ASPI Report: Making Australia’s research security ecosystem work smarter | Canada orders China's Hikvision to close Canadian operations | DeepSeek faces ban from mobile app stores in Germany

Yes, your TV is probably spying on you. Your fridge, too.

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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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• To protect Australia’s sovereign research capability into the future, we need more tailored, practical and scalable approaches to research security. They must be clear in purpose, flexible enough to adapt to changing threats, and sensitive to the day-to-day realities of research collaboration. ASPI Report

• Canada ordered Chinese surveillance firm Hikvision to shut its Canadian operations over national security concerns. The move follows a multi-step security review and ongoing Western scrutiny of Hikvision’s alleged ties to rights abuses in Xinjiang. Hikvision disputes the decision as geopolitically biased. Reuters

• Germany's data protection commissioner has asked Apple and Google to remove Chinese AI startup DeepSeek from their app stores in the country due to concerns about data protection, following a similar crackdown elsewhere. Reuters

ASPI

Shifting the needle: Making Australia’s research security ecosystem work smarter
ASPI Report
Brendan Walker-Munro
Since 2018, the Australian Government has made serious strides in countering espionage and foreign interference, including introducing policy and legislative reforms aimed at protecting the research and university sector. This report outlines Australia’s comprehensive and globally leading approach to research security. However, it also makes clear that the threats that are confronting Australia are adapting, and so Australia’s approach will similarly need to adapt. The report argues that Australia’s research security posture must evolve, moving beyond the narrow lens of countering foreign interference and espionage to a broader, more integrated and risk-based framework.

• Australia's research sector faces threats from foreign actors trying to steal our secrets
  ABC Radio National Breakfast
  A new report warns that Australia's research sector is facing increasingly sophisticated threats from foreign actors, including malicious insiders posing as research students.

‘Aren’t you worried you are being brainwashed?’ The junket that left Richard’s friends on edge
The Sydney Morning Herald
Lisa Visentin and Daniel Ceng
Dr Nathan Attrill, a China specialist at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, has tracked United Front activity relating to Taiwan. He identified 67 events in 2024 that sought to cultivate Taiwanese Youth and influencers, more than double the next most targeted group of businesses and entrepreneurs. “The main themes of these sorts of events are always to emphasise a shared culture, or a shared heritage between the peoples of China and Taiwan, thereby establishing some sort of justification for why China claims to have sovereignty over Taiwan,” Attrill says.

Building Australian capability in the era of autonomous warfare
The Strategist
Malcolm Davis
Far from being a prospect for the distant future, the era of autonomous systems on (and off) the battlefield is here. Mass is back in warfare, not through much larger armies, but through growing numbers of increasingly capable low-cost drones. Australia needs to face this reality and urgently acquire anti-drone systems. This can best be realised through developing them locally as part of broader national investment in autonomous warfare systems. Ideally, this independent industrial capability must be able to be rapidly scaled to meet a growing and diverse drone threat at short notice.

Australia

AUKUS needs a third pillar: space
The Strategist
James Palmer
AUKUS is reshaping Australia’s strategic future, but its vision is incomplete. While the partnership’s first two pillars focus on submarines and advanced technologies, they rely on an often overlooked domain: space. If AUKUS is to deliver on its promise of deterrence, sovereignty and regional stability, AUKUS must urgently establish a third pillar dedicated to space.

Labor says making big tech pay for news is a ‘key priority’
The Australian Financial Review
Ronald Mizen
Labor says a new tax designed to push technology giants into paying local news outlets for their content is a key priority despite fears the Trump administration will retaliate over the laws. US President Donald Trump over the weekend suspended trade talks with Canada over its plan to impose a digital services tax on technology firms, which he called “a direct and blatant attack on our country”.

Iran cyber war: Australian businesses warned after US bombing
The Australian
Jared Lynch
Online security experts are warning companies to be on “high alert” for a wave of cyber attacks from Iran, after America’s bombing of the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities. Government and cybersecurity experts say hackers will consider their strikes are justified on the US and its allies, including Australia, and warn the conflict with Iran could ignite anti-Semitic hate crimes from “violent extremists” against perceived Jewish or pro-Israel targets.

