ASIO disrupts foreign interference in Australian election | Pro-CCP Twitter accounts flood Olympics hashtags | New ASPI report: Digital Southeast Asia, Opportunities for Australia–India cooperation
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A spy ring led by a wealthy ‘puppeteer’ with deep links to a foreign government has been caught trying to get sympathetic MPs elected. The Australian
Pro-China accounts have been flooding Twitter with messages that include the hashtag #GenocideGames, in what researchers say is an effort to dilute the hashtag’s power to galvanize criticism of the Winter Olympics host nation. The Wall Street Journal
For the many fragile democracies in the Indo-Pacific, Covid-19 is creating conditions that could undermine democratic resilience. A central question for these democratic governments is how to drive accelerating digital transformation and ICT-enabled growth towards poverty reduction, sustainable economic growth and building social cohesion while maintaining resilience to cybersecurity threats. ASPI
ASPI ICPC
Digital Southeast Asia
ASPI
Dr Huon Curtis, Bart Hogeveen, Jocelinn Kang, Dr Huong Le Thu, Dr Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan and Trisha Ray
For the many fragile democracies in the Indo-Pacific, Covid-19 is creating conditions that could undermine democratic resilience. A central question for these democratic governments is how to drive accelerating digital transformation and ICT-enabled growth towards poverty reduction, sustainable economic growth and building social cohesion while maintaining resilience to cybersecurity threats.
Australia
ASIO foils foreign spy plot to disrupt federal election
The Australian
Simon Benson
A spy ring led by a wealthy ‘puppeteer’ with deep links to a foreign government has been caught trying to get sympathetic MPs elected.
Dating apps like Tinder and anti-COVID vaccine mandate protests drawing ASIO's attention, according to annual threat assessment
ABC News
Andrew Greene
Foreign spies are using Tinder and other dating apps to recruit Australians with access to sensitive government secrets.Director-General's Annual Threat Assessment
ASIO
Mike Burgess
Security is a shared responsibility. ASIO cannot stop every terrorist and catch every spy. The scale, persistence and sophistication of the threats Australia is facing demands a broader approach to security.
Craig Kelly defends escorting 'Russian agent' Simeon Boikov into Parliament, Kristina Keneally says Labor is 'deeply concerned'
The Canberra Times
Finn McHugh
Craig Kelly has defended escorting a far-right extremist who once described Australia as an "enemy state" into Parliament, a development Labor described as "deeply concerning". The Canberra Times on Wednesday revealed Simeon Boikov, a far-right "self-declared agent of Russia", was part of a delegation of anti-vaccine mandate protesters signed into Parliament by the United Australia Party leader on Tuesday.
Chinese hackers attack local media group
The Australian
Ben Packham
Chinese state-affiliated hackers have targeted a major Australian media company, stealing passwords and data using a publicised vulnerability within hours of the software flaw being revealed.
China
Pro-China Twitter accounts flood hashtag critical of Beijing Winter Olympics
The Wall Street Journal
Georgia Wells and Liza Lin
Pro-China accounts have been flooding Twitter with messages that include the hashtag #GenocideGames, in what researchers say is an effort to dilute the hashtag’s power to galvanize criticism of the Winter Olympics host nation.
A report detailed the tech gap between China and the U.S. Then it disappeared.
Protocol
Shen Lu
A top Chinese think tank found that China might fare worse than the US from a tech decoupling.
European governments targeted by Chinese hackers with a Zimbra webmail zero-day
The Record by Recorded Future
Catalin Cimpanu
A new Chinese cyber-espionage group has been seen abusing a zero-day vulnerability in the Zimbra collaboration suite to gain access to the email inboxes of European governments and media agencies.
Claims that overwork killed China tech worker reignites ‘996’ debate
The Guardian
Helen Davidson
A hashtag relating to the death of man employed at video platform Bilibili has been viewed hundreds of millions of times but company denies claims he was overworked.
USA
U.S., Chinese investors feud over startup Icon Aircraft during national security review of deal
The Wall Street Journal
Kate O'Keeffe
Feuding investors in a California plane startup are firing off allegations against each other while the company is in the midst of a U.S. national security review, a risky tactic during the secretive process.
AUKUS caucus: Republicans and Democrats find a topic they can agree on
The Sydney Morning Herald
Farrah Tomazin
Members of the US Congress are considering creating an “AUKUS caucus” to sharpen Washington’s focus on the strategic military pact announced last year to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
2021 Trends show increased globalized threat of ransomware
CISA
In 2021, cybersecurity authorities in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom observed an increase in sophisticated, high-impact ransomware incidents against critical infrastructure organizations globally.
Senate lawmakers try again on cyber incident reporting legislation
The Record by Recorded Future
Martin Matishak
The leaders of the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday introduced a legislative package meant to boost U.S. cybersecurity, warning a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine could result in cyberattacks against the U.S. by Moscow or its proxies.
Spy world wary as Biden team keeps leaking Russia intel
POLITICO
Nahal Toosi
U.S. national security figures get that information war is the new battleground. But "how many freaking times do they need to warn that anything may be imminent?” one asked.
