'A worldwide hackathon': Hospitals turn to crowdsourcing and 3D printing | Asia deploys innovative, if invasive, tech to curb virus | U.S.-China tensions hit a dangerous new high
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With medical supplies strained by the coronavirus outbreak, health care professionals and technologists are coming together online to crowdsource repairs and supplies of critical hospital equipment. NBC.
Electronic bracelets and phones that report your whereabouts, text messages if you stray too far from quarantine and digital detectives tracking where you've been -- Asian countries have embraced innovative, if somewhat invasive, tech to counter the coronavirus pandemic. AFP.
A high-level blame game between Washington and Beijing has brought simmering hostilities and mistrust to the surface. Instead of working together to fight the global pandemic, the world's two largest economies are engaging in risky escalation. Axios.
ASPI ICPC
Huawei says its surveillance tech will keep African cities safe but activists worry it’ll be misused
Quartz Africa
@Samuel_Woodhams
A recent report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute claimed the company has also been active in Xinjiang, where a complex web of surveillance technologies has been deployed to assist the forced detention of an estimated 1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups.
Read the ASPI report, Mapping More of China's tech giants: AI and surveillance, here.
Don’t blame ‘China’ for the coronavirus — blame the Chinese Communist Party
Washington Post
In Australia, the political class has been debating CCP influence operations for several years. One report put out by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute suggested some clear guidelines on how to avoid the trap. The report states that we should avoid generalizations, clearly distinguish between the Chinese government and the Chinese people, and take care not to alienate ethnically Chinese citizens at home. In turn, we must also be careful not to attribute racist motives (unless justified) to those who criticize the Chinese authorities.
Read the ASPI report, Mind your tongue, here.
World
A worldwide hackathon': Hospitals turn to crowdsourcing and 3D printing amid equipment shortages
NBC News
@oliviasolon @aprilaser
With medical supplies strained by the coronavirus outbreak, health care professionals and technologists are coming together online to crowdsource repairs and supplies of critical hospital equipment. Doctors, hospital technicians and 3D-printing specialists are also using Google Docs, WhatsApp groups and online databases to trade tips for building, fixing and modifying machines like ventilators to help treat the rising number of patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Twitter will verify more health experts to fight coronavirus misinformation
Engadget
@karissabe
Twitter wants to make it easier for health experts to get verified. The company is taking new steps to open up its notoriously opaque verification program in order help elevate accounts that are "providing credible updates around #COVID19."
Australia
Dutton says hoarders to be 'dealt with' by AFP, Border Force
The Sydney Morning Herald
@Gallo_Ways
Police and Australian Border Force have launched a joint bid to catch people suspected of hoarding supermarket goods and selling them on the black market in Australia and overseas amid the coronavirus outbreak.. Asked whether the buying was "highly organised and has a criminal element", Mr Dutton said: "I believe that there is but we are working through that at the moment."
Federal law enforcement document reveals white supremacists discussed using coronavirus as a bioweapon
Yahoo News
Federal investigators appeared to be monitoring the white nationalists’ communications on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app that has become popular with neo-Nazis. In the conversations, the white supremacists suggested targeting law enforcement agents and “nonwhite” people with attacks designed to infect them with the coronavirus.
China
Pandemics & Propaganda: How Chinese State Media Shapes Conversations on The Coronavirus
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
@vanessa_molter
The perception of China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has been a significant challenge for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the past two months. The CCP has been attempting to control the narrative and deflect blame since the start of the outbreak, both domestically and abroad. It has done this by drawing on its substantial state- and CCP-owned media apparatus.
U.S.-China tensions hit a dangerous new high
Axios
@BethanyAllenEbr
Why it matters: Instead of working together to fight the global pandemic, the world's two largest economies are engaging in risky escalation. What's happening: A high-level blame game between Washington and Beijing has brought simmering hostilities and mistrust to the surface. Seeking to deflect blame for a pandemic that originated within its borders, some Chinese officials and propaganda outlets are pushing a conspiracy theory that the U.S. military planted the virus in Wuhan — a disinformation strategy not seen since at this intensity since the early days of the Cold War.
USA
White House Pushes U.S. Officials to Criticize China For Coronavirus ‘Cover-Up’
The Daily Beast
@ErinBanco
As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow at a rapid pace in the U.S., the White House is launching a communications plan across multiple federal agencies that focuses on accusing Beijing of orchestrating a “cover-up” and creating a global pandemic, according to two U.S. officials and a government cable obtained by The Daily Beast.. The talking points appear to have originated in the National Security Council. One section of the cable reads “NSC Top Lines: [People’s Republic of China] Propaganda and Disinformation on the Wuhan Virus Pandemic.”
