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China Government Privacy Security Politics

China Expresses Concern at Revelations in Wikileaks Dump of Hacked CIA Data (reuters.com) 122

China has expressed concern over revelations in a trove of data released by Wikileaks purporting to show that the CIA can hack all manner of devices, including those made by Chinese companies. From a report on Reuters: Dozens of firms rushed to contain the damage from possible security weak points following the anti-secrecy organization's revelations, although some said they needed more details of what the U.S. intelligence agency was up to. Widely-used routers from Silicon Valley-based Cisco were listed as targets, as were those supplied by Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE and Taiwan supplier Zyxel for their devices used in China and Pakistan. "We urge the U.S. side to stop listening in, monitoring, stealing secrets and internet hacking against China and other countries," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing.
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China Expresses Concern at Revelations in Wikileaks Dump of Hacked CIA Data

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  • China should worry (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09, 2017 @09:45AM (#54006237)

    Perhaps China should be *more* worried about the people who hacked the CIA, rather than the CIA? If there are all these security holes in Chinese made kit, then the Russians will be exploiting them just as much as the CIA.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09, 2017 @10:20AM (#54006475)

      The Chinese are probably more concerned that their backdoors have been found than anything else.

      • They're not backdoors, they're front doors. The typical Chinese product is mostly a collection of security holes tied together with buffer overflows and XSS, there's so much there it's not like you need any actual skill to exploit them. OK, there are backdoors as well, or more accurately phone-homes, but it's hard to spot them in the mass of front doors, side windows, and roof hatches.
    • by gnick ( 1211984 ) on Thursday March 09, 2017 @10:21AM (#54006483) Homepage

      Perhaps China should be *more* worried about the people who hacked the CIA, rather than the CIA?

      Maybe, but I think it's far more likely to be a leak than a hack.

      If there are all these security holes in Chinese made kit, then the Russians will be exploiting them just as much as the CIA.

      Well, the Russians now know about these vulnerabilities as well as the ones they've discovered on their own - Just like every other country with a cyber-warfare division. You have to assume that there was some overlap - The Russians were likely already exploiting some of these holes. The big difference now is that we have a large number of cards on the table. Oops.

    • That would make sense if the CIA had been hacked. All indications are that contractors working for the CIA gave the info to Wikileaks, so it wasn't a hack.

    • Let's add US Citizen's living within the US to the list of "please stop monitoring our communications plz" list.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    d-link is safe from prying eyes everything is good.

  • Tough (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09, 2017 @09:47AM (#54006249)

    As a Canadian, it's become harder and harder to decide which country is the least hostile between the U.S.A., China and Russia.

    I like most Americans, but your government? Yuck.

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      As a Canadian, it's become harder and harder to decide which country is the least hostile between the U.S.A., China and Russia.

      I like most Americans, but your government? Yuck.

      Then you're an idiot. The Senators and Congressmen/women are the expression of the American electorate. The only difference is that they are rich while more than half the country is not. Americans are bastard racists, imperialists and hell bent on world domination (if not through direct military intervention then through economic coercion or putting military bases in countries whose people are against it). It's like the Google "do no evil" mantra. Americans do evil in the world, it's just their stupid infot

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Americans are bastard racists, imperialists and hell bent on world domination (if not through direct military intervention then through economic coercion or putting military bases in countries whose people are against it). It's like the Google "do no evil" mantra. Americans do evil in the world, it's just their stupid infotainment propagando doesn't inform them at all.

        If Canadians, French, Germans, British etc had a country the same size and power as the Americans, they would act the same way. Human nature is universal.

        • by DedTV ( 1652495 )
          If anyone thinks Canada, France, Germany an Britain don't already do the same things, they're delusional. Every country with any economic resources at all is spying on everyone they possibly can. It's just that the most powerful nations that proclaim to be in favor of democracy and freedom are scrutinized for hypocrisies and when discovered, have those hypocrisies exposed.
      • by OhPlz ( 168413 )

        Has Québec signed the Canadian Constitution yet or are the Canadian imperialists in Ottawa still asserting dominance over it?

      • Complete distortion of reality and a generalization fallacy. The majority of Americans are not imperialist war mongering bigots as you claim, the majority want to be left alone to pursue a career, family, and make their lives a little better. They don't care who their neighbors are as long as they respect Liberty in the same way they do. That is the majority, and what is represented in Congress and Senate. We protested the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and demanded no action in Syria. What was do

    • Re:Tough (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09, 2017 @10:12AM (#54006429)

      Dude, your govt is just as guilty. They are part of Five Eyes. Have you never heard of any of this stuff?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      Every major country spies - even Canada (ever hear of CSIS? https://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/in... [csis-scrs.gc.ca] ).

