Hacker accessed US water treatment facility | Dahua cameras detect race of individuals and alert police | Putin ordered government to restrict foreign tech companies operating in Russia

Feb 9, 2021

Follow us on Twitter. The Daily Cyber Digest focuses on the topics we work on, including cyber, critical technologies & strategic issues like foreign interference.

An unidentified hacker has accessed the computer systems for the water treatment facility in the city of Oldsmar, Florida, and has modified chemical levels to dangerous parameters. ZD.net
Facial recognition software developed by China-based Dahua, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of video surveillance technology, purports to detect the race of individuals caught on camera and offers to alert police clients when it identifies members of the Turkic ethnic group Uighurs. Dahua, though among Chinese companies sanctioned by the U.S. government, has a growing presence in the country with sales and support offices in Irvine and Houston. Los Angeles Times
On Jan. 28, the Kremlin announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the government to write draft rules restricting foreign technology companies operating in Russia. These forthcoming mandates could include requiring that foreign firms open offices within Russian territory. Slate

ASPI ICPC

Ariel Bogle @arielbogle

In our latest dive into vaccine politics, @AlbertYZhang and I look at how India and China's rivalry over their respective candidates and regional diplomacy is playing out online: via op-eds, memes and in the Facebook comment section

China and India tussle online over vaccine diplomacy | The StrategistChina and India are using the inoculation drive against Covid-19 as part of their diplomatic efforts to shore up global and regional ties—and they aren’t the only ones. But now the two countries are engaged ...aspistrategist.org.au

NSW SETS 30% SME TARGETS FOR TECH PROCUREMENT
AuManufacturing
@denhamsadler
A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute late last year called on the Commonwealth to use its significant procurement powers to improve cybersecurity across the economy and stimulate innovation. Federal ICT procurement rose from $5.9 billion in 2012-13 to nearly $10 billion annually currently.

Read ASPI ICPC's report here.

Australia

eSafety Office @eSafetyOffice

A great way to kick off #SaferInternetDay! Watch a message of support for #SID2021 from the Prime Minister of Australia, The Hon @ScottMorrisonMP on why keeping people safe online is a priority for the Australian government: vimeo.com/509619533 #StartTheChat

Safer Internet Day 2021 - a message from the Prime MinisterThe Hon Scott Morrison MP, delivers a Safer Internet Day 2021 video message.vimeo.com

Hugh Riminton @hughriminton

The number of teenagers being contacted by strangers online is sharply rising, says a key government agency - and most parents have no idea. @tweetinjules My report 👇

eSafety Office @eSafetyOffice

Our new research takes a deep dive into the digital lives of Aussie teens: while increased use of tech offers many benefits, there's a distinct downside – dealing w/ negative online experiences like unwanted contact & cyberbullying. Learn more: bit.ly/3a0V2OC #SID2021

China

Charles Rollet @CharlesRollet1

breaking from @ipvideo & @latimes: the world's second-largest security camera manufacturer (@DahuaHQ) provides Chinese police "real-time Uyghur warnings" & tracks "Uyghurs with hidden terrorist inclinations" Dahua has a USA HQ in Irvine & reportedly sold Amazon $10m of cameras

Huawei founder sees no end to US sanctions
ABC News
@AP
The founder of Huawei says he doubts President Joe Biden will remove U.S. sanctions that battered the telecom equipment giant’s smartphone sales but expressed confidence the company can survive.

Steam stays global in China
Protocol
@ZeyiYang
Clubhouse just got blocked in China, but a bigger and far more lucrative global online community is still alive: Steam, an international gaming platform with over 30 million Chinese users.

USA

Katie Bo Williams @KatieBoWill

This is terrifying/exactly the kind of real-world nightmare scenario security experts have warned about in the cyber domain. There's lots of debate about what constitutes a cyber "act of war" but hypothetically, if this were a nation state, it would surely cross that threshold.

Chris Bing @Bing_Chris

According to a press conference today: Hackers broke into a water treatment facility in Florida, gained access to a internal ICS platform, changed chemical levels, making the water unsafe to consume https://t.co/pdReKQ6dxD

Google Kicks Location Data Broker That Sold Muslim Prayer App User Data
VICE
@josephfcox
Last week, Google sent a seven-day warning to app developers on its Android platform telling them to remove code from location data broker Predicio or face having their apps removed from the Play Store, Google told Motherboard on Monday... Predicio is linked to a supply chain of data involving Venntel, which sells location data to ICE. Google's move comes after a Motherboard investigation.

Sean Lyngaas @snlyngaas

.@marcorubio & @MarkWarner write to the FBI, ODNI, DHS, and NSA asking the agencies to put someone in charge of the #SolarWinds response:

Is This Beverly Hills Cop Playing Sublime’s ‘Santeria’ to Avoid Being Live-streamed?
VICE News
@dexdigi
Police officers in Beverly Hills have been playing music while being filmed, seemingly in an effort to trigger Instagram's copyright filters.

Lex Luthor Of The Internet': Meet The Man Keeping Far-Right Websites Alive
NPR
@BobbyAllyn
Epik supports the conspiracy theory website InfoWars, embattled conservative platform Parler, the largely unregulated YouTube alternative BitChute, the gun forum AR15.com and a site for rabid Trump supporters called Patriots.win, previously known as The Donald... Monster says he's pushing back against "cancel culture" and Big Tech.

Bobby Allyn @BobbyAllyn

I went to the woods of Washington to talk to Rob Monster, the CEO of Epik, which supports InfoWars, Gab and Parler. "If you wanted to cast a villain who was going to be the Lex Luther of the Internet, Rob Monster is about as good as it gets," he told me.

