Head of Telegram arrested in Paris | State-linked Chinese entities accessing US chips via Amazon cloud services | Islamophobic disinformation in Bangladesh underminig interim government
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The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest focuses on the topics we work on, including cybersecurity, critical technologies, foreign interference & disinformation.
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Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris as part of a preliminary police investigation into allegedly allowing a wide range of crimes due to a lack of moderators on Telegram and a lack of cooperation with police. Reuters
State-linked Chinese entities are using cloud services provided by Amazon, opens new tab or its rivals to access advanced U.S. chips and artificial intelligence capabilities evading U.S. regulations. Reuters
Social media posts and reports in a number of mainstream Indian media outlets said that “Islamists” were targeting Hindus in violent communal attacks.
However, fact-checkers in India and Bangladesh swung into action and debunked disinformation regarding most of their claims. South China Morning Post
Australia
Albanese government ‘concerned’ over tech sector’s weak response to scams and fraud
The Australian
David Ross
The Albanese government is preparing to force social media platforms to obey mandatory codes of conduct after warning the technology sector’s voluntary approach to combating scams and frauds may be falling short of expectations. Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones told The Australian he was concerned about the Australian technology sector’s voluntary code of practice to deal with scams and frauds, which was modelled on the United Kingdom’s version. Mr. Jones said the tech sector had not delivered a “meaningful uplift” in its response to scams and frauds on social media platforms.
Scam-busting SMS ID register to roll out
InnovationAus
Justin Hendry
A new register designed to block SMS messages from scammers that spoof legitimate senders will be rolled out across the economy after enabling legislation passed through federal Parliament. But the federal government remains undecided on whether the SMS Sender ID Register will be mandatory despite widespread in principle support from industry during a consultation earlier this year.
Forrest scores win in US Facebook scam ads case
The Australian Financial Review
Paul Smith
Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest has scored an important win over US tech giant Meta in a US court, after a Californian judge threw out its attempts to avoid a trial over scam cryptocurrency advertisements featuring the Rich Lister, which have cost Australians millions of dollars.
Google to help build cyber protection for Australian infrastructure
iTnews
Byron Kaye
Google and Australia's national science agency CSIRO will join hands to develop digital tools that automatically detect and fix software vulnerabilities for operators of critical infrastructure, seeking to combat a surge in cyberattacks. The software for organisations such as hospitals, defence bodies and energy suppliers will be customised to be in line with Australia's regulatory environment.
‘We don’t stop for red lights’: drone deliveries take off as Australian regulators prepare for air traffic boom
The Guardian
Elias Visontay
Widespread reliance on drones may seem years off but industries from food delivery to agriculture are already putting the unmanned aerial vehicles to work across Australia. As regulators prepare for new uncrewed traffic, technology companies are exploring ways around connection black spots, to prevent drones dropping out of the sky.
Aussie regulator wins case against Kraken crypto exchange operator on distribution flaws
Reuters
Australia's Federal Court ruled on Friday that the operator of the Kraken crypto exchange failed to comply with the design and distribution obligations for its margin trading product, Australia's corporate regulator said. Bit Trade Pty is the operator of the Kraken crypto exchange, one of world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, in Australia. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission initiated civil proceedings against Bit Trade alleging that Bit Trade failed to make a target market determination for the product before offering it to customers, despite being notified of concerns.
China
Exclusive: Chinese entities turn to Amazon cloud and its rivals to access high-end US chips, AI
Reuters
Eduardo Baptista, Fanny Potkin and Karen Freifeld
State-linked Chinese entities are using cloud services provided by Amazon, opens new tab or its rivals to access advanced U.S. chips and artificial intelligence capabilities that they cannot acquire otherwise, recent public tender documents showed. Providing access to such chips or advanced AI models through the cloud, however, is not a violation of U.S. regulations since only exports or transfers of a commodity, software or technology are regulated.
China's robot makers chase Tesla to deliver humanoid workers
Reuters
Qiaoyi Li and Kevin Krolicki
China dominates the market for electric vehicles. Now it's chasing Tesla, opens new tab in the race to build battery-powered humanoids expected to replace human workers building EVs on assembly lines. At the World Robot Conference this week in Beijing, over two dozen Chinese companies showed off humanoid robots designed to work in factories and warehouses, with even more displaying the made-in-China precision parts needed to build them.
