News About Cyber Warfare

Washington (AFP) April 1, 2025 – The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on Hong Kong’s police chief, justice secretary and other officials over human rights concerns after China clamped down in the financial hub. The sanctions on Police Commissioner Raymond Siu Chak-yee and the others will block any interests they hold in the United States and generally criminalize financial transactions with them under US law. The sanctions mark a rare action invoking human rights by the administration of President Donald Trump, who has described China as an adversary but has shown no reluctance to ally with autocrats. The sanctions “demonstrate the Trump administration’s commitment to hold to account those responsible for depriving people in Hong Kong of protected rights and freedoms or who commit acts of transnational repression on US soil or against US persons,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. Other officials targeted in the latest sanctions include Paul Lam, the city’s secretary for justice. In response, Hong Kong strongly condemned the sanctions as “an attempt to intimidate” officials safeguarding national security and defended its moves to target pro-democracy figures abroad. The sanction list “clearly exposed the US’s barbarity under its hegemony, which is exactly the same as its recent tactics in bullying and coercing various countries and regions,” the Hong Kong government said in a statement. The commissioner’s office of China’s foreign ministry in Hong Kong also blasted the sanctions as “unreasonable” and said Beijing will take “effective measures for resolute retaliation.” Hong Kong’s top official, Chief Executive John Lee, is already under US sanctions. The officials were targeted in line with a US law that champions Hong Kong democracy. – Visa curbs over Tibet – The State Department also pointed to some of the officials’ roles in efforts to “intimidate, silence and harass 19 pro-democracy activists” who fled overseas, including one US citizen and four US residents. Washington’s top diplomat has been outspoken on China’s human rights record dating back to his time as a senator. In a separate action on Monday, Rubio said he was imposing visa restrictions on unspecified Chinese officials in response to denial of access to US diplomats, journalists and others to Tibet. Rubio earlier also imposed sanctions on officials in Thailand over their deportations back to China of members of the Uyghur minority. Beijing promised a separate system to Hong Kong when Britain handed over the city in 1997. China then cracked down hard against dissent, imposing a draconian national security law, after massive and at times destructive protests in favor of democracy swept Hong Kong in 2019.

Beijing (AFP) April 3, 2025 – China on Thursday said it had “destroyed” an intelligence network set up by the Philippine espionage agency and arrested three spies from the country. The announcement comes as the two countries continue to confront each other over disputed territory in the South China Sea and tensions mount over the Philippines’ security ties with ally the United States. At least five Chinese nationals were arrested on suspicion of espionage in January and another two in February by Philippine authorities. And the latest arrests in China come two days after Beijing’s embassy in Manila issued a travel warning to its citizens about frequent “harassment” from Philippine law enforcement agencies. On Thursday, state broadcaster CCTV reported that authorities had identified one of the suspected spies as a Philippine national who had lived and worked in China long-term and had been found conducting espionage near military facilities. The CCTV report included a video of his arrest and what appeared to be a recorded confession. He was recruited by Philippine intelligence services to “take advantage of his long-term residence in China to conduct espionage activities in China and collect sensitive information, especially on military deployment”, state media said. He came close to military facilities multiple times and “conducted close observation and secret photography”, CCTV added. The three individuals had been recruited by the same Philippine spy since 2021 and received regular payment for their work, CCTV said. They were also tasked with “assisting the Philippine spy intelligence agency in selecting and developing personnel, and expanding its intelligence network in China”. They had provided “a large amount of military-related and confidential video materials” to Philippine agents, “causing serious harm to China’s national security and interests”, CCTV quoted a Chinese national security officer as saying. Manila’s National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya told AFP the country’s foreign ministry was “currently confirming these reports and the involvement of any Philippine national, if any”. “We have no further comment as of this time until we are able to verify these new reports,” he added. Asked about the charges, Beijing’s foreign ministry said it would “handle the cases in accordance with the law and will also safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the relevant personnel.” But spokesman Guo Jiakun also accused Manila of having “fabricated several so-called Chinese espionage cases”. “China urges the Philippines to stop chasing shadows and pinning labels on people,” Guo said. burs-sam/oho/dhc

Washington DC (UPI) Apr 3, 2025 – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other members of the Trump administration are being investigated for their recent use of a Signal app before a military strike on the Houthis in Yemen. The March 15 chat held on the encrypted Signal app discussed a pending military strike and accidentally included The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Whicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., on March 26 asked acting Department of Defense Inspector General Steven Stebbins to conduct an expedited investigation into DOD’s use of the Signal app in that instance and others, ABC News reported. “The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the secretary of defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” Stebbins said Thursday in a memo to Hegseth. “Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements.” Stebbins said the investigation’s objectives might change as the evaluation proceeds. Hegseth has denied any operational plans were shared among senior members of the Trump administration during the group chat that included Vice President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and others. Goldberg on March 16 revealed someone included him in the group chat held over the encrypted app that discussed a pending military strike the day before. The target became known after the U.S. military struck Houthis sites in Yemen on March 15.

