PLA reveals electronic warfare ‘kill list’ of US naval targets | EU pushes for European satellite constellation | Australian innovators awarded grants for international science & tech collaborations
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The People’s Liberation Army’s electronic warfare unit has produced a list of targets for a coordinated attack against US aircraft carrier strike groups. In a potential conflict, these precisely labelled US military radars, sensors and communication systems are likely to take concentrated fire from China’s electronic warfare weapons, according to a researcher involved in the project. South China Morning Post
The European Commission on Monday awarded contracts to push forward delayed plans for a 10.6-billion-euro secure European satellite constellation in response to Elon Musk's Starlink and other fast-growing internet networks. The multi-orbit array of more than 280 satellites known as IRIS² will provide an encrypted backbone for European Union governments and public agencies and develop new commercial services. Reuters
Nine exceptional Australian knowledge-makers and innovators in AI, hydrogen, manufacturing and more will be sharing in catalytic grants from the Global Science and Technology Diplomacy Fund to collaborate with partners including Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, Singapore and New Zealand on strategic science and tech projects capable of bringing direct benefits to advanced industries. Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering
ASPI
Darwin is key for undersea data links. We must promote their resilience there
The Strategist
John Coyne
Australia needs further investment into Darwin’s digital infrastructure to leverage the city’s proximity to Asia and support the resilience of international data flow through subsea cables. Actions should include establishing an office to coordinate industry and government agencies, and it should build a substantial capability in Darwin to repair cables.
Australia
Australian innovators set for international science and technology collaborations
Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering
Nine exceptional Australian knowledge-makers and innovators in AI, hydrogen, manufacturing and more will be sharing in catalytic grants from the Global Science and Technology Diplomacy Fund – Strategic Element, announced today by the Hon Ed Husic MP, Minister for Industry and Science, and delivered by Australia’s two Learned Academies for science and technology.
Using open-source AI, sophisticated cyber ops will proliferate
The Strategist
Daniel Murfet and Greg Sadler
Open-source AI models are on track to disrupt the cyber security paradigm. With the proliferation of such models—those whose parameters are freely accessible—sophisticated cyber operations will become available to a broader pool of hostile actors. AI insiders and Australian policymakers have a starkly different sense of urgency around advancing AI capabilities.
Malcolm Turnbull goes from PM to investment cyberhawk
The Australian Financial Review
Paul Smith
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says he will expand the scope of his private investments in cybersecurity, which he believes could be as rewarding as his portfolio of renewable energy interests. He said the inability of chief executives to fully understand the rapidly changing nature of cyberthreats – a conclusion he reached while in office – has compelled him to invest his own wealth in cybersecurity opportunities and accept advisory roles.
China
PLA releases electronic warfare ‘kill list’ for US carrier groups
South China Morning Post
Stephen Chen
The People’s Liberation Army’s electronic warfare unit has produced a list of targets for a coordinated attack against US aircraft carrier strike groups. In a potential conflict, these precisely labelled US military radars, sensors and communication systems are likely to take concentrated fire from China’s electronic warfare weapons, according to a researcher involved in the project.
Chinese surveillance firm Hikvision ends Xinjiang government contracts ahead of Trump 2.0
South China Morning Post
Xinmei Shen
US-sanctioned Chinese surveillance giant Hikvision has terminated five contracts with local government authorities in Xinjiang, as it braces for the second term of US president-elect Donald Trump, who first put Hikvision on a trade blacklist in 2019. Hikvision ended the contracts for its public security projects in the far-western region of China, where local subsidiaries signed the deals with municipal governments in the region in 2017.
China’s ecommerce merchants set up shop in Russia’s online marketplaces
Financial Times
William Langley
A growing number of Chinese ecommerce merchants are selling their products on Russia’s largest online marketplaces as exporters increasingly look to the platforms to find new markets and avoid western tariffs. Ozon Global, the international version of one of Russia’s largest ecommerce platforms, sources 80 per cent of its orders from China and told the Financial Times it had signed up at least 100,000 sellers from the country.
