Tencent and CATL challenge 'Chinese military companies' designation by US | Concerns over Musk's influence in foreign politics | DC think tank staffed entirely by robots linked to Pakistani military

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The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest focuses on the topics we work on, including cybersecurity, critical technologies, foreign interference & disinformation.

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• Tencent and CATL are planning legal action to challenge being placed on a Pentagon list as “Chinese military companies”, if talks with the US defence department fail to get their new designations dropped. Financial Times

• Tech billionaire Elon Musk livestreamed his chat with a leader of Germany’s far-right party on Thursday, using the power of his social media platform, X, to amplify the party’s message ahead of an upcoming national election — and raising concerns across Europe about the world’s richest man trying to influence foreign politics. Associated Press

• Understanding how to most effectively wield influence in Washington can mean the difference for a foreign government between a coup and a bailout. The high-stakes great game has attracted industries filled with advisers ready to walk you through the process for a healthy retainer. At least one government appears to have tried to solve the problem by conjuring a think tank/lobby shop from their own imagination, or that of Chat GPT. Check out their website before they take it down. Drop Site News

World

Tracking deployment of Russian surveillance technologies in central Asia and Latin America
Recorded Future
Several countries in Central Asia and Latin America base their digital surveillance capabilities on Russia’s System for Operative Investigative Activities (SORM), indicating that Russian surveillance technology has proliferated in Russia’s near abroad and among its allies. Insikt Group identified evidence of at least eight SORM providers exporting to these regions, with at least fifteen telecommunications companies as likely customers.

Australia

Meta’s fact-checking to continue in Australia this year despite sunsetting in the US
Crikey
Cam Wilson
At least one Australian news outlet that has worked as one of Meta’s fact-checking partners will continue to provide fact-checks for the tech giant for at least another year, despite the tech company’s announcement that it is sunsetting the program.

New Australian Cyber Security Centre head appointed
Australian Government
Ms Stephanie Crowe has today been appointed as the new Head of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC). The ACSC is the Australian Government’s technical authority on cyber security. It provides an avenue for organisations large and small to partner with Government and adopt a security framework to protect their information technology and operational technology systems, applications, and data from cyber threats.

China

Tencent and CATL consider legal action over inclusion on Pentagon blacklist
Financial Times
Eleanor Olcott and Zijing Wu
Tencent and CATL are planning legal action to challenge being placed on a Pentagon list as “Chinese military companies”, if talks with the US defence department fail to get their new designations dropped. Analysts said there was a strong precedent for Chinese consumer tech companies being removed from the list if they could prove wrongful designation.

BYD brought hundreds of Chinese workers to Brazil on irregular visas, inspector says
Reuters
Fabio Teixeira and Luciana Novaes Magalhaes
Electric vehicle producer BYD brought hundreds of Chinese workers on irregular visas to build a factory in Brazil, a key labor inspector told Reuters on Tuesday, adding the company has pledged to comply with local labor laws for the workers remaining in the country. A total of 163 of those workers, hired by BYD contractor Jinjiang, were found last month to be working in what Brazilian authorities said were "slavery-like conditions."

Can Chinese chips beat Taiwan in the global tech race?
The Australian Financial Review
Jessica Sier
Chinese chips are turning out to be a hair-raising momentum trade, but the global picture for semiconductors is growing more complex by the day. Beijing’s push for semiconductor self-sufficiency has driven investors into domestic technology champions: stock in China’s largest chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) has surged 99 per cent since mid-September.

How China is advancing in AI despite US Chip restrictions
TIME
Harry Booth
In 2017, Beijing unveiled an ambitious roadmap to dominate artificial intelligence development, aiming to secure global leadership by 2030. By 2020, the plan called for “iconic advances” in AI to demonstrate its progress. Then in late 2022, OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT took the world by surprise—and caught China flat-footed. But fast forward to today, and a flurry of impressive Chinese releases suggests the U.S.’s AI lead has shrunk.

USA

Biden Administration ignites firestorm with rules governing AI’s global spread
The New York Times
Ana Swanson and Tripp Mickle
The Biden administration, in its final weeks in office, is rushing to issue new regulations to try to ensure that the United States and its close allies have control over how artificial intelligence develops in the years to come. The rules have touched off an intense fight between tech companies and the government, as well as among administration officials.

White House rushes to finish cyber order after China hacks
Bloomberg
Katrina Manson and Jake Bleiberg
The Biden administration is racing to put out an executive order meant to shore up US cybersecurity in its dwindling days in office, according to four people familiar with the matter. The executive order, which has cleared some internal hurdles and is close to being published, incorporates lessons from a series of major breaches during the Biden administration.

