Cybersecurity teams are warning that VECT 2.0, a ransomware strain promoted as a recovery-for-payment tool, can leave victims with files that even its operators may be unable to restore, widening concern over a campaign that behaves closer to a destructive wiper than conventional extortion malware. The latest technical findings show that VECT 2.0 suffers from multiple encryption and file-handling flaws, including a failure to preserve critical nonce […]
Anthropic has expanded access to Claude Mythos Preview to about 200 organisations, widening a controlled cybersecurity programme designed to help governments, companies and critical software maintainers find severe vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them. The San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company is adding around 150 organisations to Project Glasswing, its gated initiative for defensive use of a frontier model that has drawn intense attention from technology companies, banks, […]
Cyber espionage operators are using a newly documented Windows backdoor called HazyBeacon to target government networks in Southeast Asia, turning legitimate Amazon Web Services infrastructure into a covert command-and-control channel that can blend into ordinary cloud traffic. The activity, tracked as CL-STA-1020, has been linked to intelligence-gathering operations focused on sensitive state information, including material tied to tariffs, trade disputes and government policy discussions. Security researchers have […]
Security researchers have warned that a Windows Search URI handler weakness can leak NTLMv2 hashes to remote attackers through a crafted link, reviving concerns over long-running authentication risks in enterprise networks. The issue affects the search: handler used by Windows Explorer to process desktop search requests. A malicious link can direct the handler towards an attacker-controlled network path, causing the victim’s system to attempt authentication over SMB […]
Gnosis Pay has moved into emergency containment after attackers exploited a vulnerability in the Delay Module used in its smart-contract wallet architecture, forcing an urgent withdrawal warning, a temporary reversal of guidance and a pledge to reimburse affected users in full. The breach, disclosed on 1 June, hit the payment product that connects self-custodial crypto wallets with card spending. The affected component is linked to the Zodiac […]
Born From Personal Experience
Handshake Finance launched in September 2025, founded by Christopher Chan and Lee Jun Xian. Both had seen the trust gap up close.
Jun’s close friend lost S$80,000 in pre-payments to a renovation company that collapsed mid-project. At the same time, Christopher’s friend paid a deposit on a rental home she had never viewed, only to discover the listing was fraudulent. Both incidents pointed to the same structural failure: in service industries, someone always carries the risk, and when trust breaks down, there is little recourse on either side.
The two founders met as university classmates in London and returned to the problem with complementary backgrounds. Christopher Chan had spent his career in fintech, designing compliant payment flows on regulated infrastructure. Lee Jun Xian came from venture capital, with experience scaling early-stage companies from zero to one.
Trust as the foundation, not the feature
Handshake operates on bank-grade payment infrastructure provided by MAS-regulated partners. All payment flows are fully MAS regulated, and funds are held with DBS in segregated escrow accounts. For the founders, this is not a checkbox — it is the entire foundation of the business.
“We are trying to solve a structural trust gap in service industries. But before any of that, our users have to trust us,” said Christopher Chan, Co-Founder of Handshake Finance. “Making sure every fund flow is fully compliant, and that our users feel completely assured handing us money in what are often life-changing transactions, is our number one priority. Everything else is built on top of that.”
Closing the Trust Gap Across Service Industries
Every high-trust service transaction carries the same structural flaw: either the customer pays before work is done, or the provider works before getting paid. Someone always carries the risk. Across industries — from renovation and interior design to event planning, creative agencies, and professional services — that risk falls entirely on one side, and when trust breaks down, there is little recourse for either party.
Handshake Finance was built to close that gap. The platform holds customer funds in escrow and releases them to service providers against agreed milestones, giving buyers protection from pre-payment risk while giving service providers the confidence to deliver. The model is designed to work across any service industry where the payment trust problem exists.
Why Renovation and Interior Design Is Handshake’s Beachhead Market
Renovation was where the structural failure ran deepest. The industry operates with no mandatory licensing or regulatory framework. Anyone can set up as an interior designer with no accreditation required, leaving homeowners with no reliable way to assess accountability before signing a contract.
There is no standard payment framework either. Homeowners routinely pay up to 50% of the total project value upfront, with funds going directly to the interior designer before any work begins. If a project stalls or a firm shuts down, there is limited protection and recourse. At the other end of the project, interior designers face the opposite problem: the final handover payment, where homeowners hold most of the leverage, can be withheld over disputes that wipe out up to half a project’s margin.
