Twitter suspends Thai royalist account linked to influence campaign | Tech giants complicit in industrial-scale repression in Vietnam | Researchers find cellphone location surveillance in 25 countries

Dec 1, 2020

Follow us on Twitter. The Daily Cyber Digest focuses on the topics we work on, including cyber, critical technologies & strategic issues like foreign interference.

Twitter has suspended a Thai pro-royalist account linked to the palace that a Reuters analysis found was connected to thousands of others created in recent weeks spreading posts in favour of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and the monarchy. The review found tens of thousands of tweets that an expert said appeared to be from accounts amplifying royalist messaging in a push to counter a months-long protest movement that has swelled from opposing the government to breaking a longstanding taboo by challenging the monarchy. Reuters
Tech giants Facebook and YouTube are allowing themselves to become tools of the Vietnamese authorities’ censorship and harassment of its population, in an alarming sign of how these companies could increasingly operate in repressive countries, a new report by Amnesty International reveals today. Amnesty International
Security researchers claim to have identified deployments of SS7 tracking technology in 25 countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Mexico, Thailand, and Australia. The deployments are linked to surveillance vendor Circles, which works with NSO Group. Vice News

Australia

COVIDSafe update aims for almost perfect logging of contacts, but tech experts say app's technology is outdated
ABC News
@JamesPurtill
The Federal Government has overhauled the COVIDSafe contact tracing app, saying the new version logs "encounters" almost perfectly, whether or not the device is locked or the app is running in the background.

Stephen Dziedzic @stephendziedzic

Scott Morrison has posted a fairly lengthy statement on his WeChat account. More rounded language here: "Australia's ability to deal with issues in a transparent and honest way is a strength of this country, and one that recognises all those who serve it"

来自总理的信息所有为澳大利亚穿上军服的澳大利亚人都让我感到深切自豪。我为他们辛勤服役以及为保护澳大利亚和澳大利亚国民安全所作出的奉献感到骄傲。我为他们对我们国家及其价值观的忠诚感到骄傲。mp.weixin.qq.com

China

EU says China favors domestic 5G suppliers
TechNode
@weishengn
China’s preference for its own 5G equipment vendors over European suppliers has created an unfair playing field in the country’s telecommunications market, according to the EU ambassador to China in a speech given during a major telecommunications event in Guangzhou on Thursday.

China’s move on Ant makes the fight on Big Tech global
Financial Times
The desire to curb Big Tech has gone global. One reason for this is that giants such as Amazon, Apple and Alibaba have become so large that they are setting norms and standards for hundreds of millions of people around the world.

USA

Supreme Court considers scope of federal anti-hacking law in biggest cyber case to date
CyberScoop
@timstarks
Several U.S. Supreme Court justices, including some of President Donald Trump’s appointees, skeptically questioned a broad interpretation of the main federal anti-hacking law during oral arguments Monday. The hearing represented one of the final steps in the biggest case to come before the nation’s highest court involving the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), written in the 1980s.

Facial Recognition Company Lied to School District About its Racist Tech
Vice News
@ToddFeathers
Documents reveal Lockport Schools' facial recognition system misidentifies Black students at much higher rates, and mistakes broom handles for guns.

Former US election security chief reacts to comment that he should be ‘shot’
Today
In his first live interview since being fired as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Chris Krebs tells TODAY that comments by Joseph diGenova, a lawyer for President Trump, that Krebs should be “taken out and shot” are “certainly more dangerous language, more dangerous behavior.” He points to the record of paper ballots as proof that the 2020 election was secure: “You effectively have the receipts.” He says he is “thankful” to President Trump but chose country over party: “We did it right.”

South-East Asia

Twitter suspends Thai royalist account linked to influence campaign
Reuters
Twitter has suspended a Thai pro-royalist account linked to the palace that a Reuters analysis found was connected to thousands of others created in recent weeks spreading posts in favour of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and the monarchy. The Reuters review found tens of thousands of tweets that an expert said appeared to be from accounts amplifying royalist messaging in a push to counter a months-long protest movement that has swelled from opposing the government to breaking a longstanding taboo by challenging the monarchy. Internal army training documents reviewed by Reuters showed evidence of a coordinated information campaign designed to spread favourable information and discredit opponents.

