Security researchers have identified 2,539 distinct credentials and other secrets across 1,994 public GitHub repositories, linking the exposures to configuration files and saved records generated during AI-assisted software development. Application security company Apiiro disclosed the findings on 5 November after examining publicly accessible repositories. Its investigation identified a particular risk in Anthropic’s Claude Code assistant: approving a shell command with the option “Yes, and don’t ask again” […]
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath’s concern expressed during a BJP meeting about over a crore deletion of Hindu voters from the SIR is a clear indication of the political vulnerabilities ahead of 2027 election. It indicates that BJP is entering the 2027 election with considerably more uncertainties than it had […]
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 6 November 2026 – The 75th Miss Universe World Final will take place on 24 November 2026 at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Marking the historic diamond anniversary of the pageant, this year’s edition brings together delegates from over 120 countries and territories. Crowned Miss Universe Hong Kong in September 2026, Jen Zhou has completed her domestic preparations and will depart for Puerto Rico next week to embark on three weeks of official competition events, preliminary evaluations, and cross-cultural exchanges.
A Multifaceted Background Spanning Film, Finance, and Broadcast Journalism
Raised in Hong Kong and an alumna of Hong Kong International School (HKIS), Zhou demonstrated creative and academic excellence early on, receiving concurrent admission offers from the Acting Department of Beijing Film Academy and the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California (USC). She went on to complete dual degrees from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and the Marshall School of Business.
Following graduation, Zhou entered international corporate finance, working at UBS for nearly three years before pursuing and earning a Master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. She currently works as an English-language television feature host in Hong Kong, a bilingual content creator, and a commercial model. Having previously placed as a finalist in both Miss Asia and Miss Hong Kong, Zhou won the Miss Universe Hong Kong title in September 2026, securing her credential to represent the city on the global stage.
“The Miss Universe competition is not only one of the world’s preeminent pageants, but also a vital platform for spotlighting female leadership, cultural diversity, and global engagement,” Zhou stated. “Representing Hong Kong at this diamond anniversary edition is a tremendous privilege. I hope to present to the world the resilience, professionalism, and cultural confidence that define Hong Kong’s emerging generation.”
Rigorous Competition Preparation and Community Philanthropy
To prepare for the global arena at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum—a venue accommodating up to 18,000 spectators—the Hong Kong delegation designed a rigorous training regimen for Zhou. The curriculum emphasized international runway technique, multi-camera staging, and simulated on-stage Q&A sessions to sharpen public speaking under pressure.
In tandem with performance coaching, Zhou prioritized community advocacy throughout her intensive preparation period. In late October, she volunteered at a community kitchen in Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, joining local volunteer teams to prepare and distribute hot meals and essential supplies to elderly residents and unhoused individuals. Zhou and her team also provided direct funding for meal ingredients, integrating civic engagement into her pre-pageant journey.
Showcasing Local Design: Evening Gown Craftsmanship and Cultural Heritage
The official Miss Universe schedule features rigorous sartorial standards across welcome receptions, philanthropic galas, preliminary judging, the national costume presentation, and the grand final.
Bespoke Evening Gown: Tailored by an acclaimed Hong Kong fashion designer, Zhou’s competition gown integrates Hong Kong’s East-meets-West architectural silhouettes, urban dynamism, and traditional Lingnan textile craftsmanship into its fabric and tailoring.
Cultural Heritage Exchange: For the traditional gift-exchange ceremony involving over 120 participating delegations, the team selected handcrafted cultural keepsakes reflecting Hong Kong’s heritage, designed to share the city’s unique cultural narrative with global representatives.
Official Schedule for the 75th Miss Universe World Final
Key competition milestones at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum include:
National Costume Show: 21 November 2026
Preliminary Competition: 22 November 2026
Grand Final: 24 November 2026
Hashtag: #MissUniverseHongKong #MissUniverse
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Miss Universe Hong Kong
Miss Universe is among the world’s most enduring and widely followed international competitions, engaging delegates from more than 120 countries and territories annually. Miss Universe Hong Kong selects and mentors accomplished women with strong academic credentials, global communication skills, and social commitment to represent Hong Kong internationally, fostering intercultural dialogue and enhancing the city’s global profile.
About the 75th Miss Universe World Final
The 75th Miss Universe World Final will convene on 24 November 2026 at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Celebrating 75 years of leadership and international pageantry under the “Diamond Edition” banner, the event brings together global delegates demonstrating leadership, stage presentation, and public advocacy.
