NEW REPORT: The party speaks for you / Spy chief calls on tech companies to co-operate / Huawei founder takes off the gloves in fight against U.S.
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A new report by the ASPI International Cyber Policy Centre’s Alex Joske, 'The party speaks for you: Foreign interference and the Chinese Communist Party’s united front system' is the first comprehensive mapping of Beijing’s united front system. ASPI ICPC
Technology companies need to co-operate with governments in the abolition of abhorrent content and to enable lawful interception, spy agency boss Mike Burgess says. Australian Financial Review
Internal communications show how Huawei pivoted to counter Washington’s charges with lawsuits and reorganization; “the company has entered a state of war.” The Wall Street Journal
ASPI ICPC
NEW REPORT: The party speaks for you
ASPI ICPC
@alexjoske
A new report by the ASPI International Cyber Policy Centre’s Alex Joske, 'The party speaks for you: Foreign interference and the Chinese Communist Party’s united front system' is the first comprehensive mapping of Beijing’s united front system. The result of more than a year’s research, the report details the structures, agencies, methods and effects of the united front system. It demonstrates how the party uses the United Front to control representation and claim the right to speak on behalf of groups such as students, Uyghurs and religious movements. This model, which has been used in China to quash civil society and voices independent from the party, is increasingly being exported beyond China’s borders and into foreign political parties, diaspora communities, universities and multinational corporations. This exportation of the CCP’s political system undermines social cohesion, exacerbates racial tension, influences politics, harms media integrity, facilitates espionage and increases unsupervised technology transfer. While the United Front Work Department is now widely known and has grown in recent years, this report also details how other parts of the Chinese Government carry out united front work. It finds that China’s intelligence agencies, universities, state-owned media, state-owned enterprises, private companies (such as JD.com) and foreign affairs agencies are all part of the united front system. The scope of the united front system’s activities means that technology transfer, data collection and academic influence are interwoven with political influence efforts. For example, parts of the United Front Work Department are tasked with implementing and recruiting for the Thousand Talents Plan.
China Steps Up Moves to Influence Diaspora Communities
The Wall Street Journal
China is making fresh efforts to influence Chinese communities around the world to advance Beijing’s interests, requiring heightened vigilance from democratic countries, a new study says. A unit in China’s ruling Communist Party known as the United Front Work Department engages thousands of organizations to collect intelligence, encourage technology transfer, counter dissident movements and generate support for other Beijing objectives, said the report by the nonpartisan Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
China’s espionage, tech-theft ‘has global reach’
The Australian
The Chinese Communist Party is influencing foreign governments, stealing technology and co-opting business interests through a vast “united front system” that stretches across the world, a new report reveals. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute report lays bare the operations of the CCP’s global influence network, saying intelligence agencies need to better track and understand the system to counter political interference and economic espionage.
The Australian Editorial: Countering United Front’s meddling, spying and theft
The Australian
ASPI’s report is a reality check, detailing how China’s intelligence agencies, universities, state-owned media, state-owned enterprises, private companies and foreign affairs agencies are part of a disruptive system. If we are to counteract the CCP’s onslaught, we need to understand its structures, agencies, methods and effects.
Australia
Spy chief calls on tech companies to co-operate
Australian Financial Review
Technology companies need to co-operate with governments in the abolition of abhorrent content and to enable lawful interception, spy agency boss Mike Burgess says.."Our heritage comes from catching spies and to catch spies you have to trust almost no one, and you have to keep it secret because it's a really hard game. Spy-counter-spy is really difficult," he said. A former Telstra security chief, Mr Burgess is a life-long technologist and joined ASIO last year from the Australian Signals Directorate. His appointment was seen as a move to build ASIO's digital and struggling data capabilities and to give the security agency a modern, post-Cold War public presence.
