North Korean charged in cyberattacks on US hospitals, NASA and military bases | Open AI challenging Google with search engine | Supporting digital freedom in Bangladesh
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A North Korean military intelligence operative has been indicted in a conspiracy to hack into American health care providers, NASA, U.S. military bases and international entities, stealing sensitive information and installing ransomware to fund more attacks, federal prosecutors announced Thursday. Associated Press
ChatGPT maker OpenAI showed off a new web search product Thursday, directly challenging search giant Google and laying out its vision for how chatbots may change the way people interact with the broader web. The Washington Post
Since early July 2024, Bangladeshi students have protested against a discriminatory civil service quota system, facing severe police brutality and a nationwide communication blackout, which has led to a mass uprising and international condemnation. Techglobal Institute
ASPI
Bold push into quantum computing is Australia’s Manhattan moment
The Strategist
Nishank Motwani
The Manhattan Project, a response Germany’s combination of innovation and military power, unleashed nuclear physics on the world. Its success positioned the United States at the forefront of progress in critical technologies and demonstrated that innovation was central both to economic prosperity and national security. Today, in a new era of strategic competition with authoritarian China, liberal democracies, including those in minilateral groupings such as the Quad, AUKUS and NATO, are identifying their own modern day Manhattan Projects.
Australia
Australia should follow Europe, UK and postpone 3G shutdowns, inquiry told
The Australian
Joseph Lam
Thousands of people are at risk of losing the ability to call emergency services as the nation’s major telcos prepare to shut down 3G networks, a Senate inquiry has been told. One telecommunications and IT expert has called for Australia to follow the likes of European nations and the UK, keeping the 3G network running until the end of the decade. Australia’s largest telcos are gearing up to switch off the 3G network as early as next month, a move that will have far-reaching consequences for as many as 400,000 people.
Defence is making over 500 new ICT hires
iTnews
Ry Crozier
Speaking at the Tech in Gov 2024 conference in Canberra yesterday, Defence CIO Chris Crozier provided extra detail on the implementation of three core priorities underpinning the transformation of Defence ICT that he first outlined in May. Back then, he said that the Defence ICT workforce would move from a 20:80 ratio of Commonwealth employees to contractors, to a 60:40 split. “Effectively, our APS [Australian Public Service] and ADF [Australian Defence Force] were contract management employees only. We had decisions made elsewhere,” Crozier said of the environment he inherited upon joining Defence a year ago.
China
Baidu, ByteDance pursue AI graduates overseas amid shortage of top tech talent
South China Morning Post
Coco Feng
Some of China’s biggest tech companies, including Baidu, Tencent Holdings and TikTok owner ByteDance, have embarked on a worldwide search for top talent to strengthen their research into cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors and autonomous driving. As soon as the spring semester finished, companies kicked off their annual campus recruitment drives, with some efforts targeting final-year doctorate candidates in the field of AI.
China's secretive spaceplane likely testing 'dual use' technology, experts say
Reuters
Gerry Doyle
China's shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts say. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was in June observed releasing an object, moving several kilometres away and then manoeuvring back to within a few hundred metres of it.
USA
North Korean charged in cyberattacks on US hospitals, NASA and military bases
Associated Press
Nick Ingram, Michael Goldberg and Heather Hollingsworth
A North Korean military intelligence operative has been indicted in a conspiracy to hack into American health care providers, NASA, U.S. military bases and international entities, stealing sensitive information and installing ransomware to fund more attacks, federal prosecutors announced Thursday. The indictment of Rim Jong Hyok by a grand jury in Kansas City, Kansas, accuses him of laundering the money through a Chinese bank and then using it to buy computer servers and fund more cyberattacks on defense, technology and government entities around the world.
Security firm discovers remote worker is really a North Korean hacker
Bitdefender
Michael Kan
A US security training company discovered it mistakenly hired a North Korean hacker to be a software engineer after the employee’s newly issued computer became infected with malware. The incident occurred at KnowBe4, which develops security awareness programs to teach employees about phishing attacks and cyber threats. The company recently hired a remote software engineer who cleared the interview and background check process. But last week, KnowBe4 uncovered something odd after sending the employee a company-issued Mac. “The moment it was received, it immediately started to load malware,” KnowBe4 wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.
Hackers leak documents from Leidos
iTnews
Hackers have leaked internal documents stolen from Leidos Holdings, one of the largest IT services providers to governments, Bloomberg News reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. The company recently became aware of the issue and believes the documents were taken during a previously reported breach of a Diligent system it used, the report said, adding that Leidos is investigating it. The Virginia-based company, which counts the US Department of Defense as its primary customer, used the Diligent system to host information gathered in internal investigations, the report added, citing a filing from June 2023.
