US accused of hacking hundreds of Chinese targets since 2009

t_co

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Edward Snowden just blew a massive hole in Obama's PR campaign against Chinese hacking of US civilian targets. Relevant sections bolded for emphasis.

NSA leaker Edward Snowden: U.S. targets China with hackers - The Washington Post

HONG KONG — Edward Snowden, the self-confessed leaker of secret surveillance documents, claimed Wednesday that the United States has mounted massive hacking operations against hundreds of Chinese targets since 2009.

The former contractor, whose work at the National Security Agency gave him access to highly classified U.S. intelligence, made the assertions in an interview with the South China Morning Post. The newspaper said he showed it "unverified documents" describing an extensive U.S. campaign to obtain information from computers in Hong Kong and mainland China.

"We hack network backbones — like huge Internet routers, basically — that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one," he told the newspaper.

According to Snowden, the NSA has engaged in more than 61,000 hacking operations worldwide, including hundreds aimed at Chinese targets. Among the targets were universities, businesses and public officials.

The interview was the first time Snowden has surfaced publicly since he acknowledged in interviews with The Washington Post and Britain's Guardian newspaper Sunday that he was responsible for disclosing classified documents outlining extensive U.S. surveillance efforts in the United States.

Senior American officials have accused China of hacking into U.S. military and business computers. Snowden's claims of extensive U.S. hacking of Chinese computers tracks assertions made repeatedly by senior Chinese government officials that they are victims of similar cyber-intrusions.

Snowden's claims could not be verified, and U.S. officials did not respond to immediate requests for comment.

In the interview w ith the Morning Post posted online late Wednesday, Snowden said he stood by his decision to seek asylum in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous city, after leaking documents about a high-level U.S. surveillance program.

"People who think I made a mistake in picking Hong Kong as a location misunderstood my intentions," he said in the interview. "I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality."

He added, "I have had many opportunities to flee HK, but I would rather stay and fight the United States government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong Kong's rule of law."

By speaking with Hong Kong's oldest English-language newspaper, Snowden seemed to be directly addressing the city he has chosen as his safe harbor. And by disclosing that he possesses documents that he says describe U.S. hacking against China, he appeared to be trying to win support from the Chinese government.

Snowden told the Hong Kong newspaper that he was describing what he says are U.S. cyber attacks on Chinese targets to illustrate "the hypocrisy of the U.S. government when it claims that it does not target civilian infrastructure, unlike its adversaries."

Some in Hong Kong are responding to his campaign. A rally is being organized Saturday to support the 29-year-old former government contractor, who has been in the city since May 20. A Web site, Rally to Support Edward Snowden Hong Kong, June 2013, has been set up with details about the event, which will include speeches from human rights activists and local legislators.

Activists in Hong Kong said they admired Snowden's effort to shed light on his government's practices.

"He is a brave man. The authorities cannot use the 'anti-terrorism' excuse to invade people's privacy without boundaries," said Yang Kuang, a prominent Hong Kong activist. "I hope more and more people will stand out and expose such practices."

Snowden said in his interview that he has "been given no reason to doubt [Hong Kong's] legal system."

"My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate," Snowden said.

Snowden is up against an extradition treaty between the United States and Hong Kong that many view as being clear — that in the vast majority of cases, Hong Kong must cooperate with U.S. government requests for help apprehending suspected criminals.

The United States has yet to file a formal extradition request, although there are other ways for the governments to be cooperating.

James To Kun-sun, a Hong Kong legislator and solicitor, said that even without an extradition request, the United States can ask Hong Kong law enforcement to watch Snowden while the U.S. Justice Department moves on its investigation. The FBI has a legal attache in Hong Kong, and Snowden has also identified a CIA presence in the city.

"I suspect in this case ."‰."‰. the FBI tells the HK police, 'The request will be very soon,' and [they can] ask police to keep an eye on him," Kun-sun said.

Once an extradition request is received, a judge here will decide whether it falls under the treaty and whether Hong Kong law enforcement should help the United States by, for example, collecting evidence or carrying out an arrest. Snowden could also appeal any decision, so the process could be drawn out.

"As long as I am assured a free and fair trial, and asked to appear, that seems reasonable," Snowden said in the interview.

He added that he plans to stay in Hong Kong as long as the city will have him.

Liu Liu contributed to this report from Beijing.
There is no good way out of this situation for the US government.

No wonder Obama couldn't push Xi towards a US-favored cyber accord at Sunnylands.

Look at the news over the past six months - story after story on Chinese hacking, pushed constantly by Western media outlets - this entire carefully orchestrated campaign was just undone by one man. Bravo.
 

huaxia rox

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1 what Edward Snowden said about the us hacking chinese targets is just a known fact but still the us govement will deny or refuse to comment on this so how could anything change just because of a whilse blower? the us will still say they are the vitim and others are all hackers.

2 at first i thought huawei etc being barred from us business is just because the us doesnt want chinese to touch american companies pieces of cake economically . now i have begun to understand why major countries dont want foreign companies to get involved.

