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Technology stories from international sources, with a short English summary and a link to the original article. Items without an English text are not listed here. RSS
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Tech
YouTube Music starts labelling AI-generated songs
YouTube Music has begun showing a label on the player page for tracks made with generative AI. Tapping it explains the role AI played, for example in composition or vocals, and the labels also appear in the main YouTube app. Partners declare whether a work is fully, partly or not at all AI-generated, and the platform also runs its own detection tools. Spotify, Deezer and TIDAL have taken similar steps.
What it means: Labelling AI-generated content is moving from an experiment to a baseline expectation on large platforms, and that matters well beyond music. Since August 2026 the transparency duties in Article 50 of the EU AI Act apply to synthetic audio, images and text. Greek firms producing advertising jingles, call-centre voices or podcasts with synthetic narrators should know exactly what they declare to distribution platforms and be able to back it up. YouTube's three-tier scheme of fully, partly or no AI is a handy template for internal policies: simple for creators and easy for audiences to grasp. There is a commercial side too, because services such as Deezer keep such tracks out of recommendations and withhold payouts for suspicious streams, so a wrong declaration can cost revenue. For teams building content-creation tools, adding provenance metadata from day one is far cheaper than retrofitting it later when a platform or regulator starts asking questions. Open standards such as C2PA are a sensible starting point.
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Tech
XBOW used AI to build a full Chrome exploit chain in six days
Security company XBOW published details of a full Chrome exploit chain on Windows that let an attacker take over a computer when the user simply visited a malicious page. Its team, using a publicly available AI model, linked three unknown bugs together in six days. Google confirmed and fixed the bugs and paid a $250,000 bounty, the first under its new 2026 rules. Reports put the compute cost at about $40,000.
What it means: The story shows how quickly the time and cost of finding serious vulnerabilities are falling. Work that once took specialist teams months can now be done in days with tools anyone can access. For Greek businesses the practical takeaway is simple: automatic browser and operating system updates are not optional, and the gap between a fix and its installation should be measured in hours, not weeks. Anyone managing a fleet of computers in offices or shops needs a central update policy and reporting on devices that fall behind. For software companies the same trend works in reverse: if AI can find holes in Chrome, it will find them in their own code too. They should add automated AI-assisted security testing to their development pipeline before an attacker runs the same tools against them. Security budgets also need to plan for faster patch cycles, because the volume of findings is set to grow sharply. Browser extensions deserve the same attention, since they are often missed during audits.
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Fintech
Visa: e-commerce security tools can also protect AI agent purchases
James Mirfin, Visa's global head of risk and security intelligence solutions, told American Banker that the technologies protecting online shopping can also be applied to payments made by AI agents. He pointed to strong authentication and tokenisation, where a digital token replaces the card number and is limited to a specific use. He stressed that agentic commerce standards should be open and should not compete with one another. Industry advisers note that rules for disputed transactions do not yet clearly cover purchases made by agents.
What it means: The discussion comes in a week when banks are showing strong caution towards outside agents seeking account access. Visa's position is that not everything has to be invented from scratch: a token that only allows a specific merchant, amount or time window already works as a fence around an agent. For Greek merchants and payment providers this is good news, because the infrastructure built for PSD2 and strong customer authentication can be extended rather than replaced. The big open question is liability. If an agent buys five tickets instead of one, who pays: the user, the agent provider or the merchant? The EU Payment Services Regulation, now heading for a vote, is the right moment to settle this. Until then, Greek businesses accepting orders from agents should set a clear refund and dispute policy and log which tool started each order. Software vendors can already offer per-agent spending limits as a feature.
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Fintech
Visa wins approval to prepare a domestic card clearing business in China
The People's Bank of China has approved Visa's application to prepare a domestic bankcard clearing institution. The approval lets the company start formal preparations but not yet process domestic yuan transactions. According to Chinese media, Visa has a year to complete preparations and must then apply for permission to operate. CEO Ryan McInerney linked the step to steadier relations between the US and China.
