Before it’s too late, not only America but all of its Western allies must grasp that the Chinese Communist Party behaves like an enemy
Showing posts with label Cybersecurity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cybersecurity. Show all posts
Thursday, 3 August 2023
Monday, 3 April 2023
Didi app suspended in China over data protection - 4 Jul 2021
KEY POINTS
- China’s cyberspace regulator said on Sunday that it had ordered smartphone app stores to stop offering Didi Global’s app after finding that the ride-hailing giant had illegally collected users’ personal data.
- The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it had told Didi to make changes to comply with Chinese data protection rules.
- It did not specify the nature of Didi’s violation. Didi responded by saying it had stopped registering new users and would remove its app from app stores.
PUBLISHED SUN, JUL 4 2021
A trader works during the IPO for Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Global Inc on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) floor in New York City, U.S., June 30, 2021.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
China’s cyberspace regulator said on Sunday that it had ordered smartphone app stores to stop offering Didi Global’s app after finding that the ride-hailing giant had illegally collected users’ personal data.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it had told Didi to make changes to comply with Chinese data protection rules, four days after Didi began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, having raised $4.4 billion in an initial public offering.
The CAC did not specify the nature of Didi’s violation in a statement on its social media feed.
Didi responded by saying it had stopped registering new users and would remove its app from app stores. It said it would make changes to comply with rules and protect users’ rights.
China has been clamping down on its home-grown technology giants over antitrust and data security concerns.
Didi made its trading debut on Wednesday in an IPO that valued the company at $67.5 billion, well down from the $100 billion it had hoped for, which potential investors had resisted.
Redex Research director Kirk Boodry, who publishes on Smartkarma, said the CAC’s move appeared “aggressive.”
″(It) indicates the process could take a while, but they have a large installed base so near-term impact (is) likely muted for now,” he said.
Investigation
Didi’s app was still working in China for people who had already downloaded it. It offers over 20 million rides in China every day, on average.
CAC on Friday announced an investigation into Didi to protect “national security and the public interest,” prompting a 5.3% fall in its share price to $15.53.
The stock was sold at $14 per share in the IPO — the top of the indicated range.
Didi, which offers services in China and more than 15 other markets, gathers vast amounts of real-time mobility data every day. It uses some of the data for autonomous driving technologies and traffic analysis.
Didi had flagged Chinese regulations in its IPO prospectus and said: “We follow strict procedures in collecting, transmitting, storing and using user data pursuant to our data security and privacy policies.”
A notice on Didi’s China app showed it had updated its user information and data privacy policy on June 29, the day before its trading debut. In a statement to Reuters, Didi described the move as a “regular update” after adding two new services on the app under its chauffeur business.
Founded by Will Cheng in 2012, the company had previously been subject to regulatory probes in China over safety and its operating license.
Monday, 27 March 2023
New Zealand security chiefs increasingly concerned about foreign interference
Authorities did not name countries, pointed to New Zealand’s censure of China for its involvement in a hacking spree in 2021 and Russia for its malicious cyber ...
March 27, 2023
By Lucy Craymer
WELLINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - New Zealand intelligence agencies are growing more concerned about both foreign interference and malicious cyber activity ahead of elections in October, the country’s intelligence chiefs said on Monday.
“It's fair to say that concern about foreign interference as well as malicious cyber activity is growing,” Andrew Hampton, director general of the New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), told media after testifying at parliament.
“That's not just the domestic trend it's the international trend as well,” he said.
Security services are working with the election authority to improve cybersecurity and procedures and will also brief political parties on security and foreign interference threats.
Both the GCSB and Security Intelligence Service chiefs were speaking before the intelligence committee that includes the country’s Prime Minister as part of their annual review. Much of the testimony was classified and closed to the public.
Hampton said in a pre-written speech that over the past year, the GCSB had witnessed geostrategic competition intensifying around the world, including in the Pacific region, while serious cyber security incidents continue to threaten New Zealand organisations.
State-sponsored cybersecurity actors feature significantly with 34% of recorded incidents that can be linked to state actors, up from 28% the previous year, said Hampton.
