People line up to buy discount cooking oil in a Yangon township this month as the economic turmoil triggered by last year’s military coup continues to drive up the price of commodities. While the price of cooking oil has doubled from 5,000 kyats per viss (1.6 kg) to 12,000 kyats since the coup, the Myanmar Edible Oil Dealers group was selling oil for 5,000 kyats per viss.
China steps up domestic censorship, overseas propaganda ahead of party congress
The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is stepping up propaganda and censorship efforts ahead of its 20th national congress, tightening control of domestic internet users and spreading its official narrative overseas.
The country’s powerful Cyberspace Administration said it had recently shut down 1.34 billion social media accounts and deleted 22 million posts.
Officials told a news conference they had also investigated more than five million accounts delivering paid comments, banning some 450,000 chat groups and forums.
The announcement came after social media platform Weibo.com said it had deleted around 20 million posts that “violated” rules and regulations.
Sina Finance news client Toutiao, among others, was ordered to cease posting for 15 days from Aug. 22, in order to rectify “serious problems” with its content.
And it’s not only content viewed as critical of the government that is being targeted.
High-profile pro-CCP and leftist social media stars have recently been banned from posting, including pro-CCP and anti-U.S. pundit Sima Nan, who recently sparked a social media storm with his admission that he owns a house in California.
Sima’s account is still up, but his last post was on Aug. 19.
The account of fellow pundit and Peking University professor Kong Qingdong has been formally suspended “due to violations of the rules and regulations,” a notice on his Weibo account page said.
![The Weibo account of pundit and Peking University professor Kong Qingdong [left] has been formally suspended "due to violations of the rules and regulations," while pro-CCP and anti-U.S. pundit Sima Nan, who recently sparked a social media storm with his admission that he owns a house in California has not posted since Aug. 19. Credit: Reuters [left] and AFP](https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/party-congress-08242022125131.html/eng_man_partypropaganda_08242022-2.jpg "ENG_MAN_PartyPropaganda_08242022.2.jpg")
Major clampdown
Cheng Yizhong, former founding editor of the Southern Metropolis Daily and Beijing News newspapers, said the bans are linked to the CCP’s 20th National Congress later this year.
“The point is to create a public opinion environment that is welcoming to the 20th National Congress and to tease out any online opinions and hot topics that could distract public attention from that,” Cheng told RFA.
“Content that includes extreme populist propaganda and incitement of hatred, such as Sima Nan and Kong Qingdong, are likely to spoil this atmosphere, so they have to be controlled, or told to shut up,” he said.
“It can only be described as a further clampdown on [online] rhetoric.”
Chinese political scientist Chen Daoyin said the CCP is also mindful that nationalistic rhetoric could get out of hand in the wake of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to the democratic island of Taiwan.
“They need nationalism, but they can’t allow it to proliferate, or to get too extreme,” Chen said. “Chinese nationalism was getting to extreme levels during Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, with people raising banners and smashing eggs outside the Xiamen municipal government [across the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan].”
“If they let that fire burn on, it will definitely undermine the CCP’s ability to govern,” he said. “Sima Nan and Kong Qingdong are where the government is drawing the red lines around officially permitted nationalism.”
“They have served their purpose as a tool [of the CCP].”
Attack dog Hu Xijin
Hu Xijin, the former editor of the nationalistic Global Times, who ramped up his personal brand of nationalism during Pelosi’s visit, appears to be unaffected by the clampdown, however.
“Hu Xijin still has a bit of an official flavor … I don’t think that what he says is without foundation [in the CCP’s political reality],” Chen said.
“If they use Hu as an attack dog, they can call him off again, unlike Sima Nan and Kong Qingdong,” he said.
Shanxi-based current affairs commentator Zhang Kunlun said government censors have succeeded in filleting out any online speech that isn’t totally in line with official narratives in recent months, often banning the accounts that post it.
“All of this part of a bid to strengthen and broaden controls over public opinion … especially in the areas of thought and speech,” Zhang said.
