News of the Cyber World

[kyonides]

China & US Tech

Army Intelligence Analyst Charged With Selling Secrets to Chinese Conspirator

In what was called a press briefing with “national importance” in relation to national security, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, in conjunction with federal and military agencies, announced a federal indictment against a U.S. Army sergeant for unauthorized dissemination of sensitive national defense information to China.

Henry C. Leventis, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, alongside Special Agent in Charge Douglas DePodesta of the FBI Memphis Field Office and others, detailed the explosive charges at a press conference earlier on Thursday.

The indictment by a federal grand jury accuses U.S. Army soldier and intelligence analyst Korbein Schultz with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information to China, exporting technical data related to defense articles without a license, conspiracy to export defense articles without a license, and bribery of a public official. Mr. Schultz is a member of the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and was arrested at the military base on March 7, and is set to make his initial court appearance tomorrow.

According to Mr. Leventis, Mr. Schultz misused his access to confidential U.S. military information for personal financial gain, trading national defense secrets for approximately $42,000 across 14 transactions with a co-conspirator in China. The compromised information included highly sensitive data on advanced U.S. military technology and Chinese military tactics, ranging from fighter aircraft and ballistic missiles to artillery systems.

China Executing ‘Delete America’ Plan to Remove U.S. Hardware from Tech Industry

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Thursday reported on an alleged secret 2022 Chinese government directive called “Document 79,” whose purpose is to “delete America” from the Chinese tech industry.

Under this directive, Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOE) are required to phase out foreign software no later than 2027.

The WSJ explained:

American tech giants had long thrived in China as they hot-wired the country’s meteoric industrial rise with computers, operating systems and software. Chinese leaders want to sever that relationship, driven by a push for self-sufficiency and concerns over the country’s long-term security.

Document 79 has an anodyne name, but its alleged contents were explosive — so much so that Chinese officials and corporate executives were ordered to memorize it without taking pictures or making copies. Since 2022, the secret order has been wielded against American tech giants such as Dell, IBM, and Cisco.

Execution of Document 79 is reportedly overseen by the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), which did not respond when asked for comment by the WSJ. More than half of China’s largest companies are SOEs, commanding almost $7 trillion in value.

Insiders said the shorthand nickname for the order among Chinese executives is “Delete A,” which is short for “Delete America.” Although Document 79 was top secret, the nickname has leaked into public discourse, as some Chinese software companies explicitly offer their services to help “Delete A” from corporate systems.

Doing so has required these enterprises to buy Chinese information technology products instead — a solution many executives are quietly unhappy with because the locally produced software and hardware are not as good as the forbidden American alternatives.

Some analysts said the forced shift to domestic IT products has done significant damage to the Chinese economy. The order has also knocked eight to ten percent off the market share of U.S. computer titans like Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Even Microsoft has lost market share in China despite furious efforts to keep its operating system alive there.

Social Media

Elon Musk Plans to Remove Key Engagement Metrics from X/Twitter Feed

The Daily Mail reports that Elon Musk recently revealed that the company is planning to remove the visible display of like and repost counts on posts. This change would mean that while creators would still have access to their engagement metrics, the general public would no longer see the number of likes or reposts a particular post has received. The change would make it difficult for users to identify popular posts going viral, as well as controversial takes where the tweet has been “ratioed,” which means replies receiving more likes and retweets than the original post — considered a humiliation amongst X/Twitter users.

Musk’s rationale behind this potential change remains unclear, but it aligns with his broader vision of transforming X/Twitter into an “everything app” that encompasses not just social media but also banking and shopping functionalities. During the conference, Musk disclosed that the platform is a few months away from obtaining a money transmitter license in New York, a crucial step towards offering financial services on the platform.

Since acquiring Twitter in a $44 billion deal in October 2022 and rebranding it as X, Musk has been actively pursuing his ambition to turn the platform into a “super app” akin to China’s WeChat. The addition of financial services would be a significant step towards realizing this goal, allowing X/Twitter to compete with established players in the fintech industry like PayPal.

