Covid test misinformation spikes along with spread of Omicron | China plans its first ‘free data port’ in Guangzhou | EU orders Europol to delete data on citizens who have not committed crimes
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The added demand for testing due to Omicron and the higher prevalence of breakthrough cases has given purveyors of misinformation an “opportune moment” to exploit, said Kolina Koltai, a researcher at the University of Washington who studies online conspiracy theories. The New York Times
China is building its first “free trade port for data” with an investment of 31.8 billion yuan (US$5 billion) in Nansha, Guangzhou city as part of the country’s efforts to build up controllable cross-border information flows, according to state media outlet Nanfang Daily on Friday. South China Morning Post
Europol, the law enforcement agency of the European Union (EU), has been ordered today to delete its massive database of information on EU citizens that it collected in recent years if the agency did not link subjects to any ongoing criminal activity. The Record
ASPI ICPC
World
Covid test misinformation spikes along with spread of Omicron
The New York Times
Davey Alba
The added demand for testing due to Omicron and the higher prevalence of breakthrough cases has given purveyors of misinformation an “opportune moment” to exploit, said Kolina Koltai, a researcher at the University of Washington who studies online conspiracy theories. The false narratives “support the whole idea of not trusting the infection numbers or trusting the death count,” she said.
Australia
Bunnings private customer data exposed in data breach
Crikey
Cam Wilson
Bunnings customers who used its Drive & Collect service have been told their private information may have been leaked in a data breach affecting a third-party software platform. Scheduling service FlexBooker announced late last week that sensitive information belonging to 3.7 million users had been exposed after their servers were “compromised” on December 23.
No plans to introduce government bug disclosure program
InnovationAus
Denham Sadler
The federal government has no plans to introduce a vulnerability disclosure program despite a number of security researchers calling for a better way of notifying about significant flaws such as those found in the digital vaccine certificate. In response to questions on notice from Senate Estimates hearings last year, Services Australia brushed aside concerns about the security of its digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates, while the Digital Transformation Agency confirmed it has no intention to launch a government-wide bug bounty program.
China
China plans its first ‘free data port’ in Guangzhou as Beijing eyes total control over cross-border information flows
South China Morning Post
Iris Deng
China is building its first “free trade port for data” with an investment of 31.8 billion yuan (US$5 billion) in Nansha, Guangzhou city as part of the country’s efforts to build up controllable cross-border information flows, according to state media outlet Nanfang Daily on Friday.
Hungry for Chips, Huawei Invests in Chinese Companies That Make Them
The Wall Street Journal
Dan Strumpf
Blocked by the U.S. from buying many of the chips it needs, Huawei Technologies Co. is stepping up investments in companies that are racing to build China’s semiconductor supply chain.
Chip shortage leaves Tesla and other electric car buyers in China waiting months for new vehicles
South China Morning Post
Daniel Ren
The ongoing global chip shortage has left car buyers in China waiting several months for newly purchased vehicles to arrive, as assemblers and component manufacturers struggle to keep up with demand. The electric vehicles (EVs) market has been especially hard-hit owing to its need for more semiconductors than traditional carmakers. Premium cars that need more chips for driver assistance and other electronic systems remain in high demand despite a slowdown in production.
USA
Intel erases reference to China’s Xinjiang after social-media backlash
The Wall Street Journal
Intel Corp. removed references to the Chinese region of Xinjiang from an open letter it sent suppliers last month, after the contents of the note sparked a social-media uproar in China and led the U.S. semiconductor company to apologize to the Chinese public. In mid-December, Intel published a letter to its global suppliers on its website, calling on its business partners to avoid sourcing from the northwestern Chinese region, where the Chinese government has conducted a campaign of forcible assimilation against ethnic Muslim minorities. Within days, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company was denounced by Chinese social-media users and state-run media for cutting business dealings with the region, while one of its China brand ambassadors pulled out in protest.