Australian influencers warned after several accounts inadvertently promote illegal offshore bookmakers
The Guardian
Henry Belot
Social media influencers have been inadvertently promoting a gambling company that poses as an Australian outfit but is instead licensed and regulated from a tiny island off the east coast of Africa. The promotion of offshore bookmakers, which are not allowed to target Australians, has infuriated the media regulator. The Australian Communications and Media Authority has threatened influencers with fines of up to $59,400 if they continue to“promote or publicise illegal online gambling services”.

Chinese authority scams fleece international students in Australia of $5m in five months
The Guardian
Henry Belot
Scammers pretending to be Chinese authorities are increasingly targeting international students in Australia, threatening “serious trouble” and 24-hour surveillance and fleecing them of more than $5m in just five months. The scammers claim to be Chinese law enforcement officers who demand that personal information or money be transferred to them. Some accuse students of criminal wrongdoing, such as receiving fake passports or credit cards. Victims may be told their identities are being used to commit financial crimes.

China

How China is winning the military space race
The Telegraph
Allegra Mendelson
China is developing space-based military technology “breathtakingly fast”, the United States has warned. Gen Stephen Whiting, the top commander of the US Space Force, said China’s use of space to complete its “kill chain”, the process of identifying, tracking and attacking a target, had become “very concerning”. Space warfare capabilities are increasingly critical to the defence strategies of major powers.

China's humanoid robots compete with United States in 'space race of our time'
ABC News
Kai Feng and Sally Brooks
State-run media and robotics companies in China have been celebrating advances in the capabilities of humanoid robots as companies from China compete with robot developers from the United States. Beijing unveiled a national plan in 2023 to build a world-class humanoid robotics industry by 2027, part of President Xi Jinping's tech-led vision for the economy that includes electric vehicles, renewable energy and artificial intelligence.

China to pivot $50 billion chip fund to fighting US squeeze as trade war escalates
Tom's Hardware
Anton Shilov
Executives of China's Big Fund III are re-adjusting its purpose to address the most notorious gaps in the country's semiconductor industry, namely lithography tools and electronic design automation (EDA) software. Previously, it was designed to support makers of fab tools and the semiconductor ecosystem in general. This recalibration comes as the U.S. intensifies efforts to restrict the access of China-based chip designers and chipmakers to tools and technologies vital for advanced semiconductors.

China’s biggest public AI drop since DeepSeek, Baidu’s open source Ernie, is about to hit the market
CNBC
Kevin Williams
Chinese search giant Baidu has said it will make its Ernie generative AI large language model open source on June 30, a threat to OpenAI, Anthropic and its own Chinese rival DeepSeek. Tech experts are divided. Some say it won’t be another “DeepSeek” moment for the U.S. market, while others say Ernie’s release could cement China’s position as the undisputed AI leader.

USA

FBI, cybersecurity firms say a prolific hacking crew is now targeting airlines and the transportation sector
TechCrunch
Zack Whittaker
The FBI and cybersecurity firms are warning that the prolific hacking group known as Scattered Spider is now targeting airlines and the transportation sector. In a brief statement on Friday shared with TechCrunch, the FBI said it had “recently observed” cyberattacks resembling Scattered Spider to include the airline sector.

A graveyard of companies': Climate tech startups are feeling the heat from Trump 2.0
Business Insider
Riddhi Kanetkar
The Trump administration's proposed overhaul of green energy tax credits has jolted the climate tech sector — and investors and founders in the ecosystem are scrambling to make fallback plans. Cleantech stocks tumbled in May after a bill cutting tax credits for clean energy incentives passed through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

The Trump administration is building a national citizenship data system
NPR
Jude Joffe-Block and Miles Parks
The Trump administration has, for the first time ever, built a searchable national citizenship data system. The tool, which is being rolled out in phases, is designed to be used by state and local election officials to give them an easier way to ensure only citizens are voting. But it was developed rapidly without a public process, and some of those officials are already worrying about what else it could be used for.

