Germany summons Russian envoy over cyberattack, election disinfo | Kids’ AI toys talk sex, parrot Chinese Communist Party talking points | Australians back AI upgrades for Triple Zero emergency calls
Plus, Trump enlists 5 allies to counter China on rare earths and tech
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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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Germany summoned Russia’s ambassador, citing clear evidence that GRU-linked APT28 hacked state air-traffic controller Deutsche Flugsicherung in August 2024 and that ‘Storm 1516’ ran election-disinformation ahead of February’s vote. Berlin signaled coordinated European countermeasures and support for new EU sanctions targeting actors behind hybrid attacks. The Record from Recorded Future
Several AI-powered children’s toys tested by NBC News and researchers gave kids inappropriate or unsafe responses, including instructions on lighting matches, descriptions of sexual topics, and political content reflecting Chinese Communist Party talking points. Safety experts warn current AI toy guardrails are inadequate and urge caution. NBC News
A survey of over 2,500 Australians and New Zealanders shows strong support for modernising the Triple Zero emergency call service with AI to improve call handling and response times. Most are willing to share personal data for enhanced service, though confidence in its effective use varies. ABC News
ASPI
Bondi terror: our response must be unity, not division and distrust
The Strategist
John Coyne
Last night’s violence at Bondi was confronting, brutal and deeply unsettling. It shattered the ordinary rhythms of a place that Australians associate with life, leisure and community. In moments like this, grief and fear arrive together. So too does a familiar secondary wave: speculation, outrage and the rapid search for someone or something to blame. That second wave matters. Because acts of mass violence aren’t only about physical harm; they’re also about emotional contagion. They’re designed, whether ideologically driven or not, to fracture social trust, amplify fear and provoke division. If we allow hatred, suspicion and dehumanisation to dominate the national response, then the violence succeeds in ways that extend far beyond the immediate victims.
Protecting truth in the era of AI mediation
The Strategist
John Coyne
The ritual is now familiar. A user calls Grok, the AI model used on social media platform X, into a political argument. Grok gives a mainstream, citation-driven answer. Instead of settling anything, it becomes fresh ammunition: one side posts it triumphantly; the other side turns its outrage on the AI, accusing it of bias, censorship or foreign influence. The thread then descends into a lengthy back-and-forth between users and the machine, often more hostile than the original disagreement. This reflects a broader pattern seen in online conflict: systems are instrumentalised not for learning, but to generate content for performative outrage.
We’ve updated ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker. This expansion incorporates 2025 data, adds 10 new technologies—from generative AI to brain-computer interfaces to geoengineering—and features a new at-a-glance overview of performance across all the technologies we track. Be the first to get early-access invites and launch updates: https://techtracker.aspi.org.au/
Australia
Australians open to dealing with AI on a Triple Zero emergency call, study finds
ABC News
Adelaide Miller
Australians want artificial intelligence to improve the delivery of emergency services, with many willing to share personal data on Triple Zero calls, according to a survey. The emergency hotline and telcos have been under scrutiny since several deaths linked to a widespread Optus outage in September and revelations of software failings in Samsung phones disallowing calls to Triple Zero.
Australia’s social media ban carries health warning for Big Tech investors
Financial Times
Roula Khalaf
Australia has given the world boomerangs, plastic money and black box flight recorders. Will its ban on social media for under-16s be its next gift? Australia implemented its ban, complete with robust age verification checks, this week. The EU, noting that all but 3 per cent of youths are online daily, is looking to follow suit, Denmark is already close to doing so. Even in the US, concerns over the addictive nature of social media apps are being aired in courts.
Social media makes many Australian teens feel worse about their bodies. Platforms must take responsibility
The Guardian
Zoe Daniel
Soon after the 2022 election a woman came into my electorate office to tell me about her teenage daughter. She spoke about her family’s journey through anorexia, the lack of effective and available medical support and treatment, about her child being held down by security guards for forced refeeding in hospital, the compounding mental health issues for the whole family, the financial and marital pressure as she tried to keep her child alive.
