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US advises allies to shun Chinese satellite services in leaked memo
The US State Department has advised countries against using Chinese satellite services, cautioning that they may enable Beijing to collect military data and sensitive intelligence, according to a report by a Washington-based defence media outlet.
The report, published by Defence One, was based on an internal memo obtained from the State Department, which was intended to provide talking points for officials. Countries engaging with the US were urged to ban satellite services provided by Chinese suppliers. It was not clear whether the memo was addressing long-standing Western allies or all of the United States' trading partners.
According to the report, the memo cautioned that collaborating with China's space providers operating in low Earth orbit risks the transfer of sensitive information to the Chinese government. The report stated that officials were advised to warn countries that Chinese satellite companies might eliminate competition and dominate a Beijing-controlled market.
US space industry warned of espionage threats
The US intelligence community has issued warnings to its domestic space industry about the growing threats of espionage and satellite attacks from China and Russia on earlier occasions too.
The National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the US Air Force had stated that American space companies face the risk of cyberattacks and strategic investments from Russia and China, all aimed at infiltrating the space sector. They also warned that such activities threaten corporate secrets and have the potential to disrupt remote sensing and imaging capabilities.
China and Russia have consistently rejected claims that they have engaged in hacking or other efforts to infiltrate or disrupt space systems.
Viasat, Starlink targeted in cyberattacks
Large satellite companies with existing links to the US government have already been targeted. Viasat Inc was hit by a cyberattack in 2022 before Russia invaded Ukraine, which required the replacement of over 45,000 modems throughout Europe and beyond. Elon Musk 's Starlink has also reported facing jamming attacks while providing service to Ukraine.
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Economic Times
13 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Operation Social Media: Digital dogs of war bark loud, bite little in Pakistan's info ops
Live Events When bots go off louder than bombs Indian jets capturing Lahore and Karachi. Arrest of Pakistan's army chief and an alleged military coup. A Pakistani cyberattack disabling India's power grid. India bombing Afghan territory or surrendering in key battlefronts. Pakistan's playbook Videos from Lebanon's 2020 explosion being shared as missile strikes on Indian cities. Drone footage from Jalandhar fires framed as attacks. Game footage falsely portraying Pakistani military success. Recycled images from other conflict zones passed off as Indian casualties. Inside Pakistan's covert spy ring Open-source intelligence: Boon or bane? Newsrooms under fire Cyber Frontline: 1.5 million attacks, but only 150 breaches India's response AI fact-checkers Truth is the first casualty, but not the last word (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel 'Indian forces wave the white flag!'"Karachi captured!""Pakistan Army Chief arrested!"None of it was true. All of it went India and Pakistan teetered on the edge of open warfare this May following a gruesome terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians, a parallel battle unfolded, not on land or in air, but in the boundless terrain of was not merely a war of missiles and drones; it was an orchestrated campaign of perception warfare, fuelled by a deluge of misinformation and psychological operations designed to distort, distract and is how 'Operation Social Media' unfolded -- an invisible front that exposed how deeply disinformation can influence modern conflict, and how India, despite facing a sophisticated hybrid threat, sought to maintain both operational focus and digital crisis began with a terror attack at a popular tourist spot in Kashmir. The assault bore the fingerprints of Pakistan-based terror outfits, prompting New Delhi to launch Operation Sindoor , a series of precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on May immediately, unverified claims began saturating social media. According to reports from The Guardian and The Washington Post, X (formerly Twitter) became a hotbed of false triumphs, premature victory laps, and fictionalised videos, repurposed war clips, and even footage from video games like Arma 3 flooded social media platforms during the India-Pakistan standoff, giving rise to a parallel narrative war. These posts were amplified by a mix of anonymous accounts, official handles, and even journalists acting on unverified internet observatory NetBlocks reported that 65% of these viral false posts originated from IP addresses linked to Pakistan, while another 20% came from untraceable bot to the Washington-based non-profit think tank, the Centre for the Study of Organized Hate, 'X emerged as the primary hub for both misinformation and disinformation.' The think tank analysed 437 such posts and found that 179, or nearly 41%, originated from verified accounts, which are often perceived as credible due to their blue-check status. These included posts by politicians, influencers, media personalities, and retired military officials.'What was particularly alarming,' the report noted, 'was the credibility lent to these falsehoods by high-profile sources.' Despite the scale of this disinformation, only 73 posts, just 17%, were flagged by X's Community Notes, the platform's crowd-sourced fact-checking feature. This, the think tank argued, pointed to a serious lapse in content moderation at a time of high geopolitical Hameed Naik, director of the think tank, described the information war as 'a global trend in hybrid warfare'. 'This wasn't ordinary nationalist chest-thumping,' said Joyojeet Pal of the University of Michigan. 