US dodges Israeli influence campaigns inquiries | AI's energy demands & its climate costs | Chinese researchers study submarine wake for key information
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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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Federal lawmakers in the US have dodged repeated inquiries over the past week about a covert operation ordered by the Israeli government to artificially boost support among Americans for its war in Gaza. WIRED
Research Institute of China State Shipbuilding Corporation have used real-world data to study submarines’ speed and surface wake. These fine ripples can give clues to a submarine’s position, speed, direction or even make. South China Morning Post
AI’s insatiable appetite for energy and growing carbon footprint could present a far greater threat: the acceleration of wildfires, floods, extreme weather and all of the dangers that come with climate change. Nikkei Asia
ASPI
China-based network pushed for Aust Sikh protests: Meta
The Canberra Times
James McManagan
Albert Zhang, a disinformation analyst from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, says the Chinese government is likely behind the network, which is probably motivated by recent border tensions with India. He says targeting the Australian Sikhs could have adverse social impacts on the community.
ASPI Webinar: AUKUS Pillar 2 Critical Pathways
ASPI
On 7 June, ASPI held the virtual launch for its recent report ‘AUKUS Pillar 2 critical pathways: A road map to enabling international collaboration’. The report looks at the AUKUS Pillar 2 ecosystem from the user's perspective. The authors interviewed more than 170 organisations and key individuals, including regulators and businesses, to offer the Australian Government detailed and actionable recommendations to assist in the success of AUKUS Pillar 2.
Australia
ADF needs more presence with Australia’s northern partners
The Strategist
Shaun Cameron
The Australian Defence Force should foster a deeper presence with partners in our near north, especially Papua New Guinea. This would enable joint training in littoral warfare to master new technologies, facilitate recruitment of PNG personnel into the ADF and allow for greater contribution to regional security.
Australia’s national security demands reliable steel manufacturing
The Strategist
David Uren
The Defence Industry Development Strategy, released earlier this year, identified seven highly specialised capabilities as sovereign industrial priorities, including the commitment to continuous shipbuilding, the domestic manufacture of guided weapons, explosive ordnance and munitions, the development and integration of autonomous systems, the maintenance and repair of aircraft, the manufacture of vehicles and small arms for the army and the technologies required to manage battles, including sensors, communications and software.
China
US submarine may have made detectable wakes before South China Sea mishap, study suggests
South China Morning Post
Stephen Chen
Chinese scientists have used real-world data to study submarines’ speed and surface wake, with unexpected results. The team of researchers, led by engineer Li Yuhang with the 713th Research Institute of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, used real-world environmental data collected by Chinese sensors in the South China Sea to look at water surface wake in a bid to “offer some suggestions for the safe navigation of Chinese submarines”.
China issues draft rules to expand cross-border e-commerce
Reuters
China on Tuesday issued draft rules to promote construction of overseas warehouses and expand cross-border e-commerce businesses, which have become a vital force in its foreign trade, according to the Chinese commerce ministry. The commerce ministry's announcement, which covered draft rules for both inbound cross-border e-commerce as well as outbound, said it would also seek to improve cross-border data management and optimise the supervision of cross-border exports.
China's Ex-Robots develops humanoids with enhanced facial movement
Reuters
On the floor of the Ex-Robots factory in China's northeastern coastal city of Dalian, engineers develop humanoid robots with a focus on enhancing facial expressions and emotions. "We have our own software and algorithm teams," said Ex-Robots Chief Executive Li Boyang, adding that humanoid robots are the most complex class of robotic products. The main purpose of the company's robots so far is for display in museums, one of which Ex-Robots has housed in the same building as its factory.
USA
US leaders dodge questions about Israel’s influence campaign
WIRED
Dell Cameron
Federal lawmakers in the US have dodged repeated inquiries over the past week about a covert operation ordered by the Israeli government to artificially boost support among Americans for its war in Gaza. At the same time, senior White House officials charged with advising President Joe Biden on matters of national security are claiming to have no knowledge of the operation—first disclosed publicly more than four months ago.
