China to create new top regulator for data governance | Twitter insiders: We can't protect users from trolling under Musk | New ASPI report: Seeking to undermine democracy and partnerships
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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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China is set to create a new government agency to centralize the management of the country’s vast stores of data, as Beijing seeks to address data-security practices by businesses and streamline its regulatory structure. The Wall Street Journal
Twitter insiders have told the BBC that the company is no longer able to protect users from trolling, state-co-ordinated disinformation and child sexual exploitation, following lay-offs and changes under owner Elon Musk. BBC
The Chinese Communist Party is conducting coordinated information operations in Pacific island countries. Those operations are designed to influence political elites, public discourse and political sentiment regarding existing partnerships with Western democracies. Our research shows how the CCP frequently seeks to capitalise on regional events, announcements and engagements to push its own narratives, many of which are aimed at undermining some of the region’s key partnerships. ASPI
ASPI
New report: Seeking to undermine democracy and partnerships
ASPI
Blake Johnson and Joshua Dunne
The Chinese Communist Party is conducting coordinated information operations in Pacific island countries. Those operations are designed to influence political elites, public discourse and political sentiment regarding existing partnerships with Western democracies. Our research shows how the CCP frequently seeks to capitalise on regional events, announcements and engagements to push its own narratives, many of which are aimed at undermining some of the region’s key partnerships.
TikTok banned at nearly 70 federal government agencies as 'patchwork approach' raises concern
The Canberra Times
Sarah Basford Canales
Australian Strategic Policy Institute China analyst Fergus Ryan says it's time for the government to issue a sector-wide direction given the risks posed. "I think there should be a uniform rule about this," Mr Ryan told The Canberra Times. "It doesn't really make sense to me why there would be such a patchwork approach to the problem."
World
Police arrest suspected members of prolific DoppelPaymer ransomware gang
TechCrunch
Carly Page
An international law enforcement operation has led to the arrests of suspected core members of the prolific DoppelPaymer ransomware operation.
Australia
Social media being ‘weaponised’ to enable foreign interference
Australian Financial Review
Max Mason
Foreign interference and the spread of disinformation are made easier by social media in the way it uses secret algorithms to put forward content, allows anonymity and provides limited moderation, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation warns.
The new cybercriminal gang Australian businesses need to watch out for
Australian Financial Review
Max Mason
A new cybercriminal gang called Medusa is using a range of tactics, including pretending to be a cybersecurity professional, to grow its profile as it hacks into more businesses, including in Australia.
‘No place in court for robot lawyers’, says Law Council
The Australian
Ellie Dudley
The president of the Law Council of Australia has condemned the use of AI-operated lawyers in the courtroom, saying the “sound judgment” of human beings could not be easily replaced by technology, despite moves in the US to allow the world’s first automated defence lawyer to front a court.
No end to crypto’s ‘wild west’ as govt goes slow on regulation
Australian Financial Review
Mark Di Stefano
Tens of thousands of Australians being burned in recent crypto crashes and frauds has failed to convince the government of the need to expedite new regulations, with internal Treasury documents suggesting new laws are still more than a year away.
China
China to create new top regulator for data governance
The Wall Street Journal
Keith Zhai
China is set to create a new government agency to centralize the management of the country’s vast stores of data, as Beijing seeks to address data-security practices by businesses and streamline its regulatory structure.
Xi Jinping urges China to greater self-reliance amid sanctions and trade tensions
The Guardian
Helen Davidson
China must speed up its science and technology development to ensure greater self-reliance, the country’s leader Xi Jinping has told an annual political meeting, as Beijing becomes more isolated by sanctions and other trade concerns.
China favors chips, AI executives over internet tycoons at top political meetings
The Wall Street Journal
Shen Lu
A number of prominent Chinese internet executives have been left out of the country’s top political meetings in Beijing this week, giving way to experts in artificial intelligence and semiconductors as Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s priorities shift amid rising technology competition with the U.S.China says US trying to 'deprive' it of right to develop in tech row
Reuters
China said the U.S. is trying to deprive it of developmental rights and perpetuate its own hegemony, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday.