China's Instagram-like Xiaohongshu making inroads with e-commerce sales
Reuters
Casey Hall
Since Tera Feng started documenting her enviable Shanghai lifestyle, including visits to art galleries and fashion events on Chinese social media eight years ago, she has built up a following of more than 500,000 people. While that is a drop in the vast ocean of China's consumer market, Feng and brands she works with have found her audience - mainly financially independent urban Chinese women - is willing to spend.
The high-end Chinese phones taking on Apple, Google and Samsung
The Sydney Morning Herald
Tim Biggs
It's been 10 years since Chinese phone brand Oppo expanded to Australia as part of a push to the West to sell devices that were previously only available in China. Since then, a series of other Chinese brands have also become commonly sold here, including Xiaomi, Nubia, ZTE, OnePlus and Huawei - altogether it's rare to see the latter follow a stoush with the U.S.
Chinese robots hit the factory floor
The Wire China
Rachel Cheung
China’s factories have been at the heart of the country’s economic rise, helping the country come to account for nearly a third of global manufacturing and providing millions of jobs in the process. Increasingly, though, robots are taking over. By the end of last year, Chinese manufacturers had deployed 470 robot units per 10,000 workers, some three times the global average, new data from the International Federation of Robotics revealed last month.
USA
Trump administration wants to go on cyber offensive against China
The Register
Brandon Vigliarolo
President-elect Donald Trump's team wants to go on the offensive against America's cyber adversaries, though it isn't clear how the incoming administration plans to achieve this. Congressman Mike Waltz, Trump's pick for national security advisor, said that years of the US prioritizing cyber defense isn't working. "We have been, over the years, trying to play better and better defense when it comes to cyber," Waltz said. "We need to start going on offense and start imposing, I think, higher costs and consequences to private actors and nation state actors."
TikTok asks Supreme Court to block law that could ban popular app
NBC News
Lawrence Hurley
TikTok on Monday asked the Supreme Court to block a law that could potentially ban the video-based social media app, which has millions of American users. At issue is a bipartisan measure passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden that would go into effect on Jan. 19, the day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, unless the justices intervene.
North Asia
Japan's potential unicorns reach record 14, but growth still slow
Nikkei Asia
Hiroyasu Oda, Kenjiro Suzuki and Miu Koyama
Japan's pool of potential unicorns reached a record 14 this year, according to a Nikkei survey, with promising startups like microlender Gojo & Co. successfully raising funds overseas. This marks an increase of one compared with last year, although it still falls significantly short of the government's goal of eventually growing the total number of unicorns -- startups valued at $billion or more -- to 100.
Southeast Asia
Singapore: AI-powered chatbot to refine grant proposals
OpenGov Asia
Alita Sharon
Misaligned project scopes, unrealistic budgets, and unclear timelines often lead to researchers being rejected when applying for grants. However, a team from the Singapore Institute of Technology has developed an AI-powered chatbot to analyse and refine research grant proposals, improving their chances of approval. Dr Budianto Tandianus, Mr. Isaac Pek, and Mr. Nah Yong En created an AI-powered chatbot to help researchers refine their proposals and align them more closely with funding agency requirements.
Europe
EU kick starts new secure satellite constellation
Reuters
The European Commission on Monday awarded contracts to push forward delayed plans for a 10.6-billion-euro secure European satellite constellation in response to Elon Musk's Starlink and other fast-growing internet networks. The multi-orbit array of more than 280 satellites known as IRIS² will provide an encrypted backbone for European Union governments and public agencies and develop new commercial services.
