Top of the Day
Securing Cyberspace Conference 2024: Responsible Cyber Behaviour in Practice
(Sara Seppanen – RUSI – 10 February 2025) In October 2024, RUSI’s Cyber Research Group organised its inaugural Securing Cyberspace Conference. The Securing Cyberspace Conference 2024 gathered over 100 participants to discuss domestic and regional views on the conference theme ‘Responsible Cyber Behaviour in Practice: A Global View’. The programme covered topics including international law and norms, responsible use and development of tools and technologies – including AI – and the responsibility of states in conducting and responding to cyber operations and incidents. The event was part of RUSI’s ongoing Global Partnership for Responsible Cyber Behaviour work. – https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/conference-reports/securing-cyberspace-conference-2024-responsible-cyber-behaviour-practice
Europol Warns Financial Sector of “Imminent” Quantum Threat
(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine – 10 February 2025) Europe’s financial services sector must begin planning now for the transition to quantum-safe cryptography, as the risk of “store now decrypt later” (SNDL) attacks grows, Europol has warned. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/europol-warns-financial-sector/
Lawmakers move to ban DeepSeek’s AI from government devices
(Edward Graham – NextGov – 10 February 2025) House lawmakers are seeking to bar federal employees from downloading Chinese startup DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence chatbot app onto their government-issued devices over national security concerns. The bipartisan proposal — introduced on Feb. 6 by Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Darin LaHood, R-Ill. — comes in response to the sudden emergence of DeepSeek’s AI app, which rivals the capabilities of U.S. genAI competitors like OpenAI while having been developed for a fraction of the cost. The bill is co-sponsored by 16 other lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. – https://www.nextgov.com/artificial-intelligence/2025/02/lawmakers-move-ban-deepseeks-ai-government-devices/402886/?oref=ng-homepage-river
DeepSeek’s Disruption: Geopolitics and the Battle for AI Supremacy
(Tobias Feakin – RUSI – 7 February 2025) The rise of DeepSeek signals a profound shift in the global AI landscape, challenging the foundations of US technological dominance. Until now, Washington’s AI strategy hinged on controlling access to high-performance computing and advanced semiconductors, enforcing export controls to constrain China’s innovation. DeepSeek’s ability to develop a powerful AI model with significantly lower computational costs upends this paradigm. The game has changed, and a new phase in the race for AI supremacy has begun. – https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/deepseeks-disruption-geopolitics-and-battle-ai-supremacy
Trump, Stargate, DeepSeek: A new, more unpredictable era for AI?
(Isabella Wilkinson – Chatham House – 7 February 2025) 2025 is already proving a whiplash year for leaps and investments in artificial intelligence. On 19 January, China announced an AI investment fund, viewed as a response to tightened US export controls on chips. On 21 January, US President Donald Trump announced the Stargate Project, a company that he said would invest an unprecedented $500 billion in developing US AI infrastructure, backed by technology companies OpenAI and Oracle, Japanese bank SoftBank and the Emirati sovereign wealth fund, MGX. – https://www.chathamhouse.org/2025/02/trump-stargate-deepseek-new-more-unpredictable-era-ai
What does the TikTok saga reveal about China-US relations?
(Sun Chenghao and Chen Siyao – Brookings – 7 February 2025) The sudden influx of American users onto RedNote (Xiaohongshu), now dubbed the “TikTok refugees,” represents far more than a mere platform migration. Triggered by the impending TikTok ban in the United States, this phenomenon encapsulates a broader narrative: the intersection of technological governance, cultural exchange, and digital sovereignty in an increasingly fragmented online landscape. How do Chinese observers interpret the motivations behind America’s TikTok ban saga? What strategic scenarios are emerging in China regarding TikTok’s future trajectory? How do these narratives shape and reflect China’s views of the complex China-U.S. relations? Examining these questions offers critical insights into the shifting dynamics of global technological competition and the evolving contours of bilateral relations in a contested digital age. – https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-does-the-tiktok-saga-reveal-about-china-us-relations/
Governance and Legislation
The Hawley Act Threatens AI Innovation
(Ritwik Gupta, Andrew Reddie – Lawfare – 10 February 2025) On Jan. 29, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the Decoupling America’s Artificial Intelligence Capabilities from China Act of 2025 (DAAICCA) as a sweeping attempt to sever U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) development from Chinese influence. The bill, following hard on the heels of Chinese advances in AI and accusations of impropriety from U.S. technology companies, argues that stringent restrictions on the import, export, and collaboration of AI technologies between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are necessary for both national security and America’s economic independence. However, the bill’s rigid structure fails to take into account the globalized nature of software, hardware, and talent supply chains that benefit U.S. firms aiming to develop AI technologies. Ultimately, the DAAICCA will disrupt the open-source development of new tools and methods and create significant enforcement challenges. Taken together, the limitations of the bill, as currently drafted, will stifle American AI progress. – https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-hawley-act-threatens-ai-innovation
Using AI to Improve the Government—Without Violating the Privacy Act
(Kevin Frazier – Lawfare – 10 February 2025) “There is nothing inappropriate or nefarious going on.” That’s how Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the Department of Education, described members of the U.S. DOGE Service feeding sensitive data stored by the department into an artificial intelligence (AI) system. Application of the Privacy Act of 1974 to this ongoing disclosure, however, suggests that the DOGE team is running afoul of the law. – https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/using-ai-to-improve-the-government-without-violating-the-privacy-act
Geostrategies
Australia needs Australian AI
