In “no shit sherlock” news, China and it’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) (AKA The People’s Propaganda Posse) has leveled serious allegations against the United States, alleging that since 2009, American forces have penetrated Huawei’s servers, pilfered vital data, and covertly installed backdoors, in a climate of intensifying geopolitical friction between the two nations.
In an official statement issued on the social media platform WeChat (The only platfom not banned in China), the MSS accused U.S intelligence bodies of resorting to “every conceivable means” to perpetrate surveillance, covert theft, and cyber intrusions globally, including in China, armed with their formidable cyber warfare tools. Noteworthy specifics of the alleged cyber-attacks, however, remained undisclosed.
China Claims NSA Is To Blame
The statement pointedly implicated the U.S. National Security Agency’s (NSA) Computer Network Operations, formerly known as the Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO), alleging that it systematically executed platform-based attacks on China with the intention of appropriating “important data resources.”
In a detailed account, the MSS asserted that NSA had infiltrated Huawei’s computing systems back in 2009. Moreover, it alleged that the agency had orchestrated “tens of thousands of malicious network attacks” on Chinese domestic entities, such as Northwestern Polytechnical University, in an attempt to clandestinely drain sensitive data. The MSS initially made these allegations in September 2022.
Chinese Don’t Want to Go On a Second Date With NSA
Additionally, the MSS contended that the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre (NCVERC) in China, while responding to an incident at the public research university, came across a piece of alleged NSA-created spyware named “Second Date”, which had clandestinely infected “thousands of network devices” in various countries.
Initial reports about Second Date surfaced last week in South China Morning Post and China Daily, characterizing it as a cross-platform malware capable of monitoring, intercepting, and contaminating network traffic. The malware purportedly set its scope on Germany, Japan, South Korea, India, and Taiwan.
China Has Been Denying Our Sick Dance Moves for 10 Years
An Instrumental Part of US Cyber Command’s New Training Involves Popping, Locking, and Doing the Worm
The MSS further asserted that for over a decade, the U.S. intelligence agencies have continually exploited their cyber warfare arsenal to conduct cyber-espionage operations against China, Russia, and 45 other global regions, targeting sectors ranging from telecommunications and scientific research to economy, energy, and military.
The MSS statement further alleged that the U.S. had strong-armed tech enterprises into integrating backdoors in their software and equipment for the purpose of cyber espionage and data theft and made specific references to companies like X-Mode Social and Anomaly Six, both known for their mobile tracking capabilities.
The MSS’s statement addressed longstanding suspicions about the extent of the U.S.’s cyber activities, stating: “The United States has long leveraged its technological edge to eavesdrop on a global scale, carrying out cyber theft operations even against its allies, with China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea as its principal targets.”
US Cyber Command “Not Cool” According to Chinese
According to the MSS, the U.S. has strived to present itself as a victim of cyber-attacks and has pressured and wooed other nations into joining its ‘clean network’ initiative, all under the pretext of protecting network security while attempting to exclude Chinese firms from the international network market.
In response to Microsoft’s revelation in July 2023 about a China-linked espionage operation, codenamed Storm-0558, which had targeted two dozen organizations in the U.S. and Europe, China had retorted by dubbing the U.S. as “the world’s biggest hacking empire and global cyber thief.”
On August 1, 2023, the MSS made its first appearance on WeChat, underscoring the importance of countering espionage endeavors and inviting citizens to notify any suspicious activities, promising protection and rewards for their collaboration.
