Who Gives A Crap hacked - Asian Tech Roundup

Plus: Fallout from the Huang affair

Welcome to Computing's weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at a leaking toilet paper company, the fallout from the Jensen Huang affair and the US midterms and losses at SoftBank.

The interestingly named Australian toilet paper company Who Gives A Crap has suffered a data breach that flushed out customers’ names, email addresses, phone numbers and home addresses.

Payment details, passwords and individual order details were not compromised.

The incident involved a US-based third-party software provider used by the company for marketing. The unnamed supplier was caught short by hackers who managed to break into its systems on 30th October, with the intrusion discovered the following day.

The supplier said it had mopped up the mess by 1st November, but Who Gives A Crap was not informed until fire days later. It is not known how many customers were affected.

The firm said it was contacting affected customers and investigating the breach.

It will now be hoping it can wipe the incident from its record.

Australia

• Australian retailer Who Gives A Crap suffered a third-party marketing-provider breach exposing customer names, contact details, addresses and spending information. Source
• Google warned Australia’s proposed Digital Duty of Care legislation could force it to block under-18s from Gmail because of requirements governing potentially harmful content. Source
• Consumer group CHOICE gave Sony Interactive Entertainment a 2026 Shonky Award, criticising digital purchases as revocable licences and its planned move to digital-only PlayStation games. Source
• Australia plans a dedicated AI safety regulator with powers to enforce mandatory safeguards as the government moves towards stronger oversight of higher-risk AI. Source
• Australia is considering criminal penalties for AI companies that knowingly release harmful models, alongside mandatory incident reporting and independent evaluation under a proposed new regulator. Source
• Megaspeed International, the company headed by Alice Huang, has affiliates in Australia and elsewhere linked to a 29-year-old whose registered address was a regional newsagent, raising questions amid the Nvidia scandal. Source

China

• China rejected calls for tighter US chip restrictions as lawmakers consider measures covering advanced AI chip exports and overseas access to computing capacity amid the Jensen Huang scandal. Source
• Chinese AI firms including MiniMax, Moonshot and ByteDance are expanding US recruitment, but face higher Silicon Valley salaries, competition for elite researchers and geopolitical scrutiny. Chinese AI labs hire Silicon Valley engineers to rival OpenAI, Anthropic Source
• A PLA-linked Chinese university bought Nvidia H200 AI chips despite US export restrictions, exposing continuing gaps in Washington’s controls on China’s access to advanced computing. Source
• Chipmaker SMIC reported third-quarter net profit of $428.4 million, up 123.4%, while revenue climbed 33.9% to $3.19 billion, with both figures beating forecasts. Source
• Huawei says it’s made a 100% Chinese PC, with its Qingyun HM650 desktop using locally manufactured components, a Kirin X90 processor and enterprise HarmonyOS. Source
• Xpeng plans to begin mass production of its modular flying car next summer, as Chinese companies race to commercialise electric aircraft for personal transport. Source
• CATL is exploring lithium-air batteries offering a theoretical 2,000 km EV range and five times solid-state energy density, although major technical challenges remain. Source
• Political and corporate pressures on Nvidia could give Chinese rivals including Huawei an opportunity to narrow the AI technology gap. Source

India

• India may encourage critical government departments, including defence and aerospace, to use domestically developed AI models instead of foreign frontier systems. Source
• Indian authorities are investigating website blocks based on forged court orders after telecoms officials instructed internet providers to restrict 129 illegal betting sites. Source
• Tamil Nadu minister A Rajmohan accused the previous DMK government of procuring AI-generated books with fabricated authors, inflated prices and factual errors for public libraries. Source
• Three contract workers died at a Tata Electronics factory making iPhone components in Tamil Nadu, prompting investigations by Apple, Tata and state authorities. Source

Japan

• SoftBank signed a five-year agreement with Sceye to deploy high-altitude platforms providing mobile broadband and optical communications across Japan. Source
• Iris Ohyama said unauthorised access to a third-party cloud service may have exposed personal information belonging to up to 7.7 million Iris Plaza customers. Source
• SoftBank reported a $3.7 billion loss to revenues after a bet on gas turbines to power datacentres fell flat. Source
• SoftBank faces investor scrutiny over its $64.6 billion OpenAI investment and China’s reported blocking of its $5.4 billion ABB robotics acquisition. Source
• SoftBank recorded a $7.06 billion quarterly loss after taking a $3.73 billion charge related to US AI data centre projects, although its shares rebounded later. Source
• SEGA says 2,196,044 email addresses were exposed after unauthorised access to provider Arara, but SEGA Accounts and passwords were unaffected. Source
• Japan is scrutinising how Google, Meta, TikTok and LINE Yahoo use personal data for AI training, advertising, profiling and third-party tracking. Source

Singapore

• Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs has revealed that the US and Supermicro offered only “limited assistance” in its investigation into Alice Huang and Megaspeed. Source
• Singapore barred former Megaspeed CEO, Jensen Haung’s girlfriend and suspected Chinese spy Alice Huang from returning after she gave police inaccurate information during an investigation into server transactions. Source
• Nvidia is reportedly requiring new Southeast Asian cloud partners to adopt GPU monitoring amid scrutiny over restricted AI chips potentially reaching China through regional intermediaries. Source
• Apple reportedly booked nearly $40 billion in pre-tax profit through Singapore subsidiaries in 2025, with estimates suggesting this could reach $50 billion in 2026. Source
• Singapore’s New AI App Checks WhatsApp and Telegram Chats for Scam Patterns: Singapore launched the Android-only AntiScam Pango beta, using on-device AI to identify scam patterns across WhatsApp, Telegram and SMS notifications. Source

South Korea

• South Korea’s Kospi plunged more than 8% at the end of last week, with SK Hynix and Samsung falling more than 10%, as investors reassessed US demand for AI infrastructure. The Kospi later recovered. Source
• South Korea fined Coupang 300.9 billion won ($220.59 million) over anticompetitive merchant requirements; Coupang plans a legal challenge. Source

Taiwan

• Foxconn's third-quarter profit rose 34% to T$77.5 billion ($2.35 billion), beating forecasts, as strong AI demand supported its outlook despite supply-chain constraints. Source
• TSMC shares fell as much as 9.8% amid a regional sell-off driven by fears that tighter US data-centre policies could weaken AI infrastructure spending. However, their value quickly recovered. Source
• A Taiwan-based hacker allegedly used BOSSAI AI agents to obtain Taipei emergency-dispatch records and target organisations across at least 11 countries. Source
• TSMC plans investments of up to $1 billion each in Anthropic and OpenAI, deepening the chipmaker’s financial links with two leading developers of generative AI. Source
• TSMC reaffirmed its focus on logic chips after reports it was considering 3D DRAM production at Nvidia’s request, potentially challenging established memory manufacturers. Source