US firms up crackdown on cars containing Chinese technology | Australia announces counter foreign interference initiative | Japan earmarks $1bn in support for chip designers

Good morning. It's Thursday 16th of January.

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

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• The US government has announced new restrictions beginning in 2027 on the importation of Chinese and Russian-made smart cars. The changes are being made due to national security concerns, and amid a push to protect American manufacturing. ABC News

• Home Affairs yesterday announced the launch of Countering Foreign Interference in Australia: Working together towards a more secure Australia, a new initiative that will identify those vulnerable to foreign interference, sets out what the government is doing to deal with it and provides education for organisations to assist them in protecting themselves. Cyber Daily

• Japan is preparing 160 billion yen ($1 billion) in government support for its chip design industry, moving further upstream from its early focus on production in a bid to play catch-up with the U.S. and China. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will provide funding for projects by technology companies, startups and universities over up to five years. Nikkei Asia

ASPI

Tiptoeing around China: Australia’s framework for technology vendor review
The Strategist
Simeon Gilding
Australia has a new framework for dealing with high-risk technology vendors, though the government isn’t brave enough to call them that. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says the framework ‘will ensure the government strikes the right balance in managing security risks while ensuring Australia continues to take advantage of economic opportunities’. An alternative reading would be that it’s an opaque, toothless framework that gives the government wiggle room to minimise risk to the China relationship by increasing risk to our digital sovereignty.

Australia

Australia announces counter foreign interference initiative
Cyber Daily
Daniel Croft
Home Affairs yesterday announced the launch of Countering Foreign Interference in Australia: Working together towards a more secure Australia, a new initiative that will identify those vulnerable to foreign interference, sets out what the government is doing to deal with it and provides education for organisations to assist them in protecting themselves. The government has outlined a number of ways it has worked to counter foreign interference. Nathan Smyth was appointed national counter foreign interference coordinator and is responsible for working with both the government and the private sector to make the nation more resilient and prepared against foreign interference.

• Countering foreign interference in Australia: Working together towards a more secure Australia
  Department of Home Affairs
  The Australian Government has launched Countering Foreign Interference in Australia: Working together towards a more secure Australia, which sets out who is most at risk from foreign interference, what the Australian Government is doing to address it and what individuals and organisations can do to protect themselves.

China

China discussing using Elon Musk as broker in TikTok deal
Financial Times
Madhumita Murgia and Zijing Wu
Officials in Beijing are discussing using Elon Musk as a broker in a potential sale of TikTok’s US operations, days before the Chinese-owned social media app faces a ban from Washington, according to two people familiar with the talks. The bill passed by Congress in April, which requires TikTok’s Beijing-based parent ByteDance to sell its stake in the app or face a ban because of security concerns, comes into effect on Sunday.

• China gives a wary welcome to influx of 'TikTok refugees' on RedNote
  Reuters
  Brenda Goh
  Users of the Chinese social media app RedNote welcomed "TikTok refugees" from the United States with selfies and messages on Wednesday, as Beijing said it encouraged stronger cultural ties with other countries in response to the sudden influx. Known in China as Xiaohongshu and as a platform to find lifestyle recommendations on areas from beauty to food, the app has in recent days been transformed into an unexpected bilateral channel for U.S.-China exchanges, with users swapping photos and questions about pets, favourite foods and their lives.

China's Hytera pleads guilty to stealing Motorola trade secrets
Nikkei Asia
Pak Yiu
Chinese two-way-radio company Hytera Communications has admitted conspiring to steal walkie-talkie-related trade secrets from U.S.-headquartered Motorola Solutions. Hytera pleaded guilty in federal court in Chicago to a single criminal count of conspiracy to steal trade secrets, under an agreement announced Tuesday. The company and seven employees had been indicted in 2022.

Chinese scientists just dominated a top science journal. Trend or just a coincidence?
South China Morning Post
Dannie Peng
In the latest issue of Nature – one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific journals in the West – almost half of the published studies featured work by ethnic Chinese researchers. Some researchers said the output reflected the rapid progress of China’s scientific work in recent years while others said more data was needed to determine if this was a trend.

USA

US firms up crackdown on cars containing Chinese technology amid security fears
ABC News
Thomas Morgan
The US government has announced new restrictions beginning in 2027 on the importation of Chinese and Russian-made smart cars. The changes are being made due to national security concerns, and amid a push to protect American manufacturing. US President Joe Biden also signed an executive order opening up development of artificial intelligence data centres on federal land.

• Biden admin’s final rule banning Chinese connected cars also bars robotaxi testing on US roads
  TechCrunch
  Rebecca Bellan
  The U.S. Department of Commerce announced a final rule Tuesday that would ban the sale or import of connected vehicles from China and Russia due to national security concerns. The rule would also bar Chinese car companies, such as WeRide and Pony AI, from testing self-driving cars on U.S. roads.

• Biden administration finalizes US crackdown on Chinese vehicles
  Reuters
  David Shepardson
  President Joe Biden's outgoing administration is finalizing rules on Tuesday that will effectively bar nearly all Chinese cars and trucks from the U.S. market, as part of a crackdown on vehicle software and hardware from China.