'This had the potential to push two nuclear-armed neighbours to the brink.'The social media campaign didn't begin with Operation Sindoor; it was already underway. On April 25, days before the Indian Air Force strike, India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had announced the banning of 16 YouTube channels and several Instagram accounts for spreading 'provocative and communally sensitive content.'Of these, six were Pakistan-based and ten operated from within India, with a combined viewership of over 680 million.A key inflection point came when Pakistan lifted its year-long ban on X during the peak of the crisis. According to minutes from a Pakistani Senate committee meeting, this move was deliberate and strategic, intended to enable Islamabad to 'participate in the narrative war.'NetBlocks confirmed that access to X in Pakistan was restored precisely as tensions with India escalated, giving Pakistani agencies and allied influencers a wide window to flood the platform with misleading and often provocative the aftermath of the operation, and as misinformation swirled on social media, India's Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check division stepped in to debunk dozens of viral claims. These included:Together, these examples offer a window into the scale, coordination, and intent behind the disinformation campaign, aimed not just at misleading the public but also at distorting the global perception of India's military and political a related espionage probe, Indian intelligence uncovered a Pakistan-backed operation recruiting social media influencers as spies. Naushaba Shahzad Masood, known as 'Madam N', runs Jaiyana Travels and Tourism in Lahore. She was building a network of 500 spies inside India, focusing on Hindu and Sikh YouTubers like Jyoti Malhotra and Jasbir six months, Naushaba arranged travel for about 3,000 Indians and 1,500 expatriates to Pakistan, fast-tracking visas through direct contacts at the Pakistani High Commission in Delhi. She also managed Sikh and Hindu pilgrimage tours with the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), charging inflated fees that funded ISI trails include Naushaba's phone number found on arrested spies' devices and two Pakistani bank accounts linked to transfers from India. Her network recruits through agents operating in major Indian cities, including situation also highlighted the double-edged nature of Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT). Originally conceived to empower citizens through satellite images, open data, and social media monitoring, OSINT's decentralised model became a tool for mass manipulation.'Anyone with an internet connection could now pose as an OSINT expert,' observed an analysis published by ET. The danger lies in viral misinformation being passed off as expert assessments, especially when retweeted by influencers and news outlets under pressure for real-time Indian newsrooms too fell for the deluge of fake to The Washington Post, in one case, a journalist reportedly received a WhatsApp message, allegedly from a public broadcaster, claiming that Pakistan's army chief had been arrested. Within minutes, this falsehood became prime-time 'breaking news.'Speaking to The Post, Former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao described the atmosphere as one of 'hypernationalism' and 'parallel reality,' cautioning that the lack of authoritative government briefings created a vacuum often filled by not everyone was Press Information Bureau, along with a 24/7 monitoring centre set up by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, worked to counter misinformation in real time. Fact-checks were issued, social media handles were flagged, and broadcasters were warned for violating verification social media churned with false claims, the real-time cyber threat was no less intense. According to Maharashtra Cyber, over 1.5 million cyber attacks were launched against Indian infrastructure by seven Pakistan-allied Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) barrage of cyberattacks not only came from the neighbouring country but from Bangladesh and the Middle Eastern hacker collectives such as APT 36 (also known as Transparent Tribe), Pakistan Cyber Force, and Team Insane PK launched a coordinated series of cyberattacks in the days surrounding the arsenal included malware campaigns, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, GPS spoofing attempts, and website defacements aimed at sowing panic and disrupting public trust in India's digital to officials familiar with the matter, India faced over 1.5 million intrusion attempts during this period. However, only 150 attacks were successful, a tiny claims that the hackers had penetrated Mumbai's airport systems or Election Commission portals were found to be baseless. Addressing reporters, a senior official of Maharashtra Cyber debunked claims of hackers stealing data from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, hacking aviation and municipal systems, and targeting the Election Commission website."The probe discovered that cyber attacks on (government websites in) India decreased after India-Pakistan ceased hostilities, but not fully stopped. These attacks continue from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Morocco, and Middle Eastern countries," he Indian government's 'Road of Sindoor' report, a classified cyber threat assessment, showed these attacks were part of a coordinated hybrid warfare strategy involving both digital and psychological the information war raged online, Indian armed forces maintained disciplined silence and strategic clarity. Official statements were sparse, but targeted. Operation Sindoor focused solely on dismantling terrorist infrastructure, confirmed in a press conference by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who clarified that India did not target civilian the scenes, India's cyber defence grid was activated, fact-checking units expanded, and social media protocols for military updates tightened. The government also advised citizens to avoid unverified content and rely only on official the misinformation torrent intensified, social media users increasingly turned to AI chatbots for verification, only to find more confusion and falsehoods. Platforms like xAI's Grok, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Google's Gemini became common go-to tools for instant fact-checking amid the crisis.'Hey @Grok, is this true?' became a viral plea on Elon Musk's platform X, reflecting the surge in users seeking quick debunks. However, these AI assistants often propagated misinformation under renewed criticism for inserting far-right conspiracy theories into unrelated answers, misidentified old video footage from Sudan's Khartoum airport as missile strikes on Pakistan's Nur Khan airbase during the conflict. Similarly, unrelated fire footage from Nepal was wrongly claimed as Pakistani military Sadeghi of the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard warned, 'The growing reliance on Grok as a fact-checker comes as X and other major tech companies have scaled back investments in human fact-checkers. Our research has repeatedly found that AI chatbots are not reliable sources for news and information, particularly when it comes to breaking news.'The Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University found that AI chatbots were 'generally bad at declining to answer questions they couldn't answer accurately, offering incorrect or speculative answers instead.' For instance, AFP fact-checkers in Uruguay asked Google's Gemini about an AI-generated image of a woman; it confirmed the image's authenticity but fabricated details about her identity and digital front of the India-Pakistan standoff reveals the complex landscape of modern warfare, where victory is measured not just in ground gained but in narrative despite the storm of falsehoods, India's response, though understated, was layered, methodical, and largely effective. As the lines between social media warfare and statecraft blur, it's clear that the next great conflict won't just be fought with missiles, but with memes, metadata, and misinformation.
