Musk’s X rejected by Supreme Court over secret DOJ Trump warrant | China hacked Verizon and AT&T | Ukrainian pleads guilty to operating Raccoon Stealer malware

Good morning. It's Wednesday 9th October.

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

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• The US Supreme Court turned away an appeal by Elon Musk’s X Corp., steering clear of a clash over a secret Justice Department search warrant for records related to Donald Trump’s social media account.  Bloomberg

• Chinese government hackers penetrated the networks of several large US-based Internet service providers and may have gained access to systems used for court-authorized wiretaps of communications networks, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. ArsTechnica

• ​Ukrainian national Mark Sokolovsky has pleaded guilty to his involvement in the Raccoon Stealer malware cybercrime operation. Bleeping Computer

Australia

National cyber security coordinator reckons electric vehicle hacking jitters justified
The Mandarin
Julian Bajkowski
Australia’s recently appointed national cyber security coordinator, Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness, has acknowledged concerns about exploitable vulnerabilities in contemporary and connected technologies like electric vehicles, smart home devices, and the Internet of Things are real and will likely have to be addressed by secure design principles and standards. As suspicion grows about the potential for sophisticated attacks on civilian infrastructure to be carried out through software and electronic hijacking, the need to have solid cyber security standards backed into software will be the way forward, says Australia’s official cyber tzar.

AFP continues to work with Thai counterparts to fight scams, organised crime
CyberDaily
David Hollingworth
Last month, Australia’s ambassador to Thailand, Dr Angela Macdonald PSM, joined senior members of the Royal Thai Police (RTP) and Australian Federal Police (AFP) to open the Australia Room at the Royal Thai Police Forensic Facility. The Australia Room, with the support of the Mekong-Australia Partnership, will serve as a forensics training hub for police scientists from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Meta and Australian banks tackle AI celeb-bait scams
Australian Computer Society
Leonard Bernardone
Has Taylor Swift ever sent you a message on Facebook? Or has Hugh Jackman perhaps slid into the comments of your Instagram post? We hate to break it to you, but you may be the target of a ‘celeb-bait’ scam. Social media and tech giant Meta has teamed up with Australia’s primary industry group for combatting financial cyber crime to tackle the droves of AI-generated celebrity scams spreading across Facebook and Instagram.

China

China hacked Verizon and AT&T, may have accessed US wiretap systems
ArsTechnica
Jon Brodkin
Chinese government hackers penetrated the networks of several large US-based Internet service providers and may have gained access to systems used for court-authorized wiretaps of communications networks, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. "People familiar with the matter" told the WSJ that hackers breached the networks of companies including Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen (also known as CenturyLink).

How e-commerce is making China’s deflation worse
The New York Times
Daisuke Wakabayashi and Claire Fu
When Lin Yunyun started selling diapers two years ago on Pinduoduo, China’s fast-growing e-commerce site, she was not prepared for the relentless nagging about prices. Pinduoduo, popular among Chinese consumers for its discounts, sent “reminders” whenever other sellers dropped their prices below hers. When Ms. Lin cut her prices, the site would temporarily promote her products — only to warn her a few days later that more reductions were needed for the site to continue driving customers to her goods.

Tech war: China advocates use of local AI chips over those from US powerhouse Nvidia
South China Morning Post
Che Pan
Chinese authorities have informally advised local companies to use domestic-made artificial intelligence (AI) chips over those from Nvidia, according to two sources familiar with the matter, as alternative suppliers on the mainland look to catch up with the US tech giant. While there is no official ban on Nvidia’s China-tailored H20 graphics processing unit (GPU), the sources said mainland AI chip users have been informed to prioritise deployment of local alternatives, including those developed by Huawei Technologies.

Hong Kong gets more cameras sparking fears of repression
Biometric Update
Masha Borak
More streets in Hong Kong are being filled with cameras with facial recognition, sparking fears over the technology’s potential for political repression. Last week, the city’s authorities announced a facial recognition system at the border with the neighboring city of Shenzhen in Mainland China. The technology will be piloted in Chung Ying Street in the fourth quarter of the year, according to The Standard. The new additions are part of a plan to install 2,000 new surveillance cameras this year with more to be added in the future.

USA

Musk’s X rejected by Supreme Court over secret DOJ Trump warrant
Bloomberg
Greg Stohr
The US Supreme Court turned away an appeal by Elon Musk’s X Corp., steering clear of a clash over a secret Justice Department search warrant for records related to Donald Trump’s social media account. X argued unsuccessfully that the company, then known as Twitter, shouldn’t have been required to turn over the information to Special Counsel Jack Smith before having a chance to challenge the government’s nondisclosure order.

