TikTok Sale to Oracle, Walmart Is Shelved as Biden Reviews Security | The Possible Xinjiang Coal Link in Tesla's Bitcoin Binge | Facebook Is Said to Be Building a Product to Compete With Clubhouse
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The U.S. plan to force the sale has been shelved indefinitely, people familiar with the situation said, as President Biden undertakes a broad review of his predecessor’s efforts to address potential security risks from Chinese tech companies. The Wall Street Journal
There’s a pretty good chance that any new Bitcoin generated after the cryptocurrency’s Elon Musk-aided surge toward $50,000 will be sourced using cheap coal power in China’s Xinjiang. The region that’s become notorious in recent years for complaints about abuse of Uyghur Muslim minorities is also a hub for the production of Bitcoin. Nearly two-thirds of global output took place in China as of April 2020, according to University of Cambridge researchers, and about one-third of that occurred in Xinjiang. Bloomberg
Facebook is building an audio chat product that is similar to the popular young app Clubhouse, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, as the social network aims to expand into new forms of communication. Clubhouse, a social networking app, has gained buzz for letting people gather in audio chat rooms to talk about various topics. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has been interested in audio communication forms, said the people with knowledge of the matter, and he appeared in the Clubhouse app on Sunday to chat about augmented and virtual reality. The New York Times
ASPI ICPC
Critical technologies and the Indo-Pacific: the ‘Digital Quad’
The Azure Forum
@TrishBytes
The relationship between Canberra and New Delhi has made significant strides over the past year, buoyed by a growing, shared suspicion of China and a search for reliable partners in light of the United States’ retreat over the past half decade. These two drivers are particularly crucial in the realm of critical technologies: this piece outlines key findings from a joint report by the Observer Research Foundation (India) and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which highlights the potential for new partnerships in 5G, AI, quantum computing, rare earths, and space tech.
Read ASPI ICPC's Report 'Critical technologies and the Indo-Pacific: A new India-Australia partnership' here.
Australia
European tech warrior urges Australia to stare down Google threats
The Australian Financial Review
@hansvan333
Former Dutch politician Marietje Schaake says the fallout from Google’s tussle with Australia could become an opportunity for the world to shake up Big Tech.
Government moves to secure foothold in data cloud through new Canberra cyber hub
The Australian
@RichAFerguson
A new data centre run by a local tech company using US cyber technology will keep the government’s data secure.
Critical infrastructure laws impact on cyber
InnovationAus
@niklen
Government moves to beef up the security of Australia’s critical national infrastructure (CNI), set out in the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill 2020 and introduced into Federal Parliament on 10 December, will impact many companies, institutions and organisations that might not see themselves as being part of critical infrastructure.
China
The Possible Xinjiang Coal Link in Tesla's Bitcoin Binge
Bloomberg
@danmurtaugh
There’s a pretty good chance that any new Bitcoin generated after the cryptocurrency’s Elon Musk-aided surge toward $50,000 will be sourced using cheap coal power in China’s Xinjiang. The region that’s become notorious in recent years for complaints about abuse of Uyghur Muslim minorities is also a hub for the production of Bitcoin. Nearly two-thirds of global output took place in China as of April 2020, according to University of Cambridge researchers, and about one-third of that occurred in Xinjiang.
I listened in on the invite-only Clubhouse app for days — this is what Chinese netizens said about Uyghurs
ABC News
@BangXiao_
It was an incredible moment: a Chinese woman delivering an emotional public apology to a woman from the country's oppressed Uyghur minority. I was one of more than 1,000 people there to witness it.
Chinese microlending is getting weird and dangerous
Protocol
@ZeyiYang
Over the past year, non-fintech-turned-fintech apps have come under intense scrutiny by the Chinese public and the state. There's a growing concern they have tricked young people into overspending and pushed the overall amount of consumer debt to a dangerous level. The Chinese government proposed new rules in November to ramp up regulation over online microloans.
USA
TikTok Sale to Oracle, Walmart Is Shelved as Biden Reviews Security
The Wall Street Journal
@learyreports @johndmckinnon
The U.S. plan to force the sale has been shelved indefinitely, people familiar with the situation said, as President Biden undertakes a broad review of his predecessor’s efforts to address potential security risks from Chinese tech companies.
Read ASPI ICPC's Report 'TikTok and WeChat' here.
