At a Glance.
- White House announces new initiative to improve US port cybersecurity.
- EU investigates TikTok over child safety concerns.
White House announces new actions to mitigate cybersecurity threats at US ports.
The News.
Yesterday, the White House announced its plans to improve cybersecurity across United States (US) ports as this new plan aims to directly increase support for supply chain security. This new announcement is comprised of several key actions:
- President Biden will sign an executive order to improve the Department of Homeland Security’s authority to address maritime cyber threats.
- The US Coast Guard will issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to establish minimum cybersecurity requirements that meet both international and industry-recognized cybersecurity standards for US ports.
- The US Coast Guard will create a maritime security directive to impose cybersecurity requirements on Chinese-manufactured cranes.
The Knowledge.
With this latest announcement, the Biden administration is redoubling its efforts to improve the nation’s overall cybersecurity posture as outlined in its National Cybersecurity strategy, released in March 2023. This strategy outlined several key cybersecurity focuses that the administration wanted to improve, including:
- Defending critical infrastructure
- Disrupting and dismantling threat actors
- Shaping market forces to improve security and resilience
- Investing in a more resilient future
- Forging international partnerships to pursue shared goals
This new plan will focus on improving several of the administration’s outlined goals by directly improving supply chain infrastructure, disrupting potential cyber attacks, and improving supply chain resiliency.
One of the most critical aspects of this new cyber initiative is the administration’s emphasis on securing Chinese-manufactured cranes across US ports. As Chinese-manufactured cranes make up nearly eighty percent of cranes used within US ports, according to US officials, these infrastructure tools represent a critical and vulnerable security concern. Officials cited how these cranes could not only be sabotaged to disrupt supply chains but also could be potentially used for espionage activities as many of them are designed to be remotely controlled. These cranes represent an ongoing concern, as defense officials cited their concerns related to these cranes potentially being used as spying tools in early 2023.
The Impact.
As the Biden administration rolls out this new cybersecurity initiative, it aims to continue to improve the nation’s cybersecurity posture. Additionally, this latest policy plan also represents the administration’s continued effort to address rising concerns related to potential Chinese espionage and cyber attacks. While this new executive order and initiative have been officially signed, citizens should not expect an immediate effect as the US Coast Guard still needs to finish its ongoing port auditing efforts as well as establish cybersecurity requirements for port security.
While no noticeable impacts will be felt for some time, this initiative, as well as several of the others launched by the administration and Congress over past months, represent a clear intention to address the US’s cybersecurity gaps. While these initiatives are just beginning to be implemented, supply chain workers should expect potential disruptions to come as the Coast Guard identifies potential vulnerabilities and works to implement solutions and new regulations that will better secure existing infrastructure and create more resilient supply chains.
EU opens a formal investigation into TikTok’s impact on minors.
The News.
The European Commission announced, on Monday, that it has opened a formal investigation to review whether TikToK has violated new rules that are in place to protect minors online. This investigation will be used to review if TikTok breached the Digital Services Act (DSA). This formal investigation was launched after a preliminary investigation was conducted this past September.
This investigation will focus on TikTok’s algorithmic systems, specifically focusing on systems “that may simulate behavioral addictions and/or create so-called ‘rabbit hole effects.’” Additionally, the investigation will review if TikTok has implemented appropriate measures to secure minors’ privacy, safety, and security. A TikTok spokesperson has responded to this investigation by stating that the company will continue to work with experts to “keep young people on TikTok safe.”
The Knowledge.
This investigation marks another instance of governments continuing to express their concerns surrounding TikTok and how the social media platform protects minors on its site. Earlier this year, TikTok, along with several other major social media platforms, testified before the US Congress about concerns surrounding these companies’ inability to protect children on their applications. While this hearing did not result in any comprehensive legislation being passed at this time, it did contribute to growing calls for the US government to pass new comprehensive legislation to protect children in online spaces.
While this new investigation marks a new concern regarding the platform, privacy and security concerns have surrounded the application for some time. Originally, many of these concerns were related to the application being potentially used as spyware for the Chinese government. This concern resulted in many governments, such as within the US, banning the application from being installed and used on government-owned devices.
The Impact.
While no penalties or fines have been levied against TikTok at this time, social media organizations should continue to expect increased government oversight and investigations to grow as legislators focus more of their attention on these platforms and their potential lack of security.
Additionally, parents should continue to monitor their children’s use of these social media platforms to ensure that they are not viewing potentially harmful or unwanted content or being exploited in these “rabbit-hole effects.”
Other Noteworthy Stories.
House will create a new bipartisan AI task force.
What: On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives created a new task force centered on artificial intelligence (AI). This new committee will comprise twelve House members and be led by Republican Jay Obernolte and Democrat Ted Lieu. This new task force will aim to create a report that will have recommendations for potential AI policy proposals.
Why: When creating these new policies, this new task force will work to have its policy recommendations ensure that the US is leading the world in AI innovation and also consider what guardrails will be needed to secure AI development and usage. This new task force comes after the federal government has continued to increase its attention on emerging technology as other working groups have been formed, President Biden signed an executive order to focus on AI and manage its risks, and federal agencies have begun their respective investigations on the technology.
Tech Giants pledge to fight AI deepfakes ahead of elections.
What: Several technology companies have announced their intentions to plan a new industry initiative to fight against “deceptive AI election content.”
Why: With this new initiative, several technology giants, including Adobe, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and TikTok, hope to finalize details this Friday at the Munich Security Conference that would support their collective efforts to combat the rapid proliferation of AI-generated deepfakes. This initiative comes after these companies have come under increasing pressure from governments to control AI-generated deepfakes and disinformation. As of now, some of the proposed tools that would be used to combat deepfakes would be using watermarking and detection techniques to spot, label, and debunk “deepfake” AI images and audio. While it is unclear how effective these efforts will be in stopping the use of AI deepfakes, these renewed efforts show a clear effort to begin reigning in the emerging technology.
Courts have blocked a $1 billion copyright ruling that punished ISP for its users’ piracy.
What: A federal appeals court has overturned a $1 billion piracy verdict that a jury levied against a cable internet service provider (ISP), Cox Communications, in 2019. With this court decision, judges have rejected the claims that Cox directly profited from copyright infringement committed by users of Cox’s cable broadband network.
Why: In a unanimous decision from a three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals from the 4th Circuit, judges stated that they would “reverse the vicarious liability verdict and remand for a new trial on damages because Cox did not profit from its subscribers’ acts of infringement, a legal prerequisite for vicarious liability.” The appeals court also stated as a part of its ruling that if the district court had used the proper legal standard then no jury would have found that Cox Communications received any financial benefit from infringing copyrights. However, the court also stated that they would “affirm the jury’s finding of willful contributory infringement.”
The Biden administration provides $1.5 billion to produce computer chips in New York and Vermont.
What: This Monday, the Biden Administration announced that a preliminary agreement has been reached to provide $1.5 billion in funding to a New York (NY) company. The Commerce Department announced that it signed a nonbinding preliminary memorandum of terms with the company GlobalFoundries.
Why: This funding package is a notable investment by the Biden administration into the US chip market as concerns have grown over the past months about external resource dependencies related to chip manufacturing. The administration was able to sign this agreement under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. GlobalFoundries CEO, Thomas Caulfield, stated that the investments will play “an important role in making the US semiconductor ecosystem more globally competitive and resilient and cements the New York Capital Region as a global semiconductor hub.” This latest deal follows the administration's efforts to boost chip production across the US over the past several months as deals have been made in other states, such as Oregon and Colorado.