Sinaloa cartel used phone data and surveillance cameras to find FBI informants, DOJ says
Reuters
Raphael Satter
A hacker working for the Sinaloa drug cartel was able to obtain an FBI official's phone records and use Mexico City's surveillance cameras to help track and kill the agency's informants in 2018, the U.S. Justice Department said in a report issued on Thursday. The incident was disclosed in a Justice Department Inspector General's audit, opens new tab of the FBI's efforts to mitigate the effects of "ubiquitous technical surveillance," a term used to describe the global proliferation of cameras and the thriving trade in vast stores of communications, travel, and location data.

Senate megabill stuns the clean energy industry with a new excise tax
The Wall Street Journal
Jennifer Hiller
Senate Republicans stunned the power industry over the weekend with a proposed new tax on wind and solar projects, part of a broader push to unravel incentives for renewable energy. Energy tax credits that were expanded during the Biden administration are wrapped up in a fierce Congressional fight over President Trump’s signature tax and spending bill.

North America

Canada orders China's Hikvision to close Canadian operations
Reuters
Kanishka Singh and Ismail Shakil
The Canadian government has ordered Chinese surveillance camera manufacturer Hikvision to cease operations in Canada over national security concerns, Industry Minister Melanie Joly said late on Friday. Hikvision, also known as Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co, has faced numerous sanctions and restrictions by Canada's neighbor, the United States, over the past five and a half years for the firm's dealings and the use of its equipment in China's Xinjiang region, where rights groups have documented abuses against the Uyghur population and other Muslim communities.

• Feds order Chinese tech firm to close Canadian operations over national security
  City News Canada
  Tara Deschamps
  The federal government has ordered a Chinese maker of surveillance camera systems to shutter its Canadian business and leave the country over national security concerns. Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said in a post on X late Friday that the orders issued to Hikvision Canada Inc. are the result of a national security review under the Investment Canada Act. As part of the review, Joly said the government looked at information and evidence provided by Canada’s security and intelligence community.

North Asia

Korea telecom & HEQA security deploy Quantum key distribution for enhanced cybersecurity
The Quantum Zeitgeist
Korea Telecom, a leading South Korean telecommunications provider, and HEQA Security, a specialist in quantum key distribution technologies, have initiated a collaboration to enhance KT’s secure communication infrastructure. The partnership focuses on deploying HEQA’s QKD systems – including the Sceptre Link and Sceptre Duo – within KT’s carrier-grade networks to provide resilience against future cyber threats posed by advancements in quantum computing.

I tried to hire a North Korean scammer
Christophe Tunnel Vision
A new kind of threat is quietly slipping into the remote workforce. At first glance, the job applicants look normal enough. Polished resumes. Sharp skills. Professional headshots. But behind their green screen Zoom background lies a startling secret: They’re North Korean operatives.

Southeast Asia

Russia to support Malaysia’s nuclear energy development
The Star
Russia has agreed to continue cooperating with Malaysia to build the country’s capacity in nuclear energy development, covering institutional, human capital, technical, commercial and legal aspects, says Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof. Fadillah, who is also Energy Transition and Water Trans­formation Minister, said Russia’s extensive experience in nuclear energy should be considered as Malaysia looks to enhance its future energy security.

UK eyes chip link-up with Malaysia in high-tech trade drive, says new high commissioner
Malaymail
The United Kingdom’s new High Commissioner to Malaysia, Ajay Sharma, has made strengthening bilateral cooperation a key priority, with a particular focus on the fast-growing semiconductor sector and the development of integrated chip design and advanced manufacturing.

