China Has Abandoned a Cybersecurity Truce With the US, Report Says (bloomberg.com) 114
Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike says China has largely abandoned a hacking truce negotiated by Barack Obama as President Trump embarked on a trade war with Beijing last year. "A slowdown in Chinese hacking following the cybersecurity agreement Obama's administration secured in 2015 appears to have been reversed, the firm said in a report released Tuesday that reviewed cyber activity by U.S. adversaries in 2018," reports Bloomberg. From the report: The report comes as the Trump administration seeks to reach a trade deal with China, including provisions on intellectual property theft, ahead of a March 1 deadline. Trump has said he may extend that deadline and hold off on increasing tariffs on Chinese imports if there's progress in the talks. China's hacking targets in 2018 included telecommunications systems in the U.S. and Asia, according to Crowdstrike. Groups linked to Iran and Russia also appeared to target telecommunications, a sector that yields "the most bang for your buck" for hackers due to the large number of users that can be accessed after breaching a single network, Meyers said.
The findings align with concern in the U.S. about telecommunications security as the country transitions to the next generation of mobile networks and the Trump administration seeks to secure so-called 5G technology from foreign intelligence gathering. The administration has expressed particular concern about the spread of products made by the Chinese firm Huawei Technologies Co. The report also mentions the increased cyber activity in other parts of the world. "Iran focused much of its cyber activity on Middle Eastern and North African countries while Russia engaged in intelligence collection and information operations worldwide," the report says. "North Korea deployed hackers for financial gain and intelligence collection, while China targeted sectors including technology, manufacturing and hospitality."
The findings align with concern in the U.S. about telecommunications security as the country transitions to the next generation of mobile networks and the Trump administration seeks to secure so-called 5G technology from foreign intelligence gathering. The administration has expressed particular concern about the spread of products made by the Chinese firm Huawei Technologies Co. The report also mentions the increased cyber activity in other parts of the world. "Iran focused much of its cyber activity on Middle Eastern and North African countries while Russia engaged in intelligence collection and information operations worldwide," the report says. "North Korea deployed hackers for financial gain and intelligence collection, while China targeted sectors including technology, manufacturing and hospitality."
As decided by random security firm? (Score:3)
So...the standard of whether or not the agreement was violated is decided by a random security firm?
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The standard is determined by people who set policy. The report documents the frequency of known attacks, which is increasing. Crowdstrike is hardly random, they've done this for a while. Why phrase things dishonestly?
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Yeah, I think I'd rather trust the DoD, or NSA, or even the FBI to determine if a government is behind the attacks verses some rando, publicity seeking, scare mongering, Alex Jones level of conspiracy spewing "security firm" like Crowdstrike.
Re:As decided by random security firm? (Score:4, Insightful)
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So...the standard of whether or not the agreement was violated is decided by a random security firm?
Occam's Razor: What on earth makes you think that a company is honouring such a minor agreement with an adversary that is actively trying to economically punish them?
No the standard of whether or not the agreement was violated should be decided by proof that under the current conditions it is still being adhered to.
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Yes, it is anti-China propaganda. Instead of calling these "attacks", they should say "free penetration testing".
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It's my new pick up line...Hey baby, want some free penetration testing?
Re: Anti China Propoganda (Score:2)
Perhaps the Chinese are worried that President Trump is about to turn North Korea into an American ally?
Let me get this straight (Score:2)
We are supposed to be disturbed that China is trying to hack our networks and steal information, and intellectual property from us in response to our trying to hold them culpable for stealing information ,intellectual property and one sided trade practices ?
Well I guess the next time somebody commits murder their solemn promise not to do it again should be enough for anyone.
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old fashioned fear mongering (Score:5, Interesting)
Be nice to us economically or face random hacks... we will also tell your citizens that you would not be nice to us and "negotiate" so they will get mad at you about it too.
China is terrible country that is far worse than America. I don't have a problem with cutting ties with that disgusting nation until they stop abusing their citizens. It like someone coming to your door and saying... I want you to sell me your house for 20% off or I am going to harass your neighborhood and watching your fellow neighbor getting pissed off at your for refusing to let bad people get their way!
Sadly, it works too! Just look at this article!
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I don't have a problem with cutting ties with that disgusting nation until they stop abusing their citizens.
Yeah you do. If you actually wouldn't have a problem cutting ties with them you wouldn't have posted this on Slashdot using your Chinese made computer parts.
