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A new Kerala Police MoU will bring threat intelligence into cybercrime investigations in the state. Cyble, an AI-native cybersecurity company, has signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding with Kerala Police that covers intelligence support, investigative assistance and capacity building. The agreement was signed through Cyble's Indian subsidiary, Cyble Infosec India Private Limited. It will support the Kerala Police Cyber Operations wing and Cyberdome in identifying and investigating emerging cyber threats. The announcement was made on October 12, 2026.

Why the Kerala Police MoU Focuses on Threat Intelligence

According to Cyble, cybercriminals increasingly use underground online forums and illicit marketplaces to trade stolen credentials, distribute leaked data, coordinate ransomware operations and facilitate fraud. Identifying these activities before they cause harm requires timely intelligence and effective collaboration between technology providers and law enforcement agencies. [caption id="attachment_114716" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Image Source: Cyble[/caption]

What MoU Covers

Under the MoU, Cyble will support Kerala Police with intelligence relevant to cybercrime investigations. This includes compromised credentials, ransomware activity, data leaks, phishing and fraud infrastructure, and the impersonation of government and police brands. The collaboration has three other parts:

• No-cost evaluation access to select Cyble platforms.
• Training for police officers in open-source intelligence (OSINT) and dark web investigations.
• Joint research into emerging threats such as AI-enabled fraud, deepfakes, mule account networks and investment scams.

Public awareness initiatives will also form part of the collaboration. “Effective cybercrime investigations require timely intelligence, especially when criminal activity originates across borders and moves through hidden online networks,” said Beenu Arora, Co-Founder and CEO of Cyble. “Kerala Police has taken a proactive approach to cyber policing through Cyberdome. Through this collaboration, we aim to help investigators access relevant threat intelligence, strengthen their investigative capabilities, and better understand emerging threats targeting citizens and institutions.” Ankit Asokan, IPS, Kerala Police, said: “Cybercrime investigations increasingly require access to timely intelligence on threats that may originate beyond conventional online channels. This collaboration will support Cyberdome and our officers with relevant intelligence, strengthen investigative capabilities, and contribute to efforts to protect citizens from evolving cyber threats.”

Aim of the Kerala Police MoU

The MoU reflects a shared focus on strengthening cybercrime response through collaboration, intelligence sharing and knowledge development. By combining Cyble's threat intelligence capabilities with Kerala Police's investigative expertise, the partnership aims to support more informed investigations and improve awareness of emerging cyber risks. Cyble describes itself as an AI-native cybersecurity company that helps governments and enterprises identify, prioritize and respond to cyber threats. It is headquartered in Cupertino, California, and serves customers globally, with offices in regions including Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Middle East and India.

This weekly roundup covers a stark small-business cyberattack report out of the UK, a hardware flaw exposing Nintendo Switch owners to nearby attackers, the largest known seizure of AI deepfake porn websites, a candid conversation on AI's role in offensive security, new US legislation targeting elder fraud, and a fresh national threat-intelligence partnership in the UAE.  From consumer hardware to national policy, this week's developments show that exposure isn't limited to large enterprises or nation-state targets — small businesses, individual console owners, and everyday victims of fraud and non-consensual imagery are all squarely in scope, even as governments and industry move to close the gaps. 

The Cyber Express Weekly Roundup 

UK Small Businesses Face Higher Cyberattack Rates Than Global Peers, Hiscox Report Finds 

UK small firms are being hit by cyberattacks at a rate well above the global average, according to Hiscox's 10th annual Cyber Readiness Report. The survey of nearly 7,000 smaller businesses worldwide, including 1,000 in the UK, found that 38% of UK firms suffered a successful attack in the past year, compared with a 29% global average — the highest rate among all markets surveyed. Read more… 

Cyble Signs MOU with UAE Cyber Security Council to Boost National Threat Intelligence 

Cyble, an AI-native cybersecurity firm, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UAE's Cyber Security Council to strengthen the country's national threat intelligence capabilities. Announced in Abu Dhabi in September 2026, the agreement centers on delivering advanced threat intelligence, early warning capabilities, and insights into emerging cyber risks facing government and critical infrastructure entities across the UAE. Read more… 

Nintendo Switch Flaw Let Nearby Attackers Run Code, Steal Data 

Nintendo has patched a flaw in the original Switch that let nearby attackers hijack its QR-code-based "Send to Smartphone" feature to run unauthorized code or steal data, including account information stored on the console. Tracked as CVE-2026-82079, the bug affected consoles on firmware older than version 23.0.0; the Switch 2 is unaffected. Read more… 

Manhattan D.A. Seizes 12 Deepfake Porn Websites in Largest Known Takedown of Its Kind 

