Alarm sounded over foreign social media platforms | Indian government alleged illegal surveillance | Ransomware gangs to stop attacking health orgs during pandemic
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The Australian Strategic Policy Institute told the government inquiry into social media and foreign interference that it should establish an independent statutory to observe and report on how the incentives, policies, algorithms and enforcement actions of social media platforms were operating. “Crucially, these obligations should be placed on all social media operating in Australia, including those companies that originate from authoritarian regimes and those fringe platforms servicing niche communities” AFR
The Indian Congress on Wednesday blasted the government for alleged illegal surveillance on citizens in violation of a Supreme Court verdict declaring individual privacy a fundamental right. Telegraph India
Some Ransomware operators have stated that they will no longer target health and medical organisations during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Bleeping Computer
ASPI ICPC
Alarm sounded over foreign social media platforms
AFR
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute told the inquiry the government should establish an independent statutory to observe and report on how the incentives, policies, algorithms and enforcement actions of social media platforms were operating. “This authority would be granted explicit insight into how content is filtered, blocked, amplified or suppressed, both from a moderation and algorithmic amplification point of view," the submission said. “Crucially, these obligations should be placed on all social media operating in Australia, including those companies that originate from authoritarian regimes and those fringe platforms servicing niche communities – not just the dominant Western platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat."
Countering foreign interference and social media misinformation in Australia
ZDNet
@ashabeeeee
The establishment of the committee followed a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) that reviewed 97 national elections and 37 referendums and identified foreign interference in 20 countries including Australia. The Australian government has a handful of initiatives in place that it believes will deter trolls from interfering with the nation's democracy and collective "values".
Australia needs a national mobilisation committee to navigate the coronavirus crisis
ASPI Strategist
@michael_ASPI
Food distribution, production and distribution of medical supplies, power, transport, telecommunications, education and other activities like waste management will all need to be similarly ruthlessly prioritised and orchestrated as Australian population centres enter various levels of lockdown to slow the virus’s spread. Including the CEOs of our big national medical, aged care, food, logistics, power, financial, transport and telecommunications companies in advisory and decision-making processes, rather than at the end of complicated chains of communication, will be essential through this time.
The World
An update on our continuity strategy during COVID-19
Twitter
Broadening our definition of harm to address content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information. Rather than reports, we will enforce this in close coordination with trusted partners, including public health authorities and governments, and continue to use and consult with information from those sources when reviewing content.
Facebook has a coronavirus problem. It's WhatsApp.
CNN
@Hadas_Gold
Governments and medical officials are scrambling to provide the public with accurate and timely information about the novel coronavirus. But those efforts are being undermined by the spread of medical misinformation and fake cures on one of the world's most popular messaging platforms.
Australia
Biggest we've ever seen': How to stay safe from coronavirus scams targeting Australians
Yahoo
@NWWhigham
As the novel coronavirus spreads around Australia, there is another insidious threat proliferating as cyber criminals try to take advantage of the panic bred by the pandemic.
Countering extremism in the midst of coronavirus
The Interpreter
@arcanakhalil
Governments must not only stamp out misinformation, but they must also account for the ways that disinformation and conspiracy theories fuel the acceleration of violent extremist narratives and the potential for violence by ideologically motivated extremist individuals and groups seeking to exploit the situation.
CBA reveals screen scrapers double its customer fraud propensity
ITNews
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has fired a broadside into widespread claims that the use of screen scraping isn’t boosting online banking fraud or hitting consumers, disclosing usually tightly held internal cyber security figures in response to questions from the fintech inquiry.
China
China’s Glowing Coronavirus-Response Coverage Triggers Anger at State Media
WSJ
@ByChunHan
Chinese social media has recoiled with anger at the lionization of Ms. Liao, saying she helped propagate fictions that clouded the severity of the outbreak in its early days.. “The gaps between official and public sentiments are multiplying and widening,” another WeChat user wrote. “Sooner or later, the officials will lose the hearts and minds of the people.”