Coronavirus: Spies on rise during pandemic, ASIO chief says The Australian
Five Eyes expanded to focus on economic pact
The Australian
The Five Eyes intelligence network of Australia, the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand has agreed to discussions about a co-ordinated strategic economic response to the COVID-19 crisis in a broadening of purpose for the world’s largest security alliance. It is understood Australia has locked in support for an economic grouping within the key intelligence pact as Western democracies seek to forge closer alliances with economic security emerging as a key strategic threat. It comes as Britain overnight moved to secure a Five Eyes agreement to develop “Western” alternatives to China’s Huawei 5G technology, and follows the move last week by the Morrison government to apply a national security test to foreign investment, which is now being adopted by other alliance member countries.
New restrictions on foreign investment in all 'sensitive national security' businesses
ABC News
Foreign investors will face new restrictions if they want a stake in sensitive industries, under sweeping changes aimed at protecting Australia's national security. Under the new plan, the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) would have to approve all investments in a "sensitive national security business", regardless of the value of the deal. That could apply to businesses in communications, technology, energy and major infrastructure such as ports and defence contractors.
China
Huawei Founder Ren Zhengfei Takes Off the Gloves in Fight Against U.S.
WSJ
Internal communications show how the Chinese telecom giant pivoted to counter Washington’s charges with lawsuits and reorganization; “the company has entered a state of war.”
Bob Davis and Lingling Wei on the 'Superpower Showdown' over Trade
The Wire China
we wrote about the “AnKe Project.” That’s a very ambitious policy designed to purge Chinese government agencies, as well as telecommunications companies and power grids, of foreign hardware or software. The design and the implementation of that policy has involved lots of Chinese companies. And, by the end of 2019, more than 180 Chinese tech firms like Huawei had joined that program, helping the government figure out exactly how [China] should go about doing this. So throughout the process, Chinese companies, especially state-owned and national champions like Huawei, were involved in the process [of advising] the government on what can [China] give to the Americans, and what are the areas [China] should hold its ground.
ByteDance Cuts Domestic Engineers' Data Access to TikTok, Other Overseas Products
PingWest
ByteDance has been erecting technical firewalls between its China and global operations for more than a year, PingWest has learned, so that privacy and geopolitics-based concerns could be better addressed, and regulatory risks minimized.
Tibet to become China’s data gateway to South Asia
TechCrunch
A sprawling 645,000-square-meter data facility is going up on the top of the world to power data exchange between China and its neighboring countries in South Asia.
Coronavirus pandemic shows global cost of Chinese censorship
South China Morning Post
China’s heavily regulated social media platforms have been removing and banning references to the Covid-19 pandemic.
First the trade war, then the pandemic. Now Chinese manufacturers are turning inward.
MIT Technology Review
Ask Zhu Kaiyu about his factory, and he can rattle off a series of statistics meant to impress: 15,000 square meters, 800 employees, 300 machines, 5 million articles of clothing sold per year. Zhu opened his factory for knitted apparel in Dongguan, in China’s Guangdong province, in 2002.
Tencent Launches Sesame Credit Competitor
Caixin
Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. has launched a credit scoring system based on what users buy over its ubiquitous WeChat app, allowing it to offer consumer credit services on its platform.
USA
Agencies Spending Millions on 'Crossbow' Spy Tech, an Upgraded Stingray
Motherboard
Motherboard found various military and federal law enforcement agencies have bought the Crossbow, which appears to target phones on 4G.
Scientists funded by Zuckerberg sent him a letter calling Facebook's practices 'antithetical' to his philanthropic mission
The Washington Post
@Nitasha Tiku
The list of signatories includes professors from more than 60 leading research institutions, including Harvard University, Stanford University, and University of California San Francisco (UCSF), as well as one Nobel laureate.
One man stands between Joe Biden and the US presidency – Mark Zuckerberg The Guardian
Facebook and the creation of a US oligarch The Financial Times
Ignore Trump’s Twitter Tantrum Executive Order and Address Disinformation Instead
Just Security
There is a free-speech problem online, but President Donald Trump is not the victim. His May 28 executive order was clearly intended to dominate social media companies. It was a tantrum in legalese, in response to Twitter’s mild fact-checking of his lie about non-existent voter fraud — one of the few categories of lies that digital platforms say they take seriously. While incoherent and spiteful, the order has already done constitutional damage by retaliating against a private company for its views.
