Severing of Baltic Sea cables was ‘sabotage’ | China rushes to boost domestic chip supply ahead of Trump | EU to demand technology transfers from Chinese companies
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Germany’s defense minister on Tuesday called the severing of two fiber-optic cables in the Baltic Sea an act of sabotage aimed at European countries that are supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia. One undersea cable connecting Finland and Germany was cut on Monday and the other, which runs between Lithuania and Sweden, was severed late Sunday. New York Times
China's public and private sectors are accelerating efforts to boost domestic production of semiconductors, including cutting-edge devices, with the U.S. only expected to dial up pressure on Beijing in the second Trump administration. "China's capacity to supply semiconductor products has significantly improved, and its companies have clearly become more competitive," Nikkei Asia
Brussels is planning to force Chinese companies to transfer intellectual property to European businesses in return for EU subsidies as part of a tougher trade regime for clean technologies. The requirements, while at much smaller scale, echo China’s own regime, which pressures foreign companies into sharing their intellectual property in exchange for access to the Chinese market. Financial Times
ASPI
To work with US on climate, focus on national security and economic ‘value propositions’
The Strategist
Mike Copage
Even as the US is set to withdraw again from the Paris Agreement, and potentially the entire UN Framework Convention on Climate Change process, Australia can leverage its partnership with Washington to continue its support for strategically important climate efforts. The US is far behind China as the world’s largest producer of renewable energy technology. Australia should emphasise the need for the US to catch up on critical-minerals and clean energy supply chains to benefit economically and avoid economic coercion.
Guidance for critical minerals policy from ASPI’s Darwin Dialogue 2024
The Strategist
John Coyne and Henry Campbell
Since ASPI’s inaugural Darwin Dialogue in 2023, Australian and foreign governments have begun implementing industrial policies to support domestic growth in critical minerals and downstream industries. ASPI’s report from this year’s event, Darwin Dialogue 2024: Triumph through Teamwork, offers 11 key policy recommendations for government and industry to evolve Australia’s critical mineral policy framework.
Australia
Accelerated delivery of AUKUS Pillar II Hypersonic Systems
Australian Ministry of Defence
Defence Media
Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have reached a milestone agreement to accelerate the testing of hypersonic vehicles and related technologies. Under AUKUS Pillar II, the Hypersonic Flight Test and Experimentation (HyFliTE) Project Arrangement (PA) will enable the three nations to accelerate development, testing and evaluation of innovative hypersonic systems.
Bunnings breached privacy laws by using facial recognition on customers, Commissioner finds
ABC News
Ange Lavoipierre
Bunnings has interfered with the privacy of hundreds of thousands of customers by using facial recognition technology without gaining proper consent, the Privacy Commissioner has ruled. The retail giant says the technology was used to protect staff and customers from "increasing exposure to violent and organised crime".
Bunnings defends facial recognition after privacy breach
The Australian Financial Review
Paul Smith
Bunnings has defended its use of facial recognition technology, saying it is the most effective way to combat rising crime and aggression against its staff, after the Australian Privacy Commissioner ruled the hardware chain breached customer privacy rights.
Showing not telling key to solving tech worker shortage
The Australian
Many students are ignorant about the job opportunities – despite higher paying – that maths and science can deliver, prompting a novel solution from Amazon. But it won’t happen overnight.
Victoria's first high school automotive class boosts student attendance rates
ABC News
William Howard
A combination of practical learning and theoretical studies is the key to high engagement levels in Lowanna College's automotive subject, according to Mr Mitchell. In what was a Victorian first, the classroom was equipped with four virtual reality driving simulators which allowed the students to experience what it was like to be in the seat of a race car.
China
China rushes to boost domestic chip supply ahead of Trump's return
Nikkei Asia
Shunsuke Tabeta
China's public and private sectors are accelerating efforts to boost domestic production of semiconductors, including cutting-edge devices, with the U.S. only expected to dial up pressure on Beijing in the second Trump administration. "China's capacity to supply semiconductor products has significantly improved, and its companies have clearly become more competitive," said Wang Shijiang, a senior official at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, on Monday.
