• clwg 14 hours ago

    I was working with MISP[0], an open-source threat intelligence sharing platform, and came across a really interesting dataset from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute on China's technology research institutions[1]. I liked the data so much I built a quick cross-filter visualization on top of it to help explore it[2].

    The data offers a fairly comprehensive and interesting perspective on China's research priorities and organization, I can't speak to the effectiveness of the programs themselves, but it does make me concerned that we are falling far behind in many areas, including cyber security.

    [0] https://www.misp-project.org/

    [1] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MISP/misp-galaxy/refs/head...

    [2] https://www.layer8.org/8541dd18-ff05-4720-aac7-1bd59d3921dd/

    • morpheuskafka 26 minutes ago

      I came across that group (ASPI) before and wasn’t too impressed.

      Their name suggests they are a public agency—in fact, though sponsored by the AUS defence ministry, they are non-governmental and funded in part by weapons manufacturers and foreign governments.

      Their project [0] describes numerous civilian universities as “very high risk,” unnecessarily raising fears that ordinary Chinese students and researchers are dangerous.

      Especially since students uni choices are heavily determined by gaokao scores, I don’t think placing labels on people based on their undergrad uni as if they handpicked them for whatever defense connections they may have makes any sense.

      This is what the US is doing with Proclamation 10043 under both Trump I and Biden. Steven Miller, who will be returning to a similar role in Trump II, recently suggested banning all Chinese citizens from student visas in the US, demonstrating this irresponsible rhetorics effect.

      Moreover, Australia is basically a vassal state of the US for intelligence matters—-see the debate about whether the CIA ousted the only prime minister to question the NSA’s Pine Gap facility on Australian soil. [1]

      [0] https://unitracker.aspi.org.au/universities/

      [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alleged_CIA_involvement_in_the...

      • solstice 6 hours ago

        Two things and one question:

        1) While being a fantastic resource to get a first impression of what's out there, the Defense Universities Tracker has not been updated since about 2019. So it is starting to be outdated and anyone using it should be well aware of it. It seems that an update is in an early stage.

        2) In order to assess the actual risks, the sources that are provided at each institution's page are crucial. These are ommitted in your version. Please consider linking back to each institutions page under https://unitracker.aspi.org.au/

        The question: What is the value added of your page over the official page https://unitracker.aspi.org.au/ ? I only see the map. Am I missing something?

        • clwg 5 hours ago

          I’ve updated my link to include the site and wish I had searched more thoroughly as it would have saved me hours; This visualization was more of a personal thing after I stumbled upon it while working within MISP and the raw data(so that's what I initially attributed it to), and just wanted to see it visualized outside of MISP, it's really good analysis.

          I've also added the references to the individual institution at the unitracker site as well.

          To answer your question, the visualization is just a simple cross-filter. I guess the differences are the categorized and topic-based breakdowns/filtering, filtering by description and it includes a map. I did consider adding a network graph, but my focus isn't really visualization.

        • acheong08 14 hours ago

          > we are falling far behind in many areas, including cyber security

          In terms of quantity and quality of talent, I don't think the western world would fall behind China, especially with their strict control of information. Most people there will have difficulty independently learning about cybersecurity.

          The difference is that most talent is captured by the private sector with higher compensation or bounties. Meanwhile, China can very easily compel anyone they need into the government so the % utilization on outward attacks is probably higher.

          • dluan 14 hours ago

            > Most people there will have difficulty independently learning about cybersecurity.

            Speaking from my own limited anecdata, but since the 90s in order to use the internet in China you basically had to be somewhat proficient in "cybersecurity" just because of all the required hoops to jump through. There were definitely a lot of script kiddies, but the Chinese exploit scene (amateur and professional) has always been bustling. And just personally speaking, the most truly awe-inspiring and resourceful hackers I've ever known have been Russian, or Chinese. Like actual 10x engineers who think that walls put in place for other people don't exist for them.

            • coretx 11 hours ago

              Western society is criminalizing and repressing such culture, so China has already won because they fail at doing the same.

              • Aeolun 10 hours ago

                They are very clear about who is a valid target though. I think you’ll quickly find that those attacking domestic targets rapidly disappear.