A cyberespionage operation linked to Russia’s APT29 hacking group has targeted vulnerable iPhones and Android devices through compromised websites, using previously patched security flaws to extract confidential information without requiring victims to click malicious links. Cybersecurity company Sekoia disclosed the campaign on Wednesday, assessing with moderate to high confidence that APT29, also known as Midnight Blizzard or Cozy Bear, or an associated subgroup was responsible. The operation, […]
New research from KPMG China and GS1 Hong Kong highlights three key priorities for retailers: building trust in AI, delivering market-specific strategies for the growing silver economy, and strengthening brand confidence across Hong Kong and other cities in the Greater Bay Area
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 4 November 2026 – Consumer confidence in artificial intelligence is rising across Hong Kong and other cities in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), but new research from KPMG China and GS1 Hong Kong shows that retailers will need markedly different strategies to convert that confidence into growth. While consumers in other GBA cities show greater openness to personalised experiences and Chinese Mainland brands, Hong Kong consumers place more emphasis on value for money.
The Growth Reimagined: Building Consumer Trust in the AI Era report identifies three themes which have emerged as a roadmap for future growth:
Trusted AI builds consumer confidence: AI can enhance personalisation and speed up service delivery, but privacy, accuracy, transparency and a human touch will determine consumer adoption.
Silver shoppers diverge by market: To capture the growing silver economy, brands must prioritise price in Hong Kong, and brand reputation and engaging experiences in other GBA cities.
The low-cost-only label no longer fits Chinese Mainland brands: Their advances in quality and innovation are forcing competitors to rethink where future brand advantage will come from.
AI trust is rising but a transparency gap persists, creating new opportunities for growth
Trust in AI has risen significantly since last year’s survey. In Hong Kong, 48% of consumers now trust AI at least somewhat, up from 28%, while trust in other GBA cities has increased from 59% to 76%. Yet growing trust has not translated into the same willingness to share personal data: just 10% of Hong Kong consumers who trust AI are comfortable doing so, compared with 32% in other GBA cities.
The difference in AI trust between Hong Kong and other GBA cities is particularly pronounced among silver shoppers, defined in the report as consumers aged above 55. Just 38% of Hong Kong silver shoppers trust AI, compared with 76% in other GBA cities, underscoring the challenge retailers face in building AI confidence among older Hong Kong consumers.
To bridge this gap, retailers in Hong Kong need to demonstrate clear value before asking consumers to share more data, while providing transparency and control over how their data is used. Consumer confidence should extend across the entire retail journey: from payment and product authenticity to returns and customer support. AI should help consumers find what they need more easily, while maintaining accuracy, fairness and access to human support.
Anna Lin, Chief Executive, GS1 Hong Kong, says: “AI is increasingly shaping how consumers discover and evaluate products, and it tends to recommend those backed by data it can readily interpret and trust. Businesses with trusted, standardised product data that is structured for machines to understand and use and traceable to an identifiable source will be best positioned to earn consumer confidence and influence future purchasing decisions.”
The silver economy is not a single consumer market
Across all age groups, value remains a priority for 73% of Hong Kong consumers, compared with 45% in other GBA cities.
When asked to describe their shopping style, 57% of silver shoppers in Hong Kong identify primarily as value shoppers, compared with only 23% in other GBA cities, where brand reputation, at 37%, and shopping experience, at 27%, emerge as their leading considerations.
The findings suggest that age alone is not enough to define the silver shoppers. Retailers looking to capture the opportunities created by the region’s ageing population will need to understand how expectations differ by market, and develop propositions that reflect those differences.
Alice Yip, Partner, Head of Consumer & Retail, Hong Kong SAR, KPMG China, says: “Growth in the silver economy depends on recognising that shoppers’ priorities differ across markets. Hong Kong’s silver shoppers prioritise competitive prices, while those in other GBA cities place greater emphasis on brand reputation and shopping experiences. Capturing this opportunity involves understanding what matters locally and tailoring the retail offer accordingly, rather than treating the silver economy as one uniform market.”
Chinese Mainland speed raises the stakes for Hong Kong and global brands
Chinese Mainland brands are emerging as a stronger force in innovation and speed. In other GBA cities, that progress is already reflected in consumer perceptions: 64% choose them for value for money, 58% for safety and reliability and 50% for brand reputation.
In Hong Kong, however, they are still seen primarily through the lens of value. While 81% of consumers choose Chinese Mainland brands for value for money, fewer cite safety and reliability (39%), higher quality (33%) or brand reputation (31%). Their next opportunity is to turn Chinese Mainland speed and improving quality into stronger brand confidence.
