TSMC to win more than $5 billion in grants for US chip plant | North Korean missiles developed with foreign help | Russia-sponsored cyberattackers infiltrate Microsoft's code base

Good morning. It's Tuesday 12th March.

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

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• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is set to win more than $5 billion in federal grants to support a chipmaking project in Arizona, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would mark a major milestone in President Joe Biden’s effort to revitalize American semiconductor manufacturing. Bloomberg

• North Korea is strongly suspected of using joint research with other countries to develop missile and other military technologies, a Nikkei investigation has found. Nikkei Asia

• The Russian state-sponsored advanced persistent threat group known as Midnight Blizzard has nabbed Microsoft source code after accessing internal repositories and systems, as part of an ongoing series of attacks by a very sophisticated adversary. Dark Reading

ASPI

‘Wild west up there’: space looms as world’s next battleground
The Australian
Luke Slattery
Doomsday space scenarios took on a tangible form last month when Republican chair of the US House of Representatives intelligence committee, Mike Turner, claimed on the basis of US intelligence that Russia, in contravention of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, was planning to send a nuclear weapon into space. When I reach Rebecca Shrimpton at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute to ask for her assessment, she sounds worried. The time, she fears, has passed when the international community could confidently restrain “bad actors” in space

Australia

Chinese social media and the 2025 Australian federal election
The Interpreter
Fan Yang, Robbie Fordyce and Luke Heemsbergen
In any electoral or voting cycle, misinformation and disinformation has the ability to alter the outcome of the democratic process. From January to December 2023, we conducted a research project that collected more than 3,000 items about the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice Referendum that had been published across the Chinese-language social media platform called WeChat. The findings revealed an increasing prevalence of misleading information in relation to the referendum and Indigenous communities, disseminated across Chinese-speaking migrant communities.

Delivering the Quad’s tech agenda
The Strategist
Jennifer Jackett
Almost three years have passed since the leaders of the four Quad countries pledged to co-operate on critical technologies to ensure that innovation is consistent with a free, open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific. With technology and geopolitics both moving quickly, the Quad needs to focus on delivering on its commitments. The grouping’s tech agenda now spans horizon-scanning, education and research, technology design, investment, supply chain resilience, and assistance to third countries.

China

Apple: iPhone China sales slide as Huawei soars, report says
BBC
Mariko Oi
Sales in China of Apple's iPhone fell by 24% in the first six weeks of 2024 compared to a year earlier, according to research firm Counterpoint. It comes as the US technology giant is facing fierce competition in the country from local rivals. During the same period China's Huawei saw its sales jump by 64% in its home market, the report says. Apple and Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the BBC.

China is making it much easier for foreigners to use mobile pay
CNBC
Evelyn Cheng
Foreign visitors to China can now spend up to $2,000 a year using the mobile app Alipay without having to register their ID, the app operator said Friday. That’s four times more than the previous limit of $500, a move that will impact international tourists the most. The number of foreign travelers to China had declined after the country temporarily imposed strict border controls during the pandemic. The increased transaction limit reflects Beijing’s push this year to make it easier for foreign travelers to pay for daily purchases in a country in which mobile payment has become ubiquitous.

USA

TSMC to win more than $5 billion in grants for US chip plant
Bloomberg
Mackenzie Hawkins
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is set to win more than $5 billion in federal grants to support a chipmaking project in Arizona, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would mark a major milestone in President Joe Biden’s effort to revitalize American semiconductor manufacturing. The award is not yet finalized, the people said, asking not to be named to discuss confidential conversations. It is also not yet clear whether TSMC will tap the loans and guarantees also on offer from the 2022 Chips and Science Act.

Trump says a TikTok ban would only help 'enemy of the people' Facebook
BBC
Max Matza
Former US President Donald Trump has criticised a congressional bill to force TikTok's parent company to sell the app or see it banned in the US. Mr Trump, who attempted to ban TikTok in 2020 while in the White House, said the proposal would give unfair advantages to Facebook owner Meta. Lawmakers are debating a measure that would force TikTok parent company ByteDance to sell it by 30 September.

