Category: Technology

As new potential threats from Chinese hackers were identified this week, the federal government issued one of its strongest warnings to date about the need for Americans — and in particular government officials and other “highly targeted” individuals — to secure their communications against eavesdropping and interception. The warning came as news was breaking about a Commerce Department investigation into the possibility that computer network routers manufactured by the Chinese firm TP-Link may pose a threat to the millions of U.S. businesses, households and government agencies that use them. Also on Wednesday, Congress took long-awaited steps toward funding a program that will purge other Chinese technology from U.S. telecommunications systems. The so-called rip-and-replace program targets gear manufactured by Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE. Too far behind While experts said the recent actions are a step in the right direction, they warned that U.S. policymakers have been extremely slow to react to a mountain of evidence that Chinese hackers have long been targeting essential communications and infrastructure systems in the U.S. The lack of action has persisted despite law enforcement and intelligence agencies repeatedly sounding alarms. In January, while testifying before the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “There has been far too little public focus on the fact that [People’s Republic of China] hackers are targeting our critical infrastructure — our water treatment plants, our electrical grid, our oil and natural gas pipelines, our transportation …

washington — Experts on cybersecurity and online foreign influence campaigns are urging social media company Bluesky, whose app has exploded in popularity in recent weeks, to step up moderation to counter potential state-sponsored influence efforts. Over the past month, Bluesky, a microblogging platform with its roots in Twitter, has seen one of its biggest increases in new user registrations since it was publicly released in February. Over 25 million are now on the platform, close to half of whom joined after the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Rose Wang, Bluesky’s chief operating officer, said in a recent interview that Bluesky does not intend to push any political ideologies. “We have no political viewpoint that we are trying to promote,” she said in early December. Exploiting users’ political leanings Many who joined Bluesky have cited user experience as one of the reasons for migrating from social media platform X. They also have said they joined the platform after Election Day because they are critics of Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump. Some commentators in the U.S. have questioned whether Bluesky is risking becoming an echo chamber of the left. Some experts contend the platform’s liberal-leaning users could be exploited by foreign propagandists. Joe Bodnar, who tracks foreign influence operations for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told VOA Mandarin that Russian propaganda often appeals to the anti-establishment left in the U.S. on contentious topics, like Gaza, gun violence and America’s global dominance. “The Kremlin wants to make those arguments even louder,” Bodnar said. “Sometimes …

WASHINGTON — The U.S. cybersecurity watchdog CISA is telling senior American government officials and politicians to immediately switch to end-to-end encrypted messaging following intrusions at major American telecoms blamed on Chinese hackers.  In written guidance released on Wednesday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said “individuals who are in senior government or senior political positions” should “immediately review and apply” a series of best practices around the use of mobile devices.  The first recommendation: “Use only end-to-end encrypted communications.”  End-to-end encryption — a data protection technique that aims to make data unreadable by anyone except its sender and its recipient — is baked into various chat apps, including Meta Platforms’ WhatsApp, Apple’s iMessage, and the privacy-focused app Signal. Corporate offerings, which allow end-to-end encryption, also include Microsoft’s Teams and Zoom Communications’ meetings.  CISA’s message is the latest in a series of increasingly stark warnings issued by American officials in the wake of dramatic hacks of U.S. telecom companies by a group dubbed “Salt Typhoon.”  Last week, Democratic Senator Ben Ray Lujan said, “this attack likely represents the largest telecommunications hack in our nation’s history.”  U.S. officials have blamed China for the hacking. Beijing routinely denies allegations of cyberespionage.  …

WASHINGTON — Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell on Wednesday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a bid by TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance to block a law intended to force the sale of the short-video app by January 19 or face a ban on national security grounds. The court has scheduled arguments on the case for January 10. McConnell in a brief filed with the court called the companies’ arguments “meritless and unsound. … This is a standard litigation play at the end of one administration, with a petitioner hoping that the next administration will provide a stay of execution. This court should no more countenance it coming from foreign adversaries than it does from hardened criminals.” McConnell noted Congress set the January 19 date that “very clearly removes any possible political uncertainty in the execution of the law by cabining it to an administration that was deeply supportive of the bill’s goals.” TikTok did not immediately comment. The company noted in legal filings that President-elect Donald Trump has said he does not want TikTok banned. The American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University in a joint filing urged the court to block a ban of TikTok “that millions use every day to communicate, learn about the world, and express themselves.” The groups called the ban unprecedented, adding it “will cause an extraordinary disruption in Americans’ ability to engage.” New downloads of TikTok on Apple or Google app stores would …

