NEW REPORT: How the Cyberspace Administration of China is building a new consensus on global internet governance | Apple sues NSO Group | Why China can’t bury Peng Shuai and its #MeToo scandal
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A new report by ASPI's International Cyber Policy Centre provides a primer on the roots of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) within China’s policy system, and sheds light on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) intentions to use cyberspace as a tool for shaping discourse domestically and internationally. ASPI International Cyber Policy Centre
Apple sued the NSO Group, the Israeli surveillance company, in federal court on Tuesday, another setback for the beleaguered firm and the unregulated spyware industry. The New York Times
Accustomed to forcing messages on audiences at home and abroad, its propaganda machine hasn’t learned how to craft a narrative that stands up to scrutiny. The New York Times
ASPI ICPC
China's cyber vision: How the Cyberspace Administration of China is building a new consensus on global internet governance
ASPI International Cyber Policy Centre
@nathanattrill @ahfritz
A new report by ASPI's International Cyber Policy Centre provides a primer on the roots of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) within China’s policy system, and sheds light on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) intentions to use cyberspace as a tool for shaping discourse domestically and internationally. By assessing the CCP’s strategy of becoming a ‘cyber superpower’, its principle of ‘internet sovereignty’, and its concept of ‘community of common destiny for cyberspace’, this report seeks to address how the CCP is working to build a consensus on the future of who will set the rules, norms and values of the internet.
Ongoing concerns for Peng Shuai after Chinese media releases ‘quite ridiculous’ footage
3AW
Neil Mitchell
Footage of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai at a youth tennis tournament in Beijing and a restaurant with China Open executives has been released by Chinese state media amid global concerns for the star’s wellbeing. Senior Analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Centre’s International Cyber Policy Centre, Fergus Ryan, says the videos prove Peng is alive, but they don’t prove she’s free. “Of course she’s not speaking freely in these videos,” he told Neil Mitchell. “Some of these videos are quite ridiculous. As she’s sitting eating dinner with these executives they make a point of repeating what the date is.”
World
Apple sues Israeli spyware maker, seeking to block its access to iPhones
The New York Times
@nicoleperlroth
Apple sued the NSO Group, the Israeli surveillance company, in federal court on Tuesday, another setback for the beleaguered firm and the unregulated spyware industry. The lawsuit is the second of its kind — Facebook sued the NSO Group in 2019 for targeting its WhatsApp users — and represents another consequential move by a private company to curb invasive spyware by governments and the companies that provide their spy tools.
Technology is killing our shared reality
Information Age
Casey Tonkin
Unchecked technological advancement is destroying our shared reality and sewing severe discord in social democracies, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa has warned. Speaking at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Sydney Dialogue event last week, Ressa – founder of Filipino news site Rapper and the country’s first Nobel Laureate – described what she called big tech’s “insidious” manipulation of human biology.
Australia
AFP uses social media takeover powers but details remain secret under law
The Canberra Times
@sbasfordcanales
Federal police have begun using new powers allowing investigators to covertly overtake social media accounts just months after coming into effect but privacy experts have warned their use is shrouded in secrecy. The Australian Federal Police has admitted it has utilised the three new warrants, which allow them to disrupt data, monitor network activity and take control of online accounts, but won't provide further information due to secrecy provisions surrounding them.
Pegasus spyware and the direction of Australian policing
The Strategist
@dr_westendorf
The US government’s recent ban of Israeli technology firm NGO Group’s Pegasus spyware has significant implications for Australian efforts to regulate digital technologies in the face of new online national security threats.
Our spies ‘must hone tradecraft to counter China’
The Australian
@michael_ASPI
Australia’s spy agencies are being urged to rethink their tradecraft to make greater use of ‘open source’ data as they focus on their priority ‘China mission’ over the next decade.
Australian tycoon to help small publishers strike deals with Google, Facebook
Reuters
@byronkaye @renjujose
Australian small publishers will get a leg up in their fight to secure licensing deals with Google and Facebook (FB.O) after the country's richest person said his philanthropic organisation would seek a collective bargaining arrangement for them.
China
Why China Can’t Bury Peng Shuai and Its #MeToo Scandal
The New York Times
@LiYuan6
Accustomed to forcing messages on audiences at home and abroad, its propaganda machine hasn’t learned how to craft a narrative that stands up to scrutiny.
Chinese state-owned think tank flags national security risks of metaverse, citing potential political and social problems
South China Morning Post
@shenxinmei
While the metaverse is still in its early stage of development, its “technological characteristics” and “development patterns” show that it has potential national security significance, according to a research note published on Saturday by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, which is affiliated with China’s Ministry of State Security.
China targets celebrity online information in ramp up of fan culture crackdown
Reuters
@brendagoh_ Wang Jing
China's cyberspace regulator said on Tuesdayit will tighten oversight over how celebrity information is disseminated online, such as the publishing of their personal details and the placements of their advertisements on internet sites.
TikTok has an incel problem
VICE
@sophiasgaler
While Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have been taking very public criticism for their failure to protect users from hate speech, TikTok has somehow slid conspicuously under the radar. But there’s concern the platform isn’t doing enough to counter misogynistic comments and hate speech, some of which is associated with groups with a history of real-world violence against women, such as incels.
