TOP OF THE DAY – Negotiating Africa’s Digital Partnerships amid Geopolitical Competition

(Folashadé Soulé – Centre for International Governance Innovation – 23 September 2024) Rising geopolitical tensions among China, the United States and other major powers are making digital partnership negotiations between African stakeholders and these global actors more complex. China is becoming an increasingly popular choice among African states because the country typically offers more affordable technology options to achieve digital development goals than its Western counterparts. Negotiating Africa’s Digital Partnerships — a policy research project supported by the Centre for International Governance Innovation and hosted at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford — looks at how these partnerships are formed as African governmental actors seek new and rising partners to help build their digital capacity. The project involves interviews with African ministers, policy makers, the private sector, and civil society actors from both francophone and anglophone Africa with a focus on digital connectivity, infrastructure, digital sovereignty, norm-setting and governance issues. –Negotiating Africa’s Digital Partnerships amid Geopolitical Competition – Centre for International Governance Innovation (cigionline.org)

Governance

(Chinmayi Sharma, Alan Z. Rozenshtein – Lawfare – 24 September 2024) As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly transforms industries and permeates daily life, there is a clear need for effective and nuanced regulation by federal agencies. Through legislative frameworks created by Congress, agencies have the power to develop detailed regulations, enforce compliance, and adjudicate disputes in specialized areas where Congress lacks the necessary expertise and resources. This primer explores the capabilities and limitations of agency regulation in the context of AI liability, examining how agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, Department of Commerce, and Securities and Exchange Commission navigate the intricate landscape of AI governance. By understanding the tools at agencies’ disposal—from rulemaking and adjudication to investigation and enforcement—we describe the potential for effective oversight in this rapidly evolving field. At the same time, we examine the challenges agencies face, including resource constraints, political pressures, and the risk of regulatory overreach. – Regulatory Approaches to AI Liability | Lawfare (lawfaremedia.org)

Geostrategies

(Irina Dezhina – IFRI – 23 September 2024) At the fifteenth BRICS summit, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from August 22 to 24, 2023, a resolution was adopted to extend an invitation to six new countries to join the organization: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). All of these countries except Argentina duly became members of BRICS in 2024, with the expanded group known as BRICS+. In addition to the political and economic advantages, it is assumed that the incorporation of these new countries could potentially facilitate their scientific and technological development. – Russia and the New BRICS Countries: Potentials and Limitations of a Scientific and Technological Cooperation | Ifri

(Shayesta Nishat Ahmed – Manohar Parrikar Institute – 23 September 2024) As the semiconductor industry, vital for modern electronics, faces global supply chain disruptions, India is aiming to enhance its role in semiconductor manufacturing, driven by government initiatives like the National Policy on Electronics and substantial investments in semiconductor facilities. Despite challenges such as high costs and the need for skilled labour, India is making significant progress towards becoming a major player in the global semiconductor market. – India’s Strategic Push for Semiconductor Manufacturing | Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (idsa.in)

Security

(Ryan Naraine – SecurityWeek – 24 September 2024) CrowdStrike says it has revamped several testing, validation, and update rollout processes to prevent a repeat of the embarrassing July outage that caused widespread disruption on Windows systems around the world. In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, CrowdStrike vice president Adam Meyers outlined a new set of protocols that include carefully controlled rollouts of software updates, better validation of code inputs, and new testing procedures to cover a broader array of problematic scenarios. – CrowdStrike Overhauls Testing and Rollout Procedures to Avoid System Crashes – SecurityWeek

(Eduard Kovacs – SecurityWeek – 24 September 2024) Nearly a decade has passed since the cybersecurity community started warning about automatic tank gauge (ATG) systems being exposed to remote hacker attacks, and critical vulnerabilities continue to be found in these devices. ATG systems are designed for monitoring the parameters in a storage tank, including volume, pressure, and temperature. They are widely deployed in gas stations, but are also present in critical infrastructure organizations, including military bases, airports, hospitals, and power plants. – Automatic Tank Gauges Used in Critical Infrastructure Plagued by Critical Vulnerabilities – SecurityWeek

