More than 100 ADF personnel to be sent to PNG to help with election, cyber threats | Chokepoints: China’s self-identified strategic technology import dependencies | Belgium wants to ban Signal
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More than 100 Australian Defence Force personnel will travel to Papua New Guinea in coming months to help the country conduct its national election, combat cyber threats and conduct joint exercises amid a growing tussle for influence between Australia and China in the region. The Sydney Morning Herald
China’s "Science and Technology Daily," a state-run newspaper, published a revealing series of articles in 2018 on 35 different Chinese technological import dependencies. The articles, accessible here in English for the first time, express concern that strategic Chinese industries are vulnerable to any disruption to their supply of specific U.S., Japanese, and European “chokepoint” technologies. Center for Security and Emerging Technology
The new Belgian proposal goes beyond the previous data retention obligation. The new proposed legislation forces providers to record that data on behalf of the government, even if the provider doesn’t see a need for it itself. The proposal therefore is not only an obligation to retain data, but also to record it. European Digital Rights
ASPI ICPC
Drones and concrete to withstand bullets: collaboration with ‘ordinary’ Chinese universities also poses risks
Follow the Money
Annebelle De Bruijn, Dorine Booij, Mira Sys, Heleen Emanuel, Siem Eikelenboom
Collaboration between Dutch universities and the Chinese armed forces is not limited to military universities. Over the past seven years, several hundred studies were conducted in collaboration with civilian Chinese universities as well, that in turn work for the military. We created a database of over 350 thousand scientific studies published between 2000 and February of 2022. From those, we selected all studies where scientists from Western European universities collaborated with Chinese colleagues directly linked to an institute that is part of the Chinese army. We searched for robotics, AI, chips, quantum and nanotechnology, and radar and sensor technology. Based on the abstracts, we selected studies that might have a military application. We found just over 400 studies. For this article, we made extensive use of the China Defence Universities Tracker created by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Four months offline: Post-quake, many Tongans are still without internet
Rest of World
Meaghan Tobin and Marian Kupu
More permanent solutions have, similarly, been offered when they align with the interests of international partners. In the last three years, three cables – a Coral Sea cable, a Palau cable, and one through east Micronesia – were all offered first as investments by Chinese entities before the Australian government took an interest, said Bart Hogeveen, head of cyber capacity building at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra. After reports surfaced that China Mobile was in talks to acquire Digicel’s Pacific operations last year, the Australian government stepped in to jointly finance a takeover with Australian telco Telstra.
The World
A face search engine anyone can use is alarmingly accurate
The New York Times
Kashmir Hill
The New York Times used PimEyes on the faces of a dozen Times journalists, with their consent, to test its powers. PimEyes found photos of every person, some that the journalists had never seen before, even when they were wearing sunglasses or a mask, or their face was turned away from the camera, in the image used to conduct the search.
The effects of digital transnational repression and the responsibility of host states
Lawfare
The extension of digital authoritarianism to transnational spaces is not just a Russian phenomenon. Numerous other countries—including China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Rwanda—undertake digital authoritarianism. (Liberal democracies are not immune either; the United States has long been criticized for the extraterritorial surveillance of targets in violation of international human rights law). This trend is perhaps unsurprising in a world where managing and regulating digital spaces is fraught with challenges and authoritarianism, including its digital form, is on the rise.
Australia
Hundreds of classified Home Affairs documents believed sent to unsecured address in 'serious' breach of security protocols
ABC
Andrew Greene
A Department of Home Affairs (DHA) contractor suspected of illegally sending classified documents to an unsecured location was allowed to continue working in the public service. The man is alleged to have stripped the "classified" status from files relating to 500 departmental projects, before forwarding them to his personal email address to access at home.
China
Chokepoints: China’s self-identified strategic technology import dependencies
Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Ben Murphy
China’s "Science and Technology Daily," a state-run newspaper, published a revealing series of articles in 2018 on 35 different Chinese technological import dependencies. The articles, accessible here in English for the first time, express concern that strategic Chinese industries are vulnerable to any disruption to their supply of specific U.S., Japanese, and European “chokepoint” technologies.