                • medo-bear 5 hours ago

                  Kinda works both ways. In many western countries you still go to jail for refusing to give private encryption keys

                  • coretx 3 hours ago

                    Or they convict you for money laundry because you developed a crypto phone they can't crack and don't have any legal means to destroy you. ( Dutch example, and yes - the guy payed taxes everything, they made him hang because of a single client of a client his client his client being involved with shady things. ) State-Spite, Repression and such is rising globally. The rule of law is gone.

            • richardw 11 hours ago

              Any state actor who puts in the effort can get pretty good, and some countries make a very specific effort in this area. North Korea is one. Imagine the brightest people in your state (say, population 26 million) were all nudged into one very specific talent funnel, with the goal of stealing money for the government.

              China is different. Not quite as focused in terms of sheer government directive, but just think of the Chinese people you do know and extrapolate out the level of effort and talent. Being overconfident seems like a mistake.

              • woctordho 13 hours ago

                Every ordinary Chinese needs to self-learn some cybersecurity to do daily things, like to watch YouTube, or to send messages to others without worrying being censored

                • viraptor 13 hours ago

                  There's a big difference between using tools intended for general population and being skilled enough in offensive security to make a difference. It may incentivise some people to learn further, but I don't think the effect would be that large. It's kind of like everyone at Uni knowing about P2P a few years ago - but they knew nothing about protocol design.

                  • throwaway290 12 hours ago

                    The ordinary people have their douyin/bilibili and fear of the party so they don't need to learn those things

                    • roenxi 12 hours ago

                      Why would ordinary Chinese people fear the party? The party has been overseeing the greatest expansion of wealth in human history combined with a massive internal propaganda effort which I would assume is pitching them as the good guys and downplays all the brutal stuff they've done

                      If anything I'd expect ordinary people to be far too trusting that the authorities are reasonable and friendly. They must have real problems with earnest, motivated and well meaning people wandering off the approved parts of the internet into censored topics and getting confused by whatever happens next.

                      • tivert 10 hours ago

                        You're forgetting all the corruption and hypocrisy in China. Do you think the individuals that make up the authorities act in a "reasonable and friendly" towards regular people who interact with them? The contradictions seen by anyone who's paying attention undermine the trust you posit and some fraction of the propaganda messages.

                        It kinda feels like you understand China as a thought experiment and not a real place.

                        • throwaway290 12 hours ago

                          Fear getting disappeared/jailed for doing something forbidden. You're right that they may not see it as "fear of the party" from inside. More like "why would I do something illegal". But in a system like that those things are actually equivalent.

                    • TaylorAlexander 10 hours ago

                      > In terms of quantity

                      At the very least China is generally gonna have everyone else beat on quantity of people involved in quite a lot of things.

                      • tw1984 8 hours ago

                        check AI, green energy, EV, mobile computing, cloud computing, quantum stuff, robots etc. it is pretty much China vs US now when it comes to quality.

                        how many people would seriously believe that EU or Japan can possibly compete with China on its own in terms of quality for those above mentioned sectors.

                        just looking at those low quality & high pollution Japanese & European cars.

                        • easygenes 7 hours ago

                          Is the last line said ironically? Japanese brands long have and continue to absolutely dominate long term reliability ratings for vehicles, and the first mass market hybrid and full EV vehicles came from Japan.

                          If you’re talking about innovation and mass EV manufacturing, sure the US and China are leading, but the European Volkswagen and BMW Groups are still competitive. Japan is admittedly a laggard in the EV market, but largely because EVs are still a luxury good and Japanese brands are primarily mainstream.

                          • tw1984 7 hours ago

                            > Japanese brands long have and continue to absolutely dominate long term reliability ratings for vehicles

                            such hard earned experience is no longer relevant in the era of EV.

                            > but the European Volkswagen and BMW Groups are still competitive

                            none of them is even capably of designing self driven cars on their own. same for the AI based infotainment systems fitted on EVs. they are just Canon in 2024/2025.

                            > EVs are still a luxury good

                            I wouldn't call it luxury. It is the cheapest option to own a car in Shanghai, BYD Seagull is being offered for $9k USD.

                            > Japanese brands are primarily mainstream

                            they have already lost the battle. if EV makers can't build their own self driving systems and those AI based infotainment systems, then they are in the wrong business. Batteries is another story that can not be ignored, Japan and the EU do not have any meaningful control on that.