Chinese tech groups build AI teams in Silicon Valley
Financial Times
Eleanor Olcott
China’s biggest technology groups are building artificial intelligence teams in Silicon Valley, seeking to hire top US talent despite Washington’s efforts to curb the country’s development of the cutting-edge technology. Alibaba, ByteDance and Meituan have been expanding their offices in California in recent months, seeking to poach staff from rival US groups who could help them make up ground in the race to profit from generative AI. There are currently no restrictions on US-based entities related to or owned by Chinese tech companies accessing high-end AI chips through data centres located in the US.
New China-linked hacking group attacking telecommunications networks
Axios
Sam Sabin
CrowdStrike has identified a brand-new China-linked cyber-espionage operation that's infiltrating telecommunications networks, according to a report first shared with Axios. China has shown a new willingness to spy on its adversaries using whatever means possible — putting any remaining diplomatic relations between Beijing and the rest of the world in jeopardy. CrowdStrike has discovered a new China-linked hacking group that's been targeting telecommunications networks since at least 2020 to spy on customers' text messages and phone call metadata.
China's Xi tells G20 Summit AI should not be a 'game of rich countries,' Xinhua reports
Reuters
Eduardo Baptista
Xi also called for more international governance and cooperation on AI, Xinhua said. Earlier in the day, Xi touted China's support for the developing world and pledged more aid initiatives, including proposing an initiative with three other G20 members to help the Global South gain better access to scientific and technological innovations.
USA
US government commission pushes Manhattan Project-style AI initiative
Reuters
Anna Tong and Michael Martina
A U.S. congressional commission on Tuesday proposed a Manhattan Project-style initiative to fund the development of AI systems that will be as smart or smarter than humans, amid intensifying competition with China over advanced technologies. The bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission stressed that public-private partnerships are key in advancing artificial general intelligence, but did not give any specific investment strategies as it released its annual report.
Hacker is said to have gained access to file with damaging testimony about Gaetz
The New York Times
Robert Draper
An unidentified hacker has gained access to a computer file shared in a secure link among lawyers whose clients have given damaging testimony related to Matt Gaetz, the former Florida congressman who is President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to be attorney general, a person with knowledge of the activity said. The file of 24 exhibits is said to include sworn testimony by a woman who said that she had sex with Mr. Gaetz in 2017 when she was 17, as well as corroborating testimony by a second woman who said that she witnessed the encounter.
Senator says Trump cannot ignore law requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok by next year
Reuters
David Shepardson
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who is holding a hearing on Chinese hacking incidents, cited the law passed by Congress in April as a result of security concerns that China could access data on TikTok on Americans or spy on them with the app. Blumenthal noted that Congress was requiring divestiture of the app by Jan. 19, unless President Joe Biden grants a one-time extension of up to 90 days, which he can only do if ByteDance has made significant progress. Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok in 2020, has said if elected in November he would not allow TikTok to be barred.
South & Central Asia
Indian news agency ANI sues OpenAI for unsanctioned content use in AI training
Reuters
Arpan Chaturvedi and Munsif Vengattil
Indian news agency ANI has sued OpenAI in a New Delhi court, accusing the ChatGPT creator of using its published content without permission to help train the artificial intelligence chatbot, something that OpenAI says it has stopped doing. The first hearing in the case took place in a New Delhi High Court on Tuesday, where the judge issued a notice to OpenAI to provide a detailed response to ANI's accusations. The court filing contained emails sent by OpenAI's lawyers in India to ANI saying the Indian news agency's website had been placed on an internal block list since September, ceasing usage of its content in future training of AI models.
Reforming AI laws and regulation in Bangladesh: current harms and possible future(s)
TechGlobal Institute
Salwa Hoque
The Bangladesh Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division has developed a draft of the National Artificial Intelligence Policy 2024. This draft law states that its implementation is to ensure “the ethical application of AI as we move towards achieving a Smart Bangladesh by 2041,” and intended for the nation’s economic growth, societal progress, and national security.
