WikiLeaks Dump Adds to China's Foreign-Tech Wariness
March 09 2017 - 7:40AM
Dow Jones News
By Eva Dou
BEIJING--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."
In recent years, China has seized on leaks about U.S.
surveillance to fan public support for its domestic tech products.
U.S. tech brands felt a chill after former U.S. National Security
Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed NSA surveillance methods
in 2013.
"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."
Kersten Zhang contributed to this article.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 09, 2017 07:25 ET (12:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024