• House to move ahead with bill targeting TikTok as Trump flips to oppose it
  The New York Times
  Annie Karni and Jonathan Swan
  House Republican leaders are pushing forward this week with a planned vote on legislation that would force the Chinese owners of TikTok to divest or face being barred in the United States, even after former President Donald J. Trump reversed course and declared himself staunchly opposed to targeting the popular social media app he once vowed to ban.

• A bill that could lead to a nation-wide TikTok ban is gaining momentum. Here’s what to know
  AP News
  Haleluya Hadero
  TikTok once again finds itself in a precarious position. This time, it comes in the form of legislation that would ban the popular social media platform if it doesn’t break ties with ByteDance, its Beijing-based parent company.

• Australia must make ‘critical’ move on TikTok as US moves towards banning app
  news.com.au
  Ellen Ransley
  A TikTok ban is “highly likely” to pass the United States congress before the year is done, sparking “critical” warnings Australia not be left behind. The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday voted unanimously 50-0 to advance a Bill, that, if passed, would prohibit TikTok from US app stores unless the platform is divested from its Chinese parent company ByteDance within 165 days.

North Asia

North Korean missiles developed with foreign help, Nikkei finds
Nikkei Asia
Yuichiro Kanematsu, Toru Tsunashima and Shoji Yano
North Korea is strongly suspected of using joint research with other countries to develop missile and other military technologies, a Nikkei investigation has found. With assistance from technical experts, Nikkei has studied papers co-authored by North Korean and foreign researchers through Scopus, a multidisciplinary publishing database.

Ukraine - Russia

Russia-sponsored cyberattackers infiltrate Microsoft's code base
Dark Reading
Tara Seals
The Russian state-sponsored advanced persistent threat group known as Midnight Blizzard has nabbed Microsoft source code after accessing internal repositories and systems, as part of an ongoing series of attacks by a very sophisticated adversary. The Redmond giant noted today that the previously announced cyber campaign by Midnight Blizzard, which commenced in January, has evolved.

• Microsoft warns Russian hackers have expanded their attacks
  The Washington Post
  Joseph Menn
  Microsoft warned Friday that the Russian government hackers it had blamed for hacking its executives’ email last month have been leveraging what they stole to try to break into customers’ computer systems.

Europe

Europe’s tech champions sound the alarm over migration rhetoric
POLITICO
Pieter Haeck
Europe's shift to the right is drawing unease from tech companies worried about migration policies that may make it even harder to recruit much-needed skilled foreign workers. An early skirmish is unfolding in the Netherlands, where the European Union's most valuable tech firm, chips champion ASML, has told the government that it will grow its business elsewhere if too many curbs are placed on the influx of international students and expat workers.

EU Commission breached data protection rules using Microsoft 365, EU watchdog found
Euractiv
Julia Tar
The European Commission violated data protection rules in its use of Microsoft 365, leading to the imposition of corrective measures by the European Data Protection Supervisor, the watchdog announced on Monday. According to the EDPS, an independent supervisory authority ensuring that European institutions uphold privacy and data protection laws, the Commission violated several parts of the EU’s data protection regulation for institutions.

French government hit with cyberattacks of ‘unprecedented’ intensity
POLITICO
Antoaneta Roussi
Several French government departments have been experiencing a series of cyberattacks in the past day, with the government activating a crisis unit to deal with the attack. According to the prime minister's office, the impact has now been reduced and access to some government websites was “re-established,” but the attacks are still ongoing.

UK

Kate Middleton says sorry for ‘editing’ Mother’s Day photo that caused furor
POLITICO
Claudia Chiappa
Kate Middleton apologized Monday morning for “editing” a picture the Royal Family posted on Sunday. The manipulated image had sparked an online frenzy amid ongoing speculation about the Princess of Wales’ health. The photo, featuring Kate and her three children, was pulled offline by the world’s top media agencies amid concerns it was manipulated.

Artificial Intelligence

Silicon Valley is pricing academics out of AI research
The Washington Post
Naomi Nix, Cat Zakrzewski and Gerrit De Vynck
Fei-Fei Li, the “godmother of artificial intelligence,” delivered an urgent plea to President Biden in the glittering ballroom of San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel last June. The Stanford professor asked Biden to fund a national warehouse of computing power and data sets — part of a “moonshot investment” allowing the country’s top AI researchers to keep up with tech giants.