(Kevin Townsend – SecurityWeek – 24 September 2024) HP has intercepted an email campaign comprising a standard malware payload delivered by an AI-generated dropper. The use of gen-AI on the dropper is almost certainly an evolutionary step toward genuinely new AI-generated malware payloads. In June 2024, HP discovered a phishing email with the common invoice themed lure and an encrypted HTML attachment; that is, HTML smuggling to avoid detection. Nothing new here – except, perhaps, the encryption. Usually, the phisher sends a ready-encrypted archive file to the target. “In this case,” explained Patrick Schlapfer, principal threat researcher at HP, “the attacker implemented the AES decryption key in JavaScript within the attachment. That’s not common and is the primary reason we took a closer look.” HP has now reported on that closer look. – AI-Generated Malware Found in the Wild – SecurityWeek

(Ionut Arghire – SecurityWeek – 24 September 2024) Mandiant has dived into the operations of UNC1860, an Iranian advanced persistent threat (APT) actor that appears to act as an initial access provider to high-profile networks in the Middle East. Likely an opportunistic state-sponsored hacking group targeting government and telecommunications entities in the Middle East, Mandiant says UNC1860 shows similarities with other Iran-linked threat actors and appears to be affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). – Iranian APT Operating as Initial Access Provider to Networks in the Middle East – SecurityWeek

(Kevin Poireault – Infosecurity Magazine – 24 September 2024) Cybercriminals are using a wider-than-ever range of malicious documents to spread malware and gain initial access to target systems, according to HP Wolf Security. Alex Holland, principal threat researcher in the HP Security Lab, told Infosecurity that threat actors have recently shifted their focus. They are now prioritizing script-based phishing techniques over approaches based on traditional malicious documents, he said ahead of the launch of HP Wolf Security’s Threat Insights Report Q2 2024. – Threat Actors Shift to JavaScript-Based Phishing Attacks – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine – 24 September 2024) A new, advanced variant of the Octo malware family, dubbed “Octo2,” has been uncovered, posing a heightened risk to mobile banking users worldwide.According to ThreatFabric analysts, the Octo malware has been one of the most widespread mobile threats in recent years. Octo2 introduces several sophisticated features aimed at improving remote access and evasion capabilities, making it more difficult for security systems to detect. – New Octo2 Malware Variant Threatens Mobile Banking Security – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

(Ionut Arghire – SecurityWeek – 24 September 2024) MoneyGram International’s money transfer services are down as the company is struggling with a cyberattack that forced it to take certain systems offline. The incident started on September 22, when MoneyGram announced that a network outage was affecting the connectivity of some systems. –Cyberattack Causes MoneyGram Service Outage – SecurityWeek

(Eduard Kovacs – Security Week – 24 September 2024) Hackers can take control of Riello UPS devices by exploiting vulnerabilities that likely remain unpatched, according to CyberDanube, an Austria-based firm specializing in industrial cybersecurity. Italy-based Riello Elettronica describes itself as an electrical manufacturing sector company that is a leader in the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) market. – Unpatched Vulnerabilities Expose Riello UPSs to Hacking: Security Firm – SecurityWeek

(Ionut Arghire – SecurityWeek – 24 September 2024) Arkansas City, a small city in Kansas, says its water treatment facility was forced to switch to manual operations while a cybersecurity incident is being resolved. The incident, described by local media as a cyberattack, was discovered on the morning of September 22 and led to precautionary measures being taken “to ensure plant operations remained secure”, the city announced in an incident notice. – Kansas Water Facility Switches to Manual Operations Following Cyberattack – SecurityWeek

(Ionut Arghire – SecurityWeek – 24 September 2024) For the past several days, Windows users in the US have been storming the internet with concerns over the silent, forced transition from Kaspersky’s endpoint security products to UltraAV, seeking advice on how to remove the new antivirus from their systems. The switch was an expected one, after the US banned Kaspersky’s software in June, over fears of connections to the Russian government. The company’s products and services had been banned in federal agencies in 2017. – Users Quick to Remove UltraAV After Silent Transition From Kaspersky Antivirus – SecurityWeek

