China's move to boost domestic chip industry | QAnon followers hijacking the #SaveTheChildren movement | Germany launches cybersecurity agency to strengthen 'digital sovereignty'
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Two Chinese government-backed chip projects have together hired more than 100 veteran engineers and managers from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's leading chipmaker, since last year. The hirings are aimed at helping Beijing achieve its goal of fostering a domestic chip industry in order to cut China's reliance on foreign suppliers Nikkei Asian Review
Fans of the pro-Trump conspiracy theory are clogging anti-trafficking hotlines, infiltrating Facebook groups and raising false fears about child exploitation. The New York Times
The German government has signed up to create an agency to protect the country's cybersecurity. The defense minister described the project, initially funded with €350 million ($412 million), as a "milestone." Deutsche Welle
ASPI ICPC
The World
The Resilience of Sino-Russian High-Tech Cooperation
War on the Rocks
@EBKania @SamBendett
2020 was already intended to be the start of a new phase of innovation cooperation, as evidenced by multiple bilateral efforts. Chinese and Russian leaders recognize emerging technologies as critical to both countries’ economic development in order to achieve a competitive advantage relative to the United States.
Read ASPI’s Report: A new Sino-Russian high-tech partnership
Australia
Cyber strategy signals laws to make boards take it seriously
Australian Financial Review
@macgibbon
With the release of its 2020 Cyber Security Strategy last week, the federal government has issued a clarion call to Australian industry and critical infrastructure providers: get your cyber security house in order because legal change is coming.
Companies to be penalised if they don't meet cyber security rules
Australian Financial Review
@andrewtillett
Companies supplying crucial goods such as medicines would have to build up stockpiles in case a cyber attack knocks out their production or distribution, under proposed government-mandated requirements.
Govt casts wide net over industry for cyber threat oversight, intervention
IT news
@justinrhendry
Under the reforms, banking, health, education, food and “data and the cloud” would be recognised as critical infrastructure sectors, and could be subjected to system disclosure rules. However, the proposed reforms won't cover government and democratic institutions.
Technology a better cure for virus: CSIRO boss
Australian Financial Review
@andrewtillett
Australia's science and research chief wants more emphasis on using technology to identify hotspots to stop the spread of coronavirus rather than rely on shutting down the economy and border closures to keep it at bay.
China
China hires over 100 TSMC engineers in push for chip leadership
Nikkei Asian Review
@ChengTingFang
Two Chinese government-backed chip projects have together hired more than 100 veteran engineers and managers from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's leading chipmaker, since last year, multiple sources have told the Nikkei Asian Review. The hirings are aimed at helping Beijing achieve its goal of fostering a domestic chip industry in order to cut China's reliance on foreign suppliers, the sources said.
China unveils policies to boost chipmakers as tensions with U.S. rise. Analysts say they may not help
CNBC
@ArjunKharpal
China has unveiled a slew of policies to help boost its domestic semiconductor industry as tensions with the U.S. continue to rise, but analysts have cast doubt over whether they will have a major impact. A large part of the incentives from China's State Council focus on tax relief.
Chinese network of fake accounts targets Trump with English-language videos
Washington Post
@craigtimberg @shaneharris
One three-minute video posted on YouTube by the network on Tuesday, titled “When I voted for trump, I almost sentenced myself to death,” portrayed the president as bashing China and threatening to ban TikTok to bolster his reelection.
USA
QAnon Followers Are Hijacking the #SaveTheChildren Movement
The New York Times
@kevinroose
Fans of the pro-Trump conspiracy theory are clogging anti-trafficking hotlines, infiltrating Facebook groups and raising false fears about child exploitation.
Trump’s TikTok Ban Could Backfire Inside China
The Daily Beast
Brendon Hong
As Donald Trump moves to ban transactions with WeChat and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, people in China are wondering if they’ll need to ditch their iPhones to keep their favorite app. Trump’s moves against ByteDance and Tencent’s WeChat strike at two tech companies deeply entrenched in China’s social life - and, in WeChat’s case, critical to the consumer reach of American companies inside China.
China already has your data. Trump’s TikTok and WeChat bans can’t stop that
The Washington Post
@AynneKokas
These executive orders have a fundamental flaw in their reasoning: Data exfiltration by Chinese firms from the United States is so pervasive that targeting a few big names merely distracts from the severity of the problem.
Google, Facebook and Others Form Tech Coalition to Secure U.S. Election
The New York Times
@MikeIsaac @kateconger
Facebook, Google and other major tech companies said on Wednesday that they were forming a coalition to promote discussions with government agencies to secure the November election.
Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California if its forced to classify drivers as employees
CNBC
@lauren_feiner
Uber would likely shut down temporarily for several months if a court does not overturn a recent ruling requiring it to classify its drivers as full-time employees, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an interview.
Malicious Cyber Actor Spoofing COVID-19 Loan Relief Webpage via Phishing Emails
US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency
@CISAgov
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is currently tracking an unknown malicious cyber actor who is spoofing the Small Business Administration (SBA) COVID-19 loan relief webpage via phishing emails. These emails include a malicious link to the spoofed SBA website that the cyber actor is using for malicious re-directs and credential stealing.
UK
NHS hit with wave of scam emails at height of COVID-19 pandemic
ZD Net
@OwenRDHughes
NHS staff were hit with a wave of malicious email attacks at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with doctors, nurses and other key workers reporting over 40,000 spam and phishing attacks between March and the first half of July.
Europe
Germany launches cybersecurity agency to strengthen 'digital sovereignty'
Deutsche Welle
The German government has signed up to create an agency to protect the country's cybersecurity. The defense minister described the project, initially funded with €350 million ($412 million), as a "milestone." The agency, whose creation was agreed upon in the 2018 coalition contract of Germany's ruling parties, is to coordinate innovative research on cybersecurity and help turn it into practicable approaches to combat cyberthreats.
The Middle East
Social media users inspire outrage against Egypt's alleged sexual abusers
The Guardian
@msrmichaelson
Egypt is witnessing a wave of online outrage targeting rape culture and sexual assault, as survivors use social media to shame alleged abusers and demand change. A growing number of social media accounts gather survivors’ testimony and attempt to shame alleged attackers, angry at elite perpetrators they say routinely go unpunished.
Misc
Events
On Fairness and Explainability in AI: Interactions between computer science and social science
Digital Innovation Futures Victoria
Friday 14 September 2020, 1:00 - 2:00PM. While topics such as fairness and explainability have become key talking points in artificial intelligence, these problems cannot be solved by computer scientists working in a vacuum. This talk will look at the link between computer science and areas of philosophy and social science for solving these problems.
Jobs
Assistant Professor in Intelligence and Security
University of Leiden
The Research Group Intelligence and Security studies intelligence from a political, historical, ethical, judicial, and methodological perspective. Our main goal is to improve our understanding of how intelligence and security services operate, how their methodologies can be complemented, and how they are and have been embedded in their broader political, bureaucratic, and societal context - in the Western world and, emphatically, beyond. Applications due 15th September 2020.
Professorship in Legal Tech
University of Zurich
The University of Zurich is seeking applications for a Professorship in Legal Tech to take effect from the beginning of the Spring Semester 2021 (1 February 2021), or by arrangement. The position is to be filled by an academic with an outstanding legal track record and excellent knowledge of information technology, whose research focuses on the impact of digital technologies in the field of law. Applications due by 6 September 2020