LONDON — Britain’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) has been hit by a suspected Chinese cyber-attack. The hack targeted an MoD payroll system which includes names and bank details of current and former armed forces members. Every troop apart from the U.K.’s special forces was affected, amounting to around 270,000 people. The breach also includes a few thousand home addresses. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps will update the House of Commons Tuesday afternoon. Although he is not expected to directly name Beijing in his statement, Sky News, which first broke the story, reported that China is in the ..read more

This article is part of a series, Bots and ballots: How artificial intelligence is reshaping elections worldwide, presented by Luminate. CHIȘINĂU, Moldova — In the closing days of 2023, Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu did something bizarre: She banned people from drinking a popular berry-infused tea. The grainy video first appeared on Telegram, and then quickly across Facebook, just before New Year’s celebrations. It purportedly showed Sandu mocking the country’s poor by outlawing the picking of rose hip, a wild berry used in a traditional Yuletide drink. Sandu’s apparent reason for ..read more

Anatomy of a scroll: Inside TikTok’s AI-powered algorithms Israel or Palestine? What users see in their social media feeds related to the Middle East crisis and other global political events is determined by opaque AI-powered online content curation systems. By MARK SCOTT Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images This article is part of a series, Bots and ballots: How artificial intelligence is reshaping elections worldwide, presented by Luminate. When Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, many sought updates from their main source for news: social media.  But unlike previous global confl ..read more

EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton slapped down a last-ditch German effort to suspend the IRIS2 satellite communications network — a European rival to Elon Musk’s Starlink system. Germany’s Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck, who also serves as economy and climate minister, wants to delay the launch due to worries over what he called an “exorbitant” price tag — though the final cost is expected to be less than Habeck’s forecasted €12 billion — and German concern over a likely French tilt in how the contracts will be doled out. In response to Berlin’s demand to pause the encryp ..read more

The European Commission is moving to widen Czech sanctions against Voice of Europe, an alleged pro-Russian propaganda network, to be enforced across the European Union. Voice of Europe is listed as one of four entities to be added to the sanctions list as part of the bloc’s 14th sanctions package against Russia, according to a document dated May 3 and seen by POLITICO. The three others are Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti and Russian news outlets Izvestija and Rossiyskaya Gazeta. The news website Voice of Europe as well as Viktor Medvedchuk, an ally of Vladimir Putin, and Artem ..read more

Social media app Telegram will be overseen by Belgian authorities as it seeks to comply with new rules under the European Union’s law on policing content on platforms. The Dubai-based platform has selected a Brussels-based company as its legal representative in the EU, a spokesperson for the Belgian telecoms authority BIPT told POLITICO. The news was first reported by local paper De Standaard. Platforms that operate in Europe are required to appoint a local representative under the bloc’s new content moderation rulebook, the Digital Services Act (DSA). Telegram, founded by Russian-born Pavel D ..read more

Of all the shots Europe is firing at China, the threat of a blanket TikTok ban is likely to only scuff Beijing. European officials are increasingly throwing up walls and investigations into Chinese technology. EU investigators last week swooped in on the Dutch and Polish offices of Nuctech, a maker of security scanners, investigating state subsidies that would have helped it undercut European rivals. That raid came on top of recent scrutiny of China’s state support of electric vehicles, wind turbines and hospital equipment. China’s Huawei has been on the chopping block of securi ..read more

Poland said it was also “among the targets” of the Russian-controlled hacking group that attacked Germany and the Czech Republic. “Poland stands in solidarity with Germany and with Czechia following the malicious cyber campaign against their political parties and democratic institutions,” the Polish foreign ministry said in a statement Friday. The German government said on Friday that email accounts belonging to officials from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party were compromised following an attack conducted by the hacking group APT28 or Fancy Bear. The group is part of Russia’s GRU military ..read more

Jamming GPS signals over the Baltic Sea is “most likely” a side effect of Russia’s anti-drone activities, Traficom, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, said today. “The interference intensified when Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure began in January 2024,” Traficom said in a press release. Estonia also blames Russia for the signal jamming, but the Finnish agency doesn’t agree with the Tallinn government in defining the interference as a hybrid attack. “It is possible that the interference observed in aviation currently are most likely a side effect of Russi ..read more

The German government on Friday lashed out at Russian intelligence services for hacking email accounts belonging to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party last year. The infamous hacking group Fancy Bear, a part of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, hacked the SDP, Annalena Baerbock, the country’s foreign minister, said early Friday. It’s the latest intrusion showing how Moscow has actively disrupted European politics ahead of a crucial EU election next month. Capitals have been ramping up their rhetoric to try and stop Moscow from influencing political debate. European auth ..read more