A bipartisan effort to protect children from the harms of social media is running out of time in this session of the U.S. Congress. If passed, the Kids Online Safety Act would institute safeguards for minors’ personal data online. But free speech advocates and some Republicans are concerned the bill could lead to censorship. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more. Kim Lewis contributed to this story. …

Paris — The Democratic Republic of Congo has filed criminal complaints against Apple subsidiaries in France and Belgium, accusing the tech firm of using conflict minerals in its supply chain, lawyers for the Congolese government told Reuters.  Congo is a major source of tin, tantalum and tungsten, so-called 3T minerals used in computers and mobile phones. But some artisanal mines are run by armed groups involved in massacres of civilians, mass rapes, looting and other crimes, according to U.N. experts and human rights groups.  Apple does not directly source primary minerals and says it audits suppliers, publishes findings and funds bodies that seek to improve mineral traceability.  Apple last year said it had “no reasonable basis for concluding” its products contain illegally exported minerals from conflict-hit zones. The tech giant has insisted it carefully verifies the origin of materials in its output.  Its 2023 filing on conflict minerals to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said none of the smelters or refiners of 3T minerals or gold in its supply chain had financed or benefited armed groups in Congo or neighboring countries.  But international lawyers representing Congo argue that Apple uses minerals pillaged from Congo and laundered through international supply chains, which they say renders the firm complicit in crimes taking place in Congo.  In parallel complaints filed to the Paris prosecutor’s office and to a Belgian investigating magistrate’s office on Monday, Congo accuses local subsidiaries Apple France, Apple Retail France and Apple Retail Belgium of a range of offenses.  These …

LONDON — European Union regulators said Tuesday they’re investigating whether TikTok breached the bloc’s digital rulebook by failing to deal with risks to Romania’s presidential election, which has been thrown into turmoil over allegations of electoral violations and Russian meddling. The European Commission is escalating its scrutiny of the popular video-sharing platform after Romania’s top court canceled results of the first round of voting that resulted in an unknown far-right candidate becoming the front-runner. The court made its unprecedented decision after authorities in the European Union and NATO member country declassified documents alleging Moscow organized a sprawling social media campaign to promote a long-shot candidate, Calin Georgescu. “Following serious indications that foreign actors interfered in the Romanian presidential elections by using TikTok, we are now thoroughly investigating whether TikTok has violated the Digital Services Act by failing to tackle such risks,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a press release. “It should be crystal clear that in the EU, all online platforms, including TikTok, must be held accountable.” The European Commission is the 27-nation European Union’s executive arm and enforces the bloc’s Digital Services Act, a sweeping set of regulations intended to clean up social media platforms and protect users from risks such as election-related misinformation. It ordered TikTok earlier this month to retain all information related to the election. In the preliminary round of voting on Nov. 24 Georgescu was an outsider among the 13 candidates but ended up topping the polls. He was due to face …

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Brendan Carr to lead the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates communications in the United States. Carr, an FCC commissioner since 2017, has taken aim at big tech and China’s influence on U.S. communications. VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports. …

Hundreds of thousands of Rhode Island residents’ personal and bank information, including Social Security numbers, were likely hacked by an international cybercriminal group asking for a ransom, state officials said on Saturday.  In what Rhode Island officials described as extortion, the hackers threatened to release the stolen information unless they were paid an undisclosed amount of money.  The breached data affects people who use the state’s government assistance programs and includes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and healthcare purchased through the state’s HealthSource RI, Governor Dan McKee announced on Friday.  Hackers gained access to RIBridges, the state’s online portal for obtaining social services earlier this month, the governor’s office said in a statement, but the breach was not confirmed by its vendor, Deloitte, until Friday.  “Deloitte confirmed that there is a high probability that a cybercriminal has obtained files with personally identifiable information from RIBridges,” the governor’s office said in a statement on Saturday.  A representative from McKee’s office was not immediately available to Reuters for comment.  Anyone who has applied for or received benefits through those programs since 2016 could be affected.  The state directed Deloitte to shut down RIBridges to remediate the threat, and for the time being, anyone applying for new benefits will have to do so on paper applications until the system is back up.  Households believed to have been affected will receive a letter from the state notifying them of the problem and explaining steps to be taken …

