NEW ICPC Report: The Chinese Communist Party’s coercive diplomacy I Facebook Could Block Sharing of News Stories in Australia I ASD-head says spying on some Australians is essential
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ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre’s latest report compiles a dataset of 152 cases of coercive diplomacy between 2010 and 2020. The data shows a sharp escalation of the CCP’s use of economic and non-economic coercion since 2018. Yet the response of victim governments has so far been mostly flat-footed. The report aims to assist policymakers to develop a data-driven response that can push back effectively against the CCP’s increasing use of this practice. ASPI ICPC
Facebook warned on Monday that it would block users and news organizations in Australia from sharing local and international news stories on its social network and Instagram if the country passed a proposed code of conduct aimed at curbing the power of Facebook and Google. The New York Times
The head of Australia's top foreign cyber-intelligence agency says spying on some Australians is essential because authorities are in a "near-impossible game" to defeat terrorism and espionage. Rachel Noble — who last year became the first woman to lead the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) — is set to lay out the organisation's history in unprecedented detail, while warning Australia's strategic circumstances are the most threatening in decades. ABC News
ASPI ICPC
The Chinese Communist Party’s coercive diplomacy
ASPI ICPC
@FergusHanson @emilia_currey @tracingtheworld
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is increasingly deploying coercive diplomacy against foreign governments and companies. Coercive diplomacy isn’t well understood, and countries and companies have struggled to develop an effective toolkit to push back against and resist it. This report tracks the CCP’s use of coercive diplomacy over the past 10 years, recording 152 cases of coercive diplomacy affecting 27 countries as well as the European Union. The data shows that there’s been a sharp escalation in these tactics since 2018. The regions and countries that recorded the most instances of coercive diplomacy over the last decade include Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and East Asia.
Listen to Fergus Hanson, the report’s lead author, on AM this morning here. [From 5.15]
Pushing back against the Chinese Communist Party’s coercive diplomacy
The Strategist
@FergusHanson @emilia_currey @tracingtheworld
Norwegian salmon, South Korean celebrities, Canadian pork and, most recently, Australian wine—the Chinese Communist Party’s coercive diplomacy over the past few years has spanned commodities and continents. However, countries’ responses have remained largely short-sighted and unilateral. To bring some data to this debate, ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre’s latest report compiles a dataset of 152 cases of coercive diplomacy between 2010 and 2020. The data shows a sharp escalation of the CCP’s use of economic and non-economic coercion since 2018. Yet the response of victim governments has so far been mostly flat-footed. The report aims to assist policymakers to develop a data-driven response that can push back effectively against the CCP’s increasing use of this practice.
Hard to swallow: China launches another strike on Aussie wine
Financial Review
@MikeSmithAFR @andrewtillett
In a new report, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute cites Mr Cheng's threat as part of a campaign by Beijing to use "coercive diplomacy" such as trade sanctions to punish countries or bend them to its will. The think-tank urges Australia and other nations to push back against China's "divide and conquer" strategy by pursuing a co-ordinated and joint response, including through multilateral forums such as the G20 and by forming coalitions with affected countries.
Sharp rise in Chinese coercive diplomacy in 2020, says new report
The Telegraph
@niccijsmith
The Chinese Communist Party is increasingly resorting to the use of coercive diplomacy, taking advantage of the lack of a coordinated pushback from like-minded governments, according to a new report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Chinese social media giant TikTok on a Sydney recruitment drive to grow Australian market
ABC News
@JoshBavas
Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Samantha Hoffman said average Australian users needed to know how much information was at risk. "It's not about a video that you're going to put up on TikTok of you dancing that's going to be a target, rather it's things like your facial data or your sentiment data about how you or other members of your society think and how you can be influenced," she said.
China has 600 outposts across the world to recruit scientists
Chemistry World
In a new report, the ASPI, a thinktank founded by Australia’s government, has created a database of 600 overseas talent-recruitment stations to illustrate the international reach of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The outposts are contracted out to organisations or individuals who are paid to recruit overseas scientists, and they might have no clear physical presence or be co-located with the organisations contracted to run them.
Read Alex Joske’s ICPC report Hunting the Phoenix here.
Australia
Facebook Could Block Sharing of News Stories in Australia
The New York Times
@daiwaka@MikeIsaac
Facebook warned on Monday that it would block users and news organizations in Australia from sharing local and international news stories on its social network and Instagram if the country passed a proposed code of conduct aimed at curbing the power of Facebook and Google.
An Update About Changes to Facebook’s Services in Australia Facebook
Facebook Threatens to Cut Off Australians From Sharing News Bloomberg
Australian Signals Directorate boss Rachel Noble says not all Australians are the good guys, defends spying
ABC News
@stephendziedzic
The head of Australia's top foreign cyber-intelligence agency says spying on some Australians is essential because authorities are in a "near-impossible game" to defeat terrorism and espionage. Rachel Noble — who last year became the first woman to lead the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) — is set to lay out the organisation's history in unprecedented detail, while warning Australia's strategic circumstances are the most threatening in decades.