Eight Months of Listening Before a Single Line of Code
Before writing any software, the Handshake team spent eight months speaking with more than 80 interior designers and homeowners across Singapore to understand the real frictions on both sides of the transaction. What they found reinforced the decision to start here: high transaction values, a broken payment norm, an unregulated supply side, and no existing platform that protected both parties.
That research shaped how the product was built. After a renovation contract is signed, Handshake’s AI automatically generates the transaction structure with line items, payment schedules, and sub-milestones set out clearly to remove ambiguity. Homeowners place funds into escrow rather than paying upfront directly to the interior designer.
Payment releases to the designer as work progresses against agreed milestones, with sub-milestone releases providing faster cashflow access without compromising homeowner protection. The platform also replaces the manual spreadsheet-based back-office admin most interior design firms still run, and offers complimentary mediation and independent assessments in the event of a dispute.
More than 40 Interior Design Companies Onboarded and 2 Major Partnerships Signed
Handshake now has more than 40 interior design companies onboarded. The company has signed partnerships with Renonation.sg and Network SG, two of Singapore’s most established renovation marketplaces, to drive awareness and adoption across the broader ecosystem.
“It is an incredible feeling to see this much support behind us, and we are excited about what is ahead,” said Lee Jun Xian, Co-Founder of Handshake Finance. “We are industry-agnostic by design, but we are laser-focused on fixing renovation first. The scams that are still everyday occurrences in this space need to go, and the transactional experience for everyone involved needs to be better before we turn our attention to the next industry or market.”
Homeowners and interior designers can learn more or request access at handshake.finance.
Hashtag: #HandshakeFinance
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Handshake Finance is a Singapore-based fintech building escrow-as-a-service infrastructure for high-trust service industries. The platform holds customer funds in segregated escrow accounts and releases them against agreed milestones, protecting buyers from pre-payment risk while giving service providers the confidence to deliver. All payment flows are fully MAS regulated. Funds are held with DBS. Handshake is currently focused on Singapore’s renovation and interior design market as its beachhead, with plans to expand across other service industries and Southeast Asia.
Anthropic is expanding access to Claude Mythos Preview through Project Glasswing, widening a controlled cybersecurity programme at a time when North Korean-linked hackers are sharpening attacks against macOS users in the financial, venture capital, Web3 and cryptocurrency sectors. The San Francisco-based AI company plans to increase the number of Project Glasswing partners from about 50 to roughly 200 organisations across more than 15 countries, broadening access to […]
Moscow’s main security agency said it had uncovered a foreign intelligence operation that placed spyware on mobile phones used by senior officials, intensifying Russia’s long-running confrontation with Western governments over cyber espionage, communications security and control of digital infrastructure. Russia’s Federal Security Service said the operation involved the compromise of thousands of devices, including phones used by officials, diplomats and people linked to government agencies. The agency […]
A critical weakness in Flowise has exposed self-hosted AI workflow servers to full compromise, after technical details and working exploit code showed that a logged-in user could trigger command execution by importing a crafted chatflow. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-40933, affects Flowise deployments before version 3.1.0 and carries a 9.9 severity score. It stems from the way Flowise handles Model Context Protocol, or MCP, configurations in its […]
Palo Alto Networks customers are facing renewed pressure to patch internet-facing security systems after attackers began exploiting a high-severity authentication bypass flaw in PAN-OS GlobalProtect, a product widely used to provide remote access to corporate networks. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-0257, affects GlobalProtect portal and gateway deployments in PAN-OS where authentication override cookies are enabled alongside a specific certificate configuration. Successful exploitation can allow a remote attacker […]
Cybercriminals are exploiting trust in artificial intelligence platforms by abusing shared ChatGPT and Claude content links to steer users towards malware disguised as legitimate OpenAI software. The campaign, tracked by security researchers as LLMShare, uses malicious search advertisements and search-engine manipulation to lure victims to pages that appear to be hosted on trusted AI domains. Once users click through, they are shown a fully designed web page […]