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Re:old fashioned fear mongering (Score:5, Insightful)
We should cut ties because the NSA hacks the planet,
Certainly the UK would never do such a thing. And the UK certainly doesn't have a history of torture...oh no.
If you don't think your country is spying on just about every other country on the planet, you're a simpleton.
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If you don't think your country is spying on just about every other country on the planet, you're a simpleton.
Narrator voice: It's AmiMoJo, definitely a simpleton.
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As much as I don't like defending AmiMoJo he's point stands well. You on the flip side committed a Tu Quoque logical Fallacy. Pointing out hypocrisy doesn't invalidate the original argument.
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I never meant to imply that the UK was better. My point was that it's the pot calling the kettle black, and none of the involved parties have the moral high ground here.
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United States and China have a peer to peer relationship
I would say it's more accurate to say we have an adversarial relationship that is closer to the USSR and USA in the 1980s. It seems calm and peaceful but both nations are ready to kill each other but don't as they know the consequences of open warfare would be devastating.
If you don't see things like that then you probably aren't paying close enough attention.
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If you steal shit from my house and expect me to buy it back then there's a problem. There are international treaties and China has been a member of WIPO since 1980, so your analogy is dog shit.
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What this means: (Score:5, Insightful)
What this really means is that China's ability to obtain companies' IP through other means (e.g. espionage or via Chinese law) are not as effective as they once were or hoped they would be. The policy of the Chinese government has been "China first and to hell with the rest of you" long before Trump paraded out his "America First" line. China only does things that will benefit China and therefore the truce was part of that calculation. Now that things have changed and/or it's proven to not be as effective as hoped/expected (e.g. beefed up security and/or higher awareness by US companies), the Chinese government has resumed their normal hacking operations to steal IP. Alternatively, they predicted a massive influx of US companies that would be handing over their IP to China which hasn't panned out as expected. Anyway it goes, they were expecting to get more of the IP from US companies and it didn't happen and their response is to take it by hacking into companies.
Note: I'm not claiming superiority in any regard, I'm just explaining the thought process that dictates their actions. (Take your whataboutism and shove it because this is about China.)
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I personally think what changed is Trump 1) threw out global political norms, and 2) started a trade war. So 1) increased cyber warfare wouldn't be noticed as much, and 2) In world opinion (soft power), they have an excuse/defense for the times they're caught.
I have tons of evidence to back up my opinion. I'd guess you have a lot less, but I'd be interested in seeing it.
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Also note, I'm not actually disagreeing with anything you said, I just wana see evidence, and filling in other reasons. I have no way of really knowing which reasons are more important, but the ones I listed I thought were more obvious.
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So you think the part of the equation that changed is China realized they were not getting legal IP transfer they expected.
There is a lot of evidence for China's "China first and to hell with the rest of you" position. The rest is simply a logical extension of that policy. The trade war seems only to be a factor in that it's hurting them. Regardless, they were going to get that IP one way or another for their "Made in China 2025" initiative.
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Looking at it from outside .... (Score:3)
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Ban Them (Score:1)
You cannot make treaties with communists (Score:1)
And of Obama made it. They will not honor any treaty that stops their march towards dominance.
Abandoned? That's funny! (Score:4, Insightful)
They were violating it while it was being signed, and never actually lived up to any part of it.
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Oh dear!
An innocent little lamb!
No mention of ... (Score:2)
... designing hardened systems.
America is not willing or able to design innovative cyber defenses.
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Dave's not here, man.
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No, I'm Dave! Open the door.
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Have you any idea how silly that sounds?
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Wealth makes it easier to avoid or mitigate the negative effects of breaking the law, but only to a degree.
For example, look at this guy [wikipedia.org]. He's 80 and will be out of prison in 150 years.
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You mean the person that was a target of the treasonous investigation of a duly elected president ?
Using illegal FISA warrants, justified by DNC opposition research from Fusion GPS that had illegal access to NSA surveillance systems?
That person ?
Re:TLDR (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, because China wouldn't have dared to lie to Barack.
Please. China has been engaged in cyberwarfare since the invention of the computer network. They're not stepping it up. They're getting caught more, and western countries are starting to replace "unknown foreign actor" with "Chinese" in reports, rather than continuing to give them cover.
They steal our intellectual property, manipulate currency, and likely install backdoors in networks, chips and other devices manufactured for export. And like Lenin said many U.S. corporations are not only glad to sell them the rope with which to hang us, they'll actually pay them to put the rope around our necks.
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Has he done that before?
I've been hearing about his imminent downfall since he was elected President, but it keeps not happening.