Europe’s tech security czar-to-be faces China fight at home | Encrypted messaging apps: a persistent challenge in fighting organised crime | How a Mumbai drugmaker is helping Putin get Nvidia AI chips
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Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s tech and security nominee, seeks to reduce Europe’s reliance on Chinese technology, particularly in 5G infrastructure. Finland’s heavy dependence on Huawei complicates her task, highlighting tensions between national economic interests and EU-wide security policies. POLITICO
Encrypted messaging apps present a significant challenge for law enforcement in combating organized crime. Criminal groups quickly adopt advanced encryption technologies, like Ghost, to coordinate illegal activities securely. Despite operations like Kraken disrupting these networks, balancing privacy concerns with law enforcement access remains complex and controversial. The Strategist
Shreya Life Sciences, an Indian pharmaceutical company, is facilitating the shipment of Nvidia AI chips to Russia despite sanctions. These chips are sourced from Malaysia and transported through India, often embedded in Dell servers, bypassing restrictions targeting Russia’s military complex. Bloomberg
ASPI
Encrypted messaging apps: a persistent challenge in fighting organised crime
The Strategist
John Coyne and Liam Auliciems
Last month, about 700 Australian Federal Police officers executed arrest warrants nationwide under Operation Kraken. This operation targeted Jay Je Yoon Jung, the alleged architect behind Ghost, an encrypted messaging app explicitly designed for organised crime groups. While Operation Kraken showcased Australia’s ability to disrupt sophisticated criminal networks, it also highlighted a pressing issue: the persistent challenge posed by evolving encryption technologies that organised criminal groups are so quickly adopting, allowing them to outpace law enforcement efforts.
Mitigating Australia’s cloud-computing risks is still work in progress
The Strategist
Andrew Horton
The appeal of cloud computing is undeniable. It provides remarkable scalability, cost-efficiency and agility, qualities that attract government and business. However, for all its benefits, there are also risks, not least of which is maintaining sovereignty over Australian data. The Australian government is working on mitigating the risks but needs to do more. Further necessary measures include improving cloud-computing regulation and encouraging development of entirely Australian services.
The World
The emerging age of AI diplomacy
Foreign Affairs
Sam Winter-Levy
In this emerging era of AI diplomacy, Washington will face similar challenges in one setting after another: it will have to control the proliferation of technologies that might have critical national security implications without kneecapping American corporations or driving potential partners into the arms of China. In their negotiations with the Gulf, U.S. policymakers should make sure that they set the right precedents.
Australia
ADF unveils robotic and autonomous weapons amid calls for stronger ethical guidelines
ABC News
Charmaine Manuel
As governments around the world turn to artificial intelligence and autonomous weapons in conflict, human rights advocates and scientists are calling for stronger frameworks to guide their use. Last month the Australian Defence Force unveiled a suite of weapons at the land autonomous systems and teaming demonstrations at the Puckapunyal Army Base in northern Victoria.
China
China’s chip chokepoints
Defence One
Matt Brazil, Matt Bruzzese and Peter W. Singer
Earlier this year, American investigators were tipped off about a plan to ship semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China. The alarm was sounded after two Chicago-based buyers of a Dynatex DTX-MDB 150 "scribe and break" machine asked the California manufacturer to file export paperwork that omitted the machine’s final destination: Chengdu GaStone Technology Company, a firm in southwest China under U.S. sanction for an illegal 2021 scheme to purchase military-grade integrated circuits. In April, Lin Chen was arrested and charged while Han Li escaped to China.
US-China tech takes a turn as TSMC chips found in Huawei’s AI processors
South China Morning Post
Matt Haldane
Global Impact is a weekly curated newsletter featuring a news topic originating in China with a significant macro impact for our newsreaders around the world. China may “never break through” US sanctions on advanced semiconductor production. This sobering message from one Beijing-based think tank analyst to the Post in a recent interview is a reminder of the huge hurdles that remain on China’s path towards technological self-sufficiency. Yet, recent advances in Chinese chipmaking illustrate the risk involved in Washington’s bet that it can meaningfully slow such progress.