“[They want people] to speak only using their words, and to stay consistent with their line, particularly until they have secured another term,” he said.
CCP leader Xi Jinping will seek an unprecedented third term in office at the 20th National Congress, under constitutional amendments nodded through by the National People’s Congress (NPC) in March 2018.
Online commentator Li Xi said his WeChat account is frequently blocked, and he has been warned not to post anything by the state security police.
“WeChat has the most users now, and its influence is also huge,” Li said. “If they say you are breaking the law, then you’re breaking the law.”
“They called me in to drink tea, and told me either to stop posting or they would block my WeChat account,” he said.
Diplomats on offensive
A social media user from the northeastern city of Shenyang who gave only the surname Ding said she doesn’t feel there is any room to speak freely at all on China’s internet.
“There is no freedom now,” Ding said. “If we had freedom, then there wouldn’t be all this online surveillance.”
“It can all depend on which phrase you say that is wrong, which sensitive keyword, a specific word,” she said. “They read your post or message, and tell the local police station, who then have a word with you.”
Meanwhile, Chinese diplomats have been penning op-ed articles in overseas newspapers warning overseas officials not to visit Taiwan, which China claims as its territory, although the CCP has never ruled the democratic island and its 23 million people are happy with their democratic way of life.
In an Aug. 16 article in The Guardian, Chinese ambassador to the U.K. Zheng Zeguang hit out at the United States for constantly playing the “Taiwan card”, saying that China will naturally respond to “provocation” from the United States and “Taiwan independence forces.”
Some publications appear to be listening. The Observer ran an editorial on Aug. 7 calling on U.K. politicians to think twice before visiting Taiwan. It was later criticized by the U.K. representative in Taiwan as being out of touch.
Benson Wong, former assistant politics professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said some U.K. media pundits still hold the view that one shouldn’t “offend China.”
“Right now a lot of people think China is similar to Russia, and that Taiwan is similar to Ukraine,” Wong, who now lives in the U.K., told RFA.
“They are gradually understanding why defending Taiwan is important, because it’s similar to the British supporting the defense of the Ukraine,” he said.
“[So the Chinese government] are trying to get a shift in public opinion and the media, to win back control of the narrative.”
Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Macau to broaden reach of national security law in response to Pelosi’s Taiwan trip
Plans by authorities in Macau to amend the city’s national security law were likely sparked by the recent visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the democratic island of Taiwan, and could result in a crackdown on civil society and the criminalization of speech, analysts told RFA.
Macau’s security chief Wong Sio Chak said the amendments are intended to tackle “complicated and volatile security risks” in the context of overall national security.
The amendments will make it easier for police to collect intelligence and implement “preventive measures,” Wong told a recent news conference launching a public consultation for the amendments.
They will also allow the authorities to “effectively prevent interference by external forces,” Wong said.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) insists that repeated waves of mass popular protest movements in Hong Kong calling for fully democratic elections and other freedoms in recent years were instigated by “hostile foreign forces” seeking to undermine CCP rule by fomenting dissent in Hong Kong.
It first imposed a draconian national security law on Hong Kong in the wake of the 2019 protest movement, ushering in an ongoing crackdown on peaceful dissent and political opposition that has seen more than 1,000 arrests under the law, with thousands more under colonial-era public order and sedition laws.
Macau is now looking to broaden categories of offense under its existing security law, changing “subversion of the central government” to “subversion of state power”, adding ” “instigating or supporting the crime of rebellion,” and giving authorities broader powers to intercept communications.
The amendments will also allow the government to issue exit bans on people involved in national security cases, and give police the power to require information from individuals and organizations suspected of “endangering national security.”
‘Splitting the country’
Many civil society groups in Hong Kong have faced prosecution for refusing to hand over data on their activities and members, while others have disbanded pre-emptively following public criticism in the CCP-backed media, citing the need to protect everyone involved.
Wong said Pelosi’s Taiwan visit had indicated the need to beef up legislation around “splitting the country,” meaning any words or actions that don’t recognize China’s territorial claim on the island.