3 hk is really not a good place for this kind of mess. i suggest mr Edward Snowden to go to singapor or swiss.
 

Ray

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How now brown cow, why do you frown beneath the bow?
 

hit&run

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Chinese are thugs and Americans are rouges.

Two wrongs don't make a right.
 
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huaxia rox

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if you get outside people in a chinese comunity you can face this trouble.... why should our society pay for these kinds?
Suspect held for Chungking rape - The Standard


of course i dont think this american belongs to these kinds but neither do i know if this guy will be murderred by CIA or some one poses as CIA.

many spies have gatherred in hk since ww2 so if i were him i would pick swiss to go.
 

W.G.Ewald

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U.S. seeks Snowden's extradition, urges Hong Kong to act quickly | Reuters

The United States said on Saturday it wants Hong Kong to extradite Edward Snowden and urged it to act quickly, paving the way for what could be a lengthy legal battle to prosecute the former National Security Agency contractor on espionage charges.

Legal sources say Snowden, who is believed to be hiding in Hong Kong, has sought legal representation from human rights lawyers since leaking details about secret U.S. surveillance activities to news media.

"If Hong Kong doesn't act soon, it will complicate our bilateral relations and raise questions about Hong Kong's commitment to the rule of law," a senior Obama administration official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Seems to imply blaming Chinese for ... something.
 

amoy

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Mr Snowden is reported to have flought to Moscow today, probably in transit to Iceland or Ecuador (?) for assylum .

Another idealist like Assange.

Sent from my 5910 using Tapatalk 2
 

J20!

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asianobserve

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So how many products did the Americans steal from China through hacking...?

Espionage has been always been there, it is a cat-and-mouse game between nations since their inceptions and one that actually helped keep the peace many times before. Espionage however should not be automatically equated with "stealing." The latter has been perfected by the Chinese BTW...
 

J20!

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Didn't you say that all American hackers were amateurs or something?

I think we just caught you in a flat lie.
Come on t_co, being ill-informed doesn't qualify as lying.. It would be a lie if Ewald had posted that after Snowden's reports.
 

Ray

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So the US was hacking the Chinese?

Great.

A nice game both are playing.
 

huaxia rox

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So how many products did the Americans steal from China through hacking...?
then how many stolen BY China through hacking FROM the us.

specificly.

and whats the original design? whats the final job of prc benifitted from the original?
 

asianobserve

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then how many stolen BY China through hacking FROM the us.

specificly.

and whats the original design? whats the final job of prc benifitted from the original?

If there's a billowing black smoke even a donkey will know that there's fire...

We all know how difficult it is to prove use of stolen designs through hacking, this is where the limit of criminal evidence is at right now. How do you prove design copying when the copier has altered the designs just enough so that it can argue that it is not copied? And more importantly how can pinpoint who is behind the computer when the hacking was being done (criminal liability is personal)? Or how about the chain of custody of the stolen electronic design? It's daunting to say the least.

But for discussion purposes let's highlight some of the publicised incidents:

Chinese Hackers Attacked German Government, Companies - Report

FRANKFURT--Chinese hackers have been attacking Germany's government and companies on a grand scale, magazine Der Spiegel reports Sunday, citing intelligence sources.

ThyssenKrupp AG (TKA.XE) was hit by a major cyberattack from China in mid-2012, a spokeswoman for the engineering company confirmed.

European Aeronautics Defence & Space Co. NV (EAD.FR) told the German government that it was also attacked, according to Der Spiegel. A spokesman for the plane maker didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Dow Jones Newswires.

The German government and other federal institutions were subject to more than 1,000 attacks from foreign intelligence agencies last year, said a spokeswoman for the country's intelligence agency, Bundesamt fuer Verfassungsschutz.

The news comes after major U.S. companies such as Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said they have been hit by cyberattacks.

Chinese Hackers Attacked German Government, Companies - Report
One can only guess what metal technology, industrial design or aerospace technology were made through ThyssenKrupp AG or European Defence hackings? Or no wonder Huawei cellphones are progressing so rapidly, courtesy of Apple...?

Easier to prove by conventional evidence however is theft the old way. Just recently the US Justice Department charged 2 employees of Sinovel Wind Group (wind turbine maker) for stealing wind turbine designs from US-based AMSC:

US Charges Chinese Wind Company with Stealing Trade Secrets

"Chinese wind turbine maker Sinovel Wind Group Co and two of its employees were charged with stealing trade secrets from U.S.-based AMSC by the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Thursday."

xxx

"The fact that Sinovel has exported stolen American intellectual property from China back into the United States - less than 40 miles from our global headquarters - shows not only a blatant disrespect for intellectual property but a disregard for international trade law," AMSC Chief Executive Officer Daniel McGahn said.

xxx

AMSC said that, over the past two years, more than 500 staff worldwide have lost their jobs following Sinovel's "egregious and unlawful behavior."
 
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