Internet freedom declines around the world | Tech companies rush to fight misinformation ahead of UK vote | Cambodia launches disinfo campaign to repress opposition groups
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Rising levels of political disinformation and government surveillance are making the internet less free in the U.S., according to a new report by Freedom House, a democracy and human rights research group. Axios.
Social media platforms say they are mounting a vigorous campaign against misinformation in the lead up to next month’s general election in the United Kingdom. But digital misinformation experts believe British voters remain vulnerable to the same type of misleading ads and phony claims that played a role in the vote to leave the European Union three years ago. AP.
Cambodian authorities have launched a disinformation campaign to intimidate critics ahead of the planned return this week from self-exile of the acting head of the country’s main opposition group. Coda Story.
ASPI ICPC
The New Trends of Influence Operations
Global Disinformation Index
Recent research by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has shown that the Chinese government’s campaign is focused on portraying the protesters as violent. Much of the content is written in Chinese characters. This suggests the main target audience is Chinese communities overseas, as well as Hong Kongers themselves.
World
Internet freedom declines in U.S. and around the world
Axios
@davidlawler10
Rising levels of political disinformation and government surveillance are making the internet less free in the U.S., according to a new report by Freedom House, a democracy and human rights research group.
Spyware Maker NSO Promises Reform but Keeps Snooping
NYT
@nicoleperlroth
Recent revelations in India show that the threat from the company’s spyware to activists and journalists isn’t limited to autocratic regimes.
Australia
Dan Tehan warns unis he has 'blunt instruments' to compel action on foreign interference
SMH
@fergushunter
Universities are being asked to provide information on their efforts to strengthen cyber security and "enhance the identification and deterrence of foreign interference activities".
How an Australian start-up inadvertently helped 8chan get back online
ABC
@arielbogle
After months in the dark, the anonymous message board website 8chan came tentatively back online this week. It even had a new name: 8kun... [I]n an attempt to make the [8chan/8kun] website more censorship-proof, he also built a version separate from the normal internet, tweeting on Saturday "8kun is also available on the new and experimental lokinet". This move ensnared an Australian start-up, Loki — the creators of Lokinet — which markets a commitment to free speech and privacy.
China
Shutterstock Employees Fight Company’s New Chinese Search Blacklist
The Intercept
@samfbiddle
Shutterstock, the well-known online purveyor of stock images and photographs, is the latest U.S. company to willingly support China’s censorship regime, blocking searches that might offend the country’s authoritarian government, The Intercept has learned.
Podcast: Monitoring the growing sophistication of PKPLUG.
The CyberWire
Researchers from Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 have been tracking a Chinese cyber espionage group they've named PKPLUG. The group mainly targets victims in the Southeast Asia region. Ryan Olson is VP of threat intelligence at Palo Alto Networks, and he joins us to share their findings. - See more at: https://thecyberwire.com/podcasts/cw-podcasts-rs-2019-11-09.html#.dpuf
USA
Active Duty Marine Who Posted Racist Slurs on Neo-Nazi Website Is Identified: 'Anybody Else With Our Views?'
News Week
@JimLaPorta @quasiasher
Embedded among the chat logs from a now-defunct neo-Nazi and white supremacist message board are anti-Semitic and racist remarks directed at multiple ethnic groups—written by an active-duty U.S. Marine Corps infantryman.
The U.S. military, algorithmic warfare, and big tech
Venture Beat
@kharijohnson
Algorithmic warfare, which could dramatically change warfare as we know it, is built on the assumption that combat actions will happen faster than humans’ ability to make decisions. Shanahan says algorithmic warfare would thus require some reliance on AI systems, though he stresses a need to implement rigorous testing and evaluation before using AI in the field to ensure it doesn’t “take on a life of its own, so to speak.”
Secret chats involving Republican lawmaker reveal fresh evidence of plots and paranoia
The Guardian
@jason_a_w
Leaked Signal messages from an online chat network around six-term Washington state Republican representative Matt Shea show new evidence of violent fantasies, surveillance of perceived adversaries, conspiracy thinking, Islamophobia, and support for white nationalists.
This New York Company Claimed Its Government Surveillance Tools Were ‘Made In The U.S.A.’—They Were Really Chinese Spy Tech, DOJ Says
Forbes
@iblametom
On Thursday the Department of Justice said Aventura was doing far more than buying a few Chinese parts. The agency accused the company and seven current and former employees, including CEO Frances Cabasso, of a scheme dating back to 2006 to defraud the U.S. government by selling Chinese-made equipment with a “known cybersecurity vulnerability.”
Malware Meets Politics With Trump and Clinton Themed Infections
Bleeping Computer
@lawrenceabrams
Just as people express their political views through art, malware developers express their political ideologies, hopes, and frustrations through the computer infections they create.