Neither agency would name countries involved in the activity but did point to New Zealand’s censure of China for its involvement in a global hacking spree in 2021 and Russia for its malicious cyber activity against Ukraine in 2022.
Phil McKee, Acting Director-General of Security, said the threat of foreign interference and espionage is a growing cause for concern, adding information was being collected on those who speak out against foreign governments and their families being threatened in their home countries.
“Foreign interference should not be tolerated,” McKee said.
Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by David Gregorio
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/nz-security-chiefs-increasingly-concerned-about-foreign-interference-2023-03-26/
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Wednesday, 31 August 2022
South China Sea: US firm accuses Chinese hackers of targeting Malaysia’s Petronas, Australia’s government
- Researchers uncovered a phishing campaign targeting Malaysia’s Kasawari gas field, Australia’s government and a wind farm in the Taiwan Strait
- US tech security firm Proofpoint said in its report that a group known as TA423, based in China and motivated by espionage, was the likely culprit
Bloomberg Published: 11:04am, 31 Aug, 2022
Chinese hackers likely targeted energy companies operating in the South China Sea and Australia’s government, according to a US tech security firm, the latest accusation of coordinated cybersnooping by the Asian giant to advance its geopolitical goals.
Researchers uncovered an ongoing phishing campaign lasting more than a year that has been aimed at projects including the Kasawari gas field and a wind farm in the Taiwan Strait, Proofpoint Inc. said in a report on Tuesday. The gas project is in Malaysian waters and operated by Petroliam Nasional Bhd., which declined to comment on the research report. Petronas did say it follows best practices to protect its assets and operations.
Proofpoint said it had “moderate confidence” that the hacking was being performed by a group called TA423, adding it is based in China and motivated by espionage.
The US government and cybersecurity companies have long alleged that China runs expansive hacking operations. In July, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray warned Western companies that China aims to “ransack” their intellectual property so it can eventually dominate key industries. It operated a “lavishly resourced hacking programme that’s bigger than that of every other major country combined,” he said.
China routinely denies the accusations, saying it is a victim of cyberattacks and countering that the US is the “empire of hacking”. The Foreign Ministry in Beijing didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
China claims more than four-fifths of the South China Sea as its own, angering Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The body of water is one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, and the US estimates that more than 30 per cent of the global maritime crude oil trade passes through it.
Proofpoint said that emails used in the phishing campaign against the Australian government impersonated media organisations including The Australian and Herald Sun to deliver ScanBox malware. PwC Threat Intelligence, which assisted Proofpoint in its research, “assesses it is highly likely that ScanBox is shared privately amongst multiple China-based threat actors,” its report said.
News Corp. representatives in Australia didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Proofpoint said a ScanBox campaign running from April to June targeted agencies of the Australian government at both the local and federal level. An earlier phishing effort was centred on a European maker of heavy equipment for a wind farm in the Taiwan Strait, the report added.
Sherrod DeGrippo, vice president of threat research and detection at Proofpoint, said TA423’s “focus on naval issues is likely to remain a constant priority in places like Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia.”
Monday, 29 August 2022
FBI + MI5 Issue Joint Warning On Chinese Spying! MUST READ
The FBI and MI5 just issued a joint warning about economic spying and hacking operations by the Chinese government!
https://www.techarp.com/internet/fbi-mi5-chinese-spying-warning/Here is what you need to know…
FBI + MI5 Issue Joint Warning On Chinese Spying!
On July 7, 2022, FBI Director Christopher Wray joined MI5 Director General Ken McCallum at the MI5 London headquarters to issue a joint warning about Chinese spying and cyberattacks.
Ken McCallum said that MI5 was running seven times as many investigations into China, as it had just four years ago. He also said that MI5 planned to double that to tackle the widespread attempts.
Christopher Wray, on the other hand, stressed that the FBI had substantially increased its investigations into China, and is currently managing about 2,000 problems, and opening about two counterintelligence cases every day.
The Chinese government is set on stealing your technology – whatever it is that makes your industry tick – and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market.