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has seized 12 websites allegedly used to create, sell, and distribute AI-generated deepfake pornography targeting roughly 1,200 real people without their consent. Announced by D.A. Alvin L. Bragg Jr., it's described as the largest known seizure of AI-generated celebrity deepfake websites to date, and the investigation is ongoing. Read more… 

Rahul Singh Choudhary on AI's Growing Role in Cryptanalysis and Offensive Security 

In the latest episode of Security Pill Season 2.0, The Cyber Express interviewed cybersecurity analyst Rahul Singh Choudhary about how AI is reshaping cryptanalysis, vulnerability research, and penetration testing. The conversation opens with a key question: has AI moved from merely assisting security research to actively participating in it — particularly around the cryptographic assumptions underpinning wallets, exchanges, and smart contracts? Read more… 

US House Passes GUARD Act to Boost Law Enforcement Fight Against Elder Fraud, Crypto Scams 

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the bipartisan GUARD Act (H.R. 2978) on September 15, 2026, aimed at strengthening law enforcement's ability to combat elder financial fraud and cryptocurrency scams. Co-led by Representatives Josh Gottheimer, Zachary Nunn, and Scott Fitzgerald, the bill now heads to the Senate. Read more… 

Weekly Cybersecurity Takeaway 

This week's developments span the full spectrum of cyber risk — from small UK businesses absorbing a disproportionate share of attacks, to a hardware-level flaw putting console owners at physical-proximity risk, to AI tools being weaponized for non-consensual imagery at unprecedented scale.   Meanwhile, policy responses are accelerating on multiple fronts: US lawmakers are moving to arm local investigators against crypto-enabled elder fraud, and the UAE is deepening its national threat-intelligence posture through public-private partnership.  Taken together, the stories point to a widening gap between the speed of exploitation — whether by scammers, deepfake operators, or nearby attackers exploiting hardware — and the pace of institutional response, even as that response visibly picks up. 

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Cyble, a global AI-native cybersecurity company, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Cyber Security Council of the United Arab Emirates to strengthen national threat intelligence capabilities. The agreement was announced in Abu Dhabi in September 2026 and formalizes a strategic collaboration between Cyble and the federal entity responsible for strengthening the UAE's cybersecurity posture.

The MOU marks a significant milestone in Cyble's engagement with the UAE's national cybersecurity ecosystem, bringing together a global cybersecurity provider and a national authority tasked with protecting the country's digital environment.

Focus on National Threat Intelligence

The MOU establishes a framework for Cyble to support the Council's mission of protecting the UAE's digital infrastructure. The collaboration centers on delivering advanced threat intelligence, early warning capabilities, and actionable insights into emerging cyber risks facing government and critical infrastructure entities across the country. These focus areas are intended to help the Council anticipate and respond to threats before they escalate into significant incidents.

The partnership reflects the UAE's continued commitment to building a resilient, forward-looking cybersecurity posture at the national level. It also positions Cyble as a trusted technology partner in that effort.

By working closely with the Council, Cyble aims to strengthen visibility into threat actors, malicious campaigns, and vulnerabilities that could affect the UAE's most critical systems and services. This visibility is expected to support the Council's broader objective of maintaining a secure and stable digital environment for government and critical infrastructure operators.

Leadership Statements on the MOU

Beenu Arora, CEO and Co-Founder of Cyble, described the agreement as more than a routine partnership announcement. He called it a strategic validation of Cyble's capabilities at the national cybersecurity level and a potential gateway to the UAE government and critical infrastructure ecosystem. This is not just a partnership announcement. It is a strategic validation of Cyble's capabilities at the national cybersecurity level and potentially a gateway to the UAE government and critical-infrastructure ecosystem," said Arora.

Arora added that working alongside the Cyber Security Council underscores the trust placed in Cyble's threat intelligence platform and reflects the growing importance of proactive, intelligence led defense in protecting nations against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.

Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Chairman of the Cyber Security Council of the United Arab Emirates, said the Council is committed to building strategic partnerships with world class technology providers that strengthen the UAE's cyber resilience at every level. He noted that the MOU with Cyble reflects a shared commitment to safeguarding the nation's digital infrastructure through advanced threat intelligence and proactive, intelligence led defense, ensuring the UAE remains at the forefront of global cybersecurity readiness.

"This MOU with Cyble reflects our shared commitment to safeguarding the nation's digital infrastructure through advanced threat intelligence and proactive, intelligence-led defense — ensuring the UAE remains at the forefront of global cybersecurity readiness," said Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti.

The agreement builds on Cyble's broader strategy of deepening engagement with government and regulatory bodies across the Middle East. It reinforces the company's position as a trusted partner to national cybersecurity authorities navigating an increasingly complex threat landscape, and it adds to a growing list of engagements between Cyble and public sector organizations in the region.

