Microsoft's new quantum state-of-matter | Russian hackers targeting Signal accounts | Australian murder plots directed by foreign nations says ASIO

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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 now says it has created a new state of matter in its quest to make a powerful machine, called a quantum computer, that could accelerate the development of everything from batteries to medicines to artificial intelligence. On Wednesday, Microsoft’s scientists said they had built what is known as a “topological qubit” based on this new phase of physical existence, which could be harnessed to solve mathematical, scientific and technological problems. The New York Times

• Google’s security team said in a report on Wednesday that Signal’s popularity among military personnel, politicians, journalists and activists has made it a prime target for espionage operations. However, other messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, have also been targeted by pro-Russian hackers for similar purposes. The Record, by Recorded Media

• Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) director-general Mike Burgess has detailed how his organisation has identified "at least three" different countries plotting to "physically harm people" living here. "In one operation, a foreign intelligence service wanted to silence an Australia-based human rights activist," Mr Burgess said. Last year, ASIO discovered another hostile foreign intelligence service wanted to harm and possibly kill one or more individuals on Australian soil, and working with international partners helped disrupt the global plot. ABC News

ASPI

The 2025 Annual Threat Assessment: ASIO makes the case for ‘national’ security
The Strategist
Chris Taylor and Linus Cohen
The outlook is unpromising: more security surprises, more threat diversity and fewer effective norms to constrain state and non-state behaviour. The future Burgess paints is one that is under pressure from great-power competition, the diffuse post-Covid-19 constellation of anti-authority grievances and ever-mutating radicalisation pathways, all accelerated by technological advances.

World

Pegasus spyware infections found on several private sector phones
The Record by Recorded Future
Suzanne Smalley
Pegasus spyware was detected on 11 of 18,000 unique devices iVerify tested in the month of December alone, the firm announced Wednesday. The latest victims described by the company all work in private industry — including in real estate, logistics and finance — except for one who is a European government official, iVerify said. Victims who are willing to reveal their locations are from Switzerland, Poland, Bahrain, Spain, the Czech Republic and Armenia.

Australia

ASIO boss reveals multiple nations plotted to murder critics in Australia
ABC News
Andrew Greene
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) director-general Mike Burgess has detailed how his organisation has identified "at least three" different countries plotting to "physically harm people" living here. "In one operation, a foreign intelligence service wanted to silence an Australia-based human rights activist," Mr Burgess said. Last year, ASIO discovered another hostile foreign intelligence service wanted to harm and possibly kill one or more individuals on Australian soil, and working with international partners helped disrupt the global plot.

Australian children able to bypass age limit set by social media platforms, report shows
Reuters
Aaditya Govindrao, Byron Kaye and Sneha Kumar
Children in Australia are able to easily bypass the minimum age limit imposed by social media platforms, a report by the country's online safety regulator showed on Thursday, ahead of a landmark ban by the government on access for those under 16. ESafety's report combined results from a national survey on social media usage by eight to 15-year olds, along with responses from eight services including Alphabet's YouTube, Meta's Facebook and Amazon's Twitch.

Miner Pilbara sees lithium demand rallying on China mine restart
Yahoo Finance
Paul-Alain Hunt
Australia’s largest pure-play lithium producer Pilbara Minerals Ltd. said it sees demand recovering on the restart of a large mine and refinery in China, even as it reported a net loss in its half-year earnings. Prices in lithium carbonate have fallen about 87% since peaking in 2022 and are down more than 22% compared with this time last year.

China

China’s ports adopt DeepSeek AI model to streamline operations, protect data
South China Morning Post
Carol Yang
Just over a month since the January launch of the latest model from the AI start-up that shares its name, three major ports in China have already implemented or are planning to adopt the tool for greater efficiency and service quality. Hubei Port Group researcher Yu Jiaxiang said the use of domestic technology is “vital” to ensure data security in port operations, facility layout and cargo information.

As China's firms rush to adopt DeepSeek’s AI services, workers worry over impact on jobs
Channel News Asia
The hashtag “ask DeepSeek whether my job will be taken” has been trending on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, garnering close to 7.2 million views as of Thursday (Feb 20). “I thought in the age of AI, an ‘iron rice bowl’ would remain an ‘iron rice bowl’. But I didn’t realise the launch of an AI civil servant would thoroughly change my views, and it looks like now no job is safe,” one user wrote.