Why China’s universities are ditching their engineering programs
Sixth Tone
Fan Yiying
China’s universities are rapidly moving to reallocate their academic resources in line with government priorities, with 19 institutions so far looking to suspend or discontinue a total of 99 degree programs this year. The moves appear to be a response to a higher education reform plan issued by several central government departments last April, which set a target of adjusting 20% of the country’s university degree programs by 2025. That strategy called on universities to set up new courses aligned with emerging technologies, industries, and business models, while phasing out programs that are deemed not to contribute to China’s economic and social development.
China seen using 'white hat' hackers to boost cyberattack capability
Nikkei Asia
Atsushi Teraoka
China is increasingly suspected of making "white hat" hackers, who are usually employed to find weaknesses in cybersecurity, complicit in cyberattacks, accelerating the country's offensive efforts in the field by effectively mobilizing its world-class private hackers. One of the responsibilities of white hats working for security companies and other organizations is bug hunting -- in which they discover vulnerabilities, report them to the developer, and receive compensation.
USA
Biden, Trump associates targeted by Iranian hackers on WhatsApp, Meta says
POLITICO
Joshua Posaner
Social media giant Meta has blamed an Iranian hacker group for attempts to access the WhatsApp accounts of a series of diplomatic and political figures in the United States. The company — which runs Facebook and Instagram along with messaging service WhatsApp — said the known APT42 group was to blame, adding that WhatsApp had suspended a small number of accounts to counter the hacking attempt. “This malicious activity originated in Iran and attempted to target individuals in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the United States and the U.K.,” the company said in a statement.
Iranian, Russian and Chinese hackers are targeting the upcoming US election at an ever increasing pace
ABC News
Brianna Morris-Grant
As the 2024 US presidential election creeps ever closer, hackers in Iran, Russia and China are stepping up their efforts to interfere in the outcome. The US intelligence community blamed Iranian actors this week for the hack of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Vice-President Kamala Harris's presidential campaign also stated it had been the target of foreign hackers.
How Kamala Harris is winning back California tech donors
POLITICO
Catherine Allen
Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is drawing from a reservoir of her former big-dollar donors who hadn’t given when President Joe Biden was leading the ticket. And they represent major players from a key homegrown industry for the California native: tech. It’s a sector that had seemed to be largely supporting Republican nominee Donald Trump before Biden exited the race. Now, there’s a significant segment of tech leaders and employees who are backing Harris.
NIST hands off post-quantum cryptography work to cyber teams
Dark Reading
Becky Bracken
Quantum computing is expected to emerge in earnest a decade from now, with the power to crack existing public key infrastructure cryptography schemes like RSA and the Advanced Encryption Standard. And with NIST's recent release of three final quantum encryption standards, security teams are now racing against that 10-year clock to update vulnerable cryptography before quantum algorithms go into production that are capable of crushing them and unlocking reams of secret data.
Trump promotes family’s new crypto platform, ‘The Defiant Ones’
CNBC
MacKenzie Sigalos
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday promoted a soon-to-launch, Trump Organization crypto platform, “The DeFiant Ones” to his 7.5 million followers on Truth Social. “For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites,” Trump wrote. “It’s time we take a stand — together.” The post marks the first time the Republican nominee for president has used his personal platform to promote the as yet unactivated digital bank.
Southeast Asia
AWS launches infrastructure region in Malaysia
Financial Times
Amazon Web Services, an Amazon.com, Inc. company, today announced the launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Region. Starting today, developers, startups, entrepreneurs, and enterprises, as well as government, education, and nonprofit organizations, will have greater choice for running their applications and serving end users from AWS data centers located in Malaysia. As part of its long-term commitment, AWS is planning to invest an estimated $6.2 billion in Malaysia through 2038.
ASEAN, Japan advised to join hands for better cyber resilience
Vietnam Plus
ASEAN member countries and Japan are best-placed to work together to boost cyber resilience given the spectre of rising cyber threats in the region, according to a recent article published by the Singaporean-based ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s site fulcrum.sg. The article cited ASEAN member states’ report which shows that they saw a 28% surge in cyberattacks last year. In Japan, there has also been a continued increase in cyber threats, from 150 cases in 2021 to 230 in 2022.
