Accusations are exchanged between Beijing and Washington
Over the weekend, US Navy Secretary Carlos del Toro accused a “Chinese state-sponsored” hacking group dubbed “Volt Typhoon” of targeting US ships operating in the Pacific region.
The same was confirmed by the American company Microsoft, claiming that this group had succeeded in reaching targets in the United States and an important military installation in the Pacific Ocean, with the aim of silencing communications between the ships of the US Navy should a crisis arise in the future. near the island of Taiwan.
The group, which Washington claims is Chinese, is not the first time it has been accused of carrying out cyberattacks. Where Microsoft said it was involved in the attack on financial institutions there.
Microsoft, which detected the group’s first activity, says it began work in 2021, and the first thing it successfully targeted was infrastructure facilities on the US island of Guam, where the US has a large military base.
It focused in particular on targets for aviation, telecommunications, maritime and land transport, and relied on disguised penetration of as many databases as possible and then the removal of data to use to hack into sensitive devices, networks and financial institutions with valid accounts, and then the attack is done easily, according to Microsoft.
Five-eye counter
The US National Security Agency, along with intelligence agencies from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, shared more details about this group in an intelligence alliance in which they exchange information on cybersecurity, known as “Five Eyes”.
The “Five Eyes” is an alliance established by America of 5 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with the aim of countering cyberattacks, and several countries have described it as “notorious”, notably Russia and China.
Chinese response
The Chinese Foreign Ministry quickly denied the US accusation, and said Thursday, through its spokesperson, Mao Ning: “It is clear that this was a collective disinformation campaign. launched by the United States through the Five Eyes to serve its geopolitical agenda”.
Mao Ning described the “Five Eyes” alliance as “the world’s largest hacker group” and “the world’s largest intelligence organization”, and the United States described itself as “the largest hacker”, according to what was reported by the official Chinese agency, Xinhua.
Win without bullets
An information technology expert, Abd al-Rahman Dawood, comments on this dispute and its background saying:
anxiety prevails; Because cyberattacks during wars, if carried out professionally, will give an advantage to the owner of this weapon. Taking control of control devices and databases with a cyberattack means that the economy of the country against which the attack was carried out and the spider web that feeds that country are now under the control of another country , which can easily destroy infrastructure without a single hit. In the Taiwan crisis, if China manages to carry out a cyber attack on the island and on the American military units operating nearby, then the invasion of the island will not take long, or at least the first strike will succeed without that no one disturbs her. But America, with the Five Eyes Pact that it put in place to counter Russian and North Korean attacks, basically has the tools to repel any attack, on the contrary, it is already accused of being involved in cyberattacks. In conclusion, carrying out cyberattacks is more effective and more serious than carrying out an airstrike. The purpose of the airstrike is to remove a military part or building from service, which cyberattacks can implement without firing a shot.
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