Washington (AFP) April 4, 2025 – US President Donald Trump on Friday extended the deadline for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the United States, allowing 75 more days to find a solution. “My Administration has been working very hard on a deal to save TikTok, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump said on Truth Social, just hours before the deadline was to expire. “A transaction requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days.” The hugely popular video-sharing app, which has more than 170 million American users, is under threat from a US law passed last year that orders TikTok to split from its Chinese owner ByteDance or get shut down in the United States. Trump has insisted his administration is near a deal to find a buyer for TikTok and keep it from shutting down that would involve multiple investors, but has given few details. ByteDance, while confirming that it was in talks with the US government towards finding a solution, warned that there remained “key matters” to solve. “An agreement has not been executed” and whatever was decided would be “subject to approval under Chinese law,” the company added. Motivated by national security fears and belief in Washington that TikTok is controlled by the Chinese government, the ban took effect on January 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration, with ByteDance having made no attempt to find a suitor. TikTok temporarily shut down in the United States and disappeared from app stores, to the dismay of millions of users. But the Republican president quickly announced an initial 75-day delay and TikTok was restored to users, returning to the Apple and Google app stores in February. The new 75-day delay pushes the deadline to June 19. Trump has repeatedly downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business. The president added on Friday that he would “continue working in good faith with China,” whose government will need to sign off on the transaction. The president suggested TikTok could even be part of a broader deal with China to ease the stinging tariffs he imposed on Beijing as part of a worldwide blitz of levies. “We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’ We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the deal,” he added. According to reports, the solution in the works would see existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company. Additional US investors, including Oracle and Blackstone, the private equity firm, would be brought on to reduce ByteDance’s share in the new TikTok. Much of TikTok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally. ABC News reported on Friday that Walmart was also in the mix, spurred on by a late expression of interest by retail archrival Amazon to buy the app. Walmart and Oracle were previously rumored to be buying TikTok in the US when Trump tried to wrest the company from its Chinese owners during his first administration. Trump long supported a ban or divestment, but has lately defended TikTok, seeing it as a reason more young voters supported him in November’s election. – What about the algorithm? – Uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok’s valuable algorithm. “TikTok without its algorithm is like Harry Potter without his wand — it’s simply not as powerful,” said Forrester Principal Analyst Kelsey Chickering. Various media reports suggest the new company could license the algorithm from ByteDance, which would remain invested in TikTok. But such an arrangement would go against the spirit of the law, which is in part based on the premise that TikTok’s algorithm can be weaponized by the Chinese against US interests.

Washington (AFP) April 3, 2025 – The Pentagon inspector general’s office will investigate Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of commercial messaging app Signal to discuss air strikes on Yemen, a memo released Thursday said. President Donald Trump’s administration is facing a scandal over the accidental leak of a group chat by senior security officials on the strikes, which targeted Yemen’s Huthi rebels in a bid to curb their attacks on commercial shipping and military vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The probe will evaluate “the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” said the memo from the acting inspector general, Steven Stebbins. “Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements,” according to the memo, which said the investigation is in response to a request from the top two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, a Republican and a Democrat. The Atlantic magazine revealed last week that its editor — a well-known US journalist — was inadvertently included in the Signal chat in which officials including Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Hegseth discussed details of air strike timings and intelligence. US National Security Agency chief fired: US mediaWashington (AFP) April 4, 2025 – The head of secretive US intelligence body the National Security Agency (NSA) was fired Thursday, US media reported. The Washington Post cited US officials who said General Timothy Haugh was fired after little over a year in the job. The officials did not give a reason for Haugh’s removal, The Post added. Haugh was also serving as head of the US Cyber Command, the Pentagon’s cyber warfare body which conducts offensive and defensive cyber operations. His NSA deputy Wendy Noble was also fired and reassigned to another job at the Pentagon, The Post said. The NSA is the US government’s largest and most secretive signals intelligence agency. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment. Haugh, who was appointed in February 2024, previously held a string of high-profile government cybersecurity roles, including commander of the elite Cyber National Mission Force. Reacting to the news, Democratic Congressman Jim Himes said he was “deeply disturbed” by Haugh’s sacking. “I have known General Haugh to be an honest and forthright leader who followed the law and put national security force,” he said in a statement posted on X. “I fear those are precisely the qualities that could lead to his firing in this Administration.” US President Donald Trump has led a major shake-up of the armed forces’ leadership since taking office in January. Trump fired top US military officer General Charles “CQ” Brown in February, offering no explanation for Brown’s dismissal less than two years into his four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His administration is presiding over sweeping layoffs of federal workers and moves to dismantle government institutions just months into his second term. US Cyber Command’s Deputy Commander William J. Hartman and NSA executive director Sheila Thomas have been named acting NSA chief and deputy, The Post reported.

