Police bust global cyber gang accused of industrial-scale fraud | Microsoft's OpenAI partnership could face EU antitrust probe | UK warns universities China could steal secret tech
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Police have taken down a gang accused of using a technology service that helped criminals use fraudulent text messages to steal from victims. They have arrested 37 people worldwide and are contacting victims. BBC
Microsoft's $13 billion investment in OpenAI could face an EU antitrust investigation as regulators are building the case for such a move, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Reuters
Britain is considering cracking down on foreign research funding amid concern its universities are being left open to Chinese and other overseas influence. POLITICO
World
Police bust global cyber gang accused of industrial-scale fraud
BBC
Tom Symonds
Police have taken down a gang accused of using a technology service that helped criminals use fraudulent text messages to steal from victims. They have arrested 37 people worldwide and are contacting victims. The technology allowed scammers without technical skills to bombard victims with messages designed to trick them into making payments online. Police targeted the gang's site, LabHost, which helped criminals send the messages and direct victims to fake websites appearing to be legitimate online payment or shopping services.
Students turning to cyberfraud as huge phishing site infiltrated, police reveal
The Guardian
Vikram Dodd
University students have turned to cyber fraud to boost their income, police have said, as they revealed they have infiltrated a huge phishing site on the dark web responsible for scamming tens of thousands of people. The site called LabHost was active since 2021 and was a cyber fraud superstore, allowing users to produce realistic-looking websites from household names such as the big banks, ensnaring victims around the world including 70,000 in the UK.
Child sex abuse cops alarmed by Meta move
The Australian
David Murray
Global law enforcement chiefs have gathered in Brisbane and strategised on how to fight a recalcitrant Meta’s decision to expand encryption at the expense of protecting children. An international alliance of 15 agencies known as the Virtual Global Taskforce and including Britain’s National Crime Agency and the Australian Federal Police workshopped how to respond to the tech giant’s encryption plans and its expected severe impacts on child abuse investigations.
China
How an Obscure Chinese Real Estate Start-Up Paved the Way to TikTok
The New York Times
Mara Hvistendahl & Lauren Hirsch
Court records, mistakenly made public, tell a story about the birth of ByteDance, its bumpy road to success and the role of the Republican megadonor Jeff Yass’s firm. In 2009, long before Jeff Yass became a Republican megadonor, his firm, Susquehanna International Group, invested in a Chinese real estate start-up that boasted a sophisticated search algorithm. The records also show that Mr. Yass’s firm was more deeply involved in TikTok’s genesis than previously known.
US committee finds China is subsidising American fentanyl crisis
Reuters
Michael Martina
China is directly subsidising production of illicit fentanyl precursors for sale abroad and fueling the U.S. opioid crisis, a U.S. congressional committee said on Tuesday, releasing findings from an investigation it said unveiled Beijing's incentives for the deadly chemicals.
USA
Northrop Grumman working with Musk's SpaceX on U.S. spy satellite system
Reuters
Joey Roulette & Marisa Taylor
Aerospace and defence company Northrop Grumman is working with SpaceX, the space venture of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, on a classified spy satellite project already capturing high-resolution imagery of the Earth, according to people familiar with the program. The program, details of which were first reported by Reuters last month, is meant to enhance the U.S. government's ability to track military and intelligence targets from low-Earth orbits, providing high-resolution imagery of a kind that had traditionally been captured mostly by drones and reconnaissance aircraft.
Bipartisan ire flares after POLITICO reveals Chinese Embassy's quiet TikTok lobbying
POLITICO
Anthony Adragna
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle aired outrage Thursday after a POLITICO report that the Chinese embassy lobbied members of Congress on legislation that would force the sale of TikTok by its Beijing-based parent company.
US Air Force confirms first successful AI dogfight
The Verge
Emma Roth
In an update on Thursday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency revealed that an AI-controlled jet successfully faced a human pilot during an in-air dogfight test carried out last year. DARPA began experimenting with AI applications in December 2022 as part of its Air Combat Evolution program. It worked to develop an AI system capable of autonomously flying a fighter jet, while also adhering to the Air Force’s safety protocols.