USA
First US national security memo on AI sparks fear of escalating tech war with China
South China Morning Post
Orange Wangin and Dewey Sim
The first US national security memo on artificial intelligence could “escalate” its technological rivalry with China and deepen the rift between the two powers in that sector, analysts have said. Observers also expect Beijing to place greater emphasis on self-reliance in AI in response to pressure from the United States and its allies. The White House outlined the nation’s “first-ever” strategy for harnessing powerful AI in United States military and intelligence agencies in a national security memorandum released last week.
Is FBI still colluding with big tech to interfere in our elections?
Daily Signal
Kara Frederick and Daniel Cochrane
Four years ago this month, the FBI worked with Facebook and Twitter to suppress a New York Post story detailing the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, just weeks before the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Today, on the eve of another contentious election, America could see a repeat of what federal District Court Judge Terry Doughty called the “most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.”
North Asia
Korea opens national AI research lab to boost AI competitiveness
The Korea Times
Korea on Monday opened its national artificial intelligence research lab, a hub for global AI research projects in Seoul, as part of efforts to become one of the top three global leading powers in the sector, the science ministry said. The government plans to invest a combined 94.6 billion won ($68.2 million) in the National AI Research Lab by 2028 to help the organization lead the country's joint AI research projects with global partners, foster AI talents and create an ecosystem connecting the AI industry, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT.
South Asia
How a Mumbai drugmaker is helping Putin get Nvidia AI chips
Bloomberg
Andy Lin, Shruti Srivastava, Advait Palepu, and Viktoria Dendrinou
Occupying the top three floors of an unremarkable office building in northern Mumbai, there’s little to distinguish Shreya Life Sciences from the many other commercial businesses that keep the Andheri neighborhood of India’s largest metropolis humming throughout the day. But this inconspicuous pharmaceutical company is part of a lucrative trade in leading-edge technology to Russia that has the US and its European allies worried at India’s burgeoning role as an intermediary in the sales.
Ukraine-Russia
Russians behind fake video of ballots being destroyed, US officials say
The Guardian
Agence France-Presse
Russian actors were behind a viral video falsely showing mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being destroyed in the swing state of Pennsylvania, US officials said on Friday, amid heightened alert over foreign influence operations targeting the upcoming election. The video, which garnered millions of views on platforms such as the Elon Musk-owned X, purports to show a man sorting through mail-in ballots from the state’s Bucks county and ripping up those cast for the former president.
Europe
Europe’s tech security czar-to-be faces China fight at home
POLITICO
Mathieu Pollet
Henna Virkkunen, the European Union’s tech and security commissioner nominee, wants the bloc to cut back its dependencies on Chinese technology. She might as well start at home. The Finnish pick for the European Commission knows all too well the struggle for Europe’s tech industries to reconcile global competition with security concerns: Finland is home to one of the continent's few true global tech brands, Nokia, but has a 5G network comprising large amounts of equipment from China’s Huawei — a fierce Nokia rival.
Hackers breach sensitive government and police data in Italy
EURACTIV
Alessia Peretti
Prosecutors in Milan have uncovered a network of hackers and former law enforcement officials accused of using malware and insider contacts to break into several government databases, including the Interior Ministry. The group allegedly accessed over 800,000 confidential records, even targeting accounts linked to the president’s office. “No state governed by the rule of law can tolerate this,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni commented on the investigation.
UK
Keir Starmer says media firms should have control of output used in AI
The Guardian
Alexandra Topping
Keir Starmer has said media outlets should have control over – and be paid for – their work as artificial intelligence technology transforms the economy and the UK. Calling journalism the “lifeblood of democracy”, the prime minister vowed to “champion press freedoms” and ensure that “the growing power of digital technology does not begin to chip away” at the ability of journalists and publishers to uphold democratic values.