International AI rights treaty hangs by a thread
POLITICO
Gian Volpicelli
The United States is close to succeeding in watering down a global treaty on artificial intelligence by exempting its leading private companies from the rules. Diplomats are gathering in Strasbourg this week, hoping to finalize a broad international treaty to better protect human rights in AI applications. The treaty has been over three years in the making and responds to rising concerns about the harms of AI used in booming apps like ChatGPT.

Can AI be a force for inclusion?
University of Oxford
Kelsey Doerksen
There is enormous potential for artificial intelligence tools to benefit society; from early detection of diseases, to natural disaster response, to helping us write succinct emails. But these technologies need to be viewed under a critical lens to ensure that we are building tools to help, and not harm society. When we are thinking about reducing bias in AI models, we need to start with the datasets we are using to teach them.

Research

Europe and the Indo-Pacific: Convergence and divergence in the digital order
IISS
Meia Nouwens, Francesca Maremonti, Mariko Togashi and Hannah Brandt
As the US-China rivalry intensifies, Europe and the Indo-Pacific navigate the shifting sands of digital diplomacy and technological competition. This research report unveils how these regions are responding to challenges in critical infrastructure, artificial intelligence, innovation protection and cyber disinformation, highlighting the importance of broadening the perspective beyond bilateral tensions to foster global digital cooperation.

Censorship’s impact on China’s chatbots
Chinatalk
Nicholas Welch
Last year, ChinaTalk reported on the Cyberspace Administration of China’s “Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services”. The regulation dictates that generative AI services must “uphold core socialist values” and prohibits content that “subverts state authority” and “threatens or compromises national security and interests”; it also compels AI developers to undergo security evaluations and register their algorithms with the CAC before public release. Since this directive was issued, the CAC has approved a total of 40 LLMs and AI applications for commercial use, with a batch of 14 getting a green light in January of this year. So how does Chinese censorship work on AI chatbots? To find out, we queried four Chinese chatbots on political questions and compared their responses on Hugging Face.

The university sector’s value proposition for AUKUS
United States Studies Centre
Peter Dean, Sophie Mayo and Alex Favier
From September to October 2023, the University of Sydney partnered with the Times Higher Education World Academic Summit to explore how regional, national and global collaboration can strengthen the role of universities as drivers of change within society. As part of the Summit, the United States Studies Centre hosted two major roundtables with university, business and senior government leaders from Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The following summarises these discussions and surveys key findings, traversing themes including strategic messaging and social license, government demand signals and collaboration, workforce and the role of universities in AUKUS research and development.

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.

The dangers posed by AI and disinformation during elections
Brookings
The last year has seen an explosion of accessible generative AI tools, which allow virtually anyone to rapidly and inexpensively create synthetic images, video, audio, and text. As the presidential election approaches, there are serious concerns about an explosion of disinformation and synthetic content that could impact what is expected to be a very close race.

Jobs

China Analyst or Senior Analyst
ASPI
ASPI has an exciting opportunity for an analyst or senior analyst to explore China's evolving foreign and security policy, political economy and impact on the Indo-Pacific and the world. ASPI’s China analysts conduct rigorous data-driven research, publish impactful reports that shape the public policy discourse and contribute to the wide catalogue of influential China work published by ASPI. The difference between the analyst and senior analyst levels will depend on experience level and demonstration of past work.

Junior Editor for The Strategist
ASPI
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute is seeking a junior editor for The Strategist website, Australia’s leading site for national security commentary and analysis. We are looking for a strong editor and writer who has excellent attention to detail and solid policy judgement, and who can work with ASPI staff, on writing and editing their own work. Candidates will preferably have a background in journalism, editing or security and international policy, with at least two years’ experience in a relevant field.

Deputy Director Defence Strategy & National Security
ASPI
ASPI is currently recruiting for a Deputy Director, Defence Strategy & National Security. This is an exceptional opportunity for a talented and experienced individual to contribute to the work of Australia's leading think-tank on strategic defence policy issues in a unique leadership role.

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