China tightens control over rare earth exports | FBI investigating China-linked hacks on Trump, Harris phones | Russia allegedly aided Houthis with targeting data

Good morning. It's Monday 28th of October.

The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest focuses on the topics we work on, including cybersecurity, critical technologies, foreign interference & disinformation.

Follow us on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

• Already the dominant producer of rare minerals, Beijing is using export restrictions and its power over state-owned companies to further control access. China has imposed strict export controls on rare earth metals, requiring detailed tracing of their use in Western supply chains, as well as consolidating domestic ownership. New York Times

• FBI, CISA investigating China-linked telecom hacks following reports of intrusions on Trump, Harris phones. The statement on Friday from the FBI and CISA coincided with a New York Times story saying Salt Typhoon used their access to telecommunications giants like Verizon to target data from phones used by former President Trump and Vance. The Record by Recorded Future

• Russia reportedly provided targeting data to Yemen’s Houthi rebels via Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, aiding their missile and drone attacks on Western ships in the Red Sea. Moscow’s assistance in attacks that are disrupting trade shows how the Kremlin is seeking to tie up the US in the Middle East Wall Street Journal

Australia

APS has run into a very human roadblock when it comes to increasing AI use
Canberra Times
Connor Pearce
In a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the use of AI across the public service, Services Australia said it supports staff using the technology. "Several initiatives are already underway, which includes specific training for senior leaders on the safe and responsible use of emerging technologies, including AI," the submission states. However, for the wider adoption of AI tools, particularly locally developed "sovereign AI", Services Australia acknowledges it will need more than just machines.

China’s dystopian surveillance operator gets eyes in Canberra
The Australian Financial Review
Mark Di Stefano
This nation’s slow-mending relations with China took a turn last week, when foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian used a regular press briefing to lash Australia’s “systemic racism” and “hate crimes”. The drive-by was off the back of Australian diplomat James Larsen calling for international observers to be allowed into Xinjiang to see how its authorities were arbitrarily locking up and detaining the Uyghur minority population.

China

China tightens its hold on minerals needed to make computer chips
The New York Times
Keith Bradsher
In a series of steps made in recent weeks, the Chinese government has made it considerably harder for foreign companies, particularly semiconductor manufacturers, to purchase the many rare earth metals and other minerals mined and refined mainly in China. As of Oct. 1, exporters must provide the authorities with detailed, step-by-step tracings of how shipments of rare earth metals are used in Western supply chains. China is also taking greater corporate ownership over the mining and production of the metals. In a deal that has received almost no attention outside the country, the last two foreign-owned rare earth refineries in China are being acquired by one of the three state-owned companies that already run the other refineries in China.

China's WeRide raises $440.5 million through US IPO, placement
Reuters
Self-driving startup WeRide raised a combined $440.5 million in its US initial public offering and a private placement on Friday, the latest Chinese firm to capitalise on improving investor sentiment and easing regulatory roadblocks. The number of Chinese companies that have pursued stock market flotations in the US had dropped in the past few years, after ride-hailing giant Didi Global was forced to delist its shares following a backlash from Chinese regulators. Beijing has since softened its stance.

China’s GPS rival secures US$1.78 billion as BeiDou system widens reach
South China Morning Post
Ralph Jennings
China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system received commitments of 12.7 billion yuan or US$1.78 billion for new projects during an event in central China’s Hunan province this week, as Beijing rallies international partnerships to compete with the US-backed GPS. The deals were “conclusively signed” during the Third International Summit on BDS Applications last week. An early warning system under Indonesia’s disaster prevention agency was one signatory, though the value of the contract was not disclosed.

Alibaba agrees to $433.5 million settlement in shareholder lawsuit
The Wall Street Journal
Connor Hart
Alibaba Group has agreed to pay $433.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit waged by shareholders that in part alleged the company hurt investors by making misstatements about its exclusivity practices. The China-based e-commerce platform company, which denied any allegations of fault, liability, wrongdoing or damages, said in a regulatory filing Friday it entered the settlement to avoid the cost and disruption of further litigation.

China is building an anti-Semitic Leviathan
Commentary
Seth Mandel
China’s role in the rise of anti-Semitism has been under-emphasized since Oct. 7, and it is getting more sophisticated and targeted in a way that guarantees Beijing has no plans to let up. China’s strategy starts with the easy one: social media. China can spread whatever internet wildfires it wants whenever it wants—but that also means Beijing has forfeited any plausible deniability of its role. What the CCP wanted users to see was a stream of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.

