Daily Brief, October 29, 2026
Daily Brief, October 29, 2026
Top Story
Researchers found online ad auctions used to infect targets' devices with spyware with no click, including devices at the media network Al Jazeera
Researchers at Citizen Lab say the Israel-based firm Discover-Tech runs an advertising platform called Controlium, which spyware companies use to profile millions of people through ad auctions.
Source: The Citizen Lab
Fuel cost shock
With jet fuel at roughly double its level before the Iran war, some airlines have stopped adding fuel hedges, and Ryanair's Michael O'Leary expects fares to rise 15 to 20 percent
Hedging at today's prices risks locking carriers into expensive fuel if tensions ease, and some programs require premiums or collateral, Reuters reports.
Source: The Straits Times
Hundreds of people living full-time aboard the cruise ship Villa Vie Odyssey were forced off in Cambodia this week after its operator halted operations there over fuel costs, Reuters reports
The operator, Villa Vie Residences, says monthly fuel cost per cabin rose from about $1,800 to an estimated $6,000 to $8,000 in parts of Asia, more than it can pass on to residents, and that it is working to restructure and raise new capital over the next 60 days, with no outcome assured.
Source: Manifold Times
European gas futures reached 100 euros a megawatt hour for the first time since December 2022
[RU · Vedomosti]
The November contract rose 4.1 percent to 100 euros a megawatt hour, a level last seen on December 21st 2022, in an item Vedomosti, the Russian business daily, posted on October 28th.
Source: Vedomosti
United States
Enforcement & Liability
Datavault AI told US securities regulators that three quarterly reports and one annual report can no longer be relied on, because Bitcoin it counted as an asset did not qualify as one
The company expects the corrected figures to cut its total assets by up to $92.2 million as of December 31st, 2025, and says it is reassessing whether it can keep operating.
Source: SEC EDGAR
Cyber Threats
A group calling itself Department of Peace gave the transparency site Distributed Denial of Secrets records on more than 41,000 US Homeland Security staff and contractors, which the site has published
The group claims it took the data from an Okta single sign-on service used by the department, and Okta says it has no evidence its own systems were compromised.
Source: Nextgov/FCW
Canada's Cyber Centre warns that callers posing as IT help desks are targeting Canadian law firms and financial firms by claiming an urgent passkey, multi-factor or password change
Callers may telephone staff or message them on Microsoft Teams, and may spoof legitimate help desk numbers, then steer the employee to a page branded with the organization's own identity, which relays both the password and the multi-factor code to the real login provider in real time.
Source: Canadian Centre for Cyber Security
Supply Chain Risk
Wall Street law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, with about 1,200 lawyers, says its leaders have recommended winding the firm down, and partners are expected to vote within days
The recommendation followed an exodus of partners and the reported end, days ago, of merger talks with the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
Source: CNBC
The US Department of Homeland Security ordered federal civilian agencies to stop buying from Acronis and strip the Swiss backup vendor's products out within 180 days
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin signed the exclusion and removal order on July 31st, and it is scheduled for Federal Register publication on October 30th.
Source: Federal News Network
The US banned imports from three Chinese genetics companies after the Department of Homeland Security added them to its list of firms tied to forced labor of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang
[PT · Valor Econômico]
Homeland Security says BGI Group and BGI Genomics run genetic testing in Xinjiang with the Chinese government to help recruit and move forced labor and that MGI Tech supplies the equipment; MGI Tech and BGI Group deny the accusations, Reuters reported.
Source: Valor Econômico
Regulatory Horizon
Trump signed a proclamation on imported robots and industrial machinery but set no tariff, ordering trade talks and a report back in 180 days
The proclamation says the Commerce Secretary found robotics and industrial machinery are imported in quantities that threaten to impair national security, and that the United States relies on foreign imports for most types.
Source: The White House
Around the World
Supply Chain Risk
Thousands of students protested in Jakarta and other Indonesian cities over President Prabowo's policies and the country's worst forest fires in 11 years, whose haze has spread to Malaysia and Singapore
Students and civil society groups filled a landmark Jakarta roundabout, some in gas masks, demanding the government declare the fires a national disaster.
Source: The Jakarta Post
Geopolitical Shocks
The US Treasury sanctioned Rwanda's defense ministry and Zigama, a financial institution serving the country's security forces, over support for the M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
[FR · RFI]
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Rwanda must end its support for M23 and withdraw its troops from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Source: RFI
Qatari mediators handed Iran a draft with a seven-day timeline for ending its war with the United States and Israel, and a senior Iranian official dismissed it as a set of unacceptable ideas
The draft was presented on Sunday and sets a seven-day timeline of daily confidence-building steps for both Tehran and Washington, with several countries acting as guarantors and a possible start early next week, Reuters reports.
Source: Al-Monitor
US Vice President Vance wrote to Iran's national security chief Mohsen Rezaei saying any talks to head off renewed US strikes must address the nuclear program, a US official told Axios
The letter is the most senior US outreach to Iran in several months, by Axios's account, and comes as Trump considers resuming major combat operations after the US midterm elections.
Source: Axios
Putin told African delegations in Moscow that Russia-Africa trade has risen from $18 billion in 2022 to more than $27 billion and could at least double
[FR · RFI]
Representatives of 48 African countries, including 22 heads of state, attended the third Russia-Africa summit, where Putin also said Russia was ready to share its expertise in advanced digital technology.
Source: RFI
Ghana's GCB Bank says its new cards on China's UnionPay network include the country's first that pay directly in China's currency, the renminbi, with no conversion to dollars
[FR · Financial Afrik]
The bank says the card is aimed at traders traveling to China, such as to the Canton Fair trade show; Financial Afrik, a French-language African finance publication, reports that skipping the dollar conversion lowers costs for importers and travelers.
Source: Financial Afrik
Regulatory Horizon
A Thai government committee on data centers approved draft minimum rules on where data centers can be built and how they connect to power and water, which go to Thailand's cabinet next week
[ES · Infobae]
The draft comes after Bangkok's September freeze on new approvals for large data centers in the capital, which is reviewing their resource use, environmental impact and fuel storage.
Source: Infobae
Infrastructure & Capacity
At least 68 people died when a train from Renfe, Spain's state-owned rail operator, hit a stopped train from Iryo, a private rival, near Urda in Spain's Toledo province
A fault in the line's main signaling and train-protection system had switched trains to a backup that still detects occupied track but leaves drivers following trackside signals, the Spanish broadcaster RTVE reports, citing infrastructure manager Adif, though the cause is not confirmed.
Source: Spain in English
Also Today
Moldova is examining whether a foreign state was behind the cyberattack that used government services requiring no login to pull records tied to about 750,000 identity numbers
Source: The Record
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