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jamyang.net
Greg
@jamyang.net
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jamyang.net
Silicon Valley’s Surveillance Technology Transfer Problem
(Davi Ottenheimer) www.flyingpenguin.com?p=72174
Historians Produce Pattern Recognition The Associated Press investigation into Silicon Valley’s role in building China’s surveillance state reads like an old 1940s playbook. The birth of Silicon Valley was unlimited federal funding to develop radar technology for Allied forces. Eventually the results threatened American planes over Korea in a devastating turnabout. The cultural shock resuled in a “Top Gun” project that only escalated the cycles. This context matters greatly when considering tech giants like IBM, Dell, Cisco, and Intel spending over two decades essentially building the world’s most sophisticated digital prisons and handing the keys to America’s most obvious geopolitical rival. The scale of stupidity is sobering. American companies sold billions of dollars in surveillance technology to Chinese police and government agencies, as if emboldened by repeated Congressional warnings that these tools were being used to crush dissent and target minorities. Can you imagine a CEO at a tech firm giving an executive team presentation that “these elected politicians are telling us if we get rich helping China we also can destroy democracy and instrument racism globally, hell yeah!”
September 14, 2025 at 8:20 PM
jamyang.net
"Everyday activities such as language preservation, passing on traditional #Tibetan practices, these are being criminalised. #Surveillance is at the heart of this process of subjugating the Tibetan people, of making them Chinese.

www.sbs.com.au/news/datelin...
Caption: Cybersecurity expert, Greg Walton believes the government is focused on monitoring religious life. Credit: Hardcash Productions
July 27, 2025 at 11:09 AM
jamyang.net
Schneier on Security: #Massistant is the presumed successor to Chinese forensics tool, “MFSocket”, reported in 2019 and attributed to publicly traded cybersecurity company, Meiya Pico www.schneier.com/blog/archive...
Screen shot text: The Chinese have a new tool called Massistant. Massistant is the presumed successor to Chinese forensics tool, “MFSocket”, reported in 2019 and attributed to publicly traded cybersecurity company, Meiya Pico. The forensics tool works in tandem with a corresponding desktop software. Massistant gains access to device GPS location data, SMS messages, images, audio, contacts and phone services. Meiya Pico maintains partnerships with domestic and international law enforcement partners, both as a surveillance hardware and software provider, as well as through training programs for law enforcement personnel. From a news article: The good news, per Balaam, is that Massistant leaves evidence of its compromise on the seized device, meaning users can potentially identify and delete the malware, either because the hacking tool appears as an app, or can be found and deleted using more sophisticated tools such as the Android Debug Bridge, a command line tool that lets a user connect to a device through their computer. The bad news is that at the time of installing Massistant, the damage is done, and authorities already have the person’s data. Slashdot thread.
July 21, 2025 at 11:08 AM
jamyang.net
One to watch at #BlackHatUSA: @rondeibert.bsky.social will lay out the Lab’s future mission: including tackling AI-enabled subversion, “Dark PR,” & ad intelligence, as public-interest research itself faces rising authoritarian threats: www.blackhat.com/us-25/briefi...
Screenshot of BlackHat(USA) overview of Ron Deibert's keynote: "Keynote: Chasing Shadows: Chronicles of Counter-Intelligence from the Citizen Lab Ron Deibert | Director, The Citizen Lab, Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto Date: Wednesday, August 6 | 1:30pm-2:10pm ( Oceanside A, Level 2 ) Format: 40-Minute Keynote Track: Keynote For over twenty years, the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab has pioneered investigations into digital security and human rights—from exposing state cyber espionage to uncovering the global spread of mercenary spyware targeting journalists, activists, and human rights defenders. Drawing from my latest book, Chasing Shadows, I will recount how our mission to conduct "counter-intelligence for civil society" revealed surveillance around the inner circle of murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and uncovered domestic espionage campaigns across Mexico, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Thailand, El Salvador, and most recently, Italy. As our small team disarmed cyber mercenaries and helped improve the digital security of billions, we, too, became targets—caught in the same sinister crosshairs as those we sought to protect. I will also look ahead to the future of our mission and the rising challenges of AI-enabled subversion, Dark PR, and advertising intelligence, and how the kind of public-interest research the Lab has championed is now under threat from a growing tide of despotism and authoritarianism."
July 11, 2025 at 7:04 AM
jamyang.net
Visions for Potential AGI Futures, Scenario 6: Authoritarian Advantage (Centralised AGI Development Empowers the PRC)

