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LONDON — The U.S. and U.K. on Monday accused hackers linked to the Chinese state of being behind “malicious” cyber campaigns targeting political figures, in moves expected to stoke tensions with Beijing.

The British government also alleged that China-affiliated hackers were behind an attack that saw the data of millions of voters accessed.

“I can confirm today that Chinese state-affiliated actors were responsible for two malicious cyber campaigns targeting our democratic institutions and parliamentarians,” British Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said in a speech to Parliament on Monday.

Dowden attributed a hack on the Electoral Commission, the independent agency tasked with setting standards for how U.K. elections should be run, to a China state-affiliated actor. The campaigns were said to have taken place between 2021 and 2022.

The attack was identified by the Electoral Commission in October 2022, but wasn’t disclosed until last year. Hackers accessed the names and addresses of anyone in Britain registered to vote between 2014 and 2022, the Electoral Commission said in a 2023 public notice.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.K. said allegations of China being behind cyberattacks in the U.K. were “completely fabricated and malicious slanders.”

“We strongly oppose such accusations,” the Chinese Embassy spokesperson told reporters at a press briefing Monday, according to an update that was posted on its website. “China has always firmly fought all forms of cyber attacks according to law.”

‘A clear pattern’

Dowden said the U.K. believes China to be behind attempted reconnaissance on the email accounts of U.K. lawmakers in the summer of 2021. He accused the Chinese hacking group APT31 of being behind this attack.

Cybersecurity firm Mandiant, which is owned by Google, describes APT31 as a “China-nexus cyber espionage actor focused on obtaining information that can provide the Chinese government and state-owned enterprises with political, economic, and military advantages.”

Dowden added that attempts to compromise the email accounts of U.K. lawmakers were however “unsuccessful.”

“We want now to be as open as possible with the House and the British public,” Dowden said. “This is the latest in a clear pattern of hostile activity originating in China.”

Dowden said the U.K. had sanctioned two individuals residing within China, as well as an entity affiliated with APT31.

U.S. hits out at China

Separately, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed an indictment Monday accusing Chinese state-linked hackers of being behind cyber campaigns targeting U.S. businesses, government officials and politicians.

The DOJ charged seven Chinese nationals, Ni Gaobin; Weng Ming; Cheng Feng; Peng Yaowen; Sun Xiaohui; Xiong Wang; and Zhao Guangzong, with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for involvement in a China-based hacking group that spent 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses and political officials.

These individuals operated as part of the APT31 hacking group, the DOJ said.

“The Justice Department will not tolerate efforts by the Chinese government to intimidate Americans who serve the public, silence the dissidents who are protected by American laws, or steal from American businesses,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement Monday.

“This case serves as a reminder of the ends to which the Chinese government is willing to go to target and intimidate its critics, including launching malicious cyber operations aimed at threatening the national security of the United States and our allies,” Garland added.

Geopolitical tensions

The announcements from the U.K. and U.S. are likely to draw the ire of Beijing.

Relations between the U.K. and China have soured over the years, particularly on the tech front, following actions from the British government designed to stem national security risks from Chinese technology companies.

“The impact of such a breach on UK-Sino relations could be profound,” Javvad Malik, lead security awareness advocate at cybersecurity firm KnowBe4, told CNBC on Monday via email.

“It’s likely to escalate tensions, leading to diplomatic strain and potentially resulting in retaliatory actions in the cyber domain or other areas of bilateral cooperation.”

Malik added that the situation “necessitates a robust response not only in terms of securing compromised systems and preventing further breaches but also in reinforcing the international legal and norms-based systems governing state behavior in cyberspace.”

“To mitigate the aftermath and prevent future incidents, it’s crucial for nations to invest in stronger cybersecurity defenses, international collaboration, and developing capabilities to deter adversaries in the cyberspace domain,” he said.

Some hawkish lawmakers have been pressuring the U.K. government to take tougher action on China.

The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a cross-border group of lawmakers seeking to reform policy on China, said Monday in a post on social media platform X that they, along with other members of Parliament, activists and dissidents, have been “subjected to harassment, impersonation, and attempted hacking from China for some time.”

“We take this opportunity to highlight that, though extremely unwelcome, our discomfort pales in comparison to Chinese dissidents who risk their lives to oppose the Chinese Communist Party. It is high time that they received greater support for their host governments,” the group said.

In 2020, for example, the U.K. government banned telecommunications equipment from Huawei in its 5G mobile network, citing spying concerns. Huawei, for its part, denies the allegations and says it wouldn’t cooperate with China to spy on Western communications.

Relations between the U.S. and China have also been under significant pressure. U.S. lawmakers recently approved a controversial bill that could lead to TikTok being blocked in the U.S. if it doesn’t break with its Chinese parent ByteDance.

If the bill becomes law, TikTok would have a little less than six months to divest from ByteDance, or be banned from apps and webhosting sites in the U.S.

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Bitcoin hits $80,000 for the first time as crypto traders bask in Trump election victory

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Bitcoin hits ,000 for the first time as crypto traders bask in Trump election victory

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Cryptocurrencies extended their rally on Sunday, with bitcoin touching $80,000 for the first time ever.

The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by 4.5% at $79,800.19, according to Coin Metrics. Ether rose 3%, after passing the $3,000 level on Saturday. It last changed hands at $3,203.10.

Smaller coins saw bigger moves as investors continued to digest the implications of a second term for President-elect Donald Trump. The payments coin XRP surged 11%. The decentralized finance token tied to Cardano rocketed 40%. Memecoins dogecoin and Shiba Inu coin soared 17% and 31%, respectively.

