Free Republic

Cybersecurity researchers have found surveillance backdoors in Chinese carrier routers made by Zbtlink and the same software in a different Zbtlink-made router sold through Amazon. Chinese law requires telecom and internet companies to provide technical assistance to police and state-security agencies. In an Aug. 27 report, cybersecurity firm VulnCheck said it found two hidden programs in an $88 router bought through Amazon from a U.S. seller. One, which the researchers named Speakingstone, sends information about the router to a remote server and can receive instructions to redirect internet traffic, obtain login credentials, or take control of the device. The second,...

X has said it uncovered a Chinese bot farm of approximately 200,000 inauthentic accounts involved in influence operations. The platform’s safety team said in an Aug. 27 statement that about 200 accounts within the newly identified network had posted material aimed at influencing U.S. debate over artificial intelligence and energy policy. X did not say how the rest of the roughly 200,000 accounts were being used. Other technology companies and U.S. authorities have separately documented Chinese influence operations involving tens or hundreds of thousands of fake, coordinated, or repurposed accounts, including networks tied to Chinese state actors and law enforcement....