NEW ASPI REPORT: Aligning Indo-Pacific cyber rules | FBI, allies: China hacks in 80 countries | Denmark summons US envoy over Greenland ops
Plus, 4chan and Kiwi Farms sue Ofcom in U.S. court.
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A new ASPI report, Curbing the Cost of Cybersecurity Fragmentation: An Agenda for Harmonisation across the Indo-Pacific, argues that the strategic imperative is clear: given the challenges of a fragmented regulatory landscape, Indo-Pacific states need to work towards greater harmonisation on cybersecurity regulation. Done right, this would deliver security and economic dividends. The Strategist
The FBI and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world warned Wednesday that a Chinese-government hacking campaign that previously penetrated nine U.S. telecommunications companies has expanded into other industries and regions, striking at least 200 American organizations and 80 countries. The Washington Post
Denmark's foreign minister has summoned the top U.S. diplomat in Copenhagen over intelligence reports alleging covert influence operations by U.S. citizens in Greenland that aimed to whip up opposition to Danish rule, the ministry said on Wednesday. Reuters
ASPI
🚀 We’re rebuilding ASPI’s China Defence Universities Tracker from the ground up. The major expansion adds richer profiles, rankings powered by the Critical Technology Tracker, new mapping of links to China’s state-owned defence industry, analysis of China–Russia research ties, and data on the surge in dual-use research centres—now covering 180+ entities with faster search. Be first to get early-access invites and launch updates: https://unitracker.aspi.org.au/
ASPI
Indo-Pacific needs alignment, not uniformity, to remove cyber red tape
The Strategist
Gatra Priyandita
A new ASPI report, Curbing the Cost of Cybersecurity Fragmentation: An Agenda for Harmonisation across the Indo-Pacific, argues that the strategic imperative is clear: given the challenges of a fragmented regulatory landscape, Indo-Pacific states need to work towards greater harmonisation on cybersecurity regulation. Done right, this would deliver security and economic dividends.
The World
The FBI and agencies in the UK, Canada, and others warn that a Chinese hacking campaign targeting US telecoms has expanded to 80 countries and 200+ US companies
Washington Post
Joseph Menn
The FBI and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world warned Wednesday that a Chinese-government hacking campaign that previously penetrated nine U.S. telecommunications companies has expanded into other industries and regions, striking at least 200 American organizations and 80 countries.
Related: Countering Chinese State-Sponsored Actors Compromise of Networks Worldwide to Feed Global Espionage System Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency
Chinese Spies Hacked Telecom Networks in More Than 80 Countries The Wall Street Journal
Australia
Deloitte report suspected of AI-invented quote from robo-debt case
The Australian Financial Review
Paul Karp
New errors have been found in a major report Deloitte prepared for the federal government, raising further suspicions some of the content was generated by artificial intelligence.
Surveillance the ‘trade-off’ for working from home: employers
The Australian Financial Review
David Marin-Guzman
Employers have warned that surveillance may be the price for employees wanting to work from home, in the wake of controversial instances of recording workers’ conversations and a union push for stricter laws on monitoring.
BYD among five Chinese EV brands not complying with repair laws
The Australian Financial Review
Sam Irvine
Several electric carmakers, including China’s BYD, are failing to disclose information needed to carry out repairs and maintenance on their vehicles to independent car mechanics, even though it is required by competition rules.
China
China seeks to triple output of AI chips in race with the US
Financial Times
Zijing Wu
China’s chipmakers are seeking to triple the country’s total output of artificial intelligence processors next year, as Beijing races the US to develop the most advanced AI. One fabrication plant dedicated to producing Huawei’s AI processors is scheduled to start production as soon as the end of this year, while two more are due to launch next year, said two people with knowledge of the plans.
Temu resumes direct shipping from China to US after truce with Donald Trump
Financial Times
William Langley and Zijing Wu
Bargain ecommerce platform Temu has resumed shipping goods from Chinese factories directly to US consumers and increased its advertising spending in the country, following a trade truce between Washington and Beijing.