Behind DeepSeek lies a dazzling Chinese university
The Economist
For all that, Zhe Da shows that “the tectonic plates of global higher education are shifting very dramatically”, says William Kirby, a China expert at Harvard Business School. In January China released a plan to become an “education power…with global influence” by 2035. Not long ago that goal would have looked overly ambitious. Now, places like Zhe Da have made it look surprisingly likely.

Local officials in China told to use DeepSeek AI to help them make decisions
South China Morning Post
Yuanyue Dang
Local governments in China have urged officials to use DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence model to help them make decisions. Senior figures in a number of cities have recently given their staff instructions about the use of the technology. These include Zhengzhou, capital of the central province of Henan, where the city’s Communist Party chief An Wei urged senior city officials to “deeply study and master the use of AI models such as DeepSeek, and make full use of AI to support decision-making, analysis and problem-solving”, according to the city’s official newspaper.

USA

CISA and FBI: Ghost ransomware breached orgs in 70 countries
Bleeping Computer
Sergiu Gatlan
CISA and the FBI said attackers deploying Ghost ransomware have breached victims from multiple industry sectors across over 70 countries, including critical infrastructure organizations. Other industries impacted include healthcare, government, education, technology, manufacturing, and numerous small and medium-sized businesses. "Beginning early 2021, Ghost actors began attacking victims whose internet facing services ran outdated versions of software and firmware."

As Trump Reshapes AI Policy, Here’s How He Could Protect America’s AI Advantage
Time
Janet Egan, Paul Scharre and Vivek Chilukuri
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump repealed Biden’s “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence” executive order, signaling a new policy approach at a pivotal moment for AI progress. Now, reports suggest that the Trump Administration may eliminate the AI Safety Institute. As researchers project the possibility of human-level AI within the next decade, America’s leadership position is precarious. China is working aggressively to narrow the capability gap, investing massive resources and undertaking covert actions to bypass export controls and to steal sensitive AI secrets.

STEM, policy, and representation: why HBCUs matter more than ever
New Global Politics
Arsene Frederic JR.
The Trump administration has ushered in a new era for U.S. technology policy. Executive Order 14151 calls for the dismantling of DEI initiatives across the federal government. This decision threatens efforts to build a more inclusive Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics workforce, potentially limiting opportunities for underrepresented communities in these fields.

Trump says he is speaking to China about TikTok
Reuters
Andrea Shalal and Costas Pitas
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Wednesday that he was talking to China about TikTok as the United States seeks to broker a sale of the popular app.

North Asia

Kim Sae-ron's death exposes Korea's celebrity culture
BBC News
Kelly Ng
Kim - who was found dead aged 24 at her home in Seoul on Sunday - had been bombarded with negative press coverage and hate online after a drink-driving conviction in 2022. Police have not provided further details about her death. Experts found the circumstances leading to it depressingly familiar. Other celebrities also ended up taking their lives after careers upended by cyberbullying. As Kim was laid to rest on Wednesday, analysts say they are not optimistic her death will lead to meaningful change.

Who is Brian Koo, the man behind Korea's $35b AI data center?
The Korea Herald
Jie Ye-eun
South Korea is set to become home to the world's largest artificial intelligence data center, spearheaded by a third-generation member of the LG Group, and attention is turning to the man leading the project. The project is reportedly led by Stock Farm Road, an investor group co-founded by LG heir Brian Koo, and Amin Badr-El-Din, founder and CEO of Jordan-based BADR Investments, according to The Wall Street Journal and industry sources Wednesday.

Southeast Asia

Thailand to take in 7,000 rescued from illegal cyber scam hubs in Myanmar
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Around 7,000 people rescued from illegal call centers in Myanmar are awaiting transfer to Thailand amid a crackdown on cross-border scam operations, Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Wednesday. Many of those trapped in the operations — primarily from China, Thailand, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations — are forced to run scams such as romance fraud, cryptocurrency swindles and fake investment schemes.

China repatriates more than 1,000 online scam workers rescued from Myanmar
NPR
So far, 16 flights, or about four a day, have been scheduled to repatriate the Chinese nationals, accompanied by police. Because of the large number of Chinese — the projected number so far is 1,041 — Thailand is allowing Beijing to handle most of their processing and investigations on their return to China.

Ukraine - Russia

Russian state hackers spy on Ukrainian military through Signal app
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Google’s security team said in a report on Wednesday that Signal’s popularity among military personnel, politicians, journalists and activists has made it a prime target for espionage operations. However, other messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, have also been targeted by pro-Russian hackers for similar purposes.

