Britain and Japan to reach new defense and technology agreement | EU and US to pledge joint action over China | Taiwan EV battery maker to build 'gigafactory' in France
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The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest focuses on the topics we work on, including cybersecurity, critical technologies, foreign interference & disinformation.
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The British government said that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will visit Tokyo this week to sign a new bilateral defense and technology deal with Japan ahead of a G7 summit in Hiroshima. In December, London and Tokyo also launched an initiative to beef up technological cooperation across 14 digital areas ranging from cybersecurity to artificial intelligence. The Japan Times
US Secretary of State, European Commission Vice-President and other senior officials are due to meet for the fourth edition of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council. The two sides would address non-market practices and economic coercion, and aim to hold regular talks on efforts to stop their companies' knowledge linked to outbound investment supporting technologies of strategic rivals - an oblique reference to China. Reuters
Amid recent market speculations about the investment, French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that Taiwan-based electric vehicle solid-state battery maker ProLogium Technology Co. will invest 5.2 billion euros (US$5.67 billion) in a ‘gigafactory’ in Dunkirk, a port city in northern France, where he made the announcement to hundreds of people gathered there. Focus Taiwan
ASPI
‘Operation Honey Badger’ revealed: A screenshot reveals China's hidden public opinion operation (Mandarin)
Radio Free Asia
Dong Zhe
ASPI's report 'Gaming Public Opinion' collected data from multiple platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Sina Weibo and ByteDance products and uncovered a CCP cyber influence operation linked to the ‘Spamouflage’ network which sought to portray the United States as a cyber hegemony.
China’s economic coercion calls for united global response: Lithuanian foreign minister ahead of G7
South China Morning Post
Mark Magnier
China carried out 73 incidents of economic coercion aimed at 19 countries between 2020 and 2022, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Europe was most frequently targeted, followed by Australia and New Zealand and East Asia, with Taiwan the most common ‘core interest’ to trigger coercive measures.
Indonesia lags behind in critical tech race
The Jakarta Post
Gatra Priyandita
A new tracker by a group of experts from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute offers some insight. The recently released Critical Technology Tracker presents a glimpse into how well countries fare when it comes to producing high-quality research on technologies considered ‘critical’ for bolstering a country’s national economic growth and security, ranging from vaccines and semiconductors to quantum computing. How does Indonesia fare in these rankings?
World
EU and US to pledge joint action over China
Reuters
Philip Blenkinsop
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, European Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager and other senior officials are due to meet for the fourth edition of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council in Sweden, on May 30-31. The draft statement said the two sides would address non-market practices and economic coercion, and aim to hold regular talks on efforts to stop their companies' knowledge linked to outbound investment supporting technologies of strategic rivals - an oblique reference to China.
India-EU Trade & Tech Council first meet at Brussels on May 16
MillenniumPost
The first ministerial level meeting of India-European Union Trade and Technology Council will be held on May 16 in Brussels to discuss ways to increase cooperation in strategic technologies, digital connectivity, clean energy, trade and investments, an official statement said on Sunday. It said that three working groups under the mechanism will report on roadmaps for future cooperation between the two sides.
META region detects 400K malicious files daily
Daily Sabah
Timur Sirt
The Middle East and Africa region, which also encompasses Türkiye, is under constant threat as the latest data showed about 400,000 malicious files had been detected daily, spearheaded by the fast pace of phishing attacks
Australia
The Quad should commit to a biomanufacturing hub in India
The Strategist
Saurabh Todi, Shambhavi Naik, Dirk van der Kley and Daniel Pavlich
A biological revolution is underway in global manufacturing. Products produced from genetic engineering and biomanufacturing techniques are replacing many chemical, industrial and farm-based products. Some predict that up to 60% of physical items will soon be produced using biotechnology, making biomanufacturing a critically important emerging technology. The upcoming leaders’ summit in Sydney is an opportunity for the members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue to take leadership in manufacturing this critical technology.
Hackers turn up the heat on HWL Ebsworth
The Australian Financial Review
Max Mason and Michael Pelly
Australia’s largest legal partnership, HWL Ebsworth, is facing ransom demands from Russia-linked cybercriminals as the firm sheds big clients who fear they have been caught up in a major data breach. Russia-linked ALPHV claims it stole four terabytes of data from HWLE’s servers spanning internal company files and personal employee data.
$130m Accenture vetting system rollout still facing issues
InnovationAus
Brandon How
The rollout of the Accenture-built government security vetting system continues to face complications, as the agency in charge fails to meet its KPI on baseline clearances.