While Taiwan has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the 72-year-old People’s Republic of China, Beijing insists on “unification” despite repeated opinion polls showing that the island’s 23 million people have no wish to give up their sovereignty or their democratic way of life.
“There has been a significant increase in various risk factors, both predictable and unforeseen,” Wong told an Aug. 22 news conference in Macau.
“Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan showed very clearly how external forces are constantly interfering in China’s internal affairs and violating our country’s security,” he said. “Preventing such external interference will be a key direction [of the amendments].”
Unlike Hong Kong, where the process was stalled amid mass protests in 2003, Macau drafted its national security law from 2004, based on Portuguese and Italian legal concepts, and then chief executive Edmund Ho promised it wouldn’t be used to clamp down on free speech.
“[Currently], to prove subversion or secession, you have to show that violence or other illegal methods were used, so speech can’t be criminalized,” former pro-democracy lawmaker Au Kam San told RFA.
The new amendments will likely change all that.
“The problem for democrats is that they could run into very big problems just for criticizing the Macau or Chinese government in a restaurant,” Au said. “It could be enforced in a very random way, causing terrible problems.”
End of opposition and dissent
Au said if Macau goes the way of the national security crackdown in Hong Kong, it could mean the city loses the last of its political opposition and dissenting voices.
Macau journalist Roy Choi agreed, saying anyone in contact with overseas officials or organizations will likely be a target once the amendments become law.
“In the past, if you had contact with a foreign government or political organization, the National Security Law could be invoked, but now they want to remove the phrase ‘political organization,’ and change the word ‘foreign’ to ‘outside’,” Choi said.
“[This means that] any contact by NGOs or non-political groups in Macau may have with overseas groups could come under the national security law, which will have a much broader reach,” he said.
“This will make communications between Macau residents and overseas groups much more fraught with anxiety, which will affect the work of NGOs,” Choi said.
Choi said that while the Macau authorities may not choose to launch a mass campaign of arrests and prosecution in the style of Hong Kong, the 100,000 Macau residents who hold Portuguese passports may start thinking about emigrating, particularly if children or young people are involved.
Taiwan-based current affairs commentator Johnny Lau said the special mention given to Pelosi’s Taiwan trip at the press conference showed where the CCP’s worries lie.
“Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan must be behind this plan to strengthen Macau’s national security law,” Lau told RFA. “Most people look at U.S. interests in Hong Kong, but not everyone notices that the U.S. also has many interests in Macau.”
“Actually U.S. interests in Macau are somewhat destructive, such as the U.S. gambling companies,” he said. “From Beijing’s point of view, they are taking precautions and defending against … other channels of influence in Macau that could be behind them.”
Lau said the Macau authorities have yet to invoke their existing national security law, which took effect in March 2009.
Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Acronis’ Mid-Year Cyberthreats Report Finds Ransomware is the Number-One Threat to Organizations, Projects Damages to exceed $30 Billion by 2023
Increasing complexity in IT continues to lead to breaches and compromises highlighting the need for more holistic approaches to Cyber Protection
Acronis research unveils the top-10 most commonly impersonated brands in phishing emails.
The Acronis Mid-Year Cyberthreats Report 2022 found that brands such as DHL and Microsoft are the most commonly impersonated in phishing emails.
SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland, Aug. 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, unveiled its mid-year cyberthreats report, conducted by Acronis’ Cyber Protection Operation Centers, to provide an in-depth review of the cyberthreat trends the company’s experts are tracking. The report details how ransomware continues to be the number one threat to large and medium-sized businesses, including government organizations, and underlines how over-complexity in IT and infrastructure leads to increased attacks. Nearly half of all reported breaches during the first half of 2022 involved stolen credentials, which enable phishing and ransomware campaigns. Findings underscore the need for more holistic approaches to cybersecurity.
To extract credentials and other sensitive information, cybercriminals use phishing and malicious emails as their preferred infection vectors. Nearly one percent of all emails contain malicious links or files, and more than one-quarter (26.5%) of all emails were delivered to the user’s inbox (not blocked by Microsoft365) and then were removed by Acronis email security.