Maintaining a technological edge may do more to increase a company’s value than would partnering with a Chinese company to sell into that huge Chinese market, only to find the Chinese government and your partner stealing and copying your innovation.
Both McCallum and Wray alleged that the Chinese government is engaged in a “coordinated campaign” to “cheat and steal [technology] on a massive scale“.
They also stressed that China’s hacking programme dwarfs that of any other major country, and that it has a global network of intelligence operatives.
FBI + MI5 : China Also Preparing To Shield From Sanctions
Even more worrying is the fact that China is working to shield its economy from any future sanctions, obviously learning from how the West punished Russia for invading Ukraine.
This suggests that China is at least preparing for the possibility, if not the eventuality, of insulating its economy from potential sanctions, should it attack Taiwan.
Wray said that China is “trying to cushion themselves from harm if they do anything to draw the ire of the international community”, and that the Chinese government is pressuring Western businesses not to criticise Beijing or its policies.
He declined to say whether an invasion of Taiwan has become more likely due to these measures, but warn that Western investments in China could be similarly impacted by such a conflict.
Just as in Russia, Western investments built over years could become hostage, capital stranded. Supply chains and relationships disrupted.
Wray also shared that the Chinese government had directly interfered in a New York congressional election, because they did not want a candidate who was a critic and a former Tiananmen Square protestor to be elected.
China has for far too long counted on being everybody’s second-highest priority. They are not flying under the radar anymore.
Both Wray and McCallum said that the intention of the joint address was to “send the clearest signal” to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), because if China decides to invade Taiwan, it would cause “one of the most horrific business disruptions the world has ever seen“.
Read more : US Mil Contractor Admits Selling Aviation Secrets To China!
FBI + MI5 : Examples Of Chinese Spying
McCallum shared some specific cases of Chinese spying activities that MI5 detected and thwarted.
Covert Theft
Late last year Chinese intelligence officer Shu Yenjoon was convicted in a US court on charges of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets from the US aviation sector.
Shu was active in Europe too: he’d been part of a prolific Ministry of State Security network targeting the aerospace sector.
MI5 worked with those being targeted in the UK to mitigate the risks until the FBI action could solve the problem for both of us.
Tech Transfer
Clandestine espionage methodology isn’t always necessary. Take the tale of Smith’s Harlow, a UK-based precision engineering firm. In 2017 Smith’s Harlow entered into a deal with a Chinese firm, Futures Aerospace. The first of three agreed technology transfers saw Futures pay £3m for quality control procedures and training courses.
You know how this ends: after further sharing of valuable IP, Futures abandoned the deal. Smith’s Harlow went into administration in 2020. As their Chairman put it: “They’ve taken what they wanted and now they’ve got it, they didn’t need the shell of Smith’s”.
Information Advantage
The CCP doesn’t just use intelligence officers posing as diplomats in the classic fashion. Privileged information is gathered on multiple channels, in what is sometimes referred to as the ‘thousand grains of sand’ strategy.
In Germany a retired political scientist and his wife who together ran a foreign policy think tank passed information to the Chinese intelligence services for almost ten years.
In Estonia a NATO maritime scientist was convicted for passing information to his Chinese handlers, who claimed to be working for a think tank.
Cultivating New Contacts
The deceptive use of professional networking sites is well known. Seemingly flattering approaches turn into something more insidious – and damaging.
In one example a British aviation expert received an approach online, ostensibly went through a recruitment process, and was offered an attractive employment opportunity. He travelled twice to China where he was wined and dined. He was then asked – and paid – for detailed technical information on military aircraft. The ‘company’ was actually run by Chinese intelligence officers.
Read more : China Should Worry About Russia Invading Ukraine!
Chinese Response To FBI + MI5 Spying Allegations
Chinese government officials naturally rejected spying allegations by the FBI and MI5.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, called the accusations groundless and said that China “firmly opposes and combats all forms of cyber-attacks“, and would “never encourage, support or condone cyber-attacks“.
His statement also said that the Taiwan issue was “purely China’s internal affair” and that there was “no room for compromise or concession“. It also said that China “will strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with utmost sincerity and efforts“, but noted that China would “reserve the option of taking all necessary measures in response to the interference of foreign forces“.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian did not address the claims directly, but accused the United States of being the real danger instead.