China
‘De-Americanize’: How China is remaking its chip business
The New York Times
Chang Che and John Liu
Seven months after Washington unveiled tough curbs, state funding is flooding in to cultivate homegrown alternatives to produce less advanced but still lucrative semiconductors. And China has not given up on making high-end chips: Manufacturers are attempting to work with older parts from abroad not blocked by the US sanctions, as well as less advanced equipment at home.
Ex-ByteDance executive accuses company of ‘lawlessness’
The New York Times
Thomas Fuller and Sapna Maheshwari
A former executive at ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, has accused the technology giant of a ‘culture of lawlessness,’ including stealing content from rival platforms Snapchat and Instagram in its early years, and called the company a ‘useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party.’ Mr. Yu, who spent part of his ByteDance tenure working in its China offices, said he also witnessed engineers for Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, tweak the algorithm to elevate content that expressed hatred for Japan.
USA
NSA Chief Paul Nakasone has said he expects to step down in coming months
The Wall Street Journal
Dustin Volz
Gen. Nakasone, 59 years old, has said he is eyeing a possible departure in August or September after spending more than five years jointly running the two organizations, one of the people said, while others said his timing was less precise. Gen. Nakasone’s plans could change, in part because his deputy at NSA, George Barnes, also is expected to retire soon, the people said.
Commerce Department starts process to fund tech hubs across the US with $500 million in grants
ABC News
Josh Boak
The $500 million is part of a $10 billion authorization from last year's CHIPS and Science Act to stimulate investments in new technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and biotech. It's an attempt to expand tech investment that is largely concentrated around a few US cities — Austin, Texas; Boston; New York; San Francisco; and Seattle — to the rest of the country.
Biden-Harris administration launches first tech hubs funding opportunity
US Department of Commerce
This program will create tech hubs in regions across the country by bringing together industry, higher education institutions, state and local governments, economic development organizations, and labor and workforce partners to supercharge ecosystems of innovation for technologies that are essential to our economic and national security.
A Republican-led lawsuit threatens critical US cyber protections
WIRED
Eric Geller
The Biden administration's push to tighten the cybersecurity of US critical infrastructure has drawn its first major lawsuit. Three states are suing to block security rules for water facilities. If they win, it may open the floodgates for challenges to other cyber rules. Other agencies are paying close attention as they craft rules for hospitals, emergency broadcast systems, and other vital infrastructure.
Privacy or safety? US brings 'surveillance city to the suburbs'
Context News
Avi Asher-Schapiro
Since the beginning of the year, over a dozen small and medium-sized cities and suburbs have introduced or expanded their use of Fusus tech, a police technology platform that merges public and private cameras with predictive policing and other surveillance tools, is sparking debates in towns across the US.
Bipartisan child safety bill moves ahead after Senate panel vote
Bloomberg Government
Oma Seddiq
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced a bill that would combat the spread of child sex abuse material online amid a bipartisan push to protect kids’ safety and privacy on social media. The panel voted unanimously to approve the legislation, which would empower victims of child sex abuse to sue social media platforms that facilitate child exploitation.
Don’t read this if you have a security clearance
The Atlantic
Thomas Rid
Network defenders for the Department of Defense faced a dilemma. They needed to scan for incoming hacks—but they technically were not allowed to look at the hacking tools that were already being used by some of the most determined adversaries of the United States, including Russian military intelligence and North Korean cyberoperators.
How secrecy limits diversity
Foreign Affairs
Matthew Connelly and Patricia Irvin
People from marginalized groups in the United States have consistently had greater difficulty obtaining and retaining clearances than others. Along with clear disparities (and discrimination) in hiring and promotion, this is an important factor in explaining why people from these groups are less likely to hold national security positions.
North Asia
Japan’s ‘myth of security’ raises cyber attack risk
Financial Times
Leo Lewis
In Japan, say cyber security experts, the problem has distinctive features. For some time, Japanese companies felt cushioned by anzen shinwa, or the ‘myth of security’ — the misapprehension that language, insularity and other factors keep potential attackers at bay.
South & Central Asia
How Nepalis’ vulnerability grows amid changing nature of cyber crimes
The Kathmandu Post
Anup Ojha
Nepal is at a high risk of cyber crimes as the country does not have proper legal procedures to address the ever-evolving cyber crimes. In the past few years the country has faced many security breaches on government websites; in late January, about 1,500 government websites were shut down.
Ukraine - Russia
Russia’s most sophisticated cyber espionage tool: What is Snake, and why is it so dangerous?