Biden administration looks to give Rocket Lab $24M to boost space-grade solar cell production
TechCrunch
Aria Alamalhodaei
Rocket Lab is poised to snap up around $24 million in federal funding to dramatically boost the production of its compound semiconductors, also known as solar cells, which provide power to satellites and spacecraft. Rocket Lab-made solar cells have been used to power hundreds of satellites and spacecraft, including critical science like the James Webb Space Telescope and commercial constellations like OneWeb’s satellite internet constellation.
Abortion groups say tech companies suppress posts and accounts
The New York Times
Emily Schmall & Sapna Maheshwari
TikTok has briefly suspended the account of Hey Jane, a prominent telemedicine abortion service, four times without explanation. Instagram has suspended Mayday Health, a nonprofit that provides information about abortion pill access, without explanation as well. The groups and women’s health advocates say these examples, all from recent months, show how major technology platforms moderate posts about abortion services.
US weighs more limits on China's access to AI chips
Reuters
The Biden administration is considering further restrictions on China's access to chip technology used for artificial intelligence. The measures being discussed would limit China's ability to use a cutting-edge chip architecture known as gate all-around, or GAA.GAA is a type of transistor architecture that helps to improve chip performance and reduces power consumption.
North Asia
Hong Kong issues first AI data protection guidelines, promises more compliance checks
South China Morning Post
Xinmei Shen
Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog has issued the city’s first set of personal data protection guidelines for businesses using generative artificial intelligence services, saying it will carry out more compliance checks as AI adoption increases. Companies using generative AI solutions should take a range of measures to protect personal data, including conducting risk assessments, deciding on the appropriate level of human oversight, and minimising the amount of personal data collected to train their models, according to a framework published by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data on Tuesday.
How battery-swap networks are preventing emergency blackouts
MIT Technology Review
Zeyi Yang
When an earthquake rocked Taiwan, hundreds of Gogoro’s battery-swap stations automatically stopped drawing electricity to stabilize the grid. Now the company is putting the battery network to another use: Gogoro has been working with Enel X, an Italian company, to incorporate the stations into a virtual power plant system that helps the Taiwanese grid stay more resilient in emergencies like April’s earthquake.
Southeast Asia
Thailand: Blockchain for sustainable organic food supply chains
OpenGov Asia
Azizah Saffa
Khon Kaen University, through its Sustainable Social and Innovation Centre, International College, has partnered with the Programme Management Unit for Competitiveness under the National Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Policy Council to launch the “Ugly Veggies Plus” research project. A key objective of the “Ugly Veggies Plus” project is to develop a business model using Blockchain technology for retrospective checking of organic foods. This initiative aims to enhance transparency and trust in the organic food supply chain, providing consumers with reliable information about the origins and quality of their food.
South & Central Asia
Factbox: India's EU-like antitrust law worrying technology firms
Reuters
Arpan Chaturvedi
India's proposed EU-like antitrust law will pose a fresh regulatory challenge for tech firms including Apple, Google, and Meta, laying out strict compliance obligations that could affect their business models. The government panel said new regulations were needed as the digital market was "increasingly becoming concentrated", with a few large companies wielding "immense control over the market."
NZ & Pacific Islands
New Zealand: Digital advancements in maritime security
OpenGov Asia
Azizah Saffa
In a significant step for maritime security, No. 5 Squadron Training Flight instructors and students showcased the advanced digital technology of the P-8A Poseidon aircraft during the recent Operation Tui Moana. This operation, aimed at monitoring illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing, was a collaborative effort under the fishery intergovernmental organisation. The Poseidon’s surveillance systems successfully recorded and reported thirty-eight vessels, including fishing, merchant, and pleasure craft, to the fishery intergovernmental organisation.
