Myanmar enforces cybersecurity law | Chinese hack of US telecoms compromised more firms than previously known | Taiwan asks South Korea for help over Chinese ship after subsea cable damaged
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The cybersecurity law came into force on January 1 through a notification. It is said that one has the right to be judged if one commits offences domestically or under cyber law or on any vessel or aircraft registered under any existing law of the State or within the national cyberspace or in any other cyberspace connected to the national cyberspace. The Nation
A Chinese hack compromised even more U.S. telecoms than previously known, including Charter Communications, Consolidated Communications and Windstream, the Wall Street Journal reported late on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters
Taiwan has asked South Korea for assistance investigating a Chinese-owned ship suspected of cutting a subsea cable off its northern coast on Friday. Taiwan telecoms operator Chunghwa Telecom and the Taiwan Coast Guard said on Saturday that the cargo vessel Shunxing39 was believed to have caused damage to a communications cable. Financial Times
ASPI
Baltic subsea sabotage: China gets away with non-cooperation
The Strategist
Jakub Janda and James Corera
On Christmas Day, one of two cables connecting Finland’s electricity grid to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was cut. Four data cables—three linking Finland and Estonia and one between Finland and Germany—were broken at the same time. This and two earlier instances have heightened concerns about the vulnerability of Europe’s undersea infrastructure, prompting calls for enhanced security measures and international cooperation to safeguard critical communication and energy links.
Baltic subsea sabotage: We’re letting Russia (and China) undertake target practice
The Strategist
Jakub Janda and James Corera
Weak-kneed responses to attacks on Baltic cables risk allowing the Russia-China axis to conduct free target practice against NATO critical infrastructure, promoting the two countries’ proficiency, interoperability and lethality. Thanks to this opportunity, Russian crews and their masters ashore will become much better at crippling critical infrastructure connecting NATO states just as Europe is preparing for a defensive war against Moscow’s aggression.What are subsea cables, and what happens when one gets cut?
The Sydney Morning Herald
David Swan
Subsea communications cables might be one of the most underrated yet most important parts of the global economy – but they are also among the most vulnerable and open to disruption. “Australia’s subsea cable resilience is generally good,” ASPI technical specialist Jocelinn Kang said. “This is because of several factors, including that multiple cables land at different geographic locations and offer a degree of redundancy and resilience. Another is that Australia enforces legislation to protect cables in the shallow waters as they make landfall, designating certain areas as cable protection zones.”Taiwan asks South Korea for help over Chinese ship after subsea cable damaged
Financial Times
Kathrin Hille
Taiwan has asked South Korea for assistance investigating a Chinese-owned ship suspected of cutting a subsea cable off its northern coast on Friday. Taiwan telecoms operator Chunghwa Telecom and the Taiwan Coast Guard said on Saturday that the cargo vessel Shunxing39 was believed to have caused damage to a communications cable — close to the port of Keelung on Taiwan’s north coast — on the morning of January 3.
China
Chinese hack of US telecoms compromised more firms than previously known, WSJ says
Reuters
Kanishka Singh
A Chinese hack compromised even more U.S. telecoms than previously known, including Charter Communications, Consolidated Communications and Windstream, the Wall Street Journal reported late on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. Hackers also exploited unpatched network devices from security vendor Fortinet and compromised large network routers from Cisco Systems the newspaper reported.
How Chinese hackers graduated from clumsy corporate thieves to military weapons
The Wall Street Journal
Dustin Volz, Aruna Viswanatha, Sarah Krouse and Drew FitzGerald
Chinese hackers had gained the ability to shut down dozens of U.S. ports, power grids and other infrastructure targets at will, Jake Sullivan told telecommunications and technology executives at a secret meeting at the White House in the fall of 2023, according to people familiar with it. The attack could threaten lives, and the government needed the companies’ help to root out the intruders.
China is catching up with America in quantum technology
The Economist
In a small shop in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei, one of the rarest pieces of technology in the world is on display. The quantum computer in the showroom of Origin, a Chinese startup, looks ready to be plucked from the shelf and fired up. China and America’s quantum rivalry pits two starkly different models of innovation against one another. In America large tech companies—including Google, IBM, Intel and Microsoft—are the driving force behind innovation in quantum computing, alongside startups backed by venture capital. University research plays an important role, but government involvement is limited.