Tencent Holdings pulled out of financing the film over concerns about Chinese officials’ reaction
The Wall Street Journal
Erich Schwartzel
In an entertainment industry full of uncertainty, few movies seemed as sure a bet as a sequel to the 1986 classic “Top Gun.” The Chinese tech firm Tencent Holdings Ltd. in 2019 signed on to co-finance the film, which the Shenzhen-based conglomerate hoped would yield a windfall at the box office. Yet when “Top Gun: Maverick” hits theaters this weekend, it will do so without any financing from Tencent, and without any mention of the Chinese firm that had once boasted of its involvement in the film.
The mystery of China’s sudden warnings about US hackers
WIRED
Matt Burgess
Since the start of 2022, there has been a marked uptick in China’s Foreign Ministry and the country’s cybersecurity firms calling out alleged US cyberespionage. Until now, these allegations have been a rarity. But the disclosures come with a catch: They appear to rely on years-old technical details, which are already publicly known and don’t contain fresh information. The move may be a strategic change for China as the nation tussles to cement its position as a tech superpower.
UN rights chief falls under wheels of China's propaganda machine
France 24
Bachelet has come under fire from rights groups and Uyghurs overseas, who say she has been suckered into a slickly choreographed Communist Party tour including a conversation with President Xi Jinping later portrayed in state media as a mutual endorsement of China's high ideals on rights.
China punishes local officials for falsifying economic data
Reuters
China has punished a number of local officials with demotions or dismissal for falsifying economic data, the country's statistics bureau said on Friday, as part of an effort to curb data fraud as the economy falters. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) found data violations in 2020 and 2021 after conducting inspections in several cities - Xingtai in Hebei province, Jiaozuo in Henan province, Bijie and Anshun in Guizhou province, the bureau said in a statement on its website.
USA
Spy agency awards ‘historic’ contracts to commercial satellite firms
The Washington Post
Christian Davenport
The National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. intelligence agency that operates the nation’s spy satellites, announced that it is awarding billions of dollars in contracts over the next decade to three commercial satellite companies that take photos of Earth.
Space Force adding new cyber squads, improving satellite control
Breaking Defense
Theresa Hitchens
The Space Force’s Delta 6, responsible for protecting US military satellites from cyberattack, is adding four more squadrons — with the aim of providing each service mission area its own cyber group, Delta 6 Commander Col. Roy Rockwell said.
Updated autonomous weapons rules coming for the Pentagon
Breaking Defense
Valerie Insinna and Aaron Mehta
The Defense Department is updating its guidance on autonomous weapons to consider advances in artificial intelligence, with a revised directive slated for release later this year, the head of the Pentagon’s emerging capabilities policy office told Breaking Defense in an exclusive interview.
Before massacre, Uvalde gunman frequently threatened teen girls online
The Washington Post
Silvia Foster-Frau, Cat Zakrzewski, Naomi Nix and Drew Harwell
He could be cryptic, demeaning and scary, sending angry messages and photos of guns. If they didn’t respond how he wanted, he sometimes threatened to rape or kidnap them — then laughed it off as some big joke. But the girls and young women who talked with Salvador Ramos online in the months before he killed 19 children in an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., rarely reported him. His threats seemed too vague, several said in interviews with The Washington Post. One teen who reported Ramos on the social app Yubo said nothing happened as a result.
Biden is caught between big tech and black voters
Bloomberg
Rachel Rosenthal
Now, facing a host of intractable domestic and foreign crises, from rising inflation and a persisting pandemic to escalating Russian aggression and Chinese strategic competition, Biden risks seeing his falling poll numbers translate into the loss of the Democratic Party’s tenuous control of Congress.
North Asia
From somebody to nobody: TSMC faces uphill battle in U.S. talent war
Nikkei Asia
Yifan Yu, Cheng Ting-Fang and Lauly Li
On a quiet April morning, cranes, bulldozers, trucks and construction workers bustled down streets in two places lying in opposite directions from Phoenix: those to its north building TSMC's $12 billion chip fab, and those to the south working on a $20 billion expansion of Intel's 42-year-old campus.
