FBI investigating leak of Israeli strike on Iran | South Korea calls for immediate withdrawal of North Korean troops deployed to Russia | Meta's Israel Policy Chief suppressing pro-Palestinian content

Good morning. It's Wednesday 23rd of October.

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

Follow us on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

• The FBI has opened an investigation into the leak of top-secret U.S. intelligence documents regarding Israel's preparation for an attack against Iran. A Telegram channel by the name "Middle East Spectator" claimed on Friday that it had received documents from a source in the U.S. Axios

• South Korea warned Tuesday it could consider supplying weapons to Ukraine in response to North Korea allegedly dispatching troops to Russia, as both North Korea and Russia denied the movements. Associated Press

• A former senior Israeli government official now working as Meta’s Israel policy chief personally pushed for the censorship of Instagram accounts belonging to Students for Justice in Palestine — a group that has played a leading role in organizing campus protests against Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. The Intercept

Australia

Labor concerned Meta may ‘sidestep obligations to pay for news’ as media bargaining code fight reignites
The Guardian
Josh Butler and Amanda Meade
Social media company Meta has accused a federal parliamentary committee of ignoring “the realities of how our platforms work” and the value Facebook and Instagram bring to news outlets, as a fight reignites over the news media bargaining code and funding of media publishers.

The Albanese government has also given its strongest indication yet it will look to reshape the code or replace the framework entirely, voicing concern Meta is trying to simply “sidestep obligations to pay for news”.

• It’s time Australia called in the big guns on the social media firms. Our democracy is at risk
  The Guardian
  Belinda Barnet
  The joint select committee on social media and Australian society tabled their interim report on Monday, recommending that the government explore alternative revenue mechanisms to supplement the news media bargaining code, such as a digital platform levy. The levy would operate like a tax on social media platforms, the proceeds being used to support public interest journalism, foster digital media literacy initiatives and sustain our media outlets. These ideas are being considered largely because Meta has refused to renegotiate the deals it entered into under the code three years ago, and because it has deprioritised news across its platforms.

ACCC uplifts its cyber security posture
iTnews
Eleanor Dickinson
The uplift comes as the ACCC takes a bigger regulatory role in Australia’s cyber security landscape, including the launch of the national anti-scam centre and digital ID, which is due to come into law on December 1. The ACCC’s regulatory role will cover accrediting digital ID services and approving which services can take part in the Australian government digital ID service and enforcing legislative compliance for providers and services.

Adult content sites without age checks may be blocked from Australian search results under draft code
The Guardian
Josh Taylor
Sites hosting adult content could be removed from search results and blocked from linking on social media in Australia unless they verify the ages of users trying to access them, under a draft industry code released on Tuesday. The age assurance for pornography and gambling content online precedes the development of the age assurance technology for teens accessing social media, but there will be crossover for sites such as X, which host adult content.

China

Threat of Chinese overcapacity looms over memory chips
The Wall Street Journal
Jacky Wong
Investors are worried that a huge production increase from China could derail the recovery of the memory-chip market. That doesn’t yet seem like an immediate risk, but China could still be a wild card down the road. The boom in artificial intelligence has driven strong demand for high-performance memory chips, especially for SK Hynix and Micron. Samsung, the market leader for the overall memory market, has lagged behind its rivals.

ByteDance terminates intern for sabotaging project, dismisses reports on losses
South China Morning Post
Wency Chen
ByteDance said it terminated an intern in August for “maliciously interfering” with a model training project, following rife speculation on mainland Chinese social media platforms. The clarification came after some social media posts alleged a ByteDance intern sabotaged the model training process with code because of dissatisfaction over resource allocation. The posts, which suggested the intern disrupted training involving a cluster of more than 8,000 H100 GPUs and caused tens of millions of dollars in losses, were overblown, ByteDance said.

