Neo-Nazis Data Dump Targets Gates Foundation and WHO I Russian, Chinese and Iranian disinformation narratives echo one another I French lawmakers to vote on controversial Covid-19 tracing app
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A data dump of what appears to be the email addresses and passwords of members of the Gates Foundation, World Health Organization (WHO), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and a virology center based in Wuhan, China, is circulating within a network of neo-Nazi extremists. Vice
China, Iran and Russia are using the coronavirus crisis to launch a propaganda and disinformation onslaught against the United States, the State Department warns in a new report. Politico
The French government has decided to allow lawmakers to vote on its plan to launch a contact tracing app to fight the coronavirus outbreak. The government’s U-turn came after mounting criticism from members of parliament, including MPs from President Emmanuel Macron’s party. It initially planned to hold a debate on April 28-29 without a vote. France 24
ASPI ICPC
Publication Launch - Weaponised deep fakes: national security and democracy
ASPI ICPC
@Hannah_ASPI @KMansted
ASPI's International Cyber Policy Centre warmly invites you to a webinar for the launch of ASPI's newest publication - Weaponised deep fakes: national security and democracy.
When: 12:00pm-1:00pm, Wednesday 29 April 2020
Where: Online, register via the link below
Deep fake technology allows cyber criminals, political activists, and nation-states to quickly create cheap, realistic forgeries. They have the ability to enhance cyber attacks, accelerate the spread of propaganda and disinformation online, and exacerbate declining trust in democratic institutions.
Join the authors of this new report, ASPI's Hannah Smith and Katherine Mansted, of ANU's National Security College, in a discussion, moderated by Danielle Cave, about the deep fake landscape, how this technology can be weaponised and what can be done to mitigate its impact.
Register Now: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0qPG3wNaR3SpuTMXdVZm1w
World
Neo-Nazis Are Spreading a List of Emails and Passwords for Gates Foundation and WHO Employees
Vice
@BMakuch
A data dump of what appears to be the email addresses and passwords of members of the Gates Foundation, World Health Organziation (WHO), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and a virology center based in Wuhan, China, is circulating within a network of neo-Nazi extremists.
State report: Russian, Chinese and Iranian disinformation narratives echo one another
Politico
@woodruffbets
China, Iran and Russia are using the coronavirus crisis to launch a propaganda and disinformation onslaught against the United States, the State Department warns in a new report.
Australia
Coronavirus tracing app given thumbs up by independent cyber security agency
ABC News
@janeenorman
The head of an independent agency testing the security of the Government's new COVID-19 tracing app says she will be downloading it, adding that she is "comfortable" with what she has seen so far.
China
New iOS exploit discovered being used to spy on China's Uyghur minority
ZDNet
@campuscodi
Security firm Volexity said today that it discovered a new iOS exploit that was being used to spy on China's oppressed Uyghur minority.
Huawei floats buying chips from Samsung to fight US crackdown
Asia Nikkei Review
@ChengTingFang @Lauly_Th_Li
Huawei Technologies, the world's biggest telecom gear provider, has insisted it could buy chips from Samsung Electronics and other companies if the U.S. government tightens export controls as part of a further crackdown on the Chinese group.
Chinese hackers targeted company behind 'Ragnarok Online' MMORPG
ZDNet
@campuscodi
One of China's largest state-sponsored hacking groups has attempted to breach the internal network of Gravity, the South Korean gaming company behind popular Ragnarok Online MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game).. QuoINT says this attempted intrusion is just the latest in a long line of Winnti attacks aimed at the video game industry, and especially aimed at gaming companies operating from South Korea and Taiwan, which the group has frequently targeted.
USA
MIT Cuts Ties With a Chinese AI Firm Amid Human Rights Concerns
WIRED
@willknight
MIT has terminated a research collaboration with iFlytek, a Chinese artificial intelligence company accused of supplying technology for surveilling Muslims in the northwestern province of Xinjiang. The university canceled the relationship in February after reviewing an upcoming project under tightened guidelines governing funding from companies in China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. MIT has not said why it terminated the iFlytek collaboration or disclosed details about the project that prompted the review, but it has faced pushback from some students and staff about the arrangement since it began two years ago.
Read more about the MIT-iFlyTek relationship via ASPI’s Mapping China’s Technology Giants project here.
