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Concern Grows in Washington, Seoul about China's Disinformation Campaign
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in the closing statements of his impeachment trial this week said that a Chinese-backed disinformation campaign is threatening South Korea’s democracy. The United States has acknowledged Beijing’s global disinformation campaign amid growing concerns in Seoul and Washington about China’s alleged interference in South Korean politics and elections.
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Election Officials Blast Trump’s “Retreat” from Protecting Voting Against Foreign Threats
The Trump administration has begun dismantling the nation’s defenses against foreign interference in voting, a sweeping retreat that has alarmed state and local election officials. The administration is shuttering the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and last week cut more than 100 positions at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
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Economic Cyberespionage: A Persistent and Invisible Threat
Economic cyber-espionage, state-sponsored theft of sensitive business information via cyber means for commercial gain, is an invisible yet persistent threat to national economies.
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Democracies Should Learn the TikTok Lesson and Restrict Risky Apps from Day One
With its recent halt on implementing a legally mandated ban on TikTok, the United States is learning the hard way that when it comes to Chinese technology, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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McConnell’s Comments on Gabbard Nomination
“The nation should not have to worry that the intelligence assessments the President receives are tainted by a Director of National Intelligence with a history of alarming lapses in judgment,” Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said. “Tulsi Gabbard failed to demonstrate that she is prepared to assume this tremendous national trust.”
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Is DOGE a Cybersecurity Threat? Explaining the Dangers of Violating Protocols and Regulations That Protect Government Computer Systems
Teams from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are dropping into federal agencies with a practically unlimited mandate to reform the federal government in accordance with recent executive orders. As a 30-year cybersecurity veteran, I find the activities of DOGE thus far concerning. Its broad mandate across government, seemingly nonexistent oversight, and the apparent lack of operational competence of its employees have demonstrated that DOGE could create conditions that are ideal for cybersecurity or data privacy incidents that affect the entire nation.
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Channeling Frustrations: Russian and Chinese Messaging Exploit the US-Panama Canal Dispute
Russian and Chinese messaging underscores a strategic effort to reshape global perceptions of the United States. Moscow and Beijing seek to erode Washington’s international credibility, particularly in Latin America.
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China’s DeepSee Has Close Ties to Beijing
Rising AI star DeepSeek has close ties to the Chinese government that could explain its rapid progress from a 1 million yuan (US$138,000) startup in 2023 to a major global challenger in the industry, according to a recent investigation by RFA Cantonese. Founder Liang Wenfeng recently met with Premier Li Qiang to comment on his annual work report.
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DeepSeek: How a Small Chinese AI Company Is Shaking Up U.S. Tech Heavyweights
For consumers, access to AI may also become cheaper. For researchers who already have a lot of resources, more efficiency may have less of an effect. It is unclear whether DeepSeek’s approach will help to make models with better performance overall, or simply models that are more efficient.
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DeepSeek Shatters Beliefs About the Cost of AI, Leaving U.S. Tech Giants Reeling
Society may benefit from less computationally intensive, and therefore more energy-efficient, AI. However, the geopolitical risk of a single country capturing the market, together with concerns about data privacy, intellectual property and censorship may outweigh the benefits.
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Treasury Sanctions Company, Hacker Associated with Salt Typhoon
The Department of the Treasury has sanctioned a Chinese national and a Chinese company for their direct involvement in the Salt Typhoon cyber group, which recently compromised the network infrastructure of multiple major U.S. telecommunication and internet service provider companies.
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A Russian Airline Bomb Plot? What We Know About the Polish PM's Accusations
The accusation was as blunt as it was serious: Russia is plotting terror attacks against unspecified targets utilizing aircraft, Poland’s prime minister said. Though shocking, the Polish leader’s comments were not out of the blue: there’s been a growing number of suspicious, alarming, and unexplained incidents in recent months.
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U.S. Representative Who Backed Aid to Ukraine Removed from Committee Chairmanship
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has removed the chairman of the powerful House Intelligence Committee who has been an outspoken supporter of assistance for Ukraine.
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U-M Ends Partnership with Chinese University
The University of Michigan has announced it will end its Joint Institute with Chinese Shanghai Jiao Tong University, following growing concerns from lawmakers about national security.
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Baltic Subsea Sabotage: China Gets Away with Non-cooperation
On Christmas Day, one of two cables connecting Finland’s electricity grid to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was cut. Four data cables—three linking Finland and Estonia and one between Finland and Germany—were broken at the same time. This and two earlier instances have heightened concerns about the vulnerability of Europe’s undersea infrastructure.
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The long view
Kinetic Operations Bring Authoritarian Violence to Democratic Streets
Foreign interference in democracies has a multifaceted toolkit. In addition to information manipulation, the tactical tools authoritarian actors use to undermine democracy include cyber operations, economic coercion, malign finance, and civil society subversion.
Romania, Foreign Election Interference, and a Dangerous U.S. Retreat
The Romanian election is but one example of recent foreign election interference incidents. The Russian interference in 2016 U.S. election led Congress, on bipartisan basis, and the relevant agencies in the executive branch, to make many changes to address this threat, but under the new administration, “the U.S. is now moving full steam ahead to completely destroy its defenses against that threat,” Katie Kedian writes. All of the positive U.S. government developments “have been dismantled or severely downgraded,” leaving “the U.S. public less informed and less safe from foreign interference.”