AFP on alert for domestic protests, disinformation and foreign interference as election looms | 54 Chinese apps banned by Indian govt | Ukraine shores up cyber defences against Russia
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The Australian federal police commissioner has sounded a warning about disinformation ahead of the federal election campaign, telling a parliamentary inquiry police will use the “full force” of the law when conduct reaches a criminal threshold. The Guardian
The Union home ministry has recommended a ban on 54 Chinese mobile applications that pose a threat to India’s security. The information technology ministry will soon formally issue a notification in the same regard. Hindustan Times
Viktor Zhora proudly showed off the new facilities at one of Ukraine’s cyber security agencies, where opposing teams stage mock battles to prepare for the real thing. Financial Times
ASPI ICPC
Democracies work on collective security as Lithuania stares down escalating Chinese coercion
The Strategist
Fergus Hunter
Three decades after gaining its independence from the USSR, Lithuania is again on the front lines of tension between the liberal democratic world and communist authoritarianism. This time, it’s grappling with the People’s Republic of China and faces intimidation using innovative economic statecraft rather than Soviet military force writes Fergus Hunter, an analyst at ASPI's International Cyber Policy Centre.
Untapped potential' in Indigenous tech
7News
Marion Rae
Technology can power the continuation of our oldest civilisations, as it has been doing for some time, Indigenous leaders have told a summit. But a new economic model is needed that includes and values Indigenous knowledge systems and data gathering, New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta said at the Sydney Dialogue on Monday.
The Sydney Dialogue event: Indigenous Technologies will be available to watch on demand shortly. Check out the rest of our program here
EVENT: Increasing Resilience in a Post-Pandemic World
The Sydney Dialogue
Covid-19 has created unprecedented disruption to our economic, health, and travel systems. The pandemic has demonstrated the importance of governments, scientists, and industry leaders working together to ensure healthy and thriving communities. How will this relationship re-write itself in the wake of the pandemic? In this panel discussion, speakers will look at how governments, scientists and industry leaders can better work together to protect global health and promote economic recovery using technology. Streaming on Monday 21st February at 5:30pm AEDT.
The World
Technology is revolutionizing how intelligence is gathered and analyzed – and opening a window onto Russian military activity around Ukraine
The Conversation
Craig Nazareth
As the U.S. and other NATO member governments monitor Russia’s activities and determine appropriate policy responses, the timely intelligence they rely on no longer comes solely from multimillion-dollar spy satellites and spies on the ground. Social media, big data, smartphones and low-cost satellites have taken center stage, and scraping Twitter has become as important as anything else in the intelligence analyst toolkit. These technologies have also allowed news organizations and armchair sleuths to follow the action and contribute analysis.
Australia
AFP on alert for domestic protests, disinformation and foreign interference as election looms
The Guardian
Katharine Murphy
The Australian federal police commissioner has sounded a warning about disinformation ahead of the federal election campaign, telling a parliamentary inquiry police will use the “full force” of the law when conduct reaches a criminal threshold.
Labor senator names businessman as ‘puppeteer’ behind foreign interference plot
The Sydney Morning Herald
Anthony Galloway
One of Australia’s biggest political donors has been named in a Federal Parliament hearing as being the “puppeteer” behind a foreign interference plot to get political candidates elected in an upcoming Australian election.
Sensitive business addresses among 500,000 published in COVID data breach
The Sydney Morning Herald
Jonathan Kearsley and Clair Weaver
The addresses of more than 500,000 organisations including defence sites, a missile maintenance unit and domestic violence shelters were inadvertently made public in the first major breach of the NSW government’s massive trove of QR code data.
Quantum leap: Has next-gen computing moved from hype to hope?
The Sydney Morning Herald
Liam Mannix
Australian scientists believe they have taken a key step towards building a silicon quantum computer – a device that could take quantum computing from hype to mainstream.