Moreover, the research reveals how cybercriminals also use malware and target unpatched software vulnerabilities to extract data and hold organizations hostage. Further complicating the cybersecurity threat landscape is the proliferation of attacks on non-traditional entry avenues. Attackers have made cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance systems a priority of late. Successful breaches using these various routes have resulted in the loss of billions of dollars and terabytes of exposed data.
These attacks are able to be launched due to overcomplexity in IT, a common problem throughout businesses as many tech leaders assume more vendors and programs lead to improved security when the inverse is actually true. Increased complexity exposes more surface area and gaps to potential attackers, keeping organizations vulnerable to potentially devastating damage.
“Today’s cyberthreats are constantly evolving and evading traditional security measures,” said Candid Wüest, Acronis VP of Cyber Protection Research. “Organizations of all sizes need a holistic approach to cybersecurity that integrates everything from anti-malware to email-security and vulnerability-assessment capabilities. Cybercriminals are becoming too sophisticated and the results of attacks too dire to leave it to single-layered approaches and point solutions.”
Critical data points reveal complex threat landscape
As reliance on the cloud increases, attackers have homed in on different entryways to cloud-based networks. Cybercriminals increased their focus on Linux operating systems and managed service providers (MSPs) and their network of SMB customers. The threat landscape is shifting, and companies must keep pace.
Ransomware is worsening, even more so than we predicted.
- Ransomware gangs, like Conti and Lapsus$, are inflicting serious damage.
- The Conti gang demanded $10 million in ransom from the Costa Rican government and has published much of the 672 GB of data it stole.
- Lapsus$ stole 1 TB of data and leaked credentials of over 70,000 NVIDIA users. The same gang also stole 30 GB worth of T-Mobile’s source code.
- The U.S. Department of State is concerned, offering up to $15 million for information about the leadership and co-conspirators of Conti.
The use of phishing, malicious emails and websites, and malware continues to grow.
- Six hundred malicious email campaigns made their way across the internet in the first half of 2022.
- 58% of the emails were phishing attempts.
- Another 28% of those emails featured malware.
- The business world is increasingly distributed, and in Q2 2022, an average of 8.3% of endpoints tried to access malicious URLs.
More cybercriminals are focusing on cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. By exploiting flaws in smart contracts or stealing recovery phrases and passwords with malware or phishing attempts, hackers have wormed their way into crypto wallets and exchanges alike.
- Cyberattacks have contributed to a loss of more than $60 billion in DeFi currency since 2012.
- $44 billion of that vanished during the last 12 months.
Unpatched vulnerabilities of exposed services is another common infection vector—just ask Kaseya. To that end, companies like Microsoft, Google, and Adobe have emphasized software patches and transparency around publicly submitted vulnerabilities. These patches likely helped stem the tide of 79 new exploits each month. Unpatched vulnerabilities also tie into how overcomplexity is hurting businesses more than helping, as all of these vulnerabilities serve as additional potential points of failure.
Breaches leave financial, SLA distress in their wake
Cybercriminals often demand ransoms or outright steal funds from their targets. But companies do not suffer challenges only to their bottom lines. Attacks often cause downtime and other service-level breaches, impacting a company’s reputation and customer experience.
- In 2021 alone, the FBI attributed a total loss of $2.4 billion to business email compromise (BEC).
- Cyberattacks caused more than one-third (36%) of downtime in 2021.
The current cybersecurity threat landscape requires a multi-layered solution that combines anti-malware, EDR, DLP, email security, vulnerability assessment, patch management, RMM, and backup capabilities all in one place. The integration of these various components gives companies a better chance of avoiding cyberattacks, mitigating the damage of successful attacks, and retaining data that might have been altered or stolen in the process.
You can download a copy of the full Acronis Mid-Year Cyberthreats Report 2022 here or you can learn more here.
