China’s patriotic ‘Honkers’ became the nation’s elite cyberspies | UK sanctions Russian spies for malicious activity | Cyber espionage on Singapore's critical infrastructure

Gaming in their golden years: why millions of seniors are playing video games

Good morning. It's Monday, 21st of July.

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

Follow us on X, on LinkedIn, and on BlueSky.

• The Honker community largely began when China joined the internet in 1994, and a network connecting universities and research centers across the country for knowledge-sharing put Chinese students online before the rest of the country. Like US hackers, the Honkers were self-taught tech enthusiasts who flocked to electronic bulletin boards or dial-up forums to share programming and computer hacking tips. Wired

• A number of Russian spies have been sanctioned for conducting a "sustained campaign of malicious cyber activity" including in the UK, the Foreign Office has said. Three military intelligence units from Russia's GRU espionage agency and 18 officers have had sanctions placed on them for allegedly spreading chaos and disorder on Russian President Vladimir Putin's orders. BBC

• Singapore authorities are dealing with an ongoing attack on the country’s critical information infrastructure by a state-sponsored cyber espionage group, UNC3886. The APT hacker gain unauthorised access into networks by employing techniques such as custom malware and tools available on the victim’s system to evade detection. The Straits Times

ASPI

Home Affairs is central to Australia’s security, safety and economic prosperity
The Strategist
John Coyne and James Corera
There’s a moment in the movie Oppenheimer when the protagonist realises the true danger isn’t so much the bomb itself; it’s the atmospheric chain reaction it might unleash. That same logic applies to national safety. The spark may be a cyberattack, a flood, a pandemic or a logistics failure, but the consequences can cascade rapidly through our economy, critical infrastructure and national confidence. That’s why Australia needs more than just a national security strategy; it needs a national safety framework—with a reinvigorated, collaborative Department of Home Affairs at its centre.

World

Ride-hailing giants’ electric promises are stalling worldwide
Rest of World
Ananya Bhattacharya
The biggest ride-hailing companies globally are struggling to keep their electric vehicle promises. While Uber, Lyft, and Grab don’t disclose the precise number of EVs in their fleets, each platform has less than 1% EVs globally, research and advisory firm Gartner estimates. Adoption hurdles are steeper in developing regions such as South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa, where poor charging infrastructure, high vehicle costs, and unclear regulations make electrification difficult for drivers already struggling with thin margins. North America and Europe have better conditions with state subsidies and robust charging networks.

Australia

Face age and ID checks? Using the internet in Australia is about to fundamentally change
The Guardian
Josh Taylor
The Albanese government trumpeted the passage of its legislation banning under 16s from social media – which will come into effect in December – but new industry codes developed by the tech sector and eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant under the Online Safety Act will probably have much larger ramifications for how Australians access the internet. The code will require search engines to have age assurance measures for all accounts, and where an account holder is determined to be aged under 18, the search engine would be required to switch on safe search features to filter out content such as pornography from search results.

China

How China’s patriotic ‘Honkers’ became the nation’s elite cyberspies
WIRED
Kim Zetter
Tan was part of a burgeoning hacker community known as the Honkers—teens and twentysomethings in late-’90s and early-’00s China who formed groups like the Green Army and Evil Octal and launched patriotic cyberattacks against Western targets they deemed disrespectful to China. The attacks were low-sophistication—mostly website defacements and denial-of-service operations targeting entities in the US, Taiwan, and Japan—but the Honkers advanced their skills over time, and Tan documented his escapades in blog posts. After publishing about hacking targets in Japan, the PLA came calling. Tan and his university friends were encouraged to participate in a PLA-affiliated hacking contest and won first place. The PLA invited them to an intense, monthlong hacker training camp, and within weeks Tan and his friends were building hacking tools, studying network infiltration techniques, and conducting simulated attacks.

Xi Jinping warns Chinese officials against over-investment in AI and EVs
Financial Times
Joe Leahy, Eleanor Olcott and Cheng Leng
Chinese President Xi Jinping has issued an unusually blunt warning to local governments against over-investment in artificial intelligence and electric vehicles, as vicious price wars fuel deflation in the world’s second-largest economy. The comments, in which Xi attacked what he called “three pats officials” who evade responsibility for reckless investment plans, will strengthen market expectations that Beijing will intervene in the AI, EV and other industries it believes are suffering from over-investment. Xi’s remarks were carried on the front page of the Communist party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, underlining their importance. They follow a series of official statements attacking what Beijing calls neijuan, or “involution” — price wars in industries suffering from overcapacity.