Europe
Belgium wants to ban Signal – a harbinger of European policy to come
European Digital Rights
The new Belgian proposal goes beyond the previous data retention obligation. Under the “old” legislation, a provider was only obliged to retain data they collected anyway. Data that the provider did not have could not be retained. The new Belgian proposal, however, doesn’t leave it at that. The new proposed legislation forces providers to record that data on behalf of the government, even if the provider doesn’t see a need for it itself. The proposal therefore is not only an obligation to retain data, but also to record it.
Why the Estonian town of Narva is a target of Russian propaganda
NPR
Jenna McLaughlin
On the border with Russia, the Estonian town of Narva has strong cultural and linguistic ties to Russia. That makes it a target of Russian propaganda — something Estonians are trying to combat.
Czech EU presidency to prioritise fight against hybrid threats, deputy minister says
Euractiv
Mathieu Pollet
The Czech EU Council presidency will put the focus on hybrid threats, by accelerating discussions about disinformation and interference set out in the EU’s Strategic Compass, Deputy Minister of Defence Jan Havranek told EURACTIV.
UK
UK Parliamentarian: Hikvision "tools of genocide, "UK will " end up stripping them out"
IPVM
Charles Rollet
Citing IPVM, a UK parliamentarian gave a speech calling Hikvision "tools of genocide" and said the UK will "ultimately end up stripping them out" at a "huge public cost". The quotes come from Lord David Alton, a House of Lords member who urged the UK government to ban public purchases of the firms' gear, citing IPVM's recent White Paper on Hikvision's role in human rights abuses. There is rising momentum in the UK for restrictions after the health ministry reportedly banned Hikvision purchases. However, there is no indication yet of a ban across the government.
NZ & Pacific Islands
More than 100 ADF personnel to be sent to PNG to help with election, cyber threats
The Sdyney Morning Herald
Anthony Galloway
More than 100 Australian Defence Force personnel will travel to Papua New Guinea in coming months to help the country conduct its national election, combat cyber threats and conduct joint exercises amid a growing tussle for influence between Australia and China in the region.
Gender and Women in Cyber
The top spies fighting terrorism three days a week
BBC
Angela Henshall
Vicky and Emily are GCHQ's deputy directors of counter-terrorism - one of the very first job shares in an operational intelligence position at such a senior level. They spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity. Like many job shares this working pattern was then negotiated while one half of the pair was literally left holding the baby - babysitting the other's child during an assessment day for the role. Which could sound all too familiar. Both working parents, they clock-up 28 hours a week each. Between them they have more than 30 years' experience in national security and intelligence gathering.
Big Tech
Elon Musk’s Twitter plans would mean less free speech for many
WIRED
Vittoria Elliott
In the US, which has a highly permissive definition of free speech protected by the First Amendment, Musk’s approach would force Twitter to allow all manner of content that is, as lawyers say, “awful but lawful,” including overt racism and doxing. But protections for free speech are weaker in many other countries, including Turkey, India, and Russia. A standard of only allowing what is permitted by law would result in less free speech on Twitter, not more.
Instagram moderators say Iran offered them bribes to remove accounts
BBC
Parham Ghobadi
A Persian-language content moderator for Instagram and a former content moderator have said Iranian intelligence officials offered them money to remove Instagram accounts of journalists and activists.
U.S. bill would bar Google, Apple from hosting apps that accept China's digital yuan
Reuters
Alexandra Alper
Republican senators want to bar U.S. app stores including Apple and Google from hosting apps that allow payments to be made with China's digital currency, amid fears the payment system could allow Beijing to spy on Americans.
Research
Jobs
The Sydney Dialogue - Senior Events Coordinator
ASPI ICPC
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) is currently recruiting for an experienced events professional to coordinate the planning and logistics of the second iteration of ASPI’s Sydney Dialogue - the world’s premier summit on emerging, critical and cyber technologies.
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.