What it means: China's payment market is dominated by UnionPay and by digital wallets such as Alipay and WeChat Pay, so a possible Visa entry will not shift the balance quickly. The significance of the news is more geopolitical and long term. It shows that payments remain an area where states control access, and that licences come step by step, often alongside diplomatic developments. For Europe the case is a reminder of why the EU is investing in its own rails such as Wero and the digital euro: reliance on a few international networks is a strategic risk. For Greek tourism and retail businesses the practical issue is different. Chinese visitors mostly pay with UnionPay and QR wallets, and anyone wanting to serve them should check whether their POS provider already supports those methods. Visa's approval does not change that soon. For exporters to China, a gradually opening market could eventually make collecting payments from Chinese buyers simpler.
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Crypto & Digital Euro
Deel hides contractor balances and payouts with Tempo's privacy Zones
Payroll platform Deel is now using Zones on the Tempo blockchain in production, so its contractors' balances and payout history are not publicly visible. Deel's stablecoin wallet launched in June 2026 in Argentina and by August had expanded to more than 80 countries. Deel's deposit into its Zone is visible on the public network, but who is paid and how much is not. The setup was built together with Stripe's Privy.
What it means: One of the biggest barriers to using blockchains for business payments is that most networks show everyone who paid whom and how much. No company wants rivals to see its payroll, and no worker wants their balance to be public. Tempo's approach, with private spaces where the operator still sees what it needs for audit and reconciliation, comes closer to how a bank account works. For Greek businesses employing freelancers abroad, which is very common in software, stablecoin payouts become more attractive once privacy is addressed. From a GDPR point of view, keeping payment details off a public ledger is close to a precondition. There is another side, though: anti-money laundering authorities will want access, and the EU transfer of funds regulation requires sender and recipient data. The model in which the Zone operator carries bank-like compliance duties shows how a balance between confidentiality and oversight might be struck in practice.
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Crypto & Digital Euro
StraitsX expands stablecoin cards with Visa to over 100 markets
Singapore's StraitsX, which provides stablecoin settlement infrastructure, has announced a partnership with Visa to issue cards linked to stablecoin balances in more than 100 markets. Its activity had been focused on Asia, where its card programmes passed an annualised transaction volume of $6 billion. The service targets fintechs, wallets and digital payment token providers. Rollout in each market depends on local regulatory requirements and Visa's rules.
What it means: Cards that draw on stablecoin balances are currently the most practical way to spend digital dollars in the real world. The merchant usually sees no difference, because it is paid in local currency through the card network. That means consumer use of stablecoins can grow without any change at shop tills. For the Greek market this matters in two ways. Tourists from countries where such cards are popular will pay smoothly at Greek POS terminals. And Greek users may soon get access to similar cards from European providers. MiCA plays a role here: in the EU, providers must use stablecoins authorised under the regulation and hold the right licences, and in many cases each purchase may be treated for tax purposes as a disposal of a crypto asset. For banks the trend is a challenge, as part of everyday spending moves outside traditional accounts. Greek fintechs considering a similar product should study the tax treatment for users carefully.
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Crypto & Digital Euro
Starknet launches Shadow Accounts for private DeFi activity
Layer-2 network Starknet has introduced Shadow Accounts, which let users interact with decentralised finance apps without publicly linking that activity to their main wallet. The feature creates separate persistent addresses for each app, funded from shielded balances in the STRK20 privacy pool. Balances and transactions of shadow accounts stay visible on-chain, but the link to the funding wallet is hidden. The first integration is on the decentralised exchange Ekubo.
What it means: Privacy on blockchains is shifting from controversial mixing tools towards designs that try to combine confidentiality with some transparency. Shadow Accounts do not hide transactions themselves but who stands behind them, which resembles holding several bank accounts for different purposes. For professionals and businesses using DeFi, publicly linking every move to one wallet is a real problem because it reveals strategy, holdings and counterparties. In the EU, however, every privacy tool is treated with suspicion. The new anti-money laundering regulation will bar crypto-asset service providers from 2027 from keeping anonymous accounts or handling privacy-enhancing coins. A Greek exchange would need to consider whether funds coming from such pools call for enhanced due diligence. StarkWare's earlier private KYC demo shows the technology can prove identity without exposing documents, and that direction may prove the most useful for regulators trying to balance privacy with oversight. Greek developers working on wallets should follow this design space closely.
