Wang Wenbin: Revealing US's hypocrisy on cyber security is in the international community’s common interest

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin answers questions from the press at the Regular Press Conference on April 12, 2023. (Photo/Foreign Ministry)

BEIJING, April 13 (Guangming Online)- On April 11, the China Cybersecurity Industry Alliance issued a report, disclosing over ten cases in which US intelligence agencies launched cyber attacks, carried out internet monitoring and espionage, and leaked and proliferated cyberattack weapons and tools since 2010. On the Foreign Ministry Regular Press Conference on April 12, 2023, FM Spokesperson Wang Wenbin was asked to comment on the report.

Wang said, China has noted the report. The report provides a systematic account of the history and typical cases of cyber attacks undertaken by relevant departments of the US government and their negative impact on global cyber security and contains a full list of shocking revelations, according to Wang Wenbin.

Wang also shared five cases from the report at the press conference to give a further idea about how the US jeopardizes global cyber security.

Case 1: In 2010, the US was found using the Stuxnet virus to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. This is the first case in history where a government launched cyber attacks against key infrastructure of other countries, opening the Pandora’s box of state-to-state cyberwarfare. In 2022, the US Cyber Command announced that it is their obligation to “own the domain”.

Case 2: The ransomware WannaCry that affected most countries and caused the most severe losses across the world in 2017 was the result of leaked cyber weapons from the US National Security Agency. Ironically, in 2021, the US put on an act by launching a so-called International Counter-Ransomware Initiative with dozens of countries.

Case 3: In 2013, PRISM revealed how the US engaged in cyber espionage across the world, including against China. The US even asked nine international internet giants, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and Apple to cooperate with the US government to secretly monitor information. The program even invaded the network equipment of multiple countries including Germany and the ROK. On the other hand, since 2018, the US has been citing digital security as an excuse to suppress Chinese companies without providing any evidence, and it even coerced its allies who were also victims of US espionage to join the gang.

Case 4: In 2013, the media exposed that the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) uses its cryptography standards to install backdoors, which expands the targets of supply chain attacks from IT products to IT standards. On March 30, 2023, the US’s top diplomat said at the “Summit for Democracy” that the US is working with partners to establish as necessary rules and norms, so that technology is developed in ways that reflect what they call “democratic values and interests”.

Case 5: In 2015, the media disclosed the US government’s Project CAMBERDADA, which is aimed to intrude, divide and suppress foreign cybersecurity vendors and force them to dance to the tune of the US. As a result, few global cybersecurity vendors now choose to disclose cases of the US’s cyberattacks, and some US cybersecurity vendors have even become an accomplice of the US government’s disinformation campaign targeting other countries.

Wang pointed out that these cases show once again that the US is the origin of cyber warfare, the biggest spreader of advanced cyber weapons and the biggest global cyber thief. The so-called Clean Network and what the US calls “technology that reflects democratic values and interests” are just a pretext for it to unscrupulously conduct cyber thefts and attacks and ensure its supremacy. The US has been holding other countries to high standards, but clearly these standards mean little to the US itself. “This is textbook double standardsm,” Wang said.

Wang stressed that safeguarding cybersecurity is a shared responsibility of all countries. “Cyberspace is not a battle field or wrestling ground, still less should it be used as a tool to split the international community or contain and bring down other countries,” Wang said, “It is in the international community’s common interest to end the US’s lawlessness on cyber theft and reveal its hypocrisy on cyber security.”