China’s Huawei lags in 5G race following U.S. sanctions | Facebook-backed group launches misinformation adjudication panel in Australia | U.S. lawmakers see path to rein in tech, but it isn’t smooth
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Huawei is losing its edge in the smartphone business as the Chinese tech giant copes with a global chip shortage as well as U.S. sanctions that cut the company off from 5G technology. WSJ reporter Dan Strumpf explains what’s led to Huawei’s current challenges. The Wall Street Journal
A tech body backed by the Australian units of Facebook, Google and Twitter said on Monday it has set up a special committee to adjudicate complaints over misinformation, a day after the government threatened tougher laws over false and defamatory online posts. Reuters
If what faces Big Tech is anything like what happened to Big Tobacco, the road ahead is likely to be a yearslong battle over proposed rules and regulations. The New York Times
ASPI ICPC
China Uncovered: China's Tech Giants featuring Fergus Ryan
The Heritage Foundation
@Heritage
Olivia Enos interviews Fergus Ryan on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)'s Mapping China's Tech Giants project and the current impact of COVID-19 on China's tech policy and overseas expansion. Fergus Ryan is a Senior Analyst with ASPI's International Cyber Policy Centre.
Read ASPI's Reigning In China's Technology Giants report
Read ASPI’s Supply Chains & the Global Data Collection Ecosystem report
World
5G technology begins to expand beyond smartphones
The Wall Street Journal
@MeghanBobrowsky
The deployment of superfast 5G networks is supposed to usher in a new era for so much more than the smartphone—everything from enhanced virtual-reality videogames to remote heart surgery. That vision has been slow to come into focus, but a first wave of 5G-enabled gadgets is emerging.
Australia
Facebook-backed group launches misinformation adjudication panel in Australia
Reuters
@byronkaye
A tech body backed by the Australian units of Facebook, Google and Twitter said on Monday it has set up a special committee to adjudicate complaints over misinformation, a day after the government threatened tougher laws over false and defamatory online posts.
Facial recognition for home quarantine a ‘recipe for disaster’
The Australian
@swan_legend
State governments trialling home quarantine need to take active steps to ensure they are not crossing a new frontier in the surveillance of citizens by using facial recognition technology, privacy experts have warned.
‘Tyranny’: US rightwingers portray nightmare vision of Australia’s Covid response
The Guardian
@jason_a_w
The feedback loop between US conservative media and Australia’s fringe right has intensified as New South Wales and Victoria have struggled with outbreaks
WeChat to name Australian counsel amid foreign interference scrutiny
Financial Review
@TomMcIlroy
Chinese social media platform WeChat has told a parliamentary inquiry into foreign influence through social media that it plans to appoint a senior legal representative to work with Australian regulators and law enforcement agencies.
ASIC enters chat room to warn ‘pump and dump’ group
Financial Review
@johnnyshap @tommyr345
The corporate regulator has taken the unprecedented step of posting a message in a Telegram chat room to warn traders they may be breaking the law. In a post on Monday at 9.32am on a newly formed chat group called “Pump and Dump Organization,” an account named ASIC posted that “coordinated pumping of shares can be illegal”.
Missing apostrophe in Facebook post lands NSW real estate agent in legal hot water
The Guardian
Court declines to dismiss defamation case against Anthony Zadravic, who said failure to punctuate social media post was trivial.
First Nations people and the security of Australia’s north
The Strategist
Peter Yu, Russell Barnett
While Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation in Australian Defence Force tactical units, particularly the North-West Mobile Force, or NORFORCE, is notable, the involvement of First Nations people in the operational security of the north remains substantively underbaked, given their existing potential and resources. In many parts of northern Australia, members of about 80 Indigenous land and sea ranger groups are the only human presence for thousands of kilometres, and their knowledge of these remote areas is unparalleled. From a surveillance perspective, Indigenous land and sea ranger groups are an underutilised security asset.
China
China’s Huawei lags in 5G race as U.S. sanctions leave their mark
The Wall Street Journal
@MeghanBobrowsky
Huawei is losing its edge in the smartphone business as the Chinese tech giant copes with a global chip shortage as well as U.S. sanctions that cut the company off from 5G technology. WSJ reporter Dan Strumpf explains what’s led to Huawei’s current challenges.
From marriage markets to virtual AI boyfriends, love and romance are changing in China
ABC News
@samuelyang_
China's dating scene is booming, with young adults flocking to AI chatbots and dating apps to find love. While the concept of romance is being reshaped by technologies, there's a catch.
Uyghurs tortured and beaten to death in Xinjiang, former Chinese police officer reveals
Sky News
@chesh
A Chinese whistleblower exposes the brutal tactics used by police and guards at re-education centres in Xinjiang, saying "it's normal that some people die".
Read our ‘Uyghurs for sale’ report
USA
Lawmakers see path to rein in tech, but it isn’t smooth
The New York Times
@ceciliakang
If what faces Big Tech is anything like what happened to Big Tobacco, the road ahead is likely to be a yearslong battle over proposed rules and regulations.
