Chinese report discloses CIA's role in cyberattacks

China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and cybersecurity company 360 on Thursday jointly released the first part of an investigation report on the United States Central Intelligence Agency's cyberattacks against other countries, including China.

In 2020, 360 discovered an unknown hacker organization that specializes in stealing information about China and countries in Southeast Asia and Europe, the report said. The organization was found to have used cyberattack weapons linked with top-secret hacking tools mentioned in leaked CIA files dubbed Vault 7, including viruses, malware, zero-day exploits and malware remote control systems, it said.

Such attacks date back to as early as 2011 and are ongoing. The targets have included key information system infrastructures and government bodies, as well as research institutes and enterprises focused on aerospace, the internet, and petroleum and petrochemicals, 360 said.

Furthermore, during investigations of several cyberattacks on the information systems of Chinese enterprises and organizations, 360 discovered a series of cyberattack weapons that follow malware development standards and protocols mentioned in Vault 7, including Network Operations Division In-memory Code Execution Specification and Network Operations Division Cryptographic Requirements.

Only the CIA strictly follows such standards and protocols to develop cyberattack weapons, which have been embedded in internet and internet of things assets around the world, the report said. The CIA can then gain control over the information networks of other countries anytime and anywhere, stealing key and sensitive information. Such operations clearly need to be supported by abundant funding, technologies and human resources. The US has in fact built a state of hackers, 360 added.

The company said more detailed cases will be revealed in other parts of the report in the future.

Contact the writer at @chinadaily.com.cn