Cyber officials warn of long-term fallout from Log4j cyber flaw
The Wall Street Journal
Dustin Volz
Senior U.S. security officials said Monday they hadn’t yet seen significant disruptive or destructive cyberattacks, such as ransomware attacks, linked to a massive internet flaw discovered one month ago, but warned that the bug could aid the nefarious activity of criminals and foreign governments for months or years to come.
A year into his social media exile, Trump is working to get back online
The Washington Post
Douglas MacMillan, Josh Dawsey & Elizabeth Dwoskin
Former president Donald Trump’s upstart social network is probably months away from being fully operational, potentially limiting his ability to influence the midterm elections, according to people familiar with the fledgling operation.The pace of development for Truth Social has at times frustrated Trump, who has discussed but ultimately turned down opportunities to work with other platforms in the fast-growing universe of right-wing social media sites, said three people familiar with the discussions, who like others in this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. He is holding out for his own venture, which he believes will be more lucrative and gives him more control, advisers say.
The trouble with Roblox, the video game empire built on child labour
The Guardian
Simon Parkin
Young developers on the platform used by many millions of children claim they have been financially exploited, threatened with dismissal and sexually harassed.
Microsoft hit by defections as tech giants battle for talent to build the Metaverse
The Wall Street Journal
Aaron Tilley
Microsoft Corp.’s augmented-reality team has lost around 100 people in the past year, many of them to Meta Platforms Inc., said former employees of the software company and online job profiles, as the battle heats up for workers with skills to build the metaverse.
Why Tesla soared as other automakers struggled to make cars
The New York Times
Jack Ewing
Tesla and its enigmatic chief executive, Elon Musk, have said little about how the carmaker ran circles around the rest of the auto industry. Now it’s becoming clear that the company simply had a superior command of technology and its own supply chain. Tesla appeared to better forecast demand than businesses that produce many more cars than it does. Other automakers were surprised by how quickly the car market recovered from a steep drop early in the pandemic and had simply not ordered enough chips and parts fast enough.
Google must turn over more documents in a labor case, a judge rules.
The New York Times
Daisuke Wakabayashi
Google wrongly claimed attorney-client privilege to protect documents subpoenaed in a National Labor Relations Board case filed by former employees who say the company fired them because of their unionization efforts, a labor judge has ruled. The ruling is the latest legal blow to Google’s defense against a complaint, brought by the labor agency in December 2020, that said the company illegally fired and surveilled employees who were involved in labor organizing.
Google had secret project to ‘convince’ employees ‘what unions suck’
VICE
Lauren Kaori Gurley
A National Labor Relations Board ruling sheds light on a highly secret anti-union campaign at Google, that a top executive explicitly described as an initiative to “convince [employees] that unions suck." The campaign was called Project Vivian, and ran at Google between late 2018 and early 2020 to combat employee activism and union organizing efforts at the company, according to court documents.
WhatsApp Co-Founder Is the New Acting CEO of Signal
VICE
Joseph Cox
Brian Acton, a co-founder of WhatsApp and financier of Signal, is becoming Signal’s interim CEO as Moxie Marlinspike steps down as Signal’s CEO over the next month, according to a blog post published Monday by Marlinspike.
South and Central Asia
It's in India's national interest to promote open source software
Mint
Nitin Pai
Open-source software is in India’s national interest, given the unfolding economics and politics of the technology space. As much as it makes sense to stay out of the cyber Sinosphere and align with the US where there is convergence of interests and values, India must maximize its independent technological power. To attempt technological sovereignty by reinventing everything and insisting on localization would be counter-productive. A far more effective approach is to focus on open-source projects, build for the whole planet and derive a strategic advantage. This is the only reliable way to reduce dependence on transnational technology companies (and the governments behind them), whether Chinese or Western.
Taliban arrest popular Afghan professor critical of govt
Associated Press
Zabihullah Mujahid said in a tweet that professor Faizuallah Jalal was being held by the Taliban’s intelligence arm. The group accused the professor of “nonsense remarks on social media, which were provoking people against the government and playing with people’s dignity.”
