Theft of CIA Hacking Tools | Australia to Establish Taskforce to Counter Online Disinformation | EU Opens Investigation into Apple
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Elite CIA unit that developed hacking tools failed to secure its own systems, allowing massive leak, an internal report found. The Washington Post
The Morrison Government is planning to set up a new taskforce to counter online disinformation as concerns mount over the way authoritarian states have used social media to wage propaganda campaigns and sow division in democracies. ABC News
On Tuesday, the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, said it had opened a formal antitrust investigation to determine if the terms that Apple imposes on app developers violate competition rules. The New York Times
ASPI ICPC
China’s Zoom Bomb
ChinaFile
@ChinaFile
Samantha Hoffman - It is not surprising to learn that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) demanded U.S.-based company Zoom comply with legal demands that affected non-PRC based persons. This is not the first time the PRC has made such a demand applicable to a foreign company’s overseas activities.
Launch of final satellite in China’s navigation network delayed
South China Morning Post
@kristinaberdeen
According to Alex Joske, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Cyber Policy Centre, a completed constellation would help in China’s pursuit of independent navigation technology. “The greater self-reliance that a fully fledged BeiDou system would give China, and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in particular, are a reflection of the party’s ongoing drive to decouple itself from Western critical technologies,” he said.
Data security, censorship concerns flagged as TikTok opens local office
The Sydney Morning Herald
@zoesam93
Fergus Ryan, an analyst at the Australian Strategy Policy Institute, said that there are still concerns about the platform's use of data and censorship (removal of content that is sensitive to the Chinese government and others) that need to be addressed. "There are many apps that most people with smartphones have that harvest a scary amount of data from users and send that information back to servers around the world, which is concerning. But what makes this even more concerning that the data is being sent back to Beijing and ... China has a whole suite of national security laws that effectively remove any firewall," Mr Ryan said.
Mass influence attempt ‘way bigger’
The Australian
@swan_legend
Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Dr Jacob Wallis said this represented a ‘new normal’ when it comes to government espionage and propaganda. “This is an attempt to manipulate social media audiences at scale; it’s way bigger than we thought,” Wallis said. “The challenge is that this is an adversarial battle with malign actors who will play a game of cat and mouse with the platforms, and are constantly refining their techniques and tactics. It’s going to be a constant to and fro and that’s the challenge if we want to have an open internet.” Wallis added that China had largely failed in that the bot accounts were effectively a self-contained echo chamber, and hadn’t found a way to break into more authentic Twitter networks.
Sandworm's Exim hacks reveal wider Russian activity
Risky.Biz
@breditor
Data from the campaign was provided to Stanford’s Internet Observatory and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute for additional analysis. ASPI said the campaign aimed to “weaponise the US Government’s response to domestic protests and create the perception of a moral equivalence with the suppression of protests in Hong Kong.” ASPI discovered that the same actors and campaign are active on Facebook. Researcher Elise Thomas told Risky.Biz that Facebook was informed, but as of publication the social media giant has only taken action on a subset of the accounts ASPI identified.
Australia exposes China’s many hidden hands
Asia Times
Alan Boyd
“The Chinese Communist Party is strengthening its influence by co-opting representatives of ethnic minority groups, religious movements, and business, science and political groups in China and overseas,” said Alex Joske, a researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra, in a provocative new report on China’s activities in Australia.
Australia
Morrison Government to set up taskforce to counter online disinformation
The Guardian
@stephendziedzic @Clarke_Melissa
The Morrison Government is planning to set up a new taskforce to counter online disinformation as concerns mount over the way authoritarian states have used social media to wage propaganda campaigns and sow division in democracies.
Australia accuses China of spreading 'fear and division' as diplomatic tensions escalate
The Guardian
@danielhurstbne
Australia’s foreign minister has accused China of spreading disinformation that “contributes to a climate of fear and division” while declaring Canberra would take a more active role in global bodies.
Listen to the Foreign Minister’s speech here
US to pressure our hi-tech China deals
The Australian
Australia will face growing pressure from the US to halt science and technology co-operation with China in critical fields, including artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum computing, to maintain access to the American technology ecosystem, a new report warns.
The Government said COVIDSafe worked well from launch. Its own testing shows it did not
ABC News
@arielbogle
Documents released by the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) reveal the app's ability to communicate between two locked iPhones was rated as "poor" as of April 26, which means at launch, its own tests suggested it logged encounters at a rate of 25 per cent or below.
USA
Elite CIA unit that developed hacking tools failed to secure its own systems, allowing massive leak, an internal report found
The Washington Post
@nakashimae @shaneharris
The publication of ‘Vault 7’ cyber tools by WikiLeaks marked the largest data loss in agency history, a task force concluded.
Facebook doesn't care': Activists say accounts removed despite Zuckerberg's free-speech stance
NBC News
@oliviasolon
Dozens of Tunisian, Syrian and Palestinian activists and journalists, many of whom use the platform to document human rights abuses in the region, say their Facebook accounts have been deactivated over the last few months. Civil liberties and human rights groups have argued this shows that Facebook appeals to free speech principles only when they are politically advantageous.
For Black CEOs in Silicon Valley, Humiliation Is a Part of Doing Business
Bloomberg
@Priyasideas @mcbridesg
A questionable piece of advice often given to Black business leaders: Hire a White wingman.