Manila (AFP) April 5, 2025 – The Philippines said on Saturday the supposed confessions of three Filipinos arrested by China for alleged espionage appear to have been “scripted” and urged Beijing to respect their rights. Manila’s reaction came two days after Beijing said it had “destroyed” an intelligence network set up by a Philippine espionage agency and had arrested three Filipino spies. The espionage dispute comes as the two countries confront each other over disputed territory in the South China Sea and as tensions rise over the Philippines’ security ties with ally the United States. There have also been several arrests in the Philippines this year of Chinese citizens accused of spying on military camps and vessels. A report by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Thursday included what appeared to be a recorded confession by a Philippine national it said had been identified as one of the suspected spies. The CCTV report said the man had lived in China for a long time and had been found spying near military facilities. However, the National Security Council (NSC) in Manila said the supposed confessions “appear to be scripted, strongly suggesting that they were not made freely”. The arrests “can be seen as retaliation for the series of legitimate arrests of Chinese agents and accomplices”, it said in a statement. The NSC said the three unidentified Filipinos were among 50 former recipients of scholarships offered by China’s Hainan National University. “They are ordinary Filipino citizens with no military training who merely went to China at the invitation of the Chinese government to study,” it said. “They are law-abiding citizens with no criminal records and were vetted and screened by the Chinese government prior to their arrival there.” It urged Beijing to “respect their rights and afford them every opportunity to clear their names in the same way that the rights of Chinese nationals are respected here in the Philippines”. The NSC also said the spy agency mentioned by Chinese media as having recruited one of the suspects did not exist. The Philippine foreign affairs department said on Friday it was “providing all necessary assistance, including appropriate legal support”. Beijing’s embassy in Manila issued a travel warning to its citizens last week about frequent “harassment” from Philippine law enforcement agencies.

Taipei (AFP) April 8, 2025 – China is increasingly using artificial intelligence to generate and spread “controversial messages” online targeting Taiwan with the aim of creating divisions, the island’s intelligence agency said Tuesday. Beijing insists Taiwan is part of its territory and uses a range of tactics, including military and diplomatic, to pressure the island into accepting its claims of sovereignty. Taiwan, which considers itself a sovereign nation, accuses China of using espionage, cyberattacks and disinformation to weaken its defences. “With the growing maturity and widespread use of AI technologies, it has been observed that the CCP increasingly employs AI tools to assist in the generation and dissemination of controversial messages,” the National Security Bureau said in a report to parliament, using the acronym for the Chinese Communist Party. The agency said it has set up an automated platform to track and analyse online content. So far this year, it had identified more than 510,000 “controversial messages”, compared with 442,652 in the first quarter of 2024. They were mostly posted on Facebook as well as TikTok, X and online forums. The agency said it also had found 3,600 suspicious accounts on Facebook and TikTok. China had focused on topics such as Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s national security remarks and the Chinese military’s joint combat readiness patrols. Beijing was conducting “cognitive warfare against Taiwan through a combination of state media, social media, troll networks, and PR firms,” the agency said. “These efforts are coordinated with abnormal accounts to manipulate online narratives, conduct cyber intrusions and impersonation posts, and operate proxy accounts, all with the aim of sowing division within Taiwanese society.”

Beijing (AFP) April 15, 2025 – Chinese security officials said Tuesday they had implicated three US “secret agents” in cyberattacks during February’s Asian Winter Games in the northeastern city of Harbin, offering a reward for information on the alleged spies. Harbin police released a statement on Weibo accusing three US National Security Agency (NSA) agents of attacks on “key information infrastructure”. It named the individuals as “Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling and Stephen W. Johnson”, working in the NSA’s Office of Tailored Access Operations, an intelligence-gathering unit on cyberwarfare. China’s computer virus watchdog said this month it had recorded more than 270,000 foreign cyberattacks on information systems related to the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, held from February 7 to 14. Attacks targeted the event’s information release and entry-exit management systems, as well as card payments and local infrastructure between January 26 and February 14, it said. Two-thirds of those attacks came from the United States, the watchdog said at the time. China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned what it called “malicious cyber behaviour” and said it had “expressed its concerns to the US in various ways”. “We urge the US to stop unwarranted smears and attacks against China”, ministry spokesman Lin Jian said, adding that Beijing would take “necessary measures” to protect its cybersecurity. The US Embassy in Beijing did not respond to a request for comment. The Harbin police statement also accused the NSA agents of targeting Chinese companies including Huawei, which has faced US sanctions since 2019 over national security concerns. And state news agency Xinhua reported that teams had “uncovered evidence” implicating the University of California and Virginia Tech in the “coordinated campaign” on the Asian Winter Games. Officials said they would reward any person who could provide clues about the three individuals and “cooperate with public security organs in arresting” them. They vowed to “seriously crack down on cyberattacks and the theft of state secrets against China by foreign forces”. The statement did not specify what kind of reward it was offering, but China has for years offered residents cash for submitting tip-offs. Those found guilty of espionage can face life in prison or execution under Chinese law. In March, China’s ministry of state security said it had sentenced to death a former engineer for leaking state secrets to a foreign power. mya-ehl/je/sco Weibo

