U.S. imposes stiff sanctions on Russia, blaming it for major hacking operation | U.S. spy chiefs say China is 'unparalleled priority' | Weibo is 'treating the incels like the royal family'

Apr 15, 2021

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The Biden administration on Thursday announced tough new sanctions on Russia and formally blamed the country’s premier intelligence agency for the sophisticated hacking operation that breached American government agencies and the nation’s largest companies. The New York Times
U.S. spy agency leaders said on Wednesday that China is an “unparalleled” priority, citing Beijing’s regional aggression and cyber capabilities as they testified at a public congressional “Worldwide Threats” hearing for the first time in more than two years. Reuters
China's nationalist "Red Vs" are descending on feminist activists, who say the Nasdaq-listed company is helping the haters. Protocol

ASPI ICPC

Raisina Dialogue @raisinadialogue

Much of the thinking around cyber-enabled foreign interference has been framed by Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, yet other strategic actors are able to exploit disinformation campaigns, point out @DaniellesCave and @JakeWallis_ASPI #Raisina2021:

Defending Democracies from Disinformation and Cyber-Enabled Foreign Interference in the COVID-19 Era | ORFThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused unique societal stress as governments worldwide and their citizens have struggled to work togetheror-f.org

Written Testimony of Dr. Samantha Hoffman Senior Analyst at The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (PDF) for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Hearing on “An Assessment of the CCP’s Economic Ambitions, Plans, and Metrics of Success,” Panel Four on “China’s Pursuit for Leadership in Digital Currency.

U.S.-China Commission @USCC_GOV

We cannot keep treating technology as neutral when it is intertwined with the ambitions of the Party-state, which go beyond normal problem-solving to include the protection and expansion of the Party’s power. -Samantha Hoffman @He_Shumei, @ASPI_ICPC

World

Lockheed Martin, Omnispace to develop space-based 5G network
Reuters
Reuters staff
Lockheed Martin Corp said on Tuesday it had teamed up with communications provider Omnispace LLC to develop a space-based 5G network for both commercial and government use. The U.S. defense contractor said a space-based 5G global network would let users switch between satellite and terrestrial networks, removing the need for multiple devices on different networks.

Hologram wars: The race to 6G
POLITICO
@laurenscerulus @JohnHendel
Europe and the U.S. are still rushing to deploy 5G coverage in major cities — but that’s not stopping them from trying to get ahead of trading rivals like China for the next big leap in telecommunications. The race to develop so-called sixth generation technology, or 6G, is already under way even as the most optimistic of timelines put it at least a decade away. Tech powerhouses like China, as well as Korea, Japan and others are also in the mix to get there first.

Australia

Funding-starved National Archives struggles with cyber resilience
InnovationAus
@joseph_brookes
The National Archives of Australia is struggling to maintain cyber resilience as the agency battles budget and staff cuts that are also putting important records at risk and slowing the work of researchers.

Read ASPI ICPC’s 'Identity of a nation'

China

Weibo is 'treating the incels like the royal family'
Protocol
@shenlulushen
China's nationalist "Red Vs" are descending on feminist activists, who say the Nasdaq-listed company is helping the haters.

Brief suspension of Chinese diplomats’ Twitter accounts reveals ‘truth of Western freedom of speech’
Global Times
GT staff reporters
Platform for freedom of speech or machine cracking down on pro-China narrative, Twitter's ban on accounts of the Chinese Consulate in Sydney and Cultural Counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan has been pilloried by netizens as "blatant censorship," who are concerned the platform may slap similar suppression on other accounts that run counter to the West's narrative.

USA

White House formally blames Russian intelligence service SVR for SolarWinds hack
The Record
@campuscodi
In a press release today announcing a broad set of sanctions against the Russian government, the Biden administration has formally named the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, also known as the SVR, as the perpetrator of the 2020 SolarWinds Orion supply chain attack.