USA

FBI investigating leak of U.S. intelligence on Israeli strike in Iran
Axios
Barak Ravid
The FBI has opened an investigation into the leak of top-secret U.S. intelligence documents regarding Israel's preparation for an attack against Iran. The leak was one of the most serious security breaches within the U.S. intelligence community in years. It exposed sensitive U.S. spying on one of its closest allies, and potentially risked disrupting Israel's plan to retaliate against Iran for its ballistic missile attack earlier this month. A Telegram channel by the name "Middle East Spectator" claimed on Friday that it had received documents from a source in the U.S.

Intelligence Briefing Outlines Foreign Influence Threats to U.S. Elections
Lawfare
Olivia Manes
With the election two weeks away, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, along with the F.B.I. and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, raised new warnings about the post-election period, arguing that Russia and Iran were considering stoking and amplifying domestic unrest.

• U.S. Fears Russia Might Be Planning Post-Election Chaos
  The New York Times
  Steven Lee Myers and Julian E. Barnes
  Russia is considering actions to stoke protests and even violence over the U.S. election results, intelligence officials said on Tuesday, as foreign powers appear to be moving aggressively to undermine the democratic process during what is already expected to be a contentious vote count.

  Russia, along with Iran and China, has already sought to influence the election through myriad efforts to spread disinformation.

US unveils new rules to block China, Russia and Iran from accessing bulk US data
Reuters
Sarah N. Lynch and David Shepardson
The U.S. Justice Department on Monday proposed new rules to protect federal government data or Americans' bulk personal data from getting into the hands of countries like China, Iran and Russia by placing new limits on certain business transactions. The proposal, which was previewed in March, implements an executive order issued earlier this year by President Joe Biden which aims to keep foreign adversaries from using accessible American financial and genomic data and health data for cyber-attacks, espionage and blackmail.

Inside the Harris Campaign’s push to win back Muslim and Arab voters
The New York Times
Hamed Aleaziz
With two weeks to go before the election, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is making a final push to win back Arab and Muslim voters. The campaign has launched Facebook ads targeting Muslims, created WhatsApp channels and distributed fact sheets with Ms. Harris’s most forceful statements on the war in Gaza.

Wanted: Weekend Warriors in Tech
The Wall Street Journal
Heather Somerville
The Defense Department wants to bring Silicon Valley’s top talent deeper into the folds of the military by offering technology executives positions as part-time military officers. The department is considering asking chief technology officers and other senior tech professionals to take up high-ranking positions in the reserves. The tech reservists would be periodically summoned to help with short-term projects in cybersecurity, data analytics and other areas.

North Asia

South Korea warns it can send arms to Ukraine after reports of North's troops in Russia
Associated Press
Hyung-Jin Kim
South Korea warned Tuesday it could consider supplying weapons to Ukraine in response to North Korea allegedly dispatching troops to Russia, as both North Korea and Russia denied the movements. NATO's secretary general said that would mark a “significant escalation.” South Korea's statement was apparently meant to pressure Russia against bringing in North Korean troops for its war against Ukraine. South Korean officials worry that Russia may reward North Korea by giving it sophisticated weapons technologies that can boost the North’s nuclear and missile programs that target South Korea.

Russia-linked hackers attack Japan's govt ports
Dark Reading
Robert Lemos
Two Russian hacking groups leveled distributed denial-of-service attacks at Japanese logistics and shipbuilding firms — as well as government and political organizations — in what experts believe are attempts to pressure the Japanese government. The attacks came after lawmakers boosted the nation's defense budget, and its military conducted exercises with regional allies. The two pro-Russian cyberthreat groups — NoName057 and the Russian Cyber Army Team — started attacking Japanese targets on Oct. 14, with more than half of the attacks targeting logistics, shipbuilding, and manufacturing firms, according to network-monitoring firm Netscout.

North Korean IT workers in Western firms now demanding ransom for stolen data
The Hacker News
Ravie Lakshmanan
North Korean information technology workers who obtain employment under false identities in Western companies are not only stealing intellectual property but are also stepping up by demanding ransoms in order to not leak it, marking a new twist to their financially motivated attacks. The fraudulent IT worker scheme, orchestrated with the intent to advance North Korea's strategic and financial interests, refers to an insider threat operation that entails infiltrating companies in the West for illicit revenue generation for the sanctions-hit nation.

