In The News

The Improbable Rise of Huawei: Foreign Policy

Keith Johnson and Elias Groll April 9, 2019
Huawei emerged on the world stage as a tech-savvy company in 2009 after replacing Norway’s entire mobile phone grid. In the ensuing decade, Huawei solidified its place as a global tech magnate and now stands poised as leader in the 5G network race that could dominate 21st century technologies like artificial intelligence. A combination of factors including governmental support, low cost and...

New York Times: Three Internets and America’s May Not Be Best

October 16, 2018
As nations apply regulations that limit the internet, some protecting and others invading privacy, the information highway may fragment. “All signs point to a future with three internets,” notes an opinion essay written by the New York Times editorial board. “But all three spheres — Europe, America and China — are generating sets of rules, regulations and norms that are beginning to rub up...

Reuters: US Accuses China of LinkedIn Spy Campaign

Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay September 5, 2018
Social media platforms are designed to gather data from users in order to promote connections. US counterintelligence chief William Evanina warns that Chinese agencies are using fake LinkedIn accounts “to recruit Americans with access to government and commercial secrets,” reports Reuters. “LinkedIn says it has 575 million users in more than 200 counties and territories, including more than 150...

Reuters: Facebook Confirms Data Sharing With Chinese Firms

David Shepardson June 5, 2018
Facebook confirmed data-sharing partnerships with about 60 companies including Huawei, Lenovo Group, OPPO and TCL in China. Once again, the agreements may have allowed the firms to access data of users’ friends without explicit consent, reports David Shepardson for Reuters. Many of the partnerships had already ended, and Facebook is taking steps to end agreements with the Chinese firms. “Chinese...

New York Times: Bolton Used Cambridge Analytica’s Data

Matthew Rosenberg March 24, 2018
The Guardian and the New York Times recently reported that the London-based consulting firm Cambridge Analytica harvested more than 50 million Facebook profiles and assessed them for targeting with political advertising. Days later, Donald Trump fired his national security adviser and selected John Bolton, 69. In 2014, Bolton created a political action committee that paid more than $1 million to...

The Observer: Facebook Profiles Harvested

Carole Cadwalladr and Emma Graham-Harrison March 19, 2018
A whistleblower has exposed how Cambridge Analytica, a data analysis firm, relied on a software program and Facebook user profiles to target voters with political advertisements. The number represents about a quarter of the US electorate. “Documents seen by the Observer, and confirmed by a Facebook statement, show that by late 2015 the company had found out that information had been harvested on...

Lawfare: Mueller’s Indictment of Russian Hackers Highlights Stakes of Microsoft Case

Andrew Keane Woods February 20, 2018
Since the 9/11 attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, in 2001, the United States developed sophisticated surveillance techniques. Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians and three Russian organizations for interfering in the 2016 presidential elections, describing elaborate efforts to avoid detection including virtual private networks and US travel to set up servers and accounts...