(WSJ) The latest WikiLeaks trove
hands fresh ammunition to China’s cyberspace hawks, already pushing to
reduce dependence on foreign products that could be vulnerable to
espionage, observers say.
“The level of alarm in China will
certainly increase, and with it a renewed determination to clamp down
still further on U.S. technology companies’ operations in China,” said Peter Fuhrman, chairman of Shenzhen-based advisory firm China First Capital, which follows China’s tech sector.
The
documents released this week—more than 8,000 pages in all—purport to
show how the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency breaks into computers,
smartphones, TVs and other electronics for surveillance. Many documents
deal with leading non-Chinese brands like Apple Inc. and Samsung
Electronics Co., though there is some coverage of Chinese products,
including routers from Huawei Technologies Inc. and Baidu Inc.’s search engine.
The Chinese-product references are relatively sparse—and, in some
cases, obscure. An undated list of CIA internal hacking demonstrations,
for example, includes the “Panda Poke-Huawei credless exploit”—which one
cybersecurity specialist says may be a method for taking advantage of
vulnerabilities without logins or other “credentials.” There is also the
“Huawei VOIP Collection,” a reference to “voice over internet
Protocol,” making phone calls over the internet.
The document doesn't say whether these methods were used for intelligence gathering. Huawei declined to comment.
A file titled “Small Routers Research-work in progress” lists router models from Huawei and ZTE Corp. It also mentions China’s three state-owned telecom companies and Baidu’s search engine, without further details.
The telecom companies and Baidu declined to comment.
The
leak also offered what seem to be workaday notes among colleagues,
including one CIA worker’s complaint about one piece of software’s
default-language setting. “I don’t speak Chinese,” he griped.
WikiLeaks’
website is blocked in China, but Chinese state-run media reported the
document leak, focusing on U.S. companies. Overall response has been
muted, possibly because the official spotlight this week is on Beijing’s annual legislative gathering.
Cybersecurity experts say China maintains its own robust cyberhacking apparatus, though Beijing characterizes itself as purely a hacking victim, not a perpetrator.
“China is opposed to any form of cyberattack,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang
said Thursday. “We urge the U.S. side to stop its wiretapping,
surveillance, espionage and cyberattacks on China and other countries.
China will firmly safeguard its own cybersecurity.”
“It
is like snow on more snow,” one China executive of a U.S. technology
company said of the potential sales impact of the latest leaks.
These
leaks could help countries counter CIA tapping and develop their own
capabilities, said Nigel Inkster, former deputy chief of U.K. spy agency
MI6.
“China, Russia et al will now both be better attuned to the
risks posed by these capabilities,” he said, “and will no doubt seek to
use them themselves.”
Source: Wall Street Journal by Eva Dou
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