About Acronis:
Acronis unifies data protection and cybersecurity to deliver integrated, automated cyber protection that solves the safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security (SAPAS) challenges of the modern digital world. With flexible deployment models that fit the demands of service providers and IT professionals, Acronis provides superior cyber protection for data, applications, and systems with innovative next-generation antivirus, backup, disaster recovery, and endpoint protection management solutions powered by AI. With advanced anti-malware powered by cutting-edge machine intelligence and blockchain based data authentication technologies, Acronis protects any environment – from cloud to hybrid to on premises – at a low and predictable cost.
Founded in Singapore in 2003 and incorporated in Switzerland in 2008, Acronis now has more than 2,000 employees in 34 locations in 19 countries. Acronis Cyber Protect solution is available in 26 languages in over 150 countries and is used by over 20,000 service providers to protect over 750,000 businesses.
Press contacts:
Karl Bateson
+617 306 6275
Karl.Bateson@acronis.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/
More than 200 houses torched in two days of junta raids on a Sagaing region township
Junta forces continued to raid villages in Myanmar’s Sagaing region this week, killing a 60-year-old man and setting fire to hundreds of houses.
Chit Win, from a village in Kani township, was arrested by troops and ordered to guide them along a local highway.
“About nine villagers were taken hostage by the troops along the way but I heard that only Chit Win was killed,” said a local who asked not to be named for safety reasons.
The army is advancing in two columns into Kani and Yinmarbin townships, where there is strong armed resistance to the regime. The two military columns are traveling very closely together allowing them to join forces in a pincer movement.
One group burned homes in Yinmarbin’s Yin Paung Taing village in a four-day raid that began on Aug. 11. Around 20 villagers’ bodies were discovered after troops left the village.
The military column continued to raid villages in Yinmarbin and Kani townships this week.
A Monday raid on three villages forced hundreds of locals to flee, former residents told RFA.
The other military column traveled along the Chindwin River and raided three villages in Phaung Byin township, locals said.
On Tuesday, troops fired heavy artillery shells at Tha Ngar village.
“The army fired from up and downstream using six naval boats,” a local, who also asked to remain anonymous, told RFA.
“On August 24 the boats went up the river and docked at Kalewa. Security was tightened, then a military column with about 80 soldiers came ashore and occupied a monastery and a three-story building in Tha Nga village. They burned down more than 200 of the 500 houses in the village,” he said.
RFA’s calls to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Sagaing region spokesman Aye Hlaing went unanswered on Wednesday.
On Aug. 1, junta leader Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing gave a speech saying there could be no negotiation with terrorists and the military would fight back, in comments seen as referring to the shadow National Unity Government and People’s Defense Forces (PDFs). He also said the junta wanted to hold elections once fighting had been brought under control.
Sagaing residents say the junta does not differentiate between civilians and PDFs. They say attacks on villages by land, water and air are taking place because the junta considers Sagaing the region with the strongest armed opposition to the military and believes that villagers are sheltering PDFs.
Taiwan’s Kinmen serves as a reminder of China’s aggression
Taiwan’s frontline island of Kinmen was once again in the headlines when President Tsai Ing-wen paid tribute this week to the soldiers and civilians who “operated in solidarity and safeguarded Taiwan” 64 years ago.
On Aug. 23, 1958 mainland Chinese troops attacked Kinmen in a key battle that marked the beginning of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis.
Nine years before that, the Nationalists retreated from the mainland to Taiwan, having been defeated by the Communists.
Mainland China’s plan to retake Kinmen failed as the Republic of China’s (Taiwan) troops held firm against the fierce artillery bombardment.
“That battle to protect our homeland showed the world that no threat of any kind could shake the Taiwanese people’s resolve to defend their nation, not in the past, not now, not in the future,” President Tsai said on Tuesday.
The price of freedom was hefty. According to the Taiwanese government, 439 soldiers and 80 civilians in Kinmen lost their lives in the heavy artillery shelling that continued for 44 days.
During that period, Chinese troops fired nearly half a million artillery shells on Kinmen, an archipelago roughly the size of Brooklyn. Intermittent, sporadic shelling carried on until 1979.