Ukraine - Russia

AI-enhanced Iranian-made UAVs used by Russia in Ukraine signal escalating tech arms race
iHLS
The ongoing 3-year war between Ukraine and Russia is deeply identified with drone excursions, with one notable UAV being used by Russian forces – the Iranian Shahed UAV, also known by its Russian name – the Geran 2. Now, a new type of unmanned aerial vehicle that was recently downed during Russian attacks on Ukraine has raised alarms among defense analysts due to its sophisticated capabilities.

Europe

DeepSeek faces ban from Apple, Google app stores in Germany
Reuters
Hakan Ersen and Miranda Murray
Germany's data protection commissioner has asked Apple and Google to remove Chinese AI startup DeepSeek from their app stores in the country due to concerns about data protection, following a similar crackdown elsewhere. Commissioner Meike Kamp said in a statement on Friday that she had made the request because DeepSeek illegally transfers users' personal data to China.

Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features
The Guardian
Miranda Bryant
The Danish government is to clamp down on the creation and dissemination of AI-generated deepfakes by changing copyright law to ensure that everybody has the right to their own body, facial features and voice. The Danish government said on Thursday it would strengthen protection against digital imitations of people’s identities with what it believes to be the first law of its kind in Europe.

EU regulators enforce broader crackdown against giant tech firms
Cryptorank
Nellius
Meta Platforms has accused EU antitrust regulators of moving the goalposts as it works to comply with a directive targeting its pay-or-consent business model. The US tech giant claims the European Commission has unfairly singled out its approach, despite Meta’s efforts to engage in constructive dialogue and implement substantial changes. A Meta spokesperson speculated that the variety of options they provide to people in the EU not only meets the EU’s regulations but also exceeds them.

Europe is recruiting academics disenchanted with America
The Wall Street Journal
Noemie Bisserbe and Nidhi Subbaraman
French President Emmanuel Macron has a message for American academics like Nathan Perl-Rosenthal: Consider France instead of the U.S. Perl-Rosenthal, a history professor at the University of Southern California, met Macron at a conference in Paris in May, weeks after the U.S. government cancelled a grant funding his research on maritime history. Perl-Rosenthal was impressed by Macron’s commitment to defend l’esprit critique and academic freedom.

Elon Musk’s feud with Trump could mean stronger EU Big Tech enforcement, experts say
Euronews
Anna Desmarais
Now that Elon Musk is no longer a special employee of the Trump administration, experts say there could be greater enforcement of the Digital Services Act against Musk’s social media platform, X. The fallout between US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, along with the expansion of the Digital Services Act on July 1st, could make the law easier for the European Commission to enforce. Experts told Euronews Next that while Musk worked as a special employee at the Department of Government Efficiency, it is possible that he was perceived as an official voice of the administration.

UK

Dawn of the drone age: how agri-tech is boosting production and morale
The Guardian
Joanna Partridge
Instagram-inspired gadgets to spread or spray crops are gaining traction on UK farms but require deep pockets. “The idea came from an Instagram video,” says Tom Amery, looking admiringly at one of three huge drones he has bought to help grow watercress on a Hampshire farm.

Africa

African technology & innovation institutes holds African forum to drive continent’s tech-led industrial revolution
Daily Post
Daily Post Staff
The African Technology and Innovation Institutes is set to hold the inaugural summit of its flagship initiative, the African Industrial Forum, set for Thursday, July 10, 2025. Founded by Nigeria’s Professor Rose-Margaret Ekeng-Itua, the world’s first Black woman to earn a PhD in Cybernetics, the virtual forum will convene policymakers, industry titans, academics, and youth leaders to accelerate Africa’s transformation into a global manufacturing powerhouse through smart technologies.

Middle East

High-tech is enlisting: Defense becomes Israel’s hottest tech sector
Y Net News
Moran Chamsi
A series of geopolitical developments during the past few years, both in Israel and around the world, has significantly elevated the status of Israeli defense companies. This is evident not only in soaring revenues and rising company valuations, but also — and no less importantly — in their growing appeal to local high-tech professionals.