TikTok prepares to shut down app in US on Sunday, sources say
Reuters
David Shepardson and Krystal Hu
TikTok plans to shut its app for U.S. users on Sunday, when a federal ban on the social media app used by 170 million Americans is set to take effect, barring a last-minute reprieve, people familiar with the matter said. The law signed in April mandates a ban on new TikTok downloads on Apple or Google app stores if Chinese-parent ByteDance fails to divest the site.

SEC sues Elon Musk over Twitter purchase disclosures
POLITICO
Declan Harty
The Securities and Exchange Commission took a parting shot at Elon Musk on Tuesday, filing a lawsuit over the billionaire’s alleged failure to properly disclose his purchases of Twitter stock in 2022. For 11 days, Musk — the world’s richest man and a prominent backer of President-elect Donald Trump — allegedly failed to properly disclose that he had acquired a major stake in Twitter, the SEC said in a court filing in Washington. As a result, the agency said Musk benefited from “artificially low prices” as he snatched up shares in the company, which he eventually purchased for $44 billion and renamed X.

• Elon Musk sued by SEC for alleged delay in disclosing purchase of Twitter shares in 2022
  ABC News
  Kate Ainsworth
  The US Securities and Exchange Commission is suing Elon Musk, alleging he intentionally delayed telling the regulator about his purchase of Twitter shares in 2022 in order to buy more of its stock at lower prices. The SEC claimed that Mr Musk — the world's richest man — failed to disclose that he had purchased more than 5 per cent of Twitter's shares in March 2022.

US unveils new rules to curb flow of advanced chips to China
Bloomberg
Mackenzie Hawkins
The US unveiled a fresh round of regulations aimed at keeping advanced chips produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and other companies from making their way to China, one last attempt by the Biden administration to fill holes in the tech blockade of its geopolitical rival. The new measures call for chip producers like TSMC and Samsung Electronics Co. to step up their scrutiny and due diligence of customers, especially Chinese firms.

Second Biden cyber executive order directs agency action on fed security, AI, space
CyberScoop
Tim Starks
A draft cybersecurity executive order would tackle cyber defenses in locations ranging from outer space to the U.S. federal bureaucracy to its contractors, and address security risks embedded in subjects like cybercrime, artificial intelligence and quantum computers. The draft, a copy of which CyberScoop obtained, constitutes one big last stab at cybersecurity in the Biden administration’s 11th hour. The order is a follow-up to an order published in the first year of his presidency.

Defying surveillance: California's stand against federal overreach in reproductive privacy
Tech Policy Press
Evîn Cheikosman
A second Trump administration is poised to weaponize surveillance and data collection to restrict reproductive rights, threatening tenuous progress on privacy and civil liberties. Evidence of this ambition abounds, from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 to Vice President-elect JD Vance’s past support for using medical records to investigate those who travel to seek reproductive healthcare.

North Asia

Japan earmarks $1bn in support for chip designers
Nikkei Asia
Riho Nagao
Japan is preparing 160 billion yen ($1 billion) in government support for its chip design industry, moving further upstream from its early focus on production in a bid to play catch-up with the U.S. and China. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will provide funding for projects by technology companies, startups and universities over up to five years, with an eye toward advanced chips for artificial intelligence, data centers, wireless base stations, self-driving vehicles and care robots, as well as power-saving designs.

Taiwan to strengthen surveillance near undersea cables
Focus Taiwan
Sean Lin
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday that it would step up surveillance near four key areas where undersea cables are located after a Chinese-owned vessel apparently cut an undersea fiber-optic cable near Keelung Harbor. That cable was severed in a suspected act of sabotage by the Cameroon-flagged Shunxin39 cargo ship when it dragged its anchor across an international subsea cable in waters off the coast of northern Taiwan near Keelung on Jan. 3.

Energy tech univ. to help develop next-gen nuclear reactors
KOREA.net
Gil Kyuyoung
Korea Institute of Energy Technology is the nation's first university to collaborate with a U.S. nuclear power company in technological development. The school on Jan. 13 announced that it signed a memorandum of understanding on Jan. 7 on an energy project with Deep Fission, an American startup in nuclear energy. Cofounded by renowned physicist Richard Muller, Deep Fission leads the energy sector through installation technology for small nuclear reactors.

Southeast Asia

Singapore is turning to AI to care for its rapidly aging population
Rest of World
Reeta Raman
Since Dexie arrived at The Salvation Army Peacehaven Jade Circle Arena two years ago, residents look forward to the robot leading their exercises, bingo, and sing-along sessions, Barbara Marie Nonis, an 83-year-old, told Rest of World. “It’s fun and something different,” she said. Dexie’s pre-programmed routines also have another effect.

South & Central Asia

Türkiye urged to transfer tech, build defense industry in Bangladesh
Daily Sabah
The chief of Bangladesh's caretaker government on Thursday called on Türkiye to bring its technology to the South Asian country and help build defense industry. "You are the leader of the technology; you can build your defense industry here. Let’s make a beginning.… we are available for anything that you need," Muhammad Yunus told a Turkish delegation led by Trade Minister Ömer Bolat. The sides met in the capital Dhaka, where Bolat said the two countries can diversify their cooperation beyond the textile industry, which accounts for Türkiye's primary import from Bangladesh.

