Be Afraid of the Next ‘Lab Leak’ | Snarled Chip Supply Chains | China Wants to Write the Tech Rules for 5G, and more

The community standard, which blocklists around 4,000 groups and individuals and removes content by alleged terrorists and organized hate groups, has been criticized for its vague and allegedly discriminatory implementation especially among marginalized groups. “Any community guideline or standard that a company has, such as the [one on] ‘Dangerous Individuals and Organizations’, needs to be very transparent around how exactly they have set this standard, about what kind of data they are using, who the dangerous individuals are and who are not,” Facebook’s Oversight Board member Nighat Dad told VICE World News. The memo obtained by The Intercept showed Facebook granted the Taliban government’s Ministry of Interior permission to post “important information about new traffic regulations” at the end of September.

Biden Explores Talks as China Builds Arsenal  (David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, New York Times)
·  “For the first time, the United States is trying to nudge China’s leadership into a conversation about its nuclear capability. U.S. officials, describing the American strategy, say Mr. Biden and his top aides plan to move slowly—focusing the talks first on avoiding accidental conflict, then on each nation’s nuclear strategy and the related instability that could come from attacks in cyberspace and outer space. Finally—maybe years from now—the two nations could begin discussing arms control, perhaps a treaty or something politically less complex, such as an agreement on common norms of behavior.”

·  “Earlier this month the Pentagon concluded that the size of the Chinese nuclear arsenal may triple by 2030, to upward of 1,000 warheads. But the administration’s concern is not just the number of weapons—it is the new technology, and particularly how Chinese nuclear strategists are thinking about nontraditional arms.”

·  “Inside the White House and the Pentagon, there is no unanimity … Biden has long been wary of assessments that could be intended to drive up the Pentagon’s budget—and certainly American defense contractors, their executive offices jammed with former senior military officers, have a vested interest in describing a new threat that could lead to billions of dollars in new investments. But even some skeptics agree that the Chinese hypersonic test, along with antisatellite technologies that could blind American early-warning and command-and-control systems, suggest a major rethinking of American nuclear strategy and plans is overdue.”

·  “On Capitol Hill, the conversation so far is largely about matching the Chinese investment, rather than rethinking the nature of the arms race. ‘I’m very concerned,’ Rose Gottemoeller, an arms control official in several administrations who now teaches at Stanford University, said … ‘What’s worrying me is the automaticity of the actions—of more nuclear weapons and more missile defenses without thinking if there’s a smarter way.’”

Huawei Sanctions Snarled Chip Supply Chains  (Ina Fried, Axios)
The largely successful U.S. effort to hobble China’s Huawei has benefitted a host of other tech companies — from smartphone makers such as Apple and Xiaomi to chipmakers like Qualcomm to network vendors including Nokia and Ericsson.
Yes, but: The massive disruption to the industry furthered an industry wide mismatch between supply and demand, exacerbating the global chip shortage.

Now That We’ve Left Afghanistan, Expect Fewer Islamic Terrorist Attacks on Americans  (Michael J. Ard, Discourse)
Contrary to expert opinion, the jihadist threat to the U.S. is trending downward.

Will Germany’s Compulsory Vaccine Plan Backfire?  (Katja Hoyer, The Spectator)
A lockdown for the unvaccinated might not work.

China Wants to Write the Tech Rules for 5G. Experts Say That’s a Big Problem  (Patrick Tucker, Defense One)
Beijing is stacking international standards bodies with factions that care more about national loyalty than sound practice, experts say.

U.S. to Lead Global Effort to Curb Authoritarians’ Access to Surveillance Tools  (Yuka Hayashi and Alex Leary, Wall Street Journal)
Administration official cites China’s use of monitoring technologies, which Beijing has defended, in calling for tighter export rules.

Suspected Chinese Hackers Breach More U.S. Defense and Tech Firms  (Sean Lyngaas, CNN)
A suspected Chinese hacking campaign has breached four more US defense and technology companies in the last month, and hundreds more US organizations are running the type of vulnerable software that the attackers have exploited, according to research shared with CNN.
The apparent espionage activity, which the National Security Agency helped investigate when it emerged in recent months, is more extensive than previously known and has seen the hackers steal passwords from targeted organizations with a goal of intercepting sensitive communications.