China May Not Need Western Technology Much Longer

source: Bloomberg.com, contributed by Artemus FAN Bill Amshey & Founder Bob Wallace  |  Image:  pexels.com

 

The latest ranking of global spending on research and development has US tech companies on top and Chinese rivals on the rise.

Western countries have become increasingly wary of sharing technology with China, with the US and Netherlands recently imposing new restrictions on exports of semiconductors and the equipment used to make them. Meanwhile, Chinese companies are rising up the list of the world’s biggest spenders on research and development — a sign that perhaps they won’t need that Western technology much longer.

When I last compiled one of these lists five years ago, mobile infrastructure and device maker Huawei Investment & Holding Co. was in sixth place behind Microsoft, just as it is here, but it was the only Chinese company in the global top 25. It has been joined by TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd., WeChat owner and gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. and e-commerce, payments and cloud-computing purveyor Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The $14.6 billion figure for ByteDance is for 2021 and comes from a report the privately held company shared with employees last year, which the Wall Street Journal reported on in October. The Information reported on April 1 that ByteDance has told investors revenue rose 30% in 2022, so I would guess its 2022 R&D spending would rank even higher.

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Russia Braces For Attack By 50,000 Ukrainian Kamikaze Drones, Seeks Shotguns

source: forbes.com (contributed by FAN Steve Jones)  |  image: pexels.com

Russian social media on the Ukraine war is buzzing with fear of an imminent attack by thousands of small kamikaze drones that could overwhelm their front lines.

Posts by a blogger using the handle Russian Engineer usually get a few thousand views, but one of his latest entries has now been seen 1.9 million times. Ukrainian military and political observer Alexei Arestovich says they are preparing a drone offensive,and in January Ukrainian General Command announced the formation of new tactical drone assault units. Russian Engineer has put these together with information from other sources to predict an onslaught of miniature attack drones.

Recently, it has become known that, in terms of drones, buyers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have bought up almost the entire market of FPV drone components in China, according to indirect estimates, by 50-100 thousand units,” writes Russian Engineer. “They have already trained more than a thousand operators of these models. They make them into kamikaze with a shaped charge warhead from RPG RPG -0.2%-7, or with a fragmentation grenade. And they have accumulated all this before the offensive.”

Racing drones, also known as FPV or First Person View drones, are smaller than standard quadcopters but have powerful motors giving speeds of 120 mph or more. They lack the sophisticated electronics for steady hover and smooth flight for good camerawork. Instead they are designed for high-speed, seat-of-the-pants flying around demanding courses, piloted using video gogglesDrone racing is a popular sport in many countries.

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Clever Defiance

 

source: artoftheprank.com, contributed by Artemus FAN, Steve Jones  |  Image: Pixabay via pexels.com

 

An interesting footnote to the German occupation of France during WW II.
 
You might be aware that this year is the 100th anniversary of Citroën. Here’s a fascinating bit of wartime Citroën lore. It involves screwing with Nazis in a genuinely clever and subtle way that nevertheless had big repercussions. 
 
So, when France was occupied by the Germans in 1940, major French factories like Citroën were forced to produce equipment for the Nazis. Citroën president Pierre-Jules Boulanger knew he couldn’t just refuse to produce anything, but he also knew there’s no way in hell he’s going to just roll over and build trucks for a bunch of filthy Nazis. Pierre had a plan.  
 
John Reynold’s book Citroën 2CV describes Boulanger’s sabotage efforts. Of course, he instructed workers to set a nice, leisurely pace when building trucks (likely Citroën T45 trucks) for the Wehrmacht, but that’s fairly obvious. What was brilliant was Boulanger’s idea to move the little notch on the trucks’ oil dipsticks that indicated the proper level of oil down just a bit lower.
 
By moving the notch down, the trucks would not have enough oil, but German mechanics would have no idea, because the little notch on the dipstick says it’s just fine. 
 
Then, after the truck has been used for a while and is out deployed somewhere crucial, whammo, the engine seizes up and you’ve got a lot of angry, stranded, vulnerable Nazis, balling up their little fists and madly barking curses in German.
 
It’s such a fantastic act of sabotage: it’s extremely cheap to implement, it’s subtle, there’s no way to see something amiss is happening as the trucks are being built and it delivers its blow away from the site of the sabotage and when it will cause the most inconvenience and trouble.
 
That’s some mighty good sabotaging, Pierre.
 
Happy 100th Anniversary, Citroën!

Meet APT43, the newest North Korean threat

source: Axios, contributed by FAN Bill Amshey  |  image: pexels.com

 

Researchers have identified a new state-backed hacking group in North Korea: APT43.

Driving the news: Mandiant, a threat intelligence firm owned by Google, said in a report today that APT43 has been engaging in espionage campaigns to support the North Korean regime.