US investors in China venture funds race to comply with new tech rules
Financial Times
Tabby Kinder and George Hammond
US investors in Chinese venture capital funds are racing to comply with new rules banning them from backing companies that develop artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies used by the People’s Liberation Army. Measures by the Biden administration, which come into force on Thursday, impose civil and criminal penalties for US entities that invest in Chinese companies involved in semiconductors, quantum computing or AI systems that could be used by China’s military.
Meet DeepSeek: the Chinese start-up that is changing how AI models are trained
South China Morning Post
Ben Jiang and Bien Perez
Chinese start-up DeepSeek has emerged as “the biggest dark horse” in the open-source large language model arena in 2025, just days after the firm made waves in the global artificial intelligence community with its latest release. That assessment came from Jim Fan, a senior research scientist at Nvidia and lead of its AI Agents Initiative, in a New Year’s Day post on social-media platform X, following the Hangzhou-based start-up’s release last week of its namesake LLM, DeepSeek V3.
USA
PsiQuantum plans to build one of the world’s first commercially useful quantum computers in Chicago — despite huge obstacles
Chicago Tribune
Robert McCoppin
Google recently announced a major breakthrough in quantum computing when its Willow processor solved an equation that would take a conventional computer practically forever. But PsiQuantum, the company planning to build in Chicago one of the world’s first commercially viable quantum computers, is taking a different path. Instead of building a small-scale quantum computer designed primarily for testing and public demonstrations, PsiQuantum is shooting for the moon with a 1 million-quantum-bit machine capable of tackling practical, real-world applications.
Musk helped kill a congressional spending bill. But much of what he spread was misinformation
AP News
Melissa Goldin
President-elect Donald Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk played a key role this week in killing a bipartisan funding proposal that would have prevented a government shutdown, railing against the plan in a torrent of more than 100 X posts that included multiple false claims. The X owner, an unelected figure, not only used his outsize influence on the platform to help sway Congress, he did so without regard for the facts and gave a preview of the role he could play in government over the next four years.
Blake Lively's claims against Justin Baldoni put spotlight on 'hostile' Hollywood tactics
BBC
Ian Youngs
Actress Blake Lively was arguably the internet's public enemy number one for a couple of weeks in the summer. She's now filed an explosive legal case that she claims lifts the lid on "hostile work environments" that are created to harm reputations in Hollywood. She was the subject of "a sophisticated, co-ordinated, and well-financed retaliation plan" designed "to silence her", involving a "weaponised a digital army" and fake stories being fed to "unwitting reporters", her lawyers have alleged - and that's why she became the focus of negative publicity.
Americas
As AI adoption increases In LatAm, regional governments seek more investment in training to close the skill gap
The Latin Times
Erick Espinosa
The demand for artificial intelligence isn't set to slow down any time soon. Industries and government bodies worldwide continuing to invest in the evolving technology, and while Asia and Europe are currently leading in the adaptation of AI, a recent study estimates that 50% of Latin America will adopt the technology by 2029, representing a 30% increase in the next five years. One of the largest investments is set to come from the Brazilian government, which announced earlier this year a $4 billion AI plan to create systems for various industries across the country.
North Asia
Samsung, SK hynix secure US chip funding amid Trump-era uncertainty
The Korea Herald
Ahn Sung-mi
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have secured promised funding for new semiconductor plants in the US, but uncertainty remains over whether they can fully access the funds under the incoming Donald Trump administration. The US Department of Commerce confirmed that both chipmakers will receive funding under the Joe Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to attract more companies ― both American and foreign ― to invest in and manufacture chips in the US.
Facebook at the heart of why Taiwan can’t stop scams
CommonWealth Magazine
Jamie Yang
In November 2024, a mother and daughter in Taipei fell victim to a scam after encountering an advertisement on Facebook featuring a fake celebrity. They were swindled out of NT$12 million (US$0.37 million), and following apparently dismissive treatment by the police, the stress became unbearable, leading them to tragically take their own lives. This incident highlighted a growing issue: Why are scams proliferating, and why do social media platforms remain fertile ground for fake celebrity endorsements and ads promoting scams or fake services?