Hong Kong brands retain a clear advantage in trust. Consumers in Hong Kong (74%) and other GBA cities (61%) cite safety and reliability as the leading reason for choosing Hong Kong brands. Among Hong Kong consumers, preference for Hong Kong brands is particularly strong in airlines (78%) and food and beverages (71%).
But trust cannot be taken for granted. As Chinese Mainland brands strengthen their safety and reliability credentials, Hong Kong brands will need to combine their reputation for reliability with greater innovation, sharper value and faster execution.
Anson Bailey, Head of Consumer & Retail, Asia Pacific, KPMG China, says: “Any brand that still sees Chinese Mainland competitors as a low-cost threat is looking in the rear-view mirror. Chinese Mainland speed is now producing better products, sharper design and faster innovation at a scale few markets can match. The real shift is that Chinese Mainland brands are learning to build brand equity at the same pace as they have built scale through value and speed. This is increasingly influencing who can win – not only in the GBA, but in consumer markets worldwide.”
Hashtag: #KPMG #GS1HongKong
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About KPMG
KPMG in China has offices located in 31 cities with over 14,000 partners and staff, in Beijing, Changchun, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Dongguan, Foshan, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Haikou, Hangzhou, Hefei, Jinan, Nanjing, Nantong, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shanghai, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Taiyuan, Tianjin, Wuhan, Wuxi, Xiamen, Xi’an, Zhengzhou, Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR. It started operations in Hong Kong in 1945. In 1992, KPMG became the first international accounting network to be granted a joint venture licence in the Chinese Mainland. In 2012, KPMG became the first among the “Big Four” in the Chinese Mainland to convert from a joint venture to a special general partnership.
KPMG is a global organisation of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. KPMG is the brand under which the member firms of KPMG International Limited (“KPMG International”) operate and provide professional services. “KPMG” is used to refer to individual member firms within the KPMG organisation or to one or more member firms collectively.
KPMG firms operate in 138 countries and territories with more than 276,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. Each KPMG member firm is responsible for its own obligations and liabilities.
About GS1 Hong Kong
GS1 Hong Kong is the local chapter of GS1®, a global, not-for-profit data standards organisation represented in over 120 countries. Through globally recognised standards such as GTIN (barcodes), we enable businesses to identify, capture and share trusted data across physical and digital supply chains, helping them accelerate digital transformation, access global markets, strengthen supply chain resilience and efficiency, and advance transparency, safety and sustainability.
Building on global data standards, GS1 Hong Kong provides solutions including ezTRADE for B2B data exchange, ezTRACK for supply chain traceability, and 1QR, powered by GS1 Digital Link, connecting 2D barcodes to rich product information such as certifications and sustainability data.
The trusted data infrastructure also supports emerging business needs, from trade finance to Scope 3 emissions reporting and ESG compliance. In an AI-driven economy, we provide the foundation for high-quality data that is accurate, visible, linkable, searchable, shareable and traceable.
GS1 Hong Kong supports close to 8,000 corporate members across 20 sectors, including retail and consumer goods, food and beverage, healthcare, apparel and footwear, logistics and ICT.
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Smart home buyers have more practical choices as the Matter connectivity standard expands support for cameras, energy management and household automation, making compatibility an important consideration alongside price and convenience. The Connectivity Standards Alliance introduced Matter 1.6 in June 2026, extending work on simpler device setup and interoperability. Its earlier updates added camera support and improved energy monitoring, although individual products and platforms […]
Japan’s government is tightening cybersecurity measures after breaches exposed information held by ministries, financial firms and technology providers, while investigators examine attacks that have disrupted trading and public services.
The Foreign Ministry disclosed on October 30 that approximately 3,600 sets of personal information might have been compromised through unauthorised access to its network. The records included names and email addresses, with around 900 belonging to people outside the ministry. Officials said confidential information was held on a separate network and had not been affected.
The ministry detected the intrusion on July 27, blocked access and invalidated credentials. An external investigation subsequently identified possible exposure. Authorities said there was no evidence that the information had been misused, and pledged stronger authentication and monitoring.
The disclosure followed an October 28 announcement by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry concerning unauthorised access to the website of the Electricity and Gas Market Surveillance Commission. The incident added another government service to the expanding list of targets, although its full consequences remained unclear.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi convened a ministerial cybersecurity meeting on October 26 and ordered urgent countermeasures. She highlighted large-scale information leaks and the danger of stolen records being exploited for further attacks. The government also instructed agencies to improve assistance for affected organisations through the police and the Information-technology Promotion Agency.
