China warns citizens to beware backdoored devices, on land and under the sea China’s Ministry of State Security has spent the week warning of backdoored devices on land and at sea. On Monday, the Ministry used its WeChat channel to publish a lengthy warning about backdoors in devices and supply chain attacks on software. The post explains that some developers and manufacturers install backdoors as …
The post explains that some developers and manufacturers install backdoors as innocent tools to allow maintenance, but that criminals later use them for nefarious purposes.
And so are hidden admin/root accounts.
avoid foreign technology products and buy local instead
And some of those "local" products have even worse security compliance.
>The Snowdon disclosures of 2013 show the NSA had considerable prior art in this field. I particularly liked the COTTONMOUTH devices that had the spy electronics concealed in RJ45 and USB sockets.
I always wondered about that creepy sensation I got around those molded connectors . . . .
Of course every government does its best to spy on both national and foreign subjects. It's indeed quite ridiculous to see all of them shouting "SPY!" one another. And of course the victims are always the plebes, that means us. We cannot chose not to be spied upon, but only who spies upon us.
"The post explains that some developers and manufacturers install backdoors as innocent tools to allow maintenance, but that criminals later use them for nefarious purposes."
Gosh, about time I see an official (even though they are chinese) stating backdoors are used by innocent people and criminals equally !
Need to make note of that, EU !
April 2025
The public security bureau in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Tuesday issued a wanted notice with a bounty for three agents from the US National Security Agency (NSA) for their involvement in cyberattacks targeting the 9th Asian Winter Games held in Harbin in February.
Katheryn A Wilson, Robert J. Snelling and Stephen W. Johnson - all from the NSA's Office of Tailored Access Operation - were involved in cyberattacks against the information systems during the Asian Winter Games, according to a police statement. Investigations revealed that the three participated in cyberattacks targeting China's critical network infrastructures and enterprises, including Huawei.
During the Obama/Biden Administration , Edward Snowden leak secret NSA documents showing that the Obama/Biden Administration was spying on:
*German Chancellor Angela Merkel:
*Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and other top Brazilian officials.
*Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto (before he was elected President.)
*French President Francois Hollande, French citizens, And the official residence of the French President.
*BUT MOST OUTRAGEOUS OF ALL:
Edward Snowden revealed that The Obama/Biden Administration was conducting mass surveillance on its own citizens through programs such as PRISM and XKeyscore
during the Obama/Biden administration, a leaked CIA account revealed that between 2010 and 2012 AT LEAST 30 SPIES working for the CIA had been executed in China (others were jailed) after the Chinese cracked a US secret communications network
GOOGLE:
Botched CIA communication system cost the lives of 30 CIA spies in China In 2010 to 2012
Aug 8, 2023
China arrests arms company employee for passing secrets as CIA spy
The arrest of the 52-year-old defence worker comes at a time of increasing anti-espionage rhetoric from Beijing and Washington
The accused was recruited while on a study tour to Italy and paid to provide ‘core information’, China’s anti-espionage agency said
The announcement by the Ministry of State Security – Beijing’s top intelligence and counter-intelligence agency – comes less than a month after CIA head William Burns said the US agency had “ made progress” in rebuilding its spy networks in China.
It also coincides with a ramping up of anti-espionage rhetoric from both Beijing and Washington.
In a rare move, the ministry named the CIA and spelled out that the 52-year-old defence worker, surnamed Zeng, had been recruited by the agency.
Jack Teixeira, a member of the national guard
was arrested in April 2023,
He is accused of sharing top-secret intelligence with friends in the social-media forum Discord over the course of months—
Leaked Documents reveal that
The US has been SPYING on:
.
*Russia and Wagner Group
.
*Israel
.
*S.Korea.
.
*Egypt
.
*The head of the UN
.
*Zelenski
.
*Jordan.
*Hungary
.
*Turkey
.
*UAE
.
*Germany
.
*UK
.
*Brazil and
.
*CHINA
On July 20, 2023 CIA Director William Burns gave remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in a fireside chat moderated by NPR’s "All Things Considered" Co-Host, Mary Louise Kelly.
William Burns: Yeah. We’ve made progress and we’re working very hard over recent years to ensure that we have strong human intelligence capability (in China) to complement what we can acquire through other methods.
Responding to Burns’ comments, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, “This is rather concerning. The US on the one hand keeps spreading disinformation on so-called ‘Chinese spying and cyber attacks,’ and on the other hand tells the public about its large-scale intelligence activities targeting China.” She added that China will “take all measures necessary to safeguard national security.”
In 2001, a presidential plane built in the United States for Chinese President Jiang Zemin was found to have listening devices installed.[11]: 53 Chinese authorities located at least 20 devices, including one in the headboard of the presidential bed.[12] The listening devices were capable of being operated via satellite.[12]
Sun Bo, a general manager of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, was investigated for corruption and supplying classified information to the CIA, including technical specifications of the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, according to Asia Times.
Sun Bo was sentenced to 12 years in prison on July 4, 2019.
In October 2021, The New York Times citing a leaked CIA cable, reported that the CIA had admitted to have lost a "troubling number of informants" recruited from countries including China in recent years, with informants being killed, captured or compromised. The leaked cable comes amid China's recent efforts in hunting down CIA sources to turn them into double agents.
The memo also mentions a "breach of the classified communications system" that led to spy networks in China being caught and that some officials believe that treasonous US intelligence officers may be the culprits responsible for the arrests and execution of CIA spies.[22]
BEIJING, Dec 18, 2024 (Reuters) - China's national internet emergency response centre said on Wednesday it had found and dealt with two incidents of U.S. cyber attacks on Chinese tech firms to "steal trade secrets" since May 2023.
The National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Centre of China said in a statement published on its website that an advanced materials design and research unit and a large-scale high-tech company focused on intelligent energy and digital information were "suspected of being attacked by a U.S. intelligence agency", without naming the agency.
The hacks led to the theft of "a large amount of trade secrets" in both cases, said CNCERT/CC, which says it is a non-governmental technical centre that serves as China's "national computer emergency response team", with the aim of preventing and detecting cybersecurity threats to the country.
After years of being accused by Western governments of cyberattacks and industrial espionage, in the past two years several Chinese organisations and government organs have accused the United States and its allies of similar behaviour.
In March 2022, China had faced a wave of cyberattacks, mostly traced back to the United States but with a few from other countries such as Germany and the Netherlands.
These attacks took control of computers in China and used them to carry out cyberattacks on Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, it said
All countries spy on each other. Remember the Chinese weather balloon that flew over the Pacific and across the Continental US a few years ago? Probably was spying but was a little bit more obvious. It took an F-22 jet to shoot it down off of the Carolinas. Tech whether it is made in a country is always hackable especially if it can be accessed through a network or radio waves. Some countries may include a "backdoor" in their products. Hackers are good at finding vulnerabilities in devices. Hacking can be for businesses and also for countries. I think we all need to consider that what we are doing online isn't private and take steps to make it harder for us to be spied upon. Firewalls, VPNs, and other means help.
