Microsoft informs customers that Russian hackers spied on emails | EU accuses Meta of breaking rules with paid ad-free option | AUS: Big tech ordered to stop kids finding porn
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The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest focuses on the topics we work on, including cybersecurity, critical technologies, foreign interference & disinformation.
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Russian hackers who broke into Microsoft's systems and spied on staff inboxes earlier this year also stole emails from its customers, the tech giant said on Thursday, around six months after it first disclosed the intrusion. Reuters
European Union regulators accused social media company Meta Platforms on Monday of breaching the bloc’s new digital competition rulebook by forcing Facebook and Instagram users to choose between seeing ads or paying to avoid them. AP News
Australia’s internet watchdog will force social media companies to put more barriers in place to stop children from accessing pornography and other inappropriate content, as politicians grapple with plans to restrict people under 16 years old from using social media. Australian Financial Review
ASPI
UN’s Global Digital Compact is looking like an authoritarian dream
The Strategist
Mercedes Page
This week, global representatives to the United Nations in New York will review the latest draft of the UN Global Digital Compact. An initiative proposed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish a framework for global digital cooperation, the GDC aims to set out shared principles for an open, free and secure digital future and accelerate progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Australia
Big tech ordered to develop solutions to stop kids finding porn
Australian Financial Review
Australia’s internet watchdog will force social media companies to put more barriers in place to stop children from accessing pornography and other inappropriate content, as politicians grapple with plans to restrict people under 16 years old from using social media.
Porn sites and Meta among those tasked with drafting Australia’s online safety rules
The Guardian
Australia’s online safety regulator has given porn websites, social media companies, search engines and others in the tech industry six months to come up with rules to prevent children from accessing adult content. Using powers under the Online Safety Act, the eSafety commissioner will require industry bodies to come up with a new code to prevent children from seeing content rated R18+ and above on their services or devices.
Major bank raises alarm bell on cyber 'warfare': Claims 'entire community is at risk'
ABC News
David Taylor
Australia's big four banks are under constant attack, says the National Australia Bank's executive for group investigations, Chris Sheehan. "Every bank is being attacked all the time." Australia's big four banks, it has been revealed, are being bombarded by cyber attacks every minute of every day, leaving customers increasingly vulnerable to scams.
Australia ‘monitoring’ US ban on Russian antivirus software but no plans yet to follow suit
The Guardian
Josh Taylor
The Australian government is in talks with the US government over the implications of a ban of the Russian antivirus software company Kaspersky, but no plans are yet in place to follow suit. Kaspersky has been dropped from the Australian consumer watchdog website Scamwatch’s partner list, however, Guardian Australia has confirmed.
‘Arrogant’ tech companies must ‘fess up’ to harm done to children by social media, Albanese says
The Guardian
Tech executives need to “fess up” to the damage their platforms have caused, the prime minister says, while taking aim at the “arrogant” and “out of touch” social media companies. Anthony Albanese’s comments come after Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, told a parliamentary inquiry in Canberra it didn’t think social media had harmed children.
Gov launches 'overdue' cyber security network for health sector
iTnews
Eleanor Dickinson
The federal government has injected $6.4 million into boosting cyber security in Australia’s healthcare sector through an information-sharing network. Mirroring a model already used in the financial and critical infrastructure sectors, the pilot Information Sharing and Analysis Centre will focus on “cyber threats, responses and preventative measures” among health organisations.
CSIRO unveils new $15m Dell-built ‘supercomputer’ to help tackle Australia’s flatlining productivity
The Australian
Jared Lynch
Australia’s peak research agency, CSIRO, has spent $15m on a new “supercomputer” that it says will speed up scientific discoveries, helping grow the national economy. US tech titan Dell built the computer cluster, dubbed Virga – the meteorological effect of rain that evaporates before it reaches the ground. It features Nvidia H100 chips, which cost about $US25,000 each, which the agency says will allow it to complete power-hungry artificial intelligence workloads.
China
China’s AI startups head to Singapore in a bid for global growth
Bloomberg
Jane Zhang and Saritha Rai
When Wu Cunsong and Chen Binghui founded their artificial intelligence startup two years ago in Hangzhou, China, they quickly ran into obstacles, including dearth of venture capital. This March, they did what scores of other Chinese AI firms have done and moved their company, Tabcut, 2,500 miles southwest to Singapore. The business-friendly country offers Wu and Chen better access to global investors and customers at a time when elevated geopolitical tensions keep many US and international firms away from China.
