Why is China deep in US networks? 'They're preparing for war,' HR McMaster tells lawmakers Chinese government spies burrowed deep into American telecommunications systems and critical infrastructure networks for one reason, according to retired US Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. "Why is China on our systems? Because I think they're preparing for war," McMaster told lawmakers during the US House of Representatives …
I don't think it would even matter how hobbled the US is. All Xi has to do is bribe Trump with a plane or buy a billion of his cryptocrap and they can invade Taiwan while Trump hails it as a good thing because it'll force the US to become self sufficient in chip production.
The reason that China is in the telecommunications networks is purely down to corporations offshoring their capabilities and selecting the cheapest equipment that meets the specifications, so as to keep shareholders happy.
This is why Trump in his quantum sized wisdom has decided to implement tariffs, in the deluded hope it will bring back the companies to the USA.
Maybe if the western security services and governments had a bit of forethought, this situation would never have happened, and some of the western telecomms industries could have been saved.
The same tool can be employed to different ends. The post ww2 US policy has been to buttress their soft power, industry, and political reach.
China clearly has ambitions to unrivalled global influnce, but a far shorter history to gauge. Discounting military actions seems foolhardy.
No one stated that China would not use their capability in an act of war.
The Chinese product has been in the UK telecomms networks for 20+ years, and China was never planning to go to war.
What China has done is advanced its capabilities and wealth through selling to the western countries, to the detriment of western capability and technical prowess.
This was allowed to occur primarily due to western corporations wanting to make more money/profit, i.e. greed.
The US persons statement is hyperbole, based on the current administrations fuck ups and rhetoric to create an "enemy" as all fascist states have done in the past. This is not to state that the US is a fascist state, but their behaviour is mirroring one to some fair degree.
> This was allowed to occur primarily due to western corporations wanting to make more money/profit, i.e. greed.
That’s just capitalism. The blame lies at the feet of successive governments on both sides that did nothing to prevent it. From a strategic perspective, it’s as negligent as allowing your country to become entirely reliant of food imports.
Sheer stupidity. Remember, they just hijacked the existing "friendly" snooping systems. Plus, of course, greed, as Huawei kit is so cheap.
In developing nations, Huawei infrastructure is available on a 100% credit basis, so cash-strapped operators can upgrade. It even comes with hordes of integration engineers to make it go, all inclusive.
I said in the original post that greed got the better of many corporations, and yet, where were the security personell to assist the procurement at the tender stage of the equipment ?
I would have thought that any "friendly" snooping systems were already available in the new equipment being procured from China.... which indicates that security people were in the loop at the tender stage ?
Which means that they can't really complain as they were in it with eyes wide open.
That's why, to me, the "They're Preparing For War" was a rubbish statement, as they always knew what was going on and cannot complain.
...China's government are just establishing themselves as "the other superpower". Whilst the US spent decades post-cold war trying to be THE superpower compared to Russia, Russia has been and remains a pisspot country with a shrinking population less than half of the US, and an economy that barely scraps in above Spain. It hasn't been a superpower since the middle days of the Soviet Union. China on the other hand is fast growing, innovative country, although sadly an undemocratic and brutal one. Positioning itself in US and Western telecoms is hardly an act of war if the US have been busy doing the same for decades, is it?
Don't read this as a defence of or advert for China, or even a "let's do nothing" statement, I'm merely positing a different view about China's motivations.
This seems a more reasonable take than the fearmongering being reported on in the article. It seems obvious that the various intelligence apparatus of all nation states are constantly working on infiltrating the systems (human, electronic, or otherwise) of their rivals, without being in preparation for imminent warfare.
"Positioning itself in US and Western telecoms is hardly an act of war if the US have been busy doing the same for decades, is it?
Don't read this as a defence of or advert for China, or even a "let's do nothing" statement, I'm merely positing a different view about China's motivations."