Treasury Escalates Sanctions Against the Russian Government’s Attempts to Influence U.S. Elections U.S. Department of the Treasury
Treasury Sanctions Russia with Sweeping New Sanctions Authority U.S. Department of the Treasury
FACT SHEET: Imposing Costs for Harmful Foreign Activities by the Russian Government The White House
North Atlantic Council Statement following the announcement by the United States of actions with regard to Russia NATO

NSA Cyber @NSACyber

Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) cyber actors are exploiting five publicly known vulnerabilities to target U.S. and allied critical networks. Review our joint #cybersecurity guidance with @CISAgov and @FBI and apply the mitigations to stop them: nsa.gov/News-Features/…

Thomas Rid @RidT

A lot to digest here. But one thing is already clear: today is a huge, precedent-setting day for attributing Russian intelligence operations, both cyber operations narrowly defined, but also influence operations and active measures. From the U.S. Treasury home.treasury.gov/news/press-rel…

US Sanctions on Russia Rewrite Cyberespionage's Rules
WIRED
@a_greenberg
By sanctioning Russia over its Solarwinds hack, the US is sending a loud message over the country's use of state-sponsored hackers. What that message is, though, isn't exactly clear.

Biden Administration Says Russian Intelligence Obtained Trump Campaign Data
The New York Times
@MarkMazzettiNYT
A document released today provides strongest evidence to date that Russian spies had penetrated the inner workings of the Trump campaign in 2016.

U.S. spy chiefs say China is 'unparalleled priority'
Reuters
@ReutersZengerle @dpsaledakis & Mark Hosenball
U.S. spy agency leaders said on Wednesday that China is an “unparalleled” priority, citing Beijing’s regional aggression and cyber capabilities as they testified at a public congressional “Worldwide Threats” hearing for the first time in more than two years.

Biden Races to Shore Up Power Grid Against Hacks
Threatpost
@nerdiegaga
President Biden is putting the final details on a plan to encourage American electric utilities to strengthen their cybersecurity protections against hackers in the next 100 days, amid increasing cyberattacks.

A Former Alt-Right YouTuber Explains His Methods
The New York Times
@cademetz
Focus on conflict. Feed the algorithm. Make sure whatever you produce reinforces a narrative. Don’t worry if it is true.

North-East Asia

TSMC Sets Up for Soaring Chip Demand
WSJ
@stephanieayang, Yang Jie
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said it would raise its capital spending budget and revenue growth forecast for 2021, a sign of confidence from the world’s biggest contract chipmaker that soaring global demand for semiconductors will persist.

South-East Asia

Facebook and Google building subsea cables between the US and Southeast Asia | Networking
ITP.net
Staff Writer
Technology giants Facebook and Google are involved in two huge subsea cables project using a “new diverse route” across the Java Sea and connecting Singapore and Indonesia to North America. Called ‘Echo’ and ‘Bifrost’, these trans-Pacific cables will increase data capacity by 70% and improve internet reliability in South East Asia.

Europe

Romania approves bill to bar China, Huawei from 5G networks
Reuters
Romania's centrist government on Thursday approved a United States-backed bill that effectively bars China and Huawei from taking part in development of its 5G network, a member of the IT&C and National Security Committee told Reuters.

Russia

The $1 billion Russian cyber company that the US says hacks for Moscow
MIT Technology Review
@HowellONeill
Previously unreported US intelligence assessments say Positive Technologies, a cyber firm just sanctioned by U.S. Treasury, is a major provider of "offensive hacking tools, knowledge, and even operations to Russian spies."

Misc

For Big Tech whistleblowers, there's no such thing as 'moving on
Protocol
@issielapowsky
"People have often reported on whistleblowing matter-of-factly as though we did it and moved on with our lives." But that couldn't be further from the truth.

Meet the Ransomware Gang Behind One of the Biggest Supply Chain Hacks Ever
VICE News
@lorenzofb
A gang nicknamed Cl0p, FIN11, and TA505 has been hacking and extorting hundreds of companies for years.

Face editing: Japanese biker tricks internet into thinking he is a young woman - BBC News
BBC News
Photos of a smiling young woman with her motorbike proved popular with social media users in Japan and began to notch up hundreds of likes. But some eagle-eyed followers noticed things did not add up; her arm seemed very hairy in one photo, and a mirror reflection showed a different face. A TV show revealed the star of Twitter user @azusagakuyuki was actually a 50-year-old man named Soya.

The man, Soya, alongside a picture of his edited face

The man, Soya, had used photo editing apps to make himself look like a young woman. (NIPPON TELEVISION NETWORK SYSTEM)

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