After Whistle-Blower Goes Public, Facebook Tries Calming Employees
The New York Times
@MikeIsaac @RMac18 @sheeraf
Employees are divided over Frances Haugen, a former product manager who testified that the company was putting profit before safety.
Google pulls ‘stalkerware’ ads that promoted phone spying apps
TechCrunch
@zackwhittaker
Google has pulled several “stalkerware” ads that violated its policies by promoting apps that encouraged prospective users to spy on their spouses’ phone. These consumer-grade spyware apps are often marketed to parents wishing to monitor their child’s calls, messages, apps, photos and location, often under the guise of protecting against predators. But these apps, which are often designed to be installed surreptitiously and without the device owner’s consent, have been repurposed by abusers to spy on the phones of their spouses.
Facebook To Limit Politics, Boost Friends, Says Spokesman On ‘Meet The Press’
Deadline
Bruce Haring
Fighting back after a whistleblower’s damning testimony earlier this week before a Congressional committee, Facebook spokesman Nick Clegg said on NBC’s Sunday Meet The Press that changes are coming to the social media outlet and to its cousin, Instagram.
Cyberattacks concerning to most in US: Pearson/AP-NORC poll
AP News
@AlanSuderman
Most Americans across party lines have serious concerns about cyberattacks on U.S. computer systems and view China and Russia as major threats, according to a new poll.
UK
Foreign states ‘constantly’ trying to steal UK’s secrets, says minister
Evening Standard
@nicholascecil
Foreign states are “constantly” seeking to steal Britain’s commercial and scientific secrets, security minister Damian Hinds said on Monday. He stressed that spying threats against the UK were now “more sophisticated, more extensive than ever before”.
Europe
China’s cameras face fresh scrutiny in Europe
POLITICO
@livklingert
Surveillance technology firm Hikvision is facing criticism over a new vulnerability found in its products, adding to mounting concerns the company's high-tech cameras, which are used all over Europe, pose security risks. An anonymous security researcher found a glitch in Hikvision's products that "permits an attacker to gain full control of the device," they said in September. The researcher said the cameras had "the highest level of critical vulnerability."
Middle East
How Toronto’s Citizen Lab uncovered the hacking of Princess Haya
The Globe and Mail
@pwaldieGLOBE
Citizen Lab senior researcher Bill Marczak found the hacking of Princess Haya’s phone was so extensive that UAE agents had downloaded 265 megabytes of data.
Microsoft: Iran-linked hackers breached Office 365 customer accounts
The Record
@campuscodi
Microsoft said today that a new Iran-linked hacking group has targeted more than 250 Office 365 tenants and compromised accounts for less than 20. The attacks, which the company disclosed today in a security alert, have been carried out via password spraying, a technique where hackers try the same password over and over again—while rotating the username.
Africa
Indian-Made Mobile Spyware Targeted Human Rights Activist in Togo
The Hacker News
Ravie Lakshmanan
A prominent Togolese human rights defender has been targeted with spyware by a threat actor known for striking victims in South Asia, marking the hacking group's first foray into digital surveillance in Africa.
In Nigeria, Facebook's Outage Revealed a Dangerous Dominance
WIRED
@peter_fect
In Nigeria, WhatsApp is the major means of communication with family both at home and abroad, and is also used for business. Over 95 percent of Nigeria’s 33 million social media users use the platform. Having everyone on the same platform can be convenient, but the outage shows that Nigeria’s reliance on the app can be catastrophic—and that it’s time to look into alternatives.
Misc
1 billion TikTok users understand what Congress doesn’t
The Atlantic
@evelyndouek
The video-sharing app avoids scrutiny because politicians don’t take it seriously.
We’re not fair game: a politician’s wife answers the online haters and abusers
The Sydney Morning Herald
Rachel Lord
When I make the mistake of reading social media comments, it’s a wonder anyone good ever puts up their hand for politics.
Facebook Should Stop Pretending It Has Such High Standards
Bloomberg
@mattyglesias
The company’s critics, employees and founder would be better off if they just admitted its main goal is to earn a profit.
Opinion: Why the Nobel Peace Prize award is a huge blow to Facebook
The Washington Post
@wiczipedia
In an era when attacks on the press have been increasing, Ressa and Muratov are a reminder of the critical role the Fourth Estate plays in upholding democracy. But Ressa’s win has another dimension as well: It also is an indictment of the failings of Facebook.
Research
September 2021 Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report
Facebook
Over the past four years, we’ve shared our findings about coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB) we detect and remove from our platforms. As part of our regular CIB reports, we’re sharing information about all the networks we take down over the course of a month to make it easier for people to see the progress we’re making in one place.
Events
Securing Cyberspace
The Washington Post
The Biden administration has made clear that cybersecurity is critical to our national security plan, and the role of the private sector is integral to national cybersecurity planning. Join Washington Post Live on Thursday, Oct. 14 at 4:00 p.m. ET for a series of conversations about the role of the private sector in charting a path forward to securing cyberspace and lessons learned from recent cyberattacks.
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.