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Tech
Square's new kiosk takes orders by voice using AI
Square has unveiled Square Kiosk, a new self-service terminal for quick-service restaurants. It has an AI voice assistant that knows the menu, answers questions, suggests dishes and handles changes and substitutions, with the option to switch to a 21.5-inch touchscreen. It includes card payments, a barcode scanner, presence detection and loyalty sign-in. It costs $1,999 plus $99 a month per device in the US.
What it means: Square's move shows that the next generation of ordering kiosks will not just be screens with menus but conversational systems that understand natural speech. For Greek hospitality, where staff shortages are a constant headache, the idea of a kiosk that clears a peak-hour queue is appealing. The transfer is not automatic, though. Greek speech recognition, with regional accents, shop noise and tourists speaking many languages, is harder than English. There is also tax compliance: every order must end in a valid receipt and a myDATA submission, which American products do not cover. For Greek ordering software vendors that is an opening, since they can add voice ordering on top of systems already linked to cash registers and e-invoicing. Square's price also offers a benchmark for what chains will pay for such a feature, and a sign that per-device subscription pricing is becoming the norm in restaurant technology.
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Fintech
Splitit launches a World Mastercard with automatic instalments for mid-sized banks
Instalment payments platform Splitit has announced the Splitit World Mastercard, a white-label credit card for mid-sized banks and credit unions. Everyday purchases are paid in full within 30 days, while purchases above a threshold chosen by the cardholder are automatically split into predictable monthly payments. Users can change the plan in the app before the statement is issued. Splitit supplies the instalment technology and app, while the bank keeps the customer relationship and its brand.
What it means: The product shows how buy-now-pay-later providers are trying to work inside banks instead of competing with them at the merchant checkout. For mid-sized banks, a white-label solution lets them offer something comparable to Klarna without building it from scratch. In Greece, interest-free card instalments are already common but are usually set by the merchant at the point of sale. A model where the cardholder decides in advance above which amount they want instalments changes that relationship and could appeal to cooperative and smaller banks trying to retain customers. There is a regulatory side too. The EU's revised Consumer Credit Directive, which member states must apply over the next few years, brings BNPL products under stricter disclosure and creditworthiness rules. Anyone designing similar products in Greece should build those requirements in from day one. For merchants, wider use of such cards means instalments may no longer need a special acquirer agreement.
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Crypto & Digital Euro
Sberbank wins Bank of Russia approval to trade crypto
The Bank of Russia has added Sberbank, the country's largest bank, to its register of cryptocurrency exchange providers. Sberbank had already joined the digital depository register, so it can offer both trading and custody-related services. The step follows a law that took effect on 1 September and creates a regulated market involving banks, brokers and exchanges. Domestic crypto payments remain banned, and from July 2027 transactions will have to go through registered intermediaries.
What it means: Russia is pursuing a controlled opening: it allows investment in crypto through large state-linked institutions but bans its use as a means of payment at home. The aim is to bring an informal market into the open and under central bank supervision. For Europe, the development matters mainly for compliance. EU sanctions against Russian banks remain in force, and any transaction that ends up on infrastructure linked to a sanctioned entity is a serious risk. For Greek crypto-asset service providers and banks, blockchain analytics and counterparty checks need to flag flows to or from Russian regulated players. Greek businesses, especially in shipping and trade, that receive offers to settle in stablecoins from counterparties with Russian links should be particularly careful. A market becoming legal in Russia does not make it acceptable under the European framework. The right response is a clear payment acceptance policy and documented checks on every new partner.
