FirstFT: Taiwan hit by unprecedented ‘autonomous’ AI hack linked to China

Good morning and welcome to FirstFT. In today’s newsletter:

• Taiwan hit by ‘autonomous’ AI hack linked to China
• Singapore Airlines’ badly timed bet on Air India
• China’s great jobs squeeze
• Top chefs share 12 recipes to help keep you cool

Taiwan hit by ‘autonomous’ AI hack linked to China

Singapore Airlines’ badly timed bet on Air India

China’s great jobs squeeze

Top chefs share 12 recipes to help keep you cool

Suspected Chinese hackers used publicly available AI tools to compromise government websites in Taiwan in a first-of-a-kind breach, highlighting how AI is transforming cyber warfare.

The attackers used open-source AI agents to build an autonomous hacking tool that behaved like a co-ordinated cyber team, according to researchers at Dream, an Israeli AI company that first identified the intrusion. Over four days at the start of July, the tool simultaneously deployed up to eight autonomous agents that mapped 21 government systems, researched vulnerabilities and changed tactics when blocked.

The tool compromised at least 85 government user accounts, extracting more than 2,500 personnel records before expanding the attack to Taiwan’s nuclear safety agency and at least seven energy companies, the research showed.

Dream’s chief strategy officer, Amir Becker, said he had never before seen such an “end-to-end autonomous attack” on a government target. The advent of AI tools meant governments must now assume they are under permanent cyber attack, he added, saying: “This must be the basic assumption of every government around the globe.”

A person with knowledge of the attack said the target was Taiwan. Dream declined to confirm the identity of the targeted government, citing company policy, but said it had informed a country in “Asia-Pacific” of the breach.

Dream has not attributed the attack to a specific group, but researchers said the use of Simplified Chinese in internal communications linked to the hack meant there was a high probability the operator was connected to China.

• More Taiwan news: The government in Taipei has hit out at China over planned navy drills with an Indonesian warship off its east coast, calling the unusual move “dangerous behaviour that undermines the status quo”.

More Taiwan news: The government in Taipei has hit out at China over planned navy drills with an Indonesian warship off its east coast, calling the unusual move “dangerous behaviour that undermines the status quo”.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: The US and Japan report producer price inflation data for July.
• Results: Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison reports earnings.

Economic data: The US and Japan report producer price inflation data for July.

Results: Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison reports earnings.

Five more top stories

1. Singapore Airlines has booked operating losses of about S$1bn ($780mn) on Air India less than two years after taking a 25 per cent stake in the ailing carrier. The investment made in November 2024 now looks spectacularly badly timed amid last year’s catastrophic Air India plane crash and this year’s jet fuel crisis.

2. The chair of Tata Sons will step down in the latest chapter in a long-running succession battle at India’s largest conglomerate, after facing the prospect of an imminent confidence vote. Until last year, N Chandrasekaran was widely expected to be given a third five-year term to lead the $300bn conglomerate.

• More Asian corporate news: Edward Moncreiffe, global chief executive of HSBC’s insurance arm, one of the bank’s most important businesses, has resigned, according to a person familiar with the matter.

More Asian corporate news: Edward Moncreiffe, global chief executive of HSBC’s insurance arm, one of the bank’s most important businesses, has resigned, according to a person familiar with the matter.

3. Bob Iger, Walt Disney’s former chief executive, and Josh Kushner, whose brother is Donald Trump’s son-in-law, are buying the Los Angeles Lakers basketball franchise for $12.5bn, in what would be the highest price ever paid for a sports team. Mark Walter, the co-founder of Guggenheim Partners, is selling the team after just a year of ownership amid a US inquiry into his life insurance empire.

• Related news: Insurers controlled by Walter have been racing to divest outsized holdings of private credit loans linked to other parts of his investment portfolio.

Related news: Insurers controlled by Walter have been racing to divest outsized holdings of private credit loans linked to other parts of his investment portfolio.

4. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, will leave her role at the end of August, Donald Trump announced. The president said Leavitt, who staunchly defended him and his agenda from the White House podium, would be stepping down but remain a “top outside advisor”.

• More US news: US press groups have filed a lawsuit against Trump over his social media company’s decision to sell faster access to the president’s market-moving posts on Truth Social.
• US politics: A moderate candidate unexpectedly defeated a democratic socialist in a tight race to become Wisconsin Democrats’ pick for governor.

More US news: US press groups have filed a lawsuit against Trump over his social media company’s decision to sell faster access to the president’s market-moving posts on Truth Social.

US politics: A moderate candidate unexpectedly defeated a democratic socialist in a tight race to become Wisconsin Democrats’ pick for governor.

5. Zhu Rongji, one of the most consequential Chinese leaders after the Communist revolution in 1949, has died aged 97. Alongside Jiang Zemin, the president he served, he engineered China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 and laid the foundation for the country’s emergence as an economic superpower. Read our obituary.

China’s great jobs squeeze

China’s unprecedented economic expansion, from around 1980 until 2020, was underpinned by the migration of hundreds of millions of people from poor rural areas to work in the factories and construction sites around its cities. But amid a prolonged property bust, a consumer spending downturn and the persistent spectre of deflation, those job prospects are now fewer in number. In their place, a precarious gig economy of ridesharing drivers and delivery couriers has been soaking up China’s surplus labour.

We’re also reading . . .

• NGOs in India: New Delhi plans to tighten rules on non-governmental organisations despite intense lobbying by western nations, opposition parties and Christian churches.
• Solar eclipse: Spectators and scientists gathered to witness a full or partial blocking of the Sun across the northern hemisphere
• Why must a socialist also be woke? If the left could separate economics from culture, capitalism would have more to fear, writes Janan Ganesh.

NGOs in India: New Delhi plans to tighten rules on non-governmental organisations despite intense lobbying by western nations, opposition parties and Christian churches.

Solar eclipse: Spectators and scientists gathered to witness a full or partial blocking of the Sun across the northern hemisphere

Why must a socialist also be woke? If the left could separate economics from culture, capitalism would have more to fear, writes Janan Ganesh.

Chart of the day

An FT visual investigation found that Israeli forces have systematically destroyed homes, roads, farmland and forests in southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire with Hizbollah.

Take a break from the news . . .

What do you eat if it’s hot outside? Angela Hartnett, Jeremy Lee, Emily Roux and other top chefs share 12 recipes to help you stay cool.