The relevant US politician has been playing up the so-called China threat to smear and attack China. Facts have fully proven that the US is the biggest threat to world peace, stability and development.
We urge this US official to have the right perspective, see China’s developments in an objective and reasonable manner and stop spreading lies and stop making irresponsible remarks.
https://www.techarp.com/internet/fbi-mi5-chinese-spying-warning/
Recommended Reading
Friday, 20 May 2022
Canada bans China's Huawei Technologies from 5G networks
Ottawa joins allies fearing Beijing could compel company to aid espionage
A temporarily closed Huawei store in Beijing amid coronavirus restrictions on May 12. Huawei says that it has over 1,500 employees in Canada, two-thirds of whom work in research and development, and that there will be Huawei equipment in Canada for years to come. © AP
TORONTO (AP) -- Wireless carriers in Canada won't be allowed to install Huawei equipment in their high-speed 5G networks, the Canadian government said Thursday, joining allies in banning the giant Chinese technology company.
Canada had been the only member of the Five Eyes intelligence-pooling alliance not to bar or restrict use of equipment from Huawei Technologies in its 5G networks. The U.S. and the other members -- Britain, Australia and New Zealand -- previously banned Huawei.
"We are announcing our intention to prohibit the inclusion of Huawei and ZTE products and services in Canada's telecommunications systems," Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said.
Canada's ban also includes ZTE, one of China's biggest tech companies and one that is state-owned.
Champagne added that "providers who already have this equipment installed will be required to cease its use and remove it." He said Canada's wireless companies won't be offered compensation.
Canada's major wireless companies already had started working with other providers.
"There are many hostile actors who are ready to exploit vulnerabilities in our defenses," Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said.
Mendicino said the government did an extensive review and is redoubling efforts to protect Canadians.
The U.S. government has been lobbying allies like Canada for years to exclude Huawei from new ultrafast 5G mobile networks over worries that China's communist rulers could compel the company to help with cyberespionage. The U.S. has warned it would reconsider intelligence sharing with any countries that use Huawei gear.
The company has repeatedly denied the allegations.
"We're disappointed but not surprised. We're surprised it took the government so long to make a decision," Huawei spokesman Alykhan Velshi said. "We see this as a political decision, one born of political pressure primarily from the United States."
Velshi said there will be Huawei equipment in Canada for years to come. He said the company has over 1,500 employees in Canada, and two-thirds of them work in research and development.
The development of 5G, or fifth-generation, networks will give people speedier online connections and provide vast data capacity to meet ravenous demand as more and more things link to the internet and as innovations such as virtual reality, immersive gaming and autonomous vehicles emerge.
Huawei is the biggest global supplier of network gear for phone and internet companies. It has been a symbol of China's progress in becoming a technological world power -- and a subject of U.S. security and law enforcement concerns. Some analysts say Chinese companies have flouted international rules and norms and stolen technology.
China, the U.S. and Canada completed what was effectively a high-stakes prisoner swap last year involving a top executive from Huawei who had been charged with fraud by the U.S.
China jailed two Canadians shortly after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer and the daughter of the company's founder, on a U.S. extradition request. They were sent back to Canada in September, the same day Meng returned to China after reaching a deal with U.S. authorities in her case.
Many countries labeled China's action "hostage politics," while China has described the charges against Huawei and Meng as a politically motivated attempt to hold back China's economic and technological development.
"The decision should have been taken two or three years ago, but it's a case of better late than never," Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said of the move to ban Huawei. "We are faced with a China that is a lot more aggressive in the conduct of its foreign policy but also in the way it obtains information to achieve its goals."
Saint-Jacques said that under Chinese law no company can refuse a request from the Chinese government to share information, so it would have been impossible to allow Huawei's participation.
He expects China to retaliate.
"I expect we will hear from them pretty rapidly," he said. "They use trade as a weapon, and I suspect that's what we'll see in this case."
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Canada-bans-China-s-Huawei-Technologies-from-5G-networks
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