Instagram is under renewed pressure over claims that a weakness in Meta’s AI-assisted support and account recovery systems could allow attackers to manipulate password reset flows and target high-value accounts. The allegation centres on an AI-powered help feature intended to guide users through account recovery, settings changes and login problems. Security researchers say the system could allegedly be prompted in ways that allowed unauthorised parties to trigger […]
Russia-linked cyber operators tracked as GREYVIBE have used generative artificial intelligence tools including ChatGPT and Google Gemini to widen cyber-espionage operations against Ukraine-linked targets, signalling a shift in how lower-skilled threat groups can build lures, malware and infrastructure at speed. The activity, active since at least August 2025, has targeted military, government, civilian and business-related organisations through phishing emails, fake verification pages, fraudulent websites and custom malware. […]
Cybersecurity teams are racing to patch a Palo Alto Networks authentication-bypass flaw after confirmed exploitation against exposed GlobalProtect deployments raised the risk profile of a vulnerability first disclosed this month. Tracked as CVE-2026-0257, the flaw affects PAN-OS firewalls and Prisma Access environments where GlobalProtect portal or gateway services are configured with authentication override cookies and a vulnerable certificate setup. Successful exploitation allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to […]
Roundcube Webmail administrators are being pressed to install emergency updates after maintainers fixed a set of security flaws that could expose email systems to database manipulation, script injection, server-side request forgery and other attacks. Versions 1.6.16 and 1.7.1, released on 24 May 2026, address vulnerabilities affecting the 1.6 long-term support line and the 1.7 branch. The most closely watched issue is a pre-authentication SQL injection flaw in […]
Google Cloud has moved deeper into AI-native cybersecurity with Google AI Threat Defence, an autonomous security platform aimed at helping enterprises detect, prioritise and remediate attacks at machine speed as rivals Anthropic and OpenAI push frontier models into vulnerability discovery and code defence. The launch marks a sharper contest in enterprise security, where artificial intelligence is shifting the centre of gravity from manual patching and alert handling […]
InMotion Hosting said it contained a critical cPanel and WHM authentication-bypass flaw that threatened one of the web-hosting industry’s most widely used management platforms, after blocking exposure across its network and patching affected systems. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-41940, created a high-impact route for unauthenticated attackers to gain access to cPanel and WebHost Manager interfaces. The issue drew urgent attention because cPanel is used by hosting providers, […]
A newly disclosed flaw in Starlette has put Python-based AI services under pressure to patch systems that may expose protected endpoints through manipulated HTTP Host headers. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-48710 and dubbed BadHost, affects Starlette versions up to 1.0.0 and has drawn attention because of Starlette’s role in modern application stacks built around FastAPI, API gateways, model-serving tools and agent frameworks. Starlette 1.0.1 contains the fix, […]
The guidance, issued on May 25 in a 38-page blueprint, reflects growing official concern that attackers are using generative AI, large language models and autonomous tools to discover exposed systems, weaponise flaws, craft phishing lures and scale malware operations faster than conventional security programmes can respond. The document places rapid remediation, continuous monitoring and exposure reduction at the centre of enterprise cyber defence.
CERT-In’s most stringent timeline applies to known exploited vulnerabilities affecting internet-facing and critical systems, including applications, identity platforms, cloud assets, APIs, operational technology and systems supporting essential business functions. Organisations are advised to patch, mitigate or isolate such weaknesses within 12 hours where feasible. Critical externally exposed vulnerabilities should be addressed within one day, while known exploited flaws inside internal systems should be fixed within one day unless compensating controls are implemented and documented.
The blueprint also recommends that critical internal vulnerabilities affecting high-value systems be remediated within three days, and high-severity vulnerabilities within five days based on risk prioritisation. Where patches are unavailable, organisations are expected to use temporary protections such as isolation, access restrictions, web application firewalls, API shields, feature disabling and enhanced monitoring until permanent fixes are deployed.
The directive signals a shift from audit-driven cybersecurity to continuous exposure management. CERT-In has warned that organisations can no longer depend on periodic assessments or reactive incident response when automated tools can identify weak credentials, misconfigured systems, insecure APIs and vulnerable internet-facing services at machine speed. The approach requires security teams to maintain live inventories of assets, prioritise exposed systems and test whether controls work under attack conditions.