Viet Nam: Tech giants complicit in industrial-scale repression
Amnesty International
@amnesty
Tech giants Facebook and YouTube are allowing themselves to become tools of the Vietnamese authorities’ censorship and harassment of its population, in an alarming sign of how these companies could increasingly operate in repressive countries, a new report by Amnesty International reveals today.

Vietnam: Facebook and Google 'complicit' in censorship BBC News

New Zealand & The Pacific

Pacific Data Hub to make data accessible for all
Pacific Community
Pacific Governments, agencies, donors and civil society now have a central source of reliable and current data to help them to make decisions that affect Pacific Islanders. The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) has backed The Pacific Community (SPC) to create and launch the Pacific Data Hub, which will fill data gaps in the Pacific and provide trusted and evidence-based information to decision-makers.

Bart Hoogeveen @BartHoogeveen

🇺🇳🇳🇿🌏How does international law apply to States in cyberspace? New Zealand is the latest of countries that have shared their views. It addresses use of force, non-intervention, sovereignty, due diligence and attribution @MFATNZ #UNCyberOEWG #UNCyberGGE mfat.govt.nz/assets/Peace-R…

Przemysław Roguski 🇵🇱🇪🇺 @Roguski_P

Today, New Zealand 🇳🇿 has published its views on how international law applies to cyber operations. It contains some hot stuff on: 🔥 sovereignty 🔥 due diligence 🔥 collective countermeasures So read on for a brief summary. *THREAD*

Europe

Edward Lucas @edwardlucas

Huawei staff tasked with spying on Cisco. Great scoop by colleagues from @LaStampa — Practise your Italian or use Google Translate

jacopo iacoboni @jacopo_iacoboni

Scoop “In Huawei ci chiesero di spiare e copiare il prodotto dei rivali Usa Cisco, Cisco Nso” La denuncia dei whistleblower nel German Center dell’impresa cinese. Mail, documenti e interviste a cui lavoravo da mesi. Oggi su @LaStampa https://t.co/XHbcVEpsie

The Americas

Cayman Islands investment fund left entire filestore viewable by world+dog in unsecured Azure blob
The Register
@GazTheJourno
A Cayman Islands-based investment fund has exposed its entire backups to the internet after failing to properly configure a secure Microsoft Azure blob.

Misc

Researchers Find Powerful Cellphone Location Surveillance in Europe, Middle East, Australia
Vice News
Security researchers claim to have identified deployments of SS7 tracking technology in 25 countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Mexico, Thailand, and Australia. The deployments are linked to surveillance vendor Circles, which works with NSO Group.

Warning lights are flashing for Big Tech as they did for banks
Financial Times
How the risks of financial services were managed can provide a model for the digital economy

Running in Circles: Uncovering the Clients of Cyberespionage Firm Circles
The Citizen Lab
@citizenlab
Circles, whose products work without hacking the phone itself, says they sell only to nation-states. According to leaked documents, Circles customers can purchase a system that they connect to their local telecommunications companies’ infrastructure, or can use a separate system called the “Circles Cloud,” which interconnects with telecommunications companies around the world.

Bill Marczak @billmarczak

We've got a neat new @citizenlab report out, looking at NSO Group affiliate company Circles, the we-spy-without-hacking-your-phone guys, who reportedly exploit flaws in mobile phone networks themselves. We ID'd a bunch of likely customers!

Running in Circles: Uncovering the Clients of Cyberespionage Firm Circles - The Citizen LabCircles is a surveillance firm that reportedly exploits weaknesses in the global mobile phone system to snoop on calls, texts, and the location of phones around the globe, and is affiliated with NSO Group, which develops the oft-abused Pegasus spyware. Using Internet scanning, we found a unique sign…citizenlab.ca

Announcing the Oversight Board’s first cases and appointment of trustees
Oversight Board
Today, the Oversight Board is announcing the first cases that it will be deliberating and the opening of the public comment process. The Board is also announcing the appointment of five new trustees.

Events

How Should the New Administration Protect Free Speech and Democracy in Our Digital World?
New America
These terms have become part of our national lexicon when talking about social media and the internet. Join us for a conversation with experts Rebecca MacKinnon, Founding Director of Ranking Digital Rights at New America, and John Palfrey, President of the MacArthur Foundation, moderated by Cecilia Kang, National Technology Correspondent for The New York Times, on how the new administration should tackle these and other challenges impacting higher education and other institutions that underpin our democracy.