Coronavirus misinformation surges | Facebook to pay $550m to settle facial recognition suit | Europe wants single data market
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Misleading, unverified and clearly false information about the coronavirus has spread across social media platforms with a mix of fearmongering and racial stereotyping. NBC News
Facebook said on Wednesday that it had agreed to pay $550 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over its use of facial recognition technology in Illinois, giving privacy groups a major victory that again raised questions about the social network’s data-mining practices. The New York Times
The European Union wants to create a single market in data aimed at challenging the dominance of tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon, according to a European Commission proposal seen by Reuters.
ASPI ICPC
The Lawfare Podcast: Elise Thomas on Disinformation and the Australia Fires
Lawfare
Jen Patja Howell
This week on Lawfare's Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Elise Thomas, a journalist and researcher at the Australia Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Center. Elise has been tracking misinformation and disinformation around the blazes—from the suggestion by the right-wing Australian press that arson, not climate change, is to blame for the fires, to online conspiracy theories imported in from the United States.
UK doing the wrong thing on Huawei, says Australian ex-spy
The Guardian
Dan Sabbagh
Simeon Gilding, a director of the Australian Signals Directorate until December, said his country’s intelligence agency was unable to design cybersecurity controls that could prevent China from gaining backdoor access to Huawei. “We developed pages of cybersecurity mitigation measures to see if it was possible to prevent a sophisticated state actor from accessing our networks through a vendor. But we failed,” he wrote in a blog for an Australian thinktank.
Ex-cyber spy boss slams UK's Huawei decision
Australian Financial Review
@andrewtillett
A former top spy has slammed Britain's decision to involve Huawei in the roll out of its 5G network, warning Beijing's state-orchestrated campaign of hacks and all-encompassing intelligence laws shows Chinese companies cannot be trusted in cyberspace. Simeon Gilding, who until last month was head of the Australian Signals Directorate's signal intelligence and offensive cyber missions, has offered a rare insight into spy agencies' decision to effectively ban Huawei from supplying equipment to Australia's 5G network, despite the company's and Beijing's protestations.
The World
Dozens of companies have data dumped online by ransomware ring seeking leverage
Ars Technica
@thepacketrat
The Maze ransomware ring has taken extortion to new heights by publicly posting breached data on the Internet—and threatening full dumps of stolen data if the ring's "customers" don't pay for their files to be unencrypted. But the group appears to be making one exception: the City of Pensacola, which was hit by Maze ransomware in December.
Coronavirus misinformation surges, fueled by clout chasers
NBC News
Brandy Zadrozny, Zalhan Rosenblatt and Ben Collins
Misleading, unverified and clearly false information about the coronavirus has spread across social media platforms with a mix of fearmongering and racial stereotyping.
Australia
Australian response to cyber threats must evolve, says Pezzullo
The Mandarin
Department of Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo warned of the increased digital threats to Australia. “[The threats] will become more acute as our society and economy become increasingly connected. As the threat evolves, so too must our response,” he told the forum.
Aussie cyber experts to set national security agenda in Perth
Defence Connect
Edith Cowan University will welcome Australia’s top cyber security experts to Perth next week to discuss how to protect Australians from cyber threats.
National security risks rise on China push for 5G tech
The Australian
Boris Johnson’s rash decision to allow Huawei a slice of Britain’s 5G network is odd, shortsighted and worrying, especially for the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which share intelligence material with it as part of the Five Eyes alliance. What was the British Prime Minister thinking?
China
Facial recognition fails in China as people wear masks to avoid coronavirus
Abacus News
@karenhwchiu
For hundreds of millions of people in China, the spread of the new coronavirus has caused abrupt changes to the smallest of habits -- even a gesture that most in the country are used to by now: Looking into the camera for facial recognition.
Google closing China offices amid coronavirus outbreak
CNBC
@JENN_ELIAS
Google is temporarily closing its China offices and restricting travel amid the outbreak of the coronavirus, a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC. The shutdowns, first reported by The Verge, will affect Google’s offices in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The company has also placed temporary travel restrictions on workers flying to China and Hong Kong.
USA
Facebook to pay $550 million to settle facial recognition suit
The New York Times
@natashanyt @MikeIsaac
Facebook said on Wednesday that it had agreed to pay $550 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over its use of facial recognition technology in Illinois, giving privacy groups a major victory that again raised questions about the social network’s data-mining practices.
Twitter Adds Feature to Thwart Misinformation About U.S. Voting Process
The Wall Street Journal
Besty Morris
Twitter Inc. is giving users the ability to flag tweets that they believe contain misleading information about how to vote in this year’s U.S. presidential election, underscoring efforts to show it is trying to safeguard the process.
Huawei decision shows the limits of U.S. power — and Britain’s
Politico
In the end, the lure of the Chinese company’s inexpensive routers and switches proved irresistible to a U.K. government that is banking on a quick and cheap rollout of super-fast 5G networks to build its post-Brexit reputation for digital innovation and openness. And that was enough to outweigh the loud barrage of U.S. warnings that Huawei’s gear would open the door to espionage — not to mention a future in which the intrusive, anti-democratic principles of the Chinese Communist Party rule the technologies of the future.
