In recent years, Chinese spies have been making increasing efforts to learn US secrets.
On March 30, a Chinese woman, Yujing Zhang, was arrested while trying to enter Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s Florida residence. Zhang was found to be carrying two passports, four cell phones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive, and a thumb drive. Upon examination, authorities discovered that the items contained malware. More than $8,000 in U.S. and Chinese currency was found in her hotel room.
Zhang is still in prison, while investigations surrounding her case have not stopped.
Experts point out that this incident should remind all politicians and businesses that danger may be somewhere near them. The theft of digital data and assets is not only done by some unknown criminal. Whether it is an isolated attack or an organized espionage operation, it is necessary to have as many security measures as possible.
This is not the first time that the Chinese have attempted to spy on the United States. There have been several incidents in recent years where individuals have attempted to gain access to information by working on behalf of the Chinese government and military. Last October, ten Chinese hackers and officers were charged with participating in a program aimed at stealing information.
But what do Chinese spies ultimately want from Americans?
In the past, the goal was government espionage and intellectual property theft. Now, both China and other states are conducting broader campaigns to collect as much information as possible that may eventually be useful to them (for espionage purposes, for intellectual property theft, for political issues, etc.).
Michael Biggs, founder and president of Centurions Alliance Group, told the story of an American sportswear company that was planning to launch a new product line. When the company’s CFO took a trip to Asia, he saw the sportswear already being sold by street vendors. Apparently, hackers hacked into an employee’s phone, stole photos of the clothes, and copied them. The job was done very quickly, and of course the American company lost a lot of dollars due to this imitation.
Experts believe that Chinese espionage efforts are more intense than ever.
China's enormous growth is largely related to espionage and theft of American and Western technologies. The United States is the yardstick for comparison, to understand where it (China) stands. The Chinese aim is to collect information that will help them gain an advantage over the Americans, whether it is industrial and commercial secrets or political ideas and military matters. Any information can be useful to them.
This means that all American citizens are vulnerable to attacks. And the targets are not computers but people. Chinese spies are targeting human vulnerability to gather information.
It is said that the Chinese use a wide range of methods to achieve their goal.
“Very often, the Chinese use phishing emails to make the initial breach. However, they have very specialized teams of hackers who can find and exploit network or software vulnerabilities, including zero-day vulnerabilities,” one expert said.
The most common methods are phishing emails, USB drives that are left somewhere in the hope that someone curious will plug them in, and phone calls that trick people into downloading and running software.
China, however, does not stop at these simple methods.
“China trains its spies to be able to identify, assess, develop, recruit and manipulate individuals with access to key sectors of government and industry,” noted Andrew Lewis, president of the private intelligence firm The Ulisses Group. He also said that most of the information China steals from America comes from university networks.
The Chinese are using unconventional “economic espionage” as part of an overall strategy to promote their high-tech industries.
This method of espionage can do great damage to America, since it can cost it up to 600 billion dollars annually.
Universities and colleges are also particularly vulnerable, as they are sources of research and technological development.
All major technology companies, as well as financial, agricultural, space, etc., are important targets. In fact, some decide to stop cooperating with the US government in order to gain access to the Chinese market.