Chinese robots to put running shoes through their paces
Nikkei Asia
Kohei Fujimura
Li Ning and the Beijing Innovation Center of Humanoid Robotics recently signed an agreement and opened a sports science research facility in Beijing this month. There, robots will mimic how humans move when exercising. The aim is to gauge the wear and tear placed on sportswear and shoes, among other data to be used in product development. At the research facility's opening ceremony, one of the startup's Tiangong robots ran in Li Ning running shoes. A Tiangong robot participated in a half-marathon in Beijing this past April, completing the same 21-kilometer course as the human runners in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

USA

White House prepares Executive Order targeting ‘woke AI’
The Wall Street Journal
Amrith Ramkumar and Annie Linskey
White House officials are preparing an executive order targeting tech companies with what they see as “woke” artificial-intelligence models, their latest effort to go after diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, people familiar with the matter said. The order would dictate that AI companies getting federal contracts be politically neutral and unbiased, an effort to combat what administration officials see as overly liberal AI models, the people said. Because nearly all major tech companies are vying to have their AI tools used by the federal government, the order could have far-reaching impacts and force developers to be extremely careful about how their models are developed.

Trump signs landmark GENIUS Act, hailing "exciting new frontier" for crypto
CBS News
Kathryn Watson
President Trump signed a landmark bill to regulate cryptocurrency on Friday, hailing the "exciting new frontier" for the technology one day after the bill passed the House. The legislation, called the GENIUS Act, is the first major law governing digital currency, and establishes a regulatory framework for the $250 billion stablecoin market. Stablecoins are viewed as a relatively safe type of cryptocurrency since their value is pegged to other assets, like the dollar. The bill passed the House on Thursday with the support of 206 Republicans and 102 Democrats. "We worked hard. It's a very important act, the GENIUS Act. They named it after me," the president joked in the East Room of the White House. "I want to thank you. This is a hell of an act."

• Trump set to open $14trn US retirement market to crypto investments
  The Australian Financial Review
  Antoine Gara, Jamie John and Stephanie Stacey
  US President Donald Trump is preparing to open the $US9 trillion US retirement market to cryptocurrency investments, gold, and private equity in a move that would spur a radical shift in the way Americans’ savings are managed.

Blackstone drops out of group seeking stake in US-based TikTok
Bloomberg
Crystal Tse and Riley Griffin
Blackstone has ceded its potential stake in TikTok’s US operations to the other investors in a consortium that includes Oracle Corp., venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and growth equity investment firm General Atlantic, said the person, who asked not to be named while discussing private conversations. President Donald Trump in late June said he’d identified a buyer that would allow the popular social media app to legally continue operating in the US, splitting it off from Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd. Bloomberg News later reported that Trump’s proposed buyer was the same consortium that included Blackstone. The Trump administration had recently issued another 90-day extension to work out the deal. That extension expires in mid-September.

Americas

Canada, Australia partner on radar development
Asia Pacific Defence Reporter
Canada have signed a new technology partnership agreement to support collaboration on Over the Horizon Radar research and development with Australia. Canada’s decision to work with Australia on OTHR capabilities recognises Australia’s Jindalee Operational Radar Network technology as a world-leading capability, and the signing of this agreement represents a significant milestone in our collaboration on OTHR. The signing of this agreement will enable Australia and Canada to work across government and industry to investigate technical challenges associated with OTHR operation in the arctic; to further develop JORN technology; and to conduct detailed planning for the development, manufacturing and commissioning of a new Canadian OTHR capability.

North Asia

South Korea becomes first Asian nation to join Horizon Europe programme
Innovation News Network
South Korea has officially joined the Horizon Europe Programme, making it the first Asian country to associate with the European Union’s flagship research and innovation initiative. With today’s formal association, South Korean institutions now gain full access to the Horizon Europe Programme’s Pillar II – its largest and most collaborative section. Pillar II, backed by a €52.4bn budget, focuses on solving shared global challenges such as climate change, clean energy, digital innovation, and public health. South Korea’s participation in this pillar allows its researchers to lead and participate in international consortia, secure funding, and drive scientific progress across borders.

• Republic of Korea joins Horizon Europe programme to bring together leading European and Korean minds
  European Commission
  Republic of Korea has officially become the first Asian country to associate with Horizon Europe, the EU's multibillion research and innovation programme. Korean researchers and organisations can now participate.

