Trump called military plan texts to group chat as 'glitch' | Austria uncovers Russian plot of espionage and information campaign | Africa crackdown on cyber scams

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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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• President Donald Trump on Tuesday downplayed the texting of sensitive plans for a military strike against Yemen’s Houthis this month to a group chat that included a journalist, saying it was “the only glitch in two months” of his administration as Democratic lawmakers heaped criticism on the administration for handling highly sensitive information carelessly. Associated Press

• Austria’s intelligence agency is investigating a Bulgarian national, linked to Wirecard fugitive Jan Marsalek, for alleged espionage and for abetting a Russian campaign to spread disinformation about Ukraine. Financial Times

• Law enforcement agencies in seven African countries arrested over 300 suspected cybercriminals involved in mobile banking, investment and messaging app scams, according to a statement by Interpol. The Record by Recorded Future

Australia

Federal Budget 2025: Cyber security loses out in pre-election budget
CyberDaily
David Hollingworth
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has delivered his third federal budget, and while 2023 and 2024 saw significant investments in cyber security, the 2025 budget is remarkably light on investing any further in protecting the nation from a growing raft of cyber threats. In fact, the word ‘cyber’ is mentioned exactly six times in the Budget Overview document – and all in one paragraph detailing the government’s “Digital and cyber security supports”. “Since the 2023-24 Budget, the Government has committed more than $60 million to help small businesses uplift their digital and cyber security capabilities through the Digital Solutions program, Cyber Wardens program, Small Business Cyber Resilience Service and Cyber Health Check,” the Overview reads.

Australian firms overestimate cyber defences, survey reveals
Security Brief
Sean Michell
Australian businesses may be overestimating their overall cybersecurity defenses, as a survey reveals a disparity in the perceptions of security leaders and employees regarding cyber readiness. The Datacom State of Cybersecurity Index Australia 2025, conducted by Tech Research Asia, exposes a significant gap between the confidence expressed by security leaders and the actual readiness felt by employees. According to the survey findings, while 79% of security leaders believe employees are adequately informed about cybersecurity threats, just 50% of employees agree with this assessment.

China

Chinese hackers spent four years inside Asian telco’s networks
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
An Asian telecommunications company was allegedly breached by Chinese government hackers who spent four years inside its systems, the incident response firm Sygnia said. Sygnia attributed the campaign to Chinese actors because of the company targeted, the “well-defined” goals of the campaign, the working hours of the hackers and the use of the China Chopper web shell — a tool many Chinese groups use to gain remote access to compromised servers and exfiltrate data.

China’s shadow fleet threatens Indo-Pacific communications
The Strategist
Mercedes Page
China is using increasingly sophisticated grey-zone tactics against subsea cables in the waters around Taiwan, using a shadow-fleet playbook that could be expanded across the Indo-Pacific. On 25 February, Taiwan’s coast guard detained the Hong Tai 58 after a subsea cable was cut in the Taiwan Strait. The vessel was registered to Togo but crewed entirely by Chinese nationals. While China has targeted Taiwan’s undersea cables for years as part of its grey-zone operations, it has subtly shifted tactics. Previously, vessels involved in suspected acts of sabotage were registered to China. Now, they are increasingly operating under foreign flags, forming a shadow fleet. This strategy resembles Russia’s subsea cable tactics in the Baltic Sea.

China bans compulsory facial recognition and its use in private spaces like hotel rooms
The Register
Simon Sharwood
China’s Cyberspace Administration and Ministry of Public Security has outlawed the use of facial recognition without consent. The two orgs published new rules on facial recognition and an explainer that spell out how orgs that want to use facial recognition must first conduct a “personal information protection impact assessment” that considers whether using the tech is necessary, impacts on individuals’ privacy, and risks of data leakage. Organizations that decide to use facial recognition must data encrypt biometric data and audit the information security techniques and practices they use to protect facial scans.

USA

Trump downplays national security team texting military operation plan on Signal as a minor ‘glitch’
Associated Press
David Klepper and Aamer Madhani
President Donald Trump on Tuesday downplayed the texting of sensitive plans for a military strike against Yemen’s Houthis this month to a group chat that included a journalist, saying it was “the only glitch in two months” of his administration as Democratic lawmakers heaped criticism on the administration for handling highly sensitive information carelessly. Trump told NBC News that the lapse “turned out not to be a serious one,” and articulated his continued support for national security adviser Mike Waltz, who mistakenly added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to the chain that included 18 senior administration officials discussing planning for the strike

• The Trump administration accidentally texted me its war plans
  The Atlantic
  Jeffrey Goldberg
  It should go without saying—but I’ll say it anyway—that I have never been invited to a White House principals-committee meeting, and that, in my many years of reporting on national-security matters, I had never heard of one being convened over a commercial messaging app.