San Francisco (AFP) April 16, 2025 – Pedestrian crosswalks in California’s Silicon Valley were emitting recordings over the weekend that mocked US President Donald Trump and tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, according to widely shared videos. Instead of the usual “walk” or “wait” audio instructions, crosswalk speakers at some intersections in Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Redwood City played recordings that sounded like the tech titans. “You know, they say money can’t buy happiness, and… I guess that’s true,” the crosswalk audio says in one video posted over the weekend on TikTok, Meta-owned Instagram and Musk’s social platform X. “God knows I’ve tried. But it can buy a Cybertruck and that’s pretty sick, right? Right? … I’m so alone.” In another widely circulating video, a Musk-sounding voice emerges from the crosswalk signal and talks about Trump. “You know it’s funny, I used to think he was just this dumb sack of shit. But, well, when you get to know him, he’s actually really sweet and tender and loving.” A voice resembling Trump’s replies: “Sweetie, come back to bed.” Meta CEO Zuckerberg was not spared. In another video viewed more than 400,000 times on X, a crosswalk sign appears to emit the audio: “Hi, this is Mark Zuckerberg, but real ones call me ‘The Zuck.’ It’s normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every … facet of your conscious experience. “And I just want to assure you, you don’t need to worry because there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop it. Anyways, see ya.” It was not clear who was behind the messages playing at the crosswalks, which returned to normal by Monday, according to the Los Angeles Times. Palo Alto City spokesperson Meghan Horrigan-Taylor told US media that 12 downtown intersections were impacted and authorities had disabled the audio feature until it could be repaired. The tampering may have happened on Friday, Horrigan-Taylor said, according to Palo Alto Online. City official Jennifer Yamaguma told the San Francisco Chronicle that four crosswalks in Redwood City were impacted. “The unauthorized messages have since been disabled, and staff are evaluating ways to strengthen system protections,” Deputy City Manager Yamaguma said. “We also want to remind the public that tampering with City infrastructure, including crosswalk signals, is unlawful and poses a safety risk.” bur-dhw/lb Meta

Stockholm (AFP) April 15, 2025 – Swedish authorities said on Tuesday they had found no evidence that a Chinese-flagged bulk carrier was intentionally dragging its anchor when it severed two subsea cables in the Baltic Sea last year. Tensions have mounted around the Baltic Sea since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and after Finland and Sweden joined NATO, with a string of incidents involving damage to undersea cables and other infrastructure. In a report on Tuesday the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority (SHK) found that the Yi Peng 3 cut the two telecommunications cables after dragging its anchor off Sweden’s southeastern coast for one and a half days and 180 nautical miles. But it said it was unable to conclude definitively that the vessel, built in 2001 and owned by Chinese company Ningbo Yipeng Shipping Co, cut the cables on purpose. “There are two alternative scenarios for the incident, one of which is that the ship deliberately dropped anchor to cause damage to seabed infrastructure,” the authority said. “Arguing against this alternative is the deliberate risk to the ship entailed in releasing the anchor at speed, with high risk that the ship and crew operating the anchor would be seriously harmed during the release,” it said. “The other alternative is that the anchor came loose because it was poorly or not at all secured,” the SHK said. However the lack of damage to the ship and the length of time the anchor spent on the sea floor “speak to some extent against this scenario”, it added. On November 17, the Arelion telecommunications cable running from the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania was damaged. The next day, the C-Lion 1 communications cable linking Finland to Germany was cut south of Sweden’s Oland island. The SHK noted that it was only allowed on board to examine the Yi Peng 3’s anchor and question crew members more than a month after the incident, and was not granted access to any electronic data. Many experts and political leaders have attributed a spate of incidents in the Baltic since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine to a “hybrid war” carried out by Russia. Sweden, Finland and Germany all launched investigations over the November 17-18 incidents and Swedish police said they suspected “sabotage”. The SHK said its assessment “does not prevent the Swedish Prosecution Authority from conducting a preliminary investigation into a suspected crime”.