Relax Elon — the EU isn’t an immediate threat to Starlink
POLITICO
Joshua Posaner
The European Commission on Monday signed contracts to develop a multibillion-euro network of cyber-secure satellites, but that's unlikely to make Elon Musk lose much sleep. The communications system, dubbed IRIS, will beam encrypted high-speed broadband internet back to governments, spies, militaries, remote regions not well served by terrestrial services and even gigabyte-guzzling consumers.
Serbia used Israeli firm’s tech to enable spy campaign, Amnesty says
Reuters
Aleksandar Vasovic and James Pearson
Serbian officials installed homegrown spyware on the phones of dozens of journalists and activists, Amnesty International said in a report, opens new tab released on Monday, citing digital forensic evidence and testimony from activists who said they were hacked in recent months. In two cases, software provided by Israeli company Cellebrite DI Ltd, was used to unlock phones prior to infection, the report said.
Africa
Almost 800 arrested over Nigerian crypto-romance scam
Reuters
Nigeria's anti-graft agency said it had arrested 792 suspects in a raid on a building believed to be a hub for fraudsters who lured victims with offers of romance, then pressed them to hand over cash for phoney cryptocurrency investments. The suspects, including 148 Chinese and 40 Filipino nationals, were detained on Dec. 10 at the seven-storey Big Leaf Building in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission spokesperson Wilson Uwujaren said.
NZ & Pacific Islands
Security concerns spur New Zealand to regulate who can monitor satellites
iTnews
Lucy Craymer
The New Zealand government will pass legislation next year to prevent entities that "do not share the country’s values" from using it as a base to monitor satellites. The South Pacific nation's location and clear skies make it a good place to launch and monitor satellites from, with the European Space Agency among those keeping an eye on space from New Zealand. However, New Zealand’s intelligence service raised concerns in September about some foreign entities wanting to develop space infrastructure, which would have “assisted foreign military activity that could have harmed New Zealand interests.”
Artificial Intelligence
Lockheed forms subsidiary to help defense companies adopt AI
Reuters
Lockheed Martin said on Monday it had formed a subsidiary that will help U.S. defense companies incorporate artificial intelligence into their operations. Companies across sectors have learned more on AI over the past few years to help optimize their workflow. However, defense companies have remained cautious given the sensitive data required to train models in the sector.
YouTube will now let creators opt in to third-party AI training
TechCrunch
Sarah Perez
YouTube on Monday announced it will give creators more choice over how third parties can use their content to train their AI models. Starting today, creators and rights holders will be able to flag for YouTube if they’re permitting specific third-party AI companies to train models on the creator’s content.
TSMC chief says robots and AI drones to drive tech innovation
Nikkei Asia
Cheng Ting-Fang
Advanced robots and AI-powered drones will be two of the next key drivers for growth and innovation in the tech industry, according to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufactuing Co.'s chairman and CEO. Speaking at a Taiwan's flagship tech conference in Taipei on Monday, C.C. Wei highlighted the increasing need for the integration of hardware and software to power the next generation of AI devices.
Arm and Qualcomm kick off trial over AI PC chips
Reuters
Tom Hals and Max A. Cherney
A legal battle between Arm and Qualcomm that could disrupt a wave of artificial intelligence PCs began on Monday, as the chipmakers laid out contrasting versions of a contract dispute, describing it as a matter of corporate deception or an attempt to stifle competition. The crux of the litigation is a clash over Qualcomm's license agreement for the use of Arm's intellectual property and Qualcomm's 2021 $1.4 billion acquisition of chip startup Nuvia.
Meta rolls out live AI, translations, and Shazam to its smart glasses
The Verge
Victoria Song
Meta just announced three new features are rolling out to its Ray-Ban smart glasses: live AI, live translations, and Shazam. Both live AI and live translation are limited to members of Meta’s Early Access Program, while Shazam support is available for all users in the US and Canada.