                            I don't see any chance how European or Japanese car makers can survive in mid term.

                          • medo-bear 5 hours ago

                            Interesting also is the type of names that appear in so many western academic journals. What I mean to say is that even in Western journals "Alice" and "Bob" is quite rare

                            • tw1984 2 hours ago

                              when "alice" and "bob" can become a lawyer to talk their clients into paying some stupid amount, why bother studying STEM.

                        • throwthrowee 13 hours ago

                          > China can very easily compel anyone they need into the government

                          I have worked with people in Chinese tech companies and in Chinese tech ministries, and I don't think this statement is true, any more than in the US. In the US, there are talented techies who work for FAANG, startups, Palantir, NSA, etc etc. Similarly in China.

                          • coretx 2 hours ago

                            Compel is a euphemism for a "friendly" visit to your wife & children or elderly parents. The western equivalent is to lawyer someone to death. Don't be naive.

                          • blackoil 13 hours ago

                            > especially with their strict control of information.

                            You have gross misunderstanding of how this strict control works. It isn't like novels or North Korea where some govt agency is creating/curating the info.

                            • seanmcdirmid 11 hours ago

                              That doesn’t sound like China at all. Having worked in Beijing for 9 years, they pay techies fairly well, not USA FAANG well, but better than Japan, much of Europe, Korea, even Singapore. So there is a lot of private sector movement in these areas, not just government. Information is easily obtained, piracy rates are still very high so it’s not like anything is really locked down behind a paywall. There are plenty of hackers who are in it with a passion, not just for the money, much like you’d find in the states or anywhere in the developed world.

                              • wordofx 10 hours ago

                                Hahahhahahah no way. Salaries in Japan, Korea, Singapore are WAY better than China.

                                • baka367 10 hours ago

                                  Better than avg(China) - sure.

                                  Better than tier1(China), where most of the research happens - the salaries in China are easily beating Japan and significant portion of the EU "centers" on top of having significantly lower cost of living on most of the relevant dimensions.

                                  • foohoge 9 hours ago

                                    As I said in another thread, you can live cheaply in Japan if you're about 20 minutes by train from Tokyo. In that thread, someone said that rent is expensive in Beijing and Shanghai. It looks similar.

                                    Anyway, in China I heard that if you go to hospital in a different household registration, you have to pay the full medical costs. It sounds the cost of living in China is expensive.

                                    • tw1984 8 hours ago

                                      > in China I heard that if you go to hospital in a different household registration, you have to pay the full medical costs.

                                      When talking about paying such full medical costs, let me share some concrete numbers with you, all numbers are from tier 1 cities like Shanghai -

                                      Chest CT scan is 170-200 RMB, or 25-30 USD MRI scan is 260-460 RMB, or 35-65 USD Ultrasound is 20-170 RMB, or 3-25 USD PET CT is 6500 RMB, or 900 USD

                                      https://ybj.sh.gov.cn/cmsres/9b/9baabfec6f6c4e3fa03d6289f5e7...

                                      Ambulance cost is shockingly low, 30 RMB per call plus 7 RMB per KM, that is 4 USD per call plus 1 USD per KM.

                                      https://wx.sh120.sh.cn/mobjsp/helpinfo/FeeScale.jsp?communit...

                                      when you can't afford those tests in the west or facing a stupidly long waiting period, don't be sad, just jump onto an airplane to get yourself checked & treated in Shanghai. You'd still save heap of money saved after such extra travel costs.

                                      • foohoge 8 hours ago

                                        Haha, it's more expensive than Japan. A frog in a well does not know the ocean.

                                        • tw1984 7 hours ago

                                          there are also $1 houses in Japan, it is definitely leading in such affordability race.

                                  • leeorz 10 hours ago

                                    If you consider the exchange rate, of course, salaries in China would be much lower. If considering purchasing power and cost of living, Chinese salaries would have a relatively high level of competitiveness.

                                    • wordofx 8 hours ago

                                      There are sooo many programmers in China that they don’t value programming. You get paid peanuts because there’s so many people to do the job.

                                    • seanmcdirmid 10 hours ago

                                      Not in tech. There is a weird de-emphasis of programmers in countries that aren’t the USA or mainland china. So a programmer from Japan with some experience/skills can move to Beijing (yes, there were many Japanese expat SWEs when I was there) for a better salary.

