📡Guardians of Hong Kong
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We provide translation of news in English from local media and other sources, for academic use.
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Over 500K Zoom accounts being sold on dark web, researchers find

//More than 500,000 accounts of the popular video conferencing app are being sold on the dark web and hacker forums...
These accounts are being sold “for less than a penny each, and in some cases, given away for free,” the report said.

//In this case, cybercriminals are employing “credential stuffing” where they try to log in to Zoom using account data such as usernames and passwords, leaked in older data breaches. If the login is successful, it is added to a list that is sold to other hackers.

//brokers are offering so-called “zero-day exploits” that hack into Zoom video sessions. A zero-day exploit takes advantage of a vulnerability in a software program that is not made public before the day it becomes active, meaning that there are, in effect, zero days to fix the problem.

//The vulnerabilities would allow hackers to break into Zoom video sessions and potentially spy on calls, according to Motherboard.

//“Zoom takes user security extremely seriously. Since learning of these rumors, we have been working around the clock with a reputable, industry-leading security firm to investigate them. To date, we have not found any evidence substantiating these claims,” a Zoom spokesperson told Fox News.

Full Article: Fox News, (16-Apr)

#Zoom #DarkWeb #Hackers #Security
Sweden plans to stop foreign investment that harm the country’s security interests

Image: Internet

Further reading:
Exclusive: India foreign investment rules aimed at China to include Hong Kong
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/1991

#Sweden #Investment #Security #China
#CCPControl #ChinaInfiltration #BigData #PersonalPrivacy

#Japan Should Not Ignore #TikTok Data Security Risks
Liberal Democratic Party Proposal on Restricting the Use as early as September


Followed by the ban on the use of TikTok in India and the request from the U.S. on the parent company of TikTok for selling the local business of ByteDance, the Ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Tax Panel Chief of Japan Akira Amari, said that Japan should not ignore the data security risks from the use of TikTok.

During the interview on Fuji Television Network on Aug 16, Amari pointed that other countries such as the United Kingdom, India and the U.S. are aware of the data security risks of TikTok, which the Japanese government should not ignore. “Japan cannot just stand beside and watch because many countries have pointed out the risks,” he said.

Amari added, Japanese companies should assume that partnerships with Chinese firms would lead to data leakage. If Japan compromised on data security, other countries, who supported freedom, democracy and the rule of law, might rule out Japan, which posed a crisis to Japan. “Japan is the country with the least sense of crisis,” said Amari.

#TikTok #Japan #Amari #AkiraAmari #Security #DataSecurity #LiberalDemocraticParty

Source: Stand News #Aug16
#CCPControl #5GBan #Security
#Huawei Pursues UK to revisit 5G Ban As Biden Wins

//In July the UK government, after pressure from the Trump administration, reversed a plan to let Huawei be a controlled 5G supplier, and instead ordered Huawei equipment be stripped out of the country’s 5G networks by 2027...

Huawei vice-president Victor Zhang’s intervention comes as Boris Johnson prepares on Monday to meet the Northern Research Group, the lobby group of Conservative MPs determined to turn the prime minister’s levelling up agenda into a reality...

Critics of Huawei claim that despite the independent shareholder structure, the company can be directed at any minute by the Chinese Communist party to give its regime a backdoor to spy on British communications...//

Source: Ths Guardian #Nov16
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/nov/16/uk-should-revisit-5g-ban-now-trump-is-defeated-says-huawei
#CrossStrait #Invasion
Expert Testifies in Hearing: #China likely to attack #Taiwan within five years

//China's military modernization plus US failure to build robust coalitions to counter Beijing's regional aggression could lead to a Taiwan takeover

“Cross-strait deterrence is arguably weaker today than at any point since the Korean War,” said Oriana Skylar Mastro, a fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies who specializes in Chinese military policy. She was speaking at a virtual hearing Feb. 18 before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which was examining U.S. deterrence policies aimed at preventing a future attack on Taiwan by Beijing.

“Impressive military modernization on the part of China, U.S. failure to build robust coalitions to counter Chinese regional aggression, and [Chinese President] Xi Jinping’s personal ambition, all have coalesced to create a situation for Beijing in which the benefits of using force more and more are becoming so high that they outweigh the costs,” she continued.

“I believe the greatest threat now is that Beijing will launch a military operation to force ‘reunification,’ in their words, irrespective of Washington’s or Taipei’s policies or actions,” Mastro said. She added that Chinese military leaders have told her they believe Xi will conclude that the Chinese military will have the capability to occupy and seize Taiwan in a year or two even as some Western analysts predict that it is more likely five years or more from that goal.//

Read full article here:
https://www.rollcall.com/2021/02/23/china-likely-to-attack-taiwan-within-five-years-panel-told/

Source: Roll Call #Feb23

#USCongress #StanfordUniversity #Security
Security fears for Hongkongers as alleged Beijing sympathiser joins rehoming taskforce

Fears over the security of Hong Kongers moving to Britain have been raised after the appointment of an alleged Beijing sympathiser to the Government’s rehoming taskforce.

The Telegraph can reveal that the body advising ministers on how to assimilate new arrivals includes a prominent member of a London-based Chinese organisation that publicly supports the authoritarian crackdown which prompted the exodus.