Southeast Asia

How 10 blocked websites masquerade as authentic Singapore news sites
The Straits Times
Osmond Chia
Ten fake websites have been blocked by the Singapore authorities over concerns that they could potentially be used to lay the groundwork for disinformation campaigns here. The Ministry of Home Affairs and Infocomm Media Development Authority said the websites masquerade as Singapore websites by spoofing or using terms associated with Singapore in their domain names and incorporating familiar local features and visuals.

Thailand to prioritize data security in Cloud-First Strategy
Thai Business News
Thailand’s Prime Minister is driving the Cloud First policy to prioritize cloud solutions for a more modern and secure digital infrastructure. The Ministry is emphasizing stringent security measures and encryption techniques to protect sensitive governmental data in the cloud. Proactive training and awareness programs are being conducted to foster a resilient governmental framework capable of adapting to evolving cybersecurity risks.

South & Central Asia

IT minister gives an update on Nvidia developing AI chip with India
Times of India
Nvidia has reportedly proposed a joint chip development venture with India. This collaboration aims to leverage the country's growing semiconductor design expertise and tap into the country's expanding market. According to a report by The Economic Times, the world's leading graphics processing unit provider wants to use India's huge chip designing base and develop an India specific chip.

Ukraine-Russia

Russian government iPhone purchases rise despite security concerns
iTnews
Russia's Federal Security Service said in June 2023 that it had uncovered an American espionage operation that compromised thousands of iPhones using sophisticated surveillance software, an allegation Apple denied. The Kommersant newspaper last year reported that the Kremlin had told officials involved in preparations for Russia's 2024 presidential election to stop using iPhones because of concerns the devices are vulnerable to Western intelligence agencies.

Europe

Cyprus' critical infrastructure targeted by coordinated cyberattacks linked to pro-Palestine groups
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Cyprus’ critical infrastructure and government websites were targeted in a series of coordinated cyberattacks claimed by several pro-Palestine hacker groups. The country’s cyber officials reported that most of the attacks were unsuccessful, causing only temporary disruptions to targeted facilities, including banks, airports and government websites. The first warnings about a potential cyber operation against Cyprus emerged last week, following statements on Telegram and dark web forums from groups such as LulzSec Black, Moroccan Soldiers, Black Maskers Army and Anonymous Syria. The groups claimed they would compromise Cypriot agencies to “punish” the country for its support of Israel.

Data storage in spotlight of Italian security committee after Intesa breach
Reuters
Giuseppe Fonte
Italy's influential parliamentary committee on security will hold a round of hearings on data storage following a major breach at the country's biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo, opens new tab, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. Intesa Sanpaolo is under investigation by prosecutors in the southern Italian city of Bari after it emerged that the accounts of around 3,500 customers, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and former Prime Minister Mario Draghi, might have been violated.

UK

Ireland adopts Online Safety Code for video-sharing platforms including TikTok
TechCrunch
Natasha Lomas
Ireland’s media and internet watchdog, Coimisiún na Meán, has adopted and published an Online Safety Code that will apply to video-sharing platforms headquartered in the country from next month. Under the Code, in-scope platforms are required to have terms and conditions that ban uploads or sharing of a range of harmful content types — including cyberbullying; promoting self-harm or suicide and promoting eating or feeding disorders, in addition to banning content that incites hatred or violence, terrorism, child sex abuse material, and racism and xenophobia.

Gender and Women in Cyber

Innovative Voices in Tech: Women shaping the future of the industry
Women In Tech
Jasmin Diaz
Gender diversity in the workplace is critical to fostering innovation, creativity, and productivity. Studies consistently show that diverse teams, whether in terms of gender, race, or background, outperform homogenous ones in problem-solving and decision-making. This is especially true in tech, where the complexity of the challenges requires a variety of perspectives to develop solutions that are inclusive and far-reaching. Gender diversity in tech is not just a social or moral imperative - it’s also good business.

