Government seeks public feedback on expansion of eSafety powers | US wants allies to cut chip-related China exports amid Huawei alarm | China spy suspects in U.K. and Germany seen as 'tip of iceberg'
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The federal government is seeking public feedback on whether the eSafety commissioner's online enforcement powers should extend to cover hate speech, 'pile-ons' and deepfakes. ABC News
The US is pushing allies in Europe and Asia to tighten restrictions on exports of chip-related technology and tools to China amid rising concerns about Huawei’s development of advanced semiconductors. Financial Times
In a week when four alleged spies for China were arrested in Germany and another two suspects were charged in the U.K., intelligence experts said Europe had only scratched the surface of the problem. Nikkei Asia
ASPI
Recent stabbings highlight danger of online misinformation
The Strategist
Afeeya Akhand
Early misinformation identified a mentally ill man who stabbed 14 people in Sydney on March 13, killing six, as a Muslim or Jewish extremist. These falsehoods highlight the commonplace way in which Muslim and Jewish communities are scapegoated in times of crisis. To improve social cohesion in Australia, we must do more to prevent such instances of xenophobic and religious stereotyping.
On World IP Day, let’s remember all the stolen innovation
The Strategist
Urmika Deb, Gatra Priyandita and Bart Hogeveen
As we celebrate World Intellectual Property Day on 26 April, let’s remember all the innovation that has been stolen. While innovators have had their intellectual property stolen for centuries, in modern times they face an avalanche of cyber-enabled attempts at theft of their knowhow. Hacking groups, typically operating with consent from state authorities, exploit vulnerabilities in information and communication technology to grab copious amounts of trade secrets and other business information for commercial gain. But, if international law applies to state conduct in cyberspace, as the UN member states continue to affirm, then international trade law also should apply to state conduct in cyberspace.
Social media and public trust decline leading to teen radicalisation
The Australian
Noah Yim
Mobile phones and social media are key drivers of increasing extremism among minors, experts say. It comes as police arrested seven Sydney teenagers on Wednesday in relation to the Wakeley church stabbing the week prior, which has been declared a terrorist incident. Australian Strategic Policy Institute expert John Coyne attributed this rise in part to a decline in public trust. “There’s most definitely been a decline in public trust … in democracies in Western countries,” he said. Dr Coyne also attributed increasing radicalisation to a feeling of anonymity online.
Australia’s critical minerals strategy needs more economic reality and less geopolitical wishful thinking
The Australian
James Laurenceson
Canberra is copping heat over its critical minerals strategy. But a new report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute says that the Albanese government’s critical minerals strategy sells “Australia and its allies short”. This is because it puts too much emphasis on “domestic production” and “outbound supply chains”, and not enough on “how it contributes to building supply chains from other nations”. The ASPI report exhorts the government to work more closely with its seven “strategic supply chain partners”: the US, the EU, Britain, Japan, South Korea, Canada and India.
Australia
Government seeks public feedback on major expansion of eSafety powers
ABC News
Tom Crowley
The federal government is seeking public feedback on whether the eSafety commissioner's online enforcement powers should extend to cover hate speech, 'pile-ons' and deepfakes. It comes amid a legal feud between eSafety and social media platform X, formerly known as twitter, over the exercise of eSafety's existing power to order the take-down of footage of violent crime.
Uncertified: The implications of the US department of State's decision on Australia's ITAR exemption
Export Controls Australia Group
Jessica Rankin
In the realm of international defense cooperation, recent developments have spotlighted the intricacies and challenges inherent in navigating agreements such as the AUKUS alliance. At the center of current discussions lies the International Traffic in Arms Regulations exemption, a crucial mechanism designed to facilitate the transfer of sensitive defense technologies and equipment between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. However, despite the importance of this exemption, the US Department of State's failure over the weekend to certify Australia for its inclusion under the ITAR exemption has stalled progress in defence cooperation efforts.