USA
Meta to launch California super PAC backing pro-AI candidates
Reuters
Jaspreet Singh
Meta said on Tuesday it will launch a California-focused political action committee to back state-level candidates favoring lighter regulation of technology, particularly artificial intelligence. The group, named "Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across (Meta) California," will support candidates for state offices from either party who advocate AI innovation over stringent rules, the company said.
Related: Super PAC aims to drown out AI critics in midterms, with $100M and counting The Washington Post
Before Trump Deal, Intel Worked With Chinese Companies Sanctioned By U.S.
Forbes
Emily Baker-White
The U.S. government will take a 10% stake in the company, whose technology has been used by sanctioned Chinese surveillance and facial recognition firms including Uniview and Hikvision.
Elon Musk’s lawyers ask a U.S. judge to block OpenAI from obtaining documents from Meta related to a previous $97.4B bid
Reuters
Shubham Kalia
Lawyers for Elon Musk have asked a U.S. judge to block ChatGPT-owner OpenAI from obtaining documents from Meta Platforms related to a previous $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI's assets, a court filing showed.
Microsoft President Brad Smith addressed protests over Israel contracts after seven protesters, including two current Microsoft employees, occupied his office
GeekWire
Todd Bishop
A few hours after his office was infiltrated and occupied by a group protesting Microsoft’s technology contracts with Israel, the company’s president, Brad Smith, stood beside his desk addressing a crowd of reporters at a hastily called press conference Tuesday afternoon.
Also: First Lady Melania Trump launches nationwide “Presidential AI Challenge” for K-12 students Associated Press
North Asia
Taiwan indicts three people for allegedly stealing TSMC’s 2nm secrets to help Tokyo Electron; prosecutors seek a combined 14-year term
Reuters
Wen-Yee Lee
Taiwan prosecutors said on Wednesday that they indicted three people for theft of trade secrets from chipmaker TSMC, accusing them of conspiring to use the information to help Japan’s Tokyo Electron in competing for TSMC supplier deals for the 2-nanometer process.
Europe
Denmark summons US envoy over suspected influence operations in Greenland
Reuters
Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Soren Jeppesen
Denmark's foreign minister has summoned the top U.S. diplomat in Copenhagen over intelligence reports alleging covert influence operations by U.S. citizens in Greenland that aimed to whip up opposition to Danish rule, the ministry said on Wednesday.
Related: Denmark Summons U.S. Envoy Over Covert Operations in Greenland The Wall Street Journal
Denmark summons US diplomat over alleged covert operations in Greenland Financial Times
German banks halted 10 billion euros in PayPal payments on fraud concerns, says newspaper
Reuters
German banks blocked PayPal payments totalling more than 10 billion euros ($11.7 billion) over fraud concerns, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Wednesday, without specifying its sources.
UK
4chan and Kiwi Farms sue the UK’s Ofcom in U.S. court over the Online Safety Act, saying they aren’t subject to UK law
404 Media
Jason Koebler & Matthew Gault
4chan and Kiwi Farms sued the United Kingdom’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) over its age verification law in U.S. federal court Wednesday, fulfilling a promise it announced on August 23. In the lawsuit, 4chan and Kiwi Farms claim that threats and fines they have received from Ofcom “constitute foreign judgments that would restrict speech under U.S. law.”
Artificial Intelligence
A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In.
The New York Times
Kashmir Hill
More people are turning to general-purpose chatbots for emotional support. At first, Adam Raine, 16, used ChatGPT for schoolwork, but then he started discussing plans to end his life.
Related: OpenAI plans to update ChatGPT to better respond to mental-distress cues, add parental controls, and bolster safeguards Bloomberg
Anthropic’s August Threat Intelligence report: Claude was weaponized for sophisticated cybercrimes, including a “vibe-hacking” data-extortion scheme
The Verge
Hayden Field
Anthropic’s new report shows how bad actors are misusing Claude —and, likely, other AI agents.
Related: OpenAI and Anthropic publish findings from joint safety tests of each other’s models to surface blind spots in internal evaluations TechCrunch
Researchers flag code that uses AI systems to carry out ransomware attacks
CyberScoop
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