Australian govt set to announce new top cyber spy | US intel officials say Iran to blame for Trump presidential campaign hack | Pakistan blames users for slow internet as firewall rumours grow
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The new director-general of the Australian Signals Directorate will soon be unveiled after the cyber spy agency’s current boss, Rachel Noble, decided to finish up in the role earlier than expected. The sources said the government has spent months considering who should replace Noble, in recent weeks narrowing the choice to two candidates: Abigail Bradshaw, head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre, and Lieutenant General Gavan Reynolds, the inaugural Chief of Defence Intelligence. Capital Brief
U.S. intelligence officials said Monday that Iran is responsible for the hack of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The FBI and other federal agencies said Iran perceived this year’s presidential election to be particularly consequential and was determined through the hacking operation and other activities to interfere in American politics and “to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.” Associated Press
Pakistan has for weeks been experiencing painfully slow internet - but who, or what, is to blame is a matter for debate. Activists say the state is building a China-style internet firewall as it looks to exert further control over the online space. Shutting down the internet to crush dissent is a familiar move in regulators' playbooks in Pakistan and other parts of Asia. BBC
ASPI
Australia
Government set to announce new top cyber spy
Capital Brief
Anthony Galloway
The new director-general of the Australian Signals Directorate will soon be unveiled after the cyber spy agency’s current boss, Rachel Noble, decided to finish up in the role earlier than expected. The sources said the government has spent months considering who should replace Noble, in recent weeks narrowing the choice to two candidates: Abigail Bradshaw, head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre, and Lieutenant General Gavan Reynolds, the inaugural Chief of Defence Intelligence.
License them, censor them and make them pay: What Australians really think about social media
ABC News
Jason Whittaker
Australians overwhelmingly support regulating social media and censoring harmful content, with six in 10 people polled backing an unproven proposal to ban access to children, exclusive research for the ABC's Q+A shows. As community concern grows around how foreign-owned social media platforms operate, and the threat of artificial intelligence further industrialising harm, the new YouGov/Q+A poll offers governments ammunition to act.
The EV boom will drive electricity demand and big batteries are a risk, but also opportunity for the power grid
ABC News
Daniel Mercer
For a whole host of reasons, the uptake of electric vehicles in Australia is steadily climbing. While the numbers dipped slightly compared with the previous quarter, EVs made up more than 8 per cent of all new cars sold in the three months to June 30, according to the Australian Automobile Association.Those same cars are also expected to drive a massive increase in the demand for electricity for transport.
China
China-US tensions erode co-operation on science and tech
Financial Times
Rising tensions between the US and China threaten to sever a 45-year-old science and technology pact due for renewal later this month, hindering the superpowers’ collaboration in critical areas. Researchers are attempting to work round the strained inter-governmental relationship, with some focusing on less contentious possible areas of co-operation, such as climate change and diseases related to ageing. The struggle to strike a comprehensive multiyear extension to the science and technology accord is a sign of how political problems can undermine frontier research work.
The green leap
The Wire China
Brent Crane
Many of the U.S. policies have galvanized America’s clean tech advocates, who hope that Washington might finally be taking the energy transition as seriously as Beijing. But other observers are watching American efforts with skepticism. If China has already won in the first round of the renewables race, why bother trying to just catch up? Shouldn’t the goal instead be to jump ahead, to the next generation of green energy?
USA
US intelligence officials say Iran is to blame for hack of Trump’s presidential campaign
Associated Press
Eric Tucker
U.S. intelligence officials said Monday that Iran is responsible for the hack of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. It was the first U.S. government attribution of responsibility for a cyber intrusion that the Republican nominee had previously linked to Tehran. The FBI and other federal agencies said Iran perceived this year’s presidential election to be particularly consequential and was determined through the hacking operation and other activities to interfere in American politics and “to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.”