• Trump cybersecurity officials are stunned by Signal leak
  Forbes
  Thomas Brewster
  The stunning news that a journalist was accidentally included on a Signal chat where Trump defense and intelligence officials including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth discussed US military strikes in Yemen has shocked the cybersecurity community, including staff in Trump’s own administration. The leak was “absolutely ridiculous on so many levels,” said one official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security’s digital safety arm.

With a US ban looming, TikTok portrays itself as a force for good
The New York Times
Sapna Maheshwari
The popular video app, which could be banned in the United States next month if it is not sold to a non-Chinese owner, is portraying itself as a savior of Americans and a champion of small businesses in a new campaign. In the past couple of months, the company has wallpapered Washington in marketing, bought wraparound ads in the print editions of The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times and poured money into national commercials. Continuing the theme of saving lives, TikTok’s ads have also featured a creator who sells a product that helps with administering CPR.

In his second term, Trump Fuels a ‘machinery’ of misinformation
The New York Times
Steven Lee Myers and Stuart A. Thompson
Mr Trump’s first four years in the White House were filled with false or misleading statements — 30,573 of them, or 21 a day on average, according to one tally. Back then, though, aides often tried to play down or contain the damage of egregious falsehoods. This time, Mr Trump is joined by a coterie of cabinet officials and advisers who have amplified them and even spread their own. Together, they are effectively institutionalising disinformation. While it is still early in his term, and many of his executive orders face legal challenges that could blunt the impact of any falsehoods driving them, Mr. Trump and his advisers have ushered the country into a new era of post-truth politics, where facts are contested and fictions used to pursue policy goals.

Trump admin plans to cut team responsible for critical atomic measurement data
WIRED
Louise Matsakis and Will Knight
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology is discussing plans to eliminate an entire team responsible for publishing and maintaining critical atomic measurement data in the coming weeks, as the Trump administration continues its efforts to reduce the US federal workforce, according to a March 18 email sent to dozens of outside scientists. The data in question underpins advanced scientific research around the world in areas like semiconductor manufacturing and nuclear fusion. In a blog post published last week highlighting the importance of the database, NIST said it receives an average of 70,000 search requests worldwide each month.

As the Trump administration purges web pages, this group is rushing to save them
NPR
Emma Bowman
Internet Archive finds itself in a particularly unique position right now. After President Trump's inauguration in January, some federal web pages vanished. While some pages were removed entirely, many came back online with changes that the new administration's officials said were made to conform to Trump's executive orders to remove "diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility policies."

Americas

What counts as foreign interference? Not Elon Musk, Canadian officials say
Global News
Sean Boynton
Officials monitoring Canada’s federal election for foreign interference say they are focused on covert and deliberate efforts to interfere in the campaign — and that doesn’t include the public opinions shared by US billionaire Elon Musk on social media. While officials say they are monitoring attempts to sow discord through social media, they made clear in a briefing there’s a difference between that and individual free expression — no matter how influential that individual may be. Musk — who serves as a senior advisor to Trump and is leading controversial job- and cost-cutting efforts within the US government — has also echoed Trump’s attacks on Canada.

North Asia

Japan back-end chip companies form alliance to upgrade supply chain
Nikkei Asia
Yoshinaru Sakabe
More than 20 Japanese companies involved in back-end semiconductor manufacturing will join forces on production and material supply to strengthen domestic supply chains. The alliance of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers will hold an inaugural meeting on April 21 in Tokyo and Fukuoka city. Amkor Technology Japan and Aoi Electronics are among the companies taking part. The 20-plus companies expected to become full-fledged members represent 80% of the back-end chipmaking industry in Japan. The group will also recruit companies involved in chip tools and materials.

Japan's new smartphone law could exacerbate US trade friction
Nikkei Asia
Riho Nagao
On his first day in office, Trump called on the commerce secretary and other officials to investigate US trade deficits and unfair trade practices by April 1. In response, the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, which has some sway over US policies related to Japan, cited alleged barriers in Japan's digital policy. Specifically, the group named the new smartphone software act, a digital trading transparency law, a law related to collecting consumption tax on digital platforms, and criteria for a cloud platform used by the national and local governments as problematic.

