Facebook apps hit by global outage | Biden to convene 30 countries to crack down on ransomware threats | Britain to carry out ‘offensive’ cyber attacks from new digital warfare centre
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Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp became inaccessible for large numbers of people at about 5pm UK time and were still down at 9.30pm, with the downdetector.com site citing reports of problems from millions of social media users around the world. The Guardian
The goal of the alliance will be "to accelerate our cooperation in combatting cybercrime, improving law enforcement collaboration, stemming the illicit use of cryptocurrency, and engaging on these issues diplomatically," Biden is set to announce Friday, according to the statement. CNN
Britain will launch “offensive” cyber attacks in response to similar assaults or disinformation campaigns by “hostile states” such as Russia, the Defence Secretary has said, as he unveiled plans for a £5bn digital warfare centre in the heart of the red wall. The Telegraph
ASPI ICPC
Subs and suds
ABC Radio National
@amandavanstone
Director of ASPI's International Cyber Policy Centre, Fergus Hanson argues 'the real potential of AUKUS lies in how the new grouping can be leveraged in the long term to help Australia deal with the profound technological disruption about to sweep the world'. He says that 'the alliance has been set up as an information and technology sharing arrangement that will focus on critical technologies such as, for instance, artificial intelligence and quantum'.
Politicians no longer allowed to use work account for mass-email campaigns
The Daily Telegraph
@ByClare
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Centre director Fergus Hanson said the crackdown on parliamentary email usage was significant in the broader context of reported breaches, including one recently unofficially attributed to the Chinese Communist Party.
World
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp hit by global outage
The Guardian
@DanMilmo
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp became inaccessible for large numbers of people at about 5pm UK time and were still down at 9.30pm, with the downdetector.com site citing reports of problems from millions of social media users around the world. A map on the site showed, for instance, reports of outages from cities across the US, UK and Australia.
What Happened to Facebook, Instagram, & WhatsApp?
Krebs on Security
Facebook and its sister properties Instagram and WhatsApp are suffering from ongoing, global outages. We don’t yet know why this happened, but the how is clear: Earlier this morning, something inside Facebook caused the company to revoke key digital records that tell computers and other Internet-enabled devices how to find these destinations online.
Facebook CTO apologizes for outages as apps remain down
Hollywood Reporter
@jclarachan
Facebook’s chief technology officer apologized on Monday afternoon after Facebook’s suite of applications, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, remained offline for several hours around the globe.
Antony Blinken says US and EU could do ‘more and better’ on tech security
Financial Times
@Aime_Williams @HenryJFoy
Blinken’s proposal goes further than the terms agreed this week by the White House and the European Commission at an inaugural trade and technology summit in Pittsburgh on a slew of new measures aimed at alignment on emerging technologies, export controls and foreign direct investment rules.
Australia
Our diplomatic task is daunting, but the mission is clear
The Australian
@Rory_Medcalf
A future Australian Defence Force of nuclear-powered submarines and advanced conventional missiles, an AUKUS technology partnership with London and Washington, and far-reaching plans to advance the global good with the US, Japan and India under the mantle of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue: the past few weeks have been a fire hose of national security news.
Activist Drew Pavlou’s hacked emails putting Uighurs at risk
The Australian
@liammendes
Human rights activist Drew Pavlou has been the target of Chinese hackers who accessed his private email account and may have obtained the identity of vulnerable Uighurs with whom he has been in contact.
China
Rick Scott probes LinkedIn, Microsoft on censoring U.S. journalists in China
Axios
@JacKnutson @alaynatreene
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) sent a letter to Microsoft and LinkedIn leadership on Thursday questioning why LinkedIn censored the profiles of U.S. journalists from the company's China-based platform this week, according to a letter obtained by Axios.
Xiaomi censorship allegations may cloud its global ambitions, other Chinese smartphone vendors’ expansion plans
South China Morning Post
@jane_zeal & Che Pan
The Lithuanian government’s recommendation that its citizens throw away Chinese smartphones, singling out devices from Xiaomi Corp for their censorship capabilities, raises a red flag for the continued business expansion of these tech companies across Europe, according to analysts.
