White House veterans helped Gulf Monarchy build secret surveillance | Facebook intends to implement end-to-end encryption | Coalition outlines plan to pressure internet giants over cyberbullying
Follow us on Twitter. The Daily Cyber Digest focuses on the topics we work on, including cyber, critical technologies & strategic issues like foreign interference.
In the years after 9/11, former U.S. counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke warned Congress that the country needed more expansive spying powers to prevent another catastrophe. Five years after leaving government, he shopped the same idea to an enthusiastic partner: an Arab monarchy with deep pockets. In 2008, Clarke went to work as a consultant guiding the United Arab Emirates as it created a cyber surveillance capability that would utilize top American intelligence contractors to help monitor threats against the tiny nation. Reuters
Facebook is not giving in to Department of Justice demands on weakening encryption, according to a new letter the company sent to U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr and acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf on Monday. Cyber Scoop
The Morrison government is putting internet giants on notice about cyberbullying, outlining a plan to tackle the problem in a new cyber safety consultation paper released by the communications minister. The Guardian
ICPC
Marise Payne hits out at China's human rights record in veiled swipe
Sydney Morning Herald
Australian Strategic Policy Institute cyber policy centre deputy director Danielle Cave said Mr Hastie was right to point out Australia was unfamiliar with the strategic culture of opponents such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. “It's very important to emphasise that Australia won't be pulling from the same toolkits as Russia and China," she said. “For example, you won't catch the Australian government setting up networks of covert and fake social media accounts in an effort to influence foreign elections. Instead, Australia should deal with political and information warfare by ensuring our military is adequately set-up and has the resources to counter it." Fellow ASPI senior analyst Jake Wallis said it was "entirely reasonable" for Mr Hastie to suggest Australia should act in a way that asserts its values and defends its interests. Political warfare does not need to look like that deployed by authoritarian regimes and Hastie emphasises the need for appropriate oversight," Dr Wallis said. “Democracies have traditionally thought about war and peace as clearly distinct binaries, leaving us vulnerable to states who calibrate their foreign policy so that it aggressively achieves gains whilst remaining just, and only just, below the threshold of outright conflict.”
Chinese Twitter bots are clearly fake, but they might still be influential
South China Morning Post
This explains why spam on social media isn’t going anywhere. Just recently, Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) researcher Elise Thomas uncovered what she described as a “massive spambot network in the making” designed to amplify pro-Beijing messages about the Xinjiang region. China has recently been seeking to justify its treatment of the local Muslim Uygur population, where more than a million Uygurs and other Muslim minority groups have reportedly been sent to detention camps.
World
Cybersecurity in the Commonwealth: Towards Stability and Responsible State Behaviour in Cyberspace
Chatham House
Chatham House’s International Security Department (ISD) embarked on a new project, Implementing the Commonwealth Cybersecurity Agenda, in June 2018. This initiative aims to develop a pan-Commonwealth platform to take the Declaration forward by means of a holistic, inclusive and representative approach.
Australia
Coalition outlines plan to pressure internet giants over cyberbullying
The Guardian
The Morrison government is putting internet giants on notice about cyberbullying, outlining a plan to tackle the problem in a new cyber safety consultation paper released by the communications minister. Cyber safety was one of the only fully formed policies Scott Morrison put forward during the May election campaign, with Paul Fletcher left to implement the proposal.
The Best Apps For Tracking Fires And Smoke Pollution Near You
Gizmodo
If you're asthmatic, have respiratory problems or just generally care about what you're putting into your lungs, AirVisual offers detailed data around the air quality in your area. Not only can it monitor your immediate vicinity, you can add 'places' you want to track, such as work or home.
US
Apple has ‘deep concerns’ that ex-employees accused of theft will flee to China
CNBC
Apple on Monday told a federal court it has “deep concerns” that two Chinese-born former employees accused of stealing trade secrets from the company will try to flee before their trials if their locations are not monitored.
White House Veterans Helped Gulf Monarchy Build Secret Surveillance Unit
Reuters
In the years after 9/11, former U.S. counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke warned Congress that the country needed more expansive spying powers to prevent another catastrophe. Five years after leaving government, he shopped the same idea to an enthusiastic partner: an Arab monarchy with deep pockets. In 2008, Clarke went to work as a consultant guiding the United Arab Emirates as it created a cyber surveillance capability that would utilize top American intelligence contractors to help monitor threats against the tiny nation.
Facebook’s ad tools subsidize partisanship, research shows. And campaigns may not even know it.
Washington Post
The technologies Facebook uses to put advertising it deems relevant in front of people may be more responsible for the polarization of American politics than previously understood, a team of researchers has concluded. Their findings, which have not been previously reported, are the first to demonstrate a skew in the delivery of political ads based on the content of those ads and the information Facebook has on users — not on the targeting decisions made by a political candidate or campaign.
Facebook intends to implement end-to-end encryption despite DOJ pressure
CyberScoop
Facebook is not giving in to Department of Justice demands on weakening encryption, according to a new letter the company sent to U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr and acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf on Monday.
A Facebook Employee Accepted Bribes From A Scammer To Reactivate Banned Ad Accounts
Buzzfeed News
A Facebook contractor was paid thousands of dollars in bribes by a shady affiliate marketer to reactivate ad accounts that had been banned due to policy violations, a BuzzFeed News investigation has found.
UK
‘I was hacked,' says woman whose account claimed hospital boy photo was staged
The Guardian
A medical secretary has claimed that her Facebook account was hacked after it was used to post false information claiming that a photograph of an ill boy on the floor at Leeds General Infirmary was staged for political purposes.
Claims that the photo was staged spread rapidly across social media. Source: https://twitter.com/StevePeers/status/1204193205064994819?s=20
North America
Conservatives ramp up calls for Huawei ban amid security questions
Global News
Throughout question period on Monday, the Tories pressed the government for answers about the future of the Chinese telecommunications firm and whether it will be allowed into the Canadian 5G network over the coming years, despite allies banning it from their own networks over fears of spying.
Misc
Ring's Hidden Data Let Us Map Amazon's Sprawling Home Surveillance Network
Gizmodo
As reporters raced this summer to bring new details of Ring’s law enforcement contracts to light, the home security company, acquired last year by Amazon for a whopping $US1 ($1.5) billion, strove to underscore the privacy it had pledged to provide users. Even as its creeping objective of ensuring an ever-expanding network of home security devices eventually become indispensable to daily police work, customers would always have a choice, it said, in “what information, if any, they share with law enforcement.”
The Verge's Gadgets of the Decade
The Verge
The story of technology in the 2010s is the story of gadgets going from the corners of our lives to everywhere all the time. The tools to create and consume culture are omnipresent now, offering us incredible new capabilities but also demanding that we care for them more than any consumer products in history. We mind their temperamental batteries, we twist in space to improve their wireless signals, we ask them to listen to us — but not too much.
Research
5G Infrastructure, Huawei’s Techno-Economic Advantages and India’s National Security Concerns: An Analysis
Observer Research Foundation
China’s Huawei, a global leader in providing equipment for fifth-generation (5G) mobile technology, is attempting to enter the Indian market. However, in light of China’s proclivity for state interference in corporate operations and the critical infrastructure Huawei deals in, the firm poses a security threat for countries with its presence. This threat gets amplified for India, when seen in the context of China’s anti-India stance on a range of issues, a Chinese law that binds corporations to collect and share intelligence, and the 3,488-km-long volatile India–China border.