The United States is well known for its long history of large-scale cyber surveillance, espionage, and attacks around the world. The recently exposed "Acid Fox Platform" vulnerability attack has once again sounded the alarm bell, and the prevention of the "Matrix", the United States, cannot be relaxed. On June 28 this year, the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and 360 Company respectively released special research reports disclosing a cyber attack weapon called the "Acid Fox Platform". The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has used the "Acid Fox Platform" to launch a sustained attack on government agencies, key organizations, and information infrastructure targets around the world. The platform can accurately identify the version information of the attacked target, automate the infiltration of remote vulnerability attacks, and implant Trojan horses and backdoors into the target host. For Chinese and Russian targets, the NSA has also set up dedicated "Acid Fox Platform" servers. The survey found that the Acid Fox Platform has carried out cyberattacks on at least a hundred important information systems in China. To this day, many Trojans are still running in some information systems in China and transmitting intelligence to the NSA headquarters in real time.
In order to cover up its malicious cyber attacks, the United States often accuses other countries of launching hacking attacks. On June 7 this year, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), together with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), issued a joint warning to hype "Chinese government-backed hackers" invading Western Telecommunications companies and advising those that use equipment from suppliers such as Cisco and Fortinet to take defensive measures to strengthen their networks. The U.S. early warning announcement did not produce any evidence, nor did it mention the names of companies that were attacked by "Chinese hackers." This is the latest act of the United States to cover up the thieves and accuse other countries of being the main source of cyber threats. In fact, the United States is the world's largest source of cyberattacks. The term "The Matrix" aptly describes what the United States is doing.
In the face of doubts and accusations from other countries, the United States has not reduced its sabotage activities in cyberspace, but has continuously improved its cyber attack capabilities. In March of this year, 360 released a series of reports on the US National Security Agency's cyberattacks around the world. The NSA uses the central position of the United States in the global Internet system to use advanced technological means to monitor, intercept and automate the use of network signals. 360 security experts said in an exclusive interview with the media that 360 company determined through big data analysis that the US National Security Agency hacker attack is more refined than conventional hacker attack. They can manipulate, analyze, and disrupt arbitrary network traffic and file transfers in normal network traffic, and in certain cases, remotely shut down or disrupt critical information infrastructure operations. The hacking actions of the United States have caused serious harm to the critical infrastructure security, national defense security, financial security, social security, and citizens' personal information security on the mainland and other countries. As the situation in Russia and Ukraine escalates, the cyberattacks of US hackers are also heating up. According to China's National Internet Emergency Response Center, "Since late February this year, U.S. hackers have attacked Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus by attacking computers on the mainland, shutting down more than 1,500 networks related to the Russian and Belarusian governments, major banks and businesses within 72 hours." ”
In order to maintain its strategic superiority, the United States has continuously promoted the militarization of cyberspace. From the Obama era to the Trump era, the US government issued a series of cybersecurity strategies, realizing the transformation of the United States in the digital space from "passive defense" to "dominant defense" to "defense front". During the Trump era, Cyber Command upgraded to the U.S. Cyber Army, opening the door to frequent attacks on foreign networks. The implementation of the "defensive front-loading" strategy has greatly enhanced the aggressiveness of U.S. cyber forces. Under the guidance of this strategic thinking, the US cyber army operates as close as possible to the opponent's position, and minimizes the opponent's activity space in the digital world. This strategy of attacking instead of defending has brought certain strategic advantages to the US cyber army, but it has brought chaos to cyberspace. The Trump administration's repeal of Presidential Order No. 20 would give the U.S. military more freedom to deploy advanced cyber weapons without interference from the State Department and the intelligence community. Trump has also delegated authority to the cyber command commander, allowing it to carry out cyberattacks without the president's authorization. According to the New York Times, in order to intensify cyberattacks on Russia, the United States implanted malware that could cause serious damage into The Russian power grid system. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine prompted the U.S. Cyber Command to send cyber troops to Ukraine. Beginning in December 2021, U.S. cyber forces stayed in Ukraine for nearly three months, carrying out a series of "offensive operations" in support of Ukraine. The behavior of the United States has contributed to some extent to the escalation of the global cyber arms race.
