CCP using information operations to harass Canadian politicians | Ukraine involved in hack of Russia’s largest private bank | Aus PM unveils $5b big tech spend
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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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Amid Canada’s public inquiry into foreign interference, the Chinese Communist Party is deploying inauthentic personas on social media and extending its influence operations into the Canadian online environment. ASPI has identified a cross-platform, coordinated network of inauthentic social media accounts spreading disinformation about Canadian politicians, mostly targeting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Strategist
Ukrainian hackers collaborated with the country's security services, the SBU, to breach Russia's largest private bank, a source within the department confirmed to Recorded Future News. Last week, two groups of pro-Ukrainian hackers, KibOrg and NLB, hacked into Alfa-Bank and claimed to obtain the data of more than 30 million customers, including their names, dates of birth, account numbers, and phone numbers, according to a post on their official website. The Record by Recorded Future
Anthony Albanese will announce a $5 billion investment from Microsoft to bolster Australian cybersecurity, cloud computing and artificial intelligence capabilities as the prime minister uses a trip to the US to get the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact back on track. The US technology giant’s pledge includes partnering with the nation’s cyber spy agency, digital skills training for 300,000 Australians, and boosting its data centres to 29 from 20. Australian Financial Review
ASPI
CCP using information operations to harass Canadian politicians
The Strategist
Albert Zhang
Amid Canada’s public inquiry into foreign interference, the Chinese Communist Party is deploying inauthentic personas on social media and extending its influence operations into the Canadian online environment. ASPI has identified a cross-platform, coordinated network of inauthentic social media accounts spreading disinformation about Canadian politicians, mostly targeting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. These accounts claim that Canadian politicians are corrupt, philanderers or liars and have used deepfake technology to falsely attribute these allegations to Liu Xin, a political ‘vlogger’ of Chinese heritage based in Canada. Some family members and associates of Canadian politicians are also being targeted through this new campaign.
Rapid Response Mechanism Canada detects Spamouflage campaign targeting Members of Parliament
Government of Canada
Global Affairs Canada’s Rapid Response Mechanism Canada has detected a ‘Spamouflage’ campaign connected to the People’s Republic of China. Beginning in early August 2023 and accelerating in scale over the September long-weekend, a bot network left thousands of comments in English and French on the Facebook and X/Twitter accounts of Canadian Members of Parliaments… This tactic has also been studied and publicly reported on by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute which informed RRM Canada’s assessments. Global Affairs Canada has proactively engaged the affected platforms, and notified them about the Spamouflage activity, resulting in much of the activity and network being removed.
Why the AUKUS partnership is about much more than warfighting
The Hill
Justin Bassi
With Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arriving in Washington for his first bilateral visit, topics from energy to the economy will be publicly flagged. But it will be AUKUS — the trilateral partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — that sits atop the priority list with President Biden, as the two leaders talk about how we compete with the malign rise of China and strengthen regional stability.
World
More from the "Five Eyes" intelligence chiefs' warning to 60 Minutes
CBS News
Brit McCandless Farmer
This week on 60 Minutes, correspondent Scott Pelley conducted an unprecedented interview with the leaders of the Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance between the United States and four of its English-speaking allies. In addition to threats to national security, China has been stealing intellectual property from companies, the intelligence directors cautioned. Mike Burgess, the director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, said one way China steals intellectual property is by targeting people on professional networking sites.
Australia
PM unveils $5b big tech spend as he arrives in US
Australian Financial Review
Andrew Tillett
Anthony Albanese will announce a $5 billion investment from Microsoft to bolster Australian cybersecurity, cloud computing and artificial intelligence capabilities as the prime minister uses a trip to the US to get the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact back on track. The US technology giant’s pledge includes partnering with the nation’s cyber spy agency, digital skills training for 300,000 Australians, and boosting its data centres to 29 from 20.
Microsoft to help Australia build ‘cyber shield’, Anthony Albanese announces on Washington
ABC News
Brad Ryan
Tech giant Microsoft will help Australia build a "cyber shield" to fend off global online threats under a plan to sink billions of dollars into securing and expanding the national digital economy. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Microsoft president Brad Smith unveiled the plan at the Australian embassy in Washington, DC on the first day of the PM's official visit to the US.
