This week’s edition covers the US and Germany’s decision to supply Ukraine with tanks, the US-Israeli military exercise in the Mediterranean, increasing pressure to ban TikTok in the US, the FBI’s takedown of ransomware gang, Hive, and Trump’s return to Facebook. Additionally, Wi-Fi can track movement inside buildings, the University of Texas launches an online master’s program in AI, and Senator Lummis proposes greater transparency as an alternative to Section 230 reform.
Industrial Policy & International Security
Ukraine Under New Missile Barrage as Russia Warns West About Tank Pledges | Wall Street Journal
On Thursday, Russia launched over fifty-five missiles targeted across Ukraine, forty-seven of which were brought down by Ukraine's air defenses. The missile strikes represent a continued Russian strategy to damage energy infrastructure during the winter and weaken morale. In anticipation of new Russian offenses, President Zelensky welcomed the joint decision by the US and Germany to supply Ukraine with M1 Abrams and Leopard 2 tanks, respectively. This decision opens the door for Poland, Canada, and others to contribute German-made tanks. Britain has also issued a verbal commitment to deliver its Challenger 2 tanks. Russian officials claim that the new supply of tanks would not make any significant difference in the war, but perceive the Western exports as an escalation against Russia. The US paired the provision of tanks with new visa restrictions against 531 members of the Russian military and designated the Wagner Group (a Russian paramilitary force) as a “significant transnational criminal organization.”
The US-Israel military simulation is a show of force to Iran | The Washington Post
This week, the US and Israel staged Juniper Oak 23 in the Mediterranean. It is the largest US-Israeli exercise to date involving approximately 6,400 US troops and 1,500 Israeli troops. Despite other geopolitical priorities, namely Russia and China, the “Iran problem” is not going away, even as the US seeks to reduce its involvement in the Middle East. While not explicitly or officially stated, experts believe that Juniper Oak 23 simulated a kinetic attack on Iran’s nuclear program. The exercise incorporated “all aspects of warfighting” according to US Central Command commander, General Michael Erik Kurilla, including simulated operations in space and cyberspace. After President Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Iran continued its nuclear enrichment program. And efforts to revive the deal under the Biden administration have stalled. In this context, the intent of Juniper Oak 23 may have been to build a more credible deterrent threat to back President Biden’s assertion that the US will never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.
US Regulation
Biden Has Never Been Under More Pressure From Congress to Ban TikTok | Bloomberg
On Wednesday, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley introduced a new bill that would effectively ban TikTok, a subsidiary of Chinese company ByteDance, across the nation. Amid strategic tensions between the US and China, Hawley and other legislators have criticized TikTok's security and privacy issues. They believe programmers and individuals in China have the ability to harvest the personal information and data of millions of Americans through the platform. At the end of last year, Congress passed a bill banning TikTok from any government-owned devices. Since then, many states have similarly banned the platform from state-owned devices. A spokesperson for TikTok claims a ban on the platform would not holistically address the issues surrounding data security and privacy online, but instead would be a “piecemeal” approach to solving data security and privacy problems. As evidenced by President Trump’s attempt to ban TikTok in 2020, a legal challenge to the bill could be a significant hurdle to any legislation being passed.
Innovation
Wi-Fi signals could prove useful for spies | The Economist
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh have discovered that Wi-Fi signals can be used to record people's behavior inside unobservable rooms. Past research demonstrated that Wi-Fi could track movement inside buildings, but the research team at Carnegie Mellon applied an artificial intelligence algorithm trained on known activities to reconstruct moving digital portraits, called pose estimations. An enhanced version of the algorithm is capable of generating complete 3D body reconstructions that track thousands of vector points. The applications for this technology include monitoring the well-being of elderly people, interactive gaming and exercise monitoring, and surveillance and espionage. While the researchers declined to reveal their sponsor, some of their related projects are paid for by the research hub of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees America's spies.
Cyber
US says it ‘hacked the hackers’ to bring down ransomware gang, helping 300 victims | Reuters
This week, the FBI announced it secretly hacked and surveilled the notorious ransomware gang, Hive. By preemptively warning victims of attack, the Bureau believes it prevented over three hundred Hive victims from potentially paying over $130 million in ransom demands. International cooperation was essential to the takedown. The German Federal Criminal Police and the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit seized Hive servers within their borders. In its history, Hive has targeted more than fifteen hundred victims in eighty different countries and collected more than $100 million in ransomware payments. The operation, which began in July 2022, had not been detected by the group until now and it is unclear where the group was geographically based. No arrests have been announced, but the investigation is ongoing.
State & Local Tech Ecosystems
University of Texas will offer large-scale online master’s degree in AI | The New York Times
The University of Texas at Austin, a leading computer science school in the US, announced that it will offer an online Master of Science degree program in AI beginning in the spring of 2024. The initiative is intended to make AI education more affordable with tuition priced at about $10,000. Part of the program’s funding comes from a $20 million National Science Foundation grant awarded in 2020 to establish an AI institute in machine learning. Amidst rising tech layoffs, University officials and professors are confident that AI skills will remain in high demand across a variety of fields. Notably, courses will include formal ethics training that encourages students to explore the technology’s potential benefits and harms to society. To be accepted into the program, candidates must hold a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
Democracy Online
Senator advocates a transparency-based approach to social media moderation | Nextgov
At a virtual event this week, Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis proposed a possible alternative to Section 230 reform to bridge the divide between liberal and conservative views about free speech online. Senator Lummis argued in favor of “more stringent requirements for transparency around government moderation requests” to address concerns about government involvement in content moderation. She co-sponsored the PRESERVE Online Speech Act in 2021, which would require public disclosure of government entities’ information and content moderation requests. At the start of the 118th Congress, House Republicans introduced a similar proposal. Meta already maintains a public transparency report about government data and moderation requests around the world. Additionally, they inform users when their content is removed as the result of a formal government report, which differs from notifications issued when content is removed for violating community standards. However, disclosure of government requests can and has been blocked on national security grounds.
Trump is returning to Facebook - should measures be taken to keep him in check? | Forbes
Meta announced this week that Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts will be instated amidst concerns over how he will use the platform. Trump was banned from Meta platforms after the January 6th insurrection, a decision which the independent Oversight Board upheld but also criticized for the lack of criteria or timeline for account restoration. Earlier this month, Trump’s presidential campaign petitioned Facebook to reinstate his account. Facebook’s official statement noted that, “the normal state of affairs is that the public should be able to hear from a former President of the United States, and a declared candidate for that office again, on our platforms.” However, Trump will be subject to the same standards as any user; given his past violations, he faces heightened penalties for repeat offenses that could result in one-month to two-year suspensions. Considering the lessons from the Capitol riot, social media platforms may seek out more automated tools to react quickly in the midst of similar situations, without special provisions for public figures.