Australian MP installed security cameras out of 'genuine fear' after posts by conspiracy theorist, court hears
The Guardian
@mmcgowan
Federal MP Anne Webster installed security cameras at her home because she feared being physically attacked in her home town of Mildura after a conspiracy theorist accused her of being “a member of a secretive paedophile network” in a series of vicious social media posts.
Huawei cuts ties with Canberra Raiders, citing 5G ban and 'negative' attitude to Chinese companies
ABC News
@stephendziedzic
Chinese telco Huawei Australia has dumped its major sponsorship deal with NRL team the Canberra Raiders, saying it has been financially crippled by the Federal Government's 5G ban. Huawei Australia's Jeremy Mitchell said the company had been badly hurt by the Turnbull government's decision to lock it out of Australia's 5G network in 2018. "Unfortunately Huawei has been caught in the middle of a great trade war. The effect on our business is greater than we expected," he said.
USA
TikTok deal to sell U.S. business could be announced as soon as Tuesday
CNBC
@stevekovach @sherman4949
TikTok has chosen a bidder for its U.S., New Zealand and Australian businesses, and it could announce the deal as soon as Tuesday, according to people familiar with the situation. Microsoft, in partnership with Walmart, and Oracle are the two top contenders. The sale price is expected to be in the range of $20 billion to $30 billion. However, even though TikTok has selected a bidder, the deal could be slowed or derailed by the Chinese government, which updated its technology export list on Friday to include artificial intelligence technology used by TikTok. TikTok’s Chinese parent company, Bytedance, said over the weekend that it would need a license from the Chinese government before it can sell to a U.S. company
TikTok parent ByteDance says it will ‘strictly follow’ China export controls
TechCrunch
@ritacyliao
China’s Commerce Ministry added new items to its list of export controls late Friday. Now, artificial intelligence interface technologies such as speech and text recognition, as well as methods to analyze data and make personalized content recommendations, are matters of national security. That means ByteDance will need Chinese government approval to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations, Bloomberg News reported Sunday; a person familiar with the matter said the new rule is aimed at delaying the sale, not an outright ban. But with AI and its content recommendation engine among the key ingredients of the company’s success, Beijing becomes the arbiter of TikTok’s fate. Not the U.S. administration.
China’s maneuver means TikTok’s US suitors could end up with a shell company Quartz
China Just Called Trump's Bluff on TikTok Bloomberg Opinion
TikTok Deal Faces Complications as U.S. and China Ratchet Up Tit-for-Tat The New York Time
Why are US companies buying tech from Chinese firms that spy on Muslims?
The Guardian
@dtbyler
There are reasons why a Chinese fleet of AI national champions, many of which have applications similar to American surveillance companies such as Clearview and Raytheon, now lead the world in face and voice recognition. This process was accelerated by the Chinese “war on terror” focused on encircling Uighurs and Kazakhs within a complex digital enclosure.
Twitter flags GOP video after activist’s computerized voice was manipulated
The Washington Post
@daveweige
Twitter flagged a video shared by the second-ranking House Republican on Saturday as “manipulated,” as it spliced quotes together from an activist who speaks through computer voice assistance, making it sound as though he’d convinced Joe Biden to defund police departments.
A Doctored Video Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Spreading On Facebook
Buzzfeed NewsRead Hannah Smith and Katherine Mansted’s ICPC report Weaponised deep fakes - National security and democracy here.
As Trump warns of leftist violence, a dangerous threat emerges from the right-wing boogaloo movement
The Washington Post
A far-right extremist movement born on social media and fueled by anti-government rhetoric has emerged as a real-world threat in recent weeks, with federal authorities accusing some of its adherents of working to spark violence at largely peaceful protests roiling the nation. Boogaloo is more of a violent anti-government ideology than a formal movement, say those who study extremist groups. They say they cannot identify a leader, headquarters or command structure, just loosely affiliated social media pages ranging from explicitly violent to merely commercial, peddling boogaloo-themed merchandise.
Read Elise Thomas’ How dangerous is the boogaloo? here.
Explainer: What do political databases know about you?
MIT Technology Review
@TateRyMo
If you live in the US, you’re almost certainly being tracked by political organizations. They know a lot about you—but some data is just guesswork.
Frenemies Facebook and Apple square off
Axios
@inafried @scottros
Facebook and Apple are fighting an increasingly high stakes battle over user privacy and access to the iOS App Store. The two companies, along with Google and Amazon, are being challenged over a range of issues, from abuse of power to violations of privacy to allowing hate and misinformation to flourish. By trading accusations, Facebook and Apple could just be handing more ammo to critics and regulators — but at the same time, conflict between these giants could be read as a sign of competitive life and a rebuttal to antitrust charges.