USA

FBI, CISA investigating China-linked telecom hacks following reports of intrusions on Trump, Harris phones
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Grieg
US agencies are investigating allegations that hackers connected to the government of China breached the systems of multiple telecommunications companies following reports that devices belonging to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, former President Donald Trump and vice presidential candidate JD Vance were targeted in a broad campaign. The statement comes weeks after the Wall Street Journal reported that a Chinese government group called Salt Typhoon breached systems at ​​AT&T, Verizon and Lumen — specifically targeting the systems US law enforcement agencies use for wiretaps.

• China sought to hack Trump and Harris campaign phones, officials say
  The Washington Post
  Joseph Menn, Josh Dawsey, Ellen Nakashima, Perry Stein and Yasmeen Abutaleb
  Chinese government hackers have tried to get inside telephones used by former president Donald Trump, Sen. JD Vance and others working on their campaign for the White House, as well as the Harris campaign, officials familiar with the matter said Friday. It could not immediately be learned whether the attempts involving the Republican candidates’ devices were successful, but the hack is believed to have compromised the phones of staffers, two of the people said. Two more people confirmed the targeting of Trump and Vance, which was first reported by the New York Times.

• US panel to probe cyber failures in massive Chinese hack of telecoms
  The Wall Street Journal
  Dustin Volz
  A US government panel plans to investigate how Chinese hackers breached several U.S. telecommunications networks, seeking to spy on prominent Americans including former President Donald Trump and associates of Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, according to people familiar with the matter. The probe by the Cyber Safety Review Board will examine the lapses that allowed the hackers, who are believed to be working for a Chinese intelligence agency, to orchestrate a series of intrusions that some Biden administration officials fear amounts to a major espionage coup against the US.

Russian activity in US election
Joint ODNI, FBI, and CISA Statement
This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans, as detailed in prior Office of the Director of National Intelligence election updates. In the lead up to election day and in the weeks and months after, the United States Intelligence Community expects Russia to create and release additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans

The new dark money: How influencers get paid big bucks to court your vote
The Washington Post
Cat Zakrzewski
Online influencers who usually traffic in makeup, crocheting or parenting are earning thousands of dollars for a single TikTok or Instagram post on behalf of groups backing US presidential candidates. Creators flooded parties’ conventions this summer, posting selfies with speakers, recording videos backstage and attending parties catering to social media. Political groups that use other forms of advertising are required to disclose their affiliations — think of the politician who intones “I approve of this message” at the end of a TV spot. But freelance online creators are under no such obligation for political posts, even though federal regulations demand they say so when promoting a commercial product.

US issues new rules on use of AI by security establishment
Financial Times
Felicia Schwartz
US President Joe Biden has announced new rules governing the use of artificial intelligence that will bar the Pentagon and intelligence communities from using the technology in ways that do not “align with democratic values”. Biden will publish the new guidelines in a national security memorandum he is due to sign on Thursday. They added that the new rules were designed to encourage the use of and experimentation with AI, while ensuring that government agencies do not employ it for activities that could, for instance, violate the right to free speech or sidestep controls on nuclear weapons.

Change Healthcare hack affects over 100 million, the largest-ever US healthcare data breach
TechCrunch
Zack Whittaker
The US Department of Health and Human Services first reported the updated number on its data breach portal on Thursday. More than 100 million individuals had their private health information stolen during the ransomware attack on Change Healthcare in February, a cyberattack that caused months of unprecedented outages and widespread disruption across the US healthcare sector. Efforts by the US government to catch the hackers behind ALPHV/BlackCat, one of the most prolific ransomware gangs today, have so far failed.

Americas

RansomHub gang allegedly behind attack on Mexican airport operator
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Grieg
A hacking group recently spotlighted by US agencies said it is responsible for an attack targeting an operator of 13 airports across Mexico. Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte announced last Friday that a cyber incident forced its IT team to turn to backup systems in an effort to continue running the airports it controls across central and northern Mexico. RansomHub operation claimed to be responsible for the incident, and threatened to leak 3 terabytes of stolen data if an undisclosed ransom is not paid.

North Asia

TSMC suspended shipments to China firm after chip found on Huawei processor
Reuters
Karen Freifeld and Fanny Potkin
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo after a chip it made was found on a Huawei AI processor, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei's Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect US national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product.

Southeast Asia

Singapore boost national supercomputing ability
OpenGov
Alita Sharon
Singapore will commit S$270 million to develop its national supercomputing infrastructure and strengthen the National Supercomputing Centre Singapore’s capabilities to support local research. The announcement was made by Mr Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Research Foundation. The grant will fund the development of the next-generation supercomputer to meet the growing demand for high-performance computing resources and unlock new research opportunities.