WASHINGTON — A U.S. appeals court on Friday rejected an emergency bid by TikTok to temporarily block a law that would require its Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest the short-video app by January 19 or face a ban on the app. TikTok and ByteDance on Monday filed the emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, asking for more time to make its case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Friday’s ruling means that TikTok now must quickly move to the Supreme Court in an attempt to halt the pending ban. The companies had warned that without court action, the law will “shut down TikTok — one of the nation’s most popular speech platforms — for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users.” “The petitioners have not identified any case in which a court, after rejecting a constitutional challenge to an Act of Congress, has enjoined the Act from going into effect while review is sought in the Supreme Court,” the D.C. Circuit said. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Under the law, TikTok will be banned unless ByteDance divests it by January 19. The law also gives the U.S. government sweeping powers to ban other foreign-owned apps that could raise concerns about collection of Americans’ data. The U.S. Justice Department argues “continued Chinese control of the TikTok application poses a continuing threat to national security.” TikTok says the Justice Department has misstated the social media app’s ties to China, arguing …

SYDNEY — Australia’s center-left government said on Thursday it planned new rules that would charge big tech firms millions of dollars if they did not pay Australian media companies for news hosted on their platforms. The move piles pressure on global tech giants such as Facebook-owner Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google to pay publishers for content or face the risk of paying millions to continue operations in Australia. “The news bargaining initiative will … will create a financial incentive for agreement-making between digital platforms and news media businesses in Australia,” Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones told a news conference. The platforms at risk will be significant social media platforms and search engines with an Australian-based revenue in excess of $160 million, he said. The charge will be offset for any commercial agreements that are voluntarily entered into between the platforms and news media businesses, Jones said. Tech companies condemned the plan. “The proposal fails to account for the realities of how our platforms work, specifically that most people don’t come to our platforms for news content and that news publishers voluntarily choose to post content on our platforms because they receive value from doing so,” a Meta spokesperson said after Jones’ remarks. A spokesperson for Google said the government’s decision “risks ongoing viability of commercial deals with news publishers in Australia.” The proposed new rules come as Australia toughens its approach to the mostly U.S.-domiciled tech giants. Last month it became the first country to ban children …

NAIROBI, KENYA — The United Nations, Microsoft and Kenya’s Ministry of Information last week launched a digital and artificial intelligence center in Nairobi to train African public servants and accelerate the development and use of online services. Officials said the program — the Timbuktoo GreenTech Hub and Africa Centre for Competence for AI and Digital Skilling — aims to improve the skills of 100,000 government workers. U.N. Development Program Regional Director Ahunna Eziakonwa said at the launch that better digital skills and resources will enable Africa to achieve technological progress. “An inclusive public sector digital transformation drives efficiency and effectiveness and helps governments to enhance coordination of resources and information and strengthen data and code policymaking and implementation,” she said. Kenyan President William Ruto said that more than 20,000 government services can be accessed online and that the digital transformation has made government work easier. “This will help us streamline public service delivery and enhance transparency and efficiency, minimize opportunities for corruption and maximize visibility and mobilization of public revenue,” he said. “The transformative impact of this single initiative on citizens’ experience in accessing public services, along with the government’s capacity to effectively manage public resources, clearly illustrates the immense value of digital transformation.” Governance experts say digital services offered online have improved citizens’ trust in public services and made the work of government employees faster, more accurate and more transparent. However, the frequent power and internet blackouts that plague some African countries sometimes force government workers to resort to traditional …

WASHINGTON — The United States slapped sanctions on a Chinese cybersecurity company and one of its employees Tuesday, accusing it of compromising more than 80,000 firewalls in a 2020 attack. The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement that it had sanctioned Sichuan Silence Information Technology Company and an employee named Guan Tianfeng over the April 2020 attack, which targeted firewalls around the world, including critical infrastructure in the U.S. Over a three-day period, Guan exploited a vulnerability in a firewall product and proceeded to deploy malware against some 81,000 businesses around the world with the aim of stealing data, including usernames and passwords, while also attempting to infect the computers with ransomware, according to the Treasury Department. More than 23,000 firewalls were in the United States, of which 36 were protecting “critical infrastructure companies’ systems,” the Treasury said. “Today’s action underscores our commitment to exposing these malicious cyber activities … and to holding the actors behind them accountable for their schemes,” Bradley Smith, Treasury acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. The Treasury, he said, “will continue to leverage our tools to disrupt attempts by malicious cyber actors to undermine our critical infrastructure.” Alongside the sanctions, the Department of Justice has also unsealed an indictment against Guan and announced a reward of up to $10 million for information about the employee or company, according to the Treasury Department. …

The Biden administration is shoring up its CHIPS Act funding agreements before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20. Trump has previously disparaged the CHIPS Act and called for higher tariffs instead of subsidies to incentivize companies to build semiconductor factories. What would be the future of TSMC under the Trump administration? See the full story here. …