USA
White House said to consider pushing Congress on dealing with TikTok
The New York Times
David McCabe
In a strategy shift, the Biden administration is increasingly pointing to Congress to give it more legal power to deal with TikTok and other technology that could expose Americans’ sensitive data to China.
US Special Forces want to use deepfakes for psy-ops
The Intercept
Sam Biddle
US special operations command, responsible for some of the country’s most secretive military endeavors, is gearing up to conduct internet propaganda and deception campaigns online using deepfake videos, according to federal contracting documents reviewed by The Intercept.
Biden’s screening test
The Wire
Katrina Northrop
The U.S government is poised to increase its scrutiny of the billions of American investment dollars flowing into Chinese high tech firms. But putting the policy into practice may be harder than many in Washington expect.
Facebook and Google are handing over user data to help police prosecute abortion seekers
Business Insider
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
As abortion bans across the nation are implemented and enforced, law enforcement is turning to social-media platforms to build cases to prosecute women seeking abortions or abortion-inducing medication — and online platforms like Google and Facebook are helping.
North Asia
TSMC’s turning point
The Wire
Gregor Stuart Hunter
Inside one of the Yuan’s austere meeting rooms, opposition politician Chiu Chen-yuan grilled foreign minister Joseph Wu about the latest unstoppable expansion of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Was the company under pressure to export its most sophisticated technology to its new plant in Phoenix, Arizona, Chiu wanted to know. Had the government inked a “secret deal” with the Americans to disadvantage Taiwan?
Southeast Asia
Huawei fights for role as Malaysia reviews 5G tender
Financial Times
Mercedes Ruehl
Huawei is battling back in the competition to build 5G networks in south-east Asia, one of the last regions where the Chinese telecoms equipment maker still retains influence after being blacklisted by Washington.
Europe
Cyberattack hits major hospital in Spanish city of Barcelona
Associated Press
A ransomware cyberattack on one of Barcelona’ s main hospitals has crippled the center’s computer system and forced the cancellation of 150 nonurgent operations and up to 3,000 patient checkups, officials said Monday.
Germany signals a pivot from China’s Huawei
POLITICO
Louis Westendarp
Leading lawmakers and politicians are calling on telecoms operators to reduce their reliance on Chinese equipment in current and future networks. It comes after a report showed operators have procured high amounts of 5G equipment from Chinese vendors recently, and follows years of German hesitation to slap restrictions on so-called high-risk vendors, a term widely understood to mean Chinese equipment makers Huawei and ZTE.
TikTok rolls out ‘Project Clover’ to assure Europeans on data
The Wall Street Journal
Stu Woo
TikTok executives are rolling out what they call “Project Clover,” a charm offensive aimed at convincing European politicians the video-sharing app is safeguarding user data on the continent.
The internet is about to get a lot safer
MIT Technology Review
Tate Ryan-Mosley
A couple of weeks ago, the Digital Services Act reached a major milestone. By February 17, 2023, all major tech platforms in Europe were required to self-report their size, which was used to group the companies in different tiers. The largest companies, with over 45 million active monthly users in the EU (or roughly 10% of EU population), are creatively called “Very Large Online Platforms” (or VLOPs) or “Very Large Online Search Engines” (or VLOSEs) and will be held to the strictest standards of transparency and regulation.
UK
UK opposition calls for better online protections for children
Reuters
Martin Coulter
Britain's opposition Labour Party has called on the government to enact its long-delayed Online Safety Bill, after Reuters revealed how few underage children Snap had removed from its Snapchat platform.
Big Tech
Twitter insiders: We can't protect users from trolling under Musk
BBC
Marianna Spring
Twitter insiders have told the BBC that the company is no longer able to protect users from trolling, state-co-ordinated disinformation and child sexual exploitation, following lay-offs and changes under owner Elon Musk.
WhatsApp agrees to be more transparent on policy changes, EU says
Reuters
Foo Yun Chee and Charlotte Campenhout
WhatsApp has agreed to be more transparent about changes to its privacy policy introduced in 2021, the European Commission said on Monday, following complaints from consumer bodies across Europe.
Misc
Your face is your ticket: A creepy convenience
The Wall Street Journal
Nicole Nguyen
Facial-recognition express lanes come to airports, stadiums and trade shows.
Events & Podcasts
Jobs
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ASPI ICPC
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