Key assumption: AGI will bolster authoritarian regimes: plug governance gaps via AI-driven planning, & urban #surveillance; solve the dictator’s dilemma by offering reliable advice:
Screen cap of Scenario from RAND report on Visions for Potential AGI Futures: Scenario 6. Authoritarian Advantage (Centralized AGI Development Empowers the PRC) The text box below outlines our sixth scenario. Authoritarian Advantage: Description As AGI systems are developed and deployed, they turn out to fundamentally favor authoritarian regimes because of their centralized control and ability to mitigate any adverse consequences associated with the rapid implementation of AGI. The PRC leverages its lead in the widespread commercialization and societal integration of AGI to spread its influence in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East by offering ubiquitous surveillance technologies, infrastructure investments, and strategic partnerships for compute-sharing. Automated surveillance systems allow authoritarian regimes and leaders to control information, selectively repress dissidents with near perfect accuracy, and influence group behavior through the sophisticated network mapping of human relationships. In addition, the PRC’s investments and innovation in industrial robotics pays off, enabling the replacement of low-skilled labor with loyal AIs. Meanwhile, the United States and its allies grapple with domestic challenges, including rampant disinformation campaigns that undermine public trust in institutions, high unemployment rates exacerbated by automation, and heightened civil unrest driven by socioeconomic disparities and political polarization. These internal issues strain the U.S. government’s resources and reduce its ability to act abroad, leading to a retrenchment in international influence. In a bid to achieve autarchy and avoid dependence on Chinese manufacturing, the United States implements protectionist policies and reshoring initiatives. However, these measures come at the cost of depressed economic growth because of inefficiencies and higher production costs, and they strain relationships with traditional allies who are economically intertwined wi…
July 7, 2025 at 12:01 PM
jamyang.net
China is building an entire empire on data
www.economist.com/leaders/2025...

Leaders (economist.com) | #Surveillance state
Screenshot of the concluding paragraph of the article linked in the post: All countries need scale and efficiency in data management. Yet for democracies the task is harder, because they must build in checks and balances that safeguard property rights, privacy and civil liberties. As it embraces its vast experiment, China will put less weight on such things and could build an efficient and dystopian system of surveillance. For decades it has been a “fast follower” of Western innovations. If China now races ahead in showing the financial value of its national data ocean, its method of centralisation will pose not just an economic challenge, but also a political one. ■ Subscribers to The Economist can sign up to our Opinion newsletter, which brings together the best of our leaders, columns, guest essays and reader correspondence. Explore more Leaders Opinion Artificial intelligence China This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “China’s formidable data empire”
July 5, 2025 at 10:58 AM
jamyang.net
As U.S.-China strategic competition intensifies, the ability to dominate both space and cyber will be a key factor in determining the shape of world peace, and whether it is along Chinese or American lines, argues @usip.org www.usip.org/publications...
The Element of Surprise: Space and Cyber Warfare in U.S.-China Rivalry KEY TAKEAWAYS China’s hacking efforts are becoming increasingly strategic in effect and particularly dangerous in relation to space systems. In the information age, strategic surprise can have long-lasting impacts. The U.S. needs to be clear with China that its hacking will not be met with impunity. [ Source: USIP ] PHOTO: An internet cafe in Beijing, July 28, 2011. (Sim Chi Yin/The New York Times)
June 19, 2025 at 2:37 PM
jamyang.net
China’s Global Security Initiative and the Burma Junta’s PSMS #Surveillance eng.mizzima.com/2025/06/06/2...
June 11, 2025 at 3:23 PM
jamyang.net
RecordedFuture's AI-driven #yararules system dynamically adjusts extraction sensitivity, enhancing precision & coverage in #malware detection. Inspired by #bioinformatics, it reduces complexity by filtering false positives based on pattern length not corpus size go.recordedfuture.com/whitepaper/a...
Screen cap of RecordedFuture whitepaper cover: Auto YARA: Automated Yara Rule Generation for High-confidence Threat Detection #bioinspiration
May 25, 2025 at 9:17 PM
jamyang.net
China’s next-gen #surveillance tools get AI boost to target #Telegram and #VPN users archive.is/W9PxD
[ screenshot of a selection of text from a SCMP article ] : "“Without cybersecurity, there is no national security” read a prominent slogan in the exhibition hall. The Third Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security showcased a tool that it claimed could monitor Telegram, a widely used instant messaging app known for its privacy and security. It said the tool could monitor Telegram accounts registered with Chinese mobile phone numbers, which have strict real-name requirements. To date, the tool has collected more than 30 billion messages and monitored 70 million Telegram accounts, as well as 390,000 public channels and groups, according to the institution. A promotional video from the institution showed how drug transactions could be monitored in group chats by logging into Telegram with a hacked Chinese mobile phone number. It also said that messages on Telegram involving topics related to politics and Hong Kong could be monitored. The institute cited the widespread use of Telegram by anti-government protesters in Hong Kong in 2019 as one of the reasons for developing the tool. In mainland China, internet users have to use virtual private networks (VPNs) to access Telegram, as well as the website for the South China Morning Post. But a technology company from the eastern city of Nanjing showcased a tool capable of detecting such use."
May 18, 2025 at 2:39 PM
jamyang.net
China International Exhibition on Police Equipment kicks off in Beijing, with robots, AI products in focus (Global Times) archive.is/1tU6g #surveillance
A man operates a remote-controlled robotic dog equipped with surveillance and multi-barrel launching devices at the 12th China International Exhibition on Police Equipment (第12届中国国际警用装备博览会) in Beijing. The booth displays additional robots with tracks and mounted equipment. (Image credit: Global Times, 14 May, 2025)
May 14, 2025 at 4:53 PM
jamyang.net
@tibetnetwork.bsky.social now appears to be shielded by @cloudflare.social and is back online
A screenshot showing a Cloudflare security verification page in Chinese for the website tibetnetwork.org, asking users to verify they’re human by checking a box before accessing the site.
April 21, 2025 at 11:42 PM
jamyang.net
Meanwhile, in China’s "authoritarian platform empire", Big Data meets Big Brother. Algorithms predict dissent before it emerges, mercenary corporate #spyware fuels party-state control: #surveillancecapitalism in dystopian overdrive, a Philip K. Dick nightmare made real:
March 17, 2025 at 10:25 PM
jamyang.net
Meta's threat intelligence team found this PRC Strategic Influence operation as a result of an earlier internal investigation into suspected recidivist activity
linked to the network - removed and reported in a previous Adversarial Threat report (Q3 2023):
March 5, 2025 at 1:25 AM
jamyang.net
Meta deleted multiple accounts on its platforms for
violating their policy against coordinated inauthentic behaviour. This PRC network targeted the #Tibetan diaspora primarily in Nepal, India and Bhutan across multiple services
including Meta's and X (formerly Twitter):
March 5, 2025 at 1:21 AM
jamyang.net
China’s homegrown tech boosts global #surveillance, social controls www.rfa.org/english/chin...
A technician works on a video surveillance system on Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (Reuters)
February 24, 2025 at 4:42 PM
jamyang.net
Inside China: The Battle for Tibet - A missing boy, a culture under threat - undercover cameras expose China’s control over Tibet as the ageing Dalai Lama’s succession nears: www.itv.com/watch/inside... (1 hour, geo-restricted UK)
A poster for a documentary broadcast on ITV1 and streamed on ITVx : Inside China: The Battle for Tibet - A missing boy, a culture under threat - undercover cameras expose China’s control over Tibet as the ageing Dalai Lama’s succession nears
February 18, 2025 at 11:00 AM
jamyang.net
DGSI launch a helpline for anyone targeted by #transnationalrepression on French territory:

La lutte contre la répression transnationale www.dgsi.interieur.gouv.fr/dgsi-a-vos-c... (中文版/ Русская версия/English version/ النسخة العربية)
February 6, 2025 at 2:37 PM
jamyang.net
Chinese #APT actors used Google's Gemini to conduct reconnaissance, for scripting and development, to troubleshoot code, and to research how to obtain deeper access to target networks: services.google.com/fh/files/mis... #AI
January 30, 2025 at 1:41 PM
jamyang.net
this response via DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-1.5B, (that runs locally in your browser with WebGPU acceleration - with no data sent to servers) via HuggingFace

I can't yet reproduce it on locally installed through ollama

it is one of the stranger hallucinations i've seen so far
January 28, 2025 at 7:24 PM
jamyang.net
The BBC's 'Shadow War: China and the West' is back on Radio4 at 11:45 each morning. I'm interviewed by @gordoncorera.bsky.social in episode 2 (The Canary in the Coalmine) www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

How the Himalayas became the front line for a cyber war ...
January 24, 2025 at 4:12 PM
jamyang.net
The @ceccgov.bsky.social Annual Report (2024), released last week, cites a report on #surveillance in Tibet I wrote with @choekyitenzin.bsky.social for @turquoiseroof.org 🙏

www.cecc.gov/publications... (p.235-36) see sections on tech-enhanced authoritarianism, and on #Tibet
December 27, 2024 at 4:46 PM
jamyang.net
2073: in interview w/ @carolecadwalla.bsky.social: @asifkapadia.bsky.social‬: "even the interrogation that Ghost receives after being profiled and targeted as “suspicious” is based on questions posed to #Uyghur detainees in .. re-education camps in China.." #重点人员 www.theguardian.com/film/2024/de...
December 16, 2024 at 12:15 PM
jamyang.net
图博水电战场报告的摘要与建议 turquoiseroof.org/download/%e5... (本报告由绿松石之脊和图博观察撰写,原文是英文。下面是本报告摘要和建议的中文翻译。) #環境的 #水壩 #礦業 #Tibet

互動地圖: turquoiseroof.org/hydro-battle...
May 21, 2024 at 8:25 PM