China
China crackdown on cyber scams in Southeast Asia nets thousands but leaves networks intact
Associated Press
Huizhong Wu
In recent years, media reports have uncovered instances of young people being lured to places in Cambodia or Myanmar for high-paying jobs, only to be forced to work as scammers. Rescue organizations say people are regularly beaten or face physical punishments such as being forced to run laps if they don’t perform well. In August, China, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar agreed to set up a joint police operations center to tackle cyber scams in the region. On Oct. 10, China’s Ministry of Public Security announced that its “Summer Operation” had successfully brought back 2,317 scam suspects from northern Myanmar to China.
China rattles foreign firms again with arrests, Foxconn probe
Bloomberg
Mark Bergen
Chinese authorities are again shaking the confidence of foreign companies in the country with a series of arrests across industries and an investigation into Foxconn Technology Group, Apple Inc.’s most important partner and one of the largest employers in China. Over the weekend, state media said that regulators are conducting tax audits and reviewing land use by Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that makes the vast majority of iPhones at factories in China. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Foxconn’s public arm, said it will collaborate with authorities.
USA
US-China rivalry creating more hurdles to cooperation on vital technology
South China Morning Post
Another round of US measures meant to counter China’s technological and military rise has been put in place. It was disappointing to see the Washington-Beijing rivalry translate into more obstacles to international cooperation on technology that holds promise for improving lives globally.
Biden names technology hubs for 32 states and Puerto Rico to help the industry and create jobs
Associated Press
Darlene Superville
The Biden administration is designating 31 technology hubs touching 32 states and Puerto Rico to help spur innovation and create jobs in the industries that are concentrated in these areas. President Joe Biden is set to announce the hubs on Monday at the White House with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
North Asia
Hokkaido waits to gauge impact from upcoming Rapidus chip plant
Japan Times
Eric Johnston
The nationally backed effort to revive Japan’s semiconductor industry with Rapidus, a new firm that plans to mass produce 2-nanometer chips, has been called Hokkaido’s largest-ever development project — one that will revive the local economy and create new jobs and industry. But underneath the ambitious future plans and official proclamations of confidence, there is a mixture of hope and concern locally about what will happen to Hokkaido if Rapidus fails to deliver as promised.
Ukraine - Russia
Ukraine security services involved in hack of Russia’s largest private bank
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Ukrainian hackers collaborated with the country's security services, the SBU, to breach Russia's largest private bank, a source within the department confirmed to Recorded Future News. Last week, two groups of pro-Ukrainian hackers, KibOrg and NLB, hacked into Alfa-Bank and claimed to obtain the data of more than 30 million customers, including their names, dates of birth, account numbers, and phone numbers, according to a post on their official website.
Ukrainian spies with deep ties to CIA wage shadow war against Russia
The Washington Post
Greg Miller and Isabelle Khurshudyan
The extent of the CIA’s involvement with Ukraine’s security services has not previously been disclosed. U.S. intelligence officials stressed that the agency has had no involvement in targeted killing operations by Ukrainian agencies, and that its work has focused on bolstering those services’ abilities to gather intelligence on a dangerous adversary. A senior intelligence official said that “any potential operational concerns have been conveyed clearly to the Ukrainian services.”
Alleged covert wiretap on Russian messaging service blown by expired TLS certificate
The Record by Recorded Future
Alexander Martin
Security researchers have discovered what they believe may be a government attempt to covertly wiretap an instant messaging service in Germany — an attempt that was blown because the potential intercepting authorities failed to reissue a TLS certificate. The suspected man-in-the-middle attack was identified when the administrator of jabber.ru, the largest Russian XMPP service, received a notification that one of the servers’ certificates had expired.
Europe
SpaceX signs deal to launch key European satellites
The Wall Street Journal
Matthew Dalton and Micah Maidenberg
SpaceX has signed a deal to launch up to four of Europe’s flagship navigation satellites into orbit, reinforcing the Elon Musk-led company’s growing foothold in the region as local rivals struggle to get rockets off the ground. SpaceX and the European Space Agency recently signed an agreement for two launches next year, each carrying two Galileo satellites, said Javier Benedicto, the agency’s director of navigation. The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, along with EU member states, must still give final approval for the deal. That is likely to happen before the end of the year, officials said.
EU lawmakers face struggle to reach agreement on AI rules -sources
Reuters
Supantha Mukherjee and Foo Yun Chee
European lawmakers are yet to agree on several issues related to new artificial intelligence rules ahead of a crucial meeting on Tuesday, leaving any deal off the table until December, according to four people familiar with the matter. The draft AI rules have to be agreed by the European Parliament and European Union member states. They have so far been discussed three times in trilogues, which are meetings between parliament and EU states to thrash out the final versions of laws.