Southeast Asia

Malaysia PM says country rejected $10 million ransom demand after airport outages
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
Computer outages at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport this weekend were attributed to a recent cyberattack, according to the country’s cybersecurity agency and aviation authority. The statement emerged as Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim confirmed the incident during a speech on Tuesday. Ibrahim said the attackers targeted Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad, the company that runs most of the country’s airports, and demanded a $10 million ransom.

Thai officers intercept Starlink transmitters allegedly headed for Myanmar scam centers
The Record by Recorded Future
James Reddick
Thai law enforcement on Saturday reportedly confiscated 38 Starlink satellite internet transmitters allegedly intended to be used in scam compounds in Myanmar. The bust carried out by the Thai Army’s Ratchamanu Task Force and a drug suppression unit is at least the second seizure of Starlink devices in recent weeks. On March 11, police reportedly seized 10 transmitters before they were moved across the border.

South & Central Asia

India to scrap digital ad tax, easing US concerns
Reuters
Aftab Ahmed and Manoj Kumar
India will scrap a tax of 6% on digital advertisements online, the finance minister said on Tuesday, easing costs for US tech giants such as Alphabet's Google, Meta and Amazon as a way of soothing US trade concerns. The move responds to concerns raised by Washington after President Donald Trump threatened reciprocal tariffs from April 2 on trading partners, including India, that fuelled alarm among exporters. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit last month to the US, both nations agreed to work on the first phase of a trade deal by autumn 2025, targeting two-way trade of $500 billion by 2030.

Ukraine - Russia

Russia, Ukraine back truce at sea and energy attack ban
Canberra Times
The United States has reached separate agreements with Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to implement a ban on attacks by the two countries on each other's energy facilities. The agreements, if implemented, would represent the clearest progress yet towards a wider ceasefire that the US sees as a stepping stone towards peace talks to bring an end to Russia's three-year-old war in Ukraine. The agreements, reached in Saudi Arabia, follow talks initiated by Trump, who has vowed to swiftly end the war.

Ukraine sees Russian effort to sow chaos as cyberattack hits rail service
Reuters
Yuliia Dysa and Tom Balmforth
A powerful cyberattack knocked out the online ticketing system for Ukraine's state railway service, causing long queues at stations on Monday in what Kyiv officials said looked like a Russian attempt to "destabilise" the situation. The rail system is a vital way for civilians and freight to travel round wartime Ukraine - a country twice the size of Italy - where air travel had been grounded due to regular missile and drone strikes since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Europe

Austria says it has uncovered Russian plot linked to Wirecard’s Marsalek
Financial Times
Mercedes Ruehl, Sam Jones and Helen Warrell
Austria’s intelligence agency is investigating a Bulgarian national, linked to Wirecard fugitive Jan Marsalek, for alleged espionage and for abetting a Russian campaign to spread disinformation about Ukraine. Investigators from the Directorate for State Protection and Intelligence had found evidence of an “extensive Russian disinformation campaign” in the country, the government said. The investigation revealed that a cell working for the Russian intelligence service had become active a few weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The cell had planned a broad disinformation campaign in German-speaking countries, with a focus on Austria.

European Union to slap Meta with fine up to $1B or more for breaching strict antitrust rules: sources
The New York Post
Thomas Barrabi
The European Union is set to slap Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta with a fine that could stretch to $1 billion or more for allegedly violating its strict antitrust rules, The Post has learned – setting up a possible showdown with President Trump, who has compared the EU’s penalties to “overseas extortion.” The landmark law took effect in 2023 and applies tough competition rules on Meta and six other companies deemed internet gatekeepers.

UK

MPs think they may have been targets of ‘disinformation’ over Bangladesh inquiry
The Guardian
Rob Davies
British MPs believe they may have been targeted by a “disinformation” campaign aimed at discrediting the man leading efforts to trace funds allegedly laundered from Bangladesh into the UK. MPs raised the alarm after receiving emails about Ahsan Mansur, who was installed as the central bank governor of Bangladesh last year, after a student-led revolution swept away the autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina.

Tom Adeyoola to lead Innovate UK
The Times
Richard Hyles
A technology entrepreneur is set to become the head of the government’s £1.1 billion a year innovation funding agency, Innovate UK, ahead of potential cuts to its budget. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said Tom Adeyoola is its preferred choice to replace Indro Mukerjee, who left last September, in the £195,000-a-year role. Adeyoola’s selection comes at a crucial time for the agency, which supports the research and development efforts of 450,000 organisations a year.