China
AI toys for kids talk about sex and issue Chinese Communist Party talking points, tests show
NBC News
Kevin Collier, Jared Perlo and Savannah Sellers
A wave of AI-powered children’s toys has hit shelves this holiday season, claiming to rely on sophisticated chatbots to animate interactive robots and stuffed animals that can converse with kids. Children have been conversing with stuffies and figurines that seemingly chat with them for years, like Furbies and Build-A-Bears. But connecting the toys to advanced artificial intelligence opens up new and unexpected possible interactions between kids and technology.
Clean, limitless energy exists. China is going big in the race to harness it.
The New York Times
Raymond Zhong, Chris Buckley, Keith Bradsher and Harry Stevens
On a leafy campus in eastern China, crews are working day and night to finish a mammoth round structure with two sweeping arms the length of aircraft carriers. On former rice fields in the country’s southwest, a hulking, X-shaped building is being built with equal urgency under great secrecy. That facility’s existence wasn’t widely known until researchers spotted it in satellite images a year or so ago.
America’s new enemy: The Chinese crypto cartel buying states to fight the U.S.
Whale Hunting
Tom Wright
A mysterious South African took over a sovereign nation, armed with a flood of untraceable wealth from scam compounds enslaving thousands. This is the story of how Chinese organized crime captured Thailand — and why America should be terrified.
China is ‘rejecting’ H200s, outfoxing US strategy, Sacks says
Bloomberg
Maggie Eastland
China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp.’s H200 and is rejecting the AI chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI czar David Sacks said, citing news reports.
USA
What to know about Trump’s executive order to curtail state AI regulations
Associated Press
JESSE BEDAYN
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday pressuring states not to regulate artificial intelligence. Trump and some Republicans argue that the limited regulations already enacted by states, and others that might follow, will dampen innovation and growth for the technology.
Trump’s AI executive order promises ‘one rulebook’ — startups may get legal limbo instead TechCrunch
How Trump’s tech advisers overcame a MAGA rebellion over AI The Washington Post
Gavin Newsom pushes back on Trump AI executive order preempting state laws
The Guardian
Dara Kerr and Nick Robins-Early
The ink was barely dry on Donald Trump’s artificial intelligence executive order when Gavin Newsom came out swinging. Just hours after the order went public Thursday evening, the California governor issued a statement saying the presidential dictum, which seeks to block states from regulating AI of their own accord, advances “grift and corruption” instead of innovation.
States take the lead policing AI in health care
Axios
Adriel Bettelheim
While President Trump demands a single national framework on AI policy, states are going their own way with hundreds of proposals aimed at setting guardrails for how the technology is used in health care. That could set up a clash over who determines how AI models and systems can be deployed in insurer reviews, mental health treatment and chatbots that interact with patients.
Trump enlists 5 allies to counter China on rare earths and tech
POLITICO
Phelim Kine
The Trump administration is forming a coalition to counter China’s dominant control of critical minerals and emerging power as a center of AI and other tech sectors. The administration plans to launch the coalition of partners with the signing Friday of the Pax Silica Declaration, uniting Singapore, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Israel in a collaboration intended to address deficits in critical mineral access edging out China’s massive investment in its critical minerals and tech sector. The administration is actively looking to enlist other countries to join the group.
The Nvidia chip deal is a national security disaster waiting to happen
Foreign Policy
Aaron Bartnick
In September, the leader of the world’s most valuable company lambasted China hawks for “destroying” the American dream. To be tough on China was a “badge of shame,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang argued. “It’s not patriotic, not even a little bit.” His comments came after withering criticism over a proposed deal with the Trump administration to allow new semiconductor exports to China in exchange for a 15 percent kickback to the U.S. government.
Bipartisan group of US lawmakers calls for export controls on synthetic DNA sequences
Reuters
Stephen Nellis
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers this week introduced bills that would require U.S. firms to obtain a license before exporting sequences of synthetic DNA. DNA research is foundational to the biotech industry, where researchers use powerful computers and, increasingly, artificial intelligence software to come up with new DNA sequences not found in nature that could be used to treat diseases. Those digital DNA sequences are then sent to labs where they can be synthesized into physical molecules and used in research.