• US Treasury hack linked to Silk Typhoon Chinese state hackers
  Bleeping Computer
  Sergiu Gatlan
  Chinese state-backed hackers, tracked as Silk Typhoon, have been linked to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) hack in early December. Silk Typhoon (also known as Hafnium) is a Chinese nation-state hacking group known for attacking a wide range of targets in the United States, Australia, Japan, and Vietnam, including defense contractors, policy think tanks, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as healthcare, law firms, and higher education organizations.

The fight over robots threatening American jobs
Financial Times
Taylor Nicole Rogers
What were previously run-of-the-mill negotiations over pay and conditions have mushroomed into larger, more existential disputes over the relationship between humans and machines. Some 70 per cent of the 12mn people represented by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations now worry about being replaced by technology, estimates AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: “Workers are fed up with how they’ve been treated for a long time and are scared about what the future might hold.”

Cyber Command overhaul gets Austin’s approval, but plan faces uncertain future
The Record by Recorded Future
Martin Matishak
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last month approved a restructuring of U.S. Cyber Command, though questions remain if the changes will ultimately improve the digital warfighting organization or withstand the incoming Trump administration.

Lawmakers expected to revive attempts for a Cyber Force study
The Record by Recorded Future
Martin Matishak
House lawmakers will once again push for an outside assessment of whether a Cyber Force should be added to the U.S. military, one of the idea’s chief proponents said on Wednesday. “We’re not going to back off that,” Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) said during a roundtable with reporters in his Capitol Hill office, saying an independent assessment is still “very warranted.”

North Asia

Taiwan, China trade barbs over undersea cable damage
Reuters
Taiwan and China traded barbs over what the government in Taipei suspects was a Chinese-linked ship's damage to an undersea communications cable off the island's coast, an incident that has raised alarm bells on the island. The ship owner, speaking to Reuters on Wednesday, said there was no evidence the ship was involved. Taiwan's coast guard suspects the ship damaged the cable off the island's northern coast late last week, but was unable to board it to investigate due to bad weather.

Southeast Asia

Evolving cyber threats target Southeast Asia’s underbanked populations
Thailand Business Review
Olivier Languepin and Li Zhong
The rapid digital growth in Southeast Asia has led to an 82% increase in cybercrime, with the underbanked populations being especially vulnerable. Countries like Singapore and the Philippines are implementing security measures, but cross-border cooperation is crucial to address cyber threats.

Ukraine - Russia

Ukrainian hackers take credit for hacking Russian ISP that wiped out servers and caused internet outages
TechCrunch
Zack Whittaker
Russian internet provider Nodex said it was in the process of restoring its systems after a destructive cyberattack earlier this week that saw hackers compromise its network and wipe its internal servers, causing an immediate and complete collapse of internet connectivity to its Russian customers.

Europe

Musk uses X livestream to amplify German far-right leader’s views ahead of an election
Associated Press
Vanessa Gera
Tech billionaire Elon Musk livestreamed his chat with a leader of Germany’s far-right party on Thursday, using the power of his social media platform, X, to amplify the party’s message ahead of an upcoming national election — and raising concerns across Europe about the world’s richest man trying to influence foreign politics.

• Elon Musk’s quest for domination has gone global
  WIRED
  Vittoria Elliott
  Through X, and his own larger-than-life celebrity presence, Musk is bringing together and boosting the far right across the globe.

• Brussels will be watching whether Musk breaks EU law in far-right livestream
  POLITICO
  Pieter Haeck
  When tech tycoon Elon Musk interviews German far-right leader Alice Weidel on X on Thursday night, Europe’s powerful tech regulators will be watching closely for possible violations of EU law.

• MEPs call for debate on Elon Musk’s ‘abuse of social networks’
  EURACTIV
  Anupriya Datta and Théophane Hartmann
  On Wednesday morning the liberal Renew Europe group announced they will request an urgent debate about recent posts by Elon Musk on X and whether they breach the EU’s content moderation law, the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Three indicted on charges of spying for China
DW
German prosecutors on Thursday said that three people had been indicted on suspicion of spying for China by obtaining information about military technology. The information gathering was allegedly done on behalf of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) spy agency. The indictment comes just weeks after a United States national was arrested in Frankfurt in November on allegations of offering intelligence on the US military to China while working for US forces in Germany.

Russian bots boosted NATO critic ahead of Croatian election
POLITICO
Seb Starcevic
Russian bots launched a “pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign” on social media to support an anti-NATO Croatian presidential candidate, a group of researchers said Wednesday. Elected president in 2020, Milanović, who hails from the left-leaning Social Democratic Party, has often railed against both NATO and the European Union in rambling, populist speeches that have drawn comparisons to United States President-elect Donald Trump. He has also spoken out against military aid for Ukraine and criticized Western sanctions on Russia.