                                      • foohoge 10 hours ago

                                        What? I'm Japanese but I've never heard a story about changing jobs to Chinese company. I heard a lot of stories about changing jobs to GAFAM.

                                        Could you tell me more about that?

                                        • seanmcdirmid 10 hours ago

                                          Microsoft paid more in Beijing than Tokyo while I was there, it turns out even experienced programmers in Tokyo don’t make $200k/year. Especially if you have a PhD or research in a hot field, you can get a pretty good job in richer Chinese cities. But an apartment is probably more expensive to rent in Beijing, and definitely in Shanghai, than it is in much of Tokyo, so there are trade offs.

                                          • foohoge 10 hours ago

                                            It's true that rents in Tokyo are expensive, but Kawasaki or Adachi, where the commute takes about 20 minutes, are cheap. I don't know about the salary, but I checked X or blog and it seems that some are work in the US headquarters, but none in Beijing.

                                            Anyway, when are you there? It looks you are talking in 2010.

                                          • numpad0 8 hours ago

                                            I don't think it's that much of an outrageous claim, plenty of our fellow countrymen works at local regional branches and English wings of China-owned companies these days. It doesn't take much stretch from there to imagine some of them moving to near their HQ.

                                            It's annoying that sometimes people thinks there has to be basic mutual intelligibility between Chinese and Japanese languages against the reality that there's none, but this is not about that at all. Chill.

                                            • foohoge 7 hours ago

                                              Is this response about a Chinese-owned company? They said about Microsoft in other responses and I don't receive like that.

                                              I'm not good at English, so I don't get the nuances that native speakers do.

                                    • equestria 13 hours ago

                                      > especially with their strict control of information. Most people there will have difficulty independently learning about cybersecurity.

                                      I'm puzzled by this assertion. I know quite a few self-taught infosec folks who grew up there. China is not North Korea. The government, by and large, doesn't monitor what you're doing day-to-day, unless you're a political activist or some other "undesirable". The Great Firewall doesn't stop you from accessing infosec content; and in any case, the use of VPNs is prevalent among techies.

                                      To be fair, the parent's claim that China is "ahead" in infosec also feels like fearmongering. The one thing that's true for China is that their government has far fewer qualms about hacking Western infrastructure to get dirt on dissidents, steal IP, and so on. But that's a matter of ethics and law, not tech.

                                      • PittleyDunkin 11 hours ago

                                        > The one thing that's true for China is that their government has far fewer qualms about hacking Western infrastructure to get dirt on dissidents, steal IP, and so on. But that's a matter of ethics and law, not tech.

                                        As opposed to the DoD, which strictly fights for freedom, liberty, and democracy?

                                        • equestria 40 minutes ago

                                          > As opposed to the DoD, which strictly fights for freedom, liberty, and democracy?

                                          Yes, the whataboutism is unwarranted here. The US government is no angel, but is far more constrained in this regard. The bar to become "the enemy of the state" is much higher - for example, your comment won't get you in trouble here. The US government also wouldn't, say, hack Spotify and snoop on their business plans to prop up a competing US startup - something that is commonplace with the Chinese intelligence apparatus.

                                        • tivert 10 hours ago

                                          > To be fair, the parent's claim that China is "ahead" in infosec also feels like fearmongering. The one thing that's true for China is that their government has far fewer qualms about hacking Western infrastructure to get dirt on dissidents, steal IP, and so on. But that's a matter of ethics and law, not tech.

                                          I've heard China also has many more personnel working in this space.

                                          • medo-bear 5 hours ago

                                            Ive also heard that China has many more people living in it than the US. Ive also heard that Chinese higher education system is state funded

                                            • tivert 3 hours ago

                                              > Ive also heard that China has many more people living in it than the US. Ive also heard that Chinese higher education system is state funded

                                              So? It kinds sounds like you're making an excuse, but excuses don't do anything to address the capability difference caused by the larger number of personnel.

                                        • Citizen8396 12 hours ago

                                          "Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance."

                                          • medo-bear 5 hours ago

                                            I think this is just baseless prejudice. In my experience, having lived in the West and in the East, I found that on average, at least in the urban population, people in the communist and ex-communist space seem to be far more computer literate while computer experts seem to mentally get around "magic and fluff" much easier. Also the authorities are far less concerned about "incorrect" ideologies creeping through (especially through academia) than you probably immagine.