America should challenge China on worldwide social media dominance
The Hill
@kristinejlee27 @Chris_Estep
The American fixation with TikTok, however, tells only part of a broader story about Chinese efforts to shape the global information architecture through using popular social media platforms. Beijing is fundamentally exploiting imbalances between the information environments of China and democracies to advance its geopolitical agenda.
Lindsey Graham Proposal Could Expose Apple, Facebook to Lawsuits
Bloomberg
Senator Lindsey Graham, a top Trump ally, is targeting giant internet platforms with a child protection measure that could threaten tech companies’ use of encryption and a liability exemption they prize.
Southeast Asia
NZ and Pacific Islands
Internet prices in Papua New Guinea
Devpolicy
@ahawatson
This blog post presents analysis of internet prices offered to consumers in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It presents data collected between June 2016 and December 2019 and discusses related issues.
UK
Why There’s Tory Trouble Afoot For Boris Johnson Over His Huawei Decision
Huffington Post
@paulwaugh
The actual decision on Huawei had been telegraphed (the 5G of its day folks, Victorians loved it) weeks in advance. That, plus the newly-assertive power of the whips in a majority government, may be one reason why the Tory backbench backlash was muted today when foreign secretary Dominic Raab appeared in the Commons.
Europe
Europe wants single data market to break U.S. tech giants' dominance
Reuters
@FooYunChee
The European Union wants to create a single market in data aimed at challenging the dominance of tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon, according to a European Commission proposal seen by Reuters.
Misc
Microsoft Azure Flaws Could Have Let Hackers Take Over Cloud Servers
The Hacker News
Cybersecurity researchers at Check Point today disclosed details of two recently patched potentially dangerous vulnerabilities in Microsoft Azure services that, if exploited, could have allowed hackers to target several businesses that run their web and mobile apps on Azure.
Facebook Won’t Remove This Woman’s Butthole As A Business Page
Buzzfeed
@katienotopoulos
Samantha Jespersen never wanted her butthole to be the first thing that came up when someone Googled her name. But to her horror, she discovered “Samantha Rae Anne Jespersen’s Butthole” — a Facebook business page — was the very first result for a Google search her name.
Study of YouTube comments finds evidence of radicalization effect
Tech Crunch
@riptari
Research presented at the ACM FAT 2020 conference in Barcelona today supports the notion that YouTube’s platform is playing a role in radicalizing users via exposure to far-right ideologies.
How new internet-beaming satellites could change wars
Axios
Huge constellations of satellites expected to launch to orbit in the next few years are an opportunity for defense agencies to expand their communications — and transform the nature of conflict.
Avast Antivirus Is Shutting Down Its Data Collection Arm, Effective Immediately
Vice
@jason_koebler
Avast, an antivirus program with more than 435 million users worldwide, said it will stop collecting and selling the private web browsing histories of its users following a joint investigation by Motherboard and PCMag into the sale of that data. In addition, Avast said it will completely shut down Jumpshot, the subsidiary company it used to sell this data.
Jobs & Opportunities
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre has an outstanding opportunity for a talented and passionate technically-focused analyst to join its growing centre. We are looking for a creative and passionate individual who can contribute unique technical skills to work across a range of projects in the centre. This individual may possess skills and experience in one or more of the following areas including malware analysis, reverse-engineering, data analysis and web scraping (for work on online disinformation for example) and/or a deep technical knowledge of critical technologies. The successful candidate will be offered a remuneration package at a level aligned with their demonstrated skills and expertise. This is a contract position for an initial 1 year term with the option of extension. At any one time ASPI has multiple people working at the institute who are on secondments or unpaid leave from the Australian Public Service (APS). Similar arrangements - including secondments - can be negotiated in this instance pending approval from the APS department/agency.
Researcher – Cyber, Technology, Asia-Pacific
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre has an outstanding opportunity for an emerging researcher to join its growing centre and work directly with the ICPC Director. Staff in the centre have diverse backgrounds and are usually involved in several projects at once. We are looking for a team member with a flexible, entrepreneurial approach, who is a self-starter, has the ability to deliver to deadlines and enjoys working in a collaborative team environment. Foreign languages (particularly Asian languages) and social media analysis skills are desirable but not essential. We are looking for a creative and passionate individual who can work collaboratively in a team environment to support the centre’s program of work. This will include working with a variety of centre staff to conduct research on a range of priority projects, on project coordination and administration, working to facilitate international fellowships, supporting public and private events and engaging with key stakeholders.
ASD is seeking two highly motivated, outcome-driven senior executives.
Policy Advisor (Electorate Officer)
Tim Watts MP
I'm now accepting applications for a Policy Advisor based in my Footscray electorate office (6kms from the Melbourne CBD).
Open Grants Process – Cyber Cooperation Program
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is pleased to invite project proposals for Australia's Cyber Cooperation Program. The Cyber Cooperation Program provides the framework to partner with countries in the Indo-Pacific region so they are equipped to respond to the opportunities and challenges presented by the growth of the global Internet and digital technologies.