Canada among targets of alleged Chinese hacking campaign

[spaminator]

Canada among targets of alleged Chinese hacking campaign
Canadian Press
Published:
December 20, 2018
Updated:
December 20, 2018 4:03 PM EST
OTTAWA — Companies in Canada were among the targets of two Chinese citizens charged with waging an extensive hacking campaign to steal valuable data over many years, U.S. authorities say.
In an indictment unsealed Thursday, prosecutors say Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong were acting on behalf of China’s main intelligence agency to pilfer information from several countries.
Beginning about four years ago, Zhu and Zhang waged an intrusion campaign to gain access to computers and networks of “managed service providers” for businesses and governments around the world, the indictment says.
U.S. charges 2 with China intelligence ties in hacking case
Third Canadian detained in China not believed to be linked to other arrests: PM
HARD LABOUR: U.S. sportswear traced to factory in China’s internment camps
Canada’s ambassador meets with second detainee in China
Diplomats get access to Michael Kovrig
Such providers are private firms that manage clients’ information by furnishing servers, storage, networking, consulting and information-technology support. Breaking into one such computer system can provide a route into multiple customers’ data; the hackers breached the computers of enterprises involved in activities ranging from banking and telecommunications to mining and health care, say the papers filed in U.S. District Court.
The indictment says Zhu and Zhang are members of a group operating in China known as Advanced Persistent Threat 10. They purportedly broke into computers belonging to — or providing services to — companies in at least 12 countries, including Canada.
How? According to the indictment, they used forged emails to get unwitting recipients to open files impregnated with security-breaching malware, a technique called “spear-phishing.”
The two suspects, who worked for Huaying Haital Science and Technology Development Co. in Tianjin, are accused of acting in association with the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s Tianjin State Security Bureau.
Canada’s Communications Security Establishment issued a statement supporting the U.S. allegations a few hours after the American announcement.
“Today, many of Canada’s allies and partners have made statements concerning the compromise of several Managed Service Providers. CSE also assesses that it is almost certain that actors likely associated with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ministry of State Security (MSS) are responsible for the compromise of several Managed Service Providers (MSP), beginning as early as 2016,” it said.
The statement said Canadian authorities detected the threat at the time and warned businesses in general terms about good security habits in dealing with these providers.
The CSE sent out a more detailed bulletin after Thursday’s indictments, advocating practices such as “multi-factor authentication,” which requires people to sign into computers in more than one way, and running background monitoring software that sends up an alert when an apparently legitimate user starts doing unusual things on a company network.
The alleged hackers provided Chinese intelligence officials with sensitive business information, said U.S. deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.
“This is outright cheating and theft, and it gives China an unfair advantage at the expense of law-abiding businesses and countries that follow the international rules in return for the privilege of participating in the global economic system,” Rosenstein said.
In one case, the indictment says, the APT10 Group obtained unauthorized access to the computers of an unnamed service provider that had offices in New York state and then compromised the data of the provider and clients in Canada, the United States, Britain, Brazil, Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
The victims included a global financial institution, three telecommunications or consumer electronics companies, three manufacturing firms, two consulting companies, and businesses involved in healthcare, biotechnology, mining, automotive supply and drilling, authorities say. None of them is specified by name in the indictment.
The RCMP and Global Affairs Canada had no immediate comment on the U.S. charges.
In another campaign that began as early as 2006, the APT10 Group, including Zhu and Zhang, allegedly attacked the computers and networks of more than 45 technology companies and U.S. government agencies to steal valuable information and data about various technologies.
The group made off with hundreds of gigabytes of sensitive data by targeting the computers of companies involved in aviation, space and satellite technology, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and oil and gas exploration, among others, the indictment says. It also broke into computers that held data belonging to NASA and the U.S. navy and took private identify information of more than 100,000 navy personnel, the indictment says.

http://torontosun.com/news/national/canada-among-targets-of-alleged-chinese-hacking-campaign

 

[spaminator]

