Race for Coronavirus Vaccine Pits Spy Against Spy | Islamic State: Giant library of group's online propaganda discovered | TikTok troubles narrow gap between Beijing and ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming
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The intelligence wars over vaccine research have intensified as China and Russia expand their efforts to steal American work at both research institutes and companies. NYT.
One of the largest collections of online material belonging to the group calling itself Islamic State has been discovered by researchers at the Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD). The digital library contains more than 90,000 items and has an estimated 10,000 unique visitors a month. Experts say it provides a way to continually replenish extremist content on the net. BBC.
ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has long positioned himself as a global internet entrepreneur, largely eschewing Chinese government involvement, but U.S. demands to sell his crown jewel TikTok are testing the boundaries with Beijing. Reuters.
ASPI ICPC
Uyghur Forced Labour is making our clothes
ABC
China's Uyghur people, at first detained, are now being deployed around the country as an involuntary labour force. They are making some of the world's best known products; from Nike sneakers to PPE masks for COVID-19; all the while in detention, under surveillance and subject to re-education.
World
Race for Coronavirus Vaccine Pits Spy Against Spy
NYT
The intelligence wars over vaccine research have intensified as China and Russia expand their efforts to steal American work at both research institutes and companies.
Islamic State: Giant library of group's online propaganda discovered
BBC
One of the largest collections of online material belonging to the group calling itself Islamic State has been discovered by researchers at the Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD). The digital library contains more than 90,000 items and has an estimated 10,000 unique visitors a month. Experts say it provides a way to continually replenish extremist content on the net.
Australia
New federal agency proposed to respond to national emergencies
SMH
A new federal agency would lead a national response to emergencies such as bushfires, pandemics and large-scale cyber attacks under a proposal being drawn up by the federal government. The Commonwealth's vast array of resources – including the military, communications, intelligence and logistics – would be more quickly mobilised under the changes.
Still no inspector-general oversight for key Australian intelligence agencies
The Strategist
Last month’s public hearing by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security... inadvertently highlighted the mounting resourcing pressures on the operational capability of the IGIS to sustain the demand of its legislative oversight role.
Disturbing and harmful': eSafety commissioner calls on Facebook to stop 'volumetric' trolling
SMH
Australia's eSafety commissioner has told Facebook and other social media giants they must act against co-ordinated harassment campaigns, as COVID-19 conspiracy groups use the tactic in attempts to overwhelm targets online.
China
TikTok troubles narrow gap between Beijing and ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming
Reuters
ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has long positioned himself as a global internet entrepreneur, largely eschewing Chinese government involvement, but U.S. demands to sell his crown jewel TikTok are testing the boundaries with Beijing.
State aid helps China tech leaders shrug off US sanctions
Nikkei Asian Review
While many mainland Chinese companies recorded net losses or substantial profit declines in the first half of 2020, mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic, some of China's tech powerhouses proved immune to trouble. One company that bucked the trend was iFlytek.. Near the end of a 170-page interim report submitted to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, iFlytek revealed that it received 378.57 million yuan in government subsidies, which is about 50% more than its reported bottom line during the period. The subsidies jumped more than two and a half times compared with the same period last year, allowing it to fully cover what the company called the "expense of dealing with the U.S. entity list" .
USA
Forget TikTok. China’s Powerhouse App Is WeChat, and Its Power Is Sweeping.
NYT
A vital connection for the Chinese diaspora, the app has also become a global conduit of Chinese state propaganda, surveillance and intimidation. The United States has proposed banning it.
China’s SMIC Says Assumptions of Ties With Military Are ‘False’
Bloomberg
Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. said its technology is not for military use after Reuters reported that the Trump administration was considering addding SMIC to a trade blacklist.
Facebook Says Trump’s Misleading Post About Mail-In Voting Is OK. Employees Say It’s Not.
Buzzfeed
Facebook employees are outraged over the company’s “shameful” and “unconscionable” decision not to remove a post from President Donald Trump spreading voting misinformation that could lead to people voting twice.
Why Facebook’s political-ad ban is taking on the wrong problem
MIT Technology Review
A moratorium on new political ads just before election day tackles one kind of challenge caused by social media. It’s just not the one that matters.
She Was Tricked by Russian Trolls—and It Derailed Her Life
The Daily Beast
The fake news site Peace Data isn’t the first time Russian trolls struck unwitting victims. But for a disabled woman ensnared in the scheme, she almost lost access to vital care.
White House publishes a cyber-security rulebook for space systems
ZD Net
The White House has published today a new directive detailing a list of recommendations and best practices for protecting space systems from cyber-threats and cyber-attacks.
Student arrested for cyberattack against Miami schools used ‘easy to prevent’ program
Miami Herald
The 16-year-old teen accused of launching a cyberattack that helped shut down Miami-Dade’s online classes used a simple, easy-to-download program to overwhelm the servers of the nation’s fourth-largest school district, experts say.
Pacific
ADB Approves $25 Million Cornerstone Investment to Improve Telecom Services in PNG
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $25 million investment in Fiji’s Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (ATH) subsidiary, ATH International Venture Pte. Limited, (ATHIV), to finance a greenfield 4G mobile telecommunications network that will enhance mobile, broadband, and internet services in Papua New Guinea (PNG)—opening new opportunities for job creation and socioeconomic growth.
Europe
TIM CEO says not a problem to develop 5G without Huawei
Reuters
The head of Telecom Italia said on Saturday the former phone monopoly would have no trouble developing 5G infrastructure in Italy were the government to ban Chinese provider Huawei.
Middle East
Research
PIONEER KITTEN: Targets and Methods
Crowdstrike
PIONEER KITTEN is an Iran-based adversary that has been active since at least 2017 and has a suspected nexus to the Iranian government. This adversary appears to be primarily focused on gaining and maintaining access to entities possessing sensitive information of likely intelligence interest to the Iranian government.