‘Lex Luthor Of The Internet’: Meet The Man Keeping Far-Right Websites AliveRob Monster, the chief executive of Epik, says his company’s deals with websites Parler, Gab, BitChute and others is an act of free speech advocacy. Others say Epik is supporting hate speech.npr.org

North-East Asia

Taiwan’s Exports Hit Record High on 5G and Holiday Demand
Bloomberg
Taiwan exported a record amount in January, fueled by rising demand for computer chips and by companies rushing to get components ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays in February.

Taiwan's economy feels heat as TSMC feeds global chip boom
Nikkei Asia
@ChengTingFang @Lauly_Th_Li
Business has never been brisker for construction companies in Taiwan as the world's biggest contract chipmaker rushes to build facilities through the Lunar New Year holiday to meet surging demand. Cranes, trucks, excavators and all manner of heavy vehicles stream in and out of the vast construction site for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s new factory in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan. The site will be the world's most advanced 3-nanometer chip production plant -- and is due to begin mass production in the second half of 2022.

South-East Asia

MTK @MTK_YGN

Civic tech app showing where police, army and barricades are during #Myanmar protests. myanmarmap.live

South and Central Asia

“The Tweets Must Continue To Flow,” Twitter Says Amid Standoff With India
BuzzFeed News
@PranavDixit
Twitter is striking a defiant note in its struggle with India over restricting accounts in the country. On Monday, the company released its first official response since India’s government demanded it reblock more than 250 accounts it had restored in defiance of an IT ministry order. Among the blocked accounts were Caravan, a news magazine, and people who had criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Europe

Lukasz Olejnik @lukOlejnik

Court dismisses a suit related to NotPetya cyberattack/wiper campaign in 2017 ("withholding" information about the extent of damage). A litigation you've probably not heard about. How companies communicate about the consequences of breaches matter! today.westlaw.com/Document/Ia8a2…)

Russia

Big Russian hack used a technique experts had warned about for years. Why wasn’t the U.S. government ready?
The Washington Post
@craigtimberg
The disastrous Russian hack of federal government networks last year relied on a powerful new trick: Digital spies penetrated so deeply that they were able to impersonate any user they wanted. It was the computer network equivalent of sneaking into the State Department and printing perfectly forged U.S. passports.

Gender and Women in Cyber

Cyber Heroines Study Calls for More Cybersecurity Opportunities for African Girls
The Fintech Times
@ohpollyjean
The 2021 Tomorrow’s Cyber Heroines study undertaken by CyberHeroines, KnowBe4 Africa and Infosphere Limited surveyed more than 445 teachers across 14 African countries to unpack the complexities that face African girls in the technology landscape.

Misc

YouTube and Facebook allowed another COVID-19 conspiracy theory video to go viral
Media Matters
@AlKapDC
YouTube and Facebook allowed a video full of false conspiracy theories about the coronavirus, vaccines, and voter fraud -- all of which violate the companies’ rules -- to rack up at least 20 million combined views or engagements on their platforms.

A Search For “Dog” On Instagram Surfaces An Emoji For A Chinese Takeout Box
BuzzFeed News
@RMac18 @CraigSilverman
Searches for the word “dog” on Instagram’s stories feature are showing an emoji for a takeout box associated with Chinese American food, angering people who are concerned the app is reinforcing racist stereotypes... “We've removed the emoji from appearing in this search and are investigating what led to this so we can take steps to keep it from happening again,” said a Facebook spokesperson.

Forget 5G, the U.S. and China Are Already Fighting for 6G Dominance
Bloomberg
Most of the world is yet to experience the benefits of a 5G network, but the geopolitical race for the next big thing in telecommunications technology is already heating up. For companies and governments, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The first to develop and patent 6G will be the biggest winners in what some call the next industrial revolution.

Research

The AI industry is built on geographic and social inequality, research shows
Venture Beat
@Kyle_L_Wiggers
The arm of global inequality is long, rendering itself visible particularly in the development of AI and machine learning systems. In a recent paper, researchers at Cornell, the Universite de Montreal, the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (U.S.), and Princeton argue that this inequality in the AI industry involves a concentration of profits and raises the danger of ignoring the contexts to which AI is applied.

James A. Lewis @james_a_lewis

Jim Lewis and Chris Painter talk with Michael Walma, Cyber Foreign Policy Coordinator for Global Affairs Canada about the new US administration, the value of regional organizations, and Canada’s work to advance diversity.

‎Inside Cyber Diplomacy on Apple PodcastsInside Cyber Diplomacy presents a wide-ranging and thought-provoking look at international cybersecurity, its challenges, and practices. Through candid interviews with experts around the world, co-hosts Jim Lewis and Chris Painter explore how diplomacy and negotiation have shaped the field. This pod…podcasts.apple.com

Jobs

ICPC Senior Analyst or Analyst - China
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) has a unique opportunity for an exceptional and experienced China-focused senior analyst or analyst to join its centre. Applications should be submitted no later than 12 February 2021.

Yoel Roth @yoyoel

Passionate about disrupting state-backed disinformation and platform manipulation campaigns? We’re hiring for our global IO investigation team in the US, Dublin, and Singapore! 👇 US: https://t.co/xsmrg4UFZW DUB: https://t.co/yqk0Bu7EwD SG: https://t.co/qiPubIcnH9

Senior Domain Specialist: Information Operations (San Francisco, Washington, New York City), (Dublin), (Singapore)
Twitter
We’re looking for a Senior investigator and domain specialist to help us identify, remediate, and build technical and policy solutions to counter emerging threats in the information operations (IO) and targeted security threats spaces.

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