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The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

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Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#151

Post by free_rms »

throwaway_pdp09 wrote: post #134
free_rms wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oof, Korea? Bad example. We spent 4 years fighting, with 3 million casualties, in order to leave the border between north/south in the same place we found it, and install an allied dictatorship for the following 30 years. I guess it worked out eventually, but that's to the credit of the Koreans, not us. We were fine with a capitalist dictatorship as long as the Cold War was on. Did you ever hear about this? https://e…

Ok about korea, I'll look up the uprising. What about this bit he said "If the US were to spy on a citizen, they wouldn't end up in a concentration camp". Seems a valid point in general.

I mean, I'm not trying to say "china always good, USA always bad", either. I'm just trying to add some perspective.

If I were to take that on as some sort of debate challenge, I'd point out the mass incarceration and the fact that we still have a bigger chunk of people in jail despite being so much freer. Of course, that's a bit of a rhetorical gambit.

As far as the characterization of china, it depends. Han Chinese don't go to prison just for criticizing the government, they just lose opportunities. Party membership is a big part of getting ahead there. They go to prison if they start getting organized, holding meetings, being an alternative political party.

Xinjiang is a whole other can of worms.

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#152

Post by dntbnmpls »

NGRhodes wrote: post #131

Related: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/13/uk_archer_supercomp... "One of Britain's most powerful academic supercomputers has fallen victim to a "security exploitation" of its login nodes, forcing the rewriting of all user passwords and SSH keys." https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/05/coronavirus_researc... "Foreign state hackers are trying to brute-force their way into pharmaceutical and medical research a…

> Foreign state hackers are trying to brute-force their way into pharmaceutical and medical research agencies hunting for a COVID-19 vaccine, British and American infosec agencies are warning.

I have a hard time believing foreign state hackers are using "script kiddie" tactics. But that's just me.

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#153

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway_pdp09 wrote: post #135
free_rms wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off, the west's covert activities are not limited to benign surveillance. Second off.. aside from the total lack of evidence, why would the Chinese be interested in sabotage here? American discovery of a vaccine means they can rip it off, they're definitely not gonna be paying anyone for it. If we're selling it at exorbitant prices while they give it away practically for free to African countries, that's a huge…

> First off, the west's covert activities are not limited to benign surveillance. An annoying thing about pro-chinea respondents is they chuck out these claims without backup. They do it a lot. it's irritating.

[deleted]

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#154

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway_pdp09 wrote: post #135
free_rms wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off, the west's covert activities are not limited to benign surveillance. Second off.. aside from the total lack of evidence, why would the Chinese be interested in sabotage here? American discovery of a vaccine means they can rip it off, they're definitely not gonna be paying anyone for it. If we're selling it at exorbitant prices while they give it away practically for free to African countries, that's a huge…

> First off, the west's covert activities are not limited to benign surveillance. An annoying thing about pro-chinea respondents is they chuck out these claims without backup. They do it a lot. it's irritating.

[deleted]

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#155

Post by CapricornNoble »

ciarannolan wrote: post #74
bt1a wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the admin is currently pushing a very negative image against China, I do not believe the FBI would do that so lightly.

The problem is that this administration has shown time and again that they're willing to corrupt American institutions (like the FBI) when it suits them.

"this administration"? As if it's a new problem?

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#156

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway_pdp09 wrote: post #135
free_rms wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off, the west's covert activities are not limited to benign surveillance. Second off.. aside from the total lack of evidence, why would the Chinese be interested in sabotage here? American discovery of a vaccine means they can rip it off, they're definitely not gonna be paying anyone for it. If we're selling it at exorbitant prices while they give it away practically for free to African countries, that's a huge…

> First off, the west's covert activities are not limited to benign surveillance. An annoying thing about pro-chinea respondents is they chuck out these claims without backup. They do it a lot. it's irritating.

[deleted]

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#157

Post by lappa »

jorblumesea wrote: post #66
free_rms wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there's always 100 with extremely selective outrage. We're hacking them, they're hacking us, yawn. We hacked Angela Merkel's phone, even. This is normal low level stuff.

I think the difference is that the West is engaging in surveillance and not sabotage. If the CCP was found to contaminate or corrupt data, that is a far step above Western norms. Also, the West mostly focuses on international relations and national security concerns, whereas the CCP also participates in economic sabotage and IP transfer. For example, it would be big news for the US to have been caught hacking Huawei,…

>I think the difference is that the West is engaging in surveillance and not sabotage.

This isn't true though. Pretty much all countries with the capability and incentives to perform cyber attacks do, including the US. For example,

US attacks on Russian power grid: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/15/us/politics/trump-cyber-r...

US attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Olympic_Games

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#158

Post by free_rms »

throwaway_pdp09 wrote: post #135
free_rms wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off, the west's covert activities are not limited to benign surveillance. Second off.. aside from the total lack of evidence, why would the Chinese be interested in sabotage here? American discovery of a vaccine means they can rip it off, they're definitely not gonna be paying anyone for it. If we're selling it at exorbitant prices while they give it away practically for free to African countries, that's a huge…

> First off, the west's covert activities are not limited to benign surveillance. An annoying thing about pro-chinea respondents is they chuck out these claims without backup. They do it a lot. it's irritating.

It's not 'pro china' to have surface familiarity with some of the CIA's greatest hits.

They tried to kill Castro with an exploding cigar, no joke, like Looney tunes.

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#159

Post by eric-hu »

free_rms wrote: post #151
throwaway_pdp09 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok about korea, I'll look up the uprising. What about this bit he said "If the US were to spy on a citizen, they wouldn't end up in a concentration camp". Seems a valid point in general.

I mean, I'm not trying to say "china always good, USA always bad", either. I'm just trying to add some perspective. If I were to take that on as some sort of debate challenge, I'd point out the mass incarceration and the fact that we still have a bigger chunk of people in jail despite being so much freer. Of course, that's a bit of a rhetorical gambit. As far as the characterization of china, it depends. Han Chinese…

> Han Chinese don't go to prison just for criticizing the government, they just lose opportunities.

This is verifiably false. Han vine Chinese book store owners in Hong Kong were kidnapped to mainland China, incarcerated and forced to sign confessions. Their ‘crime’ was selling books critical of the CCP.

Re: The FBI investigating hacking of Covid research by “PRC-affiliated cyber actors”

#160

Post by cscurmudgeon »

dheera wrote: post #96

Given today's anti-free-thinker HN climate I'm probably going to get downvoted to oblivion for saying this, but I feel I need to say it. I don't think COVID-19 research should be secretive, I think it should be a global effort, and I'm perfectly happy with the idea of any nation having open access to all COVID-19 research, vaccines, results, and (anonymized) data. There should NOT be a concept of intellectual propert…

> Given today's anti-free-thinker HN climate

You should champion China to be more transparent about the origins of the virus. Even if it did not originate in a lab, shining more light on its origins will help prevent future outbreaks.

China also actively prevented Taiwan from joining the WHO. This would have resulted in more free flow of information.

Curiously, I was a labelled a racist for making this statement.

> Please, China, Italy, Spain, everywhere, scoop up all the COVID-19 research you can find and act upon it to save lives. Copy

China does not do anything for free. Let us not pretend that China is angelic. Have you heard of debt diplomacy?

So we are excusing one of the most locked up countries in terms of information to hack into cutting edge research in a free society.

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