(James Coker – Infosecurity Magazine – 24 September 2024) Over 14 million patients have been affected by data breaches caused by malware attacks on US healthcare organizations so far in 2024, according to a new analysis by SonicWall. Most (91%) of these breaches have leveraged ransomware, with the report highlighting that attackers see the threat of exposing sensitive information held by healthcare organizations as an effective method for extorting ransom payments. – 14 Million Patients Impacted by US Healthcare Data Breaches in 2024 – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

(Beth Maundrill – Infosecurity Magazine – 24 September 2024) Security leaders must steer away from a zero tolerance for failure approach to cybersecurity and adopt and embrace augmented cybersecurity in order to thrive. Speaking at the Gartner Risk and Security Summit, analysists urged cybersecurity leaders to consider response and recovery, as this is where the largest maturity gap lies, compared to prevention. –Zero Failure Tolerance, A Cybersecurity Myth Holding Back Organization – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine – 24 September 2024) Telegram boss Pavel Durov has committed the platform to working more closely with law enforcement, while also cracking down on illegal activity. The Russian-born founder and CEO of the messaging platform said IP addresses and telephone numbers of those who break the app’s rules will be shared with police “in response to valid legal requests.” – Telegram Boss Agrees to Closer Police Cooperation – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Defense, Intelligence, and War

(Patrick Tucker – Defense One – 24 September 2024) The U.S. Marine Corps isn’t for everyone, but there’s no real process for weeding out folks who sign the enlistment paperwork but are unlikely to make it through their four-year contract. A new experiential initiative uses artificial intelligence to predict whether a Marine recruit will complete their full term and, more importantly, to pinpoint the factors that might get in the way of that goal, the Corps’ AI lead says. “We are using artificial intelligence to look at how we can recruit Marines, and we’re looking at how we can retain them specifically,” Capt. Chris Clark said during a Defense One Genius Machines event that aired Tuesday. “We can assess what attributes might…first predict whether that Marine will complete that four-year term or not, and then go back and look at what attributes might be impacting that prediction. So then we can inform the recruiters. And they can use that to better prepare these Marines in different ways so that they can go out into the Marine Corps, do…great and amazing things, complete their four-year term, and then decide if they want to stay in or if they want to go on and do something else.” – Can AI predict if a Marine will quit? Corps wants to know – Defense One

(R.K. Narang – Manohar Parrikar Institute – 23 September 2024) For India, a monograph examines civil and military drone policies, organisational structures, technology development initiatives, ecosystems, strengths, challenges, and proposes a way forward. It recommends formulating a civil drone atmanirbharta policy, designating nodal ministry of drone technology, creating organisational structures for civil drone R&D, launching civil drone technology development initiatives and instituting course corrections in defence UAV development programs. It also emphasises that academia, Incubation Centres, private sector, public sector and users need to focus on filling drone technology gaps. It advocates creation of robust ecosystem comprising trial based certification, civil drone testing facilities, formulation of Indian standards, and standardisation guidelines in drones. It lays emphasis on atmanirbharta in critical drone technologies, sensors & payloads; creating indigenous design and Indigenous Content (IC) certification mechanisms, indigenously designed and iDEX products vertical in GeM and promulgating Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme. Most importantly, it proposes formulation of military-civil technology fusion (MTCF) policy for making India atmanirbhar global drone hub@2030. – Military – Civil Technology Fusion (MCTF) For Making India Atmanirbhar Global Drone Hub@2030 | Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (idsa.in)

Legislation

(David DiMolfetta – NextGov – 24 September 2024) Legislation being Tuesday would create an interagency task force focused on countering Chinese cyber threats, according to bill text first shared with Nextgov/FCW. The Strengthening Cyber Resilience Against State-Sponsored Threats Act led by Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fl. orders the creation of a joint-agency task force between the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within 120 days of becoming law. –House bill pitches interagency task force to counter Chinese hacking threats – Nextgov/FCW