                                          • almaight 11 hours ago
                                          • basilgohar 16 hours ago

                                            > and the copying of certain information that was subject to U.S. law enforcement requests pursuant to court orders

                                            Is this legal speak for saying, "They're using our backdoors without our permission."?

                                            • toomuchtodo 15 hours ago
                                              • sailfast 15 hours ago

                                                Can you imagine if the proponents of the Clipper Chip had actually won the argument? Yeesh. This is inexcusable.

                                                • davidw 15 hours ago

                                                  Wyden is so good on this stuff.

                                                  • rootusrootus 14 hours ago

                                                    He's getting up there in years, I hope he hangs out a while longer. We could use more senators like him.

                                                    • toomuchtodo 15 hours ago

                                                      He is a treasure.

                                                  • bongobingo1 15 hours ago

                                                    Damn, if only some one, some where, at some point, had mentioned that there's no such thing as a secure backdoor to encryption. Oh well, maybe such events are impossible to predict.

                                                    • sangnoir 14 hours ago

                                                      It's legal speak for "They are looking at who we have wiretaps on", which any country would be interested in, just to see which of their assets are being watched, for counter-counter-espionage purposes.

                                                      • halJordan 14 hours ago

                                                        That is incorrect. While you're idea probably is interesting to them, they are indeed leveraging the infrastructure to "live off the land" doing their own collect. They are very much doing their own targeting.

                                                        • sangnoir 13 hours ago

                                                          How would their own targeting relate to "copying of certain information that was subject to U.S. law enforcement requests pursuant to court orders"? AFAIK, telecoms enforcement requests subject to court orders in the US mean one thing, and one thing only: lawful interception of communication.

                                                          • basilgohar 13 hours ago

                                                            There is no known limit to the scope of what LE can monitor, and there is no public record to access or analyze in the case of sealed documents. So it could, for all we know, be anyone and everyone.

                                                            Remember, way back when, AT&T just gave the NSA full access to their network.

                                                            • sangnoir 12 hours ago

                                                              I'm not sure I'm following your argument in the context of this thread. Are you suggesting there were no surveillance court orders whose targets the Chinese found a d copied?

                                                        • walterbell 14 hours ago

                                                          For cross-referencing with ground surveillance.

                                                        • mikestew 16 hours ago
                                                          • Cyph0n 15 hours ago

                                                            Does this mean that they were able to (ab)use LI infra?

                                                            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawful_interception

                                                            • halJordan 14 hours ago

                                                              Yes. What no one here bothers to even mention is that APTs have been doing this very thing since the 2004 Athens Affair. It didn't feed into the sanctimony so it isn't mentioned.

                                                              • Cyph0n 13 hours ago

                                                                I was just reading about the Greece incident linked on the wiki page. Absolutely staggering stuff - none of which I heard of before!

                                                          • AzzyHN 15 hours ago

                                                            Damn, who could've seen this coming!?

                                                            • talldayo 16 hours ago

                                                              I like the tacit implication that all 335 million-odd Americans might be subject to requests pursuant to court orders, but none of us can ever really know for sure since those records might be sealed, expunged, vacated or classified.

                                                              It's like we're on the $500,000 question and my Phone-a-Friend still has Snowden on the line.

                                                              • eru 15 hours ago

                                                                > I like the tacit implication that all 335 million-odd Americans [...]

                                                                I wouldn't worry too much.

                                                                Us unAmericans in the rest of the world don't have any constitutional guarantees to save us from the US spooks (nor from each other), and you don't have any constitutional guarantees to save you from the rest of the world, either.

                                                                So the flimsy guarantees that would in theory save you from your own spooks are really just a drop in the bucket.

                                                                • walterbell 14 hours ago

                                                                  Trickle-down surveillance can lead to on-demand local neo-stasi orgs in every country, representing local, national, transnational or global interests.

                                                                  Like the WestWorld S3 “RICO crime app”.

                                                              • webdoodle 13 hours ago

                                                                Yep. Pretty much the dystopian governments go-to playbook for surveillance. Find a private entity that is providing a communication service they can't spy on, then pressure them to put in a backdoor with threats of jail, etc.

