Beijing's Electronic Dragnet Closes on Hong Kong | US Military’s top cyber official defends more aggressive stance | India moves to cut Huawei gear from telecoms network
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Under a new national security law, the police are targeting the social media accounts of executives, politicians and activists. American internet giants are struggling to respond. The New York Times
The U.S. military’s top cyber official is defending the government’s shift toward a more aggressive strategy in cyberspace, saying the mission has evolved over the last decade from “a reactive and defensive posture” to keep pace with sophisticated threats. The Washington Post
India is phasing out equipment from Huawei and other Chinese companies from its telecoms networks over an escalating border dispute, striking a fresh blow to the beleaguered technology giant in one of its most important markets. The Australian Financial Review
ASPI ICPC
Coronavirus Vaccine News: Countries peddling fake news about vaccine for ‘strategic gains’
The Times of India
A new report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute shows state and non-state players in major countries injecting disinformation to influence public opinion on the vaccine.
The World
Lifting the veil on DeathStalker, a mercenary triumvirate
Secure List
@JusticeRage Pierre Delcher Maher Yamout
In this blog post, we’ll be focusing on DeathStalker: a unique threat group that appears to target law firms and companies in the financial sector.. Their interest in gathering sensitive business information leads us to believe that DeathStalker is a group of mercenaries offering hacking-for-hire services, or acting as some sort of information broker in financial circles.
Australia
China military advances ‘pose a higher threat’
The Australian
Australia needs to counter growing Chinese military advances in missile, cyber and space technology, and Beijing’s willingness “to fight a different kind of war” than the West, new research in the Australian Defence Force official journal says.
Information Warfare chief attends FifthDomain-led cyber skills training for Defence
Defence Connect
Stephen Kuper
FifthDomain, a Canberra scale-up specialist cyber skills development and management technology company, welcomed Major General Marcus Thompson, Head Information Warfare for the ADF, to its headquarters for the final day of the successful commercial pilot of Australia’s first fully online, collective cyber training program.
Tech intensive jobs to lead economic recovery
InnovationAus
@DaveSharma
On any reckoning, it should be technology-intensive jobs and industries that help lead this recovery in Australia. Technology companies have been one of the few beneficiaries of COVID-19 disruption, as people have flocked to new platforms and tools to work, learn, shop and socialise remotely.
China
With Hacks and Cameras, Beijing's Electronic Dragnet Closes on Hong Kong
The New York Times
@paulmozur
Under a new national security law, the police are targeting the social media accounts of executives, politicians and activists. American internet giants are struggling to respond. In the past month HK police have broken into the Facebook account of one politician, hung a camera outside another's house, and tried to phish the login details to Jimmy Lai's Twitter.
Chinese Diplomats Helped Military Scholars Visiting the U.S. Evade FBI Scrutiny, U.S. Says
The New York Times
@Kate_OKeeffe @aviswanatha
The U.S. closed the Chinese consulate in Houston and ordered China to remove the researchers after finding what officials say was an intelligence-gathering operation aided by diplomats to collect cutting-edge scientific research from American universities.
Read ASPI ICPC’s report ‘Picking flowers, making honey’ here.
Chinese-Made Smartphones Are Secretly Stealing Money From People Around The World
Buzzfeed News
@CraigSilverman
Preinstalled malware on low-cost Chinese phones has stolen data and money from some of the world's poorest people.
Big Brother is swabbing you: Citywide COVID-19 tests raise privacy concerns
Apple Daily
@appledaily_hk
The DNA data of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million people may be collected and sent to mainland China under a citywide COVID-19 testing program launched by the city’s government, a lawyer said.. What servers would store the data and where these would be located remained unknown, leading to possible risks that data would be sent or leaked to mainland China, she said.
How Huawei Landed at the Center of Global Tech Tussle: QuickTake
Bloomberg
@business
China’s biggest tech firm, Huawei Technologies Co., has risen to global prominence as a leader in 5G, the much ballyhooed, next-generation wireless technology. It’s also become a major target for the U.S., which has been trying to convince its allies to ban Huawei equipment from their national networks on spying concerns. In a major reversal, the U.K. decided in July to join the boycott, signaling fresh momentum for the American effort.
USA
Military’s top cyber official defends more aggressive stance
The Washington Post
Eric Tucker
The U.S. military’s top cyber official is defending the government’s shift toward a more aggressive strategy in cyberspace, saying the mission has evolved over the last decade from “a reactive and defensive posture” to keep pace with sophisticated threats. Gen. Paul Nakasone, the commander of U.S. Cyber Command and the director of the National Security Agency, says in a piece being published Tuesday by the magazine Foreign Affairs that the military’s cyber fighters are increasingly prepared to engage in combat with online adversaries rather than wait to repair networks after they’ve been penetrated.
Read this Foreign Affairs Essay ‘How to compete in Cyberspace’ here.
Burnout, splinter factions and deleted posts: Unpaid online moderators struggle to manage divided communities
The Washington Post
@heatherkelly
The job has been harder in recent months. Welch, a stay-at-home mother in Amarillo, Tex., says she has been dealing with more users, increased tension and heated debates since the pandemic began.