(Jocelinn Kang – ASPI The Strategist – 10 February 2025) Australia must do more to shape its artificial intelligence future. The release of DeepSeek is a stark reminder that if Australia does not invest in its own AI solutions, it will remain reliant on foreign technology—technology that may not align with its values and often carries the imprints of its country of origin. – https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/australia-needs-australian-ai/
Security
Students suing Education Department worry data DOGE has accessed could be used for immigration enforcement
(Suzanne Smalley – The Record – 10 February 2025) California students suing the Department of Education allege that the agency has potentially put their families at risk by allowing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to obtain information that could reveal they have undocumented family members. The allegations were made in a Monday court filing in which the plaintiff, the University of California Student Association (UCSA), sought a temporary restraining order that would require the Department of Education to bar DOGE from continuing to access their data and to retrieve and protect any information that has already been shared with DOGE. – https://therecord.media/students-suing-doe-fear-doge-access-to-immigration-data
8Base ransomware site taken down as Thai authorities arrest 4 connected to operation
(Jonathan Greig – The Record – 10 February 2025) The leak site for the 8Base ransomware gang was taken down Monday and replaced with a banner by multiple law enforcement agencies. The takedown notice was posted hours after news outlets in Thailand reported on the arrest of four people allegedly involved in the ransomware operation. – https://therecord.media/8base-ransomware-site-taken-down-4-arrested
Newspaper conglomerate Lee Enterprises says cyberattack disrupting print editions
(Jonathan Greig – The Record – 10 February 2025) A cyberattack is impacting the availability of newspapers belonging to Lee Enterprises, one of the largest owners of local papers in the U.S. The company told Recorded Future News it is “working through technology issues that caused some disruption” to the company’s day-to-day work. – https://therecord.media/lee-enterprises-cyberattack-newspapers-priinting
BadIIS Malware Exploits IIS Servers for SEO Fraud
(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine – 10 February 2025) A newly uncovered cyber campaign has been observed exploiting Internet Information Services (IIS) vulnerabilities to distribute malware known as BadIIS. The attack, affecting several Asian countries, manipulates search engine optimization (SEO) results to redirect users to illegal gambling sites or malicious servers. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/badiis-malware-iis-servers-seo/
Georgia Hospital Alerts 120,000 Individuals of Data Breach
(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine – 10 February 2025) Memorial Hospital and Manor has informed approximately 120,000 individuals that their sensitive information was compromised in a ransomware attack that occurred in November 2024. The rural medical facility in Bainbridge, Georgia, made the breach public in early November, stating that its digital systems were rendered inoperable, requiring staff to rely on manual record keeping using paper-based documentation. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/georgia-hospital-120000-data-breach/
Experts Dismayed at UK’s Apple Decryption Demands
(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine – 10 February 2025) Privacy rights groups and security experts have slammed a reported demand from the British government to access end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) data stored in Apple’s iCloud service. The Home Office demand, which by law cannot be publicized, is most likely to have been made under the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) – a controversial “Snooper’s Charter” which gives the government the right to force tech firms to unmask users suspected of serious crimes. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/experts-dismayed-uk-apple/
Defense, Intelligence, and Warfare
L3 unveils new low-bandwidth, high-autonomy drone swarm tech
(Patrick Tucker – Defense One – 10 February 2025) A new drone swarm piloting program from L3Harris (…) allows a single operator to control multiple drones across several vehicle types in different domains during government-managed tests—and company officials told reporters they expect to eventually be able to scale that up to thousands. The development comes as the Pentagon struggles with how it could manage swarms of drones in a conflict rife with electromagnetic attacks on communications. To achieve the desired scale, the company uses an approach that minimizes the data exchange between the operator and the swarm, putting more burden on the intelligence capabilities onboard the drone. – https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2025/02/l3-unveils-new-low-bandwidth-high-autonomy-drone-swam-tech/402859/
Promising biotech startups ‘dying on the vine’: In-Q-Tel
(Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. – Breaking Defense – 10 February 2025) Driven by the spread of CRISPR gene-editing techniques and rapid advances in AI-powered biochemical models, biotechnology is taking off. But not all biotech is equal in an investor’s eyes, and the biotech sectors that face the hardest fight for funding — at least in the United States — happen to be the ones with most promise for the Pentagon. While tens of billions of dollars pour into biotech ever year in the US and Europe, it overwhelmingly goes to pharmaceutical products, everything from lifesaving medicines like mRNA COVID vaccines to mass-market cosmetic creams, because those investments have the shortest and most obvious path to high returns. By contrast, there’s much less commercial demand — and a more confusing regulatory process — for other promising biotech that might matter for the military. That includes new, biologically-derived materials like lighter-weight body armor, anti-corrosion coatings or even explosives. – https://breakingdefense.com/2025/02/promising-biotech-startups-dying-on-the-vine-in-q-tel/
UK Military Fast-Tracks Cybersecurity Recruitment
(James Coker – Infosecurity Magazine – 10 February 2025) The UK military is fast-tracking the recruitment of specialist cybersecurity roles, offering candidates one of the highest starting salaries in the armed forces. Cyber recruits will receive a starting salary of over £40,000, with opportunities for additional skills-based pay as they gain expertise and experience. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/uk-military-cybersecurity/