Microsoft accuses Chinese hackers of exploiting SharePoint vulnerability | UK to start using AI to estimate ages of asylum seekers | Trump administration pushes for global dominance of American AI
And Spotify publishing the latest songs of singers who died decades ago, courtesy of AI
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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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Microsoft has accused Chinese state-sponsored groups of exploiting its SharePoint document management software to target users including large corporations and government agencies. Financial Times
Officials are to start using artificial intelligence to help estimate the age of asylum seekers who say they are children. Angela Eagle, the immigration minister, said on Tuesday the government would test technology that judges a person’s age based on their facial features. The Guardian
The US government intends to publish a plan on Wednesday that calls for the export of American AI technology abroad and a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let it flourish. Reuters
ASPI
Australia can break China’s stranglehold on graphite supply
The Strategist
Francesca Ciuffetelli
Australia has the graphite the world needs, but it still relies on others to process the material. With more than 90 percent of the world’s battery-grade graphite refined in China, Australia is rich in critical minerals but poor in supply chain self-reliance. That must change, and northern Australia is the place to start.
Australia
Govt left waiting for PsiQuantum planning application
InnovationAus
Justin Hendry
A stadium-sized complex that will house PsiQuantum’s first commercially useful quantum computer is facing a potential setback, with the Silicon Valley startup and Brisbane Airport yet to lodge development plans. The “aggressive plan” was announced in April 2024, when the federal and Queensland governments jointly invested close to $1 billion in the company to build its error-corrected quantum computer in Australia.
On the tail of a scammer
ABC News
Julian Fell and Teresa Tan
Earlier that day, I’d been reaching out to known associates of a mysterious young Australian, known online only as Serpent. Serious allegations had been made against him, concerning a series of scams that involved cryptocurrencies, hacked social media accounts, and millions of dollars in takings. With Australians losing an estimated $1.3 billion to investment scams in 2023, it was a rare chance to see the other side of this equation: the perspective of an Australian scammer.
China
China showcases full spectrum of drone technology in ‘border control’ exercise
South China Morning Post
Liu Zhen
China has staged a warfare demonstration using a full spectrum of uncrewed systems, underscoring its role as a leading global drone supplier, according to a state media report on Monday. The drone and counter-drone exercise at a testing ground in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region simulated the “seizure and control of critical border locations”, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
China warns of security risks from bad actor ‘back doors’ in imported chips, smart devices
South China Morning Post
Edith Mao
China’s top anti-spying agency has urged citizens to beware of data leakage through deliberately designed or maliciously embedded “technical back doors” in chips and smart gadgets produced overseas, warning of risks to national security.
USA
White House to unveil plan to push US AI abroad, crack down on restrictive rules
Reuters
Jarrett Renshaw and Alexandra Alper
The US government intends to publish a plan on Wednesday that calls for the export of American AI technology abroad and a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let it flourish. Trump is laser-focused on removing barriers to AI expansion, a marked departure from his predecessor, Joe Biden, who feared US adversaries like China could harness AI to supercharge its military and harm allies.
Washington China hawks slam US approval of H20 chip sales
South China Morning Post
Khushboo Razdan
Washington China hawks are slamming the approval by US President Donald Trump’s administration of resumption of the sale of Nvidia’s downgraded H20 AI chip to China, questioning the move’s rationale and whether it was part of the June London trade deal between the two countries, as the administration claims.
Musk's xAI was a late addition to the Pentagon’s set of $200 million AI contracts, former Defense employee says
NBC News
David Ingram and Ben Goggin
It’s not clear what prompted Pentagon officials to add xAI to the mix of contractors since March. The department’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, which announced the contracts, didn’t answer written questions about why it chose xAI, but the Pentagon said in a statement that the antisemitism episode wasn’t enough to disqualify it.
Cyber warfare has arrived. Here’s the United States’ best defense.
The Washington Post
Elise Stefanik and Stephen Prince
To compete and win in this new arena, the U.S. must take a bold step and establish a national institution to train and deploy the next generation of digital defenders. We would call it the United States Advanced Technology Academy.
North Asia
North Korea dispatching AI researchers to Russia, DPRK academic says
NK News
Jooheon Kim
North Korea is dispatching artificial intelligence researchers and students to Russia and other countries, according to a pro-DPRK media outlet in Japan, the latest sign of its ambition to develop and use cutting-edge AI despite sanctions that restrict technology cooperation with Pyongyang.
South & Central Asia
Senate introduces bill to ban social media accounts for under 16s
The Express Tribune
Naeem Asghar
The bill places legal responsibility on social media companies to prevent underage access, aligning Pakistan's policy with those of Australia and New Zealand in a bid to foster digital safety. The legislation ordered social media firms to take "reasonable steps" to prevent young teens from having accounts was passed in the Senate with 34 votes in favour and 19 against.
Europe
Poland investigates sabotage after air traffic control disruption delayed flights
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Poland’s internal security agency is investigating whether sabotage was behind a temporary outage in the country’s air traffic control system that disrupted operations at multiple airports on Saturday, causing widespread delays. The outage was not attributed to a cyberattack but prompted scrutiny from national security services for potential signs of sabotage.
Enforcement of EU's tech laws should not be traded away
Tech Policy Press
Svea Windwehr
Almost since the beginning of its current mandate, the European Commission has been kindling a deregulatory bonfire that threatens to roll back tech regulation, environmental, and social protections. In the name of strengthening ‘competitiveness’ to help the straggling European economy, the Commission has launched a massive simplification” agenda.