Ex-Intel Chief: 'I Wish We Had Taken More Action' Against Russian Meddling
National Public Radio
@gregmyre1
Asked if U.S. intelligence agencies and the government should have done more before the 2016 election, Rogers said: "I wish we had taken more direct, more public action sooner as opposed to doing so after the election itself." Rogers continued as head of the NSA and Cyber Command under President Trump before stepping down in May 2018. Before he left, he pressed for the U.S. to be more aggressive in going after cyber threats.
RNC Speaker Boosts QAnon Conspiracy Theory About Jewish Plot to Enslave the World
The Daily Beast
@willsommer
Mary Ann Mendoza, an “angel mom,” took to twitter to encourage followers to read a thread about the Rothschilds hours before she was set to speak at the Republican National Convention.
Google makes longtime legal exec its new general counsel
Axios
@dalykyle
Google has named Halimah DeLaine Prado its new general counsel, taking over day-to-day oversight of the company's legal team from Kent Walker, who had essentially retained the GC role since being promoted to a broader position in 2018.
Southeast Asia
Facebook blocks group of one million critical of Thai monarchy amid government pressure
Reuters
@patpichatan
Facebook blocked access within Thailand to a group with 1 million members that has criticised the country’s king, but said it was planning a legal challenge to the government’s demand that it block the group
South and Central Asia
India moves to cut Huawei gear from telecoms network
Australian Financial Review
@AmyKazmin @SJFindlay
India is phasing out equipment from Huawei and other Chinese companies from its telecoms networks over an escalating border dispute, striking a fresh blow to the beleaguered technology giant in one of its most important markets. New Delhi has not issued any formal written ban on Chinese equipment suppliers like Huawei and ZTE, nor has prime minister Narendra Modi’s government made any such public pronouncements. However, industry executives and government officials say key ministries have clearly indicated that local telecom service providers should avoid using Chinese equipment in future investments, including in 5G networks.
Kashmir's Internet Siege - an ongoing assault on digital rights
Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society
@jkccs_
Kashmir's Internet Siege provides an overview of the harms, costs and consequences of the digital siege in Jammu & Kashmir, from August 2019 to the publication of this report in August 2020. We examine the shutdown and network disruptions through a broad-based and multi- dimensional human rights framework that sees internet access as vital in the contemporary world.
Europe
Europe’s 5G plans in limbo after latest salvo against Huawei
Politico
@laurenscerulus
Some, like the Czech Republic and Poland, are echoing the U.S.'s line to cut Huawei's market access. Others, like France, say they will phase out the company later in the decade, while Germany and Spain haven't taken a clear position yet.
Americas
Canada has effectively moved to block China's Huawei from 5G, but can't say so
Reuters
@reutersLjungg
Canada is the only member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network that has not formally blocked Huawei from 5G networks, but it has effectively done just that, delaying a decision long enough to force telecom companies to exclude the Chinese gear maker.
Middle East
Israeli phone hacking company faces court fight over sales to Hong Kong
MIT Technology Review
@HowellONeill
Human rights advocates filed a new court petition against the Israeli phone hacking company Cellebrite, urging Israel’s ministry of defense to halt the firm’s exports to Hong Kong, where security forces have been using the technology in crackdowns against dissidents as China takes greater control.
Group of unskilled Iranian hackers behind recent attacks with Dharma ransomware
ZDNet
@campuscodi
Cyber-security firm Group-IB says it identified a group of low-skilled hackers operating out of Iran that has been launching attacks against companies in Asia and attempting to encrypt their networks with a version of the Dharma ransomware.
Misc
We’re not doing enough to protect COVID-19 vaccine research from cyber espionage
Fast Company
@PBeshar @DrJudySalerno
Bad actors have launched attacks on companies and health agencies, but it isn’t too late to stop them, write two experts.
Police Want Your Smart Speaker — Here's Why
Wired
@sidneyfussell
Requests are rising from law enforcement for information on the devices, which can include internet queries, food orders, and overheard conversations.
Research
Governing Online Speech: From "Posts-As-Trumps" to Proportionality and Probability
Columbia Law Review
@evelyndouek
Online speech governance stands at an inflexion point. Platforms are emerging from the state of emergency invoked during the pandemic and lawmakers are poised to transform the regulatory landscape. The importance of what emerges from this moment can hardly be overstated: how platforms write and enforce the rules for what speech they allow on their services shapes the most important channels for communication in the modern era, and has profound consequences for individuals, societies, and democratic governance.
Detecting Digital Fingerprints: Tracing Chinese Disinformation in Taiwan
Institute for The Future, Graphika, International Republican Institute
@iftf @Graphika_NYC @IRIglobal
Institute for the Future’s Digital Intelligence Lab, Graphika, and International Republican Institute issued a joint report revealing the tactics and strategy behind an information operation directed at Taiwanese democratic processes. The report uncovered a series of campaigns by CCP-linked and domestic actors targeting Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election and its response to COVID-19 with narratives crafted to advance Beijing-strategic interests.