                                                                Former CEO of Qwest Communications Joe Nachio claims he fought the NSA's initial requests for these backdoors, and was rewarded with being taken to court for insider trading. Remember no one at the top of these companies got there without breaking some rules along the way.

                                                                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio

                                                                • CarpaDorada 15 hours ago

                                                                  No it is not, because these are not backdoors, the entities legally own the data users have provided them and the courts require them to share the data for investigative purposes. When the FBI pressed Apple to break its encryption, it would not had been a backdoor, but simply a different product that Apple would've offered. A backdoor would be a secret exploit that circumvents encryption, or other security methods.

                                                                  • greycol 14 hours ago

                                                                    You've probably conflated the saying "going through the backdoor" with the noun backdoor, which is an understandable mistake to make.

                                                                    Conflating the two is even easier when the backdoor is morally questionable i.e. When someone purposefully installs a wooden backdoor on a bankvault and says it's so that we don't need to go through the whole rigmarole of opening the main vault-door. Yes it allows them to do their job of checking what's in safety deposit boxes easier but the door itself is an evil.

                                                                    • grayfaced 14 hours ago

                                                                      A backdoor bypasses legitimate access mechanisms. Whether it is a backdoor or not depends fully on whether you believe lawful intercept is a legitimate access mechanism. And I think the law is on the side of it being not a backdoor.

                                                                      • greycol 13 hours ago

                                                                        We've had multiple bills proposed by multiple countries for government mandated backdoors. Multiple articles refer to how these bills would create backdoors, multiple computer security experts say the bills would create backdoors in the software. Under your definition of the word they'd all be using the word incorrectly because logically no bill could create a legal backdoor by definition.

                                                                        It's seems there's a semantic schism on "the point in software where security is weak enough (either purposefully or unkowingly) for 3rd party access by a 3rd party" and "the point in software where security is purposefully weakened for 3rd party access by the legal requirement of a 3rd party" there's definitely a distinction but I generally conflate the two, perhaps incorrectly, under the word backdoor.

                                                                        If you've got another more appropos word for this purposeful and legal weakining of security for non primary user/provider access I'd love to know it because sadly I feel I'd use it fairly often in the coming years.

                                                                        • CarpaDorada 12 hours ago

                                                                          These articles use the word "backdoor" for effect, for example <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/08/apple-adds-a-...>. The bills you refer to by multiple countries simply want their own in-house wiretapping apparatus, because they don't want to be dependent on the US. Specifically, I'm thinking of EU's "chat control". Ironically those who oppose it are unwittingly doing the bidding for a more powerful US. The internet is fully wiretapped and there is no end in sight.

                                                                          • greycol 11 hours ago

                                                                            No they use the word backdoor because there is no better word for these pathwatys/purposefully created weak spots in access to the software. Seriously please give me one that emphasises the security detriment to the 1st party user and i'll happily use it instead.

                                                                            I'll also add that ironically those who don't oppose these bills are unwittingly doing the bidding of strategic adversaries as demonstrated quite adequately by the PRC here.

                                                                        • Lvl999Noob 11 hours ago

                                                                          A backdoor in the technical sense (which is the real topic of this whole conversation) is one that bypasses the known way of entry. For an "End to end encrypted" communication channel, a backdoor allows someone to view the communication without being on either of the "ends".

                                                                          The problem is not whether the backdoor was legally mandated or not, and whether legal authorities are misusing them or not, the problem is that it exists. And the existence by itself is enough to let someone ignore any legal mandates and view the comms.

                                                                        • CarpaDorada 14 hours ago

                                                                          "Using our backdoors" is what was said, not "going through the backdoor". Backdoors have a very specific meaning in computer security. US law enforcement is not using backdoors to access the data of US companies.

                                                                    • uptownfunk 13 hours ago

                                                                      How many are there that we don’t even know they are targeting. That is what would keep me up at night

                                                                      • churchill 16 hours ago

                                                                        Whenever I see these news & FBI releases about Chinese state-sponsored hackers breaching systems in America, I wonder whether the same thing happens over there: American malware and hacker groups attacking & laying landmines in China's internet infrastructure, although the Chinese may not publicize these exploits because their system opts to maintain an air of invincibility.