FBI says Chinese hackers preparing to attack US infrastructure
Reuters
Christopher Bing
Chinese government-linked hackers have burrowed into U.S. critical infrastructure and are waiting "for just the right moment to deal a devastating blow," FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Thursday. An ongoing Chinese hacking campaign known as Volt Typhoon has successfully gained access to numerous American companies in telecommunications, energy, water and other critical sectors, with 23 pipeline operators targeted, Wray said in a speech at Vanderbilt University.
North Asia
Oracle to spend over $8bn to build more data centers in Japan
Nikkei Asia
Oracle will spend a total of more than $8 billion over 10 years, starting in 2024, to build additional data centers in Japan, as concerns over economic security rise against a backdrop of U.S.-China tensions and other concerns, Nikkei has learned. Efforts to ensure "data sovereignty," the management of data inside the country where it is collected, are spreading globally. Japan restricts cross-border transfers of data on individuals under its personal information protection law.
Japan to fund KDDI, four others to build AI supercomputer
Nikkei Asia
Riho Nagao
The Japanese government will give five companies, including telecom company KDDI, a total of 72.5 billion yen to fund efforts to develop artificial intelligence amid concerns about overreliance on U.S. technology. High-performance computers are essential to develop generative AI, as it requires data processing on a vast scale. At present, Japanese companies rely on American companies such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft for the necessary computing power.
North Korea deploys Chinese surveillance technology to workplaces
The Times
Richard Lloyd Parry
The North Korean authorities are using advanced surveillance technology to impose even tighter levels of control on the world’s most repressive totalitarian state, researchers in the United States say. A new report by a US think tank says that the installation of cameras in schools and workplaces, facial recognition software and biometric data analysis will restrict what little freedom and privacy North Koreans enjoy.
TSMC says global tech recovery 'not fast enough' despite AI boom
Nikkei Asia
Cheng Ting-Fang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. on Thursday said the recovery in the smartphone and PC markets was milder than expected, limiting the pace of global semiconductor growth for 2024 despite demand for generative AI computing remaining strong.
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia and the Chip Wars: Navigating a Decoupling World
Fulcrum
John Lee
The race for some Southeast Asian countries to anchor themselves in the global semiconductor industry is open and evolving, even as it is complicated by factors like great power rivalry. Global demand for microelectronics has boomed, even as US pressure on China has driven chip industry leaders to look elsewhere for their operations. The US, EU, and Korean heavyweights in the semiconductor supply chain have turned to Southeast Asia to host a flood of new projects, with most going to Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
Europe
Microsoft's OpenAI partnership could face EU antitrust probe, sources say
Reuters
Foo Yun Chee
Microsoft's $13 billion investment in OpenAI could face an EU antitrust investigation as regulators are building the case for such a move, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The people said the European Union antitrust regulator had decided not to investigate the partnership under EU merger rules, but that Microsoft could still face an antitrust investigation. That could look into whether the partnership restricts or distorts competition within the EU internal market or whether Microsoft's market power distorts the market through certain practices.
After TikTok Lite launch in Spain, France, EU Commission wants details
EURACTIV
Julia Tar
The European Commission asked TikTok to provide information on how it evaluated the risks associated with the launch of its Lite app, on Wednesday, under the Digital Services Act. TikTok should have conducted a risk evaluation before introducing TikTok Lite in the EU, said the Commission. The Lite app was launched in France and Spain in April. The Chinese-owned platform has 24 hours to submit the risk assessment, which the Commission says should have been conducted before its launch. Other information is to be submitted by 26 April.
EU demands answers on money-for-views version of TikTok
BBC
Imran Rahman-Jones
TikTok has been given 24 hours to respond to the European Commission over a version of the app which pays users for viewing videos. The European Commission has asked TikTok for details of the risk assessment it carried out before launching the feature.
France questions latest EU cloud certification scheme
EURACTIV
Eliza Gkritsi
France has questioned the latest draft of the EU Cloud Certification Scheme that would allow member states to set national sovereignty requirements at the highest cybersecurity level of the scheme, according to a leaked letter sent to the European Council of the EU’s Legal Service. French politicians have been pushing for additional requirements, including some 2,000 cybersecurity requirements, on the third level of this new EU scheme. These sovereignty requirements would require companies to be headquartered in EU member states to achieve the highest level of certification to be allowed to sell services to public or private entities that handle highly sensitive data. They argue that it is important to save strategically important European data from the extraterritorial reach of US and Chinese laws.