AI is changing both sides of the cyber equation. Attackers can use it to automate reconnaissance, write exploit code, refine phishing messages, generate synthetic identities and adapt malicious software. Defenders are being pushed to use similar capabilities for anomaly detection, threat hunting, automated triage and faster containment. The risk, however, is that poorly governed AI systems can themselves become attack surfaces through prompt injection, data leakage, model manipulation, poisoned training data, model theft and compromised orchestration pipelines.
The guidance gives particular weight to organisations operating in banking, financial services, telecom, healthcare, government, energy, transport, cloud services and other critical infrastructure-linked sectors. These environments often rely on interconnected digital systems, third-party software, outsourced technology providers and legacy platforms, creating wider exposure when a single flaw is weaponised quickly.
Global breach data has reinforced the urgency behind faster patching. Software vulnerability exploitation has overtaken stolen credentials as a leading breach entry point in major datasets, while ransomware remains a high-impact threat. Security teams also face growing pressure from supply-chain compromise, shadow AI usage, cloud misconfiguration and business email compromise. Unauthorised use of public AI tools has become a data governance issue as employees may upload source code, business documents, credentials or customer information into platforms outside corporate oversight.
CERT-In’s blueprint calls for a zero-trust approach, least-privilege access, layered controls and secure-by-design practices across applications, infrastructure and AI workflows. It urges organisations to maintain visibility into AI deployments, restrict sensitive data uploads to public AI platforms, log AI activity, conduct adversarial testing and keep human approval for critical autonomous actions.
Software supply-chain visibility is another major focus. Organisations are encouraged to use software bills of materials and related inventories for AI models, cryptographic assets and hardware components to understand dependencies, validate provenance and coordinate remediation when vulnerabilities emerge in third-party products.
The new expectations build on India’s existing cyber incident reporting framework, under which specified cyber incidents must be reported to CERT-In within six hours. The latest blueprint does not merely extend compliance obligations; it raises operational expectations for boards, chief information security officers and technology vendors by linking resilience to the speed of response.
Smaller organisations may struggle with the 12-hour benchmark because patch testing, downtime concerns, legacy dependencies and staffing shortages often slow remediation. The guidance therefore recognises feasible mitigation as part of the response, but it also makes clear that unmanaged exposure is no longer acceptable when attackers can exploit public-facing weaknesses within hours.
Hackers are exploiting shared content delivery network infrastructure to hide malicious traffic behind trusted domains, exposing a weakness in DNS-based security controls used by enterprises to block command-and-control activity, data theft and unauthorised tunnelling. The technique, named Underminr by ADAMnetworks, takes advantage of the way large CDNs host many unrelated websites on the same edge IP addresses. A compromised device can make a legitimate DNS lookup for […]
Microsoft has issued fixes for a high-severity SharePoint Server vulnerability that could allow authenticated attackers to run code remotely on affected on-premises systems, sharpening security concerns for organisations that continue to rely on self-managed collaboration platforms. Tracked as CVE-2026-45659, the flaw affects SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, SharePoint Server 2019 and SharePoint Enterprise Server 2016. The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS score of 8.8, placing it in […]
Developers using Angular’s official Visual Studio Code extension have been urged to update their systems after multiple high-severity flaws were found to expose workstations to remote code execution through malicious project files and dependencies. The vulnerabilities affect Angular Language Service, published as Angular. ng-template on the Visual Studio Marketplace, in all versions before 21.2.4. The patched release closes weaknesses that could allow an attacker to execute commands […]
NightSpire has moved from an emerging ransomware operation to a fast-scaling cyber-extortion threat, using exposed Remote Desktop Protocol access, legitimate administration tools and a Tor-based leak site to pressure victims across multiple sectors. First observed in early 2025, the group has built its campaign around double extortion, stealing sensitive files before encrypting systems and then threatening public exposure if victims refuse to pay. Its operations show a […]
Hackers are exploiting a critical vulnerability in Ghost CMS to compromise more than 700 websites and turn trusted publishing pages into delivery points for ClickFix malware, escalating concerns over unpatched content management systems used by media, universities, fintech firms, software companies and research organisations. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-26980, is a SQL injection vulnerability in Ghost’s Content API. It affects Ghost versions from 3.24.0 through 6.19.0 and […]
