Twitter unveils version of site that can bypass Russia block | China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war | SEC proposes requiring firms to report cyberattacks within four days
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Twitter has launched a privacy-protected version of its site to bypass surveillance and censorship after Russia restricted access to its service in the country. Associated Press
Ads from Chinese state broadcaster CGTN are running on Meta-owned Facebook, targeting global users with pro-Russian talking points about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Axios
Federal regulators are considering a requirement that publicly traded companies disclose data breaches and other significant cybersecurity incidents within four days, as they seek to strengthen financial markets’ resilience to online attacks. The Wall Street Journal
ASPI ICPC
Defence to grow to largest size since Vietnam War
ABC News
Karly Winkler, acting Deputy Director of the International Cyber Policy Centre at ASPI, spoke to ABC News about defence expansion.
Ukraine-Russia
Twitter unveils version of site that can bypass Russia block
Associated Press
Barbara Ortutay
Twitter has launched a privacy-protected version of its site to bypass surveillance and censorship after Russia restricted access to its service in the country.
Facebook and Instagram to temporarily allow calls for violence against Russians
Reuters
Munsif Vengattil and Elizabeth Culliford
Meta will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy.
Pro-Russia rebels are still using Facebook to recruit fighters, spread propaganda
The Washington Post
Cat Zakrzewski, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg
In the days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Aleksandr Zaldostanov, the leader of a pro-Putin biker gang, the Night Wolves, turned to Facebook to disparage the Ukrainian president and push falsehoods about the war.
Amazon, Microsoft and Google have suspended cloud sales in Russia
TechCrunch
Ron Miller
In a blog post on March 4, AWS indicated that it has no data centers in Russia, and as a matter of policy, it does not do business with the Russian government.On March 8, when the company updated the blog post to indicate it had “stopped allowing new sign-ups for AWS in Russia and Belarus.” Microsoft also took the action of suspending sales to Russia. As for Google, the last of the big three cloud infrastructure vendors, it said, “We can confirm we are not accepting new Google Cloud customers in Russia at this time. We will continue to closely monitor developments.”
E.U. sanctions demand Google block Russian state media from search results
The Washington Post
Gerrit De Vynck
The European Union has told Google to wipe Russian state media organizations RT and Sputnik from search results in Europe as part of its sanctions on the two entities, a sharp escalation in government attempts to shut down Russian propaganda on tech platforms and sparking fresh concerns regarding regulation of free speech.
YouTube is spreading Putin’s ‘morally repugnant’ Ukraine propaganda
Grid
Steve Reilly
Russian state outlets are using the U.S.-based video streaming giant to push “denazification” messages to justify invading Ukraine to Russian-speaking audiences.
Commercial satellites test the rules of war in Russia-Ukraine conflict
The Washington Post
Christian Davenport
High-definition satellite images from the Russian invasion of Ukraine are coming from a private company known as Planet, one of several companies with a fleet of satellites that act as eyes in the sky — or, in this case, space. The images are public, posted on the Internet and released to the media in what constitutes real-time documentation of the war from fleets of highly capable satellites swarming around the Earth in space.
Internet experts suggest ways to selectively block Russian military and propaganda sites
The Washington Post
Craig Timberg
Thirty-five Internet experts on Thursday proposed creating an international committee that could impose targeted sanctions against Russian military and propaganda websites without knocking ordinary civilian sites offline.
Groups warn Biden administration on cutting off Russian Internet
Axios
Ina Fried
A broad coalition of civil society groups is making the case that, as odious as Russia's invasion of Ukraine is, its citizens should not be deprived of basic internet access.
China is pushing baseless Russian claims of US bioweapons in Ukraine
VICE
Hanako Montgomery
In the two weeks since Russian troops and tanks flagrantly violated its neighbor’s borders, Beijing itself has shattered any illusion of neutrality in the Ukraine conflict. After having blamed the U.S. and NATO for pushing tension between Russia and Ukraine, China is now promoting Russian claims that Washington is funding bioweapons development in Ukraine, assertions that the White House has denounced as “preposterous.”
China censors online Ukraine debate, bars calls for peace
Reuters
Eduardo Baptista, Yew Lun Tian and Dhruv Munjal
China's censors, who quietly determine what can be discussed on the country's buzzing social media platforms, are silencing views of citizens protesting against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Malware disguised as security tool targets Ukraine's IT Army
Bleeping Computer
Bill Toulas
A new malware campaign is taking advantage of people's willingness to support Ukraine's cyber warfare against Russia to infect them with password-stealing Trojans.
