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Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity
From black hat hackers attempting to break into government computer systems, to white hat security experts working to crack and improve protections on popular internet browsers, cybersecurity affects us all. Every day hackers steal millions of pieces of personal data and, as former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed, sometimes it may be our own governments doing the snooping.
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in 2025. The pair will meet again this weekend for preparatory talks before Chinese President Xi Jinping's summit with US President Donald Trump in Washington next week. Photo: Keystone via AP
2026 Xi-Trump summits

Scott Bessent confirms weekend meeting with He Lifeng days before Xi’s US visit

US Treasury Secretary to meet Chinese Vice Premier for final preparatory talks between two sides before key Trump-Xi summit in Washington.

Artificial intelligence

Video | China pushes back against US claims of AI being ‘too powerful’

Germany

German intelligence report warns of rising Chinese, Russian spy threat

Crime in Hong Kong

Number of suspicious credit card transactions involving iPhones surges to 1,209

Apple spokesman says all current orders are being reviewed before processing as total amount involved rises to HK$25 million.

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Hong Kong police received more than 700 reports of unauthorised credit card transactions worth HK$14.7 million linked to pre-orders for Apple’s latest phone models. Photo: Sam Tsang
2026 Xi-Trump summits

Exclusive | AI fight shadows final preparations for Xi Jinping’s White House visit

Chinese side is said to view US requests as limiting both harmful outcomes from AI and Beijing’s ability to develop its own capabilities.

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Artificial intelligence

‘Freaked out’: why AI safety fears are spiking ahead of Xi-Trump summit

Experts fear Silicon Valley is hurtling towards a major cybersecurity incident. Meanwhile, US-China tensions are undercutting AI safety talks.

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US-China trade war

Anthropic claims Moonshot, DeepSeek secretly diverted user requests to Claude

AI giants accused of cloning American models by funnelling real Chinese user queries to them via network of intermediate platforms.

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The Anthropic report accuses Kimi model developer Moonshot of secretly showing users Claude model outputs and passing them off as Kimi’s, then using those exchanges to improve its own models. Illustration: Reuters
US-China relations

US sanctions Chinese-language Xinbi Guarantee marketplace over cyber scams

Washington also seizes Telegram channels and US$52 million in cryptocurrency linked to the platform’s alleged illicit operations.

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Taiwan

Taiwan sets up US-backed cyber unit to hunt hidden military threats

Taiwanese defence minister says exchanges with the US are ‘even more extensive than you might imagine’.

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Artificial intelligence

Reduced visibility into the ‘thinking’ of OpenAI’s new model sparks safety fears

The Hugging Face breach in July highlights the importance of being able to inspect what models are ‘thinking’, say analysts.

OpenAI said the written reasoning of its new Astra model was 'harder to monitor' compared with the previous generation released in July. Photo: Reuters
US-China relations

US urged to consider military strikes to stop China achieving AGI first

Former White House staffer calls for espionage and cyber options as Washington prepares for a potential Chinese breakthrough.

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The US and China are competing for global leadership in artificial intelligence as the technology rapidly advances. Photo: Shutterstock
Science

China-Singapore cybersecurity team says it hacked into latest Starlink terminal

Darknavy gains full administrative control over SpaceX’s user terminal allowing research into the system’s security programmes.

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Crime in Hong Kong

ICAC sets integrity standards for government computers to fight misuse

Independent Commission Against Corruption unveils standards after revealing procedures for government computer systems had loopholes.

US-China relations

US Congress seeks to identify foreign countries behind scam calls

Inquiry comes as US government reports tying much of the financial damage from scams to Chinese criminal networks based in Southeast Asia.

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US government reports have connected much of the financial damage from scam calls to Chinese criminal networks based in Southeast Asia. Photo: Shutterstock
US-China trade war

Congress advances new bill to give US edge in open-source AI race with China

Legislation to promote adoption of US open-source models while publicising the risks associated with using their Chinese counterparts.

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An influx of powerful new open-weight models, including Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3, has helped China dominate the industry recently. Photo: Reuters
Crime in Hong Kong

Suspected cyberattack puts data of 33,054 customers of group-buying app at risk

Privacy watchdog receives report of data breach from TVB-owned Neigbuy, while police learn of six cases of scammers posing as staff.

Crime in Hong Kong

Hong Kong WhatsApp hijacking scams surge 170% to nearly 2,000 cases

Police say victims lost HK$146 million in first seven months of 2026, with some suffering individual losses exceeding HK$10 million.

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Belt and Road Initiative

In Focus | Can Beijing’s gateway plan for Tibet survive geopolitics and natural disasters?

Beijing hopes trade will stabilise Tibet, but friction with India and the looming Dalai Lama succession are hampering its efforts.

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Illustration: Huy Truong
The Philippines

Philippine Roblox ban call sparks wider debate over children’s online safety

The online gaming platform has been blamed for the rise in school shootings and child sexual exploitation cases in Southeast Asia.

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US-China relations

US seizes Chinese hacking platforms targeting Nasa, Fed and Senate

Justice Department says QTFY targeted US critical infrastructure on behalf of China’s security ministry and military.

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US-China relations

Trump says China drives anger at US data centres. These residents disagree

Community living near AI facility in Virginia reports invasive levels of noise, fumes and gas turbines – and it’s not Chinese propaganda.

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Lindsay Shaw sits outside her home in Sterling, northern Virginia, located across from a huge data centre. Photo: Handout
Scams and swindles

Asia faces scam ‘epidemic’ threat as gangs exploit agentic AI, analyst warns

The technology could allow scam syndicates to carry out multiple tasks to cheat victims at the same time without needing human intervention.

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Losses from transnational online scams in Asia-Pacific surged to US$114 billion last year. Photo; Shutterstock
Education in Hong Kong

Over 153,000 students, staff affected in Canvas data breach: privacy watchdog

Investigation by Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data finds 96 per cent of those affected in May cyberattack were from City University.

US-China relations

Will Washington’s tech crackdown test fragile US-China truce?

FCC restrictions on Chinese technology are challenging Beijing’s restraint as Trump and Xi prepare for an expected summit next month.

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Artificial intelligence

Zhipu AI’s answer to Project Glasswing marks shift for Chinese cyber safety

Company’s ‘Shield of Open Source’ programme offers free security audits to help users patch software vulnerabilities.

The logo of Chinese AI start-up Zhipu AI on a smartphone. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Artificial intelligence

Back in the Harness: DeepSeek continues its pivot towards agentic AI

With the launch of Harness, China’s DeepSeek continues to build the foundational digital scaffolding for autonomous AI agents.

A customer uses his phone in front of a board with the menu at AGI Bar in Beijing. Drinkers at the AI-themed bar in the city's tech district can even plug in to DeepSeek for free. Photo: AFP
Artificial intelligence

Zhipu launches GLM-5.3 model as China seeks Mythos-level edge in cyber defence

Company says GLM-5.3 outperformed leading US systems in cybersecurity tests, beating Anthropic’s Mythos 5 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 on CyberGym.

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Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek’s flagship AI model update underwhelms – except in cybersecurity

Chinese AI start-up’s model impresses in niche areas like cybersecurity but leaves some developers disappointed in its overall capabilities.

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