Chinese digital spying is becoming more aggressive, researchers say

FireEye, a US cybersecurity firm, says that it has seen a concerning spike in activity from what appears to be a Chinese hacking group called APT41. The attacks are being deployed against companies in the US, Canada, the UK and several other counties...

WSJ and NYT accuse Chinese hackers of infiltrating their newsgathering systems

WSJ and NYT accuse Chinese hackers of infiltrating their newsgathering systems

And the saga continues. Just a year after Bloomberg News was reportedly targeted by Chinese hackers, both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have independently published reports suggesting that they too are being probed. Both organizations seem to think that it's all part of a larger scheme, with Chinese hackers sifting through newsgathering systems of outlets that are reporting on touchy subjects. As the Times puts it: "The attacks appear to be part of a broader computer espionage campaign against American news media companies that have reported on Chinese leaders and corporations."

When asked about such a possibility, China's Ministry of National Defense (unsurprisingly) denied the allegations, noting that "to accuse the Chinese military of launching cyberattacks without solid proof is unprofessional and baseless." As it stands, the FBI is already looking into various attacks of this nature, but strangely, the hacking attempts aren't being universally viewed as malicious. Paula Keve, chief spokeswoman for Dow Jones & Co., stated: "Evidence shows that infiltration efforts target the monitoring of the Journal's coverage of China, and are not an attempt to gain commercial advantage or to misappropriate customer information." As you'd expect, both outfits are stepping up security in a major way in hopes of fending off any future attempts.

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Source: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times

Huawei working with British spy service to prove its ‘kit’ is clean

DNP Huawei working with British spy service to prove its 'kit' is clean

Since Huawei's president formerly served as a senior engineer in the People's Liberation Army of China, it's unsurprising that it's raised the hackles of the US and other countries. It's been blocked from a variety of prime, security-sensitive contracts on suspicion of espionage, but the Chinese company seems bent on proving its honorable intentions, and has opened a "Cyber Security Evaluation Center" in Banbury, UK to do exactly that. According to the Economist, the company will work closely with GCHQ, the British signals-intelligence agency located in nearby Cheltenham, to persuade the UK and other governments that its equipment is trustworthy. It even has security-cleared staff, including some from the British agency, to shake down the gear and ensure it can't be exploited by spooks or crooks. Huawei already has hefty backbone contracts in Canada and New Zealand and is becoming one of the world's largest suppliers of telecom infrastructure, on top of its high ranking as a handset maker. It might hope this new approach will let it break its US and UK market logjam -- but it has a lot of pent-up distrust to overcome.

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Huawei working with British spy service to prove its 'kit' is clean originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Aug 2012 07:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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