Ukraine-Russia
Russia restricts cryptocurrency mining in low-energy regions
Reuters
Gleb Bryanski
Russia has banned cryptocurrency mining in several Siberian regions to prevent power shortages during the winter and has restricted it in areas of Ukraine that it has declared annexed, a government commission announced on Tuesday.
The really dark truth about Bots [Video]
YouTube
Benn Jordan
This video is going to attempt to give you a useful and complete answer to a very valid question: when you're browsing, engaging or debating with political content on Twitter or X, roughly what percentage of those interactions are not with a real person?
Europe
Severing of Baltic Sea cables was ‘sabotage,’ Germany says
The New York Times
Melissa Eddy and Johanna Lemola
Germany’s defense minister on Tuesday called the severing of two fiber-optic cables in the Baltic Sea an act of sabotage aimed at European countries that are supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia. One undersea cable connecting Finland and Germany was cut on Monday and the other, which runs between Lithuania and Sweden, was severed late Sunday. “Nobody believes that these cables were severed by accident,” Germany’s minister of defense, Boris Pistorius, told reporters ahead of a meeting of European security officials in Brussels.
EU to demand technology transfers from Chinese companies
Financial Times
Alice Hancock, Andy Bounds and Alec Russell
Brussels is planning to force Chinese companies to transfer intellectual property to European businesses in return for EU subsidies as part of a tougher trade regime for clean technologies. New criteria requiring Chinese businesses to have factories in Europe and share technological knowhow will be introduced when Brussels invites bids for €1bn of grants to develop batteries in December, according to two senior EU officials. The pilot could be rolled out to other EU subsidy schemes, they said. The requirements, while at much smaller scale, echo China’s own regime, which pressures foreign companies into sharing their intellectual property in exchange for access to the Chinese market.
Africa
Nigeria’s Ogun State wants to lead the country’s EV revolution
Rest of World
Jesusegun Alagbe
Ogun State’s EV adoption drive comes at a time when the Nigerian government is pushing for sustainable transportation across the country. The country has, through the Nigerian Energy Transition Plan, committed to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles by 2060. According to the plan, electric vehicles will constitute 60% of the total market by 2050 and 100% by 2060. The plan also includes mode-shift measures to encourage the transition from passenger cars to public transport and two- and three-wheelers by 2050.
Big Tech
As AI and megaplatforms take over, the hyperlinks that built the web may face extinction
The Conversation
Dana McKay and George Buchanan
Links have made the web what it is. But as social media platforms, generative AI tools and even search engines are trying harder to keep users on their site or app, the humble link is starting to look like an endangered species.
Google’s Chrome Worth Up to $20 Billion If Judge Orders Sale
Bloomberg
Leah Nylen and Josh Sisco
Alphabet Inc.’s Chrome browser could go for as much as $20 billion if a judge agrees to a Justice Department proposal to sell the business, in what would be a historic crackdown on one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
The tech industry must evolve beyond ‘problematic geniuses’
The Australian Financial Review
Claire Bristow
A venture capitalist sparked controversy with comments about investors seeking out “problem children” founders as future tech leaders. It showed outdated thinking that pervades the sector.
Artificial Intelligence
Juna.ai wants to use AI agents to make factories more energy-efficient
TechCrunch
Paul Sawers
At its core, Juna.ai wants to help manufacturing facilities transform into smarter, self-learning systems that can deliver better margins and, ultimately, a lower carbon footprint. The company focuses on “heavy industries” — industries such as steel, cement, paper, chemicals, wood and textile with large-scale production processes that consume lots of raw materials.
Events & Podcasts
Navigating digital safety: Exploring security and trust in online spaces for young Australians
ASPI
Join us from 6:00 – 8:30pm on 27 November at ASPI in Canberra for an important discussion on the challenges of privacy, internet security, and online safety. As users of online platforms, young Australians are exposed to varied and increasing risks, including risks to their personal data privacy.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.
