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Leaked Files From Chinese Firm Show Vast International Hacking Effort
The Washington Post ^ | 02/22/24 | Christian Shepherd, Cate Cadell, Ellen Nakashima, Joseph Menn and Aaron Schaffer

Posted on 02/22/2024 4:09:22 PM PST by Enlightened1

A trove of leaked documents from a Chinese state-linked hacking group shows that Beijing’s intelligence and military groups are attempting large-scale, systematic cyber intrusions against foreign governments, companies and infrastructure — with hackers of one company claiming to be able to target users of Microsoft, Apple and Google.

The cache — containing more than 570 files, images and chat logs — offers an unprecedented look inside the operations of one of the firms that Chinese government agencies hire for on-demand, mass data-collecting operations.

The files — posted to GitHub last week and deemed credible by cybersecurity experts, although the source remains unknown — detail contracts to extract foreign data over eight years and describe targets within at least 20 foreign governments and territories, including India, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Taiwan and Malaysia. Indian publication BNN earlier reported on the documents.

“We rarely get such unfettered access to the inner workings of any intelligence operation,” said John Hultquist, chief analyst of Mandiant Intelligence, a cybersecurity firm owned by Google Cloud. “We have every reason to believe this is the authentic data of a contractor supporting global and domestic cyberespionage operations out of China,” he said.

U.S. intelligence officials see China as the greatest long-term threat to American security and have raised alarm about its targeted hacking campaigns.

Experts are poring over the documents, which offer an unusual glimpse inside the intense competition of China’s national security data-gathering industry — where rival outfits jockey for lucrative government contracts by pledging evermore devastating and comprehensive access to sensitive information deemed useful by Chinese police, military and intelligence agencies.

The documents come from iSoon, also known as Auxun, a Chinese firm headquartered in Shanghai that sells third-party hacking and data-gathering services to Chinese government bureaus, security groups and state-owned enterprises.

(Excerpt) Read more at webcache.googleusercontent.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: apple; auxun; china; cybersecurity; hacking; isoon; microsoft; shanghai

1 posted on 02/22/2024 4:09:22 PM PST by Enlightened1
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To: Enlightened1

Only the Compost is dumb enough to inform the Chinese through an article in their paper ...


2 posted on 02/22/2024 4:11:54 PM PST by dartuser
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To: Enlightened1

.


3 posted on 02/22/2024 4:21:08 PM PST by sauropod (Ne supra crepidam.)
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To: Enlightened1

When you buy from the enemy, you get messed over.


4 posted on 02/22/2024 4:22:19 PM PST by bgill
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To: Enlightened1

Unpossible - the chinese are sending the San Diego Zoo some pandas as a sign of friendship between them and the U.S..


5 posted on 02/22/2024 4:33:18 PM PST by utax
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To: dartuser
"Only the Compost is dumb enough ..."

And it took five of them to write the article.

6 posted on 02/22/2024 5:05:41 PM PST by ken in texas
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To: Enlightened1

I’d bet that the Red Chinese....and the North Koreans...could shut down our electric grid....and lots of other things...with a couple of key strokes.


7 posted on 02/22/2024 5:51:19 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (Proudly Clinging To My Guns And My Religion)
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To: Enlightened1

It is not just the hacking that has gone on for decades but the massive effort to use the information for military and commercial use.


8 posted on 02/22/2024 6:01:33 PM PST by jdt1138 (Where ever you go, there you are.)
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