China
How China is using humanitarian aid to gain a military foothold in the South Pacific
The Sydney Morning Herald
Anne-Marie Brady
China’s growing “greyzone” activities in the South Pacific were undoubtedly high on the agenda at Friday’s meeting in Melbourne of the Quad, the security partnership between the United States, Australia, India and Japan. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken flew in just for the meeting..China is using its Pacific embassies as ground station sites for Beidou, China’s equivalent to GPS. Like GPS, it is a military technology, crucial for missile targeting and timing.
Minxin Pei on the biggest misperception about China’s surveillance state
The Wire China
David Barboza
The political scientist talks about China’s appetite for political reform, why no one saw Xi Jinping coming, U.S. responsiveness, and why China’s low tech surveillance scares him.
‘Friends’ in China: The one where Ross’s ex-wife isn’t gay
The New York Times
Alexandra Stevenson
The popular sitcom has become the latest target of China’s censorship campaign. The awkward cuts have not been missed by fans of the show in the country.
USA
SEC proposes cyber rules for Investment funds and advisers
Wall Street Journal
James Rundle
Financial regulators proposed long-awaited cybersecurity rules for investment funds and advisers last week that would require thousands of companies to report cyberattacks within 48 hours.
‘Heist of the century’: US bitcoin case tests ability to crack down on cybercrime
The Guardian
Edward Helmore
Case may be first time government has brought a case not on the basis of an alleged theft, but on the couple’s alleged efforts to conceal their identities.
Texas AG sues Facebook parent Meta over facial recognition
APNews
Barbara Ortutay
The Texas Attorney General is suing Facebook parent Meta, saying the company has unlawfully collected biometric data on Texans for commercial purposes, without their informed consent. Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit Monday a state district court claiming Meta has been “storing millions of biometric identifiers” — identified as retina or iris scans, voice prints, or a record of hand and face geometry — contained in photos and videos people upload to its services, including Facebook and Instagram.
Southeast Asia
Covid-19 and digitalization in Southeast Asia: a big leap forward but gaps widen too
VnExpress
Le Thu Huong
At the World Economic Forum Davos Agenda virtual event, taking place from Jan 17 to 21, global leaders focused their discussion on a common interest that is shared across the regions and fields - that is the recovery from the pandemic...Among three priorities for G20 2022 are global health infrastructure, digital economy and sustainable energy transition. This shows that the region, as much of the world, are betting much on digital transformation as the way out from the pandemic and the core pillar of their future development.
Read our latest report: Digital Southeast Asia: Opportunities for Australia–India cooperation to support the region in the post-Covid-19 context here
"[#SoutheastAsia ]’s highly connected and young population and growing economic weight means that the direction of SEA’s #digitaleconomy and technology posture will shape relations across and within the region.” says @le2huong co-author of aspi.org.au/report/digital…Covid-19 and digitalization in Southeast Asia: a big leap forward but gaps widen too https://t.co/fvppndoSIYVnExpress @vietnamenglish
Fears Cambodia is rolling out China-style ‘Great Firewall’ to curb online freedom
The Guardan
Rebecca Ratcliffe
A China-style internet gateway scheduled to be imposed in Cambodia this week would grant the government far greater powers to conduct mass surveillance, censor and control the country’s internet, rights groups have warned.
South & Central Asia
Video chat, gaming, selfie cameras: List of 54 Chinese apps banned by govt
Hindustan Times
Harshit Sabarwal
The Union home ministry has recommended a ban on 54 Chinese mobile applications that pose a threat to India’s security. The information technology ministry will soon formally issue a notification in the same regard.
Europe
Ukraine shores up cyber defences against Russia
Financial Times
Ben Hall, John Paul Rathbone and Roman Olearchyk
Viktor Zhora proudly showed off the new facilities at one of Ukraine’s cyber security agencies, where opposing teams stage mock battles to prepare for the real thing.
Russia
Ukraine crisis: Is Russia waging an information war?
BBC
Kayleen Devlin and Olga Robinson
As Russia continues its military build-up on Ukraine's border, it's also attempting to control the media narrative - but which parts are misleading? We've looked at some examples of the methods used by pro-Kremlin outlets.