Europe

Journalists launch legal action against Italian government over spyware claims
The Guardian
Angela Giuffrida, Lorenzo Tondo and Stephanie Kirchgaessner
Italy’s national union for journalists has submitted a criminal complaint to prosecutors in Rome after Giorgia Meloni’s government shut down questions in parliament over suspicions it had illegally used spyware technology to hack the phones of critics instead of criminals. Fury over the alleged spyware hacks was compounded after Lorenzo Fontana, the president of the Italian parliament, signed a document on Tuesday, seen by the Guardian, which invokes a rule allowing the government to refrain from responding to questions on the scandal raised by opposition MPs, claiming that “all unclassified information has already been shared” and that any other details were under state secrecy rules.

Hundreds of Dutch medical records bought for pocket change at flea market
The Register
Connor Jones
Robert Polet, a 62-year-old techie and apparent bargain hunter from Breda, a city in the southern part of the Netherlands, inadvertently happened upon a 15GB trove of sensitive medical records after picking up a quintet of 500GB hard drives for €5 ($5.21) each. After hooking them up when he returned home, Polet found medical data on the HDDs, including the Dutch equivalent of Social Security Numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, medication details, and other GP and pharmacy data. The records were from 2011-2019 and pertain mainly to individuals around the Utrecht, Houten, and Delft regions.

France tops China’s tokamak record with 22-minute plasma containment run
The Register
Simon Sharwood
France’s Commissariat à L'énergie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives on Tuesday claimed it’s topped China’s recently-established for record maintaining fusion plasma in a tokamak, and therefore taken another step towards building a fusion reactor capable of producing cheap energy. It’s not easy to create plasma, never mind maintain it, because doing so first requires heating gases under enormous pressure to the point at which some electrons are freed from atomic nuclei. The test at the CEA WEST Tokamak saw temperatures reach 50 million degrees.

NZ & Pacific Islands

Marshall Islands at high risk of cyber attack
Radio New Zealand
Giff Johnson
Based on MIMRA's experience with malware and the hacking of important government agencies and critical infrastructure providers in Palau and Guam, the draft legislation and stepped up engagement in cyber security is not a minute too soon. The bigger question is obvious: Are hackers already inside Marshall Islands government computers recording information, tracking communications and stealing documents?

Big Tech

Microsoft says it has created a new state of matter to power quantum computers
The New York Times
Cade Metz
Microsoft now says it has created a new state of matter in its quest to make a powerful machine, called a quantum computer, that could accelerate the development of everything from batteries to medicines to artificial intelligence. On Wednesday, Microsoft’s scientists said they had built what is known as a “topological qubit” based on this new phase of physical existence, which could be harnessed to solve mathematical, scientific and technological problems.

Meta sues alleged violent extortionist for holding Instagram accounts hostage
404 Media
Samantha Cole
The indictment goes into detail about the harassment Qibaa allegedly doled out against people who didn’t comply with his scheme, including sending hundreds or thousands of text messages, racial slurs, messages threatening to kill them, and photos of a man with a bloodied face. “Here’s the last guy who came to take photos/came near my home,” that text said.

Artificial Intelligence

Lenovo sees DeepSeek breakthrough as fuel for PC sales
The Wall Street Journal
Sherry Qin
Lenovo Group, the world’s largest PC maker, plans to leverage AI startup DeepSeek’s recent breakthrough to propel growth for its AI-enabled products. Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing said Thursday in an interview that Chinese startup DeepSeek’s sudden emergence last month is “very positive” for the industry and in particular for Lenovo.

Race for AI supremacy: Chinese-born scientists in Musk’s Grok squad line up against China
South China Morning Post
Victoria Bela
After Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence start-up xAI unveiled Grok 3, its latest chatbot, on Tuesday, the presence of a large number of Chinese developers at the company came under the spotlight. The United States and China continue to release new AI models in a bid to outperform each other. The victor in the global AI race may be determined by the efforts of Chinese computer scientists and engineers on either side.

Participatory AI? Begin with the most affected people
Tech Policy Press
Meg Young
Both firms and governments tend to centralize decision-making power and deploy a single system at scale. However, these tensions are not irresoluble; eliciting impacted communities’ input can support true innovation by directing technology development to the problems identified on the ground—rather than those imposed from the top down.

Events & Podcasts

Podcast: DOGE's website, hacked
404 Media
Joseph Cox
This week we start with Jason's story about anyone being able to push updates to DOGE.gov website. Then we talk about other stories with the DEI.gov and Waste.gov sites. After the break, Sam tells us all about some lawyers who get caught using AI in a case. In the subscribers-only section, we chat about a true crime documentary YouTube channel where the murders were all AI-generated.

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