‘Safe room for terrorists’: ASIO warns big tech on encryption
Federal intelligence and law enforcement chiefs have slammed defiant social media giants for inflaming social division and demand access to encrypted systems that allow terrorists, violent extremists and child abusers to operate with impunity.
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess, appeared at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday alongside Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw, will also warn that secret platforms were already being used by extremists to share “vile” propaganda, discuss weapon making and how to provoke a race war.
Digital Security Increasingly Relies on AI. But That Tech Isn't as Secure as We Think
Handing over identifying information to get something of value is a trade most of us have made throughout our lives. Even before the internet, this trade might have included placing our inked index finger onto a notary's notepad or reciting our mother's maiden name to a government official or a bank teller.
But powerful technologies like artificial intelligence could make such trades too lopsided, forcing us to give up too much of who we are to get the things we need.
Tech industry is the new defence industrial base
Developments in nascent technology areas such as quantum computing, biotechnology and artificial intelligence (AI), are predominately happening in the private sector, where there is a higher concentration of talent, capital and competition.
The United States and allies must become better at encouraging tech companies to consider dual-use applications both as a commercial opportunity and as a matter of national security.
China is ahead of the game. In its bid to have the most technologically advanced military in the world, Beijing applies a strategy of military-civil fusion to boost its military and defence capabilities, using civilian research and heavily subsidising domestic commercial sectors. China also tries to harness global commercial capabilities through intellectual property (IP) theft and strategic adversarial investment in the US private sector, threatening US and allied leadership in bleeding edge technologies.
How Would China Weaponise Disinformation Against Taiwan in a Cross-Strait Conflict?
Next month, Taiwan's President-elect William Lai Ching-te will assume office. Recognizing that its past uses of economic and diplomatic pressure have failed to compel Taiwan's submission, China's Xi Jinping may decide to use military force and information operations to achieve his aspirations.
People's Liberation Army (PLA) authors have written extensively about the role of “cognitive domain operations” in supporting military operations, which they see as helping to undermine an opposing society's will to defend itself and its leadership's resolve and effectiveness. Beijing has already employed disinformation against Taiwan for years, with one recent report concluding that Taiwan is the country most affected by disinformation worldwide.
How Australia can become the partner of choice in Pacific cyber resilience
In a bid to help Pacific island states become more resilient to cyber attacks such as the one Vanuatu suffered in 2022, Australia outlined a vision to become the partner of choice for cyber security in the region in the Australian Cyber Security Strategy released last November, as part of a renewed focus on enhancing cybersecurity cooperation and capacity-building.
This marks a notable step forward in Australia’s relationship with its neighbours, but it lacks a focus on local investment, which the region wants most.
The crippling ransomware attack on the Vanuatu government’s Broadband Network underscored small island nations’ vulnerability to cyber threats and highlighted the urgent need to improve cybersecurity regionally. The impact of the attack was devastating, with ministries and administrative functions paralysed. Hospitals turned to pen and paper to register patients, the prime minister’s office resorted to typewriters, and essential services, including schools and police, halted.
The island states need to upgrade their systems to shield themselves from attacks such as these, but it’s a tricky task.
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