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia extend ties in AI and semiconductor sectors
Ary News
Web Desk
In a high-level meeting between Federal IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja and Saudi Minister for Communications and IT Eng. Abdullah Al-Swaha, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have reiterated their commitment to proceeding with Pakistan-Saudi tech collaboration. Both nations discussed the initiation of the Pakistan Digital Corridor to link with China and Central Asia, planning to boost global digital connectivity.

How AI shaped the Iran-Israel 12-day war
The Daily Star
The 12-day Iran-Israel conflict from June 13 to 24, 2025, will be remembered not for its duration or casualties alone, but for how Artificial Intelligence moved from supportive background tool to the centrepiece of an AI-enhanced command-and-control architecture. These systems—employed in real-time intelligence processing, target prioritisation, and digital influence campaigns—reshaped the tempo and character of warfare.

Big Tech

It’s known as ‘The List’—and it’s a secret file of AI geniuses
The Wall Street Journal
Ben Cohen and Berber Jin and Meghan Bobrowsky
All over Silicon Valley, the brightest minds in AI are buzzing about “The List,” a compilation of the most talented engineers and researchers in artificial intelligence that Mark Zuckerberg has spent months putting together. Lucas Beyer works in multimodal vision-language research and describes himself as “a scientist dedicated to the creation of awesomeness.” Yu Zhang specialises in automatic speech recognition and barely has an online presence besides his influential papers.

• Mark Zuckerberg’s secret list of top AI talent to poach has tech world atwitter
  The Guardian
  Lauren Aratani
  Mark Zuckerberg reportedly spent months putting together a list of the top AI engineers and researchers across the globe, preparing to offer potential recruits lucrative compensation packages in Meta’s attempt to poach AI talent from key competitors. Silicon Valley has been talking for weeks about the Meta CEO’s quest to attract top AI talent, including by offering pay packages worth up to $100m.

• Meta taps four OpenAI researchers for Superintelligence team
  Bloomberg
  Mark Gurman and Kurt Wagner
  Meta Platforms Inc. has hired four notable artificial intelligence researchers from OpenAI, ramping up a hiring spree for its Superintelligence group. The company on Friday signed on Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, Shengjia Zhao and Hongyu Ren, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be named discussing unannounced hires.

Google rolls out Gemini for schools and students amidst concerns for the future of education across the globe
TechRadar
Wayne Williams
When calculators first entered classrooms, many worried they would weaken students’ math skills. The arrival of the internet and smartphones, brought similar fears about plagiarism and distraction - and now, AI tools are taking their turn in the spotlight. With the rollout of Google’s Gemini app to all Google Workspace for Education users, including students under 18, those old concerns are resurfacing in a new form.

:( Microsoft’s ‘blue screen of death’ is going away
The New York Times
Sopan Deb
For millennials, blue can be a significant color. It is associated with clues left by a well-meaning dog in our youth. Songs about a little guy that lives in a blue world. Or the rage-inducing abject failure of the Windows computer in front of us. In other words, the Blue Screen of Death.

The people who clean up your TikTok feed are starting to fight back
Rest of World
Kaya Genç
TikTok content moderators in Turkey are speaking out about traumatic working conditions, including exposure to graphic content, long hours, and a lack of mental health support. Efforts to unionize have been followed by legal roadblocks and layoffs, despite initial government approval. Moderators in Kenya, India, Poland, and elsewhere are also trying to organize for better protections in an industry increasingly reliant on outsourced labor.

Artificial Intelligence

OpenAI taps Google's AI chips: a strategic shift in the tech alliance landscape
Open Tools
Mackenzie Ferguson
In a surprising move, OpenAI has adopted Google's Tensor Processing Units to power its products such as ChatGPT, marking its first significant departure from relying solely on Nvidia chips. This strategic decision aims to diversify computing resources and potentially cut costs. OpenAI rents the TPUs through Google Cloud, reflecting a noteworthy partnership between two industry giants while also potentially shaking up the competitive dynamics in the AI hardware sector.