Huawei appeals Sweden's ban on company for selling 5G gear
Reuters
@Tech_Correspond
Huawei (HWT.UL) said on Friday it had filed an appeal against a ruling by a Swedish court in June that upheld a ban on the Chinese company for selling 5G equipment in the country.
For a dissident living in Germany, China’s digital policing is winning
Coda Story
@isocockerell
Liu Dejun, the subject of an Ai Weiwei documentary, brawls China’s hardening censorship and surveillance.
Read more about Ping An via our Mapping China’s Tech Giants project
USA
Biden administration to convene 30 countries to crack down on ransomware threat
CNN
@snlyngaas
The goal of the alliance will be "to accelerate our cooperation in combatting cybercrime, improving law enforcement collaboration, stemming the illicit use of cryptocurrency, and engaging on these issues diplomatically," Biden is set to announce Friday, according to the statement.
Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen revealed as ‘whistleblower’ behind leaked documents that plunged the company into scandal
The Washington Post
@Cat_Zakrzewski @viaCristiano
Former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen has been revealed as the source behind tens of thousands of pages of leaked internal company research, which she says show that the company has been negligent in eliminating violence, misinformation and other harmful content from its services, and that it has misled investors about these efforts.
The Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen, says she wants to fix the company, not harm it
The Wall Street Journal
@JeffHorwitz
Frances Haugen, a former product manager hired to help protect against election interference on Facebook, said she had grown frustrated by what she saw as the company’s lack of openness about its platforms’ potential for harm and unwillingness to address its flaws. She is scheduled to testify before Congress on Tuesday. She has also sought federal whistleblower protection with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Whistle-blower to accuse Facebook of contributing to Jan. 6 riot, memo says
The New York Times
@MikeIsaac
In an internal memo meant to pre-empt a “60 Minutes” interview, Facebook defended itself and said that social media was not a primary cause of polarization.
Facebook struggles to quell uproar over Instagram’s effect on teens
The New York Times
@MikeIsaac @sheeraf @RMac18
The social network has been all hands on deck as it grapples with revelations that it knew the harmful effects its Instagram photo-sharing app was having on teenagers.
Facebook is weaker than we knew
The New York Times
@kevinroose
A trove of leaked documents, published by The Wall Street Journal, hints at a company whose best days are behind it.
Clearly, Facebook is very flawed. What will we do about it?
The New York Times
@Klonick
Facebook is perfectly capable of measuring “user experience” besides the narrow concept of “engagement,” and it is time those measurements were weighted more heavily in company decision-making. That doesn’t mean just weighing harmful effects on users; it could also mean looking at and measuring the good things Facebook offers — how likely you are to attend a protest or give to a charitable cause you hear about on Facebook.
How Facebook hinders misinformation research
Scientific American
@LauraEdelson2 Damon McCoy
Facebook wants people to see it as “the most transparent platform on the internet”—in the words of its vice president of integrity in August. But in reality, it has set up nearly insurmountable roadblocks for researchers seeking shareable, independent sources of data. It’s true that Facebook does provide researchers with some data: It maintains a searchable online ad library and allows authorized users to download limited information about political ads. Researchers have also been able to use Facebook's business analytics tools to glean some information about the popularity of unpaid content. But the platform not only sharply limits access to these tools, it also aggressively moves to shut down independent efforts to collect data.
U.S. lawmakers push for new controls on ex-spies working overseas
Reuters
@Bing_Chris
The U.S. intelligence community's budget bill could place new controls and reporting requirements on former U.S. spies, according to the author of the legislation, making it harder for them to work as contractors for foreign governments following a 2019 Reuters investigation into American mercenary hackers.
Countdown starts on Chinese company delistings after long U.S.-China audit fight
The Wall Street Journal
@dawnmlim @jingyanghk
U.S. securities regulators have started a countdown that will force many Chinese companies to leave American stock exchanges, after a long impasse between Washington and Beijing over access to the companies’ audit records. The action will accelerate the decoupling of the world’s two largest economies and affect investors that own securities in more than 200 U.S.-listed Chinese companies with a combined market value of roughly $2 trillion.