America rethinks its strategy in the Wild West of cyberspace
The Economist
In practice, though, America’s approach has already shifted from punishment to pre-emption—not so much striking back as striking first. In April 2018 Cyber Command and the nsa announced a strategy built around “persistent engagement” and “defend forward”. The first of these reflects the belief that competition in cyberspace is not a series of set-piece battles, but a constant digital mêlée.
How do Siri, Google and Alexa respond to Black Lives Matter questions?
The Independent
The voice assistants from Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Samsung all give varying responses to the question "Do black lives matter?"
Inside Nextdoor’s "Karen problem" The Verge
These free tools blur protesters’ faces and remove photo metadata TechCrunch
An online voting system used in Florida and Ohio can be hacked to alter votes without detection, researchers found
Business Insider
An online voting system used in Florida and Ohio can be hacked to alter votes without detection, researchers found Security researchers found flaws in an online voting system that could let hackers alter votes without being noticed by voters or elections officials.
Global Consequences of Escalating U.S.-Russia Cyber Conflict
Council on Foreign Relations
U.S. offensive cyber operations might deter Russia and other U.S. adversaries online, but we should consider the global consequences of escalating cyber conflict.
Canada
Opinion: Trudeau’s non-decision on Huawei is the decision
The Globe and Mail
Yet, Mr. Trudeau’s non-decision regarding Huawei has become an increasing cause for concern as Canada’s allies lay their cards on the table. If Australia, which has much more to lose by angering China than us, is willing to ban Huawei, then why not us? What’s more, Australia announced its decision in 2018, giving its wireless industry ample time to plan accordingly. Bell Canada and Telus, which have been pushing for approval of Huawei, separately announced this week they would use equipment from European suppliers in their next-generation wireless networks rather than wait any longer for word from Ottawa. Their move effectively amounted to making Mr. Trudeau’s decision for him, although the two companies indicated they could still use Huawei equipment in non-core parts of their 5G networks if Ottawa allows it.
Huawei and Australia's 5G Network The Strategist
5G choices: a pivotal moment in world affairs The Strategist
Japan
Honda investigates possible ransomware attack, networks impacted
BleepingComputer
Computer networks in Europe and Japan from giant car manufacturer giant Honda have been affected by issues that are reported related to a SNAKE Ransomware cyber attack.
Southeast Asia
Singapore #WorkinginCSA: Engaging CII Sectors to Strengthen Cyber Resilience
Cyber Security Agency
#WorkinginCSA: Engaging CII Sectors to Strengthen Cyber Resilience.
South & Central Asia
View: By the global ball and value chain
The Economic Times
India must signal to its citizens, businesses and the international community how it plans to respond to this moment being shaped by three developments. First, the weaponisation of economics and trade, a trend prevalent among partners and rivals alike. Second, the measurement of national power will now be based on the ability to control global digital flows comprising technology, information, human capital and finance. Can India be an influential actor?
AI & Machine Learning for the Indian Navy - Gateway House
Gateway House
The Indian Navy needs to develop and assimilate new Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies that are being used by the Indian military and industry.
Aarogya Setu App and its many conflicts
ORF
As India still does not have a Personal Data Protection law in place, it would be unwise to expand the scope of Aarogya Setu far beyond its original purpose of tracing COVID-19 patients.
UK
China threatens to pull plug on new British nuclear plants
The Times
Britain is on a collision course with China after Boris Johnson approved plans last week to build up alternatives to Huawei in the 5G network, a move that caused a heated cabinet split in the government’s most secret committee. China’s ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, has privately fired a warning shot at the government, telling business leaders that abandoning Huawei could undermine plans for Chinese companies to build nuclear power plants and the HS2 high-speed rail network. Government officials dismissed the comments as “sabre-rattling”.