BEIJING — China on Monday said it has launched an investigation into U.S. chip maker Nvidia over suspected violations of the country’s anti-monopoly law, in a move that will likely be seen as a retaliatory move against Washington’s recent chip curbs.   The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said Nvidia is also suspected of violating commitments it made during its acquisition of Mellanox Technologies Ltd, according to terms outlined in the regulator’s 2020 conditional approval of that deal.  It did not elaborate on how Nvidia might have violated China’s anti-monopoly laws.   Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company’s shares fell 2.2% in premarket trading after the Chinese regulator’s announcement.   The investigation comes after the U.S. last week launched its third crackdown in three years on China’s semiconductor industry, which saw Washington curb exports to 140 companies, including chip equipment makers.  Nvidia has enjoyed booming demand from China, though this has been dented over the past year by U.S. efforts to stop China from acquiring the world’s most advanced chips.  Before the U.S. curbs, Nvidia dominated China’s AI chip market with more than 90 per cent share. However, it currently faces increasing competition from domestic rivals, chief among them being Huawei.  When the U.S. firm made a $6.9 billion bid to acquire Israeli chip designer Mellanox Technologies in 2019 there were concerns that China could block the deal due to U.S.-China trade frictions.   Beijing however later approved the deal in 2020 with multiple …

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA — Richard Andre Newman thought he would live the rest of his life in his quiet, leafy neighborhood in suburban Virginia. He was born and raised in Bren Mar Park, where children ride their bikes and neighbors wave hello. But now, as he’s approaching 60, he’s considering selling his Fairfax County home and moving away. That’s because he’s getting a new neighbor: Plaza 500, a 466,000-square-foot data center and an adjacent electrical substation to be built a few hundred feet from townhomes, playgrounds and a community center. Newman feels helpless to stop it. “I planned on staying here until I died,” he said, “until this came up.” The sprawling, windowless warehouses that hold rows of high-speed servers powering almost everything the world does on phones and computers are increasingly becoming fixtures of the American landscape, popping up in towns, cities and suburbs across the United States. Demand for data centers ballooned in recent years due to the rapid growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence, and local governments are competing for lucrative deals with big tech companies. But as data centers begin to move into more densely populated areas, abutting homes and schools, parks and recreation centers, some residents are pushing back against the world’s most powerful corporations over concerns about the economic, social and environmental health of their communities. Tyler Ray, a vocal critic of data centers and leader in the fight against the Virginia project, said the incentives offered are not enough to counteract the consequences of …

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote next week on an annual defense bill that includes just over $3 billion for U.S. telecom companies to remove equipment made by Chinese telecoms firms Huawei and ZTE 000063.SZ from American wireless networks to address security risks. The 1,800-page text was released late Saturday and includes other provisions aimed at China, including requiring a report on Chinese efforts to evade U.S. national security regulations and an intelligence assessment of the current status of China’s biotechnology capabilities. The Federal Communications Commission has said removing the insecure equipment is estimated to cost $4.98 billion but Congress previously only approved $1.9 billion for the “rip and replace” program. Washington has aggressively urged U.S. allies to purge Huawei and other Chinese gear from their wireless networks. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel last week again called on the U.S. Congress to provide urgent additional funding, saying the program to replace equipment in the networks of 126 carriers faces a $3.08 billion shortfall “putting both our national security and the connectivity of rural consumers who depend on these networks at risk.” She has warned the lack of funding could result in some rural networks shutting down, which “could eliminate the only provider in some regions” and could threaten 911 service. Competitive Carriers Association CEO Tim Donovan on Saturday praised the announcement, saying “funding is desperately needed to fulfill the mandate to remove and replace covered equipment and services while maintaining connectivity for tens of millions of Americans.” …

A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday upheld a law requiring the wildly popular social media app TikTok to be sold to a non-Chinese owner or face closure in the United States by next month. The court cited “persuasive” and “compelling” arguments presented by the federal government that TikTok poses a risk to national security. The ruling could leave the 170 million Americans who regularly use TikTok without access to a social media platform that has enjoyed explosive global growth in recent years. It could also mean that the millions of Americans who create content for TikTok — some of whom rely on monetizing that content for their livelihood — could be cut off from their audiences. The government has argued that TikTok presents a unique danger to national security because it collects vast amounts of information about its users, and because the Chinese government ultimately exercises control over its parent company, ByteDance, and over the algorithm that determines what content TikTok users see. Because ByteDance is in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) it is subject to that country’s laws, including measures requiring private companies to cooperate with government intelligence agencies. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the government has a compelling interest in taking steps “to counter the PRC’s efforts to collect great quantities of data about tens of millions of Americans” and “to limit the PRC’s ability to manipulate content covertly on the TikTok platform.” …