The Guardian view on megaphone diplomacy: countering Russian disinformation
The Guardian
The US’s megaphone diplomacy has seen Washington present a public case for a real and present danger – even naming the date of a possible Russian offensive this week – that narrowed the gap between western allies on the level of Russian sanctions which could successfully deter an invasion. Russia’s hybrid war strategy is based on sowing confusion and disinformation. The US, by revealing intelligence in real time, has put Russia on the defensive, preventing it from using such tactics to shroud its moves.
Africa
Rights group goes to court to get Nigeria to publish agreement with Twitter
Reuters
Camillus Eboh
A Nigerian rights group has asked the High Court to force the government to publish an agreement with Twitter (TWTR.N) that led to the restoration of the social media company's services last month following a six-month ban.
Misc
Radar interference tracker: A new open source tool to locate active military radar systems
Bellingcat
Ollie Ballinger
The Radar Interference Tracker (RIT) is a new tool created by Ollie Ballinger that allows anyone to search for and potentially locate active military radar systems anywhere on earth. Click here to access the tool and read on for a full description of how to use it (as well as learning about the fascinating research it builds upon).
Switter, the Twitter for sex workers, is shutting down
VICE
Samantha Cole
The social network was an alternative to mainstream platforms that frequently kick sex workers off—and is closing due to harmful anti-sex and anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation.
Can we get smarter about disinformation?
The New York Times
Jay Caspian Kang
The path toward solving the disinformation problem should go toward broadening access to education and fixing income inequality instead of trying to persuade tech companies to remove a few notorious accounts. The focus should be not so much on how Big Tech acts but more on trying to create a resilient public that can spot truly harmful disinformation. This will require a relatively narrow but functional definition of what disinformation entails. One clear dichotomy: We should think about how to educate the public effectively about vaccines, but we should avoid the temptation to ascribe all political difference to the brainwashing of everyone who disagrees with us. The more disinformation is used as a bludgeon to beat down everything we don’t like, the less we will understand how it actually influences people’s thoughts.
Events and Podcasts
Increasing Resilience in a Post-Pandemic World
The Sydney Dialogue
Covid-19 has created unprecedented disruption to our economic, health, and travel systems. The pandemic has demonstrated the importance of governments, scientists, and industry leaders working together to ensure healthy and thriving communities. How will this relationship re-write itself in the wake of the pandemic? In this panel discussion, speakers will look at how governments, scientists and industry leaders can better work together to protect global health and promote economic recovery using technology. Streaming on Monday 21st February at 5:30pm AEDT.
The EU’s emerging data policy landscape
The Atlantic Council
What is the future of the the European Union’s regulation of data? EU officials and data experts unpack the EU’s upcoming proposals on the use of data and its implications for transatlantic business. This public event will be held virtually on February 17 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EST / 17:30hrs – 18:30hrs CET.
Research
Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map by Cen4infoRes
MapHub
Cen4infoRes
The Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map is a crowdsourced effort to map, document and verify information in order to provide reliable information for policymakers and journalists of the on-the-ground and online situation in and around Ukraine. The pins on this map represents open source material such as videos, photos and imagery that have been cross-referenced with satellite imagery to determine precise locations of military activity.
Jobs
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. Analysts usually have at least 5 years, often 7-10 years’ of work experience. Senior analysts usually have a minimum of 15 years relevant work experience and, in addition to research, they take on a leadership role in the centre and tend to be involved in staff and project management, fundraising and stakeholder engagement.
ICPC Data Analyst
ASPI ICPC
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) has an outstanding opportunity for talented Data Analysts to join its growing centre. ASPI’s ICPC undertakes complex research on some of the most challenging issues at the intersection of technology and public policy. How do we develop international norms to deter information operations and coercive diplomacy, how should we build international cooperation on the development of emerging critical technologies, what is the right balance between regulation and innovation? We deliver empirical research that is policy-relevant and we’re looking for people who can help us analyse data at scale.