China warns citizens to stop posting info about spy satellites on social media
The Register
Laura Dobberstein
China's Ministry of State Security has asked citizens to stop posting info about the nation's spy satellites and national security installations online. State-controlled media yesterday covered the Ministry's call for netizens to stop marking the location of military installations on maps and discussing military topics in online forums. "All of this has opened a window for foreign forces to peek into China's core secrets, posing unprecedented challenges to national security," the reports state, adding that space is now a critical strategic domain and loose lips –or posts – can sink spaceships.
China is afraid of international law—and planning a counter-offensive
Forbes
Jill Goldenziel
As weapons have been drawn in the South China Sea, a battle of legal narratives is brewing—and academics are on the front lines. An article in today’s South China Morning Post reports that Chinese academics are being encouraged to create narratives to support China’s illegal claims of sovereignty and jurisdiction over parts of the South China Sea—claims which blatantly violate international law and violate China’s neighbors’ sovereign rights.
China’s tech firms vow crackdown on online hate speech after knife attack
The Guardian
Amy Hawkins
China’s internet companies have announced a crackdown on “extreme nationalism” online, particularly anti-Japanese sentiment, after a Chinese woman was fatally stabbed while protecting a Japanese mother and child in Suzhou. Tencent and NetEase, two of the biggest firms, said at the weekend that they would be investigating and banning users who stirred up hatred.
USA
Supreme Court declines to rule on social media laws in Florida and Texas
The New York Times
Abbie Van Sickle
The Supreme Court sidestepped a definitive resolution on Monday in a pair of cases challenging state laws aimed at curbing the power of social media companies to moderate content. The ruling left in limbo an effort by Republicans who had promoted the legislation as a remedy to what they say is a bias against conservatives. It was the most recent instance of the Supreme Court considering — and then dodging — a major decision on the parameters of speech on social media platforms.
The Supreme Court casts doubt on Florida and Texas laws to regulate social media platforms
AP News
Mark Sherman
The Supreme Court on Monday kept on hold efforts by Texas and Florida to limit how Facebook, TikTok, X, YouTube and other social media platforms regulate content posted by their users in a ruling that strongly defended the platforms’ free speech rights. Writing for the court, Justice Elena Kagan said the platforms, like newspapers, deserve protection from governments’ intrusion in determining what to include or exclude from their space.
North Asia
South Korea’s export growth accelerates on record chip sales
Bloomberg
Sam Kim and Jenny Seung Min Lee
South Korea’s export growth accelerated last month, reflecting resilience in global demand as the artificial intelligence and technology sectors drive record gains in semiconductor sales. Average daily shipments increased 12.4% from a year earlier, according to data released Monday by the customs office, compared with 9% growth in May.
Japan’s national security renaissance needs a cybersecurity revolution
Nikkei Asia
Evan Wright
In late 2022, the Japanese government made historic advancements in its national security policy. Motivated by threats from China, North Korea and Russia, Tokyo outlined its national security strategy in three new documents aimed at developing a credible deterrent by significantly increasing the national defense budget and acquiring substantial new defense capabilities.
Europe
European Union accuses Facebook owner Meta of breaking digital rules with paid ad-free option
AP News
Kelvin Chan
European Union regulators accused social media company Meta Platforms on Monday of breaching the bloc’s new digital competition rulebook by forcing Facebook and Instagram users to choose between seeing ads or paying to avoid them. Meta began giving European users the option in November of paying for ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram as a way to comply with the continent’s strict data privacy rules.
Meta hit with EU charges as bloc tightens control over big tech
Semafor
Marta Biino
The European Commission announced Monday that it had charged US tech giant Meta for allegedly breaching the Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s sweeping anti-trust law designed to rein in Big Tech. At issue is the company’s “pay for privacy” model, introduced in late 2023, under which users can choose between consenting to their data being collected for personalized ads, or to pay a monthly subscription fee to opt out.EU says Meta’s ‘pay or consent’ ads violet competition law
The Washington Post
Eva Dou
European Union regulators say Meta violated the bloc’s new competition law in requiring Instagram and Facebook users to pay if they don’t want their personal data used to generate targeted ads. “We want to empower citizens to be able to take control over their own data and choose a less personalised ads experience,” Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s executive vice president for competition policy, said in a statement Monday.