Engagement metrics, such as likes and reposts (previously known as retweets), have been a contentious issue for Musk since his acquisition of the platform. Last year, reports surfaced that Musk had allegedly pushed engineers to tweak the algorithm to boost his posts, leading to internal tensions and concerns over free speech and content moderation.

40 State AGs Raise Alarm over Instagram and Facebook Account Hijacking

The Hill reports that in a letter sent on March , 40 state attorneys general expressed “deep concern” over what they described as a dramatic increase in the number of users reporting their Facebook and Instagram accounts being hijacked by malicious actors. These account takeovers involve cybercriminals gaining unauthorized access to users’ accounts, changing their passwords, and effectively locking them out. Once in control, the perpetrators can engage in a range of harmful or illegal activities, such as posting their own content, reading private messages, scamming contacts, and potentially accessing sensitive personal and financial information.

The letter urgently calls upon Meta to take immediate action to enhance its mitigation tactics and provide prompt assistance to users whose accounts have been compromised. Furthermore, the attorneys general have requested that Meta disclose comprehensive data on the number of account takeovers over the past five years, the suspected causes behind the recent surge, and the safeguards currently in place to protect user accounts.

“Consumers are reporting their utter panic when they first realize they have been effectively locked out of their accounts,” the letter states. “Users spend years building their personal and professional lives on your platforms, posting intimate thoughts, and sharing personal details, locations, and photos of family and friends. To have it taken away from them through no fault of their own can be traumatizing.”

The attorneys general also highlighted the significant financial risks posed by account takeovers, particularly for users who operate businesses or have credit card information linked to their social media accounts. The potential loss of access to these accounts could have severe consequences for individuals and businesses alike.

Bipartisan Calls on China’s ByteDance to Divest TikTok or Be Banned from America

A bipartisan bill could force Chinese tech company ByteDance to sell its popular video-sharing TikTok app within six months or face a ban from the United States.

A group of 19 U.S. lawmakers introduced the legislation on Tuesday, saying, “applications like TikTok that are controlled by foreign adversaries pose an unacceptable risk to US national security,” according to a report by BBC. Ironically, China is using President Joe Biden’s presence on the platform as a defense of its toxic app.

The legislation would reportedly give TikTok’s parent company ByteDance 165 days to divest the app, or TikTok would be blocked from app stores and web hosting services in the United States.

The move comes as U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle express concern over the Chinese app’s parent company being beholden to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), therefore, making TikTok a national security threat.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee says it will consider the bill on Thursday.

TikTok, meanwhile, argues that the bill is a disguised “outright ban.”

“This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs,” the Chinese app told BBC.

TikTok has argued against divestment in the past, claiming that a change in ownership will not result in new restrictions with regards to data use.

This latest legislation proposal is U.S. lawmakers’ most recent attempt at placing restrictions on the Chinese app, which has become immensely popular among young people.

Last year, senators introduced a bill that would block TikTok, but the legislation was stalled due to lobbying from the Chinese company.

Former President Donald Trump had also tried to ban TikTok in 2020, but it fell through.

And since we're talking about Trump...

Donald Trump Claims Banning China’s TikTok Would Only Empower Mark Zuckerberg

Former President Donald Trump says a ban of China’s TikTok app would only help Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook platform, which is the “true enemy of the people.” Although Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has shown an extreme leftist bias and a willingness to interfere in elections, Peter Schweizer has uncovered China Communist Party and Chinese military officials referring to TikTok as a “modern day Trojan Horse” and “information-driven mental warfare” aimed squarely at American teenagers.

“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump said in a Thursday post on Truth Social, referring to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

“I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!” the 45th president added, referring to Facebook’s apparent interference in past elections.

In October 2020, Facebook infamously reduced the distribution of a New York Post story containing bombshell information indicating that — contrary to his previous denials — Joe Biden allegedly did meet with an adviser to the board of Burisma while he was vice president, arranged by his son Hunter, who was then working as a lobbyist for the company.
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As Breitbart News reported, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using TikTok as a “modern day Trojan Horse” to inject its propaganda into the minds of America’s youth, according to restricted Chinese military journals uncovered in Peter Schweizer’s book, Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans.

