Translated by mistralAIhttps://formiche.net/2025/08/intelligence-usa-italia-ed-europa-condanno-il-cyberspionaggio-cinese-su-scala-mondiale/#contentCyberspace is once again at the center of global geopolitical competition, with China back in the dock.The report titled "Countering Chinese State-Sponsored Actors Compromise of Networks Worldwide to Feed Global Espionage System," released by the main intelligence and cybersecurity agencies of the United States, Five Eyes, Japan, Europe, and Italy, unveils a malicious campaign on a global scale attributed to hacker groups sponsored by Beijing.The report is clear: the attacks have been carried out by groups known in the cybersecurity community with evocative labels such as Salt Typhoon, Operator Panda, RedMike, UNC5807, and GhostEmperor, which have been monitored by analysts for years. These are not isolated operations but a coherent cluster of campaigns traceable to entities based in China, often front companies working closely with the Ministry of State Security and the People's Liberation Army.
>digital espionage The cyber incursions have targeted telecommunication networks, military infrastructures, transportation systems, and even hotel facilities. These seemingly heterogeneous targets all share strategic value for intelligence purposes.Controlling communication backbones, manipulating operator routers, and maintaining invisible access to vital infrastructure means having a global surveillance system capable of tracking movements, communications, and activities of both the general population and sensitive targets worldwide.The most striking detail is not so much the technical sophistication of the attacks, but their disarmingly simple nature.No zero-day weapons were used. Chinese APTs leveraged vulnerabilities that have been known for years in systems like Cisco, Palo Alto, or Ivanti. This fact highlights the fragility of Western defenses, which are still slow in applying patches. Once inside, these groups manipulate network configurations, open encrypted tunnels, and leave dormant backdoors capable of remaining invisible for years.As indicated by various intelligence services in the report, the operation is linked to three companies based in China-Sichuan Juxinhe, Beijing Huanyu Tiangiong, and Sichuan Zhixin Ruijie-which provide technology and services to the Ministry of State Security and the People's Liberation Army. This modus operandi is well-known and aligns with Beijing's civil-military fusion model, integrating the private sector ecosystem into its intelligence machinery.
>presenting a united frontThe decision to involve such a broad front of agencies, from Five Eyes to Poland, Spain, Japan, and Italy, indicates a high level of confidence in attribution and a political will to expose Beijing internationally.From the security apparatuses of the Five Eyes and Aukus members, which have noted an increase in the aggressiveness of Chinese operations on their territory, to European and American intelligence agencies, which monitor and coexist with political, cyber, and media interferences that are increasingly penetrating and diversified: rarely has such a broad front of Western and Asian intelligence services moved in a coordinated manner to publicly denounce a Chinese operation.Read in this light, less than two months after the arrest on U.S. orders of Xu Zewei at Malpensa, believed to be part of the Hafnium hacker group (also known as Silk Typhoon), Italy's decision to sign the joint document takes on additional significance. It represents a clear and unified stance alongside Atlantic allies and most European countries, aimed at officially condemning and undermining the credibility of Beijing's narrative, which for years has denied any responsibility.The United States and its Atlantic partners seek to contain Chinese expansion not only on economic and military fronts but also in the digital, cyber, and technological realms, where boundaries are blurred and espionage operations are hidden behind technological innovations or the daily vulnerabilities of global infrastructures. Telecommunications companies, government networks, military infrastructures, transportation systems, and even the hospitality sector.This extremely heterogeneous mosaic of targets, when reassembled, shows how Beijing is attempting to create its own global Panopticon through mass geolocation, internet traffic monitoring, ordinary movements, and telephone recordings. Data and information have once again become central to the contest between global powers.
The targeting of objectives belonging to entirely distinct sectors or domains with no communication, along with the sheer number of attacks— many of which are not disruptive but have slow and gradual erosive effects—makes it more complex and time-consuming to identify the attacks and pinpoint the perpetrators.The joint document is a snapshot of a united and aware front facing the threats directed at the West today, which use dispersal and gradualness as their cornerstones. It shows widespread awareness and collaborative, participatory defense.
>>1431151The Chinese have even less originality than Hollywood. They have to copy everything western nations invent, and they do that with an army of spies greater in size than the regular armies of some mid-sized nations.
>>1431166>They have to copy everything western nations invent,That's what we said about the Japanese in the 1960s.
>>1431215https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/gvyfdt/til_products_made_in_japan_were_ridiculed_and/
>>1431166They copy things westerners invent and make those things better. See: deepseek vs chatgpt.
>>1431235>theylol
>>1431235Except they aren’t better. It’s not an improved device, and because they didn’t design it they don’t truly understand it. They can’t maintain it, repair it, or refine it.
