In the first issue of Creating Connections, Malek Ben Salem from Accenture discusses artificial intelligence as the new attack surface in cyberspace, and suggests steps you might take to protect your AI. Creating Connections also features pieces written by our very own ladies of the CyberWire, podcast interviews, events for women, and additional reading. Check it out and subscribe here.

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YouTube quashes "coordinated influence operations." Microsoft renewal scam." US announces new Clean Network lines of effort.
YouTube announced late yesterday that it had banned 2596 accounts emanating from China, some of which had been engaging in "coordinated influence operations," TechCrunch reports. Google's Threat Analysis Group summed up its observations on the second quarter of 2020, and said that Chinese political influence campaigns spiked in May and June. Lower but still significant levels of activity were seen from Russian and Iranian actors.
IBM researchers, citing work by Abnormal Security, warn that there's an ongoing "Microsoft renewal scam" gurgling around in the Web. It represents itself as an Office 365 renewal email, and it presents relatively convincing landing pages.
US Secretary of State Pompeo has announced five new "lines of effort" under the US Clean Network program. These include "Clean Carrier" (aimed at disconnecting untrustworthy carriers from US telecommunications networks), "Clean Store" (which would remove untrusted applications from US mobile app stores), "Clean Apps" (intended to prevent untrusted smartphone manufacturers from pre-installing trusted apps in their own app stores), "Clean Cloud" (which would keep US personal data and intellectual property out of adversaries' cloud services), and "Clean Cable" (which would ensure that undersea cables aren't compromised by hostile intelligence services). All these measures are directed at China.
The US State Department is also offering bounties of up to $10 million under its Rewards for Justice program "for information leading to the identification or location of any person who works with or for a foreign government for the purpose of interfering with U.S. elections through certain illegal cyber activities."
Today's issue includes events affecting Australia, China, India, Romania, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Aerospace news worthy of attention.
If you're interested in space and communications (technology, policy, business, and operations), take a look at the latest issue of Cosmic AES Signals & Space. Produced in partnership with the CyberWire, Signals & Space offers a monthly overview of news in this sector.
Leaders from the Navy, Government Accountability Office and Mandiant Security Validation took the virtual stage to discuss "Adopting a Proactive, Intelligence-Led Cyber Mission". Watch the on-demand webcast to join the discussion on how automated security validation, integrated with the latest threat intelligence and frontline expertise can validate the health of your infrastructure by testing against actual threats.