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China Security

Chinese Security Firm Says CIA Hacked Chinese Targets For the Past 11 Years (zdnet.com) 49

China's largest cyber-security vendor has published today a report accusing the CIA of hacking Chinese companies and government agencies for more than 11 years. From a report: The report, authored by Qihoo 360, claims the CIA hacked targets in China's aviation industry, scientific research institutions, petroleum industry, Internet companies, and government agencies. CIA hacking operations took place between September 2008 and June 2019, and most of the targets were located in Beijing, Guangdong, and Zhejiang, Qihoo researchers said. Qihoo claims that a large part of the CIA's hacking efforts focused on the civil aviation industry, both in China and in other countries. The Chinese security firm claims the purpose of this campaign was "long-term and targeted intelligence-gathering" for the purpose of tracking "real-time global flight status, passenger information, trade freight and other related information."
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Chinese Security Firm Says CIA Hacked Chinese Targets For the Past 11 Years

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  • by melted ( 227442 ) on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @02:58PM (#59792792) Homepage

    The CIA has been doing its job for the past 11 years. News at 11!

    • This just in...

      The NSA, and possibly the CIA, helped Microsoft develop Windows XP. So, I guess anyone that's been running Windows operating system since the XP release has been "hacked" by the US government already.

      • oh i can't wait to hear the evidence for this one... (if it's the "_NSAKEY" thing, we will laugh at your cluelessness.)

      • by hey! ( 33014 )

        NSA has also played a prominent role developing security enhancements for Linux.

        • by gweihir ( 88907 )

          SELinux is an access control layer. It is very hard to hide backdoors in such a thing, and NOBUS backdoors are impossible.

    • For once!

      I don't particularly care when intelligence agencies target foreign powers. That's the job we pay them for, and they'd damn well better be earning their money.

      Where I get pissed is when they turn that on their employers, namely me and my tax money that goes to them. (Yes, I know, "employers"...)

    • The promotional announcement was film at 11 because before tape was the medium a reporter's copy could be read on-air, but the power of images to amplify any sensational effect had to be developed and shown after an evening's primary broadcast.
    • If really was only 11 years, that would be surprising news.
    • They're just checking up to see how much American technology they've stolen.

    • Even so, but then they shouldn't bitch about China hacking the US.. Problem also is, US says it's an act of war of another country would hack them.... So how is it different when the US does it to other countries themselves...

      But nobody is suprised US agencies are hacking other countries companies and goverments..

  • by mikeiver1 ( 1630021 ) on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @03:03PM (#59792824)
    Pretty sure that this is no different than any other intelligence agency. But the Chinese target our tech industries for trade secrets and then use the information to start state supported businesses in a effort to take that segment away from the USA or Europe. This is not news, this is the new "cold war"
    • You can keep drinking [cnn.com] your [reuters.com] Kool-Aid [theguardian.com].

      • Says the moron that watches one channel and gets spoon fed feces.
    • I actually think the story is the wrong way round. Isn't it supposed to be about teh evil Chinese haxors targeting the US? Who slipped up and got this one reversed?
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The primary difference seems to be how often the CIA and NSA lose control of their tools and they get used for foreign or commercial malware. A lot of modern malware, e.g. ransomware viruses that keep costing US hospitals and local governments millions to fix, are based on stolen CIA tech.

      If the same is happening with GCHQ or Chinese malware we don't hear about it as much as the CIA/NSA stuff.

      • If the same is happening with GCHQ or Chinese malware we don't hear about it as much as the CIA/NSA stuff.

        It is called freedom of the press. The USA has as the first amendment to our constitution a guarantee of free speech. While the government may (possibly illegally) try to pressure or dissuade publishers from putting forth this information, they cannot outright prevent it. UK and China do not have similar limitations on their abilities to control their press.

  • by retchdog ( 1319261 ) on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @03:10PM (#59792846) Journal

    on the one hand, it's nice to see the CIA doing their fucking job for the past 11 years.

    but what were they doing before 2009? jacking off over the mideast. i wonder what changed politically in 2009? hmm.

    • by hey! ( 33014 )

      Well, when you've got troops in the ground in a place fighting an asymmetric war against insurgents, intelligence is not exactly the equivalent of pleasuring yourself.

    • but what were they doing before 2009? jacking off over the mideast. i wonder what changed politically in 2009? hmm.

      The claim is one of evidence or proof of spying by a particular means or method, but does not exlude a suspicion or a likelihood of prior intelligence gathering.

      Revealing the detection of a method is not, traditionally, to one's advantage in order to mis- and disinform an adversary. But the cost-benefit analysis outside of war is political and perceptual and China's leadership has likely concluded the claims against Huawei that have not been supported by evidence can be discounted by a verifiable case and

    • It is possible that China's cyber security companies managed to only track / trace back incidents from the 2009 and older records have already been destroyed.

      You don't have many organisations keeping general records for longer then 10 years, especially system logs. And it will be rare for companies to still have systems running for more then 10 years, to be examined.

  • by holophrastic ( 221104 ) on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @03:22PM (#59792888)

    Not allies. Why is this news?

  • by Anonymous Coward
  • The United States called the report "groundless", saying it represented "Chinese distrust." [bbc.com]

    A report from Reuters cited prospective Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who was nominated and swiftly de-nominated for the very same position in July 2019, describing the report as "irresponsible and harmful to the mutual trust between the two countries," and that "Both China and the US were victims of cybercrimes and should work together to tackle the problems."

  • Please (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bobthesungeek76036 ( 2697689 ) on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @03:31PM (#59792922)
    And the similarities between the J-20 and F-35 are purely coincidental...
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The timing doesn't really line up, if they had used information stolen from the F-35 programme the aircraft would have been delayed several years from when it was first seen in its more or less final form. It's more likely a case of parallel development.

      Similar allegations were made about Concorde and the Tu-144, but actually Concorde stole as many ideas from the Russians as they did from the West.

      In the case of the J-20 it uses some advanced techniques like the stealthy canards which have only ever been pr

    • Well, if they did then it won't work any better than it does for the US military, maybe even worse considering it's just a cheep Chinese knock-off.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Seriously - Pretty common knowledge that we've had spies over in China, Russia, etc.. And they've had spies in Milwaukee... (going after Blatz's secret recipe - they'll make Spotted Cow look like Mad Cow).

    If the Chinese Gov't thinks this is going to get some sort of sympathy vote from the rest of the word... even with the Dumpster in the WH and Dorkus at 10 Downing... I would guess they are sadly mistaken.

    But, knowing the Dumpster, he'll host Xi to the WH and physically hand him the evidence. That way he'l

  • The NSA has been doing it for almost 30 years

  • And what have they been doing for the past 11 years? Sitting on their hands and minding their own business on their side of the ocean? Come now.
  • That's their job after all!

  • The CIA does this to everyone, ally or enemy. Those tax dollars aren't going to spend themselves.

  • ... what they (rightfully) called a horrible crime when China did it.

    Hey, at least you can say "Murica #1!!" now. :D

  • China accuses rain of being wet. Film at 11.

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