Solomons participate in Pacific-wide project highlighting potential of solar energy
Solomon Times
The Solomon Islands continue to lead by example as the Governor General Residence has been fitted with new solar panels as part of the “Solarization of Residences of Pacific Heads of State Project”. Many Pacific nations have set ambitious targets for reducing their CO2 emissions by 2030 and transitioning to nearly 100% renewable energy sources. Solar energy is particularly attractive due to its cost-effectiveness, with technology costs having decreased by 80% over the past decade and less operation and maintenance.
Growing interest in the Pacific to fund renewable energy project through PPPs
Pacific News Service
Makereta Komai
Palau’s new solar power plant, commissioned in June last year serves as a benchmark for other Pacific Island Countries to seek clean energy funding support through public private partnerships. “ADB signed a mandate with the government of Federated States of Micronesia on 16 April 2024 to explore renewable energy options for its islands, said Cleo Kawawaki, the head of ADB’s Office of Markets Development and PPPs. Kawawaki told PACNEWS the private-sector led solar project in Palau is the first-ever independent power producer for the island nation.
Ukraine - Russia
Ukraine’s vision of robot assassins shows need for binding AI rules
Bloomberg
Mark Bergen
Imagine a drone equipped with enough sensors and intelligence to identify a person by the sound of their voice. And then imagine that drone attacks. Alex Bornyakov, Ukraine’s deputy tech minister, laid out the above scenario last week at a NATO event in Poland, detailing how a military drone could take out a Russian “war criminal” with a targeted assassination.
Europe
Dutch intelligence says Chinese cyber espionage goes wider than it suspected
Reuters
Dutch military intelligence said on Monday that Chinese cyber espionage was more extensive than it had initially thought, targeting Western governments and defence companies. The MIVD agency said a Chinese state-backed hacking group that was behind a 2023 hacking attack on the Dutch defence ministry had claimed at least 20,000 victims worldwide in a few months, and possibly far more.
Amsterdam plans to remove Chinese-made cameras over spying risks
Bloomberg
Sarah Jacob
Amsterdam has pledged to remove cameras manufactured by Chinese companies across the city due to mounting concerns over the risk of spying and human rights violations. The Dutch capital plans to phase out as many as 1,280 Chinese-made surveillance installations used to monitor traffic and public spaces within five years.
Portugal represented in international technology ranking
The Portugal News
Deloitte’s latest “Fast 500 EMEA” ranks 16 Portuguese companies among the 500 fastest growing technology companies in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa region. The list concluded that this group of Portuguese start-ups has grown by an average of 810 percent in three years. The 810 percent average growth of these companies is testimony to the results that can be achieved with innovation, scalable business models, and entrepreneurial capacity.
UK
UK and Canada privacy watchdogs investigating 23andMe data breach
TechCrunch
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Privacy watchdogs in the U.K. and Canada have launched a joint investigation into the data breach at 23andMe last year. Last year, 23andMe disclosed a security incident that affected the genetic and ancestry data of 6.9 million users, or roughly half of its overall user base. The company said it didn’t detect the hackers’ activities for around five months, from April until September 2023.
Cyber-attack on London hospitals to take ‘many months’ to resolve
The Guardian
Denis Campbell & Dan Milmo
The cyber-attack that is causing serious disruption for hospitals and GP surgeries in London will take “many months” to resolve, a senior NHS source has warned. Six NHS trusts and scores of GP practices in south-east London, which serve 2 million patients, have been struggling to deliver many types of care normally to patients since Russian hackers infiltrated and rendered unusable the IT system of Synnovis, a private firm which analyses blood tests.
Middle East
UAE Minister says US concerns over chip supplies to China valid
Bloomberg
Joumanna Bercetche & Abeer Abu Omar
The US has limited chip exports to the Middle East in part due to concerns that Chinese companies, which are largely cut off from cutting-edge American technology, could access them through data centers in the Middle East. The UAE is seeking support from the US to become a producer of advanced semiconductors, a crucial component of the supply chain for artificial intelligence.
