Cyber relations between China and the United States fell to a new low over the weekend
Following the accusations of the APT1 report of a year ago, the naming of five Chinese nationals last week saw the first move to name individuals suspected of attacking, hacking and stealing from US businesses.
According to Reuters,a report prepared by the Chinese Academy of Cyber Space claimed that America too had undertaken spying operations against China, and these had “gone far beyond the legal rationale of ‘anti-terrorism’ and have exposed the ugly face of its pursuit of self-interest in complete disregard for moral integrity.”
The publication accused the United States of “waging large-scale cyber-attacks” against the Chinese Government and leaders, against Chinese companies, scientific research institutes and ordinary users and a large number of cell phone users,” the report said. Also a target was Huawei Technologies Co, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Tencent Holdings Ltd’s popular instant message service.
However the move may be to Huawei’s advantage, as according to Bloomberg,with China’s banks being urged by the country’s government to remove high-end servers made by IBM in favour of servers made by a local brand.
Jiang Jun, spokesperson for the Chinese State Internet Information Office, told the Chinese official news agency, Xinhua, that the vetting was aimed at preventing suppliers from taking advantage of their products to illegally control, disrupt or shut down their clients’ systems.
“For a long time, governments and enterprises of a few countries have gathered sensitive information on a large scale, taking the advantage of their monopoly in the market and technological e
dge,” Jun said. “They not only seriously undermine interests of their clients but also threaten cyber security of other countries.”
Aside from technology, Reuters also reported that China has told its state-owned enterprises to sever links with American consulting firms too. Chinese state enterprises work with companies like McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group and Strategy&, formerly Booz & Company.
Finally, it was also hinted that the US Government may seek to implement visa restrictions to prevent Chinese nationals from attending the August Def Con and Black Hat events in Las Vegas. According to Reuters, organisers denied any knowledge of this, although an employee of Chinese vendor Qihoo 360 is scheduled to speak on software vulnerabilities at Black Hat, while two researchers with Chinese University of Hong Kong are set to talk on hacking social media. Def Con does not have any Chinese nationals on its roster.