Clearview AI has new tools to identify you in photos
WIRED
@willknight
In an interview with WIRED, CEO Hoan Ton-That said the company has scraped 10 billion photos from the web—and developed new ways to aid police surveillance.
Almost every nation' now has cyber vulnerability exploitation program, NSA official says
CyberScoop
@timstarks
China, by contrast, is “off the charts,” he said: “The amount of Chinese cyber actors dwarfs the rest of the globe combined.” U.S. agencies warned this summer of China’s voracious appetite for intellectual property, and the U.S. government blamed China for exploiting Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities that paved the way for a ransomware spree. In recent weeks there have been reports of Chinese hackers allegedly infiltrating Indian organizations. Russia places an emphasis on being disruptive in a way the U.S. cannot tolerate, Joyce said. For instance, “We’ve seen evidence of pre-positioning against U.S. critical infrastructure,” he said.
Intelligence agencies pushed to use more commercial satellites
The New York Times
@julianbarnes
With Congress pushing the Biden administration to make more use of commercial satellites, intelligence officials are starting to award new contracts to show they can augment the capabilities of highly classified spy satellites with the increasingly sophisticated services available from the private sector.
Company that routes billions of text messages quietly says it was hacked
VICE
@lorenzofb
A company that is a critical part of the global telecommunications infrastructure used by AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and several others around the world such as Vodafone and China Mobile, quietly disclosed that hackers were inside its systems for years, impacting more than 200 of its clients and potentially millions of cellphone users worldwide.
Anonymous releases data on Texas GOP in latest Epik hack dump
The Daily Dot
@MikaelThalen
Hackers operating under the banner of Anonymous have released more data from Epik, the controversial web hosting company known for offering refuge to the far-right.
Trump asks court to force Twitter to reinstate his account
The Washington Post
@Adela_Suliman
In a filing late Friday, Trump asked a federal district judge for a preliminary injunction enabling his return to Twitter while his lawsuit against the social media giant continues.
Chief Blue Origin complaint author disputes cause of termination, while the space company’s CEO does damage control
TechCrunch
@breadfrom
The letter from Smith, which was first obtained by CNBC, comes on the heels of an essay jointly composed by 21 current and former Blue Origin employees detailing serious concerns regarding safety and sexual harassment at the company.
North-East Asia
Inside the Taiwan firm that makes the world’s tech run
TIME
@CharlieCamp6ell
The $550 billion firm today controls more than half the global market for made-to-order chips and has an even tighter stranglehold on the most advanced processors, with more than 90% of market share by some estimates.
Foxconn made the iPhone in your hand and wants to make the EV in your garage
The Wall Street Journal
Yang Jie @StephanieAYang
The Taiwanese company that assembles iPhones wants to become a top contract maker of electric vehicles too, a plan boosted by the purchase of Lordstown Motors Corp.’s electric truck factory in Ohio.
UK
Britain to carry out ‘offensive’ cyber attacks from new £5bn digital warfare centre
The Telegraph
@edwardmalnick
Britain will launch “offensive” cyber attacks in response to similar assaults or disinformation campaigns by “hostile states” such as Russia, the Defence Secretary has said, as he unveiled plans for a £5bn digital warfare centre in the heart of the red wall. In an interview with The Telegraph, Ben Wallace revealed that the new National Cyber Force headquarters will be built in the North West, in a move Boris Johnson hopes will emulate the construction of GCHQ, the government’s listening post, outside Cheltenham under Winston Churchill’s premiership. Mr Wallace said the agency, which is expected to employ thousands of hackers and analysts by 2030, would “put Britain at the front” of countries with the ability to carry out cyber attacks.
UK military chiefs battle to become next head of armed forces
Financial Times
@GeorgeWParker @helenwarrell
Defence officials say the preference among the military top brass is for Sir Patrick Sanders, the general responsible for military cyber operations and special forces, to become the new chief of defence staff (CDS). Sanders is seen as a charismatic leader with the necessary skills in new forms of warfare such as cyber and information operations to take on Russia and China in the “grey zone” between peaceful relations and formal armed conflict.
