Last week, a Chinese surveillance balloon in the United States caused a diplomatic uproar and raised concerns about how Beijing collects intelligence on its biggest rival. FBI Director Christopher Wray said in 2020 that Chinese spying is the most serious long-term threat to the US's information, intellectual property, and economic health. China's foreign ministry said that they strongly oppose spying activities and that American accusations are based on false information and malicious political intentions. The US also has its own methods of spying on China, using surveillance and interception techniques as well as informant networks. Former US President Barack Obama said in 2015 that his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had promised not to engage in commercial cyber spying, but subsequent statements from Washington have suggested that the practice has continued. The US warned in a major annual intelligence assessment in 2022 that China is the most extensive, active, and persistent cyber espionage threat to the government and private sector. According to researchers and Western intelligence officials, China has become skilled at hacking other countries' computer systems to steal industrial and trade secrets. In 2021, the US, NATO, and other allies said China had hired contract hackers to exploit a breach in Microsoft email systems, giving state security agents access to emails, corporate data, and other sensitive information. Chinese cyber spies have also hacked the US Department of Energy, utility companies, telecommunications companies, and universities, according to US government statements and media reports. Fears of the threat from Beijing have spread to the technology sector, with worries that state-linked firms would be required to share intel with the Chinese government. In 2019, the US Department of Justice charged tech giant Huawei with conspiring to steal US trade secrets, evade sanctions on Iran, and other offenses. The US has banned the company from supplying US government systems and strongly discouraged its use in the private sector due to fears that it could be compromised. Similar concerns about TikTok are part of Western political debate, with some lawmakers calling for an outright ban on the hugely popular app developed by China's ByteDance over data security fears. Beijing has asked Chinese citizens abroad to help gather intelligence and steal sensitive technology, according to experts, US lawmakers, and media reports. One of the most high-profile cases was that of Ji Chaoqun, who in January was sentenced to eight years in a US prison for passing information on possible recruitment targets to Chinese intelligence. An engineer who arrived in the US on a student visa in 2013 and later joined the army reserves, Ji was accused of supplying information about eight people to the Jiangsu province ministry of state security, an intelligence unit accused of engaging in the theft of US trade secrets. Last year, a US court sentenced a Chinese intelligence officer to 20 years in prison for stealing technology from US and French aerospace firms. The man, named Xu Yanjun, was found guilty of playing a leading role in a five-year Chinese state-backed scheme to steal commercial secrets from GE Aviation, one of the world's leading aircraft engine manufacturers, and France's Safran Group. In 2020, a US court jailed Raytheon engineer Wei Sun - a Chinese national and naturalized US citizen - for bringing sensitive information about an American missile system into China on a company laptop. With the goal of advancing Beijing's interests, Chinese operatives have allegedly courted American political, social, and business elites. US news website Axios ran an investigation in 2020 claiming that a Chinese student enrolled at a university in California had developed ties with a range of US politicians under the auspices of Beijing's main civilian spy agency. The student, named Fang Fang, used campaign financing, developed friendships, and even initiated sexual relationships to target rising politicians between 2011 and 2015, according to the report. Another technique used by Chinese operatives is to tout insider knowledge about the Communist Party's opaque inner workings and offer access to top leaders to lure high-profile Western targets, researchers say. The aim has been to mislead world leaders about China's ambitions and make them believe it would rise peacefully - maybe even democratically. Beijing has also pressured overseas Chinese communities and media organizations to support its policies on Taiwan and to silence criticism of the Hong Kong and Xinjiang crackdowns. In September 2022, Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders said China had set up 54 overseas police stations around the world, allegedly to target Communist Party critics. The Netherlands ordered China to close two police stations there in November. A month later, the Czech Republic said China had closed two such centers in Prague.
This Cyber News was published on www.securityweek.com. Publication date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 17:22:03 +0000