Forging a dynamic and people-centred ASEAN through Connectivity
ASEAN
Lao PDR hosted the 15th ASEAN Connectivity Symposium in Luang Prabang, under the theme Enhancing Connectivity for Resilient, Innovative, Dynamic, and People-Centred ASEAN in collaboration with the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia and the ASEAN Secretariat. The Symposium was opened with a keynote address by Thongphane Savanphet, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lao PDR where he highlighted the significance of connectivity in ASEAN, emphasising its role in fostering a shared sense of purpose and identity. Enhanced connectivity is crucial for unlocking economic potential, promoting resilience, and ensuring no one is left behind. Investing in both physical and digital infrastructure is key to overcoming geographical limitations and fostering inclusive growth.
Vietnam partners with Japan for smart, sustainable agriculture
OpenGov Asia
Samaya Dharmaraj
Vietnam is taking a significant step toward the sustainable and smart transformation of its agriculture sector by partnering with Japan to enhance technological innovation and digitalisation in farming practices. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam emphasised the importance of this collaboration during a meeting with Japan’s Vice Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, Senator Maitachi Shoji, in Tokyo. The focus is on developing a digitalisation system for managing the supply chain of Vietnam’s ambitious project to cultivate 1 million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice in the Mekong Delta by 2030.
South & Central Asia
Misinformation about Hindus being targeted in Bangladesh fuels Islamophobia fears
South China Morning Post
Shaikh Azizur Rahman
Since the sudden ouster of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina three weeks ago, news and social media in India have been filled with reports about Hindus in Bangladesh being targeted for attack by Muslims, with some even claiming an ongoing “Hindu genocide” is taking place in the country.
Nepal lifts its ban on TikTok imposed for disrupting social harmony
Associated Press
Binaj Gurubacharya
Nepal’s government decided Thursday to lift the ban it imposed on the video-sharing app TikTok last November for disrupting “social harmony." The decision to lift restrictions was made by the government during a regular cabinet meeting Thursday, the state-run National News Agency quoted Information Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung as saying. The agency also said that it was under the initiative of the Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, who issued a directive saying that all social networking sites should be treated equally.
Ukraine-Russia
Russia calls for restrictions on surveillance cameras, dating apps in cities under attack from Ukraine
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Russian authorities are warning residents in regions at risk of Ukrainian offensives to stop using surveillance cameras and dating apps out of fear that they could be used for intelligence gathering. According to a statement from Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ukrainian forces are remotely connecting to unprotected CCTV cameras, "viewing everything from private yards to roads and highways of strategic importance."
Europe
Dutch cabinet bans phones in meetings over espionage fears
POLITICO
Pieter Haeck
The Netherlands' new team of ministers are forced to keep their phones and smartwatches in a vault when meeting to discuss state affairs, its prime minister and former spy Dick Schoof said Friday. Smartphones, tablets and other connected devices like smartwatches have to be put in a vault during official meetings including the weekly Council of Ministers, Schoof told public broadcaster NOS.
Android malware used to steal ATM info from customers at three European banks
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
A strain of malware built for Android devices was used by cybercriminals to rob three Czech banks in a campaign uncovered over the last nine months. Researchers from Slovakia-based cybersecurity firm ESET named the malware NGate and said it was used by cybercriminals as part of a larger string of attacks where hackers set up malicious banking applications that were nearly identical to legitimate European ones in an effort to steal user data in an elaborate phishing scheme.
Africa
Kenya's Safaricom urges new requirements for satellite providers like Starlink
Reuters
Aaron Ross
Kenya's biggest telecoms company Safaricom has urged regulators to consider requiring satellite internet providers such as Elon Musk's Starlink to partner with local mobile network operators. Starlink, a unit of SpaceX, operates in several African countries but has faced regulatory challenges registering in others. It launched in Kenya in July last year. The company has since rolled out increasingly competitive pricing options and plans that allow Kenyans to rent the required hardware rather than having to purchase it for more than $350.