Who is sabotaging underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea?
The Economist
On October 17th Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Sweden’s minister for civil defence, said that a communications cable between Sweden and Estonia had been partially damaged earlier in the month. It was the latest of several suspicious incidents that have given rise to fears that Russia is making mischief underwater. On October 8th the nearby Balticconnector gas pipeline and a communications cable between Finland and Estonia were damaged due to what Sauli Niinisto, Finland’s president, called “external activity”. The two cables were some distance from one another. Finnish police later said the cause was “an external mechanical force”, with signs of an “extremely heavy object” left on the seabed.
UK
Chinese surveillance firm recommits to UK after new guidance
The Guardian
Daniel Boffey
Hikvision, the Chinese surveillance firm identified by the UK government as a security threat, has “recommitted” to Britain after receiving clarification that a ban on its cameras being positioned at sensitive sites does not extend to public authorities or police stations. In a message to clients, the Chinese state-owned company, whose equipment is prohibited in the US on national security grounds, said the new guidance would allow it to “move forward with our mission”.
UK officials use AI to decide on issues from benefits to marriage licences
The Guardian
Kiran Stacey
Government officials are using artificial intelligence and complex algorithms to help decide everything from who gets benefits to who should have their marriage licence approved, according to a Guardian investigation. The findings shed light on the haphazard and often uncontrolled way that cutting-edge technology is being used across Whitehall.
The UK’s best hope for tech prowess sits in its labs, not apps or AI
Bloomberg
Mark Bergen
A sluggish national economy, tepid capital markets and the lingering impacts of Brexit have left the UK with few tech companies that credibly compete on a global scale. For the upcoming artificial intelligence summit, Sunak is chiefly inviting executives from Silicon Valley. Still, there’s one area where the UK has the potential to make a big impact. Several startups working in scientific fields like drug discovery, genomics and medical devices have leveraged Britain’s world-renowned universities and national health-care service to deliver impressive technical leaps — and some commercial success.
Big Tech
Is Google Search better than the rest? And is that fair?
The Sydney Morning Herald
Tim Biggs
The US government’s potentially landmark antitrust trial against Google is around halfway through, and so far we’ve heard from the tech giant itself as well as Apple, Microsoft and others. What it all boils down to is that regulators think Google holds an unfair monopoly share of the search engine market, more than 80 per cent, which it maintains through deals with other companies to make Google Search the default. Google argues its product is simply preferred because it’s the best.
Artificial Intelligence
Google Pixel’s face-altering photo tool sparks AI manipulation debate
BBC
Darren Waters
The camera never lies. Except, of course, it does - and seemingly more often with each passing day. In the age of the smartphone, digital edits on the fly to improve photos have become commonplace, from boosting colours to tweaking light levels. Now, a new breed of smartphone tools powered by artificial intelligence are adding to the debate about what it means to photograph reality. Google's latest smartphones released last week, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, go a step further than devices from other companies. They are using AI to help alter people's expressions in photographs.
Research
YouTube is autogenerating videos for songs advocating the expulsion of Muslims from India
Bellingcat
Pooja Chaudhuri
Bellingcat identified 114 videos across 54 channels generated for songs that promote discrimination — and in some cases outright violence — against Muslims in India, posted from May 2019 to September 2023. YouTube is also running advertisements on these videos, which have a combined view count of over 5.4 million. Seven of these songs were unavailable at the time of publication, one channel was terminated and another channel was blocked in India due to a legal complaint from the government. We collected the songs using YouTube’s Data API, scraping autoplay and manual search.
Assessed cyber structure and alignments of North Korea in 2023
Mandiant
Michael Barnhart, Austin Larsen, Jeff Johnson, Taylor Long, Michelle Cantos and Adrian Hernandez
Based on the history the details that follow, Mandiant assesses that the DPRK’s cyber landscape has evolved to a streamlined organization with shared tooling and targeting efforts. Operators within these units quickly change their current focus and begin working on separate, unrelated efforts such as ransomware, collecting information on conventional weapons, nuclear entity targeting, blockchain and fintech targeting efforts, among various others. This flexible approach to tasking makes it difficult for defenders to track, attribute, and thwart malicious activities, while enabling this now collaborative adversary to move stealthily with greater speed and adaptability.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.