FBI says it’s confident Iran tried to hack Trump presidential campaign The Washington Post
Joint Statement on Iranian Election Influence Efforts ODNI, FBI, and CISA
Trump falsely implies Taylor Swift endorses him
BBC
Rachel Looker
Donald Trump appears to have falsely implied he has Taylor Swift's endorsement, posting fake images on social media of the singer and her fans supporting him. The Republican presidential candidate posted the massage "I accept!" alongside the images, which were taken from other social media accounts. Many appear to have been created using artificial intelligence. The post sparked a backlash among Swift's fans, known as Swifties, who accused Trump of spreading misinformation. The singer has not endorsed a candidate in the 2024 election but backed the Democrats in 2020 and criticised Trump while he was president.
North Asia
TSMC’s overseas expansion strengthens Taiwan’s silicon shield
The Straits Times
Yip Wai Yee
Amid heightened cross-strait tensions and a worsening technology war between China and the United States, Taiwan – the world leader in chip production – has faced mounting pressure from business partners, governments and customers to spread the risk. Back in Taiwan, however, the company’s expanding international footprint has caused unease. Concerns centre on such moves weakening the island’s so-called “silicon shield” – the idea that Taiwan’s unrivalled strength in semiconductor production can protect it against an attack from China, which claims sovereignty over the island.
South Korea, US kick off annual drills over North's military, cyber threats
Reuters
South Korea and the United States kicked off annual summertime military exercises on Monday, seeking to boost their joint readiness to fend off North Korea's weapons and cyber threats. The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, set to end on Aug. 29, come as North Korea races to advance its nuclear and missile programmes and tries to launch reconnaissance satellites. The drills will reflect "realistic threats" across all domains, including the North's missile threats but also GPS jamming, cyberattacks and other lessons learned from recent incidents, the two countries' militaries have said.
Southeast Asia
Singapore unicorn PatSnap to expand AI-powered patent search
Nikkei Asia
Tsubasa Suruga
PatSnap, a Singaporean startup that helps businesses search for and analyze patent information, is starting to offer more services tailored to specific industries by increasingly tapping generative artificial intelligence. PatSnap's generative AI uses chatbots to answer questions from researchers and intellectual property lawyers, helping them understand complex patent documentation in different regions -- something that could otherwise be a huge undertaking when companies are looking to launch products or enter new markets. The services also help clients track any recent technological advances by their competitors.
South & Central Asia
Pakistan blames users for slow internet as firewall rumours grow
BBC
Kelly Ng
Pakistan has for weeks been experiencing painfully slow internet - but who, or what, is to blame is a matter for debate. Activists say the state is building a China-style internet firewall as it looks to exert further control over the online space. Officials have disputed these claims and instead blamed the widespread use of secure connections or VPN for the crawling speeds. Shutting down the internet to crush dissent is a familiar move in regulators' playbooks in Pakistan and other parts of Asia.
NZ & Pacific Islands
Kim Dotcom vows to continue legal fight against extradition
Bloomberg
Tracy Withers
Kim Dotcom, the internet entrepreneur facing extradition from New Zealand, vowed to continue his legal battle after the government confirmed he should face trial in the US. “I love New Zealand. I’m not leaving,” Dotcom posted on X after the news was reported late last week. He told his followers not to worry because he had a plan, without providing any details.
Europe
AI-generated parody song about immigrants storms into German Top 50
The Guardian
Philip Oltermann and Deborah Cole
A song about immigrants whose music, vocals and artwork were entirely generated using artificial intelligence has made the Top 50 most listened to songs in Germany, in what may be a first for a leading music market. Verknallt in einen Talahon is a parody song that weaves modern lyrics – many of them based around racial stereotypes about immigrants – with 60s schlager pop.
Historic milestone for Polish space science as they successfully launch EagleEye satellite
Euronews
Polish space science and technology reached a historical moment with the successful launch of the EagleEye satellite into Earth's orbit. Facilitated by SpaceX, the mission took place from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The EagleEye project, which began in April 2020, represents a collaborative effort between a consortium of industrial and scientific organisations. The satellite is set to deliver high-resolution images of the Earth, providing data for research and monitoring purposes.