U.S. charges 2 hackers with alleged Chinese intelligence ties
Associated Press
Published:
December 20, 2018
Updated:
December 20, 2018 11:27 PM EST
WASHINGTON — U.S. officials on Thursday said two alleged Chinese hackers carried out an extensive campaign on behalf of Beijing’s main intelligence agency to steal trade secrets and other information from government agencies and “a who’s who” of major corporations in the United States and nearly a dozen other nations.
The indictment is the latest in a series of Justice Department criminal cases targeting Chinese cyberespionage and coincided with an announcement by Britain blaming China’s Ministry of State Security for trade-secret pilfering affecting Western nations.
The alleged hackers, one of whom is nicknamed “Godkiller,” are accused of breaching computer networks beginning as early as 2006 in a range of industries, including aviation and space, finance, biotechnology oil and gas, satellites and pharmaceuticals. Prosecutors say they also obtained the names, Social Security numbers and other personal information of more than 100,000 Navy personnel.
A poster displayed during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018, shows Zhu Hua and Zhang Shillong, two Chinese citizens suspected to be with the group APT 10 carrying out an extensive hacking campaign to steal data from U.S. companies. Manuel Balce / AP
In a new twist reflecting corporate computing’s evolution, the hackers often infiltrated cloud computing companies and other major technology providers to indirectly reach clients’ valuable documents.
Prosecutors said the alleged hackers stole “hundreds of gigabytes” of data, breaching computers of more than 45 entities in 12 states including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Goddard Space Center. The hackers, identified as members of the group APT10, or “Stone Panda,” are not in custody. Prosecutors said their names are Zhu Hua and Zhang Shillong.
U.S. law enforcement officials say the case is part of a trend of state-sponsored hackers breaking into American networks and stealing trade secrets and other confidential information. More than 90 per cent of Justice Department economic espionage cases over the past seven years involve China, said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and more than two-thirds of trade secrets cases are connected to the country.
“China’s state-sponsored actors are the most active perpetrators of economic espionage,” FBI Director Chris Wray said in announcing the case. “While we welcome fair competition, we cannot and will not tolerate illegal hacking, stealing or cheating.”
“China’s goal, simply put, is to replace the U.S. as the world’s leading superpower, and they’re using illegal methods to get there,” Wray said. While none of the “victim companies” was named, Wray called them a “who’s who of the global economy.”
China on Friday said the U.S. was “fabricating facts out of thin air.” A statement from Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying described the “unwarranted accusations” as a serious violation of the basic norms of international relations that was harmful to China-U.S. co-operation.
Hua accused the U.S. of hypocrisy. “It has long been an open secret that the relevant authorities of the U.S. conduct large-scale cybertheft and listen in on foreign governments, enterprises and individuals,” she said.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen released a joint statement accusing China of reneging on a 2015 commitment not to seek competitive advantage through theft of trade secrets, intellectual property and confidential business information.
U.S. officials testified before Congress last week that Beijing’s continued hacking has made a mockery of that 2015 commitment by President Xi Jinping following a first-of-its-kind indictment that accused Chinese hackers of stealing corporate data from brand-name U.S. companies.
“We want China to cease illegal cyber activities and honour its commitment to the international community, but the evidence suggests that China may not intend to live up to its promises,” Rosenstein said.
Rob Silvers, a former Obama administration cybersecurity official, said cases like this create an important deterrent but should be supplemented by sanctions and other steps.
“It’s necessary to do this kind of thing, but it’s not nearly enough,” he said. “I don’t think Rod Rosenstein would tell you that it’s game, set, match.”
After a 2014 indictment against five alleged Chinese hackers, and a subsequent agreement with the U.S., Beijing at least temporarily reduced its hacking activity, Silvers said.
This case shows that “China has taken the gloves off again,” he said.
Adam Segal, a cybersecurity expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, agreed that Beijing is unlikely to be swayed by sanctions alone.
The indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan describes how in recent years, as government agencies and corporations have shifted data to cloud computing providers and services including email and collaboration tools to tech service providers, the Stone Panda hackers followed, typically stealing the log-in credentials of system administrators in order to reach coveted proprietary data of clients.
Wray likened it to “breaking into and getting the keys from the maintenance department.”
Britain’s Foreign Office accused the Chinese elite hackers of conducting a “widespread and significant” campaign of cyberespionage against the United Kingdom and its allies and “almost certainly continues to target a range of global companies, seeking to gain access to commercial secrets.”
Third Canadian detained in China not believed to be linked to other arrests: PM
HARD LABOUR: U.S. sportswear traced to factory in China’s internment camps
Canada’s ambassador meets with second detainee in China
Diplomats get access to Michael Kovrig
Targeted nations named in the U.S. indictment include Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
In recent months, the Justice Department has filed separate cases against several Chinese intelligence officials and hackers. A case filed in October marked the first time that a Chinese Ministry of State Security officer was extradited to the United States to stand trial.
Chinese espionage efforts have become “the most severe counterintelligence threat facing our country today,” Bill Priestap, the assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, told a Senate committee.
Hacking by Chinese state-backed hackers dramatically escalated over the summer in response to the trade war with the U.S. and military tensions in the South China Sea, said Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer of Carbon Black, whose company’s threat-hunting tool is used in global cyber investigations.
He credited the Justice Department with targeting a group that he said was China’s “most prolific hacker crew.” He said he was not optimistic that the pair would be prosecuted in the U.S., but that’s not the point.
“The Chinese are operating on a 50-year plan of information dominance, a comprehensive national strategy, and it’s high time we actually reacted,” Kellermann said.