Asia
Chinese suspected of spying on emails of 10 Taiwanese university scholars for 3 years
Taiwan News
@keverington
The email accounts of over 10 cross-strait researchers at National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) have been hacked and spied on over the course of three years, and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) suspects the hackers were based in China.
Cambodia launches online disinfo campaign to repress opposition groups
Coda Story
@ANachemson
Ahead of the return of self-exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy, supporters are being rounded up and forced to make “confession” videos
Why India should go public on cyber attackers: to seize a diplomatic edge and shape a strong response
Economic Times
@Utopiandevil
The malware attack on the Kudankulam nuclear plant has already begun fading away from public discourse. But, among other things, an important question that it raked up remains: what is the state of India’s attribution framework?
India shuts down internet in Aligarh on eve of 70-year Ayodhya land dispute verdict
Net Blocks
Network data from the NetBlocks internet observatory confirm that India has cut internet access in in the city of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh on the eve of a significant legal verdict. The internet shutdown is implemented by authorities a day in advance of an upcoming verdict that seeks to resolve a 70-year land dispute between Hindu and Muslim residents which centers around the city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.
UK
Voters ‘used as lab rats’ in political Facebook adverts, warn analysts
The Guardian
The three main political parties in England and Wales are using Facebook audiences “as lab rats in a giant experiment”, according to the first detailed analysis of online advertising during a UK election.
Tech Companies Rush to Fight Misinformation Ahead of UK Vote
AP
@David Klepper @Danica Kirker
Social media platforms say they are mounting a vigorous campaign against misinformation in the lead up to next month’s general election in the United Kingdom. But digital misinformation experts believe British voters remain vulnerable to the same type of misleading ads and phony claims that played a role in the vote to leave the European Union three years ago.
These new rules were meant to protect our privacy. They don’t work
The Guardian
@hare_brain
The data protection laws introduced last year are failing us – and our children.
Russia
Phones and PCs sold in Russia will have to come pre-installed with Russian apps
ZD Net
@Campuscodi
The Russian Parliament is debating a bill that will force all electronic equipment sold in Russia -- such as smartphones, computers, and smart TVs -- to ship pre-installed with apps from Russian tech firms.
Middle East
Iraq shuts down internet again as protests intensify
Net Blocks
@netblocks
The disruptions come weeks after connectivity was generally restored by 11 October following a shutdown amid intense protests against government corruption that began 2 October 2019.
Misc.
Two security researchers earned $60,000 for hacking an Amazon Echo
Tech Crunch
@zackwhittaker
Two security researchers have been crowned the top hackers in this year’s Pwn2Own hacking contest after developing and testing several high profile exploits, including an attack against an Amazon Echo.
We Need a Global Standard for Reporting Cyber Attacks
HBR
In this article, we focus on the main challenge in managing cybersecurity: the data gap. Very little cyber data is broadly available, making it difficult to objectively evaluate the potential impact of incidents. Through our work with stakeholders across regions and industries, we propose an approach to identifying what to measure, how to capture the required data, and how to make it useful.
Podcast: The Lawfare Podcast: Daphne Keller on Legal Liability for Tech Platforms
Lawfare
In this episode of the Arbiters of Truth series—Lawfare's new podcast series on disinformation in the run-up to the 2020 election—Quinta Jurecic and Evelyn Douek spoke with Daphne Keller, the director of intermediary liability at Stanford's Center for Internet and Society, about the nuts and bolts of content moderation. People often have big ideas for how tech platforms should decide what content to take down and what to keep up, but what kind of moderation is actually possible at scale? And what happens when those decisions come into conflict with different norms of free speech—for example, between the U.S. and Europe? They talked about intermediary liability law in the United States, recent rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union, and everything in-between.
Events
CyberWarCon 2
AESIR
CYBERWARCON is a one-day (Novembre 21st) conference in the Washington D.C. area focused on the specter of destruction, disruption, and malicious influence on our society through cyber capabilities.
Jobs/Opportunities
Wanted: Australian businesses that support Indigenous pathways into Cyber Security careers
ASPI is looking for businesses which have a program, grant or any other initiative in place to facilitate entry into Cyber Security careers for our Indigenous students. We'd really appreciate a share to your networks, if possible.
Information Operations Threat Intelligence Analyst
FireEye
FireEye is looking for a Threat Intelligence Analyst to join our Information Operations Threat Intelligence team in Reston, Virginia. The Threat Intelligence Analyst will be part of the FireEye Threat Intelligence team responsible for detecting and tracking cyber-driven influence operations and disinformation campaigns and authoring intelligence products for global enterprise customers.
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