UK
Tony Blair’s AI mania sweeps Britain’s new government
POLITICO
Laurie Clarke
With a Labour government in power in the UK for the first time in 14 years, Blair’s influence is growing. A tight knot of Blairite ministers is carrying forward his vision for the power of AI to transform government and public services. But while most agree that AI holds promise for the public sector, some warn against “snake oil” salesmen and caution about embedding the sometimes unreliable and opaque tech into the heart of government.
Gender & Women in Cyber
The movement to diversify Silicon Valley is crumbling amid attacks on DEI
The Washington Post
Naomi Nix, Cat Zakrzewski and Nitasha Tiku
Girls In Tech, a nonprofit dedicated to recruiting women to the tech industry, was a Silicon Valley darling, with major companies eagerly partnering with the group after its 2007 launch. But in a single week in late 2023, five key donors pulled their funding, citing market turbulence. In an era of tightening budgets, many tech companies are distancing themselves from these initiatives — forcing the advocacy groups to close up shop, lay off staff or rebrand their efforts to stay afloat, according to interviews with more than a dozen diversity advocates and group founders.
Big Tech
AMD buys AI equipment maker for nearly $5 billion, escalating battle with Nvidia
The Wall Street Journal
Asa Fitch
AMD agreed to pay nearly $5 billion to buy ZT Systems, a designer of data-center equipment for cloud computing and artificial intelligence, bolstering the chip maker’s attack on Nvidia’s dominance in AI computation. The deal, among AMD’s largest, is part of a push to offer a broader menu of chips, software and system designs to big data-center customers such as Microsoft and Facebook owner Meta Platforms, promising better performance through tight linkages between those products.
Google Play will no longer pay to discover vulnerabilities in popular Android apps
Android Authority
Mishaal Rahman
Google has announced that they are winding down the Google Play Security Reward Program. The program was introduced in late 2017 to incentivize security researchers to find and responsibly disclose vulnerabilities in popular Android apps. Google says they’re winding down the program due to a decrease in actionable vulnerabilities reported by security researchers.
Artificial Intelligence
How AI can help start small businesses
The New York Times
Sydney Ember
For all the excitement over the potential impact of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, it is not yet obvious how or when this technology will begin to measurably affect economic activity. Many businesses, especially smaller businesses, are still trying to figure out how to use it effectively. Yet for some entrepreneurs, generative A.I. is already a game changer. It is helping them write intricate code, understand complex legal documents, create posts on social media, edit copy and even answer payroll questions. The result, they say, is that A.I. allowed them to get their companies off the ground more quickly, and more efficiently, than they would have without it.
AI cheating is getting worse
The Atlantic
A mere week after ChatGPT appeared in November 2022, The Atlantic declared that “The College Essay Is Dead.” Jensen is one of a new breed of faculty who want to embrace generative AI even as they also seek to control its temptations. He believes strongly in the value of traditional writing but also in the potential of AI to facilitate education in a new way—in ASU’s case, one that improves access to higher education. But his vision must overcome a stark reality on college campuses.
Misc
‘Threads is just deathly dull’: have Twitter quitters found what they are looking for on other networks?
The Guardian
James Ball
Few alternatives to Twitter existed before Musk’s 2022 takeover – but several have popped up in the past few years. There is now Bluesky and Mastodon, which generally lean left or liberal, and on the right Gab, plus Donald Trump’s Truth Social network. But perhaps the one which poses the biggest threat to X is Threads – not least because it was launched by Meta, the behemoth behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. But the simple question remains: is it any good?
Research
Future (bio)made in Australia?
ANU National Security College
Dirk van der Kley, Dr Dan Santos and Dan Pavlich
Biomanufacturing represents Australia’s best opportunity to develop a resilient, green and profitable manufacturing industry by building on natural advantages, yet is underrepresented in Australia’s critical technology and industry policy, including the Future Made in Australia agenda.
Events & Podcasts
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