GOP lawmakers call on Twitter to ban Chinese Communist Party from the platform
The Hill
@MagMill95
Two Republican lawmakers on Friday called on Twitter to ban the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from its platform following a surge in Chinese misinformation around the coronavirus.
The U.S. wants smartphone location data to fight coronavirus. Privacy advocates are worried.
NBC News
Federal health officials say they could use anonymous, aggregated user data collected by the tech companies to map the spread of the virus.
Inside a pro-Trump YouTube disinformation network that spans Vietnam to Bosnia
CNET
@richardjnieva
The channels, which YouTube removed after CNET inquired about them, were likely designed to exploit the video platform's advertising program and take advantage of an American appetite for partisan content. Google, which owns YouTube, said its Threat Analysis Group, as well as YouTube's own teams, saw no evidence the channels were part of a foreign political influence operation. Instead, the company said, it was a spamming effort with channels operating out of different parts of the world, aimed at making money.
‘Confusion and anxiety’ at Pentagon over telework guidance
Politico
@woodruffbets @laraseligman @dlippman
National security staffers are fretting that confusing telework guidance has left an overabundance of employees showing up to the office amid a global pandemic.
Asia
Asia deploys innovative, if invasive, tech to curb virus
Yahoo News
Electronic bracelets and phones that report your whereabouts, text messages if you stray too far from quarantine and digital detectives tracking where you've been -- Asian countries have embraced innovative, if somewhat invasive, tech to counter the coronavirus pandemic. When Hong Kong stylist Declan Chan flew home from Zurich earlier this week he was greeted by officials who placed an electronic device on his arm. The wristband was connected to an app that he had to install on his phone as he headed into two weeks of compulsory self-quarantine at home.
Coronavirus privacy: Are South Korea's alerts too revealing?
BBC News
As South Korea battles a snowballing number of Covid-19 cases, the government is letting people know if they were in the vicinity of a patient. But the volume of information has led to some awkward moments and now there is as much fear of social stigma as of illness.
Coronavirus: Singapore develops smartphone app for efficient contact tracing
The Straits Times
A contact-tracing smartphone app has been launched to allow the local authorities to quickly track people who have been exposed to confirmed coronavirus cases.
UK
Phone location data could be used to help UK coronavirus effort
The Guardian
@marksweney @alexhern
BT, owner of UK mobile operator EE, is in talks with the government about using its phone location and usage data to monitor whether coronavirus limitation measures such as asking the public to stay at home are working. The ability to create movement maps of anonymised data, meaning individuals could not be identified, could prove invaluable in evaluating and shaping the state response to the spread of the virus.
Europe
Coronavirus: Huawei to send medical equipment to Ireland
Irish Times
Chinese technology company Huawei has said it will send a shipment of medical equipment to Ireland as part of its Covid-19 relief efforts. Ireland will be the first European country after Italy to be sent medical equipment by the company, which has been at the centre of a geopolitical controversy in recent months over the alleged presence of spyware in its products – which the company denies.
Russia
Russian hackers using stolen Middle Eastern email accounts to mask their phishing attempts
CyberScoop
@shanvav
Hackers working for Russian military intelligence have long relied on zero-days and malware to target their victims, but in the last year they’ve kept it simple — using previously hacked email accounts to send a wide array of phishing attempts, according to new research from security firm Trend Micro.
Hackers breach FSB contractor and leak details about IoT hacking project
ZDNet
@campuscodi
Digital Revolution hacker group leaks details about "Fronton" an IoT botnet a contractor was allegedly building for the FSB, Russia's intelligence agency.
Misc.
‘Zoombombing’: When Video Conferences Go Wrong
The New York Times
@TaylorLorenz
Zoom has become the default social platform for millions of people looking to connect with friends, family, students and colleagues while practicing social distancing during the new coronavirus pandemic. But the trolls of the internet are under quarantine, too, and they’re looking for Zooms to disrupt.
Huge text message campaigns spread coronavirus fake news
The Financial Times
Plague of misleading text messages triggers coronavirus panic.
As coronavirus fears grow, family group chats spread support but also misinformation
ABC News
@arielbogle
The messages, forwarded or copy-pasted on the Facebook-owned WhatsApp platform or in text messages, claim to be health advice from the Stanford Hospital Board or from an anonymous doctor who has a cure for COVID-19, if only anyone would listen.
Can a social media alliance fight COVID-19 misinformation?
Marketplace
Last week, Facebook, Google, Microsoft’s LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter and YouTube sent out a joint statement saying they would be working closely together to combat misinformation about COVID-19 while also working to build community. But social media companies have said they were fighting misinformation before without a lot of meaningful impact.