Australia senate inquiry flooded by submissions after Musk tweet | Google blocked pro-China fake news websites | Stablecoin boom in Africa
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Australian Senate inquiry into the government's proposed laws to ban children from social media has been inundated with about 15,000 submissions after Elon Musk tweeted about the government's bill, amplifying it to millions of X users. ABC News
Google revealed it has blocked over 1,000 sites from Google News and Google Discover since 2022. The takedowns were a response to what the search giant deemed deceptive behavior, and out of editorial transparency. The Register
There is high demand for stablecoins — crypto tokens designed to track the dollar or other traditional currencies one to one — in Africa, which startups benefit from. Bloomberg
ASPI
Chinese electric vehicles are a rolling security threat
The Strategist
Justin Bassi and Tilla Hoja
Senate estimates earlier this month heard the remarkable revelation that Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has had to take ‘precautions’ based on warnings from his own department to protect himself and the nation’s sensitive information from Burke’s own Chinese-made electric car. The risks with such cars, according to Home Affairs officials, might include having data collected from the owner’s phone if it were connected to the car, voice calls eavesdropped on, image collection from the car’s external cameras and geolocation tracking—meaning that if Burke drove to a sensitive government location the car’s manufacturer would be able to see.
The World
Geopolitical strife drives increased ransomware activity
Computer Weekly
Alex Scroxton
Geopolitical motivations, like the US election, showed that nation states such as Russia continue to have heavy influence on global volumes of cyber attacks. The data shows that we are witnessing changing dynamics of the threat landscape, with nation states and organised crime groups increasingly collaborating. For this month, broken out by geography, the North America region – which also includes countries like Canada and Mexico – accounted for 272, or 56%, of the recorded ransomware attacks. In comparison, 97 attacks, 20%, victimised organisations in Europe, so all in all, over three-quarters of all ransomware attacks seen last month targeted these two regions
Australia
Social media age ban inquiry flooded with 15,000 submissions after Elon Musk weighs in
ABC News
Maani Truu
A rushed inquiry into the government's proposed laws to ban children and young teenagers from social media has been inundated with about 15,000 submissions, despite having only been open for 24 hours. The huge response came after Elon Musk weighed into the debate, sending a social media post from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announcing the bill into the timelines of millions of X users. Underneath Mr Musk's post, Australian senator Pauline Hanson shared a link to the inquiry's webpage, which included details of how to make a submission. Mr Musk's post was viewed at least 24.4 million times and reposted by 16,000 users, according to the social media platform.
Australia's Arafura urges more speed on rare earths supply shift
Nikkei Asia
Shaun Turton
Australia's Arafura is looking to become one of only a handful of companies outside of China capable of processing rare earth minerals into the materials that underpin everything from smartphones and wind turbines to electric vehicles. But CEO Darryl Cuzzubbo says that if governments truly want to shake China's grip on the supply chain, they need to move faster.
Manila cyberscam raid uncovers up to 5000 Australian victims and an intelligence goldmine
The Australian
Amanda Hodge
The Australian Federal Police has uncovered an ‘intelligence goldmine’ from a cyber scam centre which authorities fear may have targeted as many as 5000 Australian men through online dating websites. The AFP says the action represents a significant milestone for Operation Firestorm, launched this year to disrupt offshore cybercriminals targeting Australians, because it is the first time Australian investigators have been able to access a scam centre compound. AFP had also contributed to raids on cyberscam compounds in eastern Europe, including Serbia where four call centres early last year were found to have scammed some €350m from 90,000 victims worldwide, including 34,000 Australians.
China
Google blocked 1,000-plus pro-China fake news websites from its search results
The Register
Laura Dobberstein
Google’s Threat Intelligence Group has blocked a network China-related firms from its search results for operating fake news services and websites. "Collectively these firms bulk-create and operate hundreds of domains that pose as independent news websites from dozens of countries, but are in fact publishing thematically similar, inauthentic content that emphasizes narratives aligned to the political interests of the People’s Republic of China," declared Google. It's named the network “Glassbridge” and asserted it’s comprised of entities operating in concert while pretending to be independent.