Gender and Women

Only 41% of tech organisations have adopted measures to encourage the hiring of women
CyberDaily
Daniel Croft
Less than half of all tech organisations have programs to promote the hiring of female employees, despite the majority of IT professionals agreeing that the sector has a lack of diversity. A key issue in hiring and maintaining women is the lack of female role models in the space, with 43 per cent of female respondents and 21 per cent of male respondents saying that most IT leaders are male.

Big Tech

Meta exempted top advertisers from standard content moderation process
Financial Times
Hannah Murphy and Madhumita Murgia
Meta exempted some of its top advertisers from its usual content moderation process, shielding its multibillion-dollar business amid internal concerns that the company’s systems mistakenly penalised top brands. According to internal documents from 2023 seen by the Financial Times, the Facebook and Instagram owner introduced a series of “guardrails” that “protect high spenders”.

Meta’s fact-checking pullback will have global consequences
DFR Lab
Mark Scott
The social media company’s widespread overhaul of its content moderation policies will have a real-world negative impact, embolden authoritarian regimes, and put its own users at risk.

Candy Crush, Tinder, MyFitnessPal: See the thousands of apps hijacked to spy on your location
WIRED
Joseph Cox
Some of the world’s most popular apps are likely being co-opted by rogue members of the advertising industry to harvest sensitive location data on a massive scale, with that data ending up with a location data company whose subsidiary has previously sold global location data to US law enforcement. Because much of the collection is occurring through the advertising ecosystem—not code developed by the app creators themselves—this data collection is likely happening without users’ or even app developers’ knowledge.

Elon Musk calls on California and Delaware to force auction of OpenAI stake
Financial Times
George Hammond
A lawyer for Elon Musk has called on the California and Delaware attorneys-general to force OpenAI to auction off a large stake in its business, intensifying a bitter fight with the company’s chief executive Sam Altman. OpenAI had no plans for such an auction, according to a person with knowledge of the ChatGPT-maker’s thinking. Musk’s camp simply “want more chaos”, they added.

What to watch for as tech-averse Supreme Court weighs historic ban on TikTok
CNN
John Fritze and Devan Cole
The Supreme Court will hear more than two hours of arguments over whether a ban on the platform, approved in April with bipartisan support, can be squared with the First Amendment. If at least five justices believe that it can, TikTok would either need to find a new owner or shut down in the US on January 19.

• How the US TikTok ban would actually work
  WIRED
  Matt Burgess
  Unpicking TikTok from the nation’s consciousness—thousands of influencers and businesses use the app to make money and promote themselves—is not exactly straightforward. Nor is it simple to untangle the company from US-based internet infrastructure. While TikTok’s service in the US would likely degrade over time, there remain some potential ways around any ban—both for individuals and potentially also the company itself.

AI social media users are not always a totally dumb idea
WIRED
Will Knight
Meta caused a stir last week when it let slip that it intends to populate its platform with a significant number of entirely artificial users in the not too distant future. “We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,” Connor Hayes, vice-president of product for generative AI at Meta, told The Financial Times. “They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform...  that’s where we see all of this going.”

Artificial Intelligence

New DC think tank staffed entirely by robots
Drop Site News
Waqas Ahmed, Murtaza Hussain and Ryan Grim
Understanding how to most effectively wield influence in Washington can mean the difference for a foreign government between a coup and a bailout. The high-stakes great game has attracted industries filled with advisers ready to walk you through the process for a healthy retainer. Finding the right firm can be a challenge. At least one government appears to have tried to solve the problem by conjuring a think tank/lobby shop from their own imagination, or that of Chat GPT. Check out their website before they take it down.

What AGI hype means for Washington
POLITICO
Christine Mui
Artificial general intelligence — an AI that can outperform humans across the board, adapting to new challenges as the human brain does — is a massively hyped, long-sought milestone for the technology. OpenAI has been beefing up its D.C. policy shop in preparation to angle for more government support, hoping to get leaders in Washington and states to sign onto an ambitious plan to secure the computing and energy resources for AI’s future.

Misc

Why collaboration is key to disrupting the economics of cybercrime
World Economic Forum
Derek Manky
Adopting new technologies, devices and platforms increases potential points of compromise, widening an organization's attack surface. Meanwhile, cybercriminals are expanding collaborative efforts within their ecosystem as they look to exploit and capitalize on weaknesses in organizations and their targets.

Events and Podcasts

ADM AUKUS Pillar II Conference 2025
ADM Events
Join us for the inaugural Australian Defence Magazine AUKUS Pillar II Conference, taking place on 19 February 2025 in Canberra, as we delve into the deepening technological collaboration between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. With a primary emphasis on advancing military capabilities through emerging technologies, this conference is where the next generation of defence innovation takes shape.

Jobs

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.