Schweizer, a Breitbart News senior contributor and the President of the Government Accountability Institute, reveals in his new book the words of Chinese strategists, who tout using TikTok in “information-driven mental warfare” against the United States.

Shark Tank’s O’Leary: TikTok Will Not Be Banned — ‘I Want to Buy It’

Shark Tank star and investor Kevin O’Leary said Friday on Fox News Channel’s “The Story” that he or somebody else American will buy TikTok so it is not shut down.

Guest host Gillian Turner said, “Some folks are saying I depend on TikTok to run my marking for my small business. I even run TikTok as a platform to sell and close transactions. If it’s banned eventually, what does that mean for the small business economy?”

O’Leary said, “It not going to get banned. I’m going to buy it. Somebody will buy it. It won’t be Meta and Google. A regulator will stop that. A syndicate will be formed. I’d like to be involved obviously. What I would do is form a bipartisan committee, an advisory committee for 18 months. go to them and say to them, how much will you let me keep of the Chinese?”

He added, “Hire an American CEO, move the servers here to the United States, rewrite the code so we can shutout the Chinese back doors. That’s what everybody wants. Leave a taste for the Chinese and put a mandate in place. They can keep 20%. That way you run a process, this is worth billions. One of the most successful advertising platforms in social media today. All of my companies use it. I’ll buy it. I can put a syndicate together as long as I can get the blessing of the House. Nobody wants to fund this thing if they think it will buck politically. If we make it all American including servers, I can get this deal done. I want to buy it.”

AI

OpenAI Raises the Stakes in Legal War with Elon Musk by Publishing Trove of Emails

CNN reports that the ongoing feud between OpenAI and Elon Musk has taken a dramatic turn, as the artificial intelligence company has released a series of explosive emails that seemingly contradict Musk’s claims against the organization. The move comes in response to Musk’s recent lawsuit alleging that OpenAI has strayed from its original nonprofit mission in pursuit of profit.

The emails come after Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming that the company’s change away from its nonprofit roots was a “betrayal.”

The emails, some of which are partially redacted, paint a different picture of Musk’s stance on OpenAI’s financial ambitions. In a November 2015 email to CEO Sam Altman, Musk, who was a co-founder of OpenAI, argued that the company needed to raise significantly more than $100 million to avoid sounding “hopeless.” He suggested a staggering $1 billion funding commitment and promised to cover any shortfall.

However, OpenAI claims that Musk failed to follow through on his promise, contributing only $45 million while other donors raised $90 million. Lawyers representing Musk have declined to comment on these allegations. In another email from February 2018, Musk proposed that Tesla, his electric car company, should acquire OpenAI, suggesting it was the only viable path forward for the AI firm. When the company refused, Musk left OpenAI later that year.

Perhaps the most damning email came in December 2018, when Musk warned Altman and other executives that OpenAI would become irrelevant “without a dramatic change in execution and resources.” He insisted that the company needed “billions per year immediately or forget it,” adding, “I really hope I’m wrong.”

OpenAI executives heeded Musk’s advice and formed OpenAI LP, a for-profit entity within the larger company’s structure, in 2019. This move propelled OpenAI from near-worthlessness to a staggering $90 billion valuation in just a few years, with Altman widely credited as the mastermind behind this transformation.

Pentagon Explores Commercial AI Chatbots for Battle Planning in Wargames

NewScientist reports that in a recent experiment, researchers from the U.S. Army examined how well advanced AI language models could perform as virtual advisors in a simulated battlefield scenario. The study was conducted using the popular science fiction video game StarCraft II as a controlled testing environment.

The researchers provided the AI chatbots, including OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo and GPT-4 Vision models, with details about the simulated terrain, friendly and enemy forces, and military doctrines for offensive and defensive operations. The AI assistants were then tasked with proposing courses of action to accomplish a specific mission objective – destroying all enemy units and capturing a designated point on the map.

