FINANCIAL TIMES
14-8-18
China accused of using Belt and Road Initiative for spying
Report identifies growing cyber espionage threat in countries
across Asia and Europe.
Stefania Palma
Chinese cyber espionage linked to the Belt and Road Initiative is
increasing, with experts warning that Beijing is using the huge
infrastructure project to spy on companies and countries as well as to
damp down dissent. The
country is alleged to have targeted Belarus, the Maldives, Cambodia,
European foreign ministries and non-governmental organisations,
according to the report by US cyber security company FireEye. “They
appear to be interested in countries where there is a lot of money at
stake for them or where policies are being created that would affect
future projects,” said Sandra Joyce, vice-president of FireEye. The
BRI initiative has already come under attack from critics, such as
Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has alleged that China
has negotiated “lopsided” deals. Now
the project could present a cyber threat as well, raising further
questions about the bidding process and China’s motives.
Samantha Hoffman, a research consultant at IISS, a think-tank, said that
beyond monitoring mega-projects or information gathering, China likely
wanted to use data collected to damp down dissent. “It’s also about
controlling debate and ideas where that has specific security and
diplomatic consequences,” she said. Ms
Hoffman has written that “data courier stations” in foreign countries
including ecommerce platforms, Confucius Institutes, telecoms networks,
transportation companies, hotels, financial payment institutions and
logistics companies “would send data via back-ends to a centralised
analysis centre in China”. Under
Beijing’s national intelligence law, Chinese organisations and citizens
are called to collaborate in the collection and guarding of “national
intelligence work”, with the state offering them its protection.
FireEye warned that Malaysia was open to “the heightened risk of cyber
espionage” in the light of Mr Mahathir’s criticism since his election
earlier this year. “We
expect espionage activity against Malaysian organisations will increase
in an attempt to gain insight into current events,” said Ms Joyce.
FireEye alleged that a Chinese hacker group called TEMP.Toucan had
already tried to breach Malaysian public and private organisations. The
report also found that a Chinese cyber espionage group called Roaming
Tiger had targeted Belarus, where China is building its biggest European
industrial park. ZTE, the Chinese state-owned telecoms company that was
banned from purchasing equipment from the US earlier this year, is among
the park’s investors.
FireEye also said malware “unique to Chinese espionage groups” attacked
international non-governmental organisations with links to the BRI in
late 2017 and that phishing emails targeted multiple European foreign
ministries.
Chinese authorities could not be immediately reached for comment. |