Last Dec 3, 2018, we have reported here in Hackercombat.com the story about the Marriott Hotel Chain’s Data Breach, which heavily exposed the personal records of their 500 guests for the last 4 years. Less than 48 hours ago the US authorities apparently discovered that the hackers behind the breach are related to China’s Ministry of State Security. Allegedly, the hacker group is part of China’s state espionage activities based-on anonymous sources.
Due to the anonymity of the report, we should take this with a grain of salt. Besides, the United States and China are engaging in an escalating trade war, both countries show no signs of relentlessness. Other than the patterns of attacks no other indication that the hackers originate from mainland China. The anonymous source has not released the names of the people behind the attack, not even technical data which can pinpoint the Chinese regime as the one behind the attacks.
Compared to what the anonymous source said, she said of the anonymous sources accusing China, the Chinese Foreign Minister, Geng Shuang himself denied the accusation as baseless and malicious. “China firmly opposes all forms of cyberattack and cracks down on it in accordance with the law. If offered evidence, the relevant Chinese departments will carry out investigations according to the law,” explained Minister Shuang.
China may become less demonized in weeks to come, as they set to hammer out an agreement with the United States, with the former buying US-made items and services worth $1.2 trillion with a strong bias towards protection of intellectual property rights. As the CFO of Huawei, a telecom giant in mainland China recently granted bail, tensions between western nations and China is expected to ease in the coming weeks.
It is simply an alibi of for companies and states to play the ‘blame-game’ when a cyber attack happens to them. China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran are favorite countries to blame for state-level cyber espionage and cyber attacks, most especially DDoS and malware infiltration. However, we are in the period that all influential and powerful nations in the world are spying on one another and trying to outwit one another in the everyday ‘cyberwarfare’ scene.
It only takes a strong traditional media influence to twist the story, where the western powers using cyber attacks are tagged as the good guys vs the evil clutches of the other side: China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran. It is the propaganda of the west that dominates the airwaves due to the broadcast was done by western mainstream media, making the west the masters of their propaganda.
Yes, we can safely assume that these four ‘rogue’ countries maintain their internal highly skilled hacker groups to push for their political agenda. But that is no different to the western states, the United States, and the rest of the powerful western nations doing the same things they accuse China, North Korea, Russia and Iran of doing. It is prudent for readers to maintain neutrality when it comes to news about ‘who’ perpetuated a particular cyber attack. Just like other news categories, Tech News broadcasting is also affected by fake news propaganda.