                                                                        • TechDebtDevin 14 hours ago

                                                                          Yes, the US famously has breached foreign infrastructure. In Confessions of an Economic Hitman[0], Josh Perkins discusses how he knows on good authority the US could shutdown the Japanese electrical grid with relative ease if needed, which an ally. Imagine what they do to perceived enemies.

                                                                          [0]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2159.Confessions_of_an_E...

                                                                          This book was on of my favorite books to site in extemporaneous speaking events.

                                                                          • JumpCrisscross 13 hours ago

                                                                            Confessions is best read as historical fiction. It's brilliantly written. But the author has never been able to substantiate much [1].

                                                                            [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit...

                                                                            • PittleyDunkin 10 hours ago

                                                                              The accusations also seem unsubstantiated and ideological in nature. Eg

                                                                              > Mallaby said that Perkins' conception of international finance is "largely a dream" and that his "basic contentions are flat wrong" because "the poor don't always lose" when developing countries borrow money.

                                                                              It's not exactly an uncommon take to center conceptions neocolonialism around the World Bank and the IMF. This just seems like a Steven Pinker blunt rotation picking on the work.

                                                                              • TechDebtDevin 12 hours ago

                                                                                True, but I would also deny most of those accusations even if true If I was the State Department. If I was the US state department. I personally know a McKensey Principal who's government work isn't that far off of what Perkins describes. and they love bragging about it too.

                                                                              • Aeolun 10 hours ago

                                                                                The US could do a great many things to Japan with relative ease, given their (relatively) enormous military presence in the country.

                                                                              • chvid 8 hours ago

                                                                                In the last episode of the risky business podcast they chatted about the "GoblinRAT" based on this Russian analysis/post-mortem:

                                                                                https://rt-solar.ru/solar-4rays/blog/4861/

                                                                                Likely an attack done by US intelligence.

                                                                                There has been quite a few of these with a lot of details released by Russian techies - this is just the latest one I know of.

                                                                                • cyp0633 13 hours ago

                                                                                  According to Chinese state media, the US installed malware in systems in Chinese universities tied with military, e.g. Northwestern Polytechnical University

                                                                                  • throwaway290 13 hours ago

                                                                                    According to Chinese state media, Chinese state media is never wrong

                                                                                    • cyp0633 12 hours ago

                                                                                      Believe it or not, it's up to you; the same goes with FBI

                                                                                      • 0dayz 8 hours ago

                                                                                        The FBI is not the same as a news agency however.

                                                                                        So that point is null.

                                                                                        • cyp0633 6 hours ago

                                                                                          Both depend on whether you believe in the government actually. When we say "Chinese state media", we're really talking about a media controlled by the government, especially for those political topics

                                                                                          • 0dayz 2 hours ago

                                                                                            This would be true even with private actors, at the end of the day it's whoever has concrete evidence of something taking place.

                                                                                            If the FBI is going to make the broad statement that China is hacking the USA, it'll have to back that statement up by evidence presented in court against individuals the FBI has investigated for hacking into US companies/government orgs.

                                                                                  • WiSaGaN 14 hours ago

                                                                                    At least you have CIA openly recruit spies on Twitter: https://x.com/CIA/status/1841468925378171381 I think only CIA and mossad have the confidence to do it this way.

                                                                                    • echelon 13 hours ago

                                                                                      That's wild.

                                                                                      What's the situation like on the ground? I've read that the CCP sentences spies to death and that they catch a lot of them.

                                                                                      • NewJazz 12 hours ago

                                                                                        Yeah based on that video, it'd be easy to edit the onion address and send them to a honey pot...

                                                                                    • beepbooptheory 15 hours ago

                                                                                      I think its kind of hard to imagine its not totally complementary in this respect.

                                                                                      Even just being rational, if we have no qualms spying on our European allies, it seems a safe bet to assume we would be doing that and much more to China too.

                                                                                      https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57302806

                                                                                      • dralley 14 hours ago

                                                                                        Considering how deeply infiltrated German intelligence services were/are by Russia, it's hard to feel bad about spying on them.

                                                                                        At least the Dutch are competent.

                                                                                      • talldayo 16 hours ago

                                                                                        China has the Great Firewall segregating most international access from the country's network. Additionally, China (moreso than most) has a motivation to onshore as much of their software and hardware manufacturing to bolster their own industry.

                                                                                        It's possible that isolated attacks could pop off now and again, but hacking to-and-from China is strictly state controlled.