Beijing pushes coronavirus disinformation in propaganda offensive
SMHPandemics & Propaganda: How Chinese State Media Shapes Conversations on The Coronavirus Stanford
How China Is Reshaping the Coronavirus Narrative
NYT
@muyixiao @DrewJordan_NYT @Meg Felling @ckoettl
We looked at China’s expansive propaganda system aimed at foreigners and analyzed thousands of English-language tweets from state media and diplomats. Here are the coronavirus messages China is projecting to the world.
Chinese hackers and others are exploiting coronavirus fears for cyber espionage
Technology Review
Government-sponsored and criminal hackers from around the world are taking advantage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic to spy on adversaries, according to multiple cybersecurity threat intelligence companies. Hacking groups aligned with the Chinese and Russian governments, among others, have been sending out malicious email attachments about the virus in recent weeks.
US
Disinformation and scapegoating: how America's far right is responding to coronavirus
The Guardian
@jason_a_w
The pandemic, a situation in which people are panic-buying supplies, is ideal for a movement powered by fear and lies.
South Asia
Indian Army issues Coronavirus cyber scam alert to defence personnel
Zeenews
The Indian Army on Thursday issued a cyber scam alert over the deadly Coronavirus to the defence personnel. An official statement read, "Targeted campaigns on the theme of coronavirus are being undertaken by Indian adversaries with the primary aim of compromising email/ other accounts and to infect official/ personal IT assets of defence personnel."
Huge surge in fake corona news on Facebook, WhatsApp bleeds India
Outlook India
Huge surge in fake corona news on Facebook, WhatsApp bleeds into India. The massive surge in fake news, videos, GIFs and authentic-looking government notifications related to new coronavirus (COVID-19) in India has left millions of users, civil society members, journalists and authorities completely baffled and cornered, starting with panic buying across the country.
Congress slams government for alleged illegal surveillance on citizens
Telegraph India
The Indian Congress on Wednesday blasted the government for alleged illegal surveillance on citizens in violation of a Supreme Court verdict declaring individual privacy a fundamental right.
Europe
Google Agrees to Worker Council in Europe Amid Recurring Discord
Bloomberg
@rj_gallagher
Google employees in Europe could soon have more power to challenge company decisions after the search giant approved the creation of a council that will represent the interests of thousands of its workers across the continent.
Netflix is slowing down in Europe to keep the internet from breaking
CNN
Netflix will reduce streaming quality in Europe for at least the next month to prevent the internet collapsing under the strain of unprecedented usage due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Middle East
Cyber attacks and disruptive events affect 80 per cent of organisations in the MEA region
Comms MEA
The Dell Technologies Global Data Protection Index 2020 Snapshot reveals that organisations in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) on average are managing almost 73 per cent more data than they were a year ago. With this surge in data comes inherent challenges. The vast majority (81 per cent) of respondents reported their current data protection solutions will not meet all of their future business needs.
Africa
Working from home the 'new normal', but be wary of cyber security threats
Times Live
With many companies opting to let employees work from home as a measure to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, a cyber security expert has sounded a warning about the importance of data security.
Misc
Ransomware Gangs to Stop Attacking Health Orgs During Pandemic
Bleeping Computer
Some Ransomware operators have stated that they will no longer target health and medical organisations during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Last night, BleepingComputer reached out to the operators of the Maze, DoppelPaymer, Ryuk, Sodinokibi/REvil, PwndLocker, and Ako Ransomware infections to ask if they would continue targeting health and medical organisations during the outbreak.
Research
Political warfare in the digital age: cyber subversion, information operations and ‘deep fakes’
TandF Online
@1homaspaterson @1auren_Hanley
The digital age has permanently changed the way states conduct political warfare—necessitating a rebalancing of security priorities in democracies. The utilisation of cyberspace by state and non-state actors to subvert democratic elections, encourage the proliferation of violence and challenge the sovereignty and values of democratic states is having a highly destabilising effect.