NET (ASX) Gordon Chang on the CCP

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Technology

China demands US response over CIA hacking claims
4 March 2020
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Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionThe allegations against the CIA were made by Qihoo
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has asked the US for a "clear explanation" after claims the CIA had been hacking targets in China for at least 11 years.
The allegations were made by Qihoo, a well-known cyber-security firm based in Beijing.
The company said it had found evidence in malware suggesting the CIA had targeted airlines, petrol companies and government agencies.
The BBC has contacted the CIA for comment.
Qihoo said it had analysed malicious code and found similarities between it and information aboutalleged CIA hacking toolswhich was published three years ago.
Among other alleged targets of the hacking campaign were internet firms, scientific institutions and energy companies.
"We speculate that in the past 11 years of infiltration attacks, CIA may have already grasped the most classified business information of China, even of many other countries in the world," added Qihoo.
In recent years, we have become used to private cyber-security companies, and then Western governments, calling out espionage by other states - with China often in the firing line.
Many private cyber-security companies, though, are still wary of publicly linking a particular hacking group to a foreign state.

This new report is a sign that Chinese companies are willing to hit back at the US and the CIA.
One thing making it easier for them is the fact that the CIA lost control of some of its most sensitive hacking tools, which were leaked onto the web.
That allowed others to recognise them being used by the CIA - or, perhaps, by people using them to falsely implicate the US.
At times, reports by US cyber-security companies appear to have dovetailed with US policy. The same might be true in this case, as China seeks to push back.
China has urged the US to give a clear explanation of any hacking activities, and make cyber-space peaceful and safe.
In March 2017, a trove of documents was published by WikiLeaks, that appeared to reveal a number of CIA hacking tools.
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CIA hacking tools: Should we be worried?
The documents suggested the agency had developed ways of eavesdropping on smartphones and smart devices with built-in microphones.
"It is already known that the US has an offensive cyber-capability," said James Sullivan at the London-based Royal United Services Institute.
"Whether this particular example is true or not, it still raises questions about the ethics of offensive cyber and the licence to operate."

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RSA
How China poses an insider threat

Andrew Eversden
February 26
1K
U.S. cyber officialswarned Feb. 25 of different ways the Chinese government seeks to steal U.S.intellectual property.

SANFRANCISCO — The year 2019 was a “very bad year” for insider threats causingharm to the intellectual property of the private sector and the government,senior government security officials said Feb. 25.
Centralto concerns is China, which for years has been infiltrating the networks ofdefense contractors and tech companies and stealing their technology, and howthe country is now going beyond cyberattacks and increasingly relying oninsiders to steal IP instead.
That’sa trend that the intelligence agencies inside the U.S. government have seensince former President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed tohalt the theft of IP, a deal that hasn’t been entirely successful and pushedthe Chinese to steal IP outside of the cyber realm.
“Whatwe ... saw since that understanding is the [Chinese] intelligence servicesbecoming involved in developing and expanding the insider threat, which wasn’t,strictly speaking, covered by the understanding, but obviously covered by thespirit of the understanding,” said John Demers, assistant attorney general fornational security, speaking at the the RSA Conference.
Accordingto Demers, the Department of Justice has seen cases where employees aredirected by Chinese intel agencies to implant malware on a desktop toexfiltrate data back to China, as well as through the Thousand Talents program,in which employees are encouraged to steal IP and take it back to China, whichDemers called a “serious problem” particularly for academia. In recent months,the DoJ has charged several Chinesenationals with ties to U.S. companies or universities with conspiracy to pass along trade secrets to China.

Eachyear, the United States loses up to $600 billion due to intellectual propertytheft, according to some estimates.
"Atthe end of the day the insider threat is the most vicious and pernicious threatthat we face as a nation and private sector,” said Bill Evanina, director ofthe National Counterintelligence and Security Center.
Toprotect against insider threats, companies must include insider threats in theirenterprise cybersecurity strategy. The plan must include be enterprise wide,including both the CEO and lowest-level employees.
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“Youhave to identify what are the things that we make that other people want andthen protect them,” Evanina said. “And that has to include bringing in humanresources to the posture of securing what you do that’s awesome because everycompany makes something that others want.”
AndrewEversden is a federal IT and cybersecurity reporter for the Federal Times andFifth Domain.