North Asia
AI fuels Korea tech in 2026 as China squeezes steel, petrochemicals
The Korea Herald
Jo He-rim
South Korea’s semiconductor and display industries are set to be clear winners in 2026, driven by surging global investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure, while petrochemicals, steel and construction will remain under sustained pressure amid China’s growing manufacturing dominance and persistent trade uncertainty, a business survey showed Sunday.
Southeast Asia
Myanmar calls on countries to take back citizens held in crackdown on scam centers
ABC
Myanmar’s military regime appealed to the international community on Sunday to take back hundreds of foreigners who have been detained in a crackdown on scam centers in the country’s eastern Kayin state near the Thai border. In recent months, the authorities have raided two major scam centers, KK Park and Shwe Kokko, on the outskirts of Myawaddy, a trading town on the border with Thailand. The operations resulted in the detention of thousands of foreign nationals.
NZ & Pacific Islands
Google to build subsea cables in PNG under Aust defence treaty
InnovationAus
Kirsty Needham
Alphabet’s Google will build three subsea cables in Papua New Guinea, which the largest Pacific Island nation said was funded by Australia under a mutual defence treaty, in a key upgrade to its digital backbone. Australian and US military strategists view resource-rich but largely under-developed Papua New Guinea as having a prized location north of Australia at a time when China is boosting its influence in the region.
Ukraine – Russia
As war with Russia drags on, ultrarealistic AI videos attempt to portray Ukrainian soldiers in peril
NBC News
Marin Scott and Tavleen Tarrant
The videos began to circulate on social media in early November: Ukrainian soldiers appearing to weep and surrender on the front lines. To the naked eye, they look real, mirroring many of the videos that have emerged from the region during years of conflict. Few have telltale signs of manipulation. But Aleksei Gubanov, a popular Russian livestreamer who now lives in New York, immediately recognized something fishy: his own face.
Local spies with lethal gear: How Israel and Ukraine reinvented covert action
The Australian
Daniel Michaels
When Israel launched its 12-day attack on Iran in June, a network of secret agents on the ground proved critical in crippling Tehran’s defences. Some of the most secret operatives weren’t professional spies or commandos in camouflage. They were ordinary locals empowered by Israeli hi-tech gadgetry.
Europe
Germany summons Russian ambassador over cyberattack, election disinformation
The Record from Recorded Future News
Daryna Antoniuk
Germany on Friday summoned Russia’s ambassador after accusing Moscow of carrying out a cyberattack on the country’s air traffic control authority and conducting a disinformation campaign ahead of February’s general election, the Foreign Office said. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Martin Giese told reporters that Berlin had “clear evidence” linking an August 2024 cyberattack on Deutsche Flugsicherung — the state-owned company responsible for German air traffic control — to APT28, or Fancy Bear, a hacking group tied to Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU.
Danish intelligence accuses US of using economic power to ‘assert its will’ over allies
The Guardians
Adam Satariano and Kate Conger
Danish intelligence services have accused the US of using its economic power to “assert its will” and threatening military force against its allies. The comments, made in its annual assessment released this week, mark the first time that the Danish Defence Intelligence Service has listed the US as a threat to the country. Denmark, the report warns, is “facing more and more serious threats and security policy challenges than in many years”.
Elon Musk taunts Europe and tests willingness to enforce online laws
The New York Times
Miranda Bryant
Elon Musk is daring European authorities to take him on. The billionaire lashed out at the European Union over the past week after regulators fined X, the social media platform he owns, roughly $140 million for violating digital transparency rules.
UK
Britain in danger of outsourcing its intellect, warns AI pioneer
The Telegraph
Christopher Williams
The artificial intelligence revolution threatens to erode Britain’s sovereignty, one of the country’s most experienced tech entrepreneurs has warned. Ken Mulvany, co-founder and executive chairman of Benevolent AI, which has pioneered artificial intelligence in drug discovery, told The Telegraph that the United States and China are increasingly dominant in the crucial field.