Romania’s six billion euro bet to accelerate digital public services
EURACTIV
Manuela Preoteasa
Despite boasting IT specialisation, Romania struggles with one of the most underdeveloped digital public bureaucracies in the region. A new €6 billion injection from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan could revitalise the sector. According to the International Trade Administration, the significant investment of EU funds could see Romania’s digital economy worth €52 billion by 2030, accounting for almost ten per cent of the country’s GDP.
UK
UK warns universities China could steal secret tech
POLITICO
Matt Honeycombe-Foster
Britain is considering cracking down on foreign research funding amid concern its universities are being left open to Chinese and other overseas influence. Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told an event in London Thursday that while Britain’s universities are “a jewel in our crown,” the funding of research by foreign powers could put at risk the development of sensitive dual-use technology and “has the potential to become a chink in our armor.”
UK firms may be barred from funding emerging tech in hostile countries
The Guardian
Kiaran Stacey
Ministers are considering blocking British investors from funding emerging technologies in hostile countries if they believe the technology could pose a threat to UK security, the deputy prime minister has said. His comments come eight months after the Biden administration gave regulators the power to stop US investment in Chinese institutions in three sectors: semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
TUC calls for law to protect UK workers when employers use AI
Financial Times
Delphine Strauss
The UK needs new laws to protect workers whose employers use artificial intelligence tools to hire, fire or manage them, the Trades Union Congress said on Thursday, warning that Britain was “losing the race” to regulate AI at work. The TUC’s proposals would require employers to consult workers ahead of introducing any AI systems designed to make “high-risk” decisions and explain how they would be used. There would be a process for the vetting of tools bought off the shelf from outside suppliers and for regular reviews. They would also create a legal right for job seekers and workers to seek a human audit of decisions made by AI, and put in place protections against unfair dismissal by those systems.
NZ & Pacific Islands
How Australia can become the partner of choice in Pacific cyber resilience
The Strategist
Meg Tapia
In a bid to help Pacific island states become more resilient to cyber attacks such as the one Vanuatu suffered in 2022, Australia outlined a vision to become the partner of choice for cyber security in the region in the Australian Cyber Security Strategy released last November, as part of a renewed focus on enhancing cybersecurity cooperation and capacity-building.
Big Tech
Meta unveils less ‘sanctimonious’ AI model as tech rivalry heats up
Financial Times
Cristina Criddle & Hannah Murphy
Meta has released a new and less “sanctimonious” version of its artificial intelligence model, as the social media group races against Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Google to develop the cutting edge technology. The news comes as Silicon Valley giants have been unveiling their next generation of powerful AI models, having poured billions of dollars into the technology off the back of the generative AI hype caused by ChatGPT.
Artificial Intelligence
Booming AI demand threatens global electricity supply
The Australian Financial Review
Camilla Hodgson
Electricity supply is becoming the latest choke point to threaten the growth of artificial intelligence, according to leading tech industry chiefs, as power-hungry data centres add to the strain on grids around the world.
Meta artificial intelligence tool ‘a threat to truth as well as our health’
The Australian
Joanna Panagopoulos
Meta’s new artificial intelligence tool is punishing local publishers by summarising news so that users aren’t required to click onto individual articles, as doctors warn medical misinformation on its AI chat feature, which includes telling users that crystals are used for pain reduction, could let down the country’s “most vulnerable”. AI experts also warned there is a “real risk” of news soon being “homogenised” by whatever “editorial bent” a very small number of powerful tech giants decide to take.
Research
China: The rise of digital repression in the Indo-Pacific
ARTICLE 19
Because the Indo-Pacific will retain its strategic significance for China as it rolls out next-generation tech and seeks partners in normalising its authoritarian approach to digital governance, the report argues that assessing China’s regional partnerships and what they mean for rising digital repression in the region is vital to understanding China’s ambitions to rewire the world and rewrite the rules that govern the digital space.
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.
Jobs
Director of Cyber, Technology & Security (CTS)
ASPI
ASPI is looking for an exceptional and experienced leader to lead our largest team focused on emerging security challenges, particularly in cyberspace and the information domain. Director CTS leads ASPI’s largest team to develop and deliver a range of applied research projects on existing and emerging security challenges. CTS’ projects range across cyber and critical infrastructure security, critical and emerging technologies, national resilience and social cohesion, and hybrid threats. The closing date for applications is 22 April 2024 – an early application is advised as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if suitable applications are received.
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.