US and Australia set to launch campaign to counter disinformation | Russia's GRU Hackers Hit US Government and Energy Targets | EU presses member states to take action on high-risk 5G vendors
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Australia and the United States are set to launch a joint bid to counter disinformation campaigns from countries like China and Russia, as Beijing and Washington trade consulate closures in a sharp escalation of diplomatic tensions between the world's two largest economies. The Sydney Morning Herald
Russia's GRU military intelligence agency has carried out many of the most aggressive acts of hacking in history: destructive worms, blackouts, and—closest to home for Americans—a broad hacking-and-leaking operation designed to influence the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election. Now it appears the GRU has been hitting US networks again, in a series of previously unreported intrusions that targeted organizations ranging from government agencies to critical infrastructure. WIRED
EU nations must make urgent progress on mitigating the risks to 5G telecommunications networks posed by certain high-risk suppliers, the European Commission said in a progress report published on Friday. Euractiv
ASPI ICPC
Webinar Launch - 'Spy vs Spy: The New Age of Espionage'
ASPI
This issue of Australian Foreign Affairs explores the threat facing Australia as changes in technology enable malign actors to target individuals, officials, businesses and infrastructure – challenges that have only sharpened due to Covid-19. Topics tackled by the authors in this ninth issue of Australian Foreign Affairs – which we will cover, and debate, in our panel discussion, include:
Anne-Marie Brady uncovers the covert influence and activities of China’s network of spy agencies.
Danielle Cave probes how data and technology have shaped espionage in a time of crisis and beyond.
Andrew Davies sweeps Australian intelligence history to show how technology has transformed state-on-state espionage.
Kim McGrath reveals Australia’s intelligence failures in Timor and asks whether we owe more to our neighbours.
Penny Wong argues for a foreign policy shift to confront a fast-changing Asia-Pacific.
Where in the world is your data?
9 News
Most of us hand our personal details to trusted companies and government departments without a second thought, but you may be surprised to learn what could happen with your information. Watch ASPI ICPC Director Fergus Hanson on 9 News.
China Is Harvesting the DNA of Its People. Is This the Future of Policing?
The New York Times
For several years now, the police and other authorities in China have been collecting across the country DNA samples from millions of men and boys who aren’t suspected of having committed any crime. In a report published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute last month, we exposed the extent of the Chinese government’s program of genetic surveillance: It no longer is limited to Xinjiang, Tibet and other areas mostly populated by ethnic minorities the government represses; DNA collection — serving no apparent immediate need — has spread across the entire country.
Read ASPI ICPC’s report Genomic surveillance: Inside China’s DNA Dragnet.
Huawei urges cut to think tank's funding to salvage China relations
The Australian Financial Review
ASPI's executive director Peter Jennings brushed off Huawei's attack, saying he stood by the quality of its research.
The World
China’s tech juggernaut steams ahead
The Financial Times
A bipolar world is starting to take shape, some analysts say. Around one pole are those countries that welcome Chinese technology and the multibillion-dollar investments of its corporations. Around the other is the US-led west that is closing its door, in varying degrees, to a lengthening list of what are regarded as sensitive Chinese technologies and investments.
Tech-enabled 'terror capitalism' is spreading worldwide. The surveillance regimes must be stopped
The Guardian
Terror capitalism justifies the exploitation of subjugated populations by defining them as potential terrorists or security threats. It primarily generates profits in three interconnected ways. First, lucrative state contracts are given to private corporations to build and deploy policing technologies that surveil and manage target groups. Then, using the vast amounts of biometric and social media data extracted from those groups, the private companies improve their technologies and sell retail versions of them to other states and institutions, such as schools. Finally, all this turns the target groups into a ready source of cheap labor – either through direct coercion or indirectly through stigma.
Disinformation campaigns are murky blends of truth, lies and sincere beliefs – lessons from the pandemic
The Conversation
@katestarbird
The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned an infodemic, a vast and complicated mix of information, misinformation and disinformation. In this environment, false narratives – the virus was “planned,” that it originated as a bioweapon, that COVID-19 symptoms are caused by 5G wireless communications technology – have spread like wildfire across social media and other communication platforms. Some of these bogus narratives play a role in disinformation campaigns.
Australia
US and Australia set to launch campaign to counter disinformation
The Sydney Morning Herald
Australia and the United States are set to launch a joint bid to counter disinformation campaigns from countries like China and Russia, as Beijing and Washington trade consulate closures in a sharp escalation of diplomatic tensions between the world's two largest economies.
‘Curveball’ cyber attack leaves Australian TV networks in the dark
The Sydney Morning Herald
A cyber attack on market research company Nielsen has left Australian television networks in the dark about their performance this week. Audience figures for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are yet to be released following a ransomware attack on Nielsen, which collects and measures data for ratings provider OzTam.
The young people caught in a global TikTok tussle
The Sydney Morning Herald
ANU National Security College senior adviser Katherine Mansted acknowledges that a lot of the conversation about the app has been happening “at a really abstract level by a bunch of adults who have never used TikTok” and “the people affected by this are the creators”. But Mansted stresses there are several reasons to be concerned, the first being that all social media companies treat their users as products and collect huge amounts of data from their devices.
USA
Russia's GRU Hackers Hit US Government and Energy Targets
WIRED
Russia's GRU military intelligence agency has carried out many of the most aggressive acts of hacking in history: destructive worms, blackouts, and—closest to home for Americans—a broad hacking-and-leaking operation designed to influence the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election. Now it appears the GRU has been hitting US networks again, in a series of previously unreported intrusions that targeted organizations ranging from government agencies to critical infrastructure.
