AI Hacking Gets Cheap, Data Centre Rules Tighten: Malaysia's Week in AI

Our Saturday week in review of AI news for Malaysia opens with the story we hadn’t covered yet: a hacker whose AI agents broke into more than 100 company websites at about RM204 each, followed by emergency fixes to PHP, the code behind most websites. Aiman, Mei Ling and Raj then follow up two stories from this week and look honestly at every call we made.

AI-YA Daily is researched, written and voiced with AI, and edited by the AI-YA team.

Also in this episode: what moved on data centres, with 12.3 gigawatts approved against 8.39 gigawatts of projected 2030 demand, and a data centre bill due at Cabinet next year. September exports rose 54.5% to RM215.1 billion on electronics, and we explain why the AI link is our reading rather than the official one. In the week revisited, we check our calls on Copilot Business, Google AI Plus, Google AI Essentials and ILMU GLM 5.3 Flash against this week’s news, including the US order to remove DeepSeek and the Waze circular for civil servants. We admit one gap we still need to close. The Big Question asks whether graduates should supervise AI testing tools from day one or learn on manual checks first.

Timestamps 0:04 RM204 per break-in 0:30 Meet the team 1:21 AI agents make hacking cheap, and PHP’s emergency fix 3:32 Update: 12.3GW approved and a data centre bill 5:27 Update: September exports jump 54.5% 7:08 A word from AI-YA 7:48 The week revisited: our calls, marked 11:44 Big Question: fresh grads and AI testing 12:34 One thing to do this weekend 13:17 See you tomorrow

Stories and sources

• Reuters exclusive on the AI-agent hacking campaign, via iTnews
• PHP security advisory and fixed versions
• oss-security notice for CVE-2026-109618
• W3Techs: PHP usage statistics
• The Neuron: AI’s reported role in finding the PHP flaws
• The Star: AI agents on Tencent Cloud and Alibaba’s Amap
• Bernama: NACSA on AI-related cyber threats
• The Star: 12.3GW approved for data centres
• The Edge: Data Centre Bill to go to Cabinet in 2027
• DOSM: September 2026 external trade statistics
• Bernama: E&E drives September exports
• The Star: exports jump 54.5% in September
• Microsoft Partner Center: October 2026 announcements
• TechCrunch: US orders agencies to remove DeepSeek
• The Star: Waze circular applies on official duties
• Bernama: MKN on the Waze decision
• FMT: MPs ask for an explanation of the Waze ban
• Anthropic: How employment is changing at Anthropic
• Bank Negara Malaysia exchange rates

Standing thread: The fresh grad question.

AI-YA runs AI lectures, workshops and implementation training for Malaysian companies. Details at ai-ya.my/podcast.