Africa

Over 300 arrested in international crackdown on cyber scams
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Law enforcement agencies in seven African countries arrested over 300 suspected cybercriminals involved in mobile banking, investment and messaging app scams, according to a statement by Interpol. In an international operation that stretched from last November to February, authorities from Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo and Zambia uncovered cross-border criminal networks that defrauded more than 5,000 victims. The operation was supported by private companies, including Group-IB, Kaspersky and Trend Micro.

Cyberattack causes delays for South Africa’s largest chicken producer
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
South Africa’s largest chicken producer Astral Foods lost more than $1 million due to a recent cyberattack that caused delivery delays and other issues. The cyberattack caused “downtime in processing and deliveries to customers” that resulted in lost revenue and backlogs. In total, Astral Foods said it lost about 20 million rand worth of profits, which is about $1 million.

How a Japanese entrepreneur built Ethiopia’s fastest-growing EV maker
Rest of World
Damilare Dosunmu
In energy-starved Ethiopia, where electricity reaches less than half of the population, a local startup’s unconventional bet on battery-powered motorcycles has hit the spot. In less than a year of launch, Dodai has emerged as the East African nation’s fastest-growing electric vehicle maker, selling 850 units in the face of regulatory and supply-chain challenges. The company’s runaway success has caught the eye of the government as the country’s sovereign fund, Ethiopian Investment Holdings, looks to establish a network of 300 battery swapping stations in the next three years.

NZ & Pacific Islands

Papua New Guinea shuts down Facebook in test to stop 'pornography, misinformation, hate speech'
ABC News
Nick Sas and Belinda Kora
Papua New Guinea's government has shut down social media platform Facebook, in what it describes as a "test" to mitigate hate speech, misinformation, pornography and "other detrimental content". The test, conducted under the country's anti-terrorism laws, began on Monday morning and has extended into Tuesday. Facebook users in the country have been unable to log-in to the platform and it is unclear how long the ban will go on for.

Gender & Women in Tech

Women make up just 17% of the cyber security workforce. Jacqui Loustau is working to change that
Women's Agenda
Jessie Tu
As the founder and executive director of Australian Women in Security Network, Jacqui Loustau has been working to grow and retain the number of women in the security community for more than a decade. The largely male-dominated cyber security workforce is currently made up of only 17 per cent women—a startlingly low proportion, considering that protecting people, systems and businesses is both a human and a technology challenge affecting all of us.

Big Tech

Google is searching for an answer to ChatGPT
Bloomberg
Julia Love and Davey Alba
One day in 2021, Google’s web search team presented leadership with what was, at the time, a novel proposal: Rather than just have the search engine serve up its familiar list of links, have a chatbot greet visitors at the search results page and offer to answer questions directly. This wasn’t necessarily a shocking idea. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai had been talking for years about redesigning Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, around artificial intelligence, and the organisation ran DeepMind and Google Brain, two of the world’s most sophisticated AI labs.

Alibaba to begin rehiring
Reuters
Kane Wu and Selena Li
Alibaba Group Chairman Joe Tsai said on Tuesday the tech giant would recommence hiring, emboldened with more confidence following President Xi Jinping's February meeting with business entrepreneurs. Tsai lauded the rare meeting between Xi and big names in Chinese tech, including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, which marked a distinct thawing in Beijing's approach to the sector. A regulatory clampdown on the industry four years ago sapped corporate appetite for investment and led to widespread layoffs.

Xiaomi raises $5.5 billion in share sale as EV plans ramped up
Reuters
Scott Murdoch
China's Xiaomi Corp said on Tuesday it had raised $5.5 billion in an upsized share sale as the company pushes forward with its ambitious electric vehicle manufacturing plans. The company sold 800 million shares at HK$53.25 each. Xiaomi, the world's third-largest smartphone maker which moved into electric vehicle manufacturing last year, had planned to sell 750 million shares but increased the size of the deal while the bookbuilding process was underway.

YouTube is seeing big gains with the 50+ crowd — and it's another alarm bell for Hollywood
Business Insider
Lucia Moses
Traditional media companies have been fretting about losing kids to YouTube. But maybe they should also be worried about the 50-plus crowd. YouTube's TV viewership continues to grow, partly thanks to viewers 50 and older, per Nielsen data. Adults 65 and up nearly doubled their YouTube viewing on TV over the last two years. Traditional media has fed YouTube by putting more full-length TV episodes and movies there.