Leaked Documents Show the U.S. Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates Through a Secret Database
NBC 7
Documents obtained by NBC 7 Investigates show the U.S. government created a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers tied to the migrant caravan and in some cases, placed alerts on their passports.
China Operative Pleads Guilty to Spying in U.S.
The Wall Street Journal
Singaporean national said he recruited U.S. Defense and State Department employees to unwittingly gather intelligence for Chinese government.. Mr. Yeo targeted the employee between 2018 and 2019 on a professional networking site.
Twitter Brings Down the Banhammer on QAnon
Lawfare Blog
Are the days of the Wild Wild Web over? In recent weeks, social media platforms have unveiled a series of high-profile enforcement actions and deplatformings. All the major platforms rolled out hardline policies against pandemic-related misinformation.
Combative TikTok Founder Races to Save App Before Trump Ban
Bloomberg
Zhang Yiming is the little-known Chinese entrepreneur who built TikTok into one of the most promising franchises on the internet. Now the brainy, combative 37-year-old is under pressure to save the business from Trump administration threats.
Why the U.S. needs better cyber deterrence
Axios
The U.S. lacks a well-formulated policy of cyber deterrence, one that ensures adversarial states will anticipate the consequences of their own cyber operations and online influence campaigns against the U.S., according to a U.S. senator who is a prominent voice in the cybersecurity field. With elections looming in November, hacks afflicting Twitter and other services, and misinformation rampant on social media platforms, the U.S. remains a vulnerable target for state-backed cyber operations.
For tech's big four, big contrasts
Axios
Four firms —Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple — now form the de facto roster of Big Tech, thanks to Congress' decision to interrogate their CEOs together at a landmark antitrust hearing Monday.
Big Tech Funds a Think Tank Pushing for Fewer Rules. For Big Tech
The New York Times
The Global Antitrust Institute is bankrolled in large part by tech companies — corporate donors like Google, Amazon and Qualcomm — that are facing antitrust scrutiny from some of the regulators who attended its programs, according to hundreds of pages of emails and documents obtained through open records laws, interviews with four past conference participants, and observation of a conference last year in Huntington Beach.
Sharp Spike in Ransomware in U.S. as Pandemic Inspires Attackers
Threat Post
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to shape the face of cybercrime in 2020, with ransomware and attacks on internet of things (IoT) devices seeing sharp increases in the U.S. for the first half of the year. According to SonicWall’s 2020 Cyber Threat Report ransomware attacks are up, particularly in the U.S., where they have more than doubled year-over-year (up 109 percent). Meanwhile, malware targeting IoT devices has risen to 20.2 million, up 50 percent from this time last year – as cybercriminals target the massive influx of employees working from home.
Europe
Commission presses member states to take action on high-risk 5G vendors
Euractiv
EU nations must make urgent progress on mitigating the risks to 5G telecommunications networks posed by certain high-risk suppliers, the European Commission said in a progress report published on Friday.
5G security: Member States report on progress on implementing the EU toolbox and strengthening safety measures European Commission Press Corner
Vodafone: Do not extrapolate UK Huawei decision to rest of Europe
Reuters
Vodafone’s (VOD.L) Chief Executive Nick Read said Britain’s decision to ban China’s Huawei from its 5G network should not be extrapolated to the rest of Europe because there were different geopolitics at play in other countries.
BBC News Contact tracing app 'working in Ireland'
BBC
This week, we have been looking at contact tracing apps using the decentralised Apple Google toolkit which the NHS in England has now adopted. We concluded there was little evidence they were working because no country could supply data showing how many people had received alerts telling them they may have been in touch with an infected person. We were, however, still awaiting a response from Ireland's health service. Now they have come back with some data.
Africa
Misc
“Facebook Is Hurting People At Scale”: Mark Zuckerberg’s Employees Reckon With The Social Network They’ve Built
Buzzfeed News
Most employees on their way out of the “Mark Zuckerberg production” typically post photos of their company badges along with farewell notes thanking their colleagues. Wang opted for a clip of himself speaking directly to the camera. What followed was a 24-minute clear-eyed hammering of Facebook’s leadership and decision-making over the previous year.
Yes, TikTok Really Is Spying On You For China
Forbes
But now, as TikTok continues to deny U.S. accusations of data mishandling, of it bowing to pressure from Beijing, a new report from the cyber experts at ProtonMail has called those denials into question. “Beware,” it warns, “the social media giant not only collects troves of personal data on you, but also cooperates with the CCP, extending China’s surveillance and censorship reach beyond its borders.”
Garmin global outage caused by ransomware attack, sources say
Tech Crunch
An ongoing global outage at sport and fitness tech giant Garmin was caused by a ransomware attack, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the incident.
Research
The Defense Industrial Base of the Future
Center for a New American Security
America’s advantage in technology continues to decline; maintaining its military overmatch will require a commitment to modernizing the defense industrial base. Future military operating environments will require technology from more diverse sources and business models that enable faster innovation cycles. If DoD wants industry to change what it produces and how it delivers capability, then the department needs to change its incentives.
Employing AI to Improve Healthcare Delivery
Observer Research Foundation
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already made inroads into healthcare. The increasing availability of healthcare data has allowed for the deployment of powerful AI techniques to assist drug development as well as clinical practice. These run the gamut from machine learning (ML) techniques that analyse structured data, to natural language processing (NLP) that can extract meaningful information from unstructured data, such as doctors’ notes. This brief examines the promises, risks and challenges of adopting AI in healthcare, drawing on evidence from across the globe.