                                                                                        • petergs 15 hours ago

                                                                                          It certainly does happen. See for example under “Targets”: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailored_Access_Operations

                                                                                          • tharkun__ 15 hours ago

                                                                                            Now if that naming isn't intentional then I don't know what would be ...

                                                                                                The Tao or Dao is the natural way of the universe, primarily as conceived in East Asian philosophy and religion. This seeing of life cannot be grasped as a concept. Rather, it is seen through actual living experience of one's everyday being. The concept is represented by the Chinese character 道, which has meanings including 'way', 'path', 'road', and sometimes 'doctrine' or 'principle'.
                                                                                            
                                                                                            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao
                                                                                          • eru 15 hours ago

                                                                                            You say it like it's hard to get around the Great Firewall in either direction.

                                                                                            • nitwit005 16 hours ago

                                                                                              Their censorship infrastructure isn't security. If anything, it's another thing to hack.

                                                                                              • WatchDog 13 hours ago

                                                                                                It does have some defensive benefit. Getting legitimate connectivity to work reliably across the Chinese border, is a big pain. Due to this, Chinese commercial internet infrastructure has very few dependencies on international services.

                                                                                                Western infrastructure by comparison is very vulnerable to distribution of connectivity, attacks on deep sea cables can cause a lot of damage.

                                                                                          • 7thpower 16 hours ago

                                                                                            I will be interested to see if the Trump administration will target their response at any specific companies or entities related to telecommunications (beyond existing measures) or just focus on existing tariffs and export controls.

                                                                                            I also wonder if information about similar attacks from US allies will be detailed in the coming days, or if the exploits were just limited to our specific back doors (as has been reported in the previous weeks).

                                                                                            China will have convenient amnesia during their next communications lamenting the West’s unprovoked aggression.

                                                                                            • The28thDuck 15 hours ago

                                                                                              Is this related to Verizon going down recently?

                                                                                              • humanlity 10 hours ago

                                                                                                Snowden: wow, cool

                                                                                                • grahamj 13 hours ago

                                                                                                  Hey China, could you just like, you know, not do that? That'd be cool.

                                                                                                  Thanks!

                                                                                                  • jumping_frog 13 hours ago
                                                                                                    • knowaveragejoe 12 hours ago

                                                                                                      Is this a whataboutism?

                                                                                                      • jumping_frog 11 hours ago

                                                                                                        Friends don't treat friends like this.

                                                                                                        • coretx 2 hours ago

                                                                                                          They do, they just care less when it's friends doing it. 5-eyes did the same with the entire European parliament. The incident response & reporting ( clean up crew ) was done by a firm who got sold to a British intelligence daughter not much afterwards. You can't make this shit up. Another famous example would be from the previous cold war era. Dutch telephony routers had Hebrew manuals so they required personnel from Israel for "maintenance". They wiretapped the whole country.

                                                                                                          • 0dayz 8 hours ago

                                                                                                            Then we should never be friends with China?

                                                                                                            • coretx 2 hours ago

                                                                                                              Nation states don't have friends. They have interests.

                                                                                                      • talldayo 13 hours ago

                                                                                                        Something something turnabout is fair play

                                                                                                        • throwaway290 12 hours ago

                                                                                                          As if they contributed to West even remotely as much as West contributed to them. Help getting lifted from poverty and being given a ton of tech/innovations, turnabout my ass...

                                                                                                          • talldayo 11 hours ago

                                                                                                            Conversely, you could look at that as a mistake on the West's half for letting themselves become so addicted to a foreign power they are ideologically at-odds with. We could have learned this mistake when we sold Pakistan weapons they used to genocide people, or again when we gave Iran weapons they would turn around and use for terrorism, or yet again when we furnish weapons to Israel pitting one ugly nationalist theocracy against another.

                                                                                                            All China ever did was exploit capitalism. And if we punished companies for exploiting capitalism then America wouldn't have modern businesses at all.

                                                                                                            • 0dayz 8 hours ago

                                                                                                              USA never gave weapons beyond required (hostage crisis) to Iran.

                                                                                                              And China is doing a lot more than exploiting capitalism. They are pushing neo imperialism just like Russia.

                                                                                                      • dgfitz 15 hours ago

                                                                                                        Sounds like Xi isn’t stoked about tariffs.