PsiQuantum plans to build the biggest quantum computing facility in the US
MIT Technology Review
Sarah Ward
The quantum computing firm PsiQuantum is partnering with the state of Illinois to build the largest US-based quantum computing facility, the company announced today. The firm, which has headquarters in California, says it aims to house a quantum computer containing up to 1 million quantum bits, or qubits, within the next 10 years. At the moment, the largest quantum computers have around 1,000 qubits.
South & Central Asia
Safegurarding digital freedoms and fundamental rights in Bangladesh amid ongoing student protests
Tech Global Institute
Since early July 2024, students across Bangladesh have been protesting against a decision of the High Court in Bangladesh ordering reinstatement of a discriminatory quota system for coveted civil service jobs, which currently reserves 56 percent of positions for quota holders. The protests, demanding justified and long-overdue reforms to a disproportionately preferential system that reportedly benefits affiliates of the ruling party, were met with extreme hostility and police brutality, resulting in at least 148 reported deaths, mainly students. The government has severely cracked down on the protesters, including use of live and rubber bullets and other means of brute force, as well as compelling university administrators to discontinue classes and close dorms, leaving students stranded and denying them water, food, and protection. Mass arrests have ensued.
How Bangladesh fell into an information blackout
Tech Policy Press
Sabhanaz Rashid Diya
Arms stretched out and unarmed, 25-year-old Abu Sayeed stood in front of the police, almost believing he would not get shot. In three consecutive rounds, Sayeed was directly hit in his chest and killed using 12-gauge shotguns by two officers from the Bangladesh Police, standing 15 meters apart from him. Sayeed was one of the thousands of protesters in Bangladesh who were marching on the streets against the government’s discriminatory policies.
Ukraine-Russia
Moscow impedes ‘anti-Russian’ YouTube
POLITICO
Seb Starcevic
The Kremlin will intentionally cause YouTube download speeds to plummet in the country in response to the streaming giant’s purported “anti-Russia policy,” a government official said Thursday. “By the end of this week, YouTube download speed on desktop computers may drop [by] 40 percent, and by the end of next week [by] 70 percent,” Alexander Khinshtein, chairman of Russia’s parliamentary committee on technology, wrote on Telegram. The measure will only affect desktop users, Khinshtein said.
The illicit flow of technology to Russia goes through this Hong Kong address
The New York Times
Aaron Krolik and Paul Mozur
From a nondescript seventh-floor office at 135 Bonham Strand near Hong Kong’s financial district, at least four companies are operating with a shadowy mission: facilitating the illicit trade of Western technology to Russia. Shell companies at that address have acquired millions of restricted chips and sensors for military technology companies in Russia, many of which have been placed under sanctions by the U.S. government, according to an examination by The New York Times.
Europe
Spyware targeted MEP critical of Hungary
POLITICO
Antoanete Roussi and Eddy Wax
One of Hungary's most outspoken critics in the European Parliament said he was targeted by spyware, just two weeks before the European elections in June. German Green lawmaker Daniel Freund said he narrowly averted a cyberattack via his Parliament email. "I would have been under complete surveillance,” Freund told POLITICO. “My phone goes pretty much everywhere I go, and they would have been able to trace, to listen, to follow anything I do.” “I’m not saying it was Hungary, but out of the possibilities, this is what seems most likely,” he said.
Parliament sets up cross-committee working group to monitor AI Act implementation
EURACTIV
Eliza Gkritsi
Two of the European Parliament’s committees have set up a joint working group to monitor the implementation of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, two people familiar with the matter told Euractiv. The implementation of the AI Act by the European Commission, which is tasked with coordinating the process, has caught the attention of the Parliament. MEPs have previously expressed concerns over the lack of transparency around the AI Office’s staffing process, as well as the involvement of civil society in parts of the implementation process. The Parliament’s committees on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) will be setting up a cross-committee working group for the AI Act, the sources, who declined to be identified discussing private conversations, told Euractiv.
UK
Manchester airport: officer removed from frontline duty after arrest video goes viral
The Guardian
Josh Halliday
An armed officer has been removed from frontline policing after footage showed him kicking a man in the face during an arrest at Manchester airport. A senior Greater Manchester police officer described the incident as “truly shocking” and said people were “rightly extremely concerned” by it. Footage shared widely online on Wednesday showed the officer pointing his Taser at the man and then kicking him with force in the face and stamping on his head. The officer is then seen pointing his Taser at a second man, dragging him to the floor and hitting him on the head. Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor, said on X that he saw “no justification” for the officer’s actions and called for an “explanation and/or accountability”.
Racism played part in police kick incident at Manchester airport, says former senior officer
The Guardian
Robyn Vinter
Racism played a “significant part” in a man being kicked in the face and stamped on by police during an arrest at Manchester airport, a former Metropolitan police chief superintendent said. Dal Babu, who served for more than 30 years in the Met, described a video of the arrest as shocking and “totally appalling”. The video, filmed at Manchester airport on Tuesday, appears to show a man being kicked in the face and his head being stamped on by a Greater Manchester police (GMP) officer as he lies prone on the floor, with a later clip showing police shoving a woman who is attempting to de-escalate the situation.
