Leaked: Australian parliament's cyber security has 'low level of maturity' | Facebook disables Russian, Iranian efforts to manipulate users | China's censors tighten grip after coronavirus respite
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Federal Parliament failed to develop effective methods for preventing cyber intrusions and did not regularly update some sensitive information systems, according to a draft internal audit dated three months after a major cyber attack was uncovered. ABC
Facebook on Wednesday said it had taken action against malicious actors in Russia, Iran and Myanmar that had deployed fake accounts and other efforts to manipulate social media users, illustrating anew its vast, global challenge to police the platform for an ever-widening array of disinformation. The Washington Post
China’s coronavirus outbreak has tested the limits of free speech on the country’s heavily censored online and social media, with a brief window of liberalization that opened during January subsequently slammed shut by authorities. Reuters
ASPI ICPC
No rights for the Rohingya?
The ASEAN Post team
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said in a report that analysis of satellite imagery shows “no sign of reconstruction” in the overwhelming majority of former Rohingya settlements. On top of this, according to the ASPI, in some areas, destruction of existing residential buildings has continued.
“The continued destruction of residential areas across 2018 and 2019 – clearly identifiable through our longitudinal satellite analysis – raises serious questions about the willingness of the Myanmar government to facilitate a safe and dignified repatriation process,” said Nathan Ruser, one of the researchers at ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre, in a statement.
China's online censors tighten grip after brief coronavirus respite
Reuters
China’s coronavirus outbreak has tested the limits of free speech on the country’s heavily censored online and social media, with a brief window of liberalization that opened during January subsequently slammed shut by authorities.
“Xi Jinping has made it clear that he expects efforts to strengthen ‘the guidance of public opinion’ to be increased,” said Fergus Ryan, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) who studies Chinese social media. “We’ve already seen around 300 more journalists dispatched to Wuhan and surrounding areas to report on the outbreak. It’s highly likely their brief is to paint a rosier picture of the government’s relief efforts rather than engage in any muckraking or critical reporting.”
An Online Conspiracy Theory About The Bushfires Was Aired In Australia's Parliament
Buzzfeed
Australian Strategic Policy Institute's Cyber Centre researcher Elise Thomas said variations on the ecoterrorist theory had been spreading online for months. “Online, we know that these theories have been spreading through social media and have been propagated by a range of fringe conspiratorial and right-wing media outlets, many of which are not even Australian," she told BuzzFeed News.
#ArsonEmergency: how 'fake news' created an information crisis about the bushfires
The Sydney Morning Herald
The scale of the bushfire tweets didn't necessarily suggest they were part of a broad co-ordinated plan by any group but more likely the work of informal networks of partisans.
As the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's Elise Thomas wrote later: "... Australia’s bushfire crisis – like other crises, including the burning of the Amazon rainforest in 2019 – has been sucked into multiple overlapping fringe right-wing and conspiracy narratives, which are generating and amplifying disinformation in support of their own political and ideological positions."
Read Elise Thomas’s piece in ASPI’s Strategist on the issue: Bushfires, bots and the spread of disinformation.
Australia
Leaked report describes Federal Parliament's cyber security as having 'low level of maturity'
ABC
@FarrellPF
Federal Parliament failed to develop effective methods for preventing cyber intrusions and did not regularly update some sensitive information systems, according to a draft internal audit dated three months after a major cyber attack was uncovered.
China
Hundreds of Chinese businesses seek billions in loans to contend with coronavirus
Reuters
More than 300 Chinese companies are seeking bank loans totaling at least 57.4 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) to help to soften the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, two banking sources said.
Tencent's Coronavirus-Tracking Platform Gets Mixed Reviews
Sixth Tone
@XuejiaoCai
While some say revealing a patient’s diagnostic status is in the public interest, others argue it’s infringing upon their privacy.
USA
F.T.C. Broadens Review of Tech Giants, Homing In on Their Deals
The New York Time
@ceciliakang @dmccabe
The Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday that it had ordered Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google’s parent company Alphabet and Microsoft to turn over information about past acquisitions, broadening its review of the power of big tech companies.
Facebook disables Russian and Iranian efforts to manipulate users, raising new 2020 election fears
Washington Post
@TonyRomm
Facebook on Wednesday said it had taken action against malicious actors in Russia, Iran and Myanmar that had deployed fake accounts and other efforts to manipulate social media users, illustrating anew its vast, global challenge to police the platform for an ever-widening array of disinformation.
Europe
Germany’s CDU stops short of Huawei ban in 5G rollout
FT
Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union has backed a strategy paper that could potentially curtail Huawei’s involvement in Germany’s 5G rollout by barring “untrustworthy” companies deemed to be subject to state influence from the process. But the recommendations will disappoint the US by stopping short of banning Huawei technology outright.
Southeast Asia
Facebook's 'double-edged sword' in Thai carnage
Reuters
Facebook celebrity doctor Parkphum Dejhutsadin said his phone suddenly started pinging on Saturday - scores of his two million followers in Thailand were desperate and they needed his help.
New Zealand
NZ security chief keeps door open for China vendors
Mobile World Live
The head of New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) reiterated the country had not imposed bans on any telecoms vendors, noting it makes an independent assessment of network security risks on a case-by-case basis.
South Asia
Censorship claims emerge as TikTok gets political in India
BBC
Ajay Barman, 22, is a fading TikTok star in India. Not because he is past his prime, but because - he alleges - he's been "shadow banned" for uploading videos on Hindu-Muslim brotherhood on the popular video creation and sharing platform.
Misc
Teaming up with Defending Digital Campaigns on election security
Google
Google: Last week, we shared an overview of how we’re equipping campaigns with security tools like Project Shield and supporting programs like the new Election Security and Information Project. We also just announced a major update of our Advanced Protection Program which will make it easier for members of campaigns to get our strongest level of Google Account security, in an instant.