T-Mobile hit by phone calling, text message outage
Tech Crunch
@zackwhittaker
DownDetector, which collects outage reports from users, indicates that a major outage is underway. It’s not clear how widespread the issue is, but at the time of writing T-Mobile was trending across the United States on Twitter.
Google bans website ZeroHedge from its ad platform over comments on protest articles
NBC News
@AMFraserNBC
Google has banned ZeroHedge, a far-right website that often traffics in conspiracy theories, from its advertising platform over policy violations found in the comments section of stories about recent Black Lives Matter protests.
Amazon deploys AI 'distance assistants' to notify warehouse workers if they get too close
The Verge
@jjvincent
The company’s “Distance Assistant” combines a TV screen, depth sensors, and AI-enabled camera to track employees’ movements and give them feedback in real time. When workers come closer than six feet to one another, circles around their feet flash red on the TV, indicating to employees that they should move to a safe distance apart.
Europe
Apple’s App Store Draws Antitrust Scrutiny in European Union
The New York Times
@satariano @jacknicas
On Tuesday, the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, said it had opened a formal antitrust investigation to determine if the terms that Apple imposes on app developers violate competition rules. The commission said it had also started a separate investigation to see whether Apple was boxing out rivals to its mobile payments system, Apple Pay.
Why are Google and Apple dictating how European democracies fight coronavirus? The Guardian
@IevaIlves
Latvia ranks high for smartphone use, so it was natural that it would leap at the opportunity to reduce the manual workload with the help of a smartphone app. Yet when it came to transferring its successful manual tracing methods to the digital realm, Latvia ran into a brick wall.
Albanian OSCE Chair leads discussion on role of multi-stakeholder initiatives and public-private partnerships in strengthening cyber resilience
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
How multi-stakeholder approaches and public-private partnerships can strengthen cyber/ICT security in the OSCE’s 57 participating States was the focus of today’s “Cyber/ICT Security Day” event, organized by Albania’s 2020 OSCE Chair in Vienna.
Read about the Scenario-based Facilitated Workshop on OSCE Cyber Confidence Building Measures that ASPI ICPC organised in 2017 here.
Launch of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence by 15 founding members
Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères
@francediplo_EN
Realizing the full potential of artificial intelligence (AI) that benefits all citizens requires international collaboration, Canada and France are launching with Australia, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the European Union the Global Partnership on Artificial (GPAI) to support and guide the responsible development of artificial intelligence that is grounded in human rights, inclusion, diversity, innovation, and economic growth.
Middle East
Coronavirus: Alarm over 'invasive' Kuwait and Bahrain contact-tracing apps
BBC News
@rosiepelican Ian Anderson
Kuwait and Bahrain have rolled out some of the most invasive Covid-19 contact-tracing apps in the world, putting the privacy and security of their users at risk, Amnesty International says.
The UN
Digital Roadmap: The realistic acceleration of digital cooperation
Diplo
@jovankurbalija
The UN Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, presented on 11 June, comes at the time when the world is trying to grasp the tectonic economic, political, and social shifts triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Digitalisation is the nexus of these shifts as digital tools shape the future of work, learning, trade, and our society in general.
Misc
Who’s a Bot? Who’s Not?
The New York Times
@sioroberts
It sometimes seems that automated bots are taking over social media and driving human discourse. But some (real) researchers aren’t so sure. Mr. Kazemi thinks the bot plot against America is exaggerated.
Artificial synapses and living cells communicate using brain chemicals
New Atlas
@MikeIrvo
Artificial synapses are an important step towards emulating the supercomputer that is the human brain. Now scientists have successfully bridged the gap between organic and artificial, with biohybrid synapses that let living cells communicate with electronic systems, not with electrical signals but with neurotransmitters like dopamine.
Research
Tech wars: US-China technology competition and what it means for Australia
United States Studies Centre
@BrendanTN_
Technology is now the defining element of the Trump administration’s self-professed “strategic competition” with China.. Congress and the Trump administration have embarked on a ponderous - and at times heavy-handed - effort to protect America’s technological advantage across multiple domains and through actions by several branches of government
Events
ASPI Webinar: Unraveling the Chinese Communist Party's overseas influence: United front work from Australia to Europe
ASPI
ASPI is delighted to invite you to the webinar discussion: 'Unraveling the Chinese Communist Party's overseas influence: United front work from Australia to Europe’ on 18 June at 5pm. The ASPI International Cyber Policy Centre's recent report The party speaks for you: Foreign interference and the Chinese Communist Party's united front system revealed the structure and growing scale of Chinese Communist Party influence. These activities can involve political interference, technology transfer and media influence, and risk inflaming racial tensions around Chinese communities.
ASPI Webinar: UN Cyber Negotiations - What they mean for Australian diplomacy
ASPI
ASPI warmly invites you to a webinar on 'UN Cyber Negotiations - What they mean for Australian diplomacy'. Join ASPI’s Bart Hogeveen in conversation with Johanna Weaver, Special Adviser to Australia's Ambassador for Cyber Affairs, on how states can be restrained from conducting, condoning, and sponsoring cyber operations that destabilise international peace and security, and what states can do to encourage a safe, secure and resilient internet ecosystem at home.
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.