Japanese police release decryptor for Phobos ransomware after February takedown
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
Victims of Phobos and 8Base ransomware incidents will now have access to a decryptor thanks to Japan’s National Police Agency. Last week, Japanese officials published the free decryption tool and a guide in English for organizations impacted by the group’s attacks. U.S. prosecutors previously said operators of the strains collected upwards of $16 million from about 1,000 victims worldwide dating back to 2019. The tool was shared by the European Cybercrime Centre and the FBI, which noted that its Baltimore office led an investigation that culminated in charges against Phobos affiliates earlier this year. Phobos is best known for accepting significantly smaller ransoms from attacks, including several under $100,000.

Southeast Asia

Critical infrastructure in S’pore under attack by cyber espionage group: Shanmugam
The Straits Times
Samuel Devaraj
The authorities are dealing with an ongoing attack on Singapore’s critical information infrastructure by a state-sponsored cyber espionage group, UNC3886. Naming the nation’s attacker for the first time on July 18, Coordinating Minister for National Security K. Shanmugam said that Singapore is facing serious threats from state-linked advanced persistent threat actors. These are well-resourced attackers that use sophisticated techniques to evade detection. They lurk in networks to spy over the long term, to steal sensitive information or disrupt essential services, among other objectives. Cyber-security firm Mandiant first detected the Chinese espionage group in 2022. UNC3886 is said to have targeted prominent strategic organisations – including those in the defence, technology and telecommunication sectors – on a global scale.

Cambodian elites complicit in cybercrime despite latest government crackdown, experts warn
ABC News
Gillian Aeria
A crackdown by Cambodian authorities on cybercrime operations has resulted in the arrests of more than 1,000 suspects in the past week. The South-East Asian country's Prime Minister Hun Manet issued the order authorising state action for "maintaining and protecting security, public order, and social safety", and threatened job losses if law enforcement failed to act. The suspects detained in the latest crackdown in the capital Phnom Penh and the southern city of Sihanoukville reportedly included 85 Cambodians, more than 200 Vietnamese, 27 Chinese, and 75 suspects from Taiwan. Police also seized equipment, including computers and hundreds of mobile phones.

• China’s exploitation of scam centers in Southeast Asia
  US-China Economic and Security Review Commission
  This Commission Spotlight examines how China-linked scam centers are fueling corruption and violence in Southeast Asia, paving the way for greater Chinese influence in the region, and directly harming Americans in the process. Its findings are based on the Commission’s March 2025 hearing on “Crossroads of Competition: China in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands”; fact-finding trips to the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia; and open source research.

Timor-Leste: on the cusp of digital transformation despite challenges
Dev Policy
Tim Mann and Juvita Pereira Faria
Timor-Leste has a reputation for having some of the slowest and most expensive internet services in the world. But things are beginning to change. Timor-Leste is one of the last countries in the region without an active submarine fibre optic internet connection. Low-earth-orbit satellite internet Starlink became available in the country in late 2024, and the long-awaited submarine fibre optic internet cable is expected to come online later in 2025. In April, the government approved the establishment of a new state-owned enterprise tasked with managing the cable connection, setting wholesale prices and delivering services to government agencies and telecommunications providers.

South & Central Asia

India's 1st private orbital rocket launch on track: Skyroot CEO
Nikkei Asia
Neeta Lal
Pioneering Indian space startup Skyroot Aerospace is on track for India's first private orbital rocket launch later this year, co-founder and CEO Pawan Chandana told Nikkei Asia, as the country emerges as a major player in the space industry. Tests on mission-critical systems for the Vikram-1 rocket, such as the separation of expended fuel stages and the protective nose cone around the payload, have been successfully completed, Chandana said. The Skyroot team has also completed tests of the fairing separation system. Designed for rapid, on-demand deployment of small satellites into low Earth orbit, the modular Vikram-1 can be configured to suit a variety of payloads. Its maiden launch is set for later this year.

NZ & the Pacific

West should coordinate to support Pacific cyber development
The Strategist
Jason Van der Schyff
Over the past five years, the Pacific has witnessed a flurry of digital infrastructure activity. From Australia-backed submarine cables to US-led satellite internet trials, there is no shortage of attention. Projects including the Coral Sea Cable, the East Micronesia Cable and the Southern Cross NEXT have boosted capacity. Starlink and OneWeb have begun filling coverage gaps in remote islands. Japan has deepened its digital cooperation through financing and technical training, while the EU’s Global Gateway is cautiously extending to the region.