  • APT43 also appears to target cryptocurrency firms and services and uses the profits to fund its espionage operations, the report states.
  • The group typically targets organizations in South Korea and the United States, with a special focus on government, business services, manufacturing and education and research groups.

The big picture: Mandiant has “moderate confidence” that APT43 is specifically linked to North Korea’s foreign intelligence service.

  • Mandiant has been tracking this gang’s activities since 2018, and today’s report officially elevates the group to an official state-backed hacking group.

Of note: Other companies refer to the group as “Kimsuky” or “Thallium” in their reports. Each cyber research firm uses its own naming conventions for identifying hacking groups.

Details: APT43 engages in two types of cyber activity: Spear-phishing email campaigns to harvest specific targets’ credentials and high-value research, and cryptocurrency firm hacks to get funds for its own operations.

  • In the spear-phishing attacks, APT43 poses as reporters and researchers to trick employees at U.S. defense and research organizations, as well as South Korea-based think tanks, into clicking on a malicious email link or responding with key intel.
  • APT43 has been seen using cryptocurrency services to launder stolen currency, suggesting the group has been involved in the string of recent attacks.

Threat level: Unlike other state-backed hacking groups, APT43 has yet to be seen exploiting critical, unknown vulnerabilities in systems.

  • However, the group continues to maintain “a high tempo of activity” and has collaborated with several North Korea state-backed hacking groups.

Rorschach Ransomware Emerges: Experts Warn of Advanced Evasion Strategies

source: thehackernews.com  |  image: pexels.com

Cybersecurity researchers have taken the wraps off a previously undocumented ransomware strain called Rorschach that’s both sophisticated and fast.

“What makes Rorschach stand out from other ransomware strains is its high level of customization and its technically unique features that have not been seen before in ransomware,” Check Point Research said in a new report. “In fact, Rorschach is one of the fastest ransomware strains ever observed, in terms of the speed of its encryption.”

The cybersecurity firm said it observed the ransomware deployed against an unnamed U.S.-based company, adding it found no branding or overlaps that connect it to any previously known ransomware actors.

However, further analysis of Rorschach’s source code reveals similarities to Babuk ransomware, which suffered a leak in September 2021, and LockBit 2.0. On top of that, the ransom notes sent out to the victims appear to be inspired by that of Yanluowang and DarkSide.

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A Tiny Blog Took on Big Surveillance in China—and Won

 

source: wired.com  |  image: pexels.com

 

Digging through manuals for security cameras, a group of gearheads found sinister details and ignited a new battle in the US-China tech war.

 

AT A LOCATION he keeps secret, John Honovich was on his laptop, methodically scouring every link on a website for a conference half a world away. Hikvision, the world’s largest security camera manufacturer, was hosting the event—the 2018 AI Cloud World Summit—in its hometown of Hangzhou, a city of about 10 million people not far from Shanghai. Honovich, the founder of a small trade publication that covered video surveillance technology, wanted to find out what the latest Hikvision gear could do.

He zeroed in on one section of the conference agenda titled “Eco-Friendly, Peaceful, Relaxed” and found a description of an AI-powered system installed around Mount Tai, a historically sacred mountain in Shandong. A video showed Hikvision cameras pointed at tourists climbing the thousands of stone steps leading to the famous peak. Piano music played as a narrator explained, in Mandarin with English subtitles, that the cameras were there “to identify all visitors to ensure the safety of all.” The video cut to a shot of a computer screen, and Honovich hit pause. He saw a zoomed-in view of one visitor’s face. Below it was data that the camera’s AI had inferred. Honovich downloaded the video and took screenshots of the computer screen, for safekeeping. 

Later, with the help of a translator, he scrutinized every bit of text on that screen. One set of characters, the translator explained, suggested each visitor was automatically sorted into categories: age, sex, wearing glasses, smiling. When Honovich pointed at the fifth category and asked, “What’s this?” the translator replied, “minority.” Honovich pressed: “Are you sure?” The translator confirmed there was no other way to read it.

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Britain uses cyber capabilities to counter enemies online – GCHQ

 

source: reuters.com  |  image: pexels.com

 

LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) – British government hackers have launched operations against militants, state-backed disinformation campaigns and attempts to interfere in elections, the GCHQ spy agency said on Tuesday, in a rare statement on its offensive cyber work.

The attacks were carried out over the last three years by the secretive National Cyber Force (NCF), a hacking unit operational since 2020 made up of spies and defence officials from Britain’s armed forces and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the eavesdropping agency said in a statement.

“In an increasingly volatile and interconnected world, to be a truly responsible cyber power, nations must be able to contest and compete with adversaries in cyberspace,” GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming said.

The statement was published alongside a 28-page paper designed “to illustrate aspects of how the UK is being a responsible cyber power”. It did not elaborate on the specifics of those operations.

Britain’s position as a leading hacking power competing alongside the United States with countries including Russia, China and Iran has been long known but rarely acknowledged.

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