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China Has Abandoned a Cybersecurity Truce With the US, Report Says (bloomberg.com)
Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike says China has largely abandoned a hacking truce negotiated by Barack Obama as President Trump embarked on a trade war with Beijing last year. "A slowdown in Chinese hacking following the cybersecurity agreement Obama's administration secured in 2015 appears to have been reversed, the firm said in a report released Tuesday that reviewed cyber activity by U.S. adversaries in 2018," reports Bloomberg. From the report: The report comes as the Trump administration seeks to reach a trade deal with China, including provisions on intellectual property theft, ahead of a March 1 deadline. Trump has said he may extend that deadline and hold off on increasing tariffs on Chinese imports if there's progress in the talks. China's hacking targets in 2018 included telecommunications systems in the U.S. and Asia, according to Crowdstrike. Groups linked to Iran and Russia also appeared to target telecommunications, a sector that yields "the most bang for your buck" for hackers due to the large number of users that can be accessed after breaching a single network, Meyers said.
The findings align with concern in the U.S. about telecommunications security as the country transitions to the next generation of mobile networks and the Trump administration seeks to secure so-called 5G technology from foreign intelligence gathering. The administration has expressed particular concern about the spread of products made by the Chinese firm Huawei Technologies Co. The report also mentions the increased cyber activity in other parts of the world. "Iran focused much of its cyber activity on Middle Eastern and North African countries while Russia engaged in intelligence collection and information operations worldwide," the report says. "North Korea deployed hackers for financial gain and intelligence collection, while China targeted sectors including technology, manufacturing and hospitality."
The findings align with concern in the U.S. about telecommunications security as the country transitions to the next generation of mobile networks and the Trump administration seeks to secure so-called 5G technology from foreign intelligence gathering. The administration has expressed particular concern about the spread of products made by the Chinese firm Huawei Technologies Co. The report also mentions the increased cyber activity in other parts of the world. "Iran focused much of its cyber activity on Middle Eastern and North African countries while Russia engaged in intelligence collection and information operations worldwide," the report says. "North Korea deployed hackers for financial gain and intelligence collection, while China targeted sectors including technology, manufacturing and hospitality."
Be nice to us economically or face random hacks... we will also tell your citizens that you would not be nice to us and "negotiate" so they will get mad at you about it too.
China is terrible country that is far worse than America. I don't have a problem with cutting ties with that disgusting nation until they stop abusing their citizens. It like someone coming to your door and saying... I want you to sell me your house for 20% off or I am going to harass your neighborhood and watching your fellow neighbor getting pissed off at your for refusing to let bad people get their way!
Sadly, it works too! Just look at this article!
What this really means is that China's ability to obtain companies' IP through other means (e.g. espionage or via Chinese law) are not as effective as they once were or hoped they would be. The policy of the Chinese government has been "China first and to hell with the rest of you" long before Trump paraded out his "America First" line. China only does things that will benefit China and therefore the truce was part of that calculation. Now that things have changed and/or it's proven to not be as effective as hoped/expected (e.g. beefed up security and/or higher awareness by US companies), the Chinese government has resumed their normal hacking operations to steal IP. Alternatively, they predicted a massive influx of US companies that would be handing over their IP to China which hasn't panned out as expected. Anyway it goes, they were expecting to get more of the IP from US companies and it didn't happen and their response is to take it by hacking into companies.
Note: I'm not claiming superiority in any regard, I'm just explaining the thought process that dictates their actions. (Take your whataboutism and shove it because this is about China.)
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