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Fintech
Revolut launches a €14.99 mobile plan in Germany
Revolut has launched Revolut Mobile in Germany, a €14.99-a-month mobile plan that customers sign up for and manage inside its app. It runs on Telefónica Deutschland's network with 1GLOBAL as technical partner. It includes 120 GB of 5G data, unlimited calls within Germany, 40 GB of EU roaming and eSIM support, and the fee can be paid partly with RevPoints. Germany is the fourth market after the UK, Poland and the Netherlands.
What it means: Revolut does not want to be a telecoms operator for the plan revenue but to bring customers into its app more often and keep them longer. Every added service, from insurance to mobile, makes switching to another bank harder. That is the super-app logic already common in Asia and spreading in Europe mainly through neobanks. For Greek banks, the example shows that competition is no longer only about rates and fees but about how useful the app is in everyday life. For Greek telecoms operators, it suggests that wholesale network access can become a distribution channel through third parties with large customer bases. If Revolut brings the service to Greece, where it has a sizeable user base, it will need a local network partner and compliance with EETT rules. For smaller businesses, linking subscriptions to rewards is an idea that also works at a modest scale, for example in loyalty apps built for local chains.
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Crypto & Digital Euro
Bank-backed Qivalis wins licence to issue a euro stablecoin
Qivalis, an Amsterdam-based company backed by 37 European banks in 15 countries, has received an electronic money institution licence from the Dutch central bank. The licence allows it to issue euro e-money tokens under MiCA. Before issuance it must publish a white paper and meet the remaining requirements, with a launch targeted in the coming months. Members include BBVA, BNP Paribas, ING and DZ Bank, and distribution will run through banks, exchanges and payment providers.
What it means: The Qivalis licence may be the most serious European answer yet to the dominance of dollar stablecoins. When dozens of large banks put their name behind an on-chain euro, the debate is no longer only about crypto but about the core of payments. For Greek businesses the interest is practical: round-the-clock settlement in euros, programmable payments and possibly lower costs for cross-border transactions with EU partners. The open question is whether a Greek bank will join or whether Greek customers will only get access through foreign institutions. Because e-money tokens cannot pay interest, the product will compete mainly on speed and convenience rather than yield. There is also a link to the ECB's digital euro: the two can coexist, but the banks are clearly signalling that they want their own solution before public digital money arrives. Software firms building ERP or payment platforms should start studying how such payments will be booked and reconciled.
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Crypto & Digital Euro
Polygon completes Coinme deal, adding licensed US payments
Polygon Labs has completed its acquisition of Coinme, gaining regulated money transmission infrastructure in the US. The payments business now covers 48 states with 37 money transmitter licences and 11 exemptions, and is registered with FinCEN. It joins Polygon's Open Money Stack, which links bank deposits, cards and cash with blockchain wallets and payouts. First customers include Tazapay, Mesh, Toku and Kira, for cross-border payments, payroll and dollar access.
What it means: Polygon's move shows that large blockchain platforms understand technology alone is not enough. Without licences to receive and send real money, they cannot serve businesses that need complete payment flows. By buying a company licensed in almost every state, Polygon skips years of paperwork. In Europe the equivalent strategy runs through MiCA licences for crypto-asset service providers and payment institution licences, and similar acquisitions are likely. For Greek businesses paying partners or suppliers in the US or emerging markets, services that combine bank rails with stablecoins could cut both time and fees. Before using them, though, they should check which entity provides the service in Europe and under what licence, because US licensing does not cover EU customers. Greek developers building payroll or freelancer payout apps can see here how a full product is structured, from money coming in to the final payout, behind a single integration point. The same pattern will matter once euro stablecoins under MiCA become widely available to European payment firms.
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Fintech
Pliant wins FCA e-money licence for its UK business
Pliant, a Berlin company offering corporate cards and B2B payment technology, has secured an electronic money institution licence from the FCA for its British subsidiary. Pliant Payments Limited can now launch products and onboard UK customers directly rather than through a partner. The FCA review covered customer onboarding, risk management, safeguarding of funds and internal controls. The company aims to serve businesses, banks and public sector bodies.
