Accusations against Chinese intelligence agencies continue
According to cybersecurity and ethical hacking experts from the
International Institute of Cyber Security, alleged Chinese cybercriminals
for-hire compromised the networks of Hewlett Packard and IBM enterprises, thus
illegally accessing multiple customer devices of both companies.
IBM argues that, so far, it has no evidence to
claim that a users’ personal information has been compromised. On the other
hand, HP has refused to make any comments regarding these accusations.
This cyberattack campaign mentioned by the
cybersecurity experts might be related in some way to the malicious campaigns
sponsored by the Chinese government, according to the member countries of the Five Eyes group (United States, Canada, Great Britain,
Australia and New Zealand).
Recently, U.S. secretary of State Mike Pompeo
and national security officer Kirstjen Nielsen made a ‘serious calling’ to the
Chinese government to “act responsibly after the detection of a broad campaign
of cyberattacks against intellectual property and sensitive trade data on
American territory, in addition to Europe and several parts of Asia”.
A few weeks ago, U.S. prosecutors formally
charged two Chinese citizens, allegedly linked to an Asian espionage agency,
pointing them as guilty of crimes such as espionage, theft of confidential data
from the U.S. government and different companies around the world. In American
territory, Chinese spies would have attacked NASA, the Navy, and the Department
of Energy, as the experts in cybersecurity reported.
The two Chinese citizens, now accused of “conspiring
to commit computer crimes against dozens of organizations in the United States
and the rest of the world”, would be related to the Intelligence division of
the Ministry of State Security of China, according to the U.S. Federal agencies.
FBI director Chris Wray recently stated: “There
is no organization that represents a more severe threat to our economy and our
computer systems than the Chinese government”. According to Wray, the Chinese
government’s goal is to surpass America as a “world-leading superpower” at any
costs.
The Chinese government has already spoken out to
deny the accusations of the U.S. authorities. According to various
international media, China has described these allegations as “defamatory”,
proceeding to file a new complaint against the U.S. government, the same
measure that China adopted just a couple of months ago, due to the boycott
against Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE, driven by the United States and
its allies.