Africa
Banking: digitalization, an essential lever for financial inclusion
Africa News Agency
The "African Banking Digital Transformation" report, a collaboration between African Banker and Backbase, reveals the profound digital changes in the African banking sector. With a growing population and massive smartphone usage, digitalization appears as a crucial lever for financial inclusion.
Big Tech
Elon Musk threatens to ban Apple devices from his companies over Apple’s ChatGPT integrations
TechCrunch
Sarah Perez
Elon Musk is threatening to ban iPhones from all his companies over the newly announced OpenAI integrations Apple announced at WWDC 2024 on Monday. In a series of posts on X, the Tesla, SpaceX and xAI exec wrote that “if Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level,” Apple devices would be banned from his businesses and visitors would have to check their Apple devices at the door where they’ll be “stored in a Faraday cage.”
Artificial Intelligence
AI's looming climate cost: Energy demand surges amid data center race
Nikkei Asia
Yifan Yu
Artificial intelligence is dangerous. But the main risk may not be the one popularized by Hollywood -- a malevolent superintelligence bent on destroying humanity. Instead, AI itself could be benign, but its insatiable appetite for energy and growing carbon footprint could present a far greater threat: the acceleration of wildfires, floods, extreme weather and all of the dangers that come with climate change.
Apple is promising personalized AI in a private cloud. Here’s how that will work.
MIT Technology Review
James O'Donnell
At its Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday, Apple for the first time unveiled its vision for supercharging its product lineup with artificial intelligence. The key feature, which will run across virtually all of its product line, is Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI-based capabilities that promises to deliver personalized AI services while keeping sensitive data secure.
Brighton general election candidate aims to be UK’s first ‘AI MP’
The Guardian
Jamie Grierson
AI Steve is a nominee on the list of candidates for the 4 July general election in Brighton Pavilion. The man behind AI Steve is Steve Endacott, a self-described entrepreneur who is the chair of an artificial intelligence company called Neural Voice.
Misc
Mandiant says hackers stole a ‘significant volume of data’ from Snowflake customers
TechCrunch
Zack Whittaker
Security researchers say they believe financially motivated cybercriminals have stolen a “significant volume of data” from hundreds of customers hosting their vast banks of data with cloud storage giant Snowflake. The cloud data giant has more than 9,800 corporate customers, like healthcare organizations, retail giants and some of the world’s largest tech companies, which use Snowflake for data analytics.
Events & Podcasts
WDSN's Policy Views and Brews
ASPI
ASPI’s Women in Defence and Security Network is excited to invite you to its inaugural ‘Policy Views and Brews’ networking event on Thursday June 13! Designed to be a relaxed atmosphere where like-minded people can exchange ideas on a range of themes within defence, policy and national security, each meet-up will revolve around a specific topic, inspired by a pre-designated article sent out beforehand.
Women Impact Tech Virtual Accelerate Conference Atlanta 2024
Women Impact Tech
This conference features keynote speeches, workshops, and panel discussions on a variety of tech-related topics. You can learn new skills, stay up-to-date with the latest trends and innovations, and gain insights from industry experts. Meet with progressive companies attending who are committed to diversity and inclusion.
The EU election results - and what they mean for tech policy
POLITICO
After the EU elections over the weekend, the continent’s politics seems to be shifting. So what does that mean for tech? Host Steven Overly talked with Politico EU tech reporter Clothilde Goujard to break down the results and decode what to watch for next.
ASPI – CNAS – RUSI | Trilateral AUKUS Dialogue
ASPI
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. This year’s Trilateral AUKUS Dialogue will explore the strategic landscape of the Indo-Pacific, regional perspectives on AUKUS, and critical issues regarding tech diplomacy, technology sharing, and legislative environments necessary to deliver capabilities to meet the pact’s purposes for enhancing deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. The Dialogue will be held on 17-18 June 2024 in Washington, DC.
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.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.