Dec 22, 2020 19:00:00

What is the history of the information warfare with China told by former CIA and NSA officials?

It was reported that a

group of hackers connected to the Chinese government was launching a large-scale hacking attack targeting Japanese companies, and suspicions that China wastracking American mobile phones emerged. Cyber attacks have become a big problem. Cybersecurity writer Zack Dorhunman interviewed former National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials to explain how China decided to focus on cyberattacks. I am.

China's Secret War for US Data Blew American Spies' Cover
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/21/china-stolen-us-data-exposed-cia-operatives-spy-networks/

In the 2000s, the main means for the United States to obtain confidential information about China was to bribe bureaucrats. At that time, most bureaucrats received bribes, and bureaucrats who did not receive bribes were more suspicious. The amount of bribes depends on the information held by bureaucrats, and bureaucrats with particularly important information were paid hundreds of millions of yen in bribes. Information obtained from bureaucrats has kept the United States informed of China's confidential information in great detail.

China has strict information controls, but in the 2010s, high-ranking government officials' corruption scandals began to be reported daily. As a result, President Hu Jintao said in 2012 to deal with corruption, 'If we do not improve this corrupt situation, there is a danger of a failed state.' After that, anti-spy measures by China will be strictly enforced. In the second half of 2012, it is carried out large-scale anti-corruption campaign by Xi Jinping Jintao, was cooperating with the information collected by the US

officials amounting to hundreds of thousands indictment has been. It also put a lot of pressure on the people to keep confidential information, such as taking Chinese people living overseas who could leak state secrets back to mainland China in a manner similar to kidnapping .

In addition, in 2013, Edward Snowden by Mr. information that was leaked from, NSA is a leading communication company in China Huawei be from the server are stealing the information found Then, now Chinese authorities have a strong wariness ..

From 2010 to 2012, China's data collection methods became more sophisticated. A former NSA executive said, 'The previous method of collecting information by China was to steal a large amount of data containing the desired information. However, the method of collecting data was refined and broke into the server. , We have put in place a system that allows you to select and obtain only the desired information. '

Using this system, China made a

large-scale hack against the US Government's Human Resources Administration (OPM), and sensitive data such as health information, fingerprints, and financial data of 21.5 million US government officials It was announced in 2015 that he was stealing. According to a former CIA executive, it is unknown when the damage began, but traces of unauthorized access have been found since 2012.

Around the same time that the OPM was hacked, an incident occurred in which information on CIA staff who belonged to the Moscow embassy was identified in Russia using the difference in salary between CIA staff and general staff. It has been pointed out that OPM data acquired by China is being used in this case.

In addition, it has become clear that the behavior of CIA personnel has been tracked by China since the time the OPM hack was discovered. This tracking was usually detected only by the CIA's very advanced tracking counter-technique, but sometimes there were obvious traces. The CIA speculates that China is 'watching' and intentionally leaving traces to cause confusion.

By 2010, the information network that the United States had spread both inside and outside China had collapsed, and on the contrary, cyber attacks by China intensified. Dorfman concludes that dealing with China's attacks requires further debate.