Profit of $4804: how Musk’s takeover crushed Twitter in Australia
The Australian Financial Review
Sam Buckingham-Jones
Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, now known as X, left the company’s Australian outpost riddled with under-investment as it defends itself against the Labor government in a free speech row over the Wakeley church stabbing. Twitter reported just $3.4 million in revenue in the first half of 2023, plunging more than 80 per cent, new documents filed with the corporate regulator show, representing its final submission before being taken private.
China
How TikTok’s Chinese owner tightened its grip on the app
Financial Times
Hannah Murphy, Cristina Criddle and Eleanor Olcott
TikTok’s Beijing-based owner ByteDance tightened its grip over its US operations over the past two years, according to company insiders, even as momentum to ban the short-video app grew in Washington. More than two dozen current and former employees told the Financial Times that TikTok has only become more deeply interwoven with ByteDance as tensions over the app’s ownership escalated. These people said that ByteDance staff, including senior managers, had been transferred to TikTok; workers based in the US who spoke Mandarin were favoured for their ability to co-ordinate with Chinese counterparts; and restructuring efforts had targeted US-based workers who did not meet exacting performance standards.
Elon Musk visits China as Tesla seeks self-driving technology rollout
Reuters
Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing on Sunday on an unannounced visit, where he was expected to discuss the rollout of Full Self-Driving software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of U.S.-China economic and trade cooperation.
The ambitions of China’s BYD stretch well beyond electric vehicles
Financial Times
Edward White
But the ambition of BYD goes far beyond cars — and China’s borders. As the world tries to ditch fossil fuels, the company has positioned itself as a manufacturing powerhouse across a suite of green technologies. This ranges from its flagship lithium batteries, solar modules, electric-powered buses, trucks and trains to complex artificial intelligence and software used to control and connect transport and power systems
USA
US wants allies to cut chip-related China exports amid Huawei alarm
Financial Times
Demetri Sevastopulo, Kana Inagaki and Andy Bounds
The US is pushing allies in Europe and Asia to tighten restrictions on exports of chip-related technology and tools to China amid rising concerns about Huawei’s development of advanced semiconductors. Washington wants Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands to use existing export controls more aggressively, including stopping engineers from their countries servicing chipmaking tools at advanced semiconductor fabs in China, according to five people familiar with the conversations.
China is still years behind the U.S. despite Huawei’s breakthrough chips, Raimondo tells ’60 Minutes’
CNBC
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Sunday downplayed Huawei Technologies’ latest microchip breakthrough, arguing that the U.S. remains far ahead of China in the critical technology. The comments, which were delivered on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” align with her stance that the Biden administration’s restrictions on chip sales to China are working, despite an advanced made-in-China chip surfacing in a Huawei phone last year.
ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in US if legal options fail, sources say
Reuters
Kane Wu and Julie Zhu
TikTok owner ByteDance would prefer to shut down its loss-making app rather than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation to ban the platform from app stores in the U.S., four sources said. The algorithms TikTok relies on for its operations are deemed core to ByteDance's overall operations, which would make a sale of the app with algorithms highly unlikely, said the sources close to the parent.
How TikTok lost the war in Washington
The Wall Street Journal
Georgia Wells and Kristina Peterson
TikTok spent the past four years trying to fend off a U.S. ban, but it never figured out Washington. The law signed by President Biden on Wednesday requiring a sale or ban of the popular app was in part the product of tectonic shifts in U.S.-China relations and coordinated, stealthy efforts by its critics on Capitol Hill. Those factors were compounded by a series of miscalculations that, in the end, left the Chinese-backed company scrambling for support among its users in ways that were ineffective or even backfired.