San Jose Man Pleads Guilty To Damaging Cisco’s Network
ZDNet
@SecurityCharlie
Former engineer pleads guilty to Cisco network damage, causing Webex Teams account chaos A former Cisco engineer has admitted to illegally accessing Cisco's network and wiping 456 virtual machines as well as causing disruption to over 16,000 Webex Teams accounts. Sudhish Kasaba Ramesh has taken a plea agreement in a federal court in San Jose after being accused of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization and recklessly causing damage, according to the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
NZ & Pacific Islands
UK
Forget Darpa. The British military is far too slow in embracing tech
WIRED
@chris_deverell @DanielKorski
Prime minister Boris Johnson is in the middle of rethinking the UK’s role in a post-Brexit world. An “Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy” has been kicked off. Aboard frigates, on nuclear submarines, in the air and on bases across the country, thousands of soldiers, sailors, and airmen and women have high hopes for the government's review. The reason is simple. New threats to the UK’s interests are fast emerging: cyberattacks, disinformation, anti-satellite systems, hypersonic missiles, and directed energy weapons are just some of the new weapons capable of targeting the UK. At the same time, the “old” threats like chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, ships, jets, and tanks, not to mention terrorism, haven’t gone away. Overlaying this is the spectre of climate change, economic collapse and the threats of pandemics.
NCSC departing boss reflects on China, Russia and trust in tech
BBC News
@gordoncoreraon Twitter
A few days after the coronavirus lockdown began, Ciaran Martin's phone pinged with a text message - the government was warning him he had left home three times and had to pay a fine. As the official in charge of defending the UK against cyber-threats, he knew enough to spot a scam. But it was also a sign he was unlikely to have a quiet end to his time as the first head of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Speaking in his last few days in office, he says recent events have been an "unexpected vindication" of the decision to spin out part of the intelligence agency GCHQ so classified intelligence could be better shared to protect the UK.
Misc
Apple Approved Malware Hits macOS ‘For The First Time’
Forbes
@KateOflaherty
MacOS is thought of as more secure than Microsoft’s Windows, but the amount of malware targeting Apple’s operating system is growing. Apple has taken steps to mitigate malware on macOS through a process called notarization—but even this can be bypassed by new and improved adware, a security researcher has discovered. The adware campaign uses notarized malware, meaning it was scanned and "approved" by Apple and will run on Catalina and BigSur, security researcher Patrick Wardle has found.
QAnon lures adherents by acting like a game
Financial Times
@izakaminska
A strange subset of geek culture is threatening to destabilise society by taking over the internet and blurring the line between reality and fantasy. A type of online information warfare, its objective is to sow discord and distrust. Yet it is masquerading as a live action role playing game, or Larp, and much of the population doesn’t even know it is happening. The QAnon conspiracy that believes US President Donald Trump is battling an evil deep-state cabal is a prime example. The movement is gaining ground partly because its modus operandi — followers deconstruct cryptic clues from a government “insider” to uncover the hideous plot — emulates the addictive qualities of a Larp.
How Cryptography Lets Down Marginalized Communities
WIRED
@lilyhnewman
The talk, dubbed Crypto for the People and given on August 19, examined the question of who really benefits from encryption technologies and advances in cryptographic research. It sounded a call to reexamine research priorities that today largely serve the interests of governments and corporations instead of marginalized people, be they racial minorities, immigrants, women, the LGBTQ community, or others. As an immigrant and Black American—and one of the few Black academic cryptographers in the world—Kamara pointed out that even the open-source community and movements like the cypherpunks largely don't directly work to address these needs. They are focused on taking power from corporations and developing technologies to defend people from mass government surveillance and digital intrusion, but generally not on developing encryption technologies and new areas of abstract theory that are specifically motivated by the needs of underserved communities.
AI experts doubt Amazon's new Halo wearable can accurately judge the emotion in your voice, and worry about the privacy risks
Business Insider
@Hamilbug
Amazon launched its new wearable, Halo, on Thursday. It comes with a feature called "Amazon Tone" which analyzes the emotion in your voice to help users "better understand how they may sound to others." Amazon says Tone uses machine learning to analyze the users' voice and tell them how they sound throughout the day. "How we use our voice and language is greatly impacted by social expectation, culture and customs. Expecting an algorithm to be able to read and understand all of those subtleties seems more like an aspirational endeavour," said Dr Sandra Wachter, associate professor in AI ethics at the University of Oxford.
Research
Modernizing Arms Control
United Nations Disarmament Research Institute
@UNIDIR
This report provides an initial insight into why the international security community may need to consider regulating artificial intelligence (AI) applications that fall in the digital grey zone between AI-enabled weapon systems (e.g. lethal autonomous weapon systems) and military uses of civilian AI applications (e.g. logistics, transport). It also provides an initial exploration of the familiar tools the community has at its disposal for such regulation.
Cloud Security: A Primer for Policymakers
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
@maurertim @garretthinck
Events
Sydney Kids SecuriDay 2020
Humanitix
Sydney Kids SecuriDay is defaulting to digital delivery and is on November 14th with a stack of fun security talks, workshops, competitions and games planned! We're all about introducing youth to security, and its importance in their everyday lives. This event is for children (aged 6 to 16) and their parents/guardians. We aim to reach people from all areas of the community who want to expand their knowledge, as the goal is to learn about security, be inspired by the sector, and have fun while doing it.
Jobs
Tech Policy
Clare O'Neil MP
I’m looking for a new staff member - a short term gig to help us do a big push in thinking on tech policy. It should be a really good project and I would love to hear from you if you want to be involved.