There is no way but to read it like that, yet another defence of China but the useful idiots as they call them. China is no kind loving country doing any of this out of the goodness of their heart they are slimy murdering bastards with a list of crimes against humanity that goes on forever. The are already figthing war in Europe through their Russian and North Korean lapdogs they support not to mention all of the other places like Myanmar. Though in fairness the Yankee scum are hardly any better with all of the scummy things they have done trough history. But to somehow defend China as have no untoward motivations is laughable at best downright malicious misinformation at worst, who knows where you fall on the disgustingly bad side of that equation.
"But to somehow defend China as have no untoward motivations is laughable at best downright malicious misinformation at worst,
What are these "untoward motivations"? The US is armed to the teeth with a quite frankly ludicrous military, and you think that China should be meekly accepting it's place? May come as a surprise, but on purchasing power parity China's economy became larger than the US in 2015, and it will keep growing.
"who knows where you fall on the disgustingly bad side of that equation."
I'm not sure that our opinions of China are that different, merely that you seem (in my reading of your language) to have a view that China somehow shouldn't be allowed to arm itself in a manner commensurate with it's status in the world, and shouldn't be allowed to undertake the sort of espionage that all nations attempt to the best of their abilities.
There's some statecraft behaviours (especially by the Russians) that are utterly unacceptable and deserve to be hit back hard although that isn't really happening. But in general espionage, military showing off, and other forms of influence pedalling are the norm. If countries feel threatened by China, then it's their job to harden their defensive position, not the job of China to please others.
Just saying that China is looking out for its interests first and foremost is hardly defending China and the people doing this aren't 'useful idiots'. A useful idiot is typically someone like a British politician, someone who goes along with policies generated in Washington because of some mythical 'special relationship' even though more often than not those policies don't further the interests of the British people as a whole. I was born and brought up in the UK and I can recall countless occasions where government deferred to the US even though it meant less for us, in fact it got so bad that eventually I just went "Sod it, I'm off -- if we're going to always play second fiddle to the Americans I might as well join them, at least I'll get paid a half decent salary and I wouldn't have to put up with an obsolete, but still pervasive, class system".
We've got our problems here, problems that dwarf the UK's. One of the biggest is the loss of technological leadership. "Volt Typhoon" is a good example. There's plenty of paranoia and bravado of the "Brandy and Cigars in the War Room" sort but a half competent society would have easily dealt with any malware and hardened critical systems against intrusion. Its easy enough to do, but since corporate America is like the UK, its primarily interested in RoI rather than product, nothing ever gets fixed unless there's fast money to be made in the process.
they are slimy murdering bastards with a list of crimes against humanity that goes on forever
Ever heard of the CIA? And I wouldn't exactly call the US a shining example of humanitarian behaviour. If you believe that you should stop watching Hollywood movies.
No side is without blame, and there is less and less reason to believe whatever the White House spouts.
Positioning itself in US and Western telecoms is hardly an act of war if the US have been busy doing the same for decades, is it?
It's apparently gone beyond intelligence collection now though, this is why the US is suddenly rattled (in a way they weren't but probably should have been when the CCP were merely stealing next-gen stealth fighter designs etc over the last 25 years): https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa24-038a
"The U.S. authoring agencies have confirmed that Volt Typhoon has compromised the IT environments of multiple critical infrastructure organizations—primarily in Communications, Energy, Transportation Systems, and Water and Wastewater Systems Sectors—in the continental and non-continental United States and its territories, including Guam. Volt Typhoon’s choice of targets and pattern of behavior is not consistent with traditional cyber espionage or intelligence gathering operations, and the U.S. authoring agencies assess with high confidence that Volt Typhoon actors are pre-positioning themselves on IT networks to enable lateral movement to OT assets to disrupt functions."
The most charitable explanation is that having hired hordes of cyberwarriors and pointed them at US networks they've ended up compromising all kinds of low-hanging fruit that wasn't particularly a target, just because they can, because it might be helpful, and because it's cheap to do. But even in that case it's easy to see how the realisation of the capability might feed-back into foreign policy.
Perhaps a more realistic explanation is they want as many levers as possible to pull or threaten to pull by 2027 when they aim (as they would put it:) to secure their territorial integrity that's been compromised for the last 75 years, without the US intervening.