Palmer Luckey's start-up Anduril just proved it can challenge legacy defense contractors and win
Business Insider
Polly Thompson
Anduril Industries, the defense tech startup run by Palmer Luckey, has just been awarded a major contract by the US Air Force, beating out legacy names like Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Anduril, founded in 2017, has been contracted to design and test autonomous fighter jets as part of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, a core part of the Air Force's efforts to modernize its fleet. The joint contract will be split between Anduril and General Atomics. The companies will now work on designing, manufacturing, and testing the unmanned aircraft and drones. The decision proves just how important autonomy and AI are to the future of US national security strategy.
South & Central Asia
The great potential of India-Australia quantum collaboration
The Strategist
Sameer Patil
A global race is underway to unlock the transformative potential of quantum technology, the next major leap in human innovation. Governments around the world are strategically investing in research and development, while big tech firms are pouring resources and talent into making the second quantum revolution a reality. Though quantum technology is still in its nascent stages, its possibilities are vast, and synergy through international collaboration is critical to unlocking them. The bilateral cooperation between India and Australia has great potential in this domain.
India election: AI deepfakes of Bollywood stars backing political parties swirl as voters grapple with information overload
South China Morning Post
Kaisar Andrabi
Fears over deepfake videos have again surfaced in India amid an election that will last till June, with clips this time showing Bollywood actors declaring their political views and the trend underscoring pervasive use of artificial intelligence technology to manipulate narratives. Popular stars Aamir Khan and Ranbir Kapoor were pictured saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed to keep campaign promises and address critical economic issues during his two terms.
Tech companies plug into India's smaller cities for talent
Reuters
Sai Ishwarbharath B and Haripriya Suresh
IT companies are now expanding into smaller cities, in part to tap on workers like Ramachandran, and to capitalise on cheaper land costs, rents and wages. Some are already finding it easier to hire staff in tier 2 cities, in contrast to before the pandemic when workers largely went from smaller cities into the country's major IT hubs for jobs. Industry watchers say the trend to smaller cities helps companies reduce attrition and cut costs at a time when the $254 billion Indian IT sector is grappling with weak sales growth amid global economic uncertainty.
Europe
China spy suspects in U.K. and Germany seen as 'tip of iceberg'
Nikkei Asia
Rhyannon Barlett-Imadegawa and Jens Kastner
In a week when four alleged spies for China were arrested in Germany and another two suspects were charged in the U.K., intelligence experts said Europe had only scratched the surface of the problem. The Dutch intelligence agency AIVD on Tuesday identified China as "one of the biggest cyber threats" against the Netherlands. Norway's intelligence service earlier in the year said Chinese intelligence services operate all over the continent in political and industrial espionage, with cyberspace as their main gateway to information. Some suggested that by reaching into the political sphere, technology companies, universities and the diaspora, China is trying to manipulate Europe's political processes through its leaders and electorate to bend them to a new world order that it has been working hard to create.
China’s fast-fashion app Shein will face tougher EU tech rules
POLITICO
Clothilde Goujard
Chinese-founded fashion app Shein will face stringent rules on how it handles content on its platform starting in late August, the European Commission said Friday. The move to oversee the popular but controversial platform, previously reported by POLITICO, comes as Europe has tightened its scrutiny of China-based tech companies. TikTok this week suspended a feature considered by the EU as "addictive" and potentially in breach of the bloc's content-moderation law, the Digital Services Act.
Coca-Cola, L’Oréal, other big brands told by MEPs to stop ads fueling Russian disinformation in Balkans
POLITICO
Mathieu Pollet
Big brands such Lidl, Coca-Cola and L'Oréal must stop advertising on pro-Kremlin media outlets in the Balkans, European Parliament lawmakers told the companies in a letter seen by POLITICO. The 15 brands should "rigorously review [their] advertising policies to ensure that your expenditures do not, even unintentionally, fund outlets known for disseminating harmful disinformation," said the letter sent Thursday by Bulgarian conservative MEP Andrey Kovatchev and 15 other lawmakers from the center right, liberals, socialists and the Greens.
