Thousands of customer records stolen from lender Latitude in cyber-attack | TikTok’s bigger danger could be disinformation, not data | CISA to examine cybersecurity risks of Chinese consumer drones
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The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest focuses on the topics we work on, including cybersecurity, critical technologies, foreign interference & disinformation.
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Consumer lender Latitude Financial has been hit by a “sophisticated and malicious cyber-attack” that has resulted in the theft of more than 100,000 identification documents and 225,000 customer records. The Guardian
The Chinese government could use TikTok as a powerful and dangerous propaganda tool after installing Communist Party figures in senior positions at the social media giant’s parent company. A detailed submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry into foreign interference on social media warns TikTok’s greatest risk to Australia is that the Chinese Communist Party could use it to influence public discourse to suit its interests, on top of the application’s controversial data-gathering technology. The Sydney Morning Herald
A bipartisan group of senators is asking the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to examine consumer drones made by a company with “deep ties” to the Chinese Communist Party, warning that they could be used to spy on U.S. critical infrastructure. The Record by Recorded Future
ASPI
Australia
Hundreds of thousands of customer records stolen from lender Latitude in cyber-attack
The Guardian
Jonathan Barrett
Consumer lender Latitude Financial has been hit by a “sophisticated and malicious cyber-attack” that has resulted in the theft of more than 100,000 identification documents and 225,000 customer records.
AI can fool voice recognition used to verify identity by Centrelink and Australian tax office
The Guardian
Nick Evershed, Josh Taylor
A voice identification system used by the Australian government for millions of people has a serious security flaw, a Guardian Australia investigation has found.
TikTok’s bigger danger could be disinformation, not data
The Sydney Morning Herald
Nick McKenzie
The Chinese government could use TikTok as a powerful and dangerous propaganda tool after installing Communist Party figures in senior positions at the social media giant’s parent company. A detailed submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry into foreign interference on social media warns TikTok’s greatest risk to Australia is that the Chinese Communist Party could use it to influence public discourse to suit its interests, on top of the application’s controversial data-gathering technology.
China
China's answer to ChatGPT? Baidu shares tumble as Ernie Bot disappoints
Reuters
Eduardo Baptista, Josh Ye
China's Baidu unveiled its much-awaited artificial intelligence-powered chatbot known as Ernie Bot on Thursday, but disappointed investors with its use of pre-recorded videos and the lack of a public launch, sending its shares tumbling.
China cultivates thousands of ‘Little Giants’ in aerospace, telecom to outdo U.S.
The Wall Street Journal
Karen Hao
China has an answer to intensifying competition with the U.S. for dominance of technology supply chains. It calls them “little giants,” and there are thousands of them.
USA
Senators call on CISA to examine cybersecurity risks of Chinese consumer drones
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
A bipartisan group of senators is asking the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to examine consumer drones made by a company with “deep ties” to the Chinese Communist Party, warning that they could be used to spy on U.S. critical infrastructure.
The FBI and DOJ are investigating ByteDance’s use of TikTok to spy on journalists
Forbes
Emily Baker-White
The FBI and the Department of Justice are investigating the events that led TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to use the app to surveil American journalists, including this reporter, according to sources familiar with the departments’ actions.
Biden’s TikTok plan faces the same challenges that doomed Trump’s ban
The Wall Street Journal
Drew Harwell, Cat Zakrzewski
Three years after the Trump administration failed to force the sale of TikTok to an American buyer, the Biden administration is trying again, charging forward into the same legal and constitutional minefield with just as little evidence that the short-video app poses an actual threat.
North Asia
Japan lifts chipmaking export controls on South Korea
Nikkei Asia
Kim Jaewon
Japan lifted export controls it had imposed on South Korea in regard to three materials needed to produce semiconductors and displays, responding to Seoul's gesture to improve soured ties.
Southeast Asia
TSMC in advanced talks with Germany for new chip plant supported by government subsidies after Europe eased rules
South China Morning Post
Taiwan chip maker TSMC’s talks with the German state of Saxony about building a new factory are at an advanced stage and are now focused on government subsidies to support the investment, two people familiar with the matter said.
Ukraine - Russia
This is the new leader of Russia’s infamous Sandworm hacking unit
WIRED
Andy Greenberg
The commander of Sandworm, the notorious division of the agency's hacking forces responsible for many of the GRU's most aggressive campaigns of cyberwar and sabotage, is now an official named Evgenii Serebriakov, according to sources from a Western intelligence service who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity.
UK
Big Tech
Microsoft to bring OpenAI’s chatbot technology to the Office
Bloomberg
Dina Bass, Emily Chang
Microsoft Corp.’s effort to overhaul its entire lineup with OpenAI technology has spread to one of the company’s oldest and best-known products: its Office apps. The software, including Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Word, will begin using OpenAI’s new GPT-4 artificial intelligence platform, Microsoft said on Thursday.
Artificial Intelligence
AI injected misinformation into article claiming misinformation in 'Navalny' doc
VICE
Matthew Gault
An article claiming to identify misinformation in an Oscar-winning documentary about imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny is itself full of misinformation, thanks to the author using AI.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says AI will reshape society, acknowledges risks: 'A little bit scared of this'
ABC News
Victor Ordonez , Taylor Dunn, Eric Noll
The CEO behind the company that created ChatGPT believes artificial intelligence technology will reshape society as we know it. Though he celebrates the success of his product, Altman acknowledged the possible dangerous implementations of AI that keep him up at night. "I'm particularly worried that these models could be used for large-scale disinformation," Altman said. "Now that they're getting better at writing computer code, [they] could be used for offensive cyberattacks."
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