Senior Conservatives on Saturday night urged the Government to review the “short-sighted” appointment after British-based Hong Kong activists voiced fears their details could be shared with the Chinese embassy.

Source: The Telegraph #Aug21

https://bit.ly/3mtlfMC

#Security #HongKonger #Beijing #Rehoming
#China and #Solomon Islands Draft Secret #SecurityPact, Raising Alarm in the Pacific

//A leaked document has revealed that China and the Solomon Islands are close to signing a security agreement that could open the door to Chinese troops and naval warships flowing into a Pacific Island nation that played a pivotal role in World War II.

The agreement, kept secret until now, was shared online Thursday night by opponents of the deal and verified as legitimate by the Australian government...

it has set off alarms throughout the Pacific, where concerns about China’s intentions have been growing for years.

“This is deeply problematic for the United States and a real cause of concern for our allies and partners,” Charles Edel, the inaugural Australia chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said on Friday.

“The establishment of a base in the Solomon Islands by a strategic adversary would significantly degrade Australia and New Zealand’s security, increase the chances of local corruption and heighten the chances of resource exploitation.”

The leaked document states that “Solomon Islands may, according to its own needs, request China to send police, armed police, military personnel and other law enforcement and armed forces to Solomon Islands to assist in maintaining social order, protecting people’s lives and property.”//

Read the full article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/world/asia/china-solomon-islands-security-pact.html

Source: New York Times #Mar24

#Security #InternationalRelations #FiveEyes #Australia #Defense #Pacific #WW2
FBI investigation determined Chinese-made #Huawei equipment could disrupt US nuclear arsenal communications

//In 2017, the Chinese government was offering to spend $100 million to build an ornate Chinese garden at the #NationalArboretum in Washington DC. Complete with temples, pavilions and a 70-foot white pagoda, the project thrilled local officials, who hoped it would attract thousands of tourists every year.      

But when US counterintelligence officials began digging into the details, they found numerous red flags. The pagoda, they noted, would have been strategically placed on one of the highest points in #WashingtonDC, just two miles from the #USCapitol, a perfect spot for signals intelligence collection, multiple sources familiar with the episode told CNN.  

Also alarming was that Chinese officials wanted to build the pagoda with materials shipped to the US in diplomatic pouches, which #USCustoms officials are barred from examining, the sources said...

Among the most alarming things the #FBI uncovered pertains to Chinese-made Huawei equipment atop cell towers near US military bases in the rural Midwest. According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, the FBI determined the equipment was capable of capturing and disrupting highly restricted Defense Department communications, including those used by US Strategic Command, which oversees the country's nuclear weapons....//

Read the full article:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/23/politics/fbi-investigation-huawei-china-defense-department-communications-nuclear/index.html

Source: CNN #Jul23

#CNNExclusive
#ChinaThreat #MadeinChina #Security #Espionage #ChineseGarden
#China Targeted #US Federal Reserve system to Build Informant Network and Access #Data, Probe Finds

//China tried to build a network of informants inside the Federal Reserve system, at one point threatening to imprison a Fed economist during a trip to Shanghai unless he agreed to provide nonpublic economic data, a congressional investigation found.

The investigation by Republican staff members of the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs found that Fed employees were offered contracts with Chinese talent-recruitment programs, which often include cash payments, and asked to provide information on the U.S. economy, interest-rate changes and policies, according to a report of the findings released Tuesday [July 26, 2022].//

Read more:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-targeted-fed-to-build-informant-network-access-data-a-probe-says-11658826000

Source: WSJ #Jul26

#Espionage #Beijing #Security #Infiltration #FED
#Surveillance
Portable charger in China Turned into Eavesdropping Device and GPS Locator


In China, a portable charger can become an eavesdropping device and a GPS locator. Acoording to Chinese media, with the installation of SIM card, such portable charger can eavesdrop a long distance away and locate the user accurately.

These devices come in various colours and models, but most have the functionality of "remote monitoring recording" and "precise positioning".

They cost from RMB300 to RMB600 and can be bought on some online platforms.

In China, a journalist from #Banyuetan (#半月談) successfully modifies a portable charger from a store with RMB300. He downloads a "#GPS365" app onto his phone. After logging in with the username and password given by the seller, the screen shows the device location, tracking record, contact list, messages etc.

The journalist puts "location" in trial and finds out that the activity tracking of the user can be seen clearly with the portable charger. Even places like underground and car parks can still be accurately shown on the system.

The staff told the journalist that the charger could record sound from the surroundings and automatically send the recording to the phone once the environment noise exceeds 50dB with "Sound Control Convo (#聲控語聊到)" installed in the app. The portable charger can also pick up phone calls automatically.

Source: RFA #Jul27
https://www.facebook.com/454004001340790/posts

#GPS #SoundControl #Tracking #Taobao #Privacy #Security #PrecisePositioning #MadeinChina
U.S. FBI director says TikTok poses national security concerns

The U.S. operations of Chinese-owned TikTok raise national security concerns, FBI Director Chris Wray said on Tuesday, flagging the risk that the Chinese government could harness the video-sharing app to influence users or control their devices.

Risks include "the possibility that the Chinese government could use [TikTok] to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations," Wray told U.S. lawmakers.

Source:Reuters #Nov15

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/us-fbi-director-says-tiktok-poses-national-security-concerns-2022-11-15/

#FBI #TikTok #Security #China