Officials face antisemitic attacks over Hurricane Helene response
The Washington Post
Will Oremus and Maxine Joselow
Top officials in North Carolina and at the Federal Emergency Management Agency responding to Helene are being subjected to a flurry of antisemitic attacks, causing some of them to fear for their safety as they prepare for another hurricane to strike Florida. The attacks, which include wild claims that Jewish officials are conspiring to orchestrate the disasters, sabotage the recovery or even seize victims’ property, are being fomented largely on Elon Musk’s X.

Hurricane Helene and the ‘f*** it’ era of AI-generated slop
404 Media
Jason Koebler
By now, if you have spent any amount of time reading about the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene, it is likely that you have seen the AI-generated image above. This is the exact same type of AI-generated slop that has gone viral time and time again over the last year on Facebook and other platforms and that I have written about numerous times. Something very disheartening is happening with this particular image, however. A specific segment of the people who have seen and understand that it is AI-generated simply do not care that it is not real and that it did not happen.

Intelligence officials say US adversaries are targeting congressional races with disinformation
Toronto Star
David Klepper
It’s not just the presidential election: Foreign governments are targeting House and Senate races around the country in their effort to meddle with American democracy this election year, intelligence officials warned Monday. Russia and China have launched influence operations designed to help or hurt candidates in specific congressional races. Without giving specifics about the number of affected races, an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Monday that both countries have zeroed in on races where they believe they have a national security interest at stake.

The 30-year-old internet backdoor law that came back to bite
TechCrunch
Zack Whittaker
News broke this weekend that China-backed hackers have compromised the wiretap systems of several U.S. telecom and internet providers, likely in an effort to gather intelligence on Americans. The wiretap systems, as mandated under a 30-year-old U.S. federal law, are some of the most sensitive in a telecom or internet provider’s network, typically granting a select few employees nearly unfettered access to information about their customers, including their internet traffic and browsing histories.

Major U.S. water company hit by cyberattack
CyberScoop
Christian Vasquez
A New Jersey-based company responsible for providing water to more than 14 million people was hit by a cyberattack which appears to only resulted in the loss of billing systems, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday. American Water Works Company, which first learned of the attack on Oct. 3, said there does not appear to be any impact to water or wastewater services.

NSA investigating if Chinese hackers breached US telecoms
Bloomberg
Katrina Manson
The US is in the early stages of an investigation into potential Chinese hacking of American telecommunications companies, according to a top intelligence official. National Security Agency Director General Timothy Haugh said the NSA, along with other government agencies and some companies, “will be doing deep looks” into the cases but that it is premature to speak about specific firms.

Cognizant discriminated against non-Indian workers, US jury says
Bloomberg
Malathi Nayak
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. engaged in a pattern of discriminatory conduct toward non-Indian workers and should pay punitive damages to compensate employees who suffered harm, a US jury found. The verdict came after the IT firm failed to persuade a Los Angeles federal judge last month to toss a 2017 job bias class-action lawsuit when a previous trial ended with a deadlocked jury.

Americas

X cleared to return in Brazil after Musk bows to judge’s demands
Bloomberg
Andrew Rosati and Daniel Carvalho
Brazil’s Supreme Court authorized the return of X after Elon Musk complied with its demands, including taking down some user accounts and appointing a legal representative for the platform in the country. The company has met “all the requirements necessary for the immediate return of activities” in Brazil, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes wrote in an order issued Tuesday. “I decree the end of the suspension.”

North Asia

Korean regulator to investigate TikTok's potential privacy law violations
AJP
Kim Joo-heon
Korea's media regulator plans to investigate TikTok for potential violations of information and data protection rules, industry sources said Monday. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) is examining the social video platform's policy, which automatically requires users to consent to receiving marketing and advertising materials during sign-up, while such consent should be optional under the nation's information act.

Samsung Electronics apologises for disappointing profit as it struggles in AI chips
Reuters
Hyunjoo Jin, Heekyong Yang and Joyce Lee
Samsung Electronics warned its third-quarter profit would come in below market expectations and apologised for the disappointing performance with the tech giant lagging its rivals in supplying high-end chips to Nvidia in the booming AI market. The rare apology illustrates the challenges facing the company, which has been the world's biggest memory chipmaker for three decades but is battling growing competition in both conventional and advanced chips.

North Korean hackers employ PowerShell-based malware with serious evasion techniques
Cyber Security News
Tushar Subhra Dutta
owerShell-based malware is a form of fileless malware that exploits PowerShell to execute malicious scripts directly in memory which helps in evading AV solution detection methods. Attackers favor this approach due to PowerShell’s deep integration with Windows, which allows them to execute commands without raising alarms. The Securonix Threat Research team recently identified that North Korean hackers are actively employing PowerShell-based malware with serious evasion techniques.

