Security News
China introduced restrictions on Monday that mean would-be exporters will require a license to ship certain drones and related equipment out of the Middle Kingdom. A spokesperson clarified that all civilian drones that are not included in the control are banned from export for military purposes, according to the Ministry of Commerce website.
Over the weekend Chinese president Xi Jinping gave a directive to officials to build a Beijing-supervised "Security barrier" around its internet. According to state-sponsored media republished by the government, Xi said it was "Essential to uphold the Party's leadership over the internet sector."
An unnamed Federal Civilian Executive Branch agency in the U.S. detected anomalous email activity in mid-June 2023, leading to Microsoft's discovery of a new China-linked espionage campaign targeting two dozen organizations. The details come from a joint cybersecurity advisory released by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation on July 12, 2023.
Two file management apps on the Google Play Store have been discovered to be spyware, putting the privacy and security of up to 1.5 million Android users at risk. These apps engage in deceptive behaviour and secretly send sensitive user data to malicious servers in China.
Security researchers discovered two malicious file management applications on Google Play with a collective installation count of over 1.5 million that collected excessive user data that goes well beyond what's needed to offer the promised functionality. The apps, both from the same publisher, can launch without any interaction from the user to steal sensitive data and send it to servers in China.
On June 30 it issued a new one [PDF] titled "US Business Risk: People's Republic of China Laws Expand Beijing's Oversight of Foreign and Domestic Companies." The first item discussed is China's recently revised Counter-Espionage Law, on grounds it "Expands the definition of espionage from covering state secrets and intelligence to any documents, data, materials, or items related to national security interests, without defining terms." In May, China Law Translate - a crowdsourced translation and analysis service for Chinese laws - in May rated the updated law "Probably less consequential than some imagine."
China has a playbook to use IP theft to seize leadership in cloud computing, and other nations should band together to stop that happening, according to Nathaniel C. Fick, the US ambassador-at-large for cyberspace and digital policy. The ambassador described China's actions in the telecoms industry as "a playbook" and warned the nation will "Run it in cloud computing they will run it in AI, they will run it in every core strategic technology area that matters."
China's cyber-ops against the US have shifted from espionage activities to targeting infrastructure and societal disruption, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Jen Easterly told an Aspen Institute event on Monday. "PRC actors have been in the spotlight for years and years, the key difference here was for PRC actors the focus has been espionage," said [VIDEO] Easterly.
A stealthy China-based group managed to establish a persistent foothold into critical infrastructure organizations in the U.S. and Guam without being detected, Microsoft and the "Five Eyes" nations said on Wednesday. The tech giant's threat intelligence team is tracking the activity, which includes post-compromise credential access and network system discovery, under the name Volt Typhoon.
China has attacked critical infrastructure organizations in the US using a "Living off the land" attack that hides offensive action among everyday Windows admin activity. The attack was spotted by Microsoft and acknowledged by intelligence and infosec agencies from the Five Eyes nations - Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US. A joint cyber security advisory [PDF] from ten agencies describes "a recently discovered cluster of activity of interest associated with a People's Republic of China state-sponsored cyber actor, also known as Volt Typhoon."