Role of Cyble Vision and Blaze AI

Cyble Vision, the company's threat intelligence platform powered by Blaze AI, will play a central role in the collaboration. The platform is designed to deliver rapid detection, automated analysis, and contextual insights into ransomware, phishing, fraud, and other evolving threats relevant to national security priorities. Through this platform, Cyble intends to provide the Council with tools that support faster identification and analysis of threats targeting the UAE's digital infrastructure.

Cyble is a global, AI-native cybersecurity company specializing in threat intelligence, digital risk protection, and dark web monitoring. Its flagship platform, Cyble Vision, powered by Blaze AI, delivers rapid threat detection, automated analysis, and contextual insights into ransomware, phishing, and fraud.

Media Contacts: enquiries@cyble.com | +1 678 379 3241 | www.cyble.com

AHMEDABAD (INDIA) — Cyble, the global AI-native cybersecurity company, and DRONA Cyber Solutions, the Ahmedabad-headquartered security operations firm, have launched an AI-powered cyber defense initiative in Ahmedabad, combining threat intelligence, investigation and endpoint enforcement through a joint managed security model.

The AI-Powered Intelligence for Cyber Defense initiative was formally launched Tuesday at DRONA Cyber Solutions' Command and Control Centre, where the companies presented a live technical demonstration showing how an intrusion attempt can be detected, investigated and contained.

The launch comes as India faces a growing cybercrime burden. India recorded 28.15 lakh cybercrime cases in 2025, a 24 percent increase over the previous year, with reported losses reaching ₹22,495 crore. The government's 1930 cybercrime helpline received 32.4 million calls during the year. Of the complaints filed, 55,484 were converted into FIRs. While large enterprises and banks increasingly have dedicated security teams, budgets and incident response capabilities, many manufacturers, hospital chains, schools and mid-sized businesses, particularly across Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, continue to operate without comparable security resources.

AI-Powered Cyber Defense Takes Center Stage in Ahmedabad

Rather than focusing solely on formal remarks, Cyble and DRONA used the launch to demonstrate the initiative through a live technical exercise for the media. The demonstration began with material recovered from infostealer logs circulating on a criminal forum, alongside a lookalike domain registered to impersonate a target organisation. Analysts traced the infrastructure, established a pattern of previous activity associated with the same actor and demonstrated the detection and containment of an intrusion attempt on an endpoint.

The final containment action was authorised by a human analyst rather than executed automatically. The demonstration brought together multiple capabilities. Cyble Vision provided the initial detection through continuous monitoring of criminal marketplaces and leak sites.

Cyble Hawk supported the investigative process and attribution, while Cyble Titan handled endpoint enforcement, using hardware-level integrity checks to support its assessment. DRONA analysts remained at the centre of the process, making decisions that the system was deliberately not permitted to make independently. Mandar Patil, Executive Vice President at Cyble, said the initiative was designed to address a longstanding gap between threat detection and action for mid-sized businesses.

"India is not short of alerts. It is short of what happens next," Patil said. "We have spent a long time in this industry watching mid-sized businesses get told about a threat and then having nowhere to take that information. What we are launching today is not another alert. It is a complete chain — intelligence before the attack, investigation that would stand up to scrutiny, enforcement on the device, and a person accountable for the decision at the end of it."

Dhruv Pandit, Co-Founder and CEO of DRONA Cyber Solutions, said the initiative reflects the operational needs of organisations that require immediate action rather than another security dashboard.

"A factory owner calling us at two in the morning does not want to be shown a dashboard," Pandit said. "He wants to know what happened, he wants it contained, and he wants someone to take responsibility for what happens next."

From the Command Centre to Gujarat University, India

The Gujarat University engagement was not simply a conventional cybersecurity student session. It was a technical session titled “Kavach: Beyond the Surface — Threat Intelligence from the Dark Web Depths,” hosted by the Department of Biochemistry and Forensic Science, Gujarat University, in collaboration with Cyble.

The session brought together speakers from Cyble and DRONA Cyber Solutions to examine areas including dark web threat intelligence, government and PSU cybersecurity projects, digital forensics and incident response (DFIR), and the transition of threat intelligence from information to action.

Mandar Patil and Augustin Kurian of Cyble discussed the dark web threat intelligence landscape. Prathmesh Pawar spoke about government and PSU cybersecurity projects, while Brijesh Kapadiya addressed DFIR and Vijay Mali discussed moving threat intelligence from information to action. The keynote was delivered by Prof. Dr. Kapil Kumar, Coordinator, Department of Biochemistry and Forensic Science.

The session highlighted several practical aspects of cybersecurity work. The dark web was discussed not simply as a hidden part of the internet, but as a structured ecosystem requiring dedicated intelligence-gathering and threat-discovery methods. DFIR was presented as an area where speed and process are as important as technical expertise.