Big Tech
Telegram founder Durov arrested in France, source says
Reuters
Ingrid Melander and Guy Faulconbridge
Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late on Saturday and placed in custody, a police source said. The arrest of the 39-year-old technology billionaire prompted on Sunday a warning from Moscow to Paris that he should be accorded his rights and criticism from X owner Elon Musk who said that free speech in Europe was under attack.
Bain is said to plan $500 million IPO for chipmaker Kioxia
Bloomberg
Julia Fioretti
Bain Capital is pressing ahead with its revived plans for an initial public offering of chipmaker Kioxia Holdings Corp. that could raise about $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter. At $500 million, Kioxia’s IPO would be the biggest in Japan since KKR & Co.-backed semiconductor equipment company Kokusai Electric Corp.’s $1.5 billion listing in October last year.
Artificial Intelligence
Japanese chipmaker Kioxia aims to list in October amid AI boom
Nikkei Asia
Japanese chipmaker Kioxia Holdings filed an application to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Friday, Nikkei has learned, aiming to go public in October amid soaring appetite for semiconductors from the artificial intelligence sector. The company is expected to achieve a market capitalization of over 1.5 trillion yen, marking what would be the bourse's largest initial public offering so far this year.
AI analysed 1,500 policies to cut emissions. These ones worked
Nature
Xiaoying You
Researchers used machine learning to analyse roughly 1,500 climate policies and identify those that have dramatically reduced carbon emissions. Their study, published in Science today, found that policies that combine several tools are more effective in slashing emissions than are stand-alone measures1. The analysis identified 63 interventions in 35 countries that led to significant reductions in emissions, cutting them by 19% on average.
Misc
Sextortion guides and manuals found on Telegram and YouTube
The Guardian
Libby Brooks
Detailed written manuals and video guides to financially motivated sexual extortion – commonly known as sextortion – are available freely online, with criminals offering specialist and tailored tuition for further payment. The guides can be found on platforms including YouTube and Telegram. Adam Priestley, a senior manager for the National Crime Agency, said: “Written manuals and video guides, often titled ‘sextortion guides’, are available on platforms such as YouTube.
Qilin ransomware now steals credentials from Chrome browsers
Bleeping Computer
Bill Toulas
The Qilin ransomware group has been using a new tactic and deploys a custom stealer to steal account credentials stored in Google Chrome browser. The credential-harvesting techniques has been observed by the Sophos X-Ops team during incident response engagements and marks an alarming change on the ransomware scene.
Start-up incubator Y Combinator backs its first weapons firm
Financial Times
George Hammond
Y Combinator, the San Francisco start-up incubator that launched Airbnb, Reddit, Stripe and Coinbase, is backing a weapons company for the first time, entering a sector it has previously shunned. Ares Industries, has pitched its “low-cost cruise missiles” as suited for use in a potential war between the US and China in the Taiwan Strait. The start-up claims that US weapons stockpiles would be exhausted within weeks in such a conflict, and that “recent conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have shown that our weapons are too large, too expensive for the wars of today”.
Events & Podcasts
The Sydney Dialogue
ASPI
The Sydney Dialogue was created to help bring together governments, businesses and civil society to discuss and progress policy options. We will forecast the technologies of the next decade that will change our societies, economies and national security, prioritising speakers and delegates who are willing to push the envelope. We will promote diverse views that stimulate real conversations about the best ways to seize opportunities and minimise risks.
Stop the World: TSD Summit Sessions: Artificial intelligence and the value of data with Jennifer Zhu Scott
ASPI
In today’s episode of The Sydney Dialogue Summit Sessions, Alex Caples speaks to Jennifer Zhu Scott, globally recognised AI expert and Founding Partner of IN. Capital, about artificial intelligence and the changing value of data. They discuss how rapid tech advancements have seen debates about how to keep governments out of cyberspace and technology turn into calls for governments to step in to regulate the online world.
Jobs
ASPI Research Internship
ASPI
Have you recently completed your studies (undergraduate or postgraduate) and want to develop your expertise in defence, foreign and national security policy, including in areas such as strategic competition, defence, deterrence, foreign interference, technology, and security? Do you want to inform the public and government on the critical strategic choices facing Australia and learn what it takes to be a professional analyst? If so, apply for the ASPI Research Internship Program! Please note that this is a paid internship program. Applications will close at midnight Friday 27 September 2024.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.