Private contractor to drop facial recognition requirement for all state and federal agencies after backlash over IRS plan
The Washington Post
Drew Harwell
The sudden reversal will reshape how Americans verify their identities while filing for unemployment or other government benefits. Advocates worry that offering the face-scan option will still put ‘people’s sensitive information at risk.’
Justice Dept. seizes $3.6 billion in Bitcoin and arrests married couple
The New York Times
Katie Benner
The couple were accused of conspiring to launder Bitcoin that had been stolen in 2016 from Hong Kong-based Bitfinex, one of the world’s largest virtual currency exchanges.
Another university learns the hard way about Chinese censorship on campus
The Washington Post
Josh Rogin
This week, a major university in D.C. found itself in the position of censoring criticism of the Chinese government by removing art posters highlighting Beijing’s human rights abuses during the first week of the Winter Olympics. It’s not the first time China’s long arm of influence reached onto U.S. campuses — and it won’t be the last.
UK
Foreign Office target of 'serious cyber incident'
BBC News
Gordon Corera
The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) was the target of a "serious cyber-security incident", it has emerged.
Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy
BBC News
Jonathan Amos
European scientists say they have made a major breakthrough in their quest to develop practical nuclear fusion - the energy process that powers the stars. The UK-based JET laboratory has smashed its own world record for the amount of energy it can extract by squeezing together two forms of hydrogen.
Europe
European, U.S. regulators tell banks to prepare for Russian cyberattack threat
Reuters
John O'Donnell and Huw Jones
The European Central Bank is preparing banks for a possible Russian-sponsored cyber attack as tensions with Ukraine mount, two people with knowledge of the matter said, as the region braces for the financial fallout of any conflict.
The EU must decide how to limit the use of spyware by member states
Financial Times
Marietje Schaake
Accusations the Polish government used NSO technology against political opponents put pressure on Brussels.
ASML warns Chinese rival may be infringing its trade secrets
Bloomberg
Debby Wu and Cagan Koc
ASML Holding NV has warned that an affiliate of a China company it previously accused of stealing its trade secrets has begun marketing products that could infringe on its intellectual property rights.
Cyberattack brings down Vodafone Portugal mobile, voice, and TV services
The Record by Recorded Future
Catalin Cimpanu
Vodafone Portugal said today that a large chunk of its customer data services went offline overnight following “a deliberate and malicious cyberattack intended to cause damage and disruption.”
Americas
The hacked account and suspicious donations behind the Canadian trucker protests
GRID
Anya van Wagtendonk, Benjamin Powers and Steve Reilly
The jumble of misinformation, online fundraising groups and amplification from right-wing political figures suggests there’s more to these protests than meets the eye.
Misc
The metaverse is a new word for an old idea
MIT Technology Review
Genevieve Bell
To understand what we are—and should be—building, we need to look beyond Snow Crash.
TikTok tests age-rated content restrictions
Reuters
Elizabeth Culliford
TikTok is working on ways to rate and restrict content by age in order to prevent adult content from reaching teenage users of its short video app, the company said at a news briefing.
From TikTok to Twitch, Employees Juggle Conflicts While Moonlighting as Influencers
The Information
Kaya Yurieff
When Jenna Palek applied for a sales position at TikTok in the spring of 2020, she did something creative to help her get hired: She posted a 58-second clip of herself on the short video–sharing app highlighting her qualifications while performing dance moves popularized on TikTok. It worked. Palek nabbed the job after the video went viral, but the interest and attention also inspired her to start making more TikTok videos to build her own personal following.
How Telegram Became the Anti-Facebook
Wired
Darren Loucaides
Hundreds of millions of users. No algorithm. No ads. Courage in the face of autocracy. Sound like a dream? Careful what you wish for.
Geomagnetic storm and recently deployed Starlink satellites
SpaceX
On Thursday, February 3 at 1:13 p.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida... Unfortunately, the satellites were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday.
Events and Podcasts
Indigenous Technologies: Innovations Powering the Continuation of our Oldest Civilisations
The Sydney Dialogue
Indigenous technology entrepreneurs are blending their ancient cultures with new technologies in ways that are transforming the oldest civilisations on earth and challenging perceptions about the way new and emerging technology can be harnessed. In this panel discussion, Indigenous tech entrepreneurs and thought leaders will look ahead at how the world’s oldest societies will co-exist in a technology fuelled future. Streaming on Monday 14th February at 12pm AEDT.
Research
Reshoring Chipmaking Capacity Requires High-Skilled Foreign Talent
CSET
Will Hunt
CHIPS for America Act funding will result in the construction of new semiconductor fabrication facilities (“fabs”) in the United States, employing tens of thousands of workers. This policy brief assesses the occupations and backgrounds that will be most in-demand among new fabs, as well as options for ensuring availability of the necessary talent. Findings suggest the need for new immigration pathways for experienced foreign fab workers, and investments in workforce development.
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.