      The real question is what they do with the information they're looking for. Do they conduct industrial espionage and give/sell it to companies who then can crush the competition? http://www.afr.com/technology/... [afr.com] (Note, not conclusively proven, but pretty scary potential example nonetheless, and a Canada-centric one at that)

      Do they use it to try and influence democratic elections and destabilize peaceful pol
    • Yes Anonymous, which country spies more.. Hmm, that's a tough one. Both of the finger pointing at each other is funny and would be good fodder for a comedian.
    • Try being over here. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I'm now getting hate from Liberals and Conservatives alike for being a moderate. It got lost in all the 'OMG Libtards going APESHIT' 'Conservatives rubbing it in Libtards faces' drama the media was pushing, but the major concern of the election shouldn't have been who won, it was that the popular vote was ALMOST EVENLY DIVIDED ACROSS PARTY LINES.

      That should have recieved a lot more discussion, and a small bit of it was coming out recently: Liberals and conservatives have dramatically different ideas of what

    • If you really believe your own government isn't doing this, you're fairly naive. "oh, we're good, and all you bad fellows out there, don't trust you!".

    • by aod7br ( 573614 )
      That's the face the US shows to the outside world, to Brazil inclusively. One thing is the American People, the other is what the US government does around the world, but the American People has to be held accountable because only them can stop their government. Now that it has been proved that CIA is interplaying with internal agencies, I hope things change.
    • The answer now is pretty damn obvious. Check back in 4 years, though.
  • ...... what? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09, 2017 @09:48AM (#54006271)

    "We urge the U.S. side to stop listening in, monitoring, stealing secrets and internet hacking against China and other countries," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing.

    really?????? thats funny coming from china, the king of stealing IP

    • man all the chinese are on this thread downvoting everyone who is saying what everyone is thinking now arent they???
      • Re:...... what? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by gnick ( 1211984 ) on Thursday March 09, 2017 @10:45AM (#54006617) Homepage

        That's sure the way it seems. This is an obvious case of pot/kettle. I'm sure our response would be the same if the tables were turned. We all act shocked when the other guy is exposed for the same activities that intelligence agencies all over the world surely take part in. The Chinese stand out because the economic espionage is so prevalent.

    • Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
      [a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
      Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
      Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
    • They know perfetcly well that this has been going on for years - I suspect that a certain level of spying is actually not frowned upon by the countries targeted as much as people imagine; when you know somebody is spying, you also know something about what those behind the activities are interested in and capable of, and have a sense of what their motivation and thinking are. And of course, everybody's at it, so the moral outrage is somewhat limited. But once the spying becomes public knowledge, it would lo

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09, 2017 @09:57AM (#54006335)

    China is just mad that the CIA is using the backdoors installed in the equipment they build.

  • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Thursday March 09, 2017 @10:01AM (#54006349) Homepage Journal

    How many of those product back doors in items sold to the USA are there at the request of the Chinese government? We do this, it would be insane to believe they didn't. Much face-flapping about nothing.

    • by Blig ( 1167531 )
      There just pointing fingers right now to try and hide the fact that they're just as guilty.
      • by Blig ( 1167531 )

        There just pointing fingers right now to try and hide the fact that they're just as guilty.

        Oops, supposed to be "They're" not "There". There, I grammar nazi'd myself. How about that?

  • Irony? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DatbeDank ( 4580343 ) on Thursday March 09, 2017 @10:02AM (#54006355)
    This is a prime example of the pot calling the kettle black.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      There is no evidence of China hacking and putting its own citizens at risk on anything like the scale of the NSA/CIA. When China wants a backdoor they just ask the manufacturer to insert one, so they don't need to rely on zero day exploits, for example.

      • Maybe I'm missing something, but the GP is 100% correct. This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. I fail to see how China making a manufacturer insert a backdoor is any "better" than relying on zero-day. This is just another hypocritical points-scoring exercise by a government.
        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Because if they do it openly they need only install a government owned SSH key. Everyone knows it is there, it can't be exploited any more than any other SSH key, the only loss of security is that the government has a way in. It's almost like having another user account, and if it does ever got compromised at least you can just turn it off and wait for a new government key.

          With an exploit anyone who finds it gets in. There is no way to protect yourself until the vendor supplies a patch, which may never happ

      • Re:Irony? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Khyber ( 864651 ) <techkitsune@gmail.com> on Thursday March 09, 2017 @10:47AM (#54006633) Homepage Journal

        "There is no evidence of China hacking and putting its own citizens at risk on anything like the scale of the NSA/CIA."

        Falun Gong. Holy shit do you even pay attention?

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          What technical measures have they used against Falun Gong that compromised IT security? Do Falun Gong make their own brand of routers with special Falun Gong firmware?

          I'm not saying they don't abuse their citizens, they clearly do. It's just that they don't bother hiding the fact that they can read your email and require companies to give them full access, rather than using zero day exploits. One is legal (in China) and doesn't compromise security much (it's just another user account with database access, s

      • Are you kidding? The ENTIRE Chinese Internet is monitored- The Great Firewall.
        And if you don't understand why backdoors are ripe for being exploited....I'm at a loss for words.

  • China: "They can't do that to our equipment. Only we can do that to our equipment."

  • by JustNiz ( 692889 ) on Thursday March 09, 2017 @10:06AM (#54006385)

    A political point-scoring game, nothing more.

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday March 09, 2017 @10:09AM (#54006415)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Indeed. It would be weird (and to my mind deeply worrying) if China didn't issue this sort of diplomatic nothing.

