Hackers linked to Iran target WHO staff emails / U.S. officials agree on new ways to control high tech exports to China / Privacy experts say responsible coronavirus surveillance is possible
Follow us on Twitter. The Daily Cyber Digest focuses on the topics we work on, including cyber, critical technologies & strategic issues like foreign interference
Hackers working in the interests of the Iranian government have attempted to break into the personal email accounts of staff at the World Health Organization during the coronavirus outbreak, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Reuters
The Trump administration is tightening rules to prevent China from obtaining advanced U.S. technology for commercial purposes and then diverting it to military use, several sources told Reuters. Reuters
Privacy advocates tell The Intercept that our ongoing public health crisis doesn’t have to mean creating a civil liberties crisis in turn. The Intercept
ASPI ICPC
Uyghurs for sale' Q&A
Daily Cyber Digest
Vicky Xu: Thanks, everyone for your excellent questions! We have enjoyed answering them. If you have more questions about the report, please leave them and we’ll get to them over the next few hours/days. If you have any feedback regarding the format of the Q&A, we’d love to hear from you. Thank you again and stay safe and healthy out there!
Read more about the joint investigation between the BBC and ASPI's International Cyber Policy Centre, including the Bellingcat report co-authored by Elise Thomas: ‘Joint BBC-ASPI investigation into West Papua information operations’.
The World
Exclusive: Hackers linked to Iran target WHO staff emails during coronavirus - sources
Reuters
Joseph Menn, Christopher Bing, Raphael Satter & Jack Stubbs
Hackers working in the interests of the Iranian government have attempted to break into the personal email accounts of staff at the World Health Organization during the coronavirus outbreak, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. It is not clear if any accounts were compromised, but the attacks show how the WHO and other organizations at the center of a global effort to contain the coronavirus have come under a sustained digital bombardment by hackers seeking information about the outbreak.
Analysis of April 2020 Twitter takedowns linked to Saudia Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Honduras, Serbia, and Indonesia
Stanford Internet Observatory
On March 11, 2020, Twitter shared with the Stanford Internet Observatory accounts and tweets associated with five distinct takedowns.
Australia
ASD issues warning over cheap and nasty video conferencing
ITnews
Julian Bajkowski
The Australian Signals Directorate has issued an urgent warning to businesses over the use of insecure videoconferencing apps as the use of free or cheap products explodes due to millions of Australians working from home.
China
China, coronavirus and surveillance: the messy reality of personal data
Financial Times
Extensive coronavirus-related censorship — and punishment of whistleblowers — contributed to the spread of the virus and the public’s inability to protect themselves. The coronavirus pandemic has also demonstrated a much messier reality. Although China has tools that many other governments would not be able to usually deploy to track potentially infected people, such as location data from individual phones and facial recognition technology, the state’s ability to access personal data is at times limited.
China Mobile picks Huawei and ZTE to build its 5G network
Financial Times
In recent months Beijing has repeatedly said that foreign companies are welcome to participate in the buildout of its 5G networks, while in turn pressuring other countries to allow China’s national champions to build their critical network infrastructures. But the latest contract from state-owned carrier China Mobile shows that, at home at least, China will rely mostly on domestic companies.
USA
Exclusive: U.S. officials agree on new ways to control high tech exports to China - sources
Reuters
Karen Freifeld & Alexandra Alper
The Trump administration is tightening rules to prevent China from obtaining advanced U.S. technology for commercial purposes and then diverting it to military use, several sources told Reuters. Three measures agreed to by senior U.S. officials in a meeting last Wednesday, but not finalized, would introduce hurdles that could be used to stop Chinese companies from buying certain optical materials, radar equipment and semiconductors, among other things, from the United States.
Conservative Voices Are Pumping Out Coronavirus Misinformation on Twitter
Vanity Fair
@calebecarma
Twitter has cracked down on world leaders and media figures—though, notably, not Trump—for promoting untested cures, but other, more nuanced conspiracy theories are still spreading.
The U.S. Needs to Get in the Standards Game—With Like-Minded Democracies
Lawfare
@LindsayPGorman
Technical bodies like 3GPP—and the hundreds of other international-standards-making organizations that set the rules for cyberspace and the future internet—have become unlikely battlegrounds in the geopolitical contest over the cyber and information space. And the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using coordinated attention and top-down industrial policy to drive its global success in these technocratic bodies and in the technologies they yield. To ensure the competitiveness of the United States and other democracies in the future of internet technology and the norms of cyber governance around it, the U.S. and its allies need to get in the standards game.
North Asia
How Taiwan is tracking 55,000 people under home quarantine in real time
Quartz
@maryhui
Hsieh’s experience is part of Taiwan’s extensive location-tracking apparatus, which is monitoring some 55,000 people currently under mandatory home quarantine in an effort to control the spread of Covid-19. It is just one of many countries leveraging cellphone location data to monitor the location and movements of people amid a global pandemic.
Southeast Asia
Operators split as Telenor rejects govt order to block ‘fake news’ sites
Frontier Myanmar
Digital rights groups and journalists have criticised a recent government order to block more than 50 sites accused of spreading fake news, including prominent Rakhine-based media organisations – an instruction that mobile operator Telenor has defied, saying it has “no legal basis”.
NZ & Pacific Islands
Europe
EEAS SPECIAL REPORT: Disinformation on the coronavirus – short assessment of the information environment
EU vs DISINFORMATION
With the outbreak of COVID-19, we have seen the proliferation of significant quantities of news, myths, and disinformation about it – coming from various sources both within and outside of the European Union.
Turkish security forces use drones, helicopters to police virus lockdown | | Ahval
Ahval
The police in some parts of Turkey are using drones and helicopters to impose social distancing during the coronavirus outbreak.
Misc
Privacy Experts Say Responsible Coronavirus Surveillance Is Possible
The Intercept
@samfbiddle
Privacy advocates tell The Intercept that our ongoing public health crisis doesn’t have to mean creating a civil liberties crisis in turn.
A Feature on Zoom Secretly Displayed Data From People’s LinkedIn Profiles
The New York Times
@Aaron Krolik and Natasha Singer
After an inquiry from Times reporters, Zoom said it would disable a data-mining feature that could be used to snoop on participants during meetings without their knowledge.
We Live On Zoom Now – And That Might Be a Problem On The Media
‘War Dialing’ Tool Exposes Zoom’s Password Problems KrebsOnSecurity
Jobs
Australian Defence Force Cyber Gap Program
Digital Transformation Agency
The Department of Defence has partnered with us to provide a crucial career opportunity — the Australian Defence Force Cyber Gap Program.