Exclusive: Trump pressed to halt federal pension investments in China's ZTE, Hikvision
Reuters
@alexalper
Lawmakers and former officials are making a last-ditch push to persuade the Trump administration to halt plans to invest billions of federal employee retirement dollars in Chinese companies that Washington suspects of human rights abuses or threatening U.S. security, according to sources and documents seen by Reuters.
Coders Who Survived Human Trafficking Rewrite Their Identities
WIRED
@lyderature
At a Bay Area nonprofit, former abuse victims learn to code and level up their futures.
Facebook tries to draw a clear line on coronavirus protests
AXIOS
@scottros
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Monday on ABC that Facebook would treat some efforts to organize protests against social distancing rules as "harmful misinformation" and take them down.
Mark Zuckerberg explains plans for Facebook health surveys to research and combat coronavirus ABC News
Senators want Cyber Command and CISA to do more to deter coronavirus-focused hackers
Cyberscoop
@shanvav
A bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to both the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security on Monday urging them to take more action to defend the U.S. healthcare sector against hackers that have been exploiting the coronavirus pandemic.
The Defense Department Needs a Real Technology Strategy
Defense One
@paul_scharre @_ainikki
To succeed in a long-term competition with China, the Department needs a transparent process to set spending priorities - not conflicting guidance and a shifting range of interests.
South Asia
YouTube watchers in India access it via smartphones
TechRadar
In what is being seen as a major revelation that should attract the attention of ad-makers and brand promoters, a whopping 90% of the viewership of YouTube in India is happening over mobile devices.
UK
Europe
French lawmakers to vote on controversial Covid-19 smartphone-tracing app
France 24
The French government has decided to allow lawmakers to vote on its plan to launch a contact tracing app to fight the coronavirus outbreak. The government’s U-turn came after mounting criticism from members of parliament, including MPs from President Emmanuel Macron’s party. It initially planned to hold a debate on April 28-29 without a vote.
France Says Apple Bluetooth Policy Is Blocking Virus Tracker Bloomberg
France urges Apple and Google to ease privacy rules on contact tracing The Guardian
POLITICO Brussels Playbook: Disinfo warning - Money talks- Europe’s new tracking apps
Politico
@florianeder
Russian and Chinese “official and state-backed” accounts continue to “widely target both conspiracy narratives both at public audiences in the EU and the wider neighbourhood” according to a report by the European External Action Service’s StratCom division, obtained by Playbook ahead of publication, which is expected for today.
#COVID19 Tracing App Leaks User Data
Infosecurity
@philmuncaster
A Dutch COVID-19 tracking app has leaked user data as it made its source code available for scrutiny, according to local reports.
Russia
Misc
Google's Head of Quantum Computing Hardware Resigns
WIRED
@tsimonite
Google's quantum computing lab scored a major milestone last year when it became the first to demonstrate "quantum supremacy." But earlier this month the veteran researcher who founded the company's hardware group resigned.
Tracking Facebook’s COVID-19 Misinformation “Super-spreader”
News Guard
As COVID-19 spreads around the world, NewsGuard has been tracking the top hoaxes about the pandemic that are spreading on the internet - and the dozens of websites that are publishing those false stories. Today, we’re introducing a new data set focused not on individual websites or false stories, but on the Facebook Pages that repeat, share, and amplify these myths - from false cures to conspiracy theories about the virus. We plan to release similar data for other platforms, such as Twitter and YouTube, in the coming weeks.
Microsoft embraces open data
The Economist
Two decades ago Microsoft was a byword for a technological walled garden. One of its bosses called free open-source programs a “cancer”. That was then. On April 21st the world’s most valuable tech firm joined a fledgling movement to liberate the world’s data. Among other things, the company plans to launch 20 data-sharing groups by 2022 and give away some of its digital information, including data it has aggregated on covid-19.
How human-centered tech can beat COVID-19 through contact tracing
The Hill
Digital technologies do have a role to play. They will be crucial to successful contact tracing programs. But they must be intentionally built to assist, rather than replace the people in the health care loop vital to success.
The stealthy little drones that fly like insects
BBC News
Known as Skeeter, the secretive project has cracked the challenge of using flapping wings to power a drone. While wings are more efficient than a propeller and allow a dragonfly to hover in the face of strong gusts they are almost impossible for human engineers to emulate.
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