Bellingcat's Eliot Higgins explains why Ukraine is winning the information war
Time
Karl Vick
The ability of anyone with a phone or laptop to see Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unfold in almost real time—and to believe what they’re seeing—comes to us thanks to the citizens operating what’s known as open-source intelligence (OSINT). The term is shorthand for the laborious process of verifying video and photographs from Ukraine by checking everything about the images, establishing what they show, and doing all this work out in the open, for all to see.
Weapons of mass delusion
EU vs Disinfo
Disinformation concerning the alleged planning of nuclear attacks or the use of bioweapons dominate the narratives of pro-Kremlin outlets and Chinese state media. A prime example of the development of a disinformation narrative across the pro-Kremlin disinformation ecosystem is the story of the alleged development of Ukrainian nuclear weapons. In this narrative, Ukraine could have obtained nuclear weapons within a few months, as a source inside a Russian state security agency apparently told TASS.
Russian comms in Ukraine: A world of hertz
RUSI
Sam Cranny-Evans and Thomas Withington
Evidence of Russian communications in Ukraine indicates that the modernisation of the Russian Armed Forces has been troubled, causing operational and tactical challenges.
Tech companies race to extract employees from Russia
The Washington Post
Joseph Menn
Multinational technology companies that last week were helping evacuate their employees from Ukraine now are doing the same in Russia, chartering planes and procuring visas for a well-connected workforce anxious about the stumbling economy, growing isolation, and the crackdown on speech and information.
Cybercriminals are posing as Ukraine fundraisers to steal cryptocurrency
CyberScoop
Tonya Riley
Ukraine and charities supporting the nation have turned to soliciting cryptocurrency donations during Russia’s invasion of the country. The gamble on virtual currencies worked: Within a week of launching wallets to receive donations directly, the Ukrainian government raised more than $50 million worth of cryptocurrency.
Twitch in wartime
The Washington Post
Nathan Grayson
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Twitch streamers have worked to unpack the crisis for the viewers in real time. The war’s coverage on Twitch is a new wrinkle in the international reporting of a war that is being viewed by millions on live streams, where the standards and format for sharing and discussing information on the conflict vary distinctly from traditional news outlets.
I’m a Ukrainian Official. We need more help on the digital front
WIRED
Alex Bornyakov
Ukraine's deputy minister of Digital Transformation says Western tech sanctions have helped—but it's time to remove Russia from the global IT ecosystem.
A tech executive is privately funding hundreds of soldiers to fight for Ukraine
The Verge
Makena Kelly
As Russian forces continue to wreak havoc in Ukraine, one tech executive is arranging financial support for volunteers interested in fighting the invasion.
Transparency org releases alleged leak of Russian censorship agency
VICE
Joseph Cox
Transparency organization Distributed Denial of Secrets has released what it says is 800GB of data from a section of Roskomnadzor, the Russian government body responsible for censorship in the country.
Australia
Protecting democracy from the reversibility of online information
The Strategist
Chris Zappone
Cybersecurity and the fight against disinformation share one key feature that, if better understood, could point the way to a more durable defence for democracies. Malware on the internet and the meaning of content online are reversible in ways that challenge the orderly processing of information needed for stable democracies.
China
China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war
Axios
Ashley Gold
Ads from Chinese state broadcaster CGTN are running on Meta-owned Facebook, targeting global users with pro-Russian talking points about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Chinese regulator says internet clean up campaign sees positive results
Reuters
Brenda Goh
China's cyberspace regulator said on Thursday its campaign to "clean up" the country's cyberspace had achieved positive results, and that "online chaos" on the country's internet platforms had been effectively curbed.
USA
SEC proposes requiring firms to report cyberattacks within four days
The Wall Street Journal
Paul Kiernan
Federal regulators are considering a requirement that publicly traded companies disclose data breaches and other significant cybersecurity incidents within four days, as they seek to strengthen financial markets’ resilience to online attacks.
Deportation agents use smartphone app to monitor immigrants
Associated Press
Amy Taxin and Amancai Biraben
U.S. authorities have broadly expanded the use of a smartphone app during the coronavirus pandemic to ensure immigrants released from detention will attend deportation hearings, a requirement that advocates say violates their privacy and makes them feel they’re not free.
Cyber Command chief tells Congress chip shortage has national security implications
CyberScoop
Suzanne Smalley
China’s increasing progress toward producing enough semiconductor chips domestically to avoid relying on foreign trade is a “very timely question” and one of “great concern for us in terms of broader impacts,” U.S. Cyber Command and National Security Agency head Gen. Paul Nakasone told House Intelligence Committee members this week.