Twitter CFO says Trump's ban is permanent, even if he runs for office again
CNN
@b_fung
Former President Donald Trump will not be permitted back on Twitter even if he runs again for office and wins, according to the company's chief financial officer. Asked during an interview on CNBC Wednesday whether Trump's tweeting privileges could be restored if he wins the presidency again, CFO Ned Segal clarified that Trump's ban is permanent.
The Innovation Wars
Foreign Affairs
Christopher Darby and Sarah Sewall
Washington has tended to view Beijing’s massive technology investments primarily in military terms, but defense capabilities are merely one aspect of great-power competition today—little more than table stakes. Beijing is playing a more sophisticated game, using technological innovation as a way of advancing its goals without having to resort to war. Chinese companies are selling 5G wireless infrastructure around the world, harnessing synthetic biology to bolster food supplies, and racing to build smaller and faster microchips, all in a bid to grow China’s power.
We Must Reorient US Cyber Strategy Around the Only Safe Assumption
Defense One
@DAlperovitch
Almost half a decade ago, I coined the phrase: “We do not have a cyber problem; we have a China-Russia-Iran-and-North Korea problem.” Cyberspace is not a separate virtual world, immune from the forces that shape the broader geopolitical landscape. Instead, it is an extension of that landscape, and the threats we face in cyberspace are not fundamentally different from the threats we face in the non-cyber realm.
Florida hack highlights security shortages in US water sector
CyberScoop
@snlyngaas
A hack that apparently affected a Florida water facility’s chemical setting is emblematic of a water sector that’s short on money, cybersecurity personnel and often reliant on the practices of vendors, experts say.
Despite Scanning Millions of Faces, Feds Caught Zero Imposters at Airports Last Year
OneZero
@davegershgorn
Since the agency started public tracking statistics in 2018, it has only caught seven imposters trying to enter the United States through airports, and 285 attempting to do so over land crossings. These facial recognition scans are the result of CBP partnerships with more than 30 points of entry to the U.S.
North Asia
Decoupling denied: Japan Inc. lays its bets on China
Nikkei Asia
Panasonic's decision to further Sinify its operations is a decisive vote of confidence in a trading model that it pioneered: bargaining technology to China in exchange for access to the largest market in the world. It is a game that it managed to stay ahead of for four decades, maintaining a technological lead over its Chinese competitors -- albeit a shrinking one. Most multinational corporations are in the same boat, whether German carmakers or U.S. communications equipment companies. They play by China's rules and give away technology as the price of market access.
South & Central Asia
They were accused of plotting to overthrow the Modi government. The evidence was planted, a new report says.
The Washington Post
@mit_obe
Key evidence against a group of Indian activists accused of plotting to overthrow the government was planted on a laptop seized by police, a new forensics report concludes, deepening doubts about a case viewed as a test of the rule of law under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. An attacker used malware to infiltrate a laptop belonging to one of the activists, Rona Wilson, before his arrest and deposited at least 10 incriminating letters on the computer, according to a report from Arsenal Consulting, a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm that examined an electronic copy of the laptop at the request of Wilson’s lawyers.
Twitter Blocks Some Accounts in India Again Following Government Demands
The Wall Street Journal
@rovingrajesh @EricBellmanWSJ
Twitter said it is reimplementing restrictions on some accounts in India after the government threatened legal action when the company refused to block hundreds of handles that New Delhi called inflammatory.
UK
Chinese firm 'linked to country’s intelligence agency' worked with BBC on flagship shows
The Telegraph
@LyonsIzzy @LOS_Fisher @MattFieldUK
Tencent, a £375 billion tech giant which owns the controversial Chinese messaging app WeChat, has signed a string of deals with the BBC.
Tencent: Tech giant backed by Beijing funded Cambridge research
The Times
@CharlieHParker @nicolawoolcock @matt_dathan
Cambridge University received a “generous gift” from a Chinese software company with links to the communist regime to fund an engineering fellowship, The Times has learnt. Financial backing from Tencent has propped up research into creating computers with quantum technology under the university’s new Dowling postdoctoral research fellowship. The CIA has said that financing from China’s Ministry of State Security was used to found Tencent. A Pentagon report released last month said that the company, which owns the Wechat app, had been working with Chinese security agencies on artificial intelligence.
Europe
Estonia's diplomacy training aims to shape state behavior in cyberspace
CyberScoop
@shanvav
Diplomats from around the world are convening this week to share ideas about what type of behavior should be allowed in cyberspace, and debate what happens when those rules are broken.