Instagram’s head says social media needs more context because of AI
The Verge
Nick Barclay
In a series of Threads posts this afternoon, Instagram head Adam Mosseri says users shouldn’t trust images they see online because AI is “clearly producing” content that’s easily mistaken for reality. Because of that, he says users should consider the source, and social platforms should help with that. “Our role as internet platforms is to label content generated as AI as best we can,” Mosseri writes, but he admits “some content” will be missed by those labels.
Character.AI has retrained its chatbots to stop chatting up teens
The Verge
Cath Virginia
In an announcement today, Chatbot service Character.AI says it will soon be launching parental controls for teenage users, and it described safety measures it’s taken in the past few months, including a separate large language model for users under 18. The announcement comes after press scrutiny and two lawsuits that claim it contributed to self-harm and suicide.
Tech companies claim AI can recognise human emotions. But the science doesn’t stack up
The Conversation
Natalie Sheard
Can artificial intelligence tell whether you’re happy, sad, angry or frustrated? According to technology companies that offer AI-enabled emotion recognition software, the answer to this question is yes. But this claim does not stack up against mounting scientific evidence. What’s more, emotion recognition technology poses a range of legal and societal risks – especially when deployed in the workplace.
Misc
390,000 WordPress accounts stolen from hackers in supply chain attack
Bleeping Computer
Sergiu Gatlan
A threat actor tracked as MUT-1244 has stolen over 390,000 WordPress credentials in a large-scale, year-long campaign targeting other threat actors using a trojanized WordPress credentials checker. Researchers at Datadog Security Labs, who spotted the attacks, say that SSH private keys and AWS access keys were also stolen from the compromised systems of hundreds of other victims, believed to include red teamers, penetration testers, security researchers, as well as malicious actors.
Research
Standards Development Organisations in an era of strategic competition
United States Studies Centre
Tom Barrett
This report finds that China has dramatically increased its participation and leadership in the two largest global Standards Development Organisations — the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission — over the past few decades to become a leader in international standards. Specifically, China is now the most active participant across the two major global SDOs and has increased its number of leadership positions between five and 17 times in the Technical Committees that make up these SDOs, surpassing major Western powers.
The convergence of disinformation: examining Russia and China’s partnership in the digital age
Institute for Security & Development Policy
Niklas Swanstrom and Filip Borges Mansson
The spread of disinformation has been a longstanding issue since the establishment of communication between societies. In modern times, the internet has provided extensive opportunities to spread misinformation and manipulate information on a global scale. Western liberal democratic states, due to their open societies, have been heavily targeted by adversaries aiming to cause political turmoil, distrust, and instability through the effective use of disinformation and manipulation of information campaigns.
Events & Podcasts
Stop the World: Building cyber resilience with Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness
ASPI
In this episode of Stop the World, ASPI’s Executive Director Justin Bassi speaks with Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness CSC to discuss her role and how it helps protect Australians online. LTGEN McGuinness explores the dual role that the National Office of Cyber Security plays in preparing for and responding to increasing cyber incidents, the importance of building resilience to respond efficiently and effectively to them, and how preventative measures such as using multi-factor authentication can mitigate over 80 percent of cyber risks.
Jobs
ASPI Director – Defence Strategy Program
ASPI
ASPI is recruiting for one of its key leadership positions - the Director of its Defence Strategy Program. 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 military strategy and capability, emerging security issues and our region. The closing date for applications is Friday, 10 January 2025 – an early application is advised as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if suitable applications are received.
Researcher/Analyst/Senior Analyst - Defence Strategy
ASPI
There are a small number of potential roles available in ASPI’s Defence Strategy Program, across multiple levels including researcher, analyst and senior analyst. This is an exceptional opportunity for talented individuals to contribute to the work of Australia's leading think tank on defence and strategic policy issues. The closing date for applications is 15 January 2025 – an early application is advised as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if suitable applications are received.
ASPI Deputy Director – Cyber, Technology & Security Program
ASPI
ASPI is seeking a talented leader for the Deputy Director of Cyber, Technology & Security (CTS) 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 (CTS) 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.