Southeast Asia
Myanmar enforces cybersecurity law effective January 1
The Nation
The cybersecurity law will come into force on the date specified by the President through a notification. It is said that one has the right to be judged if one commits offences domestically or under cyber law or on any vessel or aircraft registered under any existing law of the State or within the national cyberspace or in any other cyberspace connected to the national cyberspace. In addition, if an expatriate Myanmar citizen commits a crime punishable under the cyber law, it will be prosecuted under the cyber law.
South & Central Asia
Whose stories count? How Google search erases local media in Bangladesh
Tech Global Institute
Shahzeb Mahmood and Sabhanaz Rashid Diya
On November 25, 2024, Bangladeshi authorities arrested Chinmoy Krishna Das, a Hindu monk and community leader, on sedition charges—a move that sparked violent clashes between his supporters and the police, and escalated tensions between Bangladesh and India. The incident drew considerable media attention across South Asia and beyond, particularly after a lawyer was killed in Chattogram, thousands of Hindu monks in West Bengal attempted a march to the Bangladesh border, and activists in India attacked a Bangladeshi diplomatic outpost in retaliation. Google Search results for this incident and the broader narrative regarding the treatment of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh failed to highlight original, on-the-ground reporting from Bangladeshi sources.
Ukraine - Russia
Russian social media video appears to show Australian man captured in Ukraine
ABC News
Andrew Greene and Maani Truu
A video circulated on social media appears to show an Australian man, who identifies himself as 32-year-old Oscar Jenkins, being detained and questioned by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Acting Foreign Minister Mark Dreyfus has urged Russia to comply with international law as the government works to locate Mr Jenkins and confirm his wellbeing.
Europe
Europe stunned the world with its ‘regulatory tsunami’ last year—but AI and Trump will add new snags in 2025
Fortune
Prarthana Prakash
For the past decade, Big Tech formed an ultra-powerful corporate lobby that couldn’t be touched. Then, Europe turned everything upside down. Nearly every sprawling tech empire entered the European Union’s line of fire in 2024. Its regulatory clampdown ended an era of unfettered growth, forcing them to mend their ways or face millions (or billions) in punitive charges. Technically, the EU’s Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act kicked in 2022, although companies were given until earlier this year to comply. Once that deadline was lifted, it was time for action—and the EU spared little time.
UK
UK tech secretary backs away from social media ban for under-16s
Financial Times
Lucy Fisher
UK technology secretary Peter Kyle has said he has no plans to ban children aged under 16 from accessing social media, pivoting away from it being an option “on the table”. Australia introduced landmark legislation last year to restrict younger teenagers from using sites such as Instagram and TikTok, arguing the platforms were harmful to that age group.
Africa
Africa has tech unicorns, but they aren’t scaling globally
London School of Economics
Jennifer D. Daniel
Africa’s tech ecosystem is booming. The continent has birthed at least seven tech unicorns in just the past few years, including Flutterwave, Chipper Cash, and most recently, Moniepoint. These companies are celebrated as emblems of African innovation, proving that billion-dollar valuations are no longer the preserve of Silicon Valley. Yet, despite the fanfare, Africa’s unicorns have not scaled globally. Behind the headlines, there is a cocktail of systemic barriers, strategic missteps, and perhaps even an over-reliance on the narrative of African exceptionalism.
Middle East
Can innovation unify across divides? Three Israeli-Palestinian initiatives show peace is possible
Forbes
Hessie Jones
In a Middle East marred by seemingly endless conflict and disparate ideologies, there exists an undercurrent of hope—a movement toward connection, collaboration, and shared prosperity. Amid the current political turmoil, organizations like Tech2Peace, MEET, and 50:50 Startups are demonstrating that even in the most divided regions, bridges can be built through education, technology, and entrepreneurship.
Artificial Intelligence
AI will continue to grow in 2025. But it will face major challenges along the way
The Conversation
Daswin de Silva
In 2024, artificial intelligence continued taking large and surprising steps forward. People started conversing with AI “resurrections” of the dead, using AI toothbrushes and confessing to an AI-powered Jesus. Meanwhile, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, was valued at US$150 billion. These are just a handful of AI milestones over the past year. They reinforce not only how huge the technology has become, but also how it is transforming a wide range of human activities.