Whatever the reason I think the potential for foreign-soil sabotage (particularly the grey-area warfare/deniability angle) is quite unprecedented in major power conflicts historically, and that itself makes it difficult and risky to deal with.
Alternatively…
Whilst we should question just what China are doing in an infrastructure that is so secure, that has taken lone teenagers working in their bedroom’s after school to breech. What is also clear the US military needs a new threat, given how much the current administration have aligned themselves with Putin, and are spouting Fox News style rubbish about China (eg. ” Students or spies? The young Chinese caught in Trump's crosshairs” ).
So retired US Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster is just doing his bit to ensure the US armed forces continue to get funding….
However, given some years back there was a Chatham Hoouse session where a retired (?) UK General made an observation about how vulnerable our underseas cables were and because many did not understand they dismissed the threat…
This is maybe a bit of whatabouterism, but I couldn't help wondering in just how many countries the NSA has its grubby fingers, especially with help of the CIA and the collective Tech Bros.
If you analyse US law it's clear that they have assembled ample self serving justifications to legalise their activities, and with Trump in play they don't even have to, also because Trump seems to like handing out the gathered product if his Mar-a-Lago document storage habits were any indication.
From that perspective you could consider China's actions a defensive move. Not that it justifies any of it (of any party), but not unexpected.
I suppose there's an equivalent to Fox Cable News in the UK but even so for people brought up with organizations like the BBC and ITN it may be difficult to really comprehend what it is and how it works. Whenever I see it I'm always gobsmacked by it because its not a different perspective, an alternative point of view, but rather its a completely different reality, one that's often openly divorced from reality. It tells you what you want to believe, not what actually 'is'.
This seemingly unrelated information is highly relevant because Trump's administration is peopled with ex-Fox personalities. Since the 'purges' (for want of a better word) have either removed or cowed anyone who holds a contradictory view to the administration we've now got a government that's an echo chamber for rumors, paranoia, prejudice etc. So a discussion like this, something that's seemingly relevant and important, is really just a bunch of made up BS. Again, this wouldn't matter in the larger scheme of things except that while we're chasing our tails inside our national reality bubble the rest of the world -- including China -- is carrying on. They don't really mind us acting delusional, its to their advantage. From a nationalistic perspective it really is to their advantage if we self-immolate.
We would serve both our own interests and humanity's interests best by not taking this lot seriously. Question everything.
“Whitmore said that her company blocks as many as 31 billion cyberattacks on a daily basis, and up to 9 million of these every day are new, never-before-seen attack methods”
31 BILLION attacks per day?
Even if every single machine under attack was running Windows, I somehow doubt that 9 MILLION attacks PER DAY are using “new and never-before-seen” methods”
I think “bollocks” would be an appropriate analysis of these figures
Even if every single machine under attack was running Windows, I somehow doubt that 9 MILLION attacks PER DAY are using “new and never-before-seen” methods”
Well, it IS Windows. You know, from the outfit that had to put all its updates on a schedule so you could actually get some work done in between? You'd think that after hauling in literally terabytes worth of updates over the years they would have closed most of the colander they jokingly term an Operating System, but no, they then produce a NEW version to make sure you don't cancel your subscription out of fear you miss the one update that is important.
Good thing the Trump-n-Elon Show is gutting cybersecurity (mostly cuz they confirmed the 2020 election had been fair).
Not for the first time: Trump was elected partially on tough-on-China diatribes. But his presidency seems more and more like a great opportunity for China, from driving away allies, to crippling the US economy to ditching science.
Presidency-by-Fox-News-sentiment ain't all it was Trumpeted up to be ...
It's likely more about SIGINT. Traffic flying through the switches even if encrypted still has the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) and IMS (International Mobile Subscriber Identity)I visible. In China you have to produce a passport or identity card to purchase a SIM. If I know you are a "reprobate" then the SIGINT (likely from watching the packets fly through your switches which all have LIGports (lawful intercept gateway)) - doesn't matter if it's Huawei or Cisco they are obligatory, then I can see which probable miscreants you are communicating with even if I can't see the encrypted data packets.
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