Ukraine – Russia

Russian lawmakers say 'security threat' WhatsApp should prepare to leave Russia
Reuters
WhatsApp should prepare to leave the Russian market, a lawmaker who regulates the IT sector said on Friday, warning that the messaging app owned by Meta Platforms was likely to be put on a list of restricted software. President Vladimir Putin last month signed a law authorising the development of a state-backed messaging app integrated with government services, as Russia strives to reduce its dependence on platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram. A state-backed app, MAX, could gain market share if WhatsApp - used by 68% of Russians daily - left. The company's Facebook and Instagram social media platforms have been banned in Russia since 2022, when Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.

Europe

How disinformation fuelled Spain’s anti-migrant riots after attack on pensioner
Euronews
Mared Gwyn Jones
The town of Torre Pacheco, in Spain’s south-eastern region of Murcia, has been shaken by an attack on a local pensioner and ensuing violent anti-migrant unrest – and disinformation has inflamed the tensions. Police have discarded robbery as the motive and say the attack was likely filmed as part of a social media ‘challenge’ targeting the elderly and vulnerable. Three people of North African origin have been arrested. One of them, a 19-year-old man believed to be the attacker, was detained in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa while attempting to flee to France. Far-right, anti-migrant groups such as ‘Deport Them Now’ have called for attacks on people of North African origin. A Spanish leader of the group, known only by the initials C.L.F., was detained on suspicion of inciting violence in the province of Barcelona.

Spain says Huawei storage is ‘minor part’ of wiretap systems
Bloomberg
Daniel Basteiro
Spain only uses Huawei storage for a ‘minor part’ of its wiretapping system, the government said. Huawei storage within the so-called SITEL wiretapping system “represents a minor part of a watertight, audited, isolated, and certified system in compliance with the national high-level security scheme,” a government official said in response to questions from Bloomberg. Sitel is used by security forces that report to the Interior Affairs ministry. The Spanish intelligence agency CNI is not included in the Huawei contract and the Huawei equipment is not used for any classified information, the spokesperson said.

AI models with systemic risks given pointers on how to comply with EU AI rules
Reuters
Foo Yun Chee
The European Commission set out guidelines to help AI models it has determined have systemic risks and face tougher obligations to mitigate potential threats comply with European Union artificial intelligence regulation or AI Act. The move aims to counter criticism from some companies about the AI Act and the regulatory burden while providing more clarity to businesses which face fines ranging from 7.5 million euros or 1.5% of turnover to 35 million euros or 7% of global turnover for violations. The AI Act, which became law last year, will apply on Aug. 2 for AI models with systemic risks and foundation models such as those made by Google, OpenAI, Meta Platforms, Anthropic and Mistral. Companies have until August 2 next year to comply with the legislation.

UK

UK sanctions Russian spies for malicious activity
BBC
Hafsa Khalil and Frank Gardner
A number of Russian spies have been sanctioned for conducting a "sustained campaign of malicious cyber activity" including in the UK, the Foreign Office has said. Three military intelligence units from Russia's GRU espionage agency and 18 officers have had sanctions placed on them for allegedly spreading chaos and disorder on Russian President Vladimir Putin's orders. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy linked the activity to the UK's continued support of Ukraine, and said GRU spies were "running a campaign to destabilise Europe". Separately, the European Union placed its "strongest sanctions" yet on Russia, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called "essential and timely".

Afghan files: Did UK’s military data rules make a leak more likely?
Financial Times
David Sheppard and Charles Clover
The leak by the UK’s Ministry of Defence of identifying information for thousands of Afghans was the latest in a string of blunders that has raised questions about the department’s handling of sensitive data. This week’s revelation — that a database with details of 25,000 people was emailed out in 2022 — followed a series of breaches in 2021 that saw the department later forced to pay £1.6mn in compensation to more than 250 individuals. In those cases, an email was sent to a large number of people in the ‘To’ field without hiding the other recipients, a serious error as it would have revealed the names of those who had applied for resettlement in the UK to others on the list.

Africa

AI and immigration uncertainty threaten Nigeria’s dreams of becoming an outsourcing hot spot
Rest of World
Damilare Dosunmu and Stephanie Wangari
As Nigeria bets billions of dollars on becoming the next outsourcing superpower, it is grappling with how artificial intelligence and immigration policies are radically reshaping the industry. The African nation is upgrading its tech infrastructure and trying to train millions with the aim of attracting outsourcing investment and jobs. It wants to follow India, the Philippines, and other countries that have turbocharged growth by offering the world the talents of their hardworking, English-speaking coders and call center workers. The government is encouraging the industry with the “Outsource to Nigeria Initiative,” hoping to carve itself a thicker slice of the global business process outsourcing market.

