China Accuses The US Of Spying On Huawei

Uploaded on 2023-10-04 in INTELLIGENCE-Hot Spots-China, INTELLIGENCE--USA, FREE TO VIEW

The persistent and escalating argument between Washington and Beijing over technology and security issues has taken a new twist, with China accusing the US of hacking into the core servers of Chinese telecoms firm Huawei in in attempts to steal critical data.

The charges of digital spying being made by China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) relate to events dating from 2009 and come at a time of increasing geopolitical tensions between the two countries.

In a message posted on WeChat, the Chinese government said US intelligence agencies have "done everything possible" to conduct surveillance, secret theft, and intrusions on many countries around the world, including China, using a "powerful cyber attack arsenal." Specifics about the alleged hacks were not shared. It focused on the US National Security Agency's (NSA) Computer Network Operations as having "repeatedly carried out systematic and platform-based attacks" against the country to plunder its "important data resources."

The post went on to claim that the cyber-warfare intelligence-gathering unit hacked Huawei's servers in 2009 and that it had carried out "tens of thousands of malicious network attacks" on domestic entities, including the Northwestern Polytechnical University.

A further allegation is that Washington has forced the implantation of backdoors into software and equipment produced by technology companies, enlisting the help of its global technology brands to monitor and steal data.

China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre (NCVERC) is said to have isolated a spyware artifact known as 'Second Date' when dealing with an incident at the public research university that was allegedly developed by the NSA and stealthily implanted on "thousands of network devices in many countries around the world."

Details about Second Date were recently reported by South China Morning Post and China Daily, describing it as a cross-platform malware capable of monitoring and hijacking network traffic as well as injecting malicious code. Germany, Japan, South Korea, India, and Taiwan are believed to be some of the countries targeted by the spyware. "The US intelligence agency has used these large-scale weapons and equipment to carry out cyber attacks and cyber espionage operations for more than ten years against China, Russia and other 45 countries and regions around the world," MSS said, adding the attacks targeted telecom, scientific research, economy, energy and military sectors.

MSS also has said that the US has forced technology companies to install backdoors in their software and equipment to conduct cyber espionage and steal data and to track mobile phone users.

"It has long been an open secret that the United States has long relied on its technological advantages to conduct large-scale eavesdropping on countries around the world, including its allies, and carried out cyber theft activities," the MSS said, adding Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea are its main targets... At the same time, the United States is trying its best to portray itself as a cyber-attack victim, inciting and coercing other countries to join the so-called 'clean network' program under the banner of maintaining network security, in an attempt to eliminate Chinese companies from the international network market."

In July 2023, after Microsoft said that a China-linked espionage campaign had been mounted by an actor codenamed Storm-0558 targeting two dozen organisations in the US and Europe, China responded by calling the US "the world's biggest hacking empire and global cyber thief."

The Hacker News: Weixin: South China Morning Post: China Daily: The Times Of India:

The Register: Security Boulevard Image; geralt

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