Nike and Coca-Cola Lobby Against Xinjiang Forced Labor Bill | The Supreme Court will hear its first big CFAA case | New UK tech regulator to limit power of Google and Facebook
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Business groups and major companies like Apple have been pressing Congress to alter legislation cracking down on imports of goods made with forced labor from persecuted Muslim minorities in China. NYT.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday in a case that could lead to sweeping changes to America’s controversial computer hacking laws — and affecting how millions use their computers and access online services. Tech Crunch.
A new tech regulator will work to limit the power of Google, Facebook and other tech platforms, the government has announced, in an effort to ensure a level playing field for smaller competitors and a fair market for consumers. The Guardian.
ASPI ICPC
Mapping China's Tech Giants website Feedback
ASPI ICPC
We will soon begin the next phase of "Mapping China's Technology Giants". Part of this project will include updating the website. To ensure the website remains as useful to you and your organisation as possible, we would like to invite you to give us feedback on your use of our website. Your feedback is an important part of this process as it allows us to know what is working well, what we can improve on and what really matters to you.
Nike and Coca-Cola Lobby Against Xinjiang Forced Labor Bill
NYT
Nike said that the Qingdao factory had stopped hiring new workers from Xinjiang in 2019, and that an independent audit confirmed there were no longer employees from there at the facility. (According to a report published in March by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute that cited state media, the factory employed around 800 Uighur workers at the end of 2019 and produced more than seven million pairs of shoes for Nike each year). China’s vast campaign of suppressing and forcibly assimilating Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang has attracted the scorn of politicians and consumers around the world. But for many companies, fully investigating and eliminating any potential ties to forced labor there has been difficult, given the opacity of Chinese supply chains and the limited access of auditors to a region where the Chinese government tightly restricts people’s movements.
China's new digital front has caught the world napping
SMH
In Shenzhen and soon, Suzhou, in eastern China, millions of Chinese consumers will become the first to spend their digital currency after six years of development by Chinese authorities. The chasm between China and Australia's experiences of the digital economy could have profound consequences, not just for the speed at which Chinese consumers can mop-up discounts - but for control, surveillance, diplomacy and international sanctions. The world's governments should pay attention now, according to a report by the International Cyber Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. "In the long term, therefore, a successful DC/EP could greatly expand the party-state’s ability to monitor and shape economic behaviour well beyond the borders of the People’s Republic of China," the policy centre notes.
China snaps up Japanese scientists, sparking fears of technology outflow
Nikkei Asia
There is no doubt that China is actively recruiting scholars. According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, China has more than 600 "overseas talent-recruitment workstations," including 46 in Japan.
Australia
Growing cyber risk an opportunity for Australia
AFR
The increasing threat posed by cyber criminals and state-based hackers represents a major opportunity for Australia to develop a thriving export market for security products and services, a new report finds.
NSW driver's licence data breach victims still in the dark after three months
IT News
Tens of thousands of people who had their NSW driver’s licence details exposed in a misconfigured AWS bucket remain in the dark about the breach after more than three months.
China
‘Their Goal Is to Make You Feel Helpless’: In Xi’s China, Little Room for Dissent
WSJ
Mr. Lu had for years posted a running online tally of protests and demonstrations in China that was closely read by activists and academics around the world, as well as by government censors. That made him a target.
JD unveils first phase of Xiongan smart city operating system for Xi Jinping’s city of the future
South China Morning Post
JD.com has announced the first phase of what it calls a smart city operating system in Xiongan New Area, the ambitious future city project personally backed by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
USA
The Supreme Court will hear its first big CFAA case
Tech Crunch
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday in a case that could lead to sweeping changes to America’s controversial computer hacking laws — and affecting how millions use their computers and access online services.
Former director of U.S. cyber agency Chris Krebs not "necessarily surprised" by firing
CBS News
Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who publicly countered President Trump's claims of election interference, says he regrets not being able to say goodbye to his team before the president fired him. In his first interview since his dismissal, airing Sunday on 60 Minutes, Krebs reiterates that the election process was the most secure in history and that his public firing by America's leader was "not how I wanted to go out."
The challenge of combating fake news in Asian American communities
Vox
Language diversity within the AAPI community means misinformation is difficult to track.
Is China Seeking A Secretive, Permanent Presence in America’s Computers?
National Interest
The Chinese government of President Xi Jinping appears to be quietly setting the stage for a more pervasive, ongoing penetration of America’s networks, creating a national security problem that chief executive officers can no longer ignore or minimize. As part of its Digital Silk Road strategy, China is actively pursuing several vectors to achieve outright dominance of the world’s computer systems, including America’s.
‘Tokenized’: Inside Black Workers’ Struggles at the King of Crypto Start-Ups
NYT
Coinbase, the most valuable U.S. cryptocurrency company, has faced many internal complaints about discriminatory treatment.
Pennsylvania county pays 500K ransom to DoppelPaymer ransomware
Bleeping Computer
Delaware County, Pennsylvania has paid a $500,000 ransom after their systems were hit by the DoppelPaymer ransomware last weekend.
Asia Pacific
Understanding E-Resilience for Pandemic Recovery in Asia and the Pacific
UN ESCAP
This paper is aimed to provide a basic overview of the policy responses in support of ICT for development, with a focus on the use of technology in the region under the framework of e-resilience and inclusive broadband, two key pillars of the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway (AP-IS).
Central Asia
Digitally Signed Bandook Malware Once Again Targets Multiple Sectors
The Hacker News
A cyberespionage group with suspected ties to the Kazakh and Lebanese governments has unleashed a new wave of attacks against a multitude of industries with a retooled version of a 13-year-old backdoor Trojan.
In remote, offline Kyrgyzstan, the best of the internet comes in a box
Eurasia Net
A Q+A with the Internet Society Kyrgyzstan chapter’s co-founder about bringing internet to the most rural schools.
UK
New UK tech regulator to limit power of Google and Facebook
The Guardian
A new tech regulator will work to limit the power of Google, Facebook and other tech platforms, the government has announced, in an effort to ensure a level playing field for smaller competitors and a fair market for consumers.
Huawei 5G ban brought forward to September
The Telegraph
New Huawei equipment in the UK's new 5G network will be banned from September, the Government will announce on Monday, in a fresh crackdown on the Chinese company. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden is expected to surprise the House of Commons by announcing a new firm date after which installation of Huawei equipment in 5G will no longer be permitted. The new cut-off date - September 2021 - is much earlier than was anticipated and will further test relations between London and Beijing.
Exclusive: Suspected North Korean hackers targeted COVID vaccine maker AstraZeneca - sources
Reuters
Suspected North Korean hackers have tried to break into the systems of British drugmaker AstraZeneca in recent weeks, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, as the company races to deploy its vaccine for the COVID-19 virus.
Misc.
The way we train AI is fundamentally flawed
MIT Technology Review
The process used to build most of the machine-learning models we use today can't tell if they will work in the real world or not—and that’s a problem.