How we were deepfaked by election deepfakes
Financial Times
Clara Murray
Around this time last year, you probably read dozens of dire warnings about generative artificial intelligence’s impact on 2024’s bumper crop of global elections. Deepfakes would supercharge political disinformation, leaving muddled voters unable to tell fact from fiction in a sea of realistic, personalised lies, the story went. Leaders from Sadiq Khan to the Pope spoke out against them. A World Economic Forum survey of experts ranked AI disinformation as the second-most pressing risk of 2024.
An AI system has reached human level on a test for ‘general intelligence’. Here’s what that means
The Australia Today
Michael Timothy Bennett and Elija Perrier
A new artificial intelligence model has just achieved human-level results on a test designed to measure “general intelligence”. On December 20, OpenAI’s o3 system scored 85% on the ARC-AGI benchmark, well above the previous AI best score of 55% and on par with the average human score. It also scored well on a very difficult mathematics test.
Rise of AI and loneliness drives demand for robot pets
ABC News
Jenny Cai
Tokyo resident Haruka Uto lives with several fluffy friends — but these little creatures are not your average house pet. Ms Uto's two blobs, one brown and one grey, are artificial intelligence companion robots called Moflin. Ms Uto said her Moflins initially acted like babies but now "moved boldly" and "expressed feelings"."[Moflins] seem to be in a good mood when they hear my voice," said the 31-year-old, who lives alone apart from her robot pets.
Misc
Seven advances in technology that we’re likely to see in 2025
The Conversation
Lewis Endlar
In the grand scheme of things, 45 years is not a long time. Back in 1980, it would take me three weeks to run a computer program, written in the programming language Cobol, that worked using punched cards. How times have quickly changed in technology – now, my mobile phone has vast processing capability compared to the machine that processed that Cobol program. With eye-catching announcements being made all the time, what can we expect in 2025 from the world of technology?
Halal tech: how Muslim-friendly websites and apps blossomed in 2024
The Guardian
Johana Bhuiyan
Amany Killawi made a breakup playlist every time she was dumped, three in all. The playlists came together after Killawi was told by three different banks and payment processors they would no longer work with LaunchGood, the crowdfunding platform for the Muslim community she co-founded. To mitigate the impact on the business if and when another bank decided to stop working with LaunchGood, Killawi and her co-founders Chris Blauvelt and Omar Hamid made the decision to establish a network of payment providers and banks to work with. Now, more than 10 years since its founding, LaunchGood has become a household name and has enabled its largely Muslim user base to raise nearly $700m.
Research
Why invest in AI ethics and governance?
IBM
Generative AI is revolutionizing industries, but its dizzying ascendance has also raised significant ethical concerns. Balancing the potential benefits with ethical and regulatory implications is crucial. But it’s not easy. In unpublished IBM Institute for Business Value research, 80% of business leaders see AI explainability, ethics, bias, or trust as a major roadblock to generative AI adoption. And half say their organization lacks the governance and structures needed to manage generative AI’s ethical challenges.
The use of facial recognition for targeting under international law
SSRN
Ido Rosenzweig and Magdalena Pacholska
In the quest for identity dominance over the enemy, armed forces increasingly frequently leverage biometrics for a variety of purposes. This paper focuses on the combat employment of one of them-facial recognition, which, unlike other biometrics, does not appear to have been widely utilized for targeting purposes yet. With the purchasing patterns of advanced militaries suggesting that such a development is around the corner, this paper assesses the compliance with International Humanitarian Law of the use of facial recognition technologies for targeting purposes.
Jobs
ASPI Deputy Director – Cyber, Technology & Security Program
ASPI
ASPI is seeking a talented leader for the Deputy Director of Cyber, Technology & Security Operations. This is an exceptional opportunity to contribute to one of the Indo-Pacific’s leading think tanks, focused on advancing policy and research at the intersection of cyber, technology, and national security. The CTS Program is ASPI’s largest program, and includes ASPI’s China Investigations and Analysis team. The closing date for applications is Friday, 17 January 2025 – an early application is advised as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if suitable applications are received.
ASPI Analyst – Hybrid Threats – Cyber, Technology & Security Program
ASPI
ASPI is seeking a motivated and detail-oriented individual to join the Cyber, Technology & Security program as an Analyst – Hybrid Threats. This role involves contributing to the analysis of hybrid threats and information manipulation, including election integrity, resilience of critical technologies, and cybersecurity. The closing date for applications is Friday, 17 January 2025 – an early application is advised as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if suitable applications are received.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.