Biden enlists Asian partners for Russia sanctions | EU to mobilize cyber team to help Ukraine | NEW report: The future of assistance to law enforcement in an end-to-end encrypted world
The Biden administration is in talks with economic powerhouses in Asia to gain their support for severe sanctions and export control packages against Russia as tensions mount over Russian troops deploying to breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine. Foreign Policy
The European Union will activate a team of cybersecurity experts to help Ukraine fight off cyberattacks from Russia, officials told POLITICO. POLITICO
A number of initiatives seek to embed safety and security into the design, development and deployment of services. They encourage industry to take a proactive and preventive approach to user safety and seek to balance and effectively manage privacy, safety and security requirements… Providing law enforcement access to E2E encrypted systems is very challenging. Proposals that allow access bring with them some potentially significant risks that exceptional access mechanisms will be abused by malicious actors. ASPI ICPC
ASPI ICPC
NEW REPORT: The future of assistance to law enforcement in an end-to-end encrypted world
ASPI
Tom Uren
A number of initiatives seek to embed safety and security into the design, development and deployment of services. They encourage industry to take a proactive and preventive approach to user safety and seek to balance and effectively manage privacy, safety and security requirements. Those initiatives have relatively few big-picture privacy or security drawbacks, but there are many issues on which there isn’t yet consensus on how to design platforms safely. Such initiatives may also need extensive resources for employee trust and safety teams. Providing law enforcement access to E2E encrypted systems is very challenging. Proposals that allow access bring with them some potentially significant risks that exceptional access mechanisms will be abused by malicious actors.
ASPI Webinar Launch: The future of assistance to law enforcement in an end-to-end encrypted world
ASPI
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre is delighted to invite you to the online launch of its new report ‘The future of assistance to law enforcement in an end-to-end encrypted world’. Join report author Tom Uren alongside panellists Brendan Dowling, First Assistant Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs Digital and Policy Division, and Clair Deevy, Director of Public Policy at WhatsApp for a discussion on how encryption has affected assistance to law enforcement, moderated by ASPI's Fergus Hanson.
World
Biden Enlists Asian Partners for Unprecedented Russia Sanctions Plans
Foreign Policy
Jack Detsch and Robbie Gramer
The Biden administration is in talks with economic powerhouses in Asia to gain their support for severe sanctions and export control packages against Russia as tensions mount over Russian troops deploying to breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine. Washington has so far received support from Singapore, Japan, and Taiwan for plans to implement restrictive export controls on Russia, three U.S. sources tell Foreign Policy, part of a broader sanctions package aimed at crushing Russia’s economy and technology sectors should the Kremlin move forward with plans to launch a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine. The three Asian countries are major producers of semiconductors, computer chips, and other high-end technological exports that Russia is reliant on.
Australia
Ex-Microsoft bigwig has a plan to kick-start Australia’s AI sector
Australian Financial Review
Yolanda Redrup
Former Microsoft global AI bigwig Stela Solar says Australia has some of the world’s best minds in artificial intelligence, but the country has been plagued by decades of “brain drain”, which is only just starting to turn around.
China
Meet the Investor Bailing Out China’s Chip Industry
The Information
Wayne Ma and Juro Osawa
The private equity investor Li Bin is little known outside China’s clubby finance and semiconductor circles. But Li’s biggest bet yet—a $9.5 billion bailout of Tsinghua Unigroup—will make him a central figure in China’s efforts to turnaround its struggling domestic chip industry.
USA
National Cyber Director Chris Inglis calls for 'new social contract' to redistribute risk
CyberScoop
Tim Starks
Cyberspace needs a “new social contract” where “isolated individuals, small businesses and local governments” no longer shoulder “absurd levels of risk,” says a top U.S. cyber official.
Southeast Asia
Vietnam’s Twin Tech Challenge: Spearheading While Catching Up
CSIS
Huong Le Thu
Vietnam’s potential and ambitions will be tested by its ability to adopt frontier technologies, boost innovation, and successfully navigate the complex cyber world and its underdeveloped regulatory framework. It can harness its demographic dividend to foster a competitive tech future. But to ensure that the future is resilient, it needs to bridge the ever-growing digital divide within society and leave no one behind in the digital sphere.
South & Central Asia
Europe
EU to mobilize cyber team to help Ukraine fight Russian cyberattacks
POLITICO
Laurens Cerulus
The European Union will activate a team of cybersecurity experts to help Ukraine fight off cyberattacks from Russia, officials told POLITICO. The EU’s Cyber Rapid Response Team includes around 10 national cybersecurity officials of six European countries — Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania — who can provide assistance to countries under cyberattack. The team falls under the EU's defense cooperation program PESCO; it will be its first deployment.