What it means: Since Brexit, European fintechs cannot use the EU passport to operate in Britain, so a separate licence is practically required for a serious presence. Pliant's case shows what a regulator looks at before granting one: how customers are identified, how funds are protected and whether internal controls are real. Those are the same points the Bank of Greece checks for payment institutions, so any Greek company thinking about applying for a licence will find a useful preparation guide here. For Greek businesses with subsidiaries or customers in Britain, more corporate card providers mean more options for per-employee spending control and automatic reconciliation with accounting. Competition in corporate cards usually pushes down FX charges and monthly fees. The question for a finance director is whether the provider connects to the company's accounting system and whether transaction data can be exported easily for tax filings and audits. Firms should also check where card data is stored after Brexit, since UK and EU data protection regimes now differ in detail.
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Fintech
Kraken parent Payward to buy an EU-licensed bank
Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Finland's Saldo Finance Oy. Its subsidiary Saldo Bank UAB is a digital bank licensed in Lithuania, active in four markets with a passport into the Netherlands. After closing, expected in 2027 subject to regulatory approval, Payward plans to offer interest on deposits, loans, cards and SEPA payments. Financial terms were not disclosed.
What it means: The deal shows that large crypto firms are no longer satisfied with e-money or MiCA licences and want a full banking licence so they can hold deposits and lend. For European competition this means customers may soon see a euro account, crypto investments and loans backed by those assets inside one app, something traditional banks rarely offer. Through EU passporting, a bank licensed in Lithuania could in principle expand to other member states, Greece included, if it chooses to. For Greek banks and fintechs, the message is that competition for digital customers is also coming from companies with a different culture and pace. For supervisors, the case will test how prudential rules apply to a group with significant crypto exposure. Businesses already using crypto platforms to pay suppliers should watch which services become available and under what deposit guarantee, because that changes the risk profile of their cash holdings and how treasury policies should treat those balances.
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Tech
Eight US states sue OpenAI over ChatGPT safety for minors
Eight US states, including Iowa, Kansas, Arizona and Montana, have filed separate lawsuits against OpenAI. They argue the company marketed ChatGPT as a safe tool for young people while knowing about risks to vulnerable users. The complaints rely on local consumer protection laws and point to cases brought by families who link the chatbot to the deaths of relatives. The states also accuse OpenAI of collecting data from minors without adequate safeguards.
What it means: This case moves the AI safety debate away from voluntary corporate pledges and into courts and consumer protection law. For Greek companies embedding large language models into consumer apps, the lesson is that liability does not stay only with the model vendor. If an app targets pupils, parents or vulnerable groups, it will be judged on what its marketing promises and on how it behaves in practice. In the EU the same questions touch the AI Act, GDPR rules on children's data and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. In concrete terms, a product team needs age assurance where it makes sense, filters for mental health topics that hand users over to human help, incident logging and careful wording of any safety claims. The lawsuits also show that regulators will ask for evidence rather than general reassurance. Small software houses building customer service or education chatbots should keep records of their testing and design decisions, because that documentation is the first line of defence if something goes wrong.
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Tech
OpenAI in early talks to acquire Trail of Bits
OpenAI is in preliminary talks to buy Trail of Bits, a New York firm that specialises in security audits and in finding vulnerabilities in open-source software, according to The Information. The value of a possible deal has not been disclosed and the talks may not lead to an agreement. The two companies already work together on Patch the Planet, where AI models find bugs and experts confirm and fix them. Trail of Bits has audited projects including Uniswap, Aave and Worldcoin.
What it means: If the deal goes ahead, it will confirm that large model providers want to become cybersecurity service providers, not just tool vendors. For the European and Greek market this cuts both ways. Software companies could get cheaper and faster code review, especially for widely used open-source libraries. At the same time, even more expertise and access to sensitive code would concentrate in a handful of American groups. A fintech or e-invoicing provider that outsources security reviews to such a setup should check where its code is stored, who can access it and whether findings feed model training. Those questions tie directly to the third-party risk requirements in DORA. For Greek security auditors, the news is a warning that clients will expect a mix of AI and human judgement, so firms that do not adopt these tools will struggle to compete on price and speed in the next few years. Clients will still need named humans to sign off on findings and carry accountability for them.
