US foreign interference division faces potential closure | China ramping up chip-making alliances & outsourcing| South Korea & NATO discuss malicious cybersecurity activities amid global conflicts
Good morning. It's Tuesday 12th of November 2024.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest focuses on the topics we work on, including cybersecurity, critical technologies, foreign interference & disinformation.
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A State Department office that uses high-level U.S. intelligence to combat Russian and Chinese information operations abroad faces a possible shutdown at the end of the year, just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. The Wall Street Journal
China's semiconductor industry is readying itself for four more combative years under Donald Trump as U.S. president by ramping up purchases of foreign chipmaking equipment and looking out for opportunities to hire overseas talent and forge new alliances. Reuters
South Korea held its inaugural High-Level Cyber Dialogue with NATO last week. The talks addressed regional cybersecurity challenges across the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic regions, including malicious cyber activities connected to global conflicts. Korea Pro
Australia
Looking to the skies: The importance of satellite cybersecurity
United States Studies Centre
Tom Barrett
Between 7,500 and 9,200 active satellites orbit the Earth every day. Yet, losing a single satellite can have more of an impact than ever before. Satellites are now integral components in our economies, governments and telecommunications networks; losing even a single satellite can have disastrous consequences. This brief examines the Russian attack on KA-SAT and considers what Australia and the region can learn from this event, particularly as satellites become an increasingly vital component of regional communications networks.
Australia to pursue AI and social media regulation despite any Trump administration opposition, MP says
The Guardian
Paul Karp
The Australian government will push on with regulation of social media and artificial intelligence despite the incoming Trump administration’s opposition to both, Ed Husic has signaled. On Monday the industry minister sought to reassure Australians that the Albanese government would pursue “national priorities” despite Donald Trump’s promise to roll back AI regulation in the US, as well as the potential influence of the billionaire X owner, Elon Musk, who opposes regulation of social media.
With a 'CCTV camera in every laptop' as workplace surveillance extends to the home, governments are trying to determine a limit
ABC News
Daniel Ziffer
Workplace surveillance systems are expanding and becoming more powerful. In Australia, employers say they boost productivity and reduce fraud, but unions argue they are overreaching. State and federal government committees are trying to determine limits on what employers can monitor.
China
Make new friends and boost hiring: How China's chip industry plans to deal with Trump
Reuters
Eduardo Baptista and Fanny Potkin
China's semiconductor industry is readying itself for four more combative years under Donald Trump as U.S. president by ramping up purchases of foreign chipmaking equipment and looking out for opportunities to hire overseas talent and forge new alliances. Among the strategies being considered are the pursuit of closer ties with countries and firms that may feel alienated by the U.S. President-elect's future policies, and a doubling down on self-sufficiency, according to a review of more than 30 articles and research notes published by Chinese chip firms, associations and analysts this week after Trump's win.
China's CATL takes on BYD with long-range hybrid battery
Nikkei Asia
Shizuka Tanabe
China's Contemporary Amperex Technology, the world's largest supplier of electric vehicle batteries, seeks to capture growing demand for plug-in hybrids with a new compound battery pack that promises a range of 400 km. "The AB battery system compensates for the shortcomings in sodium-ion batteries and the shortcomings in lithium-ion batteries," Gao Huan, chief technology officer of CATL's China E-car Business, said during a launch event in late October for the Freevoy battery, called Xiaoyao in Chinese.
The West’s greatest weapon in a war with China? Online porn
The Telegraph
Michael Deacon
When Ukrainians heard that North Korea was sending thousands of soldiers to fight for Putin, they must have been alarmed. Thankfully, however, it sounds as though the threat posed by Kim Jong Un’s men may have been dramatically blunted. Because an extraordinary report this week reveals that, since arriving on the front line, the North Korean soldiers have become hopelessly addicted to online pornography.
USA
State Department division that battles foreign disinformation faces closure
The Wall Street Journal
Michael R. Gordon and Dustin Volz
A State Department office that uses high-level U.S. intelligence to combat Russian and Chinese information operations abroad faces a possible shutdown at the end of the year, just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Following Trump win, FBI warns of ‘slave plantation’ texts targeting African Americans
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
The FBI and several Black political leaders warned the public about a string of offensive text messages sent to African Americans across the US following former President Donald Trump’s win in the 2024 presidential election. Last week, hundreds of African Americans took to social media to share text messages they received following the announcement of Trump’s election win. The messages say the recipient has been "selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation" and to look out for vans that will take them to a plantation. Some are explicitly signed as from the "Trump & Vance Administration."
Exclusive: US ordered TSMC to halt shipments to China of chips used in AI applications
Reuters
Karen Freifeld and Fanny Potkin
The U.S. ordered Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers that are often used in artificial intelligence applications starting Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Department of Commerce sent a letter to TSMC imposing export restrictions on certain sophisticated chips, of 7 nanometer or more advanced designs, destined for China that power AI accelerator and graphics processing units, the person said.