http://torontosun.com/news/world/u-s-charges-2-with-china-intelligence-ties-in-hacking-case

 

[MHz]

We should build a fence, being friends with the UIS is too slow at having the world disown us, we need to do this faster.

 

[spilledthebeer]

We should build a fence, being friends with the UIS is too slow at having the world disown us, we need to do this faster.

Oh MHz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


You are such a PEABRAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Consider this indictment of Chinese business policy::::




Here is an article illustrating how dangerous it is to create close economic ties with Red China as Our idiot Boy Justin wants to do. With some comments of my own in brackets):

It Doesn’t Matter if Ecuador Can Afford This Dam. China Still Gets Paid.

By NICHOLAS CASEY and CLIFFORD KRAUSS

Published: Dec 25,2018

REVENTADOR, Ecuador — The dam sits under the glare of an active volcano, with columns of ash spewing toward the sky.

Officials had warned against the dam for decades. Geologists said an earthquake could wipe it away.

Now, only two years after opening, thousands of cracks are splintering the dam’s machinery. Its reservoir is clogged with silt, sand and trees. And the only time engineers tried to throttle up the facility completely, it shook violently and shorted out the national electricity grid.

This giant dam in the jungle, financed and built by China, was supposed to christen Ecuador’s vast ambitions, solve its energy needs and help lift the small South American country out of poverty.

Instead, it has become part of a national scandal engulfing the country in corruption, perilous amounts of debt — and a future tethered to China.

Nearly every top Ecuadorean official involved in the dam’s construction is either imprisoned or sentenced on bribery charges. That includes a former vice president, a former electricity minister and even the former anti-corruption official monitoring the project, who was caught on tape talking about Chinese bribes.

(In light of this kind of information- should we trust the likes of Our idiot Boy Justin to arrange “deals” with China? With Our idiot Boy telling us “he likes the way the Chinese get things done” -which is apparently a reference to being able to re-write the history books to EDIT OUT Red Party screwups! And Lord knows |Our idiot Boy has a lot of stupidity to hide as well- especially since the entire Trudeau clan has told us of their fondness for bloody handed Cuban Soviet dictator Castro?)

(And Pierre Trudeau casually praised what he called “the genius of Chinese Chairman Mao for rushing 30 million Chinese to the gallows” during the Great Leap Forward! Or we could mention the aspiring film maker Sacha Trudeau who has collaborated with Iranian Ayatollahs in making anti Yankee and anti Israel propaganda films!)

Then there is the price tag: around $19 billion in Chinese loans, not only for this dam, known as Coca Codo Sinclair, but also for bridges, highways, irrigation, schools, health clinics and a half dozen other dams the government is scrambling to pay for.

It doesn’t matter whether Ecuador can afford them.

China gets paid either way.