Huawei to launch smartphone with own software in latest sign of China-US splintering
Financial Times
Ryan McMorrow and Nian Liu
China’s national technology champion Huawei is poised to launch its first flagship phone that can run its own apps on a fully homegrown operating system, in the latest sign of how technology is splintering into competing US and Chinese ecosystems. The Mate 70 smartphone set to be released on Tuesday will feature HarmonyOS Next, which Huawei hopes to establish as a third major mobile operating system alongside Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. It is the latest demonstration that US sanctions designed to enfeeble the company have instead cemented Huawei’s status as a technological juggernaut.
Support or regulate? Beijing seeks delicate balance towards its platform economy
South China Morning Post
Mandy Zuo
Chinese authorities have voiced support for the platform economy, while also tightening regulation on tech operators, with analysts saying Beijing is seeking to strike a delicate balance between exerting the economic significance of the sector and curbing online disorder. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, on Monday urged more effort to turn online traffic into economic growth. It came two days after Premier Li Qiang pledged more support for platform companies, acknowledging their role in empowering the real economy and developing new productivity at a State Council meeting. But on Sunday, the nation’s cyberspace watchdog unveiled a three-month campaign targeting system providers for recommendation algorithm issues that have disrupted the industry.
Have China’s plans for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier taken another step forward?
South China Morning Post
Seong Hyeon Choi
Reports that China has built a prototype nuclear reactor for its next aircraft carrier have prompted renewed focus on its supposed long-term ambition to project naval power far from its shores.Carriers powered by nuclear reactors do not need to refuel as often as conventionally powered ones. This gives them much greater range and also allows them to carry more fuel and weapons for their aircraft. Associated Press reported that China had built a prototype reactor for a large surface warship on a mountain site outside the city of Leshan, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
USA
How Trump’s tariffs could drive up the cost of batteries, EVs, and more
MIT Technology Review
James Temple
President-elect Donald Trump’s “America First” plan to enact huge tariffs on imported goods threatens to jack up the cost and slow down the development of US cleantech projects. On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to enact 10% to 20% across-the-board tariffs on all overseas products, 60% to 100% tariffs on Chinese goods, and 25% to 100% tariffs on products from Mexico—the last in part to prevent the flow of goods from Chinese companies setting up manufacturing plants there and in part to force Mexico to halt migration into the US.
US finalises awards to BAE Systems, Rocket Lab for semiconductor chips
Reuters
David Shepardson
The U.S. Commerce Department said on Monday it is finalising nearly $60 million in government subsidies for BAE Systems to build chips used in jets and satellites, and for Rocket Lab to build compound semiconductors used in satellites and spacecraft. The department is finalising $35.5 million to BAE to quadruple production in New Hampshire for key semiconductor chips used in F-35 fighter jets and commercial satellites. The investment will cut the company’s planned modernisation timeline in half, Commerce said.
The US is calling out foreign influence campaigns faster than ever
WIRED
Lily Hay Newman
Digital Forensic Research Lab are presenting initial findings on the role of attribution in the 2024 US elections. Their research compares the impact of quickly naming and shaming foreign influence actors to other recent US elections in which government attribution was far less common. One important factor in assessing the utility of US government attributions is the quality of the information provided. Specific information confirming that Russia had manufactured a video that purported to show ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania was a high-quality, useful attribution, the researchers say, because it was direct, narrow in scope, and came very quickly to minimize speculation and doubt.
Southeast Asia
Thai court dismisses activist’s spyware suit
Bangkok Post
The Bangkok Civil Court has dismissed a lawsuit by activist Jatupat Boonpattararaksa against NSO Group Technologies for allegedly failing to prevent him from being targeted with its Pegasus spyware, according to Amnesty International. Jatupat, also known as “Pai Dao Din”, was among about 30 activists and lawyers in Thailand whose phones were infected by the Israeli-made spyware in 2020-21, independent researchers found. In his lawsuit, Mr Jatupat alleged that NSO Group facilitated the use of Pegasus to target him and other Thai activists, violating their constitutional rights including the right to privacy.
South & Central Asia
Indian regulator rejects Apple request to put antitrust report on hold
Reuters
Aditya Kalra
India's antitrust body has turned down a request from Apple to put a hold on an investigation report which found the company breached competition laws, allowing the case to continue, an internal order from the regulator seen by Reuters showed. The Competition Commission of India in August ordered a recall of investigation reports after Apple said the watchdog had disclosed commercial secrets to competitors in the case dating back to 2021, including Tinder-owner Match.
