The European Union has formally identified nineteen major technology companies including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft as critical third party providers to the financial sector under the Digital Operational Resilience Act. The decision highlights the growing dependence of global finance on a limited group of cloud and technology vendors that support core operational layers of banking, payments and related services. Regulators intend to reduce systemic risks associated with outages, misconfigurations or cyber incidents by strengthening oversight of services that financial institutions frequently outsource. The designation signals a shift in how the EU intends to manage digital concentration risks while acknowledging the essential role these companies play in maintaining operational continuity across its financial ecosystem.
Alongside these regulatory developments, the US Congressional Budget Office confirmed that foreign actors had gained unauthorized access to parts of its internal communications environment. Officials expressed concern that the compromise allowed the hackers to view internal emails, chat logs and exchanges between lawmakers’ offices and CBO researchers. The intrusion added to mounting pressure on institutions to improve their resilience as sensitive legislative communications remain attractive targets for foreign operations. The incident has raised new questions about the adequacy of digital safeguards protecting congressional support agencies as they regularly handle economic assessments, fiscal projections and internal consultations that shape national policy decisions.
International coordination also featured prominently in a series of cyber enforcement actions as Europol and Eurojust led the latest phase of Operation Endgame from 10 to 13 November. The coordinated effort resulted in the dismantling of significant cybercrime infrastructure through the takedown of 1,025 servers and the seizure of 20 domains. Authorities confirmed the main suspect linked to the remote access trojan VenomRAT was sacked in Greece as part of the operation. The action represents a continuation of transnational efforts to disrupt malware distribution networks and command structures that allow remote access tools to spread across global targets. By directing operations from The Hague, investigators sought to address the scale and interconnected nature of these infrastructures which often span dozens of jurisdictions.
While enforcement agencies were active, private sector challenges also emerged as Cloudflare experienced a significant outage on 18 November that disrupted services used by platforms such as X, OpenAI and Anthropic. Cloudflare confirmed the issue was not caused by a cyber attack but stemmed from a configuration error within its Bot Management system. A database permission change caused a feature file to unexpectedly double in size, surpassing software limits on systems responsible for routing network traffic. The sudden spike triggered performance failures across multiple regions, highlighting how technical misconfigurations can generate cascading disruptions for large numbers of dependent platforms and services.
In parallel with these developments, Togo and Mozambique signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at strengthening bilateral cybersecurity cooperation. The agreement builds on ongoing efforts among African nations to improve digital readiness and information sharing frameworks as cyber risks expand across both public and private sectors. The collaboration is expected to support capacity building and enhance communication between the two countries as they work to address emerging digital threats within their regional environment. Overall, the sequence of events underscores the breadth of activity across global cybersecurity from regulatory action and institutional incidents to international enforcement and cross border partnerships.
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