Time of India
20 minutes ago
- Time of India
Amazon freezes retail hiring budget for 2025 amid job cuts
Amazon is freezing its hiring budget for its retail business this year, according to a report by Business Insider. As per the report, an internal email revealed that the Seattle-based retailer plans to keep "flat headcount opex," or operating expense, this year compared to last. These costs include employee salaries and stock-based compensation. An Amazon executive shared earlier this year that any rise in the hiring budget will face close scrutiny and require strong justifications. The retail business is shifting its focus from headcount targets to managing teams based on fixed operating budgets. Amazon's retail division covers a wide range of operations, including its online store, logistics network, and fresh grocery service. These changes affect only corporate staff in Amazon's retail division, not warehouse workers or those in Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud division. An Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider that the company will continue hiring, and a freeze on increasing the hiring budget doesn't mean recruitment is stopping. "Each of Amazon's many businesses has its own approach to hiring based on its individual needs," said Hoffman. "However, across the company, we've historically considered both the number of people we need to hire and the associated costs — that is, operating expenses or opex — of those hiring decisions." This report immediately follows the job cut announcement in Amazon's books division, including at Goodreads and Kindle units. The company stated that fewer than 100 employees were impacted, and that the aim was to boost efficiency and streamline operations. The news aligns with CEO Andy Jassy's ongoing focus on improving profit margins and operational efficiency. He is also working to cut down on what he describes as excessive bureaucracy within the company, including reducing the number of managerial roles. Last month, Amazon also laid off workers in its devices and services division. However, it is to be noted that, despite these reductions, the company added approximately 4,000 jobs in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.
Time of India
23 minutes ago
- Time of India
Peace vlogs advance into spy thriller: Mole subscribed to views of Pakistani handlers?
CHANDIGARH : A Pakistani YouTuber who presents himself as apeace activist uniting families divided by Partition is under investigation by Indian authorities for possible links to an alleged espionage ring involving cross-border operatives. Nasir Dhillon, a former police official based in Lahore and the face behind the YouTube channel Punjabi Lehar, is being probed for his alleged association with Indian YouTuber Jasbir Singh, whom Punjab Police had arrested after Operation Sindoor on the charges of spying for Pakistan. Police claim that his Mahlan villager from Punjab's Ropar district met Dhillon on four separate trips to Pakistan after they connected as fellow vloggers. Investigators also claim that Dhillon helped facilitate Jasbir Singh's visa and visits and may have used his influence to enable the repeated cross-border meetings. A senior police officer told TOI: 'Dhillon's name surfaced during Jasbir's interrogation. His contact was among roughly 150 suspicious Pakistani numbers found on Jasbir's mobile phone. The role of Dhillon and his potential link to Pakistani intelligence is under close scrutiny.' Authorities are also examining Jasbir Singh's ties to other suspected operatives, including Shakir 'Jutt Randhawa' — a terror-linked Pakistani intelligence officer — and Haryana-based YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, who was arrested previously for espionage. Investigators suspect that Jasbir Singh may have deleted sensitive data from his mobile phone before his arrest. A forensic examination of the device is underway to recover any communications with Pakistani handlers. 'We're not concerned about his identity as a content creator or peacebuilder,' said a police official. 'This is a matter of national security. The patterns of his visits and interactions raise serious red flags.' Jasbir Singh, who once worked as a cook in Europe before becoming a YouTuber, reportedly showcased the construction of his house in online videos — raising questions about his income sources. Police are conducting financial inquiries into the funding of his travels, content operations, and declared income. Punjabi Lehar, Dhillon's YouTube channel with 8.4 lakh subscribers, features emotional reunions of families separated since 1947 at the Kartarpur Corridor. It also showcases interviews with Pakistani artists, politicians, and intellectuals. Police argue that this kind of online platforms, while appearing benign, can be exploited by the enemy's spy agencies for influence operations. 'Repeated unrestricted contact between individuals across borders is rare unless sanctioned at higher levels,' said one officer. 'If the roles were reversed — if Dhillon had visited India so frequently — he would have been flagged immediately.' Authorities have not yet released all evidence, but suggest that more disclosures may follow as the investigation progresses.