South & Central Asia

‘Australian first technology’ could help solve India's pollution problem
SBS
Rob Manning
Oil pollution is a major problem worldwide, scientists say hundreds of animal species like turtles, sea birds and fish are at risk of disease and poisoning. An Australian entrepreneur thinks he has a solution that could help clean polluted waterways. If it wasn’t for a lucky escape from a fatal illness, it may never have been developed.

Ukraine-Russia

Kremlin-linked hackers target Ukraine’s state, military agencies in new espionage campaign
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
A hacker group associated with a Russian intelligence agency has been targeting Ukrainian state and military services, as well as industrial enterprises, in a new espionage campaign, researchers have found. The goal of the latest attacks, attributed to APT29 hackers, was likely to steal credentials from its victims, according to a report published by AWS. In the latest campaign, first detected by Ukraine’s computer emergency response team, the threat actor used malicious emails disguised to appear as if they were sent from Amazon or Microsoft to compromise targeted devices.

Linux creator approves de-listing of several kernel maintainers associated with Russia
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Linux creator Linus Torvalds issued a statement expressing support for the removal of around a dozen Russians from the list of Linux kernel maintainers. This is not the first time Linux kernel development has been impacted since Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago. Last year, Linux refused to accept patches from a Russian maintainer who was an employee of the sanctioned company Baikal Electronics.

Battles of precise mass
Foreign Affairs
Michael C. Horowitz
At the beginning of the war in Ukraine in 2022, Ukrainian forces deployed a handful of Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 uncrewed aerial vehicles to hit Russian targets. Those precise drone strikes were a sign of things to come. More than two years into the war, the TB2 is still a fixture of Ukraine’s arsenal, but it has been joined by a plethora of other uncrewed systems.

Europe

Italy police arrest four over alleged illegal database access, source says
Reuters
Emilio Parodi
Italian police have placed four people under house arrest including Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, son of the late billionaire founder of Luxottica, as part of a probe into alleged illegal access to state databases, a source said on Saturday. A lawyer for Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio said he was "eagerly awaiting the completion of preliminary investigations to be able to prove he has nothing to do with the events in question and that charges laid against him have no basis.

UK

‘An existential threat’: anger over UK government plans to allow AI firms to scrape content
The Guardian
Michael Savage
Ministers are facing a major backlash over plans that would allow artificial intelligence companies to scrape content from publishers and artists, amid claims that the government risks “giving in” to the tech giants. The BBC is among the organisations opposing a plan that would allow tech companies to train artificial intelligence models using online content by default, unless publishers and other content creators specifically “opt out”. However, Google warned that Britain risks being left behind unless it builds more datacentres and lets tech firms use copyrighted work in their AI models.

Middle East

Russia provided targeting data for Houthi assault on global shipping
The Wall Street Journal
Benoit Faucon and Thomas Grove
Russia provided targeting data for Yemen’s Houthi rebels as they attacked Western ships in the Red Sea with missiles and drones earlier this year, helping the Iranian-backed group assault a major artery for global trade and further destabilizing the region. The Houthis, which began their attacks late last year over the Gaza war, eventually began using Russian satellite data as they expanded their strikes, said a person familiar with the matter and two European defense officials. The data was passed through members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who were embedded with the Houthis in Yemen, one of the people said.

Gender and Women in Cyber

This agency is tasked with protecting elections from cyber attacks
Fast Company
Mark Ufberg
Jen Easterly’s confirmation by the Senate in July 2021 to become director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency was about as smooth as Senate votes get. With a résumé that includes time in the US Army, on both the National Security Council and National Security Agency, and leading Morgan Stanley’s cybersecurity division, Easterly was seen as wholly qualified and appropriately nonpartisan to lead the five-year-old agency and its 3,400 employees as only its second director.

Five Indian women researchers awarded fellowships to collaborate with Australian STEM experts
The Australia Today
Amit Sarwal
Five Indian women researchers have been awarded fellowships to collaborate with Australian experts on pressing issues such as climate-resilient crops, rabies control, and sustainable fuel cell technology. These fellowships, part of the Australia India Women Researchers’ Exchange Program, were announced today during the Australia India Education and Skills Council meeting. The AIWE Program, led by the Australia India Institute and funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, aims to enhance collaboration between Australia and India while promoting gender equity in STEM fields.

Big Tech

X to undershoot revenue goals from political advertising
Financial Times
Hannah Murphy and Peter Andringa
Elon Musk’s X is on track to fall well short of its goal of bringing in $100mn in revenue from political advertising in 2024, raising just $15mn in the year to date, largely from an increasing reliance on Republicans and the Trump campaign. Last year, X chief executive Linda Yaccarino told industry figures she was aiming to make $100mn annually in political ad revenues in an election year, according to several people familiar with the projections. The company is trying to offset revenue losses caused by big brands pulling spending from the platform.

