Chinese intelligence and spying (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

An official DoJ press release on 4th June 2018, that starts with:

Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, a resident of Syracuse, Utah, and a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer, was arrested Saturday afternoon on federal charges including the attempted transmission of national defense information to the People’s Republic of China. The FBI agents took Hansen into custody while he was on his way to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle to board a connecting flight to China.....From May of 2013 to the date of the complaint, Hansen received not less than $800,000 in funds originating from China.

Link:https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/forme...pted-espionage

[AdamG]

Chinese government hackers have compromised the computers of a Navy contractor, stealing massive amounts of highly sensitive data related to undersea warfare — including secret plans to develop a supersonic anti-ship missile for use on U.S. submarines by 2020, according to American officials.
The breaches occurred in January and February, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The hackers targeted a contractor who works for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, a military organization headquartered in Newport, R.I., that conducts research and development for submarines and underwater weaponry.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...2b1_story.html

[davidbfpo]

Unable to find a previous post on this case, anyway the DoJ statement starts with:

Today, a federal jury convicted Kevin Patrick Mallory, 61, a former Central Intelligence Agency case officer of Leesburg, Virginia, on espionage charges related to his transmission of classified documents to an agent of the People’s Republic of China.

Link:https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/jury-...icer-espionage

Reading between the lines it appears Mr Mallory retained classified documents after leaving government service, which ended his security clearance, in October 2012. In March and April 2017 he traveled to Shanghai to offer his services. I use 'appears' as he was also a contractor.

More details:https://www.lawfareblog.com/accused-...ory-goes-trial

[davidbfpo]

A puzzling explanation of how China's agencies intervened to advance economic interests when a multinational tried to assert itself over selling iron ore.
A "taster":

In the summer of 2012, MI5 Director-General Jonathan Evans gave a rare public lecture in London’s financial district to warn about the “astonishing” level of state-sponsored online spying. One attack, he said, had cost a British company an estimated £800 million ($1.3 billion) in lost revenue, “not just through intellectual property loss but also from commercial disadvantage in contractual negotiations.”Evans didn’t identify the company or the attacker, but in 2015 the journalist Gordon Corera reported in his book Intercept that the spy chief had been talking about Rio Tinto and China.

Link:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...llar-advantage

[AdamG]

Yanjun Xu, a senior officer with China’s Ministry of State Security, is accused of seeking to steal trade secrets from leading defence aviation firms, top Justice Department officials said

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/poli...and-extradited

[AdamG]

China is aggressively seeking to dominate the Internet of Things and plans to use access to billions of networked electronic devices for intelligence-gathering, sabotage, and business purposes, according to a forthcoming congressional report.

China for nearly a decade has been investing heavily in the emerging technology on the Internet of Things (IoT) and has made outpacing similar U.S. efforts one of the ruling Communist Party of China's highest strategic goals.

https://freebeacon.com/national-secu...ying-business/

A major concern outlined in the report is China's efforts to uncover vulnerabilities in IoT systems that can be used by Beijing for strategic objectives in both peacetime and war, the report said.

"Aside from industrial control systems, unauthorized access to health care devices could kill patients and exploitation of smart car vulnerabilities could kill drivers and pedestrians alike, among other examples of possible misuse of data and devices that could have dire consequences," the report warns.

"The future destructive potential of unauthorized access to IoT devices appears potentially limitless."

The IoT is an ill-defined term for a global information and communication infrastructure. It is made up of linked devices ranging from biomedical devices for monitoring patients to self-driving cars to critical infrastructure.

The universe of IoT devices includes billions of electronic systems such as, video cameras, smart phones and smart watches, and industrial control systems used in electric grids.

Chinese IoT objectives include building "smart cities" that monitor public utilities, flows of people and traffic, underground pipelines, and air and water quality, the report said.

Other Chinese IoT plans include advanced remote industrial controls; medical IoTs; smart homes equipped with remote controls for appliances and security systems; and smart cars linking vehicle sensors to drivers, roads, cloud services, and other electronic devices.

[AdamG]

WASHINGTON — Federal authorities charged two Chinese intelligence officers and a team of hackers Tuesday with stealing U.S. and French airplane technology over a five-year period.

The intelligence officers, Zha Rong and Chai Meng, worked for the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security in Nanjing, a local foreign intelligence arm of China's Ministry of State Security.

From January 2010 to May 2015, according to the indictment, the officers and their hackers stole technology for a turbofan jet engine used in U.S. and European commercial airliners. The engine was being developed through a partnership between a French company with an office in Jiangsu Province and a U.S. company.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/f...nology-n926396