Ant Group Sponsors Reality Competition Show About Programmers

“A two-episode series which debuted on Chinese streaming platforms last week has been described as the first reality competition to focus on programmers,” reports the I Programmer web site: The show, sponsored by the Ant Group, an affiliate company of the Chinese Alibaba Group, is called Ranshaoba tiancaichengxuyuan, which roughly translates to “Burn Bright! Genius Programmer,” and followed four teams engaged…

Chinese Intelligence Compiles ‘Vast Database’ About Millions Around the World

Australia’s national public broadcaster ABC reports:
A Chinese company with links to Beijing’s military and intelligence networks has been amassing a vast database of detailed personal information on thousands of Australians, including prominent and influential figures. A database of 2.4 million people, including more than 35,000 Australians, has been leaked from the Shenzhen company Zhenhua Data which is believed to be used…

Texas A&M Professor Accused of Secretly Collaborating With China Amid NASA Work

CNBC reports:
A Texas A&M professor was charged with conspiracy, making false statements and wire fraud on allegations that he was secretly collaborating with the Chinese government while conducting research for NASA, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Monday… “Once again, we have witnessed the criminal consequences that can arise from undisclosed participation in the Chinese government’s talent program,” Assistant Attorney General…

How China Targets Scientists via Global Network of Recruiting Stations

China is targeting top scientific and technological expertise in the U.S. and other advanced nations through an expanding network of 600 talent-recruitment stations world-wide, a new report partly funded by the U.S. State Department has found. From a report: U.S. officials have long warned that China uses recruitment programs to improperly obtain advanced technology. However, the research conducted by an Australian…

Why We Have a ‘TikTok Problem’

An anonymous reader shares an analysis: As national security expert Lucas Kunce notes, Facebook is in fact the reason we have a TikTok problem to begin with. When Twitter launched a TikTok-like product Vine years before, Facebook actively killed the product by refusing to let Vine access its APIs on the same terms other corporations got. Mark Zuckerberg personally made the…

US Senate Votes To Ban TikTok App On Government Devices

The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously voted to ban federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices. Reuters reports: The app has come under fire from U.S. lawmakers and the Trump administration over national security concerns because China’s ByteDance owns the technology. The company currently faces a deadline of Sept. 15 to either sell its U.S. operations to Microsoft Corp or…

US Steps Up Campaign To Purge Chinese Apps

The Trump administration said late Wednesday it was stepping up efforts to purge “untrusted” Chinese apps from US digital networks and called the Chinese-owned short-video app TikTok and messenger app WeChat “significant threats.” From a report: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said expanded US efforts on a program it calls “Clean Network” would focus on five areas and include steps…

DOD, FBI, DHS Release Info on Malware Used in Chinese Government-Led Hacking Campaigns

The U.S. government today publicly exposed malware used in Chinese government hacking efforts for more than a decade. From a report: The Chinese government has been using malware, referred to as Taidoor, to target government agencies, entities in the private sector, and think tanks since 2008, according to a joint announcement from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security…

The Vatican Is Said To Be Hacked From China Before Talks With Beijing

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Chinese hackers infiltrated the Vatican’s computer networks in the past three months , a private monitoring group has concluded, in an apparent espionage effort before the beginning of sensitive negotiations with Beijing. The attack was detected by Recorded Future, a firm based in Somerville, Mass. The Chinese Communist Party has…

US Accuses Supplier for Amazon, Apple, Dell, GM, Microsoft of Human Rights Abuses

The US Department of Commerce added 11 Chinese companies to its list of firms implicated in human rights violations, including China’s reported campaign against Muslim minority groups from an area of the country known as the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. At least one of those companies, Nanchang O-Film Tech, is listed as a supplier or undefined “partner” with nearly two dozen…