NZ & Pacific Islands
Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill likely to restrict access to information, polling shows most oppose
The Scoop
The Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill (FDNBB) proposes large digital platforms be compelled to negotiate payment for their use of mainstream media content. Polling shows many fear the Bill will restrict access to information, a fundamental liberty guaranteed by Kiwis’ right to freedom of expression, says Jonathan Ayling, Chief Executive of the Free Speech Union. “The Bill, if enacted, will allow news media companies to strike deals for compensation from various Big Tech companies such as Google and Meta for using their news content.
Europe
Bluesky breaching rules around disclosure of information, says EU
Financial Times
Andy Bounds and Javier Espinoza
Bluesky, the social media site that has grown rapidly following an exodus of users from Elon Musk’s X, is in breach of EU regulations for not disclosing key details about the group, the European Commission said on Monday. “All platforms in the EU . . . have to have a dedicated page on their website where it says how many users they have in the EU and where they are legally established,” said commission spokesman Thomas Regnier. The intervention comes as thousands of users, including commission president Ursula von der Leyen, have opened Bluesky accounts in recent weeks.
Central and Eastern Europe’s bid for AI dominance
The Strategist
Sona Muzikarova
While the world’s attention remains focused on Ukraine’s heroic stand against Russian aggression, a quieter revolution is reshaping Central and Eastern European economies. CEE countries have emerged as vibrant innovation hubs in recent years, generating a wave of new tech unicorns. Romania’s UiPath, for example, has become an automation leader, enhancing workplace efficiency by freeing workers from repetitive tasks.
This battery startup raised $15 billion. Then it went bust.
The Wall Street Journal
Kim Mackrael
Northvolt was one of the world’s most valuable battery startups. Now it has run out of charge. Over the past week, the Swedish company filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. and said its co-founder was stepping down as chief executive, after a turbulent year of production problems and job cuts. The move marks a stark change in fortunes for a company that was once vaunted as Europe’s best hope for competing with China’s dominant battery makers. Northvolt’s collapse also underscores the difficulty Western companies face in establishing a foothold in the industry.
UK
Russia plotting to use AI to enhance cyber-attacks against UK, minister will warn
The Guardian
Dan Sabbagh
Russia and other adversaries of the UK are trying to use artificial intelligence to enhance cyber-attacks against the nation’s infrastructure, the cabinet minister Pat McFadden’s concern at a Nato conference in London on Monday. The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster will announce the creation of a research programme in London, called the Laboratory for AI Security Research, to keep on top of emerging threats as he warns there is a risk that Russia will try to knock out the electricity grid. The new lab will be funded with £8.2m and is being created with the cooperation of the UK spy agency GCHQ as well as other government agencies.
Unidentified drones seen over UK airbases
Deutsch Welle
The US Air Forces in Europe said "small unmanned aerial systems" were seen over Royal Air Force Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, and RAF Feltwell, in Norfolk, eastern England. Lakenheath houses the 48th Fighter Wing, which the USAF describes as the foundation of its combat capability in Europe. The incidents took place between November 20 and 22, in the same week that Ukraine struck targets inside Russia with intermediate-range missiles supplied by the US and Britain.
Africa
US Stablecoin startup fueling a $3 billion boom in Africa
Bloomberg
David Pan
Cryptocurrencies that track the dollar are becoming a popular workaround for companies stymied by currency shortages on the continent. Chris Maurice was a student at Auburn University in 2017, waiting in line for a teller at a bank near campus. He got to chatting with a Nigerian guy who was trying to wire a few hundred dollars back home to his mom, and he was shocked to learn that this simple service would cost the man $90. For a Bitcoin enthusiast like Maurice, this was the type of problem with the financial system that proved the value proposition of cryptocurrencies, which can be sent around the world almost instantly at costs that are a tiny fraction of the price of traditional wire transfers.
Big Tech
Is Outlook down? Thousands of Microsoft 365 users report outage issues
Associated Press
Thousands of Microsoft 365 customers worldwide reported having issues with services like Outlook and Teams on Monday. In social media posts and comments on platforms like outage tracker Downdetector, some impacted said that they were having trouble seeing their emails, loading calendars or opening other Microsoft 365 applications such as Powerpoint. Microsoft acknowledged “an issue impacting users attempting to access Exchange Online or functionality within Microsoft Teams calendar” earlier in the day. In updates posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, the company’s status page said it identified a “recent change” that it believed to be behind the problem — and was working to revert it.