Artificial Intelligence

Chinese AI start-ups overhaul business models after DeepSeek’s success
Financial Times
Eleanor Olcott, Ryan McMorrow and Zijing Wu
Zhipu, once considered China’s most prominent large language model start-up, has pinned its hopes on an initial public offering to sustain its cash-intensive growth as it focuses on building up its enterprise sales business. 01.ai has stopped “pre-training” large language models to focus on selling tailored AI business solutions using DeepSeek’s models; Baichuan has opted to concentrate on the healthcare market; and Moonshot has slashed its marketing budget for its Kimi chatbot to focus on model training.

Nokia bets on improved chip designs to handle AI's energy appetite
Nikkei Asia
Lauly Li and Cheng Ting-Fang
Nokia is betting that advances in chip development will help slash power consumption by data centers and networks as the demands of AI computing increase the risk of an energy crunch. Nokia's vice president and global head of sustainability Subho Mukherjee told Nikkei Asia that the Finnish telecom equipment maker has invested heavily to develop a variety of new chipsets to reduce the power consumption of its products by 50% or more. Nokia is one of the few companies in the world -- along with Ericsson of Sweden and China's Huawei -- that has an end-to-end network portfolio, such as mobile networks for consumer phones, transport networks with microwaves, radio access networks, and broadband fiber.

Alibaba’s Tsai warns of a ‘bubble’ in AI data center buildout
Bloomberg
Luz Ding
Alibaba Group Chairman Joe Tsai warns of a potential bubble forming in datacenter construction, citing a rush to build server bases without clear customers in mind. Tsai expresses concern that the pace of datacenter buildout may outstrip initial demand for AI services, with many projects raising funds without secured "uptake" agreements. From Microsoft Corp. to SoftBank Group Corp., tech firms on both sides of the Pacific are spending billions of dollars buying the Nvidia Corp. and SK Hynix Inc. chips crucial to AI development.

The unbelievable scale of AI’s pirated-books problem
The Atlantic
Alex Reisner
When employees at Meta started developing their flagship AI model, Llama 3, they faced a simple ethical question. The program would need to be trained on a huge amount of high-quality writing to be competitive with products such as ChatGPT, and acquiring all of that text legally could take time. Should they just pirate it instead? Meta employees spoke with multiple companies about licensing books and research papers, but they weren’t thrilled with their options. This “seems unreasonably expensive,” wrote one research scientist on an internal company chat, in reference to one potential deal, according to court records.

Research

An analysis of the cybersecurity pillar of Australia’s new counter-terrorism strategy
Observer Research Foundation
Soumya Awasthi
At a time when cyberspace has emerged as a frontline for geopolitical conflicts and extremist activities, counterterrorism tactics must evolve to address the new realities of digital radicalisation, encrypted communications, and cyber-financed terrorism. Australia’s Counter-Terrorism and Violent Extremism Strategy 2025 provides a blueprint to address the modern-day terrorist threats by merging cybersecurity, AI-driven surveillance, and intelligence-sharing mechanisms. Canberra seeks to pre-empt terrorist activities by using digital monitoring tools, administering stern encryption laws, and collaborating with intelligence units.

Events & Podcasts

Artificial intelligence in government
The Hatchery
As governments rapidly adopt AI, ensuring its responsible and effective use is paramount. To support AI adoption and ensure public trust, governments must implement strong frameworks for transparent, ethical, and unbiased AI, reducing risks while enhancing decision-making, services, and operations for all. Following the June 2024 National AI Assurance Framework agreement, and the DTA’s piloting of its own Australian Public Service-specific framework, the AI in Government Conference provides a crucial platform to explore how robust assurance frameworks—aligned with national and state initiatives—can rebuild trust and guide the safe, ethical, and effective use of AI.

Climate journalism and disinformation: The floods in Valencia
International Press Institute
In this podcast, “Decoding Disinformation”, host Javier Luque, Head of Digital Media & Online Safety at IPI, and guest Clara Jiménez Cruz, CEO and co-founder of Maldita.es, discuss the challenges faced by climate journalists in the face of disinformation campaigns, particularly focusing on the Valencia floods. They explore the various actors involved in spreading misinformation, including influencers and foreign entities, and the impact of these narratives on public trust in media and institutions. The conversation also delves into the role of social media platforms and the evolving strategies needed to combat disinformation in the future.

The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security Programs team at ASPI and supported by partners.