Within seconds, the AI chatbots responded with multiple strategic proposals. A human operator, acting as the military commander, could then query the AI for clarifications or modifications to the proposed plans before finalizing and executing the orders.

The results showed that OpenAI’s latest GPT models outperformed older AI agents in this simplified wargame context. However, they were not perfect, suffering higher casualty rates while still managing to achieve the overall mission goals.

While OpenAI has updated its policies to permit some military applications aligned with its AI ethics principles, the company still prohibits uses involving weapons development or potential harm to people and property. The Army Research Laboratory declined to comment on the specifics of the study.

Experts warn that deploying such AI chatbots for real-world operational planning would be premature and unwise given the current limitations of the technology. “This idea that you’re going to use [an AI] that’s going to say ‘here’s your really big strategic plan’, technically that is not feasible right now,” said Josh Wallin, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for a New American Security. “And it certainly is not feasible from an ethical or legal perspective.”

Apple

Apple iPhone Sales in China Crash 24% Despite Tim Cook’s Sweetheart Deal with Communists

Apple, which became the best-selling smartphone in China for the first time in 2023, has lost its top-selling smartphone maker in the country, Counterpoint Research found, according to a report by Business Insider. The company’s iPhone sales in China reportedly fell by 24 percent in the first six weeks of 2024, the market research firm said.

Apple’s drop in sales means the iPhone lost its crown as the best-selling smartphone in China, a status the smartphone had just recently obtained for the first time last year. In 2023, Apple held 19 percent of the market share in China, which has since slipped to 15.7 percent.

Now, the Chinese company Vivo sits at the top as the best-selling smartphone maker in China. Chinese companies Huawei and Honor follow Vivo in second and third place, respectively, while Apple trails behind in fourth place.

“Primarily, it faced stiff competition at the high end from a resurgent Huawei while getting squeezed in the middle on aggressive pricing from the likes of OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi,” Meng Meng Zhang, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said of Apple’s iPhone.

Notably, smartphone sales in China are also down in general by seven percent when compared to the same period in 2023.

This is not the only problem Apple has recently faced in China.

In January, Chinese chipmakers drafted plans to create chip production lines to supply processors to local smartphone makers, Business Insider noted. This move would hurt Apple, as tight export restrictions have been advantageous for the company.

A general shift toward Chinese companies in China is also reportedly taking place, which may explain some of Apple’s decline in the Communist Regime.

This is an unwanted development for Tim Cook’s Apple, which signed a $275 billion dollar contract with the Chinese government in 2016.

Terrorism

Sabotage of Tesla Factory That May Take Two Weeks to Rectify Investigated by German Terrorism Police

A left-wing extremist group known as the Vulkangruppe has claimed responsibility for sabotaging a Tesla factory outside of Berlin on Tuesday, forcing the facility to shut down production.

Power was shut down after a suspected arson attack by a radical German leftist organisation called the Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group), which claimed responsibility for sabotaging a high-voltage power pylon near a Tesla gigafactory in the Berlin suburb of Grünheide.

Update 03/08/24 — German Counter-Terror Police Take Over Investigation

The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office took over the investigation into the attack on the power supply to the Tesla factory on Friday, Die Welt reports, stating that they are looking into potential terror offences. The paper also states police believe the letter issued by the left-wing group claiming the sabotage is genuine.

Further, the sabotage was more effective than previously thought, and the Tesla factory is still shut down due to being disconnected from the power grid. The paper notes there is “massive damage” to the power pylon and power supply — which has also impacted tens of thousands of local residents, as well as the industrial park — won’t be fully restored until the end of next week.

The attack is just the latest incidence of a growing trend of left-wing sabotage against the modern world in Europe, with actors cutting power and data cables supplying cities, railways, and factories.

Police said that the pylon was set on fire, shutting off power at the factory as well as numerous small towns in the surrounding area. A Tesla spokeswoman said that production was shut down and most of its 12,500 employees were sent home, broadcaster NTV reports.