NZ & Pacific Islands

NZ plays defence in US cyber war exercise
RNZ
The New Zealand Defence Force has taken part in what the US military calls a "milestone" offensive cyber military exercise. The US' so-called Cyber Flag exercises have previously all been about defensive operations. US Cyber Command said including offensive cyber operations for the first time represented a "strategic shift". New Zealand played the role of the adversary defensive cyber team, up against cyber units from its Five Eyes intelligence partners - the US, UK, Canada and Australia - last month.

Ukraine-Russia

Ukrainian pleads guilty to operating Raccoon Stealer malware
Bleeping Computer
Sergiu Gatlan
​Ukrainian national Mark Sokolovsky has pleaded guilty to his involvement in the Raccoon Stealer malware cybercrime operation. Sokolovsky and his conspirators distributed Raccoon Stealer under a MaaS (malware-as-a-service) model, allowing threat actors to rent it for $75 per week or $200 monthly. The malware steals a wide range of information from infected devices, including stored browser credentials and information, cryptocurrency wallets, credit card details, email data, and other types of sensitive data from dozens of applications.

Ukrainian hackers celebrate Putin’s birthday with two high-profile attacks
CyberScoop
AJ Vicens
A pair of hacking operations seemingly tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s birthday targeted the country’s top state media provider and the websites associated with its court and judicial system. VGTRK, the provider of top Russian state media outlets, suffered the attack late Sunday into Monday, according to Gazeta, a Russian news outlet. The attack was first announced early Monday morning by the “sudo rm-RF” hacking group on its X account.

Middle East

Water demand will soar because of wars and tech, says utility boss
Financial Times
Susannah Savage
Demand for water will soar as conflicts in the Middle East intensify, data centres consume vast amounts of resources and the global population grows, the chief executive of Spanish utility group Cox warned, as he revealed plans for a €300mn initial public offering. “We’re going to grow on water,” Nacho Moreno said, adding that he expected global water treatment needs to increase annually at a rate of 10 to 15 per cent.

Chinese laser anti-drone system spotted in Iran
The Warzone
Joseph Trevithick
Iran looks to have fielded a Chinese laser directed energy weapon intended for ‘dazzling’ drones or even destroying them in certain circumstances, as well as other new counter-drone capabilities. The Iranian government has been central in the global proliferation of uncrewed aerial systems, including kamikaze drones, but also faces many of the same kinds of threats, especially from Israel.

Big Tech

TikTok sued by 13 US states for 'harming young people's mental health'
Sky News
Thirteen US states and Washington DC are suing TikTok over claims it is harming children's mental health and not doing enough to protect them. The lawsuits allege the video-sharing app is designed to be addictive and keep teenagers glued to the screen.

Twitter acts fast on nonconsensual nudity if it thinks it’s a copyright violation
404 Media
Emanuel Maiberg
Twitter will remove nonconsensual nude images within hours as long as that media is reported for having violated someone’s copyright. If the same content is reported just as nonconsensual intimate media, Twitter will not remove it within weeks, and might never remove it at all, according to a pre-print study from researchers at the University of Michigan.

TikTok parent company ByteDance has a tool that's scraping the web 25 times faster than OpenAI
Mashable
Cecily Mauran
TikTok parent company ByteDance is amassing huge volumes of web data way faster than the other major web crawlers. ByteDance may be planning to release its own LLM, and is aggressively using its web crawler, "Bytespider," to scrape up data to train its models, Fortune reported. Bytespider showed up on the scene in April, and since then, its rate of consumption puts web scrapers from OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Anthropic to shame.

Foxconn chairman says AI investment boom ‘still has some time to go’ as language models evolve
CNBC
Ryan Browne
The boom in corporate investment into artificial intelligence infrastructure still has some way to go as large language models are continuing to evolve, according to the CEO of Foxconn a key supplier to Apple. Speaking with CNBC’s Emily Tan, Chief Executive and Chairman of Foxconn Young Liu, said that the AI boom “still has some time to go” as advanced language models from the likes of OpenAI are becoming increasingly intelligent with each new iteration that comes out.

Artificial Intelligence

Nobel Physics Prize awarded for pioneering A.I. research by 2 scientists
The New York Times
Derrick Bryson Taylor, Cade Metz and Katrina Miller
John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton received the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for discoveries that helped computers learn more in the way the human brain does, providing the building blocks for developments in artificial intelligence. The award is an acknowledgment of A.I.’s growing significance in the way people live and work.

Misc

MoneyGram says hackers stole customers’ personal information and transaction data
TechCrunch
Zack Whittaker
U.S. money transfer giant MoneyGram has confirmed that hackers stole its customers’ personal information and transaction data during a cyberattack last month. The company said in a statement Monday that an unauthorized third party “accessed and acquired” customer data during the cyberattack on September 20. The cyberattack — the nature of which remains unknown — sparked a week-long outage that resulted in the company’s website and app falling offline.

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