UK
UK border officials to use AI to verify ages of child asylum seekers
The Guardian
Kiran Stacey
Officials are to start using artificial intelligence to help estimate the age of asylum seekers who say they are children. Angela Eagle, the immigration minister, said on Tuesday the government would test technology that judges a person’s age based on their facial features.
UK government wants ransomware victims to report breaches so it can carry out ‘targeted disruptions’ against hackers
TechCrunch
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
The UK government wants to require victims of ransomware to report if they were breached with the goal of providing law enforcement with information that could help target the cybercriminals responsible. The other two key proposals include a ban on paying ransomware for public sector and critical infrastructure organizations, and a mandate to notify the government if other types of victim organizations intend to pay a hacker’s ransom.
Middle East
Lookout discovers Iranian APT MuddyWater leveraging DCHSpy during Israel-Iran conflict
The Record by Recorded Future
Suzanne Smalley
The new versions of the malware—which is believed to be tied to the Iranian cyber espionage group MuddyWater—rely on political lures and use websites containing links to malicious VPN and banking apps, Lookout says. One lure involved in the campaign centers on Starlink, which provided Iranians with web access after the country’s government imposed an internet blackout following Israel’s attacks.
Big Tech
Microsoft accuses Chinese hackers of exploiting SharePoint software
Financial Times
Rafe Uddin
Microsoft has accused Chinese state-sponsored groups of exploiting its SharePoint document management software to target users including large corporations and government agencies. The software giant has in recent weeks also been subject to further criticism after a ProPublica report found it had used China-based engineers to carry out support work for contracts it holds from the US Department of Defense.
Microsoft knew of SharePoint security flaw but failed to effectively patch it, timeline shows
Reuters
James Pearson
The vulnerability that facilitated the attack was first identified in May at a hacking competition, opens new tab in Berlin organised by cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, which offered cash bounties for the discovery of computer bugs in popular software.
YouTube wipes out thousands of propaganda channels linked to China, Russia, others
CNBC
Zach Vallese
Google announced Monday the removal of nearly 11,000 YouTube channels and other accounts tied to state-linked propaganda campaigns from China, Russia and more in the second quarter. The active removal of accounts is part of the Google Threat Analysis Group’s work to counter global disinformation campaigns and “coordinated influence” operations.
Musk's X says it won't cooperate with 'politically motivated' French probe
Reuters
Gursimran Kaur, Dominique Vidalon and Gabriel Stargardter
Elon Musk's social media platform X on Monday accused French prosecutors of launching a "politically-motivated criminal investigation" that threatens its users' free speech, denying all allegations and saying it would not comply with the probe. Earlier this month, Paris prosecutors stepped up a preliminary probe into X for suspected algorithmic bias and fraudulent data extraction.
Apple alerted Iranians to iPhone spyware attacks, say researchers
TechCrunch
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Apple notified more than a dozen Iranians in recent months that their iPhones had been targeted with government spyware, according to security researchers. Over the last few years, Apple has sent several rounds of notifications to people whom the company believes have been targeted with government spyware.
Apple set to stave off daily fines, EU to accept App Store changes, sources say
Reuters
Foo Yun Chee
Apple's changes to its App Store rules and fees will likely secure the green light from EU antitrust regulators, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, a move that would stave off potentially hefty daily fines for the iPhone maker. Apple made the changes after the EU antitrust enforcer handed it a 500 million euro ($586.7 million) fine in April and gave it 60 days to comply with the Digital Markets Act.
Microsoft poaches top Google DeepMind staff in AI talent war
Financial Times
Stephen Morris and Melissa Heikkilä
Microsoft has recruited more than 20 artificial intelligence employees from Google’s DeepMind research division, the newest front in a talent war being waged by Silicon Valley’s tech giants as they jostle to gain an edge in the nascent technology.
Artificial Intelligence
Spotify publishes AI-generated songs from dead artists without permission
404Media
Emanuel Maiberg
According to his official Spotify page, Blaze Foley, a country music singer-songwriter who was murdered in 1989, released a new song called “Together” last week. The song, which features a male country singer, piano, and an electric guitar, vaguely sounds like a new, slow country song.
Why the world should stop obsessing over LLMs
Rest of World
Mehboob Jeelani and Itika Sharma Punit
As the debate over the US-China battle for AI supremacy intensifies, Nandan Nilekani, the Indian tech billionaire and co-founder of Infosys, says the world needs to shift its focus away from who’s building the largest LLMs, and toward how they’ll be used.
America should assume the worst about AI
Foreign Affairs
Matan Chorev and Joel Predd
There is no way of knowing with certainty the exact trajectory along which AI will develop or precisely how it will transform national security. Policymakers should therefore assess and debate the merits of competing AI strategies with humility and caution. Some ideas and initiatives that today may seem infeasible or unnecessary will seem urgent and self-evident with the benefit of hindsight.
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.
How WIRED analyzed the Epstein video
WIRED
Lauren Goode, Michael Calore, Katie Drummond and Dhruv Mehrotra
The US Department of Justice recently released what it described as raw footage from the night of Jeffrey Epstein's death in 2019. When WIRED’s Dhruv Mehrotra went through the video’s metadata, he found that it had been, in fact, modified. In today’s episode, we dive into what Dhruv found and what it means.
Levelling the Playing Field: Advocating for Yourself with Grace & Grit
KPMG Vancouver
This event is for women and allies in all stages of their tech journey—from students and career changers to seasoned leaders and executives. Together, we’ll explore how to speak up, stand tall, and move forward in your career—without sacrificing your authenticity.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security Programs team at ASPI and supported by partners.