Middle East
Israel tried to frustrate US lawsuit over Pegasus spyware, leak suggests
The Guardian
Harry Davies and Stephanie Kirchgaessner
The Israeli government took extraordinary measures to frustrate a high-stakes US lawsuit that threatened to reveal closely guarded secrets about one of the world’s most notorious hacking tools, leaked files suggest. Israeli officials seized documents about Pegasus spyware from its manufacturer, NSO Group, in an effort to prevent the company from being able to comply with demands made by WhatsApp in a US court to hand over information about the invasive technology.
Big Tech
OpenAI is testing web search features for ChatGPT, challenging Google
The Washington Post
Gerrit De Vynck
ChatGPT maker OpenAI showed off a new web search product Thursday, directly challenging search giant Google and laying out its vision for how chatbots may change the way people interact with the broader web. The free tool, called SearchGPT, consists of a search box similar to that of a traditional search engine. Users can ask follow-up questions in a conversational tone to get more specific answers. SearchGPT will initially be available to a small group of users and publishers before eventually being integrated into ChatGPT, OpenAI said in a blog post Thursday.
Artificial Intelligence
Video game actors declare strike over AI usage
The Washington Post
Gene Park
Work stoppages are hitting the entertainment industry again, this time on behalf of video game actors negotiating protections against using artificial intelligence-generated material in games. The strike will impact productions at some of the biggest publishers of video games. Negotiations began in October 2022 for SAG-AFTRA members working at Activision-Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Insomniac Games, Take 2 Productions, WB Games, Blindlight, Disney, Formosa Interactive, Llama Productions and VoiceWorks Productions.
Who will control the future of AI?
The Washington Post
Sam Altman
That is the urgent question of our time. The rapid progress being made on artificial intelligence means that we face a strategic choice about what kind of world we are going to live in: Will it be one in which the United States and allied nations advance a global AI that spreads the technology’s benefits and opens access to it, or an authoritarian one, in which nations or movements that don’t share our values use AI to cement and expand their power?
Anthropic weighs in on California AI bill
Axios
Ashley Gold
Leading AI company Anthropic does not support California's AI regulation bill, SB 1047, but is suggesting changes that could lead to a shift, per a letter shared exclusively with Axios Thursday. SB 1047 from California State Sen. Scott Wiener passed the California Senate in May and could get a vote in the California Assembly next month. The bill, which many startups and tech companies have come out against, would make AI developers legally liable for how others use their models and to make sure the models can't be used in dangerous ways.
Misc
Nearly all devices back online after CrowdStrike outage, CEO says
Axios
Sam Sabin
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a LinkedIn post Thursday that 97% of the Windows sensors that went offline during last week's global IT outage are now back up-and-running. Roughly a week after CrowdStrike shipped out a faulty update that bricked millions of Windows computers, the worst appears to be over. Experts have called the CrowdStrike outage the largest IT outage in history.
Events & Podcasts
The Sydney Dialogue
ASPI
The Sydney Dialogue was created to help bring together governments, businesses and civil society to discuss and progress policy options. We will forecast the technologies of the next decade that will change our societies, economies and national security, prioritising speakers and delegates who are willing to push the envelope. We will promote diverse views that stimulate real conversations about the best ways to seize opportunities and minimise risks.
Jobs
Director of Cyber, Technology & Security (CTS)
ASPI
ASPI is looking for an exceptional and experienced senior leader to lead our largest team focused on emerging security challenges in the Indo-Pacific. This is an exceptional opportunity for a talented senior leader to contribute to the work of one of the Indo-Pacific’s top think-tanks with a focus on emerging security issues, and our region. The role provides a unique opportunity for a strategic and creative leader to drive the team’s evolution and to continue influencing public policy making in Australia and across the globe. The role is responsible for the oversight and delivery of a wide range of data-driven research projects. The closing date for applications is 28 July 2024 – an early application is advised as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if suitable applications are received.
Program Manager - Cyber, Technology & Security (CTS)
ASPI
The team has an exciting role for a talented and proactive individual to work with the CTS Director and Deputy Director on program and research coordination, strategic engagement and grants. This is a key role within the CTS team working with the Director, Deputy Director and Program Coordinator on project delivery, fundraising and coordination of team activities. The focus of the role is to help manage and support the individual researchers to collectively deliver projects, accurately, on time and in the most effective way to impact policy. The closing date for applications is 1 August 2024 – an early application is advised as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if suitable applications are received.
Subeditor for The Strategist
ASPI
We need a strong subeditor who has a clear sense of what makes a good article. The role includes developing story ideas, working with contributors and driving the coverage of the Strategist. You will join a progressive and supportive organisation with a vibrant culture. The closing date for applications is 2 August 2024– an early application is advised as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if suitable applications are received.
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