Financial markets have faced direct losses from intrusions. Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama identified five foreign-exchange brokers whose customers experienced unauthorised transactions apparently connected to compromised servers operated by GMO Internet. The companies were Goldenway Japan, Oanda Japan, Ava Trade Japan, Gaitame Finest and Dukascopy Japan.
The brokers restricted affected accounts, blocked suspicious overseas orders and reset passwords. Katayama said on October 27 that regulators had received no reports of additional fraudulent transactions. The Financial Services Agency asked trading firms to strengthen surveillance and encourage customers to change credentials.
GMO shut down an affected cloud trading service on October 21 after discovering unauthorised access. The company subsequently acknowledged that material purportedly belonging to customers had been published online, while investigators continued checking its authenticity and the extent of exposure.
The company promised compensation for losses associated with fraudulent trading and offered affected users alternative services. It also rejected an extortion demand. Tokyo police opened an investigation into suspected violations of legislation governing unauthorised computer access.
Separately, IwaiCosmo Securities disclosed that an attack on technology provider Trade Works resulted in unauthorised orders involving seven customer accounts. Transactions were executed through five accounts, while personal information concerning 4,975 people was exposed. The brokerage said the leaked information could not itself be used to access trading accounts.
The National Cybersecurity Office has warned that intrusions are affecting organisations across numerous industries. Its October guidance emphasised protecting web applications, monitoring suppliers and controlling access to sensitive information. Financial regulators separately instructed institutions to examine third-party exposure and incident-response arrangements.
Artificial intelligence is complicating those efforts. Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology warned on October 13 that attackers were using increasingly sophisticated vulnerability discovery techniques, including methods that analyse mobile applications to identify weaknesses in connected servers.
GMO’s information-security division separately said its investigation had identified the use of a Chinese-developed artificial intelligence security tool called Artex in attacks directed predominantly at Japanese targets. That finding does not establish that artificial intelligence was involved in every breach or identify the operators responsible for individual incidents.
Cybersecurity company TrendAI counted 331 unauthorised-access incidents among Japanese organisations during January through September, representing 54.5 per cent of the incidents in its analysis. The classification covers different methods and does not necessarily indicate the same perpetrators or a coordinated campaign.
The growing exposure has also prompted scrutiny of authentication practices and outsourced infrastructure. Regulators have urged organisations to review vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them, strengthen access controls and prepare procedures for containing breaches. Particular attention has been directed towards information stolen from service providers that could subsequently enable attacks against their customers.
The Japan External Trade Organization disclosed on October 27 that its e-Venue business-matching platform had suffered unauthorised access on three dates between September and October. It said up to 133 personal-information records might have been exposed and suspended the service while specialists investigated.
JETRO had separately confirmed exposure of 743 records after attacks on other websites beginning October 14. The organisation notified affected businesses and contacts and established temporary online facilities while reviewing security arrangements.
The FBI has attributed the theft of more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance to North Korean hackers, identifying a state-linked cyber operation responsible for one of the largest digital asset heists ever disclosed. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation announced on October 31 that hackers associated with North Korea had stolen virtual assets from the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange on or around October 29. The […]
A subscription-based Android malware operation is targeting bank customers across India, allowing criminals to create fraudulent applications that intercept security codes, steal financial credentials and divert verification calls. Cybersecurity company CloudSEK identified the operation, named MR ROBOT, in an investigation published on 28 October. Its findings show that one affiliate controlled 153 compromised devices and intercepted 5,407 text messages, offering a documented glimpse of how the criminal […]
The Save University Campaign Committee has accused the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) of favouring a former Students’ Federation of India (SFI) leader in a special recruitment exercise for Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) posts, demanding government intervention over his first-place ranking. The complain…
A suspected China-linked hacking operation compromised Palo Alto Networks firewalls and penetrated a US government-affiliated network, using chained software vulnerabilities to obtain administrator-level control, cybersecurity investigators have disclosed. Palo Alto Networks confirmed on October 29 that its Unit 42 researchers had independently verified the attacker’s tools and findings published by cybersecurity company Dream. The company urged customers to install available security fixes and remove public internet access […]