UK
Foreign states targeting sensitive research at UK universities, MI5 warns
The Guardian
Mabel Banfield-Nwachi
MI5 has warned universities that hostile foreign states are targeting sensitive research, as ministers consider measures to bolster protections. Vice-chancellors from 24 leading institutions, including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London, were briefed on the threat by the domestic security service’s director general, Ken McCallum, and National Cybersecurity Centre chief, Felicity Oswald.
Artificial Intelligence
BBC presenter’s likeness used in advert after firm tricked by AI-generated voice
The Guardian
Sammy Gecsoyler
There was something strange about her voice, they thought. It was familiar but, after a while, it started to go all over the place. Science presenter Liz Bonnin’s accent, as regular BBC viewers know, is Irish. But this voice message, ostensibly granting permission to use her likeness in an ad campaign, seemed to place her on the other side of the world. The message, it turns out, was a fake – AI-generated to mimic Bonnin’s voice. Her management team got hold of it after they saw the presenter’s face on online ads for an insect repellant spray this week, something for which she did not sign up.
AI could kill call centres, says boss of Tata IT business
The Australian Financial Review
Benjamin Parkin and Chris Kay
The head of Indian IT company Tata Consultancy Services has said artificial intelligence would result in “minimal” need for call centres in as soon as a year, with AI’s rapid advances set to upend a vast industry across Asia and beyond. K Krithivasan, TCS chief executive, told the Financial Times that while “we have not seen any job reduction” so far, wider adoption of generative AI among multinational clients would overhaul the kind of customer help centres that have created mass employment in countries such as India and the Philippines.
Misc
‘I’m watching you bitch’: How even the smart fridge is being used as a weapon of family violence
The Age
Wendy Tuohy
In one day’s work last week, former detective Steve Wilson and his team removed four spy pens, one Apple AirTag tracker, and virtual access by an abusive man to a woman’s kitchen, to which he was sending threatening messages on her smart-fridge screen. The tracker and camera pens – enabling the abuser to record video to a tiny USB stick – had all been placed on one woman trying to escape family violence, but that is by no means a record.
Events & Podcasts
The Sydney Dialogue
ASPI
The Sydney Dialogue was created to help bring together governments, businesses and civil society to discuss and progress policy options. We will forecast the technologies of the next decade that will change our societies, economies and national security, prioritising speakers and delegates who are willing to push the envelope. We will promote diverse views that stimulate real conversations about the best ways to seize opportunities and minimise risks.
JoiningFORCES
ASPI
The JoiningFORCES conference will explore ways to bridge national and international boundaries to deliver more joint, collective and effective defence. It will bring together government ministers, senior defence officials, leading industry figures, and international experts across the two-day event and formal dinner. We will also use collaborative wargaming and scenario exercise techniques to generate insights on enhancing regional deterrence. Our focus will be on strategic and operational level challenges and will consider the vital role of industry in delivering capability at the speed needed to meet the strategic threats Australia faces.
ASPI – CNAS – RUSI | Trilateral AUKUS Dialogue
ASPI
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the Center for a New American Security, and the Royal United Services Institute are pleased to convene our Trilateral AUKUS Dialogue on 17-18 June 2024 in Washington, DC. The ASPI-CNAS-RUSI Trilateral AUKUS Dialogue is an initiative across leading Australian, American, and British think tanks to hold robust, pragmatic, and principled conversations about AUKUS and related national security and defense policies.
Jobs
China Analyst or Senior Analyst
ASPI
ASPI has an exciting opportunity for an analyst or senior analyst to explore China's evolving foreign and security policy, political economy and impact on the Indo-Pacific and the world. ASPI’s China analysts conduct rigorous data-driven research, publish impactful reports that shape the public policy discourse and contribute to the wide catalogue of influential China work published by ASPI. The difference between the analyst and senior analyst levels will depend on experience level and demonstration of past work. The closing date for applications is 10 May 2024– an early application is advised as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if suitable applications are received.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.