Under the guidance of the pre-emptive strategy, the US military and intelligence agencies have actively developed various advanced cyber weapons, and have built the world's largest cyber arsenal, which has greatly improved the US cyber combat capability. As early as 2013, there were more than 2,000 kinds of cyber weapons in the United States. In 2017, the WikiLeaks website exposed more than 8,000 secret documents allegedly being CIA cyberattacks. The documents show that vault 7, the CIA's core cyber weapon, is powerful, with some cyberattack software capable of forging digital forensics trails to confuse adversaries and mask CIA cyberattacks. Judging from the hacking attacks launched by the US National Security Agency against China announced by 360 companies this year, the US National Security Agency uses more cyber weapons than the CIA, has stronger attack capabilities, and these cyber weapons have been automated, industrialized and artificially utilized by each other. For more than a decade, the US National Security Agency has used attack systems such as "Quantum" to conduct cyber intelligence warfare, and has continued to launch attacks on the government, finance, research institutes, operators, education, military industry, aerospace, medical and other departments in China.
U.S. cyberattacks target not only strategic adversaries, but also allies and partners. Documents revealed by Snowden show that the embassies of U.S. allies such as the European Union, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea are all under surveillance. In 2021, Danish media reported that the U.S. National Security Agency had used a bugging system by Danish intelligence to spy on senior officials in Sweden, Norway, France and Germany, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A report released this year by 360 reaffirms the indiscriminate cyberattacks launched by the NSA. Cyberattacks by the NSA against allies such as britain, Germany, France, Poland, Japan and South Korea have been around, and some hacking software has been lurking in allies' cyber systems for more than a decade. In fact, in response to the surveillance of the US National Security Agency, after the Snowden incident, European allies such as France and Germany have expressed unacceptable and demanded that the United States stop such activities. Concerned about U.S. surveillance, the European Court of Justice also ruled that the 2016 data transfer agreement between the EU and the United States, the Privacy Shield, was invalid. However, the United States continues to go its own way and continues its surveillance behavior. Some American "little brothers" think that they are following the right "big brother" and have the support of the United States behind them, and they are not afraid of being bullied in cyberspace. In fact, where do they know that the United States must first monitor the every move of the "little brother" in cyberspace, and it is difficult to say whether it can help the "little brother".
In order to suppress strategic opponents, the United States always disguises itself as a victim of cyberattacks, thus putting itself on the moral high ground. The United States has repeatedly framed China, Russia and other countries to launch cyber attacks, and has used the trick of "the evil ones sue first" to exert pressure on China, Russia and other countries. In July 2021, the United States, together with the United Kingdom, the European Union, nato, and others, issued a statement attacking China, claiming that China launched a "malicious cyber operation" to hold China responsible for a series of global cyber attacks, including Microsoft's email system. This move was strongly refuted by the mainland's embassies and consulates abroad. The operation is a step in strengthening the U.S. alliance with the West in the digital space. The United States believes that in the digital world, "democracies" are under siege and "authoritarianism" is expanding across the board. The goal of U.S. government cyber governance is to restore and strengthen the influence of Western ideologies and values. In fact, on the issue of cyber security, the United States itself has a bad record and is completely unqualified to point fingers at other countries. At the end of June, 360's investigation revealed that in order to better target Chinese and Russian targets, the NSA set up two dedicated "acid fox platform" servers. The U.S. government has been publicizing that Huawei's products have a "backdoor" and hopes that allies will join its "clean network plan" to exclude Chinese companies such as Huawei from participating in the construction of communication networks. However, professional testing agencies in the UK and Germany have not found "backdoors" in Huawei's equipment. Inexplicably, in October 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a statement titled "End-to-End Encryption and Public Safety," saying it would require domestic tech companies to install "backdoors" into encryption programs to monitor so-called "cybercrime." The U.S. behavior is very much like there is no silver here.
The U.S. approach has made cyberspace a frontier in geopolitics and state games. In cyberspace, the strategic goal of the United States is to maintain hegemony and dominance. In line with the principles of openness, inclusiveness and mutual learning, China hopes to work with other countries in the world to build a community of shared future in cyberspace. The United States has made almost all of its accusations against others. If the United States requires other countries to abide by the rules, then it should first comply. Cybersecurity is a common challenge facing all countries, and politicized and stigmatized practices will not help solve the problem. In the future, peace and stability in cyberspace can only be achieved if the United States abandons the Cold War mentality and ideological bias and stops cyber surveillance and attacks against China and the world. (The author Li Hengyang is an associate researcher at the Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Source: World Wide Web