China chip index nears 3-year high as TSMC order fuels self-reliance bets
Reuters
China's semiconductor index leapt close to a three-year high on Monday on bets a U.S. order halting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's, opens new tab shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers could accelerate Beijing's self-reliance efforts. TSMC will from Monday suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday.
For $US130m, Musk bought himself a spot in Trump’s inner circle. But what exactly has he gained?
The Sydney Morning Herald
David Swan
Months of fuelling a budding bromance, millions of dollars in political donations and millions more memes and tweets all culminated at this moment: a comprehensive Trump victory, and one that bore the mark of the world’s richest tech bro. For a measly $US132 million or so, Musk bought himself a place inside Trump’s inner circle, ensuring a new “broligarchy” will reign for at least the next four years.
North Asia
South Korea strengthens NATO cyber ties as new threats emerge globally
Korea Pro
South Korea held its inaugural High-Level Cyber Dialogue with NATO last week. The talks addressed regional cybersecurity challenges across the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic regions, including malicious cyber activities connected to global conflicts. As part of the South Korea-NATO Individually Tailored Partnership Program, the dialogue covered specific cooperation plans, including the implementation of cyber initiatives, upcoming NATO cyber defense pledges and South Korea’s 2025 Cyber Champions Summit.
Seoul accuses pro-Kremlin hackers of attacking websites over decision to monitor North Korean troops in Ukraine
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Pro-Russia hacker groups have ramped up attacks on South Korean organizations following Seoul’s decision to send observers to Ukraine after North Korean troops joined Russian forces on the frontlines. According to a statement from the South Korean president’s office on Friday, the country’s cyber agencies have detected an increase in Russia-linked attacks, primarily targeting civilian and government websites.
Southeast Asia
GoTo, Tencent, Alibaba agree on cloud infrastructure development
The Star
Indonesian tech firm GoTo Gojek Tokopedia and China's Tencent and Alibaba signed agreements on Sunday on developing cloud infrastructure and digital talent in Indonesia, GoTo said in a statement. The agreements were agreed at the Indonesia-China Business Forum in Beijing and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who is visiting China, GoTo said.
Tencent, Visa partner on palm-based authentication in Singapore
Nikkei Asia
Itsuro Fujino
China's Tencent Holdings announced that it is partnering with Visa to launch a palm biometric authentication payment service in Singapore, with hopes to expand the technology globally in the future. The service will be available to holders of Visa credit cards issues by major Singaporean banks DBS, United Overseas Bank and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.
Vietnam to simplify procedures for chip investments: minister
Nikkei Asia
Yuji Nitta
Vietnam's National Assembly is looking to simplify procedures for investing in semiconductors and other industries to attract more foreign companies, according to Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung. The country will "change its way of thinking from pre-screening to post-screening" for investment in high-tech industries, Dung told reporters Thursday in Hanoi.
Vietnam says Temu, Shein must register with government or be blocked
Reuters
Vietnam said Chinese online retailers Shein and Temu need to register with the government before the end of November or it will block their internet domains and apps from being used in the country. Vietnam's government and local businesses have expressed concern about the impact of Chinese online platforms on local markets due to deep discounting. The trade ministry has also said it is worried about the potential for the sale of counterfeit items.
Thai police influencers seek to warn against crime online
Bangkok Post
In an age when people turn to social media figures for help, national police chief Kittharath Punpetch is planning to develop the Royal Thai Police's own influencers to build a direct connection with the public and warn them about crimes. According to him, RTP influencers must be an easily reachable channel for help, transforming how people perceive police and ensuring that crime victims go to the police first rather than seeking help elsewhere.
NZ & Pacific Islands
Viral "Organ harvesting" myth prompts concern about social media use
ABC News
Kyle Evans
The rapid development of AI however, is making harder to differentiate between what's real and what's fake. This has been highlighted in the Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands over the last month when unsubstantiated rumours of kidnapping and organ harvesting sparked fears and even shut down schools. Police in both countries have since debunked the scare as the result of false information, and chastised social media users who supported the rumour despite having no evidence to support it.
Europe
Web Summit kicks off in Lisbon as tech leaders weigh Trump’s return
Reuters
Martin Coulter
Lisbon will this week play host to Europe’s biggest annual tech conference, Web Summit, where industry leaders and lawmakers will weigh the pros and cons of Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Senior executives from firms such as Apple, Microsoft and Meta will join high-ranking officials from Europe for debates about the future of artificial intelligence, social media regulation, and the impact a second Trump presidency may have on the continent.
French minister to Musk: Don’t break democracy like you did Twitter
POLITICO
Victor Goury-Laffont
Democracy is a delicate treasure," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said in an interview with Le Parisien when asked about the part Musk could play in the new Trump administration. Musk held a key role in Trump's campaign, appearing at rallies, pouring millions into a pro-Trump political action committee he founded and using X to promote pro-Trump content in a bid to attract young male voters in particular.
Turkey arrests journalist over social media post on prosecutors
Reuters
An Istanbul court late on Saturday formally arrested a Turkish journalist over his social media posts on prosecutors investigating a mayor from Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party, his lawyer said. Furkan Karabay, a reporter with news website 10Haber, was detained early on Friday after writing on X the names of prosecutors conducting an investigation into the mayor.