The Conversation
Greg Skulmoski
The Snake network can disrupt critical industrial control systems that manage our buildings, hospitals, energy systems, water and wastewater systems, among others – so the risks went beyond just intelligence collection. There are warnings that in a couple of years bad actors may gain the capability to hijack critical Australian infrastructure and cause unprecedented harm by interfering with physical operations.
Russian Twitter drive has Zuma daughter at center, study claims
Bloomberg
Antony Sguazzin
A daughter of South Africa’s disgraced former President Jacob Zuma has been placed at the center of a Russia-backed Twitter campaign to bolster support for the attack on Ukraine, according to social media research commissioned and funded by the Centre for Information Resilience.
Drones, phones and forums: how tech is shaping the war in Ukraine
Prospect News
David Patrikarakos
Microsoft, IBM, Spotify, Apple, Samsung, Siemens, Adobe and Netflix, among others, have all pulled out of Russia. This has led to talk of a ‘tech gap’ opening between not only Russia and the west, but Russia and Ukraine. The more the west sanctions the former and enables the latter, the argument goes, the greater the gap in technological capabilities that will open between the two countries. The mass of cheap Chinese and Iranian weaponry now making its way into Russian hands is proffered as evidence, but to what extent is this really happening?
Europe
Taiwan EV battery maker to build 'gigafactory' in France
Focus Taiwan
Tseng Hsuan-ting and Frances Huang
Amid recent market speculations about the investment, Macron confirmed that the Taiwanese company will invest 5.2 billion euros (US$5.67 billion) in a ‘gigafactory’ in Dunkirk, a port city in northern France, where he made the announcement to hundreds of people gathered there.
Deutsche Telekom does not foresee total Huawei ban in Germany: CEO
RCR Wireless News
Juan Pedro Tomás
‘There is no ban of Huawei, and I even don’t see a ban coming,’ Deutsche Telekom’s CEO, Tim Höttges, said in a conference call with investors. The country, however, is reportedly considering a ban on certain components made by Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE.
Germany strives to catch up with US, China in quantum tech race
Euractiv
Alina Clasen
Compared to its international competition, Germany currently ranks fourth in terms of publications and patents in quantum technology, behind economic powerhouses such as the United States, China and Japan. ‘Our goal is, therefore, to establish Germany at the top of the world in quantum technologies, and the government’s ‘Quantum Technologies Action Concept’ sets the new strategic framework for this,’ Mario Brandenburg, Germany’s state secretary for research.
UK
Britain and Japan to reach new defense and technology agreement
The Japan Times
Kyodo
The British government said Saturday that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will visit Tokyo this week to sign a new bilateral defense and technology deal with Japan ahead of a Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima. In December, just before the fighter jet announcement, London and Tokyo also launched an initiative to beef up technological cooperation across 14 digital areas ranging from cybersecurity to artificial intelligence.
Leading pensions client warns data for 470,000 members at risk from Capita hack
Financial Times
Josephine Cumbo, Leke Oso Alabi and Ian Smith
USS — the UK’s biggest private sector pension plan — said it had been informed on Thursday that ‘regrettably’ details, including names, dates of birth and national insurance numbers, of about 470,000 members dating back to early 2021 were on the outsourcing group Capita servers accessed by the hackers.
Important information about Capita’s cyber incident
USS
We use Capita’s technology platform - Hartlink - to support our in-house pension administration processes and have been liaising closely with the company over the course of its forensic investigations. While it has been confirmed that USS member data held on Hartlink has not been compromised, we were informed on Thursday 11 May that regrettably details of USS members were held on the Capita servers accessed by the hackers.
57% of UK businesses have been impacted by a cyber security incident
Business Leader
Tamsen Markham
More than half of UK businesses have been impacted because of a cyber security/information security incident caused by a third-party vendor or supply chain partner, according to new research published by ISMS.online. The report found that nearly one in three businesses cite managing vendor and third-party risk as a top information security challenge, with average fines following a data breach or violation of data protection at £237,402.
Climate crisis deniers target scientists for vicious abuse on Musk’s Twitter
The Guardian
Anna Fazackerley
Some of the UK’s top scientists are struggling to deal with what they describe as a huge rise in abuse from climate crisis deniers on Twitter since the social media platform was taken over by Elon Musk last year. Since then, key figures who ensured ‘trusted’ content was prioritised have been sacked, according to one scientist, and Twitter’s sustainability arm has vanished.
UK tech entrepreneur Lynch extradited to the US on fraud charges
Reuters
Sarah Young and Paul Sandle
Mike Lynch, co-founder of UK software firm Autonomy, has been extradited to the United States to face 17 criminal charges in a near decade-long legal battle. Lynch, 57, who has always denied any wrongdoing, could face 20 years in prison.