Martial law was lifted only in 1992 and, for a long time, there were more military personnel than civilians in Kinmen.
‘Symbols of war and peace’
The hundreds of thousands of artillery shells didn’t go to waste. Talented Kinmen artisans have been making them into kitchen knives, one of the most famous souvenirs from the island.
Wu Tseng-dong, or Maestro Wu as he’s known locally, began forging bombshells into razor-sharp blades when he was a teenager, learning the trade in his father’s workshop.
Now 65, he has lost count of how many knives he made but is proud that under his hands, pieces of metal that were once a symbol of war turned into symbols of peace.
Just this month tensions rose in the Taiwan Strait after the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, made a controversial visit to Taiwan despite warnings from Beijing.
In response, the Chinese military held a week-long live-fire exercise around Taiwan. There were talks about the risk of an armed conflict and speculation that outlying islands such as Kinmen, Penghu and Matsu may be under threat.
Maestro Wu said that he doesn’t think a war will break out soon but “Cross-Strait politics need to be handled carefully and wisely.”
Kinmen these days is calm, quiet and empty.
At Guningtou in Jinning Township, the site of a major battle between the Chinese Communists and Nationalists in 1949, rows of rusty anti-landing spikes line the beach.
“Look at your right! It is Xiamen, China, just eight kilometers [five miles] from us,” said Dong Sen Po, a Kinmen County Councilor.
The Chinese city seems even closer on a clear day, its high-rise buildings gleaming in the summer heat.
‘Mini three links’
In 2001, the so-called “mini three links”, or “xiao san tong” in Chinese, were set up allowing three links of communication between Kinmen and Xiamen: postal, transportation, and trade.
The following years witnessed an economic boom in Kinmen, especially in trade and tourism.
Regular ferries between the two sides brought hordes of mainland tourists to the island for sightseeing, shopping, or simply visiting relatives and friends.
“Lots of Kinmen families are formed of Cross-Strait marriages. Even our county magistrate’s wife is from mainland China,” explained Dong Sen Po.
Many Chinese tourists were interested in, and intrigued by, Kinmen’s military past on which they could not find much information back in the mainland.
The “mini three links,” however, were severed in February 2020 by Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council. The pretext was COVID-19, which at that point was declared a public health emergency of international concern but not yet a global pandemic by the World Health Organization.
Beaches, museums, shops and local attractions all saw a dramatic drop in visitors, especially as mainlanders made up over 40 percent of overall tourist numbers.
The impact on the local economy is substantial with some local businesses reporting a 50 to 80 percent loss of revenue.
“This can only be resolved if our central government decides to hold talks and reach consensus with the Chinese side,” said local councilor Dong.
With the current, renewed tensions between Beijing and Taipei, it doesn’t look like the links will be restored any time soon.
Platform for communication
Some local residents, like a young woman who wished to be known by her first name, Iris, said that Kinmenese people will survive and thrive through this period of economic difficulties thanks to their strong sense of identity.
“When people from Kinmen travel to Taiwan, such as to Taipei or Kaohsiung, we won’t say “I’m going to Taipei or Kaohsiung” but that we’re going to Taiwan,” she said.
“It’s like, Taiwan is a country and Kinmen is also a country.”
On Aug. 16, a picture, allegedly of two Taiwanese soldiers guarding a post on Kinmen Island, emerged on Chinese social media.
The picture, later verified by the Kinmen Military Command, was taken by a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) drone at close proximity. So close that it captured the expression of surprise and curiosity on the soldiers’ faces.
“After being warned, the drone flew away,” the Command was quoted by the UDN news portal as saying on Wednesday.
Such developments are a reminder that, because of its closeness to Mainland China, Kinmen and its people have been, and will always be, under China’s watch.
Councilor Dong Sen Po argued that Kinmen is important for Cross-Strait relations because it could serve as a platform for communication and negotiations.
For that very reason, “China won’t attack Kinmen first,” he said.