USA
U.S. lawmakers call for privacy legislation after Reuters report on Amazon lobbying
Reuters
@c_kirkham @JLDastin
Five members of Congress called for federal consumer-privacy legislation after a Reuters report published Friday revealed how Amazon.com Inc has led an under-the-radar campaign to gut privacy protections in 25 states while amassing a valuable trove of personal data on American consumers.
Conservatives accuse social networks of prejudging Kyle Rittenhouse case
The Washington Post
@viaCristiano
With Rittenhouse now acquitted of all five charges he faced, including homicide, critics on the right are dialing up calls for platforms to reverse course on any policies against posts praising, supporting or defending the shooter.
Samsung to choose Taylor, Texas, for $17 billion chip-making factory
The Wall Street Journal
@jiyoungjsohn
Samsung Electronics Co. plans to build a roughly $17 billion chip-making plant in Taylor, Texas, according to people familiar with the matter, a mega investment by the South Korean tech giant, as the Biden administration pushes for an expansion of U.S. semiconductor production.
South Asia
India's PM calls for Bitcoin protection, tech collaboration
Information Age
@zyzzyvamedia
Australia, India, and other peace-loving countries must work together to ensure cryptocurrency “does not end up in the wrong hands”, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, has said in warning that peace-loving countries “are at an historic moment of choice” in shaping the legacy of the “wonderful powers of technology of our age”.“We have always believed in the world as one family,” Modi said in a keynote address to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s recent Sydney Dialogue, a gathering of dignitaries from ‘Quad’ member countries including Australia, India, the United States, and Japan.
UK
UK spy bosses hiring Mandarin speakers in bid to repel cyber threats from China
The Sun
@kateferguson4
Spooks at MI5, MI6 and GCHQ have unleashed one of their biggest ever campaigns to hire Mandarin speakers.
UK visa scheme for prize-winning scientists receives no applications
New Scientist
@justsomesomeone
Not a single scientist has applied to a UK government visa scheme for Nobel prize laureates and other award winners since its launch six months ago, New Scientist can reveal. The scheme has come under criticism from scientists and has been described as “a joke”.
The U.K. as a responsible cyber power: Brilliant branding or empty bluster?
Lawfare
@jamessshires @MaxWSmeets
The current U.K. Conservative government has an impressive record on one particular thing: punchy but highly malleable slogans. These range from “get Brexit done” to “levelling up,” not to mention the many COVID-19 mantras emblazoned on lecterns over the past two years. Now, the government is trying a similar tactic in foreign policy and international cybersecurity.
Europe
NSO was about to sell hacking tools to France. Now it’s in crisis.
MIT Technology Review
@HowellONeill
French officials were close to buying controversial surveillance tool Pegasus from NSO earlier this year. Now the US has sanctioned the Israeli company, and insiders say it’s on the ropes.
KKR's $37 bln approach boosts Telecom Italia shares
Reuters
Valentina Za @elvirapollina
Investors in Telecom Italia on Monday cheered a proposal by U.S. fund KKR to buy Italy's debt-laden former phone monopoly for 33 billion euros ($37 billion) in what would be Europe's biggest ever private equity buyout. The move comes as a boardroom war rages at Telecom Italia (TIM), which has been mired in crisis for years but is crucial to government efforts to expand broadband connectivity because it owns the country's main network
Amazon and Apple handed $225 million in Italian antitrust fines
Reuters
Italy's antitrust authority has fined U.S. tech giants Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Apple Inc (AAPL.O) a total of more than 200 million euros ($225 million) for alleged anti-competitive cooperation in the sale of Apple and Beats products.
Misc
GoDaddy says data breach exposed over a million user accounts
TechCrunch
@zackwhittaker
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, GoDaddy’s chief information security officer Demetrius Comes said the company detected unauthorized access to its systems where it hosts and manages its customers’ WordPress servers
Events
The Sydney Dialogue - Quantum Quandary: Securing a Sustainable Advantage in an Accelerating Race
ASPI
The quantum race is on and it is geopolitical. The stakes are high and the transition to a quantum future could undermine stability. The Indo-Pacific region is at the heart of this technology race with the US and China at the forefront, but countries such as Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have advanced regional capabilities. For those who fail to win this race there are significant downsides. However, there are opportunities and new approaches to reduce risks. This specialist panel discussion held on 3 December 3pm - 4pm AEDT will consider opportunities for greater regional collaboration on quantum that can be sustained for years to come and open opportunities for like-minded countries to leverage each other’s quantum expertise. Register now!
Jobs
ICPC Analyst & Project Manager - Coercive diplomacy
ASPI ICPC
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) has a unique opportunity for an Analyst and Project Manager to manage, and help lead, a project on coercive diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific region... This new role will focus on analysis, workshops and stakeholder engagement centred around coercive diplomacy, including how countries in the Indo-Pacific can work together to tackle this complicated policy challenge.
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. Analysts usually have at least 5 years, often 7-10 years’ of work experience. Senior analysts usually have a minimum of 15 years relevant work experience and, in addition to research, they take on a leadership role in the centre and tend to be involved in staff and project management, fundraising and stakeholder engagement.