Using sailing ships to move cargo may be making a comeback. These days, eco-friendly watercraft are equipped with the latest technology. Elena Wolf has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Max Avloshenko  …

WASHINGTON — Amid widespread protests in Kenya this summer over a controversial finance bill, the country’s Communications Authority announced it did not intend to shut down internet access. The next day, however, Kenya experienced a countrywide loss in internet connectivity.  The main internet service providers said the outage on June 25 was caused by an issue with undersea cables. But the incident caught the attention of digital rights groups, who said the timing of the outage “strongly suggests” an intentional action. Various governments have used such shutdowns to maintain control, these groups say.  Many governments justify the shutdowns as moves to promote public order and safety, Nompilo Simanje, Africa advocacy and partnerships lead at the International Press Institute, told VOA.  “The key reasons really are to restrict communication, restrict free expression, restrict online mobilization, restrict online freedom of assembly and association, and also restrict access to information,” she said.  Access ‘could be about life and death’ Digital watchdogs have documented several cases across the African continent in recent months where access to the internet or social media was blocked or cut off at crucial moments. It isn’t always clear if the cases are the result of a direct order, but the timing often suggests it is, analysts say.  Within the past year, digital rights group Access Now has documented shutdowns in Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Mauritius and Equatorial Guinea. Nearly all take place alongside events such as protests or elections.  But these shutdowns can be harmful to the country’s residents, Felicia Anthonio, …

WASHINGTON — U.S. government agencies held a classified briefing for all senators on Wednesday on China’s alleged efforts known as Salt Typhoon to burrow deep into American telecommunications companies and steal data about U.S. calls.  The FBI, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, the National Security Council and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were among the participants in the closed-door briefing, officials told Reuters.   Democratic Senator Ron Wyden told reporters after the briefing he was working to draft legislation on this issue, while Senator Bob Casey said he had “great concern” about the breach and added it may not be until next year before Congress can address the issue.  Republican Senator Rick Scott expressed frustration with the briefing.  “They have not told us why they didn’t catch it; what they could have done to prevent it,” he said.  Chinese officials have previously described the allegations as disinformation and said Beijing “firmly opposes and combats cyberattacks and cyber theft in all forms.”  Separately, a Senate Commerce subcommittee will hold a December 11 hearing on Salt Typhoon and how “security threats pose risks to our communications networks and review best practices.” The hearing will include Competitive Carriers Association CEO Tim Donovan.  There is growing concern about the size and scope of the reported Chinese hacking into U.S. telecommunications networks and questions about when companies and the government can assure Americans over the matter.  A U.S. official told reporters a large number of Americans’ metadata has been …

The Biden administration issued what is likely its final set of export control rules against Beijing earlier this week. The rules forbid companies from exporting an important chip component crucial for training artificial intelligence to China. Experts say it will further constrain the Chinese supply chain for AI. They also expect the next Trump administration to further expand Washington’s strategic tech blockade against China in a more assertive way.  See the full story here.    …

Bluesky, a decentralized social media platform, recently experienced significant growth, surpassing 22 million users. The surge is attributed to users migrating from X due to their dissatisfaction with changes under Elon Musk’s ownership. Andrei Dziarkach has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: David Gogokhia …

Australia’s competition watchdog said there was a need to revisit efforts to ensure greater choice for internet users, citing Google’s dominant search engine market share and its competitors’ failure to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. A report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said that while the integration of generative AI tools into search engines is still nascent, Big Tech’s deep pockets and dominant presence give it an upper hand. The commission said it was concerned Google and Microsoft could integrate generative AI into their search offerings, including through commercial deals, which raises concerns about the accuracy and reliability of search queries. “While some consumers may find the generative AI search experience more useful and efficient, others may be concerned about the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated responses to search queries,” Commissioner Peter Crone said. Google and Microsoft did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Australia has intensified the spotlight on the tech giants, which are mostly domiciled in the U.S. It was the first country to make social media platforms pay media outlets royalties for sharing their content. Last month, it passed a law that banned social media for children aged under 16, and proposed a law earlier this week that could impose fines of up to $32.28 million on tech giants if they suppress competition and prevent consumers from switching between services. The Australian watchdog on Wednesday urged the use of service-specific codes that help prevent anti-competitive behavior, address data advantages and allow consumers …