Europe chooses pilot photonic chip factory in the Netherlands
Innovation Origins
The Netherlands will soon have a European facility for developing photonic chips. These chips transmit information via light waves instead of electrical signals. A public investment of 380 million euros has been set aside for this project, from the European Union and 11 participating countries. Of this, 133 million euros is expected to be invested in the Dutch components of the pilot plant, with Eindhoven and Enschede as possible locations.
Gender and Women in Cyber
‘Inhospitable environment’: Tech Council launches plan to retain women
The Sydney Morning Herald
David Swan
The Technology Council of Australia is responding to the string of recent high-profile instances of harassment and inappropriate behaviour plaguing the sector, launching industry standards to improve diversity and help companies attract and retain female talent. The “T-EDI standards” launched at the peak body’s national summit on Monday denotes a certification framework for companies to assess their performance against 10 equity, diversity and inclusion standards and then develop an action plan to improve. Telstra, CyberCX, Accenture, PEXA, Culture Amp and Commonwealth Bank are among the companies to have endorsed and adopted the standards internally.
Big Tech
TikTok hopes for lifeline from President-Elect Trump, who once favored ban
Bloomberg
Alexandra S. Levine
Some TikTok staff and creators, bracing for a potential ban of the popular video-sharing platform as soon as January, have come to see President-elect Donald Trump as a possible savior. It’s possible Trump could devise an alternative solution to a sale, urge Congress to roll back the law or instruct his Justice Department not to enforce it, but none of those scenarios are as simple as they sound. Some inside the company don’t trust Trump to deliver.
China's Huawei Technologies seeks dismissal of US criminal charges
Reuters
Jonathan Stempel
Huawei Technologies asked a U.S. judge to dismiss much of a federal indictment accusing the Chinese telecommunications company of trying to steal technology secrets from U.S. rivals and misleading banks about its business in Iran. In a Friday night filing in federal court in Brooklyn, Huawei said there was no proof of a conspiracy, calling the charge part of the Department of Justice's "ill-founded" China Initiative to prosecute people and companies with ties to China.
Big Tech’s hotbeds of employee activism quiet after Trump’s victory
The New York Times
Karen WeiseNico Grant and Mike Isaac
If any industry could have said its workplaces were politicized, it was tech. Early in Donald J. Trump’s first term in the White House, America’s tech giants loudly protested his temporary ban on travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries. But after this week’s presidential election, the largely liberal work forces of tech’s biggest companies were quiet. While the definitive nature of the election most likely played a role, the change also represented an effort by executives to dampen employee activism in recent years.
OpenAI and others seek new path to smarter AI as current methods hit limitations
Reuters
Krystal Hu and Anna Tong
Artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI are seeking to overcome unexpected delays and challenges in the pursuit of ever-bigger large language models by developing training techniques that use more human-like ways for algorithms to "think".
A dozen AI scientists, researchers and investors told Reuters they believe that these techniques, which are behind OpenAI's recently released o1 model, could reshape the AI arms race, and have implications for the types of resources that AI companies have an insatiable demand for, from energy to types of chips.
Exclusive: Amazon developing driver eyeglasses to shave seconds off deliveries, sources say
Reuters
Greg Bensinger
Amazon is developing smart eyeglasses for its delivery drivers to guide them to, around and within buildings, as it tries to smooth the final stretch of an order's journey to a customer's home, five people familiar with the matter said. If successful, the glasses would provide drivers with turn-by-turn navigation on a small embedded screen, along their routes and at each stop, according to the people, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity because the project is not public.
Artificial Intelligence
ByteDance adds video generator to China’s most popular AI chatbot Doubao
South China Morning Post
Ben Jiang
TikTok parent ByteDance is adding video-generation ability to its ChatGPT alternative Doubao, as the short-video giant doubles down on a potential blockbuster in China’s fast-growing generative artificial intelligence market. The Doubao chatbot – powered by its namesake large language model, the same underlying technology behind ChatGPT – has started testing a new video function that is able to convert text or images into lifelike video clips, thanks to its “outstanding semantic understanding capability”, according to the app’s introduction.
Events & Podcasts
Macquarie Park Semiconductor Summit 2024
Connect Macquarie Park Innovation District
Hear from Australia’s leading semiconductor researchers, entrepreneurs and innovation ecosystem builders on the semiconductor opportunity for Australia. Receive a detailed briefing on Macquarie University's new and ambitious semiconductor research project. Discuss Australia’s sovereign manufacturing future and opportunities in Macquarie Park Network with semiconductor industry leaders and Macquarie Park businesses.
Navigating digital safety: Exploring security and trust in online spaces for young Australians
ASPI
As technology evolves, so do 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. In our current digital context, what does it truly mean to be secure online, and how can we create a safer digital environment? Join us for an important discussion from 6:00 – 8:30pm on 27 November at ASPI in Canberra. This event is the final instalment of a joint series hosted by Future Privacy Forum, AARNet, and ASPI, dedicated to exploring privacy, safety, and security standards in Australia.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.