Laws to curb Chinese takeovers The Times
Britain gave Palantir access to sensitive medical records of Covid-19 patients in £1 deal
CNBC
Peter Thiel's Palantir was given access to NHS patient records that contain citizen's contact details, gender, race, religion, occupation, physical and mental health condition, as well as past criminal offenses.
Europe
EU human rights groups call for COVID-19 app transparency
Euractiv
A cross-section of EU human rights groups have pressed national authorities to provide more information on how citizens’ data will be stored and processed as part of the rollout of coronavirus contact tracing applications across the bloc.
EU signs contract for large-scale biometric database to protect borders
EURACTIV.com
The European Union's ICT agency for internal security and border control, eu-LISA, has signed a framework contract for a new biometric matching system which aims to create a database of fingerprints and facial images of more than 400 million third-country nationals by 2022.
Middle East
Spies of the UAE
Foreign Policy
This week on First Person we hear from Joel Schectmen, an investigative reporter for Reuters who co-wrote a series of stories in the past year about the UAE’s hacking and surveillance program. His partner on the project was Christopher Bing, also of Reuters. The two reporters discovered, among other things, that the UAE was employing Americans in its secret program, including veterans of the National Security Agency.
Misc
Twitter to launch a revamped verification system with publicly documented guidelines
TechCrunch
Twitter is developing a new in-app system for requesting verification, according to a recent finding from reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, which Twitter has since confirmed.
The 20 Best Cybersecurity Startups To Watch In 2020 In 2020
Forbes
In 2020, 268 startups have raised a total of $4.7B, averaging $21M each with a median funding amount of $6.1M
Doomscrolling: Why We Just Can’t Look Away
The Wall Street Journal
Primal instincts often drive our desire to spend inordinate amounts of screen time poring over grim news, and social-media platforms are designed to keep us hooked.
A Popular QAnon Twitter Account That Claims To Have Explosive DC Dirt Is Really Just A Random Italian Guy
BuzzFeed News
@CraigSilverman @AlbertoNardelli
The Rubini account’s claims of insider intel and “high placed” sources appear to be some of its author's litany of fabrications — which include his online identity. The man behind @GregRubini is Gregorio Palusa, a 61-year-old Italian sound engineer and marketer with no national security or intelligence credentials. His background includes a pattern of unverified claims about his business relationships and expertise, and a brief spell as a groupie for a Pink Floyd tribute band.
Events
National security agencies and the cloud: An urgent capability issue for Australia Webinar
ASPI
ASPI is delighted to invite you to the webinar discussion: National security agencies and the cloud - An urgent capability issue for Australia. ASPI's special report, National security agencies and the cloud: An urgent capability issue for Australia, released last month, argues for rapid, large-scale investment in secure cloud infrastructure for Australia’s national security community, with the intelligence agencies an early focus. The report seeks to shift perceptions of new technology as capabilities, rather than as business enablers, and calls on agency executives to drive the required change.
10 June 2020 - 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm (Online)
Jobs
Program Manager/Senior Analyst
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) has an outstanding opportunity for a talented, proactive and super efficient program manager/senior analyst to join its growing centre. The successful candidate will need to have a proven track record of leading teams and experience in project management including financial and stakeholder management (which will include industry, the Australian Government, Parliament and foreign governments). To succeed in this position candidates should have exceptional communication and problem-solving skills and experience in research, policy analysis or policy development.
Analyst
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre has an outstanding opportunity for a talented and proactive allrounder to join its growing centre. The ICPC is looking for someone who is an excellent writer and researcher and who is a team player - you will need to juggle multiple research projects that could span the range of topics listed above. This is not an entry level position. Analysts in ICPC have between 5-15 years’ relevant work experience and, depending on experience, are involved in stakeholder and project management, fundraising and the management of small teams.