Read the original on Crypto Briefing (citing The Information)
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Fintech
Juspay expands globally and invests in AI on $75M revenue
India's Juspay, a payments technology provider based in Bengaluru, reported revenue of $75 million for fiscal 2026, up 24%. The company processes about 400 million transactions a day for more than 500 enterprises and banks, with annualised volume above $1 trillion. It is investing in AI platforms, including the open-source enterprise tool Xyne, and in agentic commerce. Management says these investments weigh on near-term financials.
What it means: Juspay is little known in Europe, yet it sits behind the payment flows of large digital businesses such as airlines, travel platforms and e-commerce players. Its expansion shows that know-how built around India's UPI, one of the busiest instant payment systems in the world, is becoming an export product. For Europe, where instant payments are now mandatory for banks and Wero is spreading, experience in orchestrating many payment methods and routing transactions with high availability is valuable. For Greek businesses with heavy online sales, payment orchestration deserves attention: a layer that automatically picks the best acquirer or method can cut failures and fees. The bet on open-source AI tools also points to a strategy smaller Greek providers could follow, releasing tools openly to win trust and a community while earning from support and services. The admission of margin pressure is a reminder that AI demands patience and capital before it pays off.
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Tech
Ivanti Connect Secure VPN zero-day under active exploitation
The US cybersecurity agency CISA is warning about CVE-2026-104935 in Ivanti Connect Secure, a flaw that attackers are already exploiting. The bug bypasses authentication and allows remote command execution without credentials, which attackers use to steal credentials and data. Versions 25.1.1.1, 25.1.2.2 and 22.8R2.4 and earlier are affected, and the flaw was added to the KEV catalogue on 13 October. Because commands run in memory, Ivanti's integrity checker may not reveal a compromise.
What it means: Remote access appliances are the front door for many Greek businesses, from accounting offices to retail chains running a central ERP. When such a gateway allows command execution without login, an attacker is inside the network before anyone sees an alert. The most worrying detail is that activity lives in memory, so a quick check can create a false sense of safety. Anyone running Ivanti Connect Secure should upgrade at once, rotate passwords and certificates that pass through the appliance, and review logs for unusual sessions since early October. For organisations covered by the Greek NIS2 law, an incident like this may trigger an early reporting duty, so the call on whether a breach happened should not drag on. Strategically, version 22.8 reaches end of life in January 2027, which makes this a good moment to ask whether the company still needs a classic VPN or could move to per-application access with stronger identity checks.
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Regulation
IMF and World Bank launch the Bangkok Blueprint against digital fraud
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, together with the Bank of Thailand, presented a framework for tackling fraud in digital financial services at their 2026 annual meetings in Bangkok. The Bangkok Blueprint sets out 12 considerations across five pillars. These are legal foundations, prevention and detection, supervisory and enforcement tools, domestic and cross-border cooperation, and consumer protection. It is a non-binding guide that each country can adapt.
What it means: Fraud through calls, messages and fake websites has become the biggest problem in digital payments, and the fact that the IMF and World Bank treat it as a financial stability issue says a lot. The guide is not law, but texts like this often shape what national regulators ask for later. In Europe many of its elements are already under discussion: the Payment Services Regulation foresees name and IBAN matching checks, fraud data sharing between providers and, in some cases, liability to refund victims of impersonation scams. For Greek banks and payment providers, the message is that fraud protection will increasingly be judged as an obligation rather than an option. AI transaction monitoring, quick freezing of suspicious funds and cooperation with telecoms operators and platforms are the core tools. For SMEs, fake invoices and supplier IBAN change scams remain the biggest risk, and confirming every change of bank details through a second channel is a simple but effective defence.
Summaries are ours. Copyright in the original articles remains with their publishers.
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