Australia's central bank sees potential in wholesale digital currency | China to tighten rules for tech companies seeking foreign funding | Instagram chief pressed over kids’ well-being
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Australia's central bank on Wednesday said it saw promise in establishing a wholesale digital currency that would make syndicated lending more efficient and less risky. Reuters
China is preparing a blacklist that is expected to tightly restrict the main channel used by start-ups to attract international capital and list overseas, in a bid to limit the role of foreign shareholders in the country’s next generation of tech companies. Financial Times
The executive who runs Instagram faced tough questions on Wednesday from U.S. senators over whether the photo-sharing app puts profits before the well-being of young people. Bloomberg
ASPI ICPC
Southern Space Symposium 2021
Department of Home Affairs
Michael Pezzullo
No country can, of course, navigate the deployment of advanced future technologies in isolation, or manage the risks that I’ve been highlighting through this address. Cooperation, therefore, with like-minded partners and engagement through international fora is very much required – and in Australia’s case, we’re especially focused amongst other things on furthering our dialogue through the Quad process with the US, Japan and India. I also note the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)’s hosting of the Sydney Dialogue recently which touched on many of these themes. And of course, the recently announced AUKUS trilateral technology agreement between Australia, the US and UK will also have a bearing.
BGA Quad Views: Emerging Technologies in the Spotlight with New Dialogue
BGA’s Asia Street blog
BGA’s teams from the Australia, India, Japan and the United States wrote a cross-border update on perspectives regarding emerging technologies from the countries that make up the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) as part of BGA’s cross-border “Quad Views” series. The update explored the subject of critical and emerging technologies and the opportunities it offers companies in areas such as semiconductors, quantum and cyber..Some new initiatives were announced at the Sydney Dialogue. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled a new blueprint for critical technologies prioritizing security, trust, integrity and resilience at home and abroad, and Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced a Center for Excellence for Critical and Emerging Technology Policy to be based in Bengaluru. The dialogue also spotlighted some wider geopolitical touchpoints. Modi noted that his keynote address was an acknowledgement of the country’s status as an emerging power. Morrison’s remarks made clear that part of the logic of Australia’s work in the technology space is its effort to work with like-minded allies and partners to manage its China challenge.
Find out more about The Sydney Dialogue here
Australia
Digital payments, cryptocurrency regulation flagged by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg
ABC News
Rhiana Whitson
Consumers who make purchases on their mobile phones, use buy now, pay later platforms, and invest in cryptocurrency could be better protected under a federal government plan to overhaul Australia's payments system and regulate financial technology organisations.
‘An enormous opportunity’: Coalition to consult on a central bank digital currency The Guardian
Australia's central bank sees potential in wholesale digital currency Reuters
Treasury’s crypto plans will supercharge investment, experts say AFR
Explained: Australia mulls Bitcoin crackdown and new digital currency The New Daily
Cryptocurrency scams targeting Australians as scammers bank more than $100 million
ABC News
Amy Bainbridge, Lucy Kent
They're three families, all from different parts of Australia. They have vastly different backgrounds and financial situations. But one common thread binds them: they have all been embroiled in scams involving cryptocurrency, the decentralised digital currency.
Daily Tele flubs China attack
The Australian Financial Review
Joe Aston
Sydney’s Daily Telegraph splashed its Wednesday edition with the revelation of “China’s Dark Plot”, an exclusive on Beijing’s “cyber hit on our power network”. The tableau, rendered in Dulux customer favourite “Communist Red”, depicted Xi Jinping shaking a clenched fist and looming over a defenceless Queensland power station. It was a front page entirely free of the burden of nuance or sophistication. Or facts.
China
China to tighten rules for tech companies seeking foreign funding
Financial Times
Ryan McMorrow, Sun Yu
China is preparing a blacklist that is expected to tightly restrict the main channel used by start-ups to attract international capital and list overseas, in a bid to limit the role of foreign shareholders in the country’s next generation of tech companies. The blacklist will target new companies in sensitive sectors that use so-called variable interest entities to run their China businesses, according to four people familiar with the matter. They did not expect the changes to apply to existing companies.
China Increasingly Obscures True State of Its Economy to Outsiders
The Wall Street Journal
Liza Lin, Chun Han Wong
China’s Communist Party has long maintained tight control over information, and the effort has intensified under leader Xi Jinping. The country has become increasingly opaque over the past year, even as its presence on the world stage grows. A new data-security law has made it harder for foreign companies and investors to get information, including about supplies and financial statements. Several providers of ship locations in Chinese waters stopped sharing information outside the country, making it hard to understand port activity there.
