Looking back on Cyber ​​Week: October 4, 2024

Leading Cambodian journalist charged for reporting on national cyber scam industry

Mech Dara, an award-winning Cambodian journalist known for his reporting on cybercrime, was arrested by Cambodian authorities on Tuesday and charged with “incitement to commit a crime or cause social disorder” after continuously reporting on the cyber scam industry in Cambodia; Dara is currently being held in Kandal Provincial Prison. The Cambodian government frequently uses this accusation to silence critics. Last year, Dara was honored by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken as one of the first journalists to write in-depth investigative pieces on incidents of human trafficking linked to online scams; that reporting drew international attention to a multibillion-dollar human trafficking and fraud industry in Cambodia. So-called ‘pig slaughter’ scams have become increasingly common in Southeast Asia over the past five years; The scam involves creating a false identity and building a bond with the victim before asking to borrow or invest money with the scammer, with some victims losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. The criminal gangs that run some of the largest pig slaughterhouses have also become dependent on human trafficking as a source of labor. Recent reports have revealed that more than 200,000 people in Southeast Asia have been lured into this scam in recent years. Similar cyber scam operations are appearing in other regions, including Latin America, the Middle East and other regions. Dara’s reporting has been instrumental in exposing the extent of cyber scams in Cambodia; Forty-six civil society groups and Cambodian news organizations signed a joint statement calling for his release, which was published the same day by the Cambodian human rights organization LICIDHO. Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, stated that “the arrest of award-winning journalist Mech Dara on false charges shows that the Cambodian government is determined to eradicate what is left of independent media in the country .”

California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoes a major AI bill

California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a major AI safety bill earlier this week. The bill would apply a new set of standards to the largest and most advanced AI models. Developers of models covered by the bill would have to adhere to a number of new standards, including: building in a kill switch that would allow organizations to disable and isolate AI systems if they pose a threat , and requiring safety testing before major models could be released publicly. The bill would also have authorized California’s attorney general to sue companies for any serious harm caused by their models, including death or property damage. Newsom said he vetoed the bill because it focused too much on regulating so-called frontier models, the most advanced AI models, without addressing the broader societal risks of AI. Although no existing models would be covered by the bill, it still became a major source of contention among AI researchers and developers. Renowned AI developer and scientist Fei-Fei Li, who has focused extensively on responsible AI development, wrote an op-ed in August saying the bill would harm “our nascent AI ecosystem.” Several major companies, including OpenAI, Google and Microsoft, also opposed the bill as it would stifle innovation. Geoffrey Hinton, Lawrence Lessig and several other prominent academics who have warned leading voices about AI’s existential risk wrote a letter to Newsom and other senior California officials in August saying the bill was the “bare minimum for effective regulation of” AI . . Some experts also highlighted the level of industry opposition to the bill, with Amba Kak, chairman of the AI ​​Now think tank, saying: “If debates over regulating AI are reduced to infighting in Silicon Valley, we will lose the wider interests for the public. .”

The US Department of Justice is charging Iranians with election meddling

The US Department of Justice has announced charges against three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) for their role in a hacking and leak campaign that targeted Trump’s campaign earlier this year. According to the indictment, the three Iranians engaged in a years-long scheme to gain access to the email accounts of former U.S. government officials. In May, they began using this access to target and access accounts associated with the Trump campaign and then used that access to the broader network to steal documents and emails. The Iranians concocted a fake persona to send the stolen documents to members of the press and the Biden-Harris campaign, although news media refused to publish the documents. It appears that Biden-Harris aides never downloaded the documents they received. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released an assessment of foreign interference in the upcoming US elections in mid-September. The assessment found that Russia, Iran and China continue to actively interfere in the US elections, with Iran aiming to amplify polarizing issues. All three countries are expected to step up their activities in the weeks leading up to the elections, which take place on November 5.

Microsoft will start paying some publishers for content referenced by the AI

Microsoft has announced that Copilot Daily, a new news feature in its Copilot AI assistant, will offer publishers a licensing agreement and make payments when their articles are referenced. According to Microsoft, the new feature will use a small group of licensed, trusted sources for its responses, as opposed to broad input from other AI tools. So far, Reuters, Axel Springer, Hearst Magazines, USA Today Network and the Financial Times have signed licensing agreements with Microsoft to enable use of their content for Copilot Daily; the individual terms of each deal were not disclosed. Perplexity, another AI developer, also recently announced a licensing scheme that pays news organizations a flat fee every time one of their links comes up through Perplexity’s AI products; the model is similar to the revenue-per-click model used by most major ad groups on the Internet. AI developers and content publishers continue to battle over AI developers’ use of massive data sets culled from various parts of the internet, often with little respect for copyrights and intellectual property. Publishers have started to push back in a variety of ways, both through licensing agreements and other methods, such as Cloudflare’s new AI Audit offering, a suite of tools that help website owners prevent scraping of their site.

The US is hosting the Counter Ransomware Initiative Summit in Washington, DC

The 2024 Counter Ransomware Initiative Summit took place from September 30 to October 3, and members focused on launching capabilities to disrupt attackers, improving information sharing for cybersecurity, and fighting back against bad actors by refusing to pay ransoms pay. At the summit, CRI members reaffirmed their shared commitment that members should not pay ransoms to cybercriminals, and the United States launched a new fund for CRI members to strengthen their capabilities through targeted support and rapid assistance in the aftermath of a cyberattack . CRI also engaged several countries to lead various efforts in countering ransomware and achieving CRI’s goals. Singapore and the United Kingdom are leading the policy pillar of the CRI, which aims to provide guidance to businesses on how to prepare for, deal with and recover from ransomware attacks. Germany and Nigeria will continue to lead the diplomacy and capacity building pillar, which has contributed to the expansion of the CRI partnerships with eighteen new members over the past six months. Finally, Canada has developed an advisory panel on public-private partnerships and best practices. Parallel to the summit, the US Treasury Department announced that it was imposing sanctions on several members of the Evil Corp. ransomware gang. Among those sanctioned is a former member of the FSB, Eduard Benderskiy, who is believed to have been instrumental in establishing Evil Corp’s ties to the Russian government.

Maya Schmidt is an intern for the Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program.