Lawmakers alert Justice Department to potentially criminal conduct by Amazon
POLITICO
Emily Birnbaum
A bipartisan group of House Judiciary Committee lawmakers on Wednesday urged the Justice Department to investigate whether Amazon and its senior executives criminally obstructed Congress.
Alleged hacker behind Kaseya ransomware attack extradited, arraigned in Texas
ZDNet
Jonathan Greig
Yaroslav Vasinskyi, accused of being connected to the Sodinokibi/REvil ransomware group, was extradited and arraigned in a Dallas, Texas court on Wednesday. In November, the Justice Department said the 22-year-old was behind the July 2021 ransomware attack against Kaseya, which crippled hundreds of companies around the world for days.
Middle East
Iranian hackers targeting Turkey and Arabian Peninsula in new malware campaign
The Hacker News
Ravie Lakshmanan
The Iranian state-sponsored threat actor known as MuddyWater has been attributed to a new swarm of attacks targeting Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula with the goal of deploying remote access trojans (RATs) on compromised systems.
Africa
Thousands of Mali's ancient transcripts go digital
BBC News
Nomsa Maseko
Google has partnered with Mali’s traditional leaders to digitise tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts from the city of Timbuktu. The manuscripts have been endangered by political unrest in the country's north, which in 2013 saw Islamist rebels set fire to two libraries in Timbuktu.
Big Tech
Facebook Libra: the inside story of how the company’s cryptocurrency dream died
The Financial Times
Hannah Murphy and Kiran Stacey
On June 24 2021, Jay Powell and Janet Yellen sat down for their weekly breakfast amid the austere surroundings of the US Treasury building on 1,500 Pennsylvania Avenue. There was only one major question on the agenda: should they give the green light for a global cryptocurrency designed by Facebook? After weeks of deliberation, Yellen had made up her mind: she was out. “Yellen told him it was his decision to make, but that she would not protect him from the political fallout if he did so,” says one person briefed on the conversation. “And that was the end of Facebook’s digital currency.”
Misc
Cyberattacks highlight risks to physical and digital supply chains
The Record by Recorded Future
Olatunji Olaigbe
A string of recent cyberattacks and data leaks, including those targeting a supplier for Toyota Motors, major chipmaker NVIDIA, and international electronics giant Samsung, are putting renewed focus on cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the physical and digital supply chains relied on around the world.
Events and Podcasts
The Sydney Dialogue: Who Works? The Crisis of Automation in the Indo-Pacific
The Sydney Dialogue
The world is undergoing the largest workforce transition since the industrial revolution, and the Indo-Pacific is at the epicentre of this shift. Post pandemic, public and private sector enterprises of all sizes are capitalising on improvements in productivity, efficiency, and profitability by accelerating the rate at which they are applying technology to automate and augment work with more machines doing the work once done by people. Watch on catch up now.
The Lawfare Podcast: How Tech Platforms are Navigating the War in Ukraine
Lawfare
Jen Patja Howell
This week on Arbiters of Truth, our podcast series on the online information ecosystem, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory. They discussed how various platforms, from Twitter to TikTok and Telegram, are moderating the content coming out of Russia and Ukraine right now; the costs and benefits of Western companies pulling operations out of Russia during a period of increasing crackdown; and how the events of the last few weeks might shape our thinking about the nature and power of information operations.
Future proofing Australian technology by teaching kids AI
ABC News
Hilary Harper
Former Google Vice President Hugh Williams is on a mission to ensure every teenage school student in Australia is up to date with the latest digital technology, so that we're not just using but creating some of that AI technology in Australia in the future.
Jobs
The Sydney Dialogue - Director
ASPI ICPC
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) is currently recruiting for a Director to lead the second iteration of ASPI’s Sydney Dialogue - the world’s premier summit on emerging, critical and cyber technologies.
The Sydney Dialogue - Senior Events Coordinator
ASPI ICPC
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) is currently recruiting for an experienced events professional to coordinate the planning and logistics of the second iteration of ASPI’s Sydney Dialogue - the world’s premier summit on emerging, critical and cyber technologies.
ICPC Senior Analyst or Analyst - China
ASPI ICPC
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) has a unique opportunity for exceptional and experienced China-focused senior analysts or analysts to join its centre. This role will focus on original research and analysis centred around the (growing) range of topics which our ICPC China team work on. Our China team produces some of the most impactful and well-read policy-relevant research in the world, with our experts often being called upon by politicians, governments, corporates and civil society actors to provide briefings and advice.
Important disclaimer: This digest is a daily collation of material designed to provide authoritative information and commentary in relation to the subject matters covered. The views expressed in this material are those of the authors only. To provide feedback please contact: icpc@aspi.org.au