Beijing Silenced Peng Shuai in 20 Minutes, Then Spent Weeks on Damage Control
The New York Times
Paul Mozur, Muyi Xiao, Jeff Kao and Gray Beltran
Chinese propaganda officials have tried to shape the global discussion of the tennis player Peng Shuai’s #MeToo accusations, but their top-down strategy has largely stumbled.
USA
Instagram Chief Pressed Over Kids’ Well-Being
Bloomberg
Anna Edgerton, Naomi Nix
The executive who runs Instagram faced tough questions on Wednesday from U.S. senators over whether the photo-sharing app puts profits before the well-being of young people. Members of the Senate Commerce consumer protection subcommittee asked Instagram’s Adam Mosseri about ads targeting young people, how the platform promotes inappropriate content and what legal options are available for users who suffered harm because of the social network. Mosseri pledged transparency, touted recent product changes and asked Congress to pass new regulations.
Utility giants agree to no longer allow sensitive records to be shared with ICE
Washington Post
Drew Harwell
The information was passed to Equifax, which sold it to ICE and other police agencies.
Cyber incident reporting mandates suffer another congressional setback
CyberScoop
Tim Starks
House and Senate negotiators have excluded provisions from a must-pass defense bill that would have mandated many companies to report major cyberattacks and ransomware payments to federal officials.
Google Tells Specific Apps to Disclose Location Gathering or Be Removed
VICE News
Joseph Cox
The move comes after Motherboard reported that apps working with a location data vendor called Huq were collecting data even when users opted-out.
Furious customers blast Amazon as an outage knocks Ring doorbells, baby monitors, and Alexa products offline
Business Insider
Allana Akhtar
Amazon Ring users online are fuming as they lost access to home monitoring services during the company’s major outage.
Leaked screenshots show Amazon blaming the big AWS outage on sudden, surging traffic from an 'unknown source' that overwhelmed parts of its cloud network Business Insider
This Small Tech Company May Actually Be a Ransomware Front Group
The Daily Beast
Shannon Vavra
The U.S. government is trying to arrest ransomware criminals and offering millions of dollars in bounties for their identities. But sometimes the evidence is hiding in plain sight.
South-East Asia
Rohingya refugees sue Facebook for $150 billion, alleging it helped perpetuate genocide in Myanmar
Washington Post
Amy Cheng
The legal action comes after Gambia pushed the International Court of Justice to hold responsible those who perpetrated mass violence against the mostly Muslim minority in Myanmar.
Misc
Twitter’s Highest-Profile Users Get VIP Treatment When Trolls Strike
Bloomberg
Kurt Wagner
Twitter Inc.’s highest-profile users—those with lots of followers or particular prominence—often receive a heightened level of protection from the social network’s content moderators under a secretive program that seeks to limit their exposure to trolls and bullies. Code-named Project Guardian, the internal program includes a list of thousands of accounts most likely to be attacked or harassed on the platform, including politicians, journalists, musicians and professional athletes. When someone flags abusive posts or messages related to those users, the reports are prioritized by Twitter’s content moderation systems, meaning the company reviews them faster than other reports in the queue.
Everyone is burned out. That's becoming a security nightmare
ZDNet
Danny Palmer
Two years into the pandemic and the challenges around remote working are taking their toll. We're making bad tech security decisions as a result.
Getting Married in the Metaverse
The New York Times
Steven Kurutz
One couple’s recent nuptials in the virtual world known as the metaverse showcase the possibilities of having a wedding unfettered by the bounds of reality.
For their wedding in the metaverse, Dave and Traci Gagnon had avatars created that were based on personal photos and the clothes they wore to their in-person ceremony. Credit...via Traci Gagnon
Face Computers Are Coming. Now What?
The New York Times
Shira Ovide
Instead of letting Facebook or Apple decide the norms of this new technology, we need to do it.
Why restraint int he real world encourages digital espionage
War On The Rocks
Joshua Rovner
President Joe Biden has committed to ending America’s forever wars and restoring diplomacy, longtime goals for advocates of a more restrained U.S. foreign policy. Yet he is reportedly pursuing an aggressive approach to cyberspace, despite concerns that this might lead to military escalation and diplomatic friction. Although this looks like a contradiction, it is not.
Research
Jobs
ICPC Senior Analyst or Analyst - China
ASPI ICPC
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) has a unique opportunity for exceptional and experienced China-focused senior analysts or analysts to join its centre. This role will focus on original research and analysis centred around the (growing) range of topics which our ICPC China team work on. Our China team produces some of the most impactful and well-read policy-relevant research in the world, with our experts often being called upon by politicians, governments, corporates and civil society actors to provide briefings and advice. Analysts usually have at least 5 years, often 7-10 years’ of work experience. Senior analysts usually have a minimum of 15 years relevant work experience and, in addition to research, they take on a leadership role in the centre and tend to be involved in staff and project management, fundraising and stakeholder engagement.