      I know many folks these days are too young to remember the Cold War, but this is what superpowers do. They engage in a slightly more polite version of schoolyard taunts whenever one of their peers has any sort of public embarrassment. It's part of how you maintain your diplomatic face. It's protocol.

  • . . . . irony, indeed, from a nation with a well-established formal hacking infrastructure, both military and corporate. . .

  • by Kagato ( 116051 ) on Thursday March 09, 2017 @10:14AM (#54006441)

    Without poorly made Chinese IoT devices we wouldn't have the DDOS attacks that currently plague the internet. If you make them secure from DDOS you'll do just fine with national state attacks.

    • Without a retarded internet architecture we wouldn't have DDOS's either. The most popular programming languages, OS architectures and the internet almost all seem to designed to be abuseable. Retaining fundamental design flaws we knew about decades ago.

      It's only now with Apple forcing privacy and security down their competitor's throat simply to be able to compete that things are improving (I fucking hate Apple, but they do provide some value).

  • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Thursday March 09, 2017 @10:18AM (#54006455)

    show that the CIA can hack all manner of devices, including those made by Chinese companies.

    Isn't that redundant? Aren't the vast majority of devices made in China, including the ones they've ripped off from everyone else? Of course they can be hacked, it's the same product with a different face.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Dear China.

    You first.

    Sincerely,
    The IC.

  • by evolutionary ( 933064 ) on Thursday March 09, 2017 @10:34AM (#54006551)
    We accuse people of hacking our systems, but we are doing it in turn. No surprise. And what do we expect the Chinese to say with these finding? Of course they are doing it, and we are doing it. Everybody's doing it now. We seem to be like children: "Why can't I, everybody else is?". It's like the arms race with nuclear weapons, expect we are using these weapons and they are easy to make publicly accessible. (As the frequent leaks are proving).

    What I'd really like to know is why aren't US citizens showing their outrage at having their basic constitutional right to privacy as well as due process to search of private data (which often resides in their home) violated on a daily (more likely many. many times per day) basis. Americans' need to stand up for what they say they believe in.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Most. People. Don't. See. Themselves. As. Targets.

      The police could come and drag your neighbor away and you'd stand there sipping your coffee and not know jack from shit. It's only when they come FOR YOU that it becomes an issue

      For reference see: Every totalitarian State ever

    • What I'd really like to know is why aren't US citizens showing their outrage at having their basic constitutional right to privacy as well as due process to search of private data (which often resides in their home) violated on a daily (more likely many. many times per day) basis. Americans' need to stand up for what they say they believe in.

      OK. I'll explain it to you. Short version - you're basically the old man yelling for the kids to stay off his lawn but you don't realize it. Society has changed and you are stuck in how things used to be, not how they are.

      Today's millennials grow up with all aspects of their life documented on video and publicly available for viewing. Even stupid things. I'm sure most of us have read about crimes that some dumb young person will do, get a friend to record it to video on a cell phone, share it publ

      • Actually, you don't need a court order to search private data as Snowden revealed. The so called "Fisa Court" is actually a rubber stamp. So there is no due process in fact for searching anyone's data. Yes People in the USA probably gave up their basic constitutional rights since they allow the initial version of the so-called "Patriot Act" to go forth, which Obama expanded every year he was in office. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who give up their civil liberties for a little extra safety deserve neit
      • And no, I'm not accepting the reality of it. It's kind of like rolling over and dying which I'm not prepared to do. Nor are other heroic whistle blowers out there. I'm pretty sure many people said "accept the reality" of thing like racial segregation, gay rights, and women's right to vote. If you accept it, it's true. Only by not accepting what the forces at large tell you do things actually improve.
    • > Americans' need to stand up for what they say they believe in.

      They don't believe in it. They're just regurgitating those phrases, because they heard it so many times during their upbringing.
      It's called programming.

      Even if they believed in it, people that make the rules don't.

    • What I'd really like to know is why aren't US citizens showing their outrage at having their basic constitutional right to privacy as well as due process to search of private data (which often resides in their home) violated on a daily (more likely many. many times per day) basis. Americans' need to stand up for what they say they believe in.

      And how would you suggest this be done? The standard is: Soap Box, Ballot Box, Ammo Box.

      We have done the soap box and the ballot box and got fucked off. HARD.

      Are there other steps that can be taken between ballot box and ammo box because I am not seeing any. Your perception that Americans do not give a fuck is evidence that the media control is very effective.

  • Could you please contains the massive 25000 hits I get from your country each day? Then, perhaps, we'll try to stop hacking your butt off.

    Tx.

  • China is far more concerned that now all Chinese citizens will know their own government spies on them using the backdoors they built into all the TVs and cell phones they made.

    They care nothing about the US impact, only propping up their government.

  • "We urge the U.S. side to stop listening in, monitoring, stealing secrets and internet hacking against China and other countries," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing.

    And I urge China to stop with the intense industrial espionage, including disassembly of a satellite they were hired to launch. And of course stop the spying in the US [wikipedia.org]. China places "students" in US Universities and then encourages the hiring of them by US defense and technology companies. They take a trad

  • I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

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