The Toronto-based storytelling platform revealed new information about its investigation into a breach, telling users that hackers may have accessed their email address, date of birth, gender, profile display name, account name and encrypted passwords. (The Canadian Press)

Talking point: The company has not said how many of its more than 80 million users may have been affected by the June breach. A website that tracks cybersecurity breaches suggests that as many as 270 million user records were accessed, sold and published on a hacking forum. Wattpad noted that users’ stories, phone numbers and financial information were not compromised “based on the investigation to date.”

Scott Morrison said the attacks targeted “government, industry, political organisations, education, health, essential service providers and operators of other critical infrastructure” in the country. Given their scope, Morrison said Australian officials believed a foreign government was behind the attacks—though he declined to make “any public attribution” as to which. (BBC)

Talking point: While there are a number of countries capable of carrying out the attack, experts have long pointed at China as the likely culprit behind Australia’s cybersecurity woes. Beijing has imposed tariffs on Australian agricultural exports after Morrison’s government called for an independent international investigation into the initial handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Australian intelligence said China was behind the 2019 cyberattacks on Australia’s parliament, which gave the hackers access to tax and foreign policy documents and private email correspondence.

Along with the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a U.S.-based think tank, they will run “activities on election interference and building international capacity.” The first such event is an online workshop with the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats on “multi-stakeholder information exchange and cooperation” later this week,” Corinne Havard, spokesperson for Privy Council President Dominic LeBlanc, told The Logic. The co-leads are still “in the process of finalizing our workplan for 2020-2021.” (The Logic)

Talking point: The Paris Call, launched in November 2018, includes a series of high-level principles, including protecting internet infrastructure, intellectual property, democracy and setting international norms of responsible online behaviour. Ottawa’s leadership of the election section will include backing “the creation and the improvement of standards, norms and policies,” although Havard did not provide a specific deadline for those activities. The federal government has committed to a range of other high-level ideals in the digital realm, including tackling violent and extremist content online, as laid out in the Christchurch Call to Action in May 2019 and in its own domestically focused 10-point digital charter, launched the same month.