UK
UK data watchdog seeks talks with Meta over child protection concerns
The Guardian
Dan Milmo
The UK’s data watchdog is seeking clarification from Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta about parental controls on its popular virtual reality headset, as campaigners warned that it could breach an online children’s safety code. The Information Commissioner’s Office said it was planning “further discussions” with the Facebook and Instagram owner about its £300 Oculus Quest 2 device, which was a sought-after gift over Christmas. However, child safety experts have warned that the headset’s lack of parental controls – which would allow parents to block content that could be harmful to children – expose young users to the threat of abuse on the platform.
Europe
EU orders Europol to delete data on citizens who have not committed crimes
The Record
Catalin Cimpanu
Europol, the law enforcement agency of the European Union (EU), has been ordered today to delete its massive database of information on EU citizens that it collected in recent years if the agency did not link subjects to any ongoing criminal activity. The decision was announced today by the European Data Protection Supervisor, an EU-independent supervisory authority whose primary objective is to monitor and ensure that European institutions and bodies respect the right to privacy and data protection.
Danish Intelligence Chief jailed after surveillance scandal
Bloomberg
Morten Buttler
The head of Denmark’s military intelligence service, Lars Findsen, has been jailed, charged with leaking classified material, according to local media. Last month, Danish police arrested four current and former intelligence workers on charges they had leaked highly classified information. Broadcaster TV2 and other media reported on Monday that Findsen, 57, was among those four after the district court in Copenhagen lifted a ban to name him, at his own request.
EU plans law requiring tech firms to do more to combat child abuse
Reuters
Vera Eckert & Mark Potter
The European Union plans to legislate in the coming months to require technology companies to do more to tackle child sexual abuse, beefing up current voluntary arrangements, a top official said in a newspaper interview. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told Germany's Welt am Sonntag that internet service providers and social media firms had reported 22 million offences related to child sexual abuse in 2020, up from 17 million in 2019.
Fugitive Italian killer finally meets his match: Google Maps
The New York Times
Elisabetta Povoledo
Italian investigators contacted the Spanish police unit that hunts fugitives, and on Dec. 17, Mr. Gammino was arrested while he was walking on the street. General Altiero said there had been other breaks in the two-decade investigation, but that the discovery using the Google tools had been key to the rapid arrest of Mr. Gammino.
Americas
Canada working on new China strategy, Joly says as PM calls out Beijing’s ‘coercive diplomacy’
Global News
Rachel Gilmore
Canada is working on a new strategy for its relationship with an increasingly influential China, says Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly. She made the comment during an interview with The West Block‘s Mercedes Stephenson, which aired Sunday. “There’s a growing influence of China in the world and every single country needs to take a decision as to what their relationship will be with China,” Joly said. “That is why I was given the mandate to develop a strategy, which is called an Indo-Pacific strategy, because we need to see, yes, China, but also the region as a whole.”
Mining of lithium, key to the climate fight, faces new scrutiny in Chile
The New York Times
John Bartlett
Politicians have called for a pause in new mining contracts for lithium, which is in high demand for electric car batteries but is at the heart of a debate in Chile over mines, water rights and inequality.
Africa
Dictators in Africa using social media to cling to power
DW
Both Twitter and Facebook accuse the Ugandan government of using social media as a tool politicians to manipulate public opinion, spread disinformation, and intimidate the opposition. Facebook also stated that as part of its strategy, the Ministry of Information had been using "fake and duplicate accounts" for propaganda purposes.
Events
Jobs
ICPC Analyst / Project Lead - Cyber Capacity Building
ASPI ICPC
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) has a unique opportunity for a talented Analyst / Project Lead to support a new project that looks at supporting states in the Indo-Pacific in defending against cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property. The successful candidate will work in a small, high-performing team to produce original research and analysis that directly informs broader diplomatic and cyber capacity building activities on the topic of equipping countries globally with tools to defend against the use of cyber tools to steal IP for commercial purposes. Together with a project lead on Learning and Development and the Project Director, the analyst will also participate in international workshops, provide training to foreign governments and present to other external stakeholders.
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.