Artificial Intelligence

Researchers say an AI-powered transcription tool used in hospitals invents things no one ever said
Associated Press
Garance Burke and Hilke Schellmann
Tech behemoth OpenAI has touted its artificial intelligence-powered transcription tool Whisper as having near “human level robustness and accuracy.” But Whisper has a major flaw: It is prone to making up chunks of text or even entire sentences, according to interviews with more than a dozen software engineers, developers and academic researchers. Those experts said some of the invented text — known in the industry as hallucinations — can include racial commentary, violent rhetoric and even imagined medical treatments.

Google preps AI that takes over computer
The Information
Erin Woo
Google is developing an AI that takes over a person's web browser to complete task such as gathering research, purchasing a product or booking a flight, according to three people with direct contact of the product. The product, code-name Jarvis, is similar to Anthropic announced this week. Google plans to preview the product, also known as computing-using agent, early December.

50% of middle management role will be replaced by AI
Times of India
Trisha Tewari
A striking report by Gartner, a research and consulting firm that assists businesses to utilise technology to enhance their performance, unearths a shocking revelation that by 2026, 50% of middle management roles will be cut off and substituted by AI in 20% of companies. Such statistics can be unsettling, but they underscore the urgent need for professionals to adapt. The key to surviving in the evolving world is to learn to co-exist with this not-so-welcomed guest. Freshers and seasoned workers alike must actively imbibe a skill set that not only ensures their relevance but also helps them carve out a secure niche in this new era of work.

Unlocking the potential of brain-computer interfaces
The Wall Street Journal
Rolfe Winkler and Michael Mager
Imagine being able to control a computer with your thoughts—even more easily and quickly than using your hands. That is the goal of Precision Neuroscience. Using brain-computer interfaces, it aims to transform the lives of people with physical challenges. People whose brains are functional, but the connection between the brain and the body has been disrupted either by a disease or an injury are the first users.

Misc

A million people play this video wargame. So does the Pentagon.
The Wall Street Journal
Daniel Michaels and Juanje Gómez
Warfare is changing at a pace unseen in almost a century, as fighting in Ukraine and the Middle East shows. For military commanders, tackling that upheaval demands fast and constant adaptation. Wargames—long the realm of top brass and classified plans—let strategists test varying scenarios, using different tactics and equipment. Proponents of wargames include Tim Barrick, a retired Marine colonel who is now wargaming director at Marine Corps University. He drills students using board games and computers. In one online exercise, he pushed eight Marine majors repeatedly through the same Pacific military engagement, using a program called Command: Professional Edition.

Banks and regulators warn of rise in ‘quishing’ QR code scams
Financial Times
Stepanie Stacey
Banks and regulators are warning that QR code phishing scams — also known as “quishing” — are slipping through corporate cyber defences and increasingly tricking customers into giving up their financial details. Lenders including Santander, HSBC, and TSB have joined the UK National Cyber Security Centre and US Federal Trade Commission among others to raise concerns about a rise in fraudulent QR codes being deployed for sophisticated fraud campaigns. The new type of email scam often involves criminals sending QR codes in attached PDFs.

A Neuralink rival says Its eye implant restored vision in blind people
WIRED
Emily Mullin
For years, they had been losing their central vision—what allows people to see letters, faces, and details clearly. The light-receiving cells in their eyes had been deteriorating, gradually blurring their sight. But after receiving an experimental eye implant as part of a clinical trial, some study participants can now see well enough to read from a book, play cards, and fill in a crossword puzzle despite being legally blind. Science Corporation, the California-based brain-computer interface company developing the implant, announced the preliminary results.

Research

Russian strategic information attack for catastrophic effect
The Record by Recorded Future
Insikt Group
Russia’s strategic information attack concept focuses on non-kinetic methods to disrupt or destroy adversary national critical infrastructure during strategic conflicts. Based on Russian doctrine, it targets adversaries through "psychological attacks" (influence operations) and "technical attacks" (cyberattacks) to exact strategic damage.

Events & Podcasts

Beyond the ballot: misinformation, trust and truth in elections
The National Security Podcast
ANU National Security College
This podcast examines how electoral commissions balance public trust with the rise of technology, like AI, in elections. It discusses whether AI can enhance democratic integrity, how Australia and the UK handle threats like misinformation and foreign interference, and why maintaining independence is crucial for these commissions to safeguard democracy amidst digital challenges.

The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.