/cisa-threat-hunting-leader-depart-private-sector-role/411457/

UK Launches Campaign Urging Businesses to ‘Lock the Door’ on Cybercriminals: The UK government unveiled a national awareness campaign encouraging stronger cyber hygiene among businesses, focusing on patching, MFA adoption, and basic security controls. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/businesses-urged-to-lock-the-door-on-cyber-criminals-as-new-government-campaign-launches

NIST Announces AI Agent Standards Initiative: NIST introduced a new standards initiative aimed at developing interoperable and secure frameworks for AI agents, addressing governance, authentication, and safety concerns. https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2026/02/announcing-ai-agent-standards-initiative-interoperable-and-secure

Russia Advances Internet Control Measures: Russian authorities continue tightening digital controls, with new regulatory measures affecting online platforms and communications infrastructure. https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/8439607

Citizen Lab: Cellebrite Used on Kenyan Activist: Citizen Lab reported forensic evidence suggesting Cellebrite spyware was deployed against Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, raising human rights concerns. https://citizenlab.ca/research/cellebrite-used-on-kenyan-activist-and-politician-boniface-mwangi/

Generative AI is transforming cybersecurity at unprecedented speed. For UK organisations, it represents a powerful opportunity to modernise Security Operations Centres (SOCs) through intelligent automation, predictive threat detection, and faster decision-making.

At the same time, it is enabling a new class of highly sophisticated cyber threats, AI-driven phishing, adaptive malware, and LLM-engineered exploits that challenge traditional defences.

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