New York Times: Inside U.S. Efforts to Untangle an A.I. Giant’s Ties to China. “American spy agencies have warned about the Emirati firm G42 and its work with large Chinese companies that U.S. officials consider security threats.”
Europol: International collaboration leads to dismantlement of ransomware group in Ukraine amidst ongoing war. “In an unprecedented effort, law enforcement and judicial authorities from seven countries have joined forces with Europol and Eurojust to dismantle and apprehend in Ukraine key figures behind significant ransomware operations wreaking havoc across the world. The operation comes at a critical time, as the country grapples with the challenges of Russia’s military aggression against its territory.”
Associated Press: Pentagon’s AI initiatives accelerate hard decisions on lethal autonomous weapons. “Artificial intelligence employed by the U.S. military has piloted pint-sized surveillance drones in special operations forces’ missions and helped Ukraine in its war against Russia. It tracks soldiers’ fitness, predicts when Air Force planes need maintenance and helps keep tabs on rivals in space. Now, the Pentagon is intent on fielding multiple thousands of relatively inexpensive, expendable AI-enabled autonomous vehicles by 2026 to keep pace with China.”
Air & Space Forces Magazine: 16th Air Force Seeks ‘Unity of Effort’ on Information Warfare. “The 16th Air Force is working on an ‘information warfare operations center concept’ to more effectively counteract narratives pushed by China and Russia, said its commander, Lt. Gen. Kevin B. Kennedy Jr., Nov. 13. Enhanced ‘unity of effort’ across the service is the goal, Kennedy said during a livestreamed discussion with AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.”
ABC News (Australia): Major Australian port operator shuts down amid cyber security incident, impacting goods in and out of the country. “Australia’s second largest port operator has shut down because of a cyber security incident, impacting the movement of goods in and out of the country. DP World Australia, which operates ports in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle, is responsible for 40 per cent of maritime freight said it began responding to a cybersecurity incident on Friday.”
MeriTalk: DHS Launches new Office of Homeland Security Statistics. “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday unveiled its new Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS), which aims to advance DHS’s statistical reporting and analysis capabilities. The new office said on Nov. 9 it plans to begin releasing its initial sets of data in the coming weeks and throughout fiscal year 2024, including a report on Federal cybersecurity incidents.”
Taipei Times: Task force to combat false reports . “The Mainland Affairs Council has reached out to temples across Taiwan to promote awareness of Chinese misinformation campaigns, after national security agencies reported a ‘high occurrence’ of election disinformation being spread among the religious community, a senior government official said.”
Associated Press: Thousands of remote IT workers sent wages to North Korea to help fund weapons program, FBI says. “Thousands of information technology workers contracting with U.S. companies have for years secretly sent millions of dollars of their wages to North Korea for use in its ballistic missile program, FBI and Department of Justice officials said.”
BBC: Twitter glitch allows CIA informant channel to be hijacked. “A cyber-security researcher has exploited a glitch on the CIA’s official Twitter account, to hijack a channel used for recruiting spies. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) account on X, formerly known as Twitter, displays a link to a Telegram channel for informants. But Kevin McSheehan was able to redirect potential CIA contacts to his own Telegram channel.”
New York Times: Across U.S., Chinese Bitcoin Mines Draw National Security Scrutiny. “When a company with Chinese origins broke ground last year on a crypto-mining operation in Cheyenne, Wyo., a team at Microsoft that assesses national security threats sounded the alarm. Not only was the site next door to a Microsoft data center that supported the Pentagon — it was about a mile away from an Air Force base that controlled nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles.”
Engadget: The EPA won’t force water utilities to inspect their cyber defenses. “The EPA is withdrawing its plan to require states to assess the cybersecurity and integrity of public water system programs. While the agency says it continues to believe cybersecurity protective measures are essential for the public water industry, the decision was made after GOP-led states sued the agency for proposing the rule.”
New York Times: ‘Start-Up Nation’ Is Tested as Israel’s Reservists Leave Their Desks. “Israel’s defense forces have called up about 360,000 reservists for duty. Such numbers will test the resilience of the technology community that contributes about 20 percent of the country’s economy — and a significant portion of global activity in cutting-edge areas including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and semiconductors.”
Task & Purpose: Former soldier searched Google, Reddit for spying tips, prosecutors say. “The federal indictment paints [Joseph Daniel] Schmidt as an admirer of Chinese culture and society but also an unsophisticated spy who turned to Google to research his legal jeopardy and options for a life after trading state secrets. Schmidt allegedly created a 22-page document titled, ‘Important Information to Share with Chinese Government’ with details on US intelligence sources including source types, assessments, sites for meetings, and communication planning, according to FBI declaration documents.” Unsophisticated indeed.
New York Times: Visa Applicants’ Social Media Data Doesn’t Help Screen for Terrorism, Documents Show. “A disputed rule that forces millions of applicants for a visa to enter the United States to disclose their social media profiles to the government has done little to help screen for possible terrorists, newly disclosed documents show.”
WIRED: China-Linked Hackers Breached a Power Grid—Again. “Today, researchers on the Threat Hunter Team at Broadcom-owned security firm Symantec revealed that a Chinese hacker group with connections to APT41, which Symantec is calling RedFly, breached the computer network of a national power grid in an Asian country—though Symantec has declined to name which country was targeted. The breach began in February of this year and persisted for at least six months as the hackers expanded their foothold throughout the IT network of the country’s national electric utility, though it’s not clear how close the hackers came to gaining the ability to disrupt power generation or transmission.”