British Airways fears a future where AI agents pick flights and brands get ghosted
The Register
Carly Page
British Airways’ chief executive has warned that the airline industry is fast heading for a future where AI agents, not humans, decide which brands get booked – and carriers that fail to adapt are at risk of quietly disappearing from the digital shop window. Speaking at Globant’s Converge 2025 event in London this week, BA boss Sean Doyle painted a picture of an airline business colliding head-on with agentic AI, as automated systems begin mediating everything from travel searches to complaints handling.
Middle East
Israel issues chilling cyber warfare warning after Iran attacks
Forbes
Zak Doffman
We have heard this before. The threat of cyber armageddon in a world where Chinese technology powers energy, telecoms and transportation infrastructure, with its finger on some kind of virtual red button, and where Russia splinternets itself off from the west. But there’s a much sharper cutting edge to the cyber threat in the Middle East. That means Israel versus Iran, two of the world’s leading offensive cyber states battling each other continually and quietly, while headlines focus more on the real-world battlefront.
Gender & Women in Tech
WDSN panel: collective effort is key to combatting modern threats
The Strategist
Elizabeth Lawler and Georgia Opie
Preparedness, resilience and blurred threats were the top security concerns for panellists at ASPI’s Women in Defence and Security Network (WDSN) Gala on 12 November. In the speakers’ views, addressing these issues required collective effort and communication. The panel—hosted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Jane Norman—was a rare opportunity to bring together prominent female leaders in defence and security, some of whom were the first women to serve in their roles.
Artificial Intelligence
Could America win the AI race but lose the war?
Financial Times
Tim Wu
Over the past year, major US tech companies have spent more than $350bn on AI-related infrastructure, with projections of over $400bn for 2026. This far exceeds the spending of any other nation — most notably China, where total investment is closer to an estimated $100bn.
Humanoid robots take center stage at Silicon Valley summit, but skepticism remains
Associated Press
Matt O’brien
Robots have long been seen as a bad bet for Silicon Valley investors — too complicated, capital-intensive and “boring, honestly,” says venture capitalist Modar Alaoui. But the commercial boom in artificial intelligence has lit a spark under long-simmering visions to build humanoid robots that can move their mechanical bodies like humans and do things that people do.
AI boom threatens to suck resources away from road, bridge work
Bloomberg
Brooke Sutherland
Road repairs, bridge reconstructions and sewer overhauls are at risk of getting delayed as the data center boom sucks up resources in the construction market. Much of US infrastructure is financed through the $4 trillion municipal-bond market where states, cities, counties, school districts, airports and other borrowers tap investors for money to build new projects or rehab existing ones.
OpenAI built an AI coding agent and uses it to improve the agent itself
ArsTechnica
Benj Edwards
With the popularity of AI coding tools rising among some software developers, their adoption has begun to touch every aspect of the process, including the improvement of AI coding tools themselves. In interviews with Ars Technica this week, OpenAI employees revealed the extent to which the company now relies on its own AI coding agent, Codex, to build and improve the development tool. “I think the vast majority of Codex is built by Codex, so it’s almost entirely just being used to improve itself,” said Alexander Embiricos, product lead for Codex at OpenAI, in a conversation on Tuesday.
Misc
Tech support scammers stole $85,000 from him. His bank declined to refund him.
The New York Times
Tara Siegel Bernard
David Welles, a retired lawyer, had been struggling with his new iPad for hours when he tried to call tech support. But instead of dialing Microsoft to help him connect his email, the phone number he found on Google put him in touch with cybercriminals.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security Programs team at ASPI and supported by partners.
Love this perspective; that AI toy bit really makes me think about how complex AI safety is, even when my partner and I discuss it over a good book.
The Germany piece is really telling about how election interference evolved. Coupling cyberattacks on infrastrucure with disinfo campaigns creates way more chaos than either alone. I remeber when people thought election hacking was just about voting machines, but the real playbook is about undermining trust across multiple vectors at once.