Five Eyes launch shared security advice campaign for tech startups
UK NCSC
The Secure Innovation security guidance is being utilsied across the Five Eyes intelligence partnership demonstrating the increased commitment between the nations. The members of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership launched shared security guidance Secure Innovation to help protect emerging technology companies from a range of threats, particularly those from nation-state actors.
How ‘big tech’ barons are plotting to steal Britain’s creativity
The Telegraph
Andrew Orlowski
The UK Government is mulling a radical change in copyright law to please large technology companies, like Microsoft and Google. Their generative AI systems are worth very little without training data, and so need high-quality material to feed them. But while Big Tech knows it must pay billions of dollars for computing power, and millions more for skilled AI developers, it thinks it can obtain this training material free. And in the UK Government, it’s found an easy mark.
Africa
Meg Whitman’s mission in Africa: American tech over Chinese
Bloomberg
Mark Bergen, Olivia Solon, and Loni Prinsloo
When Meg Whitman was living in California and running first eBay Inc. and then HP Inc., the idea that Africa had some role to play in her businesses rarely crossed her mind. “I literally thought about Africa 1% of my time,” she says.
Africa’s digital decade: AI upskilling and expanding speech technology
Thr Google Blog
Matt Brittin
The next decade is set to be Sub-Saharan Africa’s digital decade — with emerging technologies set to significantly accelerate the continent’s development. For the first time, over half the population will have access to the Internet,while artificial intelligence alone could contribute $30 billion to the economy of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Big Tech
Intel gets caught up in the U.S.-China rivalry
The Wire China
Yi Liu
Criticism from a body with close ties to China’s top tech regulator signals increased scrutiny of the American chipmaker.A year after Beijing banned products made by U.S. chip maker Micron from domestic infrastructure, another U.S. giant — Intel — is under growing scrutiny in China. October 17, the Cyber Security Association of China called for Intel products sold in China to undergo a security review due to alleged vulnerabilities in the chips the company produces for use in central processing units. The association claimed these vulnerabilities could enable system administrators to steal user data and might pose a ‘serious risk’ to national security.
Intel invests US$300 million in China chip packaging and testing plant
South China Morning Post
Coco Feng
US semiconductor giant Intel said it would expand its chip packaging and testing base in Chengdu, in a show of commitment to the mainland market despite a recent call by a Beijing-backed cybersecurity group to review the company’s products.
Yandex: navigating localization and AI in a changing tech landscape
WIRED
In the global world of tech, Yandex stands as a unique player. Despite fierce competition, Yandex does strong business in markets like their native Russia, and increasingly the Middle East, with a significant share in search and other tech-driven services. Here, Dimitry Masyuk, Director of Search and Advertising Business Group at Yandex, shares insights on how the company continues to thrive by focusing on localization, artificial intelligence, and an understanding of local markets.
Meta platforms to use Reuters news content in AI chatbot
Reuters
Meta Platforms said on Friday its artificial intelligence chatbot will use Reuters content to answer user questions in real time about news and current events, the latest AI tie-up between a big technology company and a news publisher. Neither Meta nor Reuters-parent Thomson Reuters disclosed the financial details of the partnership. The arrangement would be its first news deal in years. It comes at a time when the Facebook parent has been reducing news content on its services after criticism from regulators and publishers over misinformation and disagreement about revenue-sharing.
Artificial Intelligence
Generative AI will soon generate millions of tonnes of electronic waste, study suggests
ABC News
James Purtill
Huge data centres built for generative AI will produce millions of tonnes of electronic waste by 2030, the equivalent of discarding billions of smartphones, a study suggests. Researchers calculated marginally extending the life span of data centre servers and reusing reusable parts could reduce this figure up to to 86 per cent.
Events & Podcasts
Inside Defence's transformation of its technology function and capability
iTnews
Ry Crozier
Defence has made it simpler for its 125,000 employees to engage with ICT, documenting who to talk to, the process and the status of the interaction, as part of sweeping changes started last year. Speaking to the iTnews Podcast, chief information officer Chris Crozier has provided the first in-depth explanation of the transformation of Defence’s former technology function, the ‘CIO Group’.
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