AI Articles

Hammer Weekly Update, week ending 15 February 2026

Written by Hammer Enterprise | Feb 16, 2026 9:39:28 AM

Week ending 15 February 2026 put attention on security, servers, cloud, storage and networking in UK and EMEA. We’ve boiled it down to the few stories with practical impact - and concrete steps partners can take this week.

Infosec exec sold eight zero-day exploit kits to Russia, says DoJ

The Register (Security) reports: Infosec exec sold eight zero-day exploit kits to Russia, says DoJ. PLUS: Fake ransomware group exposed; EC blesses Google's big Wiz deal; Alleged sewage hacker cuffed; And more Infosec in Brief The former General Manager of def… [1]

Controls must stand up to real phishing and ransomware drills, not just policy-recovery points and identity boundaries are the failure points. Hammer can bundle Microsoft 365 backup and a managed SOC handover into a repeatable rollout plan with timelines.

  • Run a restore test from an immutable backup set and record RTO.
  • Map MFA and conditional access coverage for high-risk apps.
  • Stage a 30-minute phishing drill and time the run-book.

AWS Batch now provides Job Queue and Share Utilization Visibility

AWS What’s New reports: AWS Batch now provides Job Queue and Share Utilization Visibility. AWS Batch now provides Queue and Share Utilization Visibility, giving you insights into how your workloads are distributed across compute resources. [2]

Refresh by workload profile and power caps-not by age-so utilisation, firmware cadence and rack limits stay in bounds. Hammer can match CPU/GPU platforms to utilisation targets and confirm rack weight/airflow before orders lock.

  • Map utilisation for a peak week; set refresh by workload, not age.
  • Check rack weight and airflow limits before adding high-TDP nodes.
  • Align maintenance windows with firmware cadence.

Amazon Connect launches in-app notifications to surface critical operational alerts to business users

AWS What’s New reports: Amazon Connect launches in-app notifications to surface critical operational alerts to business users. Amazon Connect now supports in-app notifications in the workspace header, visible from any page… [3]

Guardrails around identity, network and spend need to ship with the platform-landing zones and budgets should be codified, not manual. Hammer can package a baseline landing zone with budget alerts and ownership mapping so teams can deploy it the same way every time.

  • Codify a landing zone (identity, network, logging) and deploy to all accounts.
  • Enable budget alerts/anomaly detection and assign owners.
  • Right-size or schedule off non-prod instances before month-end.

Amazon RDS now supports backup configuration when restoring snapshots

AWS What’s New reports: Amazon RDS now supports backup configuration when restoring snapshots. Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) and Amazon Aurora now offer greater flexibility for restore operations to view and modify backup retention period and p… [4]

Backup windows, tiering and restore time should match data growth and AI spillover; test restores before you need them.

  • Tag datasets by recovery priority and move cold tiers appropriately.
  • Verify backup retention vs. audit requirements (no duplicates).
  • Time a 1 TB restore and document each step.

Top Dutch telco Odido admits 6.2M customers caught in contact system caper

The Register (Security) reports: Top Dutch telco Odido admits 6.2M customers caught in contact system caper. Names, addresses, bank account numbers accessed - but biz insists passwords and call data untouched The Netherlands' largest mobile network operator (MNO) has a… [5]

Latency to inspection points and PoP reach now shape experience as much as raw bandwidth; failover timing needs timing, not theory.

  • Measure user latency to the nearest SASE PoP and capture variance.
  • Pilot split-tunnel policies for collaboration apps; record packet loss.
  • Time branch failover under controlled link flap.

How we picked these stories: we scanned UK/EMEA enterprise feeds and vendor advisories, filtered for architecture/procurement significance, and kept only items with clear next steps.

References

  1. The Register (Security) - Infosec exec sold eight zero-day exploit kits to Russia, says DoJ
  2. AWS What’s New - AWS Batch now provides Job Queue and Share Utilization Visibility
  3. AWS What’s New - Amazon Connect launches in-app notifications to surface critical operational alerts to business users
  4. AWS What’s New - Amazon RDS now supports backup configuration when restoring snapshots
  5. The Register (Security) - Top Dutch telco Odido admits 6.2M customers caught in contact system caper