Prosecutors Suspend Government Spyware Used in WhatsApp Phishing Attacks
VICE
@lorenzofb
Prosecutors in Italy suspended the use of malware made by a company that was involved in an apparent attempt to infect targets with a fake version of WhatsApp. On Wednesday, Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano reported that the prosecutor’s office in Naples had ordered its employees to stop using surveillance technology made by SIO and Cy4gate, a company that was linked to a series of malicious phishing pages, one of which purported to be a WhatsApp download site.
Americas
China poses serious strategic threat to Canada, says Canadian spy agency head
Reuters
@reutersLjungg
Vigneault told an online forum that hostile activity by state actors seeking among other things to purloin business secrets and sensitive data "represents a significant danger to Canada's prosperity and sovereignty" and singled out China.. The biopharmaceutical and health, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, ocean technology and aerospace sectors were most at risk from state-sponsored hackers, he said.
Canadian Woman Cited in Online Attacks Is Arrested in Toronto
The New York Times
@kashhill
Nadire Atas, a Canadian woman who wrote thousands of online posts defaming her perceived enemies, was arrested on Tuesday by the police in Toronto. She was charged with crimes including harassment and libel, a Toronto police spokeswoman said.
Middle East
How the Media Cracks Down on Critics of Israel
Current Affairs
@NathanJRobinson
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has documented a pattern by which “those who seek to protest, boycott, or otherwise criticize the Israeli government are being silenced,” a trend that “manifests on college campuses, in state contracts, and even in bills to change federal criminal law” and “suppress[es] the speech of people on only one side of the Israel-Palestine debate.”
Africa
Uganda’s election is a key moment for the splinternet in Africa
Quartz Africa
@Odangaring
Given the track record of how many African governments have regulated free speech, citizens should feel uncomfortable. It is clear that communications governing bodies will be content to increasingly exert their influence on citizens through internet shutdowns, as they continue to view social media through the same lens as they regard traditional media, even though the former is much harder to control.
Technology helping, and hindering, Uganda’s election The Strategist
Gender and Women in Cyber
Women of influence: 30 top cybersecurity leaders 2021
SC Media
Kathryn Cave
SC Media UK's pick of the most influential women in cybersecurity through the pandemic.
Misc
Facebook Is Said to Be Building a Product to Compete With Clubhouse
The New York Times
@MikeIsaac
Facebook is building an audio chat product that is similar to the popular young app Clubhouse, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, as the social network aims to expand into new forms of communication. Clubhouse, a social networking app, has gained buzz for letting people gather in audio chat rooms to talk about various topics. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has been interested in audio communication forms, said the people with knowledge of the matter, and he appeared in the Clubhouse app on Sunday to chat about augmented and virtual reality.
The Problem With Clubhouse
VICE
@thediyora
Clubhouse – the growing audio-only social media app – came along just at the right time. Ever since the pandemic forced most of us indoors, its ability to offer the chance of conversation with complete strangers has only made it increasingly popular. But the platform now faces one of the greatest challenges of modern times: misinformation.
Fears over DNA privacy as 23andMe plans to go public in deal with Richard Branson
The Guardian
@kari_paul
The genetic testing company 23andMe will go public through a partnership with a firm backed by the billionaire Richard Branson, in a deal that has raised fresh privacy questions about the information of millions of customers.
How tech went big on green energy
Financial Times
@LionelRALaurent
It isn’t Amazon: tech companies including Google, Microsoft and Facebook have become the world’s biggest corporate purchasers of clean energy. “Their influence is huge,” says Eduardo Gaminde, director of global strategic customers at Iberdrola, the utility. “These guys have a lot of market power,” he adds. Tech companies are big consumers of electricity because of their data centres, which need large amounts of power to keep the servers cool. The combined power usage of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple is more than 45 terawatt-hours a year, about as much as New Zealand. That amount will grow, as the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning demands more computing power.
Bitcoin Is an Incredibly Dirty Business
Bloomberg
The Bitcoin algorithm demands increasing amounts of computational power to validate transactions. If it were a country, its annualized estimated carbon footprint would be comparable to New Zealand at about 37 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Research
Jobs
ICPC Senior Analyst or Analyst - China
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) has a unique opportunity for an exceptional and experienced China-focused senior analyst or analyst to join its centre. Applications should be submitted no later than 12 February 2021.
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