“Crypto is poised to enter a golden era,” Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, said in a research note Friday. “Trump has promised to make America the ‘crypto capital of the world’ and his high level team is filled with strong crypto advocates … . The pro-crypto nature of his team, family, and donors increases the likelihood that Trump follows through on his campaign promises to the industry.”

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Bitcoin touches $80,000 on Sunday for the first time ever.

Bitcoin was deemed a safe asset regardless of the outcome of the election — it is not considered a security, even by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Trump has made big overtures about bitcoin like entertaining the idea of a strategic national bitcoin reserve and speaking about the need to keep all bitcoin mined in America.

Ether and other cryptocurrencies, however, stand to gain much more from the crypto-friendly regulatory environment that Trump has promised and appears to be a priority for many in his inner circle. For example, one reason the spot bitcoin ETFs didn’t see as much success as bitcoin ETFs is because they don’t distribute staking rewards. Many in the industry are hopeful that will change next year.

“In this environment, over the next two years we expect that bitcoin and other digital assets will trade significantly higher than the current all-time high,” Thorn said. “What was once an oppressive headwind in the world’s largest capital market will now shift to a tailwind, and no one is bullish enough.”

Bitcoin and ether have gained 18% and 32%, respectively, since election day. Coinbase rose 48% last week, its best week since January 2023.

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ChatGPT rejected more than 250,000 image generations of presidential candidates prior to Election Day

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ChatGPT rejected more than 250,000 image generations of presidential candidates prior to Election Day

In this photo illustration, the OpenAI logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen with a photo of Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

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OpenAI estimates that ChatGPT rejected more than 250,000 requests to generate images of the 2024 U.S. presidential candidates in the lead up to Election Day, the company said in a blog on Friday.

The rejections included image-generation requests involving President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Vice President-elect JD Vance, OpenAI said.

The rise of generative artificial intelligence has led to concerns about how misinformation created using the technology could affect the numerous elections taking place around the world in 2024. 

The number of deepfakes has increased 900% year over year, according to data from Clarity, a machine learning firm. Some included videos that were created or paid for by Russians seeking to disrupt the U.S. elections, U.S. intelligence officials say.

In a 54-page October report, OpenAI said it had disrupted “more than 20 operations and deceptive networks from around the world that attempted to use our models.” The threats ranged from AI-generated website articles to social media posts by fake accounts, the company wrote. None of the election-related operations were able to attract “viral engagement,” the report noted.

In its Friday blog, OpenAI said it hadn’t seen any evidence that covert operations aiming to influence the outcome of the U.S. election using the company’s products were able to successfully go viral or build “sustained audiences.”

Lawmakers have been particularly concerned about misinformation in the age of generative AI, which took off in late 2022 with the launch of ChatGPT. Large language models are still new and routinely spit out inaccurate and unreliable information.

“Voters categorically should not look to AI chatbots for information about voting or the election — there are far too many concerns about accuracy and completeness,” Alexandra Reeve Givens, CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology, told CNBC last week.

WATCH: AI likely to be less regulated and more volatile under second Trump presidency

AI likely to be less regulated and more volatile under second Trump presidency

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Tesla hits $1 trillion market cap as stock rallies after Trump win

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Tesla hits  trillion market cap as stock rallies after Trump win

Elon Musk on stage before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY on Sunday, October 27, 2024. 

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Shares of Tesla climbed more than 6% in midmorning trading Friday, pushing the electric vehicle maker’s market cap past $1 trillion.

The company’s stock has rallied about 27% this week after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election and investors have grown optimistic that the former leader’s return to the White House could benefit Tesla. Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, has been a key ally for Trump throughout his campaign, pouring at least $130 million into a pro-Trump campaign effort.

Tesla had a market cap of $807.1 billion through Tuesday’s close. Before this week’s rally, shares of the carmaker were up about 1% for the year. Tesla’s stock is now up about 27% year to date.

Tesla market cap

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Tesla rejoins a growing club of tech names that are now worth more than $1 trillion, including Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, AlphabetAmazon and Meta (though all but Meta are worth more than $2 trillion). Tesla’s market cap first crossed the $1 trillion mark in October 2021.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives has said that a potential Trump administration could spell less regulation for Tesla and other companies.

“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched in the EV industry and this dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players (BYDNio, etc.) from flooding the U.S. market over the coming years,” Ives wrote in a note to clients this week.

Trump has said previously he may cut the federal $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit. Those credits have helped to drive sales of Tesla vehicles historically.

In its most recent earnings update, Tesla reported revenue of $25.18 billion and net income of $2.17 billion in the third quarter.

CEO Musk said on the earnings call that his “best guess” was that “vehicle growth” would reach 20% to 30% next year, due to “lower cost vehicles” and the “advent of autonomy.”

Tesla has been promising, and developing, driverless vehicle technology for more than a decade. Its key U.S. competitor, Alphabet-owned Waymo, has pulled ahead and is already operating commercial robotaxi services in several major cities.

On the third-quarter call, Musk said he would use his sway with a Trump-Vance administration to establish a “federal approval process for autonomous vehicles.” Currently, approvals happen at the state level, which the CEO sees as a regulatory hurdle Tesla will need to overcome once it finally offers more than partially automated driving systems.

— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the year Tesla’s market cap crossed $1 trillion for the first time. Tesla’s net income was $2.17 billion in the third quarter. An earlier version misstated the figure.

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