Cambridge sets guidelines to reduce overseas engagement risks
Financial Times
@bethanstaton @laura_k_hughes
The University of Cambridge is to introduce guidance for upholding academic freedom and national security in international agreements, after coming under fire for its links with China and the Chinese telecoms company Huawei.
Europe
Europe urged to launch fund to spur rare earth magnet output
Reuters
@reutersEricO
The EU should invest up to 200 million euros a year to boost domestic output of specialist rare earth magnets, vital for electric car motors and wind turbines, and reduce dependence on China, an EU-funded body said on Thursday.
Europe’s chip champion can weather tech cold war
Reuters
Peter Thal Larsen
Europe’s largest technology company can weather a cold war between China and the United States. ASML (ASML.AS) has grown into a $310 billion behemoth by making machines that let semiconductor makers print miniscule chips.
Clubhouse, Vimeo, DoubleVerify and others set to sign up to beefed-up disinformation code in the EU
TechCrunch
@riptari
Audio social network Clubhouse, video sharing platform Vimeo and anti-ad fraud startup DoubleVerify are among a clutch of tech companies and organzations preparing to sign up to a beefed-up version of the European Union’s Code of Practice on Online Disinformation, the Commission said today.
Russia
In Russia, Apple and Google staff get muscled by the state
WIRED
@jshermcyber
The US tech platforms’ sudden knee-bending didn’t just hurt the opposition’s ability to communicate to the Russian people. It also marked the dangerous effectiveness of a new Kremlin policy: Force foreign tech firms to put employees on the ground, so they can then be coerced and threatened into doing the Kremlin’s bidding. For all that the world’s politicians and analysts discuss internet censorship in technical terms, this episode is a powerful reminder that old-fashioned force can decisively tighten a state’s grip on the web.
The Americas
Bolsonaro’s social media plan shows his election worry
Chatham House
@carolalolac
With polls predicting electoral defeat, Brazil’s president seeks renewed legitimacy for his divisive rhetoric by ensuring social media platforms toe the line.
Africa
Twitter ban in Nigeria to be lifted if platform sets up a local office and pays taxes, president says
TechCrunch
@ulonnaya
Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari announced on Friday that the current ban on Twitter would be lifted, but only if the social media giant met certain conditions.
Misc
What would it take to make AI ‘greener’?
World Economic Forum
@khatrysarah Ted Kwartler @KayFButterfield @markeliotcaine
With record heat waves globally and extreme flooding impacting Europe and China, now is a pivotal moment to interrogate the interplay of technology and the environment, including the role of artificial intelligence (AI).
Events
Who controls the internet?
Chatham House
Join a panel including Dame Wendy Hall and Sir Jeremy Fleming, Director GCHQ, as they discuss the geopolitics of internet governance with other leading experts. 6 October 2021 — 1:00PM TO 2:00PM BST
Cyber 2021
Chatham House
James Andrew Lewis
Join cyber security experts from policy, business and civil society to explore the key vulnerabilities of accelerated digital transformation and how to maintain a truly global, open internet. 11 October 2021 to 12 October 2021 — 1:00PM TO 4:00PM BST
Research
Facial recognition technology: responsible use principles and the legislative landscape
Centre for Strategic and International Studies
The discussion of facial recognition technology (FRT) comes at a politically charged moment. Some of the concerns raised in the discussion of FRT are based on erroneous information. To address legitimate concerns, the use of FRT must be demonstrably consistent with constitutional protections, and this requires clear guardrails—laws, rules, and policies—for the use of FRT. These guardrails are best developed by Congress to provide consistent national rules.
Eye on Indonesian tech: where US and Chinese companies vie for market power and soft power
Macro Polo
@mattsheehan88 @anarkaleep
As China and the United States increasingly wall off their domestic technology markets from one another, bilateral competition will continue to spill over into emerging markets in the global south. One key market in this competition is Indonesia, which both Chinese and American tech companies view as a cornerstone of their pushes into Southeast Asia. As one Chinese venture capitalist (VC) mused, “When [Chinese] investors talk about ‘Southeast Asia’, they are referring to Indonesia.”
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.