Page 24 - aruba-today-20191011

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 11 OctOber 2019
U.S. seeks to blacklist Chinese artificial intelligence firms

By MATT O'BRIEN against Uighurs, Kazakhs
AP Technology Writer and other predominantly
The United States is black- Muslim minority groups.
listing a group of Chinese Geng Shuang, a Chinese
tech companies that de- foreign ministry spokesman,
velop facial recognition said the U.S. has no right
and other artificial intelli- to interfere in Xinjiang's in-
gence technology that the ternal affairs and denied
U.S. says is being used to re- there are human rights is-
press China's Muslim minor- sues in the region.
ity groups. "This kind of behavior se-
A move Monday by the riously violates the basic
U.S. Commerce Depart- norms of international rela-
ment puts the companies tions, interferes in China's
on a so-called Entity List for internal affairs, and harms
acting contrary to Ameri- China's interests," he said.
can foreign policy interests. "The Chinese side strongly
The blacklist effectively deplores and opposes it."
bars U.S. firms from selling Megvii said Tuesday there
technology to the Chinese This Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019, file photo, shows the iFlytek Easy Trans 2.0 Portable Smart Electronic are "no grounds" for includ-
companies without gov- Voice Language Translator device, a 2-way electronic pocket voice translator for a variety of ing the company in the
ernment approval. languages, on display at CES International in Las Vegas. blacklist. Megvii said it re-
Commerce Secretary Wil- Associated Press ceived no revenue from
bur Ross said in a written projects in Xinjiang in the six
statement Monday that months through June 30.
EU police: Cybercrime threats the U.S. government "will "We believe our inclusion on
not tolerate the brutal sup-
the list reflects a misunder-
now focus on profits, data pression of ethnic minorities standing of our company,"
within China."
said a Megvii statement.
The Trump administration
The blacklisted compa-
nies include Hikvision and earlier this year used the
THE HAGUE, Netherlands Dahua, both of which are same blacklisting process
(AP) — Cybercriminals are global providers of video to punish Huawei, the Chi-
using new technology and surveillance technology. nese telecom giant target-
exploiting existing online Hikvision said in a statement ed by the U.S. over national
vulnerabilities as they shift Monday that it respects security concerns. Added
their focus to larger and human rights and strongly to the list in June were five
more profitable targets, opposes the Trump ad- Chinese groups working in
the European Union's po- ministration's decision. The supercomputing.
lice agency said in a report company said it has spent Ross said Monday's action
published Wednesday. a year trying to "clarify mis- will ensure U.S. technolo-
Europol said in its annual understandings about the gies "are not used to re-
Internet Organized Crime company and address press defenseless minority
Threat Assessment report their concerns," and that populations."
that since digital data is a this will hurt its U.S. business China is estimated to have
key target "data security partners. detained up to 1 million
and consumer awareness This Friday Jan. 11, 2013 file photo of a member of the Cyber- Prominent Chinese AI firms Muslims in prison-like deten-
crime Center as he turns on the light in a lab during a media tour
are paramount for organi- at the occasion of the official opening of the Cybercrime Center such as Sense Time, Megvii tion centers in the region.
zations." at Europol headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands. and iFlytek are also on the The detentions come on
"While we must look ahead Associated Press list. Sense Time and Megvii top of harsh travel restric-
to anticipate what chal- are known for the develop- tions and a massive surveil-
lenges new technologies, one is saying something or International police organi- ment of computer vision lance network equipped
legislation, and criminal acting in a way they aren't zation Interpol also warned technology that underpins with facial recognition
innovation may bring, we also "could be of concern Wednesday of an increas- facial recognition prod- technology. China has de-
must not forget to look be- for online child sexual ex- ingly practiced form of cy- ucts, while iFlytek is known nied committing abuses in
hind us," Europol Executive ploitation," according to bercrime. for its voice recognition the centers and has de-
Director Catherine De Bolle the report. Interpol launched a pub- and translation services. scribed them as schools
said. "'New' threats contin- Enhanced cooperation lic awareness campaign The companies are among aimed at providing em-
ue to emerge from vulner- between law enforcement focused on scams known 28 organizations added ployable skills and combat-
abilities in established pro- agencies, computer secu- as "business email compro- to the blacklist Monday. ing extremism.q
cesses and technologies." rity teams and others is the mise," or BEC, in which em- Along with the tech com-
The report, which is intend- key to tackling major cy- ployees receive requests panies, the Commerce
ed to give police and pol- berattacks, the report said. for money in emails pur- Department's filing targets
icy makers an overview of While the number of cy- portedly sent from within local government agen-
cybercrime trends, also re- berattacks is declining, their own companies. cies in China's northwestern
ferred to what the authors perpetrators are concen- "With more than $1 billion Xinjiang region.
called "data overload" in trating on "more profitable lost to BEC fraud last year The filing said the listed
efforts to counter online im- targets and greater eco- alone, this relatively un- groups have been implicat-
ages of child sexual abuse. nomic damage," the report known crime is fast becom- ed in "China's campaign
Improvements in "deep warned. ing a global phenomenon," of repression, mass arbi-
fake" technology that can Ransomware remains the said Craig Jones, Interpol's trary detention, and high-
make it appear as if some- top threat, it said. director of cybercrime.q technology surveillance"