Turkey turns to AI to crack down on rampant tax evasion
Bloomberg
Beril Akman
Turkey is seeking to harness artificial intelligence to crack down on tax evasion, joining the likes of Italy and the US in enlisting advanced technology to reduce cases of avoidance and fraud. “We will increasingly implement more algorithms and artificial intelligence” in auditing companies, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said on Monday in a TV interview with BloombergHT.
Big Tech
Microsoft informs customers that Russian hackers spied on emails
Reuters
Zeba Siddiqui
Russian hackers who broke into Microsoft's systems and spied on staff inboxes earlier this year also stole emails from its customers, the tech giant said on Thursday, around six months after it first disclosed the intrusion. The disclosure underscores the breadth of the breach as Microsoft faces increasing regulatory scrutiny over the security of its software and systems against foreign threats.
YouTube now lets you request removal of AI-generated content that simulates your face or voice
Tech Crunch
Sarah Perez
Meta is not the only company grappling with the rise in AI-generated content and how it affects its platform. YouTube also quietly rolled out a policy change in June that will allow people to request the takedown of AI-generated or other synthetic content that simulates their face or voice. The change allows people to request the removal of this type of AI content under YouTube’s privacy request process. It’s an expansion on its previously announced approach to responsible AI agenda first introduced in November.
Huawei and Wuhan Xinxin to develop high-bandwidth memory chips amid US restrictions
South China Morning Post
Che Pan
Huawei Technologies has teamed up with Chinese foundry Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to develop high-bandwidth memory chips, according to sources, as these devices have become an indispensable component in the computing infrastructure used for artificial intelligence projects. This initiative also involves mainland integrated circuit packaging firms Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Tech and Tongfu Microelectronics, which are tasked to provide the so-called Chip on Wafer on Substrate – an advanced packaging technology for stacking different types of semiconductors, such as graphics processing units and HBM chips, on a single package, the sources said.
Microsoft’s AI boss thinks it’s perfectly OK to steal content if it’s on the open web
The Verge
Sean Hollister
Microsoft AI boss Mustafa Suleyman incorrectly believes that the moment you publish anything on the open web, it becomes “freeware” that anyone can freely copy and use. Microsoft is currently the target of multiple lawsuits alleging that it — and OpenAI — are stealing copyrighted online stories to train generative AI models, so it may not surprise you to hear a Microsoft exec defend it as perfectly legal. I just didn’t expect him to be so very publicly and obviously wrong!
Fintech company Wise says some customers affected by Evolve Bank data breach
Tech Crunch
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
The money transfer and fintech company Wise announced on Friday that some of its customers’ personal data may have been stolen in the recent data breach at Evolve Bank and Trust. The news highlights that the fallout from the Evolve data breach on third-party companies — and their customers and users — is still unclear, and it’s likely that it includes companies and startups that are yet unknown.
Artificial Intelligence
We’re not coming for your job, AI companies say
Australian Financial Review
John Davidson
Artificial intelligence will create 200,000 jobs in Australia by 2030, according to a report backed by Industry Minister Ed Husic. More than 160,000 of those jobs will be in tech-related occupations, but the rest will be for non-tech roles such as sales managers, accountants and human resource managers, all of whom will be required to help pave the way for AI.
Taking a closer look at AI’s supposed energy apocalypse
ARS Technica
Kyla Orla
Digging into the best available numbers and projections available, though, it's hard to see AI's current and near-future environmental impact in such a dire light. While generative AI models and tools can and will use a significant amount of energy, we shouldn't conflate AI energy usage with the larger and largely pre-existing energy usage of "data centers" as a whole. And just like any technology, whether that AI energy use is worthwhile depends largely on your wider opinion of the value of generative AI in the first place.
Is AI changing how we view human relationships?
Canberra Times
Duncan Bailey
From finding data in just a few seconds to creating eerily realistic faces and voices, it's clear that AI has become a powerful part of modern society - and is here to stay. But how does it affect our relationships with one another? It's a topic of interest for University of Tasmania seinor lecturer Joey Crawford, an expert in leadership behaviour.
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.
Defending against economic cyber-espionage: saving a norm that never was?
ASPI
As side-event to the UN Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on security of and in the use of ICTs, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute - in collaboration with the US State Department’s Bureau for Cyberspace and Digital Policy – is pleased to invite you to a panel discussion on ICT-enabled theft of intellectual property.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.