Big Tech

Meta’s Israel Policy Chief tried to suppress pro-Palestinian Instagram posts
The Intercept
Sam Biddle
A former senior Israeli government official now working as Meta’s Israel policy chief personally pushed for the censorship of Instagram accounts belonging to Students for Justice in Palestine — a group that has played a leading role in organizing campus protests against Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. Jordana Cutler, Meta’s Israel & the Jewish Diaspora policy chief, used the company’s content escalation channels to flag for review at least four SJP posts, as well as other content expressing stances contrary to Israel’s foreign policy.

Meta Platforms defeats shareholder lawsuit over child safety claims
Reuters
Jonathan Stempel
Meta Platform, opens new tab and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg won the dismissal of a lawsuit claiming they misled shareholders in Meta's proxy statement about their ability to ensure the safety of children who use Facebook and Instagram. In a decision on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco said the plaintiff Matt Eisner failed to show that shareholders suffered economic losses from Meta's alleged inadequate disclosures.

OpenAI hires ex-White House official as chief economist
Reuters
ChatGPT parent OpenAI has tapped former White House official Aaron Chatterji as its first chief economist to lead research on AI's impact on the economy, the startup at the center of the generative artificial intelligence frenzy said on Tuesday. Chatterji, a professor of business and public policy at Duke University, was formerly a White House CHIPS coordinator, responsible for the implementation of the $52.7 billion in subsidies for U.S. semiconductor production and research.

Meta suspends accounts tracking private jets of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and other celebrities
TechCrunch
Maxwell Zeff
Instagram and Threads accounts that track the private jets of celebrities – including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Kylie Jenner – were suspended on Monday, according to the owner of many such accounts, Florida college student, Jack Sweeney. Meta tells TechCrunch these accounts violated its privacy policy, citing a “risk of physical harm” against the individuals.

Facebook owner Meta restarts facial recognition tech in 'celeb-bait' crackdown
Reuters
Byron Kaye and Katie Paul
Three years after Meta, opens new tab shut down facial recognition software on Facebook amid a groundswell of privacy and regulator pushback, the social media giant said on Tuesday it is testing the service again as part of a crackdown on "celeb bait" scams. Meta said it will enroll about 50,000 public figures in a trial which involves automatically comparing their Facebook profile photos with images used in suspected scam advertisements. If the images match and Meta believes the ads are scams, it will block them.

Artificial Intelligence

Ex-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has moved his AI startup out of stealth, calling it Parallel
Business Insider
Jyoti Mann
The former CEO of Twitter has moved his AI startup out of stealth mode with a previously unknown name: Parallel Web Systems. It's unclear when Parag Agrawal updated his LinkedIn profile with the startup's name, but he has been working on the venture since at least the start of 2024. Agrawal raised about $30 million for the startup. Parallel's website is short on details about its mission other than stating that it is developing ""systems for advanced AIs to work with the web.""

With AI translation tools so powerful, what is the point of learning a language?
The Conversation
Elba Ramirez
In the age of artificial intelligence, foreign language learning can seem like it’s becoming obsolete. There are now translation tools to understand song lyrics, translate websites and to enable automated captions when watching foreign videos and movies. Our phones can instantly translate spoken words. But while technology can translate messages, it misses an important component of human communication – the cultural nuances behind the words.

Misc

How cybersecurity can help push the boundaries of energy transition innovation
World Economic Forum
Leo Simonovich and Filipe Beato
In the energy sector specifically, developing cyber-resilience should be seen as preparation for a successful energy transition. Energy infrastructure is critical to global economic activity. Around the world, public and private organizations are investing heavily in accelerating the transition to cleaner, more efficient energy systems. In 2023 alone, the International Energy Agency expected global investment in clean energy would exceed $1.7 trillion.

The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.