Middle East
Israel high-tech and Korea industry groups sign accord on cybersecurity cooperation
The Times of Israel
Sharon Wrobel
The Israeli High-Tech Association this week signed a memorandum of understanding with a Korean cybersecurity industry group aimed at fostering ties and encouraging business cooperation between cybersecurity and information security companies in both countries.
Big Tech
Twitter says it will restrict access to some tweets before Turkey’s election
The Washington Post
Perry Stein
Twitter claimed that it has ‘taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey’ ahead of the country’s high-stakes election Sunday, but added the blocked content would remain available in the rest of the world. The company did not specify which tweets it would block and why it would block them.
Twitter appeared to limit the reach of investigative news site Bellingcat days after Elon Musk suggested its Texas mall shooter investigation was a 'psyop'
Business Insider
Pete Syme
Twitter appears to have limited the reach of Bellingcat, an investigative news website, as its main account no longer appears in the app's search tool as the website reported on the Texas mall shooter's apparent neo-Nazi beliefs. Right-wing commentators on Twitter suggested that it was fake news, and Elon Musk called it a ‘psyop.’
Samsung's Lee Jae-yong meets Tesla's Elon Musk to talk tech
Korea JoongAng Daily
Lee Jae-Lim
Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Tesla CEO Elon Musk met at the headquarters of Samsung Electronics Device Solutions America in Silicon Valley last week to discuss cooperation on advanced technologies. It signals that Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business may grow even larger as Telsa strives to develop its self-driving technology further.
Artificial Intelligence
Genie out of the bottle' on artificial intelligence
The Canberra Times
Tara Cosoleto
Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said technology had evolved quicker than policy and was not properly regulated. It also posed a risk to safety, with generative AI used for manipulation, misinformation and extortion. Ms Inman Grant said the platforms benefiting from generative AI needed to ensure it was safe for users and the broader community.
Businesses seek out ChatGPT-tech for searching and analyzing their own data
The Wall Street Journal
Belle Lin
Recent moves by Google, Microsoft and other vendors to harness the technology underlying ChatGPT for search is leading some corporate technology chiefs to rethink that functionality. While the ability to index company data to make it searchable exists, the difference now is that large-language models and generative AI can recognize patterns, make predictions and create content by processing enormous quantities of text, images and audio.
The open-source AI boom is built on Big Tech’s handouts. How long will it last?
MIT Technology Review
Will Douglas Heaven
AI won't thrive if just a few mega-rich companies get to gatekeep this technology or decide how it is used. But this open-source boom is precarious. Most open-source releases still stand on the shoulders of giant models put out by big firms with deep pockets. If OpenAI and Meta decide they’re closing up shop, a boomtown could become a backwater.
On cyber security, is it time to get AI help out more?
Gulf News
Richard Mack
Entities that use AI, machine learning, and analytics to identify and contain intrusion attempts and other incidents generally fare better than those that rely on processes driven by manual inputs to address cyber threats. It’s no wonder that the share of companies with fully or partially deployed security AI and automation increased from 65-70 per cent between 2021 and 2022.
Research
Harnessing the G20’s potential for global counter-ransomware efforts
Observer Research Foundation
Tobias Scholz and Sameer Patil
The G20 can contribute to global counter-ransomware efforts through its Digital Economy Working Group. The grouping should assert itself as a global leader in countering ransomware while complementing existing international efforts. It should facilitate existing efforts of multilateral platforms for responsible state behaviour, declare its support to commence negotiations for a new United Nations Cybercrime Convention, and create a multi-stakeholder capacity-building platform to enhance awareness and strengthen the cyber-resilience of countries in the Global South.
Events & Podcasts
Policy, Guns & Money: Beijing’s propaganda, climate and Australia’s national security, federal budget & Defence spending
ASPI
In 2022, then US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, despite threats of retaliation from Beijing over the visit. Dr Samantha Hoffman speaks to Nadège Rolland about Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, Beijing’s propaganda, and its effectiveness. While climate change is primarily viewed as an environmental challenge, Australia, like many other countries, is increasingly focused on the implications of climate change for Australia’s national security. Dr Robert Glasser speaks to Dr Tobias Ide about climate and Australia’s national security and how climate hazards can lead to conflict. This week was budget week in Canberra, and to break down the Defence budget, Bec Shrimpton speaks to David Uren. They discuss defence projects and the usefulness, or otherwise, of measuring defence spending by GDP.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the team at ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre.