We’re at war. It’s still a cold one but China has gone on the cyber-offensive. For many years, China has been stealing any of our trade secrets and technology tools they can get their hands on. Now, they’re after any information or technological processes they can use to help shift the blame for the coronavirus epidemic on anyone else but them. Xi Jinping would be jumping up and down in joy if he could pin it on us.
A war over the truth of covid-19’s origin
According to top defense experts, who are keeping their names out of the papers, the new focus is seizing control of the media narrative. “Most assuredly, the American people will demand some kind of financial response, if not outright reparations,” a top official notes.
“It is about saving face for them,” a retired Pentagon officer explains. “It’s about leaking out false information.” CIA station chief Dan Hoffman agrees that “when it comes to the U.S., Chinese intelligence,” their spies “continue to operate at an alarmingly broad level.” The cold war is heating up.
You would never believe that LinkedIn can be used as an intelligence gathering tool but the way Chinese operatives mine through the profiles, it gives them targets to focus recruiting efforts on.
Are Chinese drones already watching America?
As officials start piecing together the puzzle, intelligence agencies are taking a closer look at a flock of drones “donated” to 43 separate law enforcement agencies across 22 states. Every one has a “made in China” sticker, slapped on by the manufacturer, DJI. While they surveil American streets for social distancing violations, they could be sending a copy of the data back home to China.
Technological experts have been trying to determine whether there might be back doors to the DJI drones, a favorite of U.S. consumers. They hold three-fourths of the American hobby market. In a war, they could be activated as robot spies. “China also regularly deploys backdoors that remain latent inside U.S. networks, waiting for the right time to become operational,” Karim Hijazi, CEO of cyber intelligence and defense firm, Prevailion asserts.
“DJI is a Chinese company and is therefore subject to Chinese national security and cybersecurity law,”senior research fellow Klon Kitchen relates. “This means the CCP understands all of DJI’s data – including data collected in the U.S. by U.S. persons – to be ‘Chinese data’ and must, therefore, be made available to the Chinese government,” the Heritage Foundation researcher says.
One of the biggest targets in the current war are colleges and universities. They’re trying hard to infiltrate “cutting-edge research” labs. The National Institute of Health has ramped up efforts to identify “scientists stealing crucial biomedical research.” One Harvard professor was caught hiding all the money he took to set up bioresearch facilities in Wuhan, China.