Asian Tech Roundup: To the moon and back

Plus: AI comes to Asia in a big way

Australia's eSafety commissioner has watered down a scheme to detect child abuse and terror-related content on messaging and cloud storage services after concerns were raised about its effect on encryption. Source
Billionaire Andrew Forrest, who made his money in the mining industry, is to be allowed to sue Meta over ads featuring his likeness promoting cryptocurrencies and financial scams. Source

Space probe Chang'e 6 returned to Earth with the first samples of rocks collected from the far side of the moon. Source
Chinese AI firms are moving to attract OpenAI users in the country after the company says it plans to restrict access to its models and APIs. Source
Alibaba Cloud has released an English-language version of its Modelscope platform that hosts around 5,000 AI models. Source
Apple plans to lay off 50% of its iPhone assembly workers, who are predominately in China, and replace them with automation. Source
TikTok owner ByteDance is working with US chip designer Broadcom to create a 5nm AI processor, to be manufactured by Taiwan's TSMC in order to comply with US sanctions. Source
A China-linked threat group has been identified as behind a three-year attack against an unnamed organisation in East Asia initially by breaching legacy F5 BIG-IP appliances. Source
Another Chinese-speaking threat actor, SneakyChef, has been linked to an espionage campaign primarily targeting government entities across Asia and EMEA. Source

Flipkart is rolling out a payments app called Super.money, which lets users make mobile payments via the interoperable network UPI. Source
Telecoms operator BSNL has reportedly suffered a data breach with a threat actor claiming that 278GB of data have been taken, including international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) numbers, SIM card details, home location and security keys. Source
The Netherlands' Prosus, a major investor in India's troubled edtech startup Byju, has said its $2.1 billion stake in the company is now effectively worth nothing. Source
Meta is releasing its AI chatbot available to all users in India. However, it currently only works in English with no support for local languages. Source
GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke explained why the company laid of 80% of its Indian workforce, saying it was due to the projects they were assigned to. Source
The state government of Odisha suspended the internet in the town of Balasore after incidents of communal violence. India regularly suspends internet access during protests and strife. Source
India is to build a reusable launch vehicle similar to NASA's space shuttle after a successful round of testing. Source
Infosys CEO Salil Parekh is to pay a fine of INR2.5 million (£23,700) for failing to implement adequate controls against insider trading, according to documents filed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Source

Indonesia has threatened to shutter X over adult content, and also has online gambling in its sights. Source
Indonesia's national data centre was compromised by a ransomware attack, with the government asked to pay a $8 million ransom. Several government services including airport passport checks, were affected. Source

Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and IBM plan to create a quantum computer with 10,000 qubits, 75 times the current state of the art. Source
Japan has told social media companies to be more effective in screening advertisements on their platforms after a spate of false investment ads featuring fake endorsements from celebrities. Source
SoftBank Group is to launch medical services in Japan using AI to analyse data. The analysis will be used to propose tailored treatments for cancer and other serious diseases. Source

A fire at a lithium battery plant in Hwaseong, near Seoul, has killed at least 23 people. Source
ISP KT reportedly installed malware on 600,000 subscribers' computers to stop them using torrenting software. Source
Korean battery firm SK On has developed a single-ion conducting polymer electrolyte (SIPE) for solid state lithium metal batteries that can operate at room temperature. It claims a tenfold increase in conductivity. Source
But the company, South Korea's second largest conglomerate, is considering asset sales and mergers as it struggles in today's marketplace. Source

US electronics giant Texas Instruments and Taiwan's Delta Electronics have opened a joint R&D lab in Taiwan to today to develop next-generation EV charging and power systems using gallium nitride (GaN) technologies. Source
Cisco is to set up a cybersecurity centre in Taiwan to work with the government and civil society in the face of cyberattacks from China. Source
Taiwan's energy sector is in crisis threatening the country's semiconductor industry. Source

Vietnam reported that three out of its five subsea internet cables were down. The cause was not disclosed. Source
Four Vietnamese nationals have been indicted in the US for their suspected connection to with ties to FIN9, a cybercrime group involved with phishing campaigns and supply chain attacks. Source

Malaysia's move towards licencing social media and messaging platforms, ostensibly to promote revenue sharing with news organisation, is causing pushback from platforms who say it may be used to censor content the government doesn't like. Source
Threat actor Smishing Triad is targeting Pakistan, sending malicious messages purporting to be from Pakistan Post to customers of mobile carriers. The goal is to steal their personal and financial information. Source
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has extradited two men from Malaysia, accused of involvement in a mobile malware and phishing campaign targeting Singaporean citizens. Source