Chinese cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360 accuses CIA of 11-year-long hacking campaign
- US spy agency allegedly targeted China’s aviation and energy sectors, as well as research organisations, government agencies and internet companies
- Beijing-based firm says it compared samples of malicious software it had found against trove of CIA digital tools released by WikiLeaks in 2017
Chinese antivirus firm Qihoo 360 said CIA hackers have spent more than a decade breaking into the Chinese airline industry and other targets, a blunt allegation of American espionage from a Beijing-based firm.
In a blog post published on Monday in English and Chinese, Qihoo said it discovered the spying campaign by comparing samples of malicious software it had found against a trove of CIA digital spy tools released by WikiLeaks in 2017.
Qihoo – a major cybersecurity vendor whose research is generally followed for the insight it offers into China’s digital security world – said the Central Intelligence Agency had targeted China’s aviation and energy sectors, scientific research organisations, internet companies and government agencies.
It published a catalogue of intercepted malicious software samples as well as an analysis of their creation times that suggested that whoever devised the tools did so during working hours on the US East Coast.
The CIA and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately return messages seeking comment. A message seeking additional comment from Qihoo’s chief security officer, Du Yuejin, was not immediately returned after business hours in Beijing.
The United States – like China and other world powers – rarely comments when accused of cyberespionage. There has, however, long been evidence in the public domain – released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, in the US case, or by US prosecutors and private cybersecurity firms, in China’s case – that both countries hack their opponents.
