Russia says West risks 'direct military clash' over cyber attacks | Six cybersecurity challenges for the new Aus government | Chinese-linked threat used porn to lure victims in Asia and Australia
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Russia warned the West on Thursday that cyber attacks against its infrastructure risked leading to direct military confrontation, and that attempts to challenge Moscow in the cyber sphere would be met with targeted countermeasures. Reuters
With a dedicated minister back in charge of the portfolio, the critical issue must be tackled because the risks will be diabolic when 5G connects just about everything to the internet. Australian Financial Review
A threat actor in operation for nearly a decade has targeted government, telecommunication, and education organizations in Australia and Southeast Asia, according to a new report from SentinelOne — in some cases using exploits hidden in pornographic documents. The Record by Recorded Future
ASPI ICPC
Six cybersecurity challenges for the new government
Australian Financial Review
Justin Bassi, Fergus Hanson and Danielle Cave
With a dedicated minister back in charge of the portfolio, the critical issue must be tackled because the risks will be diabolic when 5G connects just about everything to the internet.
Ukraine - Russia
Russia says West risks 'direct military clash' over cyber attacks
Reuters
Russia warned the West on Thursday that cyber attacks against its infrastructure risked leading to direct military confrontation, and that attempts to challenge Moscow in the cyber sphere would be met with targeted countermeasures.
Google and Meta closing ads in Russia helped Putin, argues Navalny
TechCrunch
Natasha Lomas
Jailed Kremlin critic, Alexey Navalny, has hit out at adtech giants Meta and Google for shutting off advertising inside Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine which he argues has been a huge boon to Putin’s regime by making it harder for the opposition to get out anti-war messaging.
China
Chinese-linked threat used porn to lure victims in Asia and Australia
The Record by Recorded Future
Andrea Peterson
A threat actor in operation for nearly a decade has targeted government, telecommunication, and education organizations in Australia and Southeast Asia, according to a new report from SentinelOne — in some cases using exploits hidden in pornographic documents.
SentinelLabs
Joey Chen
USA
Facebook's 2018 algorithm change boosted local GOP groups, research finds
NBC News
Brandy Zadrozny
A change to Facebook’s recommendation system likely accounted for a disproportionate boost in visibility and engagement to conservative political groups on the social media platform starting in 2018, according to research published Wednesday.
Cyprus helps bust illicit sale of private data on Americans
Associated Press
Cyprus police have seized servers that were used to sell social security numbers and other personal information stolen from 24 million U.S. citizens, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
Facebook’s ban on gun sales gives sellers 10 strikes before booting them
The Washington Post
Elizabeth Dwoskin and Naomi Nix
Facebook prohibits gun sales on its service. But buyers and sellers can violate the rule 10 times before they are kicked off the social network, according to internal guidance obtained by The Washington Post.
CISA warning: Hackers are exploiting these 36 "significant" cybersecurity vulnerabilities - so patch now
ZDNet
Danny Palmer
The United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) has added 36 new flaws to its catalog of vulnerabilities that are known to be exploited by cyber criminals. The CISA alert warns that the vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious attackers and pose "significant risk". Organisations, particularly those associated with federal government, are urged to apply the security updates as soon as possible.
Experts, NSA cyber director say ransomware could threaten campaigns in 2022
CyberScoop
Tonya Riley
With the 2022 election season around the corner, campaigns of all sizes need to be prepared for a widened set of potential cybersecurity risks, experts and a top intelligence official said.
FBI official: Chinese hackers boost recon efforts
The Record by Recorded Future
Martin Matishak
Chinese hackers have stepped up their probes against the U.S. tech sector since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an FBI official said on Thursday. “We’ve actually seen — here in the San Francisco area — an uptick in reconnaissance from Chinese advanced persistent threat actors, specifically,” Elvis Chan, an assistant special agent in charge at the bureau’s San Francisco field office, said during a panel discussion at the RSA conference. He did not name any specific groups.
Southeast Asia
Satellite internet poised for big bang of growth in Southeast Asia
Nikkei Asia
Yuichi Shiga
Elon Musk's SpaceX is among the many companies competing to provide satellite-based internet service in Southeast Asia, seeing it as the answer to the slow, unreliable communications the region's vast number of netizens have been putting up with.
UK
Palantir gears up to expand its reach into UK’s NHS
Financial Times
Madhumita Murgia and Sarah Neville
US data analytics group Palantir is gearing up to become the underlying operating system for the UK’s National Health Service, poaching senior NHS officials as part of a bid to win a £360mn contract to manage the data of millions of patients across England.
Ministry of Defence acquires government's first quantum computer
BBC News
Liv McMahon
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has acquired the government's first quantum computer. Quantum computers can make very complex calculations extremely quickly and their creators say they can solve the problems regular computers cannot. The MoD will work with British company Orca Computing to explore applications for quantum technology in defence.
New UK centre will help fight information war
BBC News
Gordon Corera
A new centre aims to boost the UK's security through building expertise in cutting-edge technology. The Centre for Emerging Technology and Security (CETaS) will be based at the Alan Turing Institute, the UK's centre for data science and artificial intelligence. UK officials say it will help develop expertise outside government, including in publicly available information. This is proving vital in combating Russian disinformation over Ukraine.
Africa
How women in east Africa are reshaping tech
Quartz
Faustine Ngila
For a long time, men dominated all senior and c-suite tech roles in the region. But as more women gained opportunities and skills, they’ve not only joined the tech industry in droves—in 2019, women made up 30% of people in tech in sub-Saharan Africa—they’re increasingly sitting in positions of power, creating tech products and services that impact more people.
Big Tech
Big Tech has spent $36 Million on ads to torpedo antitrust bill
The Wall Street Journal
John D. McKinnon, Ryan Tracy and Chad Day
Advocacy groups bankrolled by big technology companies have poured at least $36.4 million into TV and internet ads opposing antitrust legislation that would bar dominant tech platforms from favoring their own products and services, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
Your kids’ apps are spying on them
The Washington Post
Geoffrey A. Fowler
Apps are spying on our kids at a scale that should shock you. More than two-thirds of the 1,000 most popular iPhone apps likely to be used by children collect and send their personal information out to the advertising industry, according to a major new study shared by fraud and compliance software company Pixalate.
Jobs
The Sydney Dialogue - Senior Events Coordinator
ASPI ICPC
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) is currently recruiting for an experienced events professional to coordinate the planning and logistics of the second iteration of ASPI’s Sydney Dialogue - the world’s premier summit on emerging, critical and cyber technologies.
ICPC Senior Analyst or Analyst - China
ASPI ICPC
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) has a unique opportunity for exceptional and experienced China-focused senior analysts or analysts to join its centre. This role will focus on original research and analysis centred around the (growing) range of topics which our ICPC China team work on. Our China team produces some of the most impactful and well-read policy-relevant research in the world, with our experts often being called upon by politicians, governments, corporates and civil society actors to provide briefings and advice.