Elon Musk admits X is throttling links
Mediate
David Gilmore
Elon Musk confirmed that posts containing links in their main text are deprioritized on X in a revelation that renews criticism that the platform is restricting the visibility of and access to external sources of information. While the rationale appears to be a bid to increase user engagement within X’s ecosystem and discourage users from leaving the platform, the revelation renews scrutiny of Musk’s past use of the technology to settle personal scores or manage narratives.
Amazon’s Moonshot plan to rival Nvidia in AI chips
Bloomberg
Matt Day, Ian King, and Dina Bass
In a bland north Austin neighborhood dominated by anonymous corporate office towers, Amazon.com Inc. engineers are toiling away on one of the tech industry’s most ambitious moonshots: loosening Nvidia Corp.’s grip on the $100-billion-plus market for artificial intelligence chips. Amazon has started shipping Trainium2, which it aims to string together in clusters of up to 100,000 chips, to data centers in Ohio and elsewhere. A broader rollout is coming for Amazon’s main data center hubs.
Artificial Intelligence
Voice from the past: how one university is countering AI with ancient examination techniques
The Guardian
Caitlin Cassidy
A town square in the ancient world might not be the most obvious place to tackle the challenges of artificial intelligence facing universities. But the oral tradition of viva voce, which from Latin translates as “word of mouth”, is being adopted as a more accurate way to test knowledge in the age of chatbots, cheating and commercialisation. University of South Australia began using the viva voce system in 2022, replacing the final written exam for a range of its science degrees with oral assessments instead.
AI increasingly used for sextortion, scams and child abuse, says senior UK police chief
The Guardian
Lizzie Dearden
Paedophiles, scammers, hackers and criminals of all kinds are increasingly exploiting artificial intelligence to target victims in new and harmful ways, a senior police chief has warned. Alex Murray, the national police lead for AI, said that the use of the technology was growing rapidly because of its increasing accessibility and that police had to “move fast” to keep on top of the threat. Murray said hackers were also using AI to look for weaknesses in targeted code or software and to provide “areas of focus” for cyber-attacks.
Misc
The first humanitarian ICT resolution: Ambitions and limitations
Ejil Talk
Kubo Mačák
In October 2024, the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent adopted an unprecedented resolution on protecting civilians against the potential human cost of digital activities during armed conflicts. This post offers a critical appraisal of the resolution’s main aspects against the background of its adoption. As will be explained, the resolution is both groundbreaking in its ambition and detail, yet limited in certain respects, leaving crucial questions about implementation and enforcement unanswered.
Sensitive data exposed on popular military-friendly dating app
Forbes
Peter Suciu
If military servicemembers didn't already have enough to worry about today, a cybersecurity researcher discovered a publicly exposed database on a popular dating app that lacked expected password protections and wasn't encrypted. As a result, the personal data of nearly 1.2 million U.S. and UK military personnel who used the Forces Penpals, a dating service and social networking platform, could have been accessed by hackers, Jeremiah Fowler of vpnMentor warned this week.
Events & Podcasts
Stop the World TSD Summit Sessions: The Climate Crisis with Anote Tong
ASPI
In the latest video edition of The Sydney Dialogue Summit Sessions, ASPI Senior Fellow Dr Robert Glasser speaks to the former President of Kiribati and Chair of the Pacific Elders Voice Anote Tong. Anote is one of the Pacific region’s most prominent and respected advocates for action to combat climate change. Robert and Anote discuss the impact that climate change is having in the Pacific and what action needs to be taken now to limit further climate disruptions. They also discuss Australia’s relationship with the Pacific, China’s presence in the region and the opportunities and challenges that great power competition presents for Pacific Island nations.
Navigating digital safety: Exploring security and trust in online spaces for young Australians
ASPI
Join us from 6:00 – 8:30 pm on 27 November at ASPI in Canberra for an important discussion on the challenges of privacy, internet security, and online safety. As users of online platforms, young Australians are exposed to varied and increasing risks, including risks to their personal data privacy.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.