To settle the bill, China gets to keep 80 percent of Ecuador’s most valuable export — oil — because many of the contracts are repaid in petroleum, not dollars. In fact, China gets the oil at a discount, then sells it for an additional profit.

(This of course is a big reason why Stephen Harper prohibited China from buying a big stake in Cdn oil patch! WE CAN of course SAFELY sell oil to China on OUR terms- but we MUST RETAIN overall control of OUR RESOURCE!!!!!! )

Pumping enough oil to repay China has become such an imperative for Ecuador that it is drilling deeper in the Amazon, threatening more deforestation.

(IN other words between the fiscal mess Ecuador has sunk itself in and coupled with the Cdn LIE-beral refusal to put our oil on international markets- we are actually aiding Amazon forest destruction! China wants to burn less coal and more natural gas because it is cleaner- and yet Our idiot Boy would rather leave Cdn natural gas and oil in the ground and force China to burn Australian coal!)

(LIE-berals forced Cdns to stop using coal at considerable cost- and then IGNORED options for PROFITING from helping China move away from coal use- how ABSURD IS THAT? And there is lots of natural gas on world markets but MUCH OF it is produced by “fracking” - unlike Cdn natural gas which does not need such a destructive option to be collected! And of course many people WOULD RATHER buy oil and natural gas from Cdns instead of dealing with vicious Russians!)

(Can LIE-beral policy get ANY MORE SCREWED UP? Our vaunted LIE-berals are screwing up national security, aiding our Chinese, Russian, North Korean and Iranian enemies and scorning options for saving parts of the world environment!!!)

But that is not enough. Hobbled by the debts, President Lenín Moreno has slashed social spending, gasoline subsidies, several government agencies and more than 1,000 public jobs. Most economists expect the country to slide into recession, stirring outrage.

(As the 19th century Soviet revolutionary Bakunin stated: “it is not necessary for the majority of the population to support the revolution; all that is needed is for a majority of the population to distrust its social institutions and become open to change”! In other words- bad govt - of the LIE-beral sort creates situations that Red Guards can take advantage of!)

(In Russia- the first free election after the Czar was deposed put a weak coalition of Moderates into power- with the leader being a guy named Kerensky- who wanted Russia to become a Parliamentary Monoarchy like Britain- but heavily armed Red Guards acting on plans drawn up by Lenin dissolved that legitimate govt at gun point!!)

(This sort of national distrust of institutions that Soviet cadres- whether they be Chinese, Russian or even Cdns like Our idiot Boy- can then exploit for Soviet advantage, is being used in Ecuador! And of course Our idiot Boy and his loser |LIE-berals are working hard to create the same sort of national distrust in Canada- with their massive debts, shameless vote buying, constant accusations of “systemic racism” and their deliberate neglect of criminal issues such as money laundering and organized crime activity!)

(Pierre Trudeau infamously told a group of reporters- back before he had any political ambitions- that if he ever became prime minister- “he would take Canada from the past into the future via the route of radical socialism”! )

(Of course once Pierre got interested in politics - he then had to DENY ever saying such a thing! And had to deny ever leading Cdn “peace delegations” to Moscow for Soviet propaganda shows! Former Toronto Telegram and later Toronto Sun reporter - the Czech born Lubor Zink- routinely trotted out these ugly Trudeau ideals - with Trudeau threatening to sue for slander! With Zink DARING TRUDEAU to do just that- Zink sneering “you bring your witnesses and I will bring mine! Pierre settled for banning Zink from all federal media events and never speaking either Zink`s name nor that of Toronto Sun!!)

(Pierre Trudeau has told us in writing that “the war against Nazi Germany is British Imperialism”! Pierre also told us he wanted to destroy what he called “Cdn Imperialism”! It seems obvious to me that what Pierre called Cdn Imperialism is now being called “white privilege” by his idiot son Justin!)

“China took advantage of Ecuador,” said Ecuador’s energy minister, Carlos Pérez. “The strategy of China is clear. They take economic control of countries.”

(Yes- China is on the hunt for power and prestige and mostly- for RAW RESOURCES FOR ITS PEOPLE! WE should NOT let Our idiot Boy lead us into a friendship with murderous Chinese Soviets!!!!!!)