Big Tech

Microsoft says it has stopped using China-based engineers to support Defense Department computer systems
ProPublica
Renee Dudley
Microsoft says it has stopped using China-based engineers to support Defense Department cloud computing systems after ProPublica revealed the practice in an investigation this week. Microsoft’s announcement came hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said his agency would look into Microsoft’s use of foreign-based engineers to help maintain the highly sensitive cloud systems. In its investigation, ProPublica detailed how Microsoft uses engineers in China to help maintain the Defense Department’s computer systems — with minimal supervision by U.S. personnel — leaving some of the nation’s most sensitive data vulnerable to hacking or spying from its leading cyber adversary.

Critical Alert issued on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server vulnerability
Australian Cyber Security Magazine
ACSM Accro
The Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre issued a critical alert over the weekend concerning a vulnerability impacting Microsoft Office SharePoint Server products. Microsoft announced its awareness of an exploit for CVE-2025-53770 that exists in the wild and has observed active attacks targeting on-premises SharePoint Server customers. Microsoft is preparing and fully testing a comprehensive update to address this vulnerability. SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365 is not impacted. A patch is currently not available for this vulnerability.

Artificial Intelligence

AI firm’s AUKUS approval proves Australia’s increasing military ties to US, UK
Crikey
Anton Nilsson
An Australian AI company has become the latest to be granted the right to licence-free trades with the US and UK under the AUKUS deal, highlighting the steady pace at which the submarine pact’s second pillar is advancing. Maritime AI and autonomy company Greenroom Robotics announced it had been granted AUKUS authorised user status by the Australian government, enabling it to “fast-track delivery of advanced technologies” to the other two AUKUS countries. He also said Greenroom Robotics, which specialises in technology meant to turn ships into autonomous and AI-enabled vessels, was “one of the very first Australian companies” to be granted the status, though that appears to be a stretch.

AI groups spend to replace low-cost ‘data labellers’ with high-paid experts
Financial Times
Melissa Heikkilä
Top artificial intelligence groups are replacing low-cost “data labellers” in Africa and Asia with highly paid industry specialists, in the latest push to build “smarter” and more powerful models. Companies such as Scale AI, Turing and Toloka are hiring top experts in fields such as biology and finance to help AI groups create more sophisticated training data that is crucial for developing the next generation of AI systems. The rise of so-called “reasoning” models such as OpenAI’s o3 and Google’s Gemini 2.5 has accelerated the move away from employing thousands of low-cost workers in countries such as Kenya and the Philippines, who are typically paid less than $2 an hour to undertake the time-consuming task of annotating the huge datasets used to train AI models.

Misc

Gaming in their golden years: why millions of seniors are playing video games
The Guardian
Adrienne Matei
Adults over the age of 50 represent nearly a third of US gamers and are becoming more visible in the mainstream. Statham is one of the 57 million Americans over 50 who game, a cohort that represents 28% of roughly 205 million total US gamers, shows recent data from the Entertainment Software Association. According to the ESA, nearly half of Americans in their 60s and 70s play some form of PC, mobile or console video game every week, as do 36% of people in their 80s. And as more gamers like Statham enter their golden years, older adults are becoming more visible in the gamer mainstream – sometimes to the confusion of their peers on multiplayer platforms. Some research suggests older adults may experience benefits from gaming, though effects depend on the type of game.

Research

Your Android phone is getting better at warning you about earthquakes
The Washington Post
Kasha Patel
The earthquake early-warning system is on by default on Androids — which make up 70 percent of smartphones around the world — as long as location services are enabled. That means people shouldn’t need to do anything more to activate the system. Users can check if the feature is turned on through their phone’s settings. A study released Thursday in the journal Science by Google engineers show global Android-based algorithms can detect early seismic activity and provide warnings with similar effectiveness as traditional ground seismic networks. The system has detected more than 1,000 earthquakes worldwide since 2021, sometimes alerting people 15 seconds to a minute before the shaking propagated toward them.

Space is the new factory floor
Financial Times
Ariel Ekblaw
Every industrial revolution is defined by its location — think of Manchester’s mills, Detroit’s assembly lines and the remote bubble of Silicon Valley’s R&D labs. The same is true for the next industrial revolution, currently unfolding 250 miles above our heads. Picture this: it is 2040 and semiconductors are being manufactured in orbit to achieve quality performance impossible on Earth. Energy systems that dwarf terrestrial solar farms are operational. The space economy is approaching $2tn, spanning supply chains and transportation to consumer goods and lifestyle. Much of this future depends on the cost of sending rockets into space continuing to fall. In the past 15 years, launch costs have dropped from $50,000 per kilogramme to under $2,000.

Events & Podcasts

The Sydney Dialogue 2025
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.