Passwords are losing ground to passkeys, but new authentication studies show that their disappearance by 2027 remains far from certain despite accelerating adoption and growing concern over cyberattacks. The FIDO Alliance said this month that an estimated seven billion passkeys are now in use worldwide, up from five billion in May. Its 2026 Passkey Index found that passkeys accounted for 36% of successful sign-ins across participating services, […]
Age fraud has been confirmed at the 68th State School Sports Meet after a student representing CKM Higher Secondary School, Koruthodu, in Kottayam district, failed a medical age-verification examination on Wednesday. The athlete, who had won gold in the sub-junior boys’ 400 metres, was disqualified following the findi…
Blockchain security company SlowMist has uncovered malicious JavaScript associated with Udesk customer-service software that can capture website visitors’ login information and replace cryptocurrency deposit addresses, potentially exposing accounts and diverting transfers. The company disclosed its findings on 27 October after examining two JavaScript samples obtained during routine threat monitoring. Its investigation identified separate mechanisms for collecting sensitive browser data and manipulating payment destinations on three cryptocurrency trading […]
Dubai’s flexible office market has substantial capacity for expansion, but a shortage of suitable buildings is preventing operators from fully meeting growing demand for furnished workplaces and shorter lease commitments. Flexible offices represent only 2.6 per cent of Dubai’s total office stock, according to Cushman & Wakefield Core’s UAE Trends in Flexible Office 2026 study, published on 22 October. The proportion is considerably lower than in several […]
Carton India Alliance Private Limited faces a fresh allegation that it obtained public works contracts exceeding ₹12 crore from Kannur District Panchayat by using another contractor’s licence, widening scrutiny of awards made during former president P P Divya’s tenure. Kerala Students Union state vice-president P Muha…
Carton India Alliance Private Limited faces a fresh allegation that it obtained public works contracts exceeding ₹12 crore from Kannur District Panchayat by using another contractor’s licence, widening scrutiny of awards made during former president P P Divya’s tenure. Kerala Students Union state vice-president P Muha…
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Abu Dhabi renewable energy company Masdar has raised $600 million through its first blue bond, an AA-rated transaction described as the highest-rated publicly issued corporate blue bond worldwide. The five-year securities, rated AA- by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings, were issued under Masdar’s $6 billion global medium-term note programme. Proceeds will finance or refinance eligible marine renewable energy projects under the company’s […]
Ukraine’s cybersecurity authorities have warned that hackers are infiltrating Dahua surveillance cameras and video recorders through predictable serial numbers, weak passwords and unpatched software vulnerabilities. The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine, CERT-UA, identified intrusions in which attackers altered device configurations and created unauthorised accounts, potentially giving them continuing access to surveillance equipment. The agency has not disclosed the number of affected devices, the dates of the […]
Cybercriminals are exploiting Instagram advertisements and neglected website tracking code to infect vulnerable iPhones with powerful spyware, according to a joint investigation by cybersecurity firms iVerify and Report URI, tracing attacks across social media and retail websites. The researchers identified multiple delivery routes for Coruna and DarkSword, two exploit kits capable of compromising devices and extracting sensitive information. Their findings, published on 21 and 22 October, show […]
Anthropic has confirmed that its Claude artificial intelligence model obtained Georgia election statistics through a payment-restricted government dashboard without being instructed to do so, prompting new safeguards against unauthorised actions. The company said on Sunday that Claude retrieved aggregate vote counts during an internal statistics project. The information was publicly available for a fee, but the model independently requested an access token and used it to query […]
Attackers infiltrated LiteLLM’s GitHub organisation eleven days before distributing malware through its software releases, with newly recovered records showing credential-stealing workflows operating on October 10 and 12. Security company Socket identified two malicious workflow commits in the BerriAI/litellm repository, while LiteLLM’s investigation confirmed that stolen credentials from the earlier intrusion helped attackers manipulate its October 21 release process. The findings establish a longer period of unauthorised access […]
Cybercriminals penetrated Microsoft 365 accounts at 79 organisations during a coordinated campaign involving stolen authentication tokens, phishing and attempts to conceal fraudulent email activity, cybersecurity company Huntress has disclosed. The investigation, published on October 22, identified at least 497 successful sign-ins and more than 200,000 failed login attempts between July 14 and September 22. Researchers said attackers reused legitimate sessions captured through deceptive authentication processes, enabling access […]
The Keralam government’s proposed sports legislation faces uncertainty following objections within the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) to provisions designed to restrict political appointments in sports organisations, complicating efforts to overhaul the state’s sports administration. Differences involving the Co…
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