How prepared is Ukraine for Russian cyberattacks?
POLITICO
Sam Sabin
Cybersecurity teams around the world spent the weekend preparing for potential attacks tied to a Feb. 20 Russian invasion that never happened. But Ukrainian officials warn that today could actually be the day they’ve been dreading.
Technical Analysis of the DDoS Attacks against Ukrainian Websites
Cado Security
Last week the websites for several banks and government organisations in Ukraine were hit with a Distributed Denial-of-Service attack. Below we identify the likely source of the attacks as a botnet called Katana, with preparation for the attack starting at least as early as Sunday 13th February.
Russia
Middle East
Iran: Parliament moves to ratify central elements of oppressive Internet Bill
Article19
ARTICLE 19 has been documenting the steps authorities have taken to implement parts of the Bill for over six months. On 21 February 2022, there were widespread reports that Instagram was being purposefully throttled1. Instagram, one of the few foreign applications not filtered in Iran, has been seen as the biggest casualty of this Bill. The Bill requires international tech companies to have a legal representative in Iran to comply with Iranian laws, and to cooperate with the Iranian government in surveilling users and censoring online spaces. Access to services that do not comply will be throttled and the Committee Charged with Determining Offensive Content (CCDOC) can eventually decide to outright ban them.
Africa
Mozambique govt's website down for several hours after hack
news24
Mozambique on Monday said the portal hosting government websites was hit by a cyberattack forcing it to take the system offline for several hours.
Misc
The full potential of a military metaverse
War on the Rocks
Jennifer McArdle and Caitlin Dohrman
In the past year, and particularly since Meta’s announcement, a plethora of other players — to include our own company — have announced their intention to build the tools that will facilitate the emergence of a metaverse — from gaming companies to enterprise software giants and, of course, social media behemoths. The defense industry has not been immune to this sudden bow wave of enthusiasm, with the metaverse becoming one of the newest buzzwords to hit the Beltway. Defense companies and outlets offer a steady drip of articles and the metaverse is already slated to be one of the core themes of numerous defense conferences.
Facebook Scammers Are Shilling Fake Cryptocurrency Using Big Tech’s Biggest Names
The Markup
Colin Lecher and Surya Mattu
Meta’s rules for advertisers on Facebook place strict limits on how ads sell cryptocurrency, but The Markup identified several pages that recently placed ads for nonexistent “tokens” using the logos of large tech companies and even the faces of some of Big Tech’s most prominent people, including Zuckerberg, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Behind the stalkerware network spilling the private phone data of hundreds of thousands
TechCrunch
Zack Whittaker
There is another kind of spyware that is more prevalent and much more likely to affect the average person: the consumer-grade spyware apps that are controlled by everyday people.
Big Tech Makes a Big Bet: Offices Are Still the Future
The New York Times
Kellen Browning
Early in the pandemic, when shops along Mill Avenue in downtown Tempe closed their doors and students at nearby Arizona State University were asked to go home, the roar of construction continued to fill the air. Now, gleaming in the sunlight and stuffed with amenities, towering glass office buildings have sprouted up all over the Phoenix metropolitan area.
The Cyber Social Contract
Foreign Affairs
Chris Inglis and Harry Krejsa
How to rebuild trust in a digital world.
Facebook Rolls Out Short-Form Video Format Reels Globally
CNET
Queenie Wong
Reels will be available in more than 150 countries for iPhone and Android Facebook users.
Research
Full-Spectrum Pro-Kremlin Online Propaganda about Ukraine
Stanford Internet Observary
In this post we first discuss overlap in narratives we have observed on Russian state media, grey propaganda outlets, and unattributed pro-Kremlin Telegram channels. Second, we build on reporting by Adam Rawnsley in The Daily Beast by investigating low-engagement inauthentic social media accounts spreading pro-Kremlin messaging, including a novel persona primarily focused on sharing memes about the Iwo Jima Memorial who also occasionally spreads divisive content about Ukraine and the U.S. We document these activities not because we want to amplify falsehoods, but to raise awareness about an ongoing tactic for researchers.
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.
The Sydney Dialogue - Senior Events Coordinator
ASPI ICPC
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) is currently recruiting for an experienced events professional to coordinate the planning and logistics of the second iteration of ASPI’s Sydney Dialogue - the world’s premier summit on emerging, critical and cyber technologies.
The Sydney Dialogue - Director
ASPI ICPC
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) is currently recruiting for a Director to lead the second iteration of ASPI’s Sydney Dialogue - the world’s premier summit on emerging, critical and cyber technologies.