Ukraine - Russia

Russia's largest platform for state procurement hit by cyberattack from pro-Ukraine group
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Russia’s main electronic trading platform for government and corporate procurement confirmed on Monday that it had been targeted by a cyberattack after initially claiming that outages were caused by “maintenance work.” Roseltorg is one of the largest electronic trading operators selected by the Russian government to conduct public procurement, including contracts in the defense and construction industries.

Europe

A new age of American interference in Europe
The New York Times
Katrin Bennhold
Since Mr. Musk first endorsed the AfD in December, Ms. Weidel’s posts on X have routinely gone viral, in part because he reposts them, along with numerous neo-Nazi accounts that have been reinstated and amplified. Researchers watching the online scene say far-right German influencers now post on X in English to get Mr. Musk’s attention.

EU lines up intel-sharing, cyber squads to stop hospital hacks
POLITICO
Sam Clark
The European Union is ramping up support, an early-warning system and rapid response teams to help its hospitals fight off cyberattacks from hacker groups, it said Wednesday. The European Commission unveiled a new “action plan” on cybersecurity for hospitals and the health care sector, in response to a spate of devastating attacks that hit Ireland, France, the United Kingdom, Finland and other countries since the start of the coronavirus pandemic early 2020.

Netherlands to expand export controls on semiconductor equipment
Reuters
Bart Meijer and Toby Sterlin
The Dutch government on Wednesday said it would expand its export controls on advanced semiconductor equipment from April 1, which chip equipment company ASML said it did not expect to impact its business. Dutch national export licence requirements for semiconductor equipment were first introduced in 2023 under pressure from the U.S. to limit shipments to China, and they have since been expanded several times.

UK

British novelists criticise government over AI ‘theft’
The Guardian
Robert Booth
Kate Mosse and Richard Osman have hit back at Labour’s plan to give artificial intelligence companies broad freedoms to mine artistic works for data, saying it could destroy growth in creative fields and amount to theft. The best-selling novellists spoke out after Keir Starmer a national drive to make the UK “one of the great AI superpowers” and endorsed a 50-point action plan that included changes to how technology firms can use copyrighted text and data to train their models.

NZ & Pacific Islands

New Zealand among top countries most exposed to cloud security breaches
Insurance Business
Roxanne Libatique
New Zealand has been named one of the 10 countries most vulnerable to cloud security breaches, according to a report by cloud security company Kloudle. The report, which assessed global cloud security risks, placed New Zealand in the 10th spot, tied with Poland. The rankings were determined using data from Microsoft, the International Telecommunication Union, and the e-Governance Academy.

Big Tech

Inside Meta’s race to beat OpenAI: “We need to learn how to build frontier and win this race”
The Verge
Emma Roth and Kylie Robison
A major copyright lawsuit against Meta has revealed a trove of internal communications about the company’s plans to develop its open-source AI models, Llama, which include discussions about avoiding “media coverage suggesting we have used a dataset we know to be pirated.” The messages, which were part of a series of exhibits unsealed by a California court, suggest Meta used copyrighted data when training its AI systems and worked to conceal it.

Google faces first UK competition watchdog probe under tougher digital rules
Financial Times
Suzi Ring
The UK’s competition watchdog has opened an investigation into Google to determine if its position in search services should warrant a special status for the US tech giant, which could see it bound by tougher conduct rules. The Competition and Markets Authority said on Tuesday it would look at whether Alphabet-owned Google’s position in search and advertising activities “are delivering good outcomes for people and businesses in the UK”.

Artificial Intelligence

Japan courts ASEAN on AI tech to check China's influence
Nikkei Asia
Kiu Sugano
Japan will work with member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on the development of large language models (LLM) for artificial intelligence, amid concerns about China's efforts to regulate AI in ways that critics say are authoritarian. The cooperation will focus on the research and development of LLMs, considered the foundation of generative AI.

Research

Biotech battlefield: Weaponising innovation in the age of genomics
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Craig Singleton
In a sign of his unwavering commitment to technological self-reliance, Chinese Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping has declared technological innovation to be the “main battlefield of the international strategic game.” Central to Xi’s vision is biotechnology, which he has identified as a critical sector in China’s bid to become a global science superpower. Xi’s broader ambitions are anchored in China’s military-civil fusion strategy, which aims to break down barriers between military and civilian institutions to mobilize the latter in service of the former.

Events & Podcasts

Safeguarding Australian elections: Addressing AI-enabled disinformation
ASPI
As artificial intelligence advances, it creates new challenges for democracy and electoral integrity. AI-enabled disinformation, deepfakes, and influence operations are increasingly being weaponised to distort political discourse and erode public trust. This event on Thursday 6 February, 5:30-6:30pm, co-hosted by ASPI and CETaS, will focus on the intersection of AI, electoral integrity and democratic resilience.

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 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.