Facebook is asking to use Meta AI on photos in your camera roll you haven’t yet shared
TechCrunch
Sarah Perez
Facebook is asking users for access to their phone’s camera roll to automatically suggest AI-edited versions of their photos — including ones that haven’t been uploaded to Facebook yet. The feature is being suggested to Facebook users when they’re creating a new Story on the social networking app. Here, a screen pops up and asks if the user will opt into “cloud processing” to allow creative suggestions.

Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg want to control AI by crushing ChatGPT’s father
Gizmodo
Luc Olinga
The AI race was never going to be polite. But what’s unfolding in Silicon Valley in 2025 looks more like Succession meets Black Mirror than a traditional tech rivalry. Forget code. This is about power, control, and a rapidly closing window to dominate the most transformative technology in history. At the center of the fight: three men, three worldviews, and one finish line.

The AI backlash keeps growing stronger
WIRED
Reece Rogers
Before Duolingo wiped its videos from TikTok and Instagram in mid-May, social media engagement was one of the language-learning app’s most recognizable qualities. Its green owl mascot had gone viral multiple times and was well known to younger users—a success story other marketers envied. But, when news got out that Duolingo was making the switch to become an “AI-first” company, planning to replace contractors who work on tasks generative AI could automate, public perception of the brand soured.

Why is ChatGPT telling people to Email me?
The New York Times
Kashmir Hill
Journalists depend on tipsters: people who observe something noteworthy, or experience it, and alert the media. Some of the technology investigations I’ve worked hardest on in the past — on facial recognition technology and online slander — started with tips in my inbox. But my most recent article is the first time that the tipster that wanted to alert me was a generative A.I. chatbot.

Gender & Women in Cyber

The Digital Convergence of Hindu Nationalism and the Manosphere
CSOH
Antara Chakraborthy
In May 2025, several Indian women journalists filed a defamation suit against a popular digital political commentator and far-right Hindu nationalist influencer, accusing him of launching an online tirade of sexist slurs. The petition argues that the slurs “directly attack [their] dignity as women and professionals.” This incident is emblematic of a toxic culture in the online space in India where disagreements—be they political or social—when voiced by women, are increasingly met with digital aggression, gendered abuse, and threats of violence.

Misc

Yes, your TV is probably spying on you. Your fridge, too. Here’s what they know.
The New York Times
Rachel Cericola, Jon Chase and Lee Neikirk
This is not a conspiracy theory: Many of the devices living in your home are quietly collecting towering heaps of information about you. Your TV, your doorbell, your security system, your thermostat, even your earbuds — all of them are involved. Some of that data may be shared, analyzed, and then sold to the highest bidder, hundreds of times a day, by organizations you’ve never heard of.

Porn ban warning for millions of iPhone and Android users
Forbes
Zak Doffman
There’s a new warning for smartphone users. Free apps with hundreds of millions of installs are now putting users, devices and data at risk. And this problem is about to get worse, with millions more certain to install those apps within weeks as a new porn ban goes into effect, putting more iPhone and Android users in danger.

Events & Podcasts

Stop the World: Canadian defence expert Raquel Garbers on NATO defence spending and Chinese economic warfare
ASPI
In a huge week of international news, NATO members agreed to lift their defence spending to 5 percent of GDP. Today’s guest, Canadian career defence and intelligence official Raquel Garbers, has some strikingly clear views on the value of the spending increases but also the way they need to be paired with a stronger focus on economic warfare by hostile states, particularly China. Raquel, who is currently a visiting executive at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, talks about the rationale for more defence investment, Canadian and Australian public opinion about military spending, the two countries’ strategic circumstances and how Donald Trump plays into Canadian thinking.

The Sydney Dialogue 2025
ASPI
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute is pleased to announce the Sydney Dialogue, the world’s premier policy summit for critical, emerging and cyber technologies, will return on 4-5 December. Now in its fourth year, the dialogue attracts the world’s top thinkers, innovators and policymakers, and focusses on the most pressing issues at the intersection of technology and security. TSD has become the place where new partnerships are built among governments, industry and civil society, and where existing partnerships are deepened.

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