Another key takeaway was the importance of turning threat intelligence into action. Rather than treating intelligence as information alone, the session focused on how it can inform practical security decisions.

Patil told students that the cybersecurity industry faces a shortage of professionals with practical skills in analysing and validating threat intelligence.

"The gap this industry has is not a gap of ideas. It is a gap of people who know how to do the work," Patil said. "What separates a useful analyst from an alert-reader is the ability to ask whether a piece of intelligence is actually true before you act on it."

Augustin Kurian, Editor-in-Chief of The Cyber Express, told students that threat intelligence and journalism share an emphasis on verification.

Every story we publish about a breach, a ransomware group or a leaked database starts exactly where today's demonstration started — with intelligence somebody had to go and find, verify, and decide was worth acting on," Kurian said. The instinct we have tried to build at The Cyber Express is the same instinct a good analyst needs: do not report, and do not act on, what you have not verified.

The programme also involved technical and production teams supporting the session. Screen, sound and lighting were handled by the technical team under the guidance and supervision of Aditya More, while Misha Alagiya, Kavya Maharaja, Pathak Ami, Omi and Nandini supported stage management and photography.

A Broader Cybersecurity Collaboration

Both companies emphasised that the partnership is not intended to represent a single solution to India's cybersecurity deficit. Cyble and DRONA maintain relationships with other partners, service providers and government bodies.

"India's exposure is too large for any single partnership to take credit for solving," Patil said. "What matters is whether more of these collaborations exist a year from now, and whether the businesses we are talking about today — the ones without a security team — actually have somewhere to turn."

The AI-Powered Intelligence for Cyber Defense initiative will be delivered through DRONA's Ahmedabad command centre, with the companies indicating an intent to extend the service model to customers elsewhere in India over time.

The initiative also folds into DRONA's existing Cyber Yodha Campaign, a national programme aimed at building 50 integrated cybersecurity command centre labs and training more than 100,000 defenders.

The UK Ukraine AI partnership will give Britain access to Ukraine’s Avengers AI Labs, bringing together Ukrainian battlefield experience, operational data and engineering expertise with the UK’s AI ecosystem. The agreement, signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Andy Burnham in Ukraine, will focus initially on defence and national security. Under the partnership, British innovators and researchers will gain access to data and insights collected across the battlefield. The UK government described Avengers AI Labs as a “goldmine of battlefield data,” offering researchers access to real-world operational information used to train AI models.

How Avengers AI Labs Uses Battlefield Data

The data is collected through thousands of daylight cameras and infrared sensors deployed across the battlefield. The systems capture images and information involving tanks, artillery, air defence systems, infantry and aerial targets, including Shahed drones and reconnaissance UAVs. The data is used to train AI models to recognize and classify battlefield objects. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has previously said that systems trained using the Avengers Labs platform analyze more than 100,000 drone video feeds each month and help identify about 70% of enemy targets in real time. The UK’s access to the platform is intended to allow British startups, researchers and engineers to work with operational insights and develop technologies based on real-world datasets. The partnership will initially bring together engineers, academics, businesses and military operational expertise from both countries to address national security challenges. The two countries will also explore additional platforms for future collaboration.

UK Ukraine AI Partnership Test New Defence Technology

Several pilot projects involving British startups have already been rolled out as part of the agreement. The companies named are Bristol-based Sintela, Oxford’s Mind Foundry and London’s Skyral. The first technology is due to be deployed at a UK defence site to help protect bases from protestors and hostile actors seeking intelligence. The project combines Ukrainian data with UK technology and turns buried fibre-optic cables into an AI-enabled sensor. The technology could also be used in other critical locations, including airports, prisons, railways and energy plants, according to the information released about the partnership. A second project will examine the development of next-generation low-power AI chips designed for future drones, robotics and autonomous systems. If successful, the technology could support machines designed to operate for longer, respond faster and function in environments where conventional systems face limitations.

AI Sovereignty and Defence Innovation

The agreement forms part of the UK and Ukraine’s 100 Year Partnership and expands cooperation between the two countries in AI and defence technology. The UK will provide access to its universities, researchers, technology companies and AI ecosystem, while Ukraine will provide access to operational experience and datasets generated during the war. Minister for AI Kanishka Narayan described the arrangement as AI sovereignty in practice, focused on developing national capabilities and turning frontline experience into technologies for military and critical infrastructure protection. The partnership also follows the UK government’s announcement that defence firm MBDA can release classified information on UK components for the long-range SCALP missile to establish local assembly lines in Ukraine. The broader agreement is intended to combine Ukrainian battlefield data with British scientific, engineering and technology expertise, with the initial focus remaining on defence, national security and the development of future defence technology.