Chinese spying (it s a surprise!)

[Ridgemont]

https://archive.fo/20260126192337/https://www.tele...


So deeply surprisingly it turns out China has been hacking Downing St Phones for years.

I am beyond fed up with the constant ‘MI5/6’ are on it’ and have control of the situation nonsense as has been cast with the whole embassy imbroglio.

It is utterly beyond belief this is a thing, and yet over and over we have the same nonsense on various threads on this forum about ‘trust the people who know’.


I think not. We have a really serious situation now where I’m not sure our security agencies are capable of defending our interests.

[Getragdogleg]

I reckon no one in power cares.

Its embedded so deep it's an impossible problem to solve so best not worry too much and feather the old nest while they can.

Mega embassy? Yeah why not.

Secret Chinese police stations, yeah, let it happen.

Mediocre governments staffed by mediocre people have brought us here.

[FredericRobinson]

The Snowden files showed the Americans were in their allies phones years ago, it’s be amazing in the Chinese weren’t too

[Rivenink]

Getragdogleg said:

I reckon no one in power cares.

Its embedded so deep it's an impossible problem to solve so best not worry too much and feather the old nest while they can.

Mega embassy? Yeah why not.

Secret Chinese police stations, yeah, let it happen.

Mediocre governments staffed by mediocre people have brought us here.

I mean... they invited the son of a KGB agent to sit in the Lords, so I don't think you're far off the mark.

[motco]

Ridgemont said:

https://archive.fo/20260126192337/https://www.tele...


So deeply surprisingly it turns out China has been hacking Downing St Phones for years.

I am beyond fed up with the constant MI5/6 are on it and have control of the situation nonsense as has been cast with the whole embassy imbroglio.

It is utterly beyond belief this is a thing, and yet over and over we have the same nonsense on various threads on this forum about trust the people who know .


I think not. We have a really serious situation now where I m not sure our security agencies are capable of defending our interests.

One of the reasons we all had to buy new 'phones back in the nineties was to change from analogue to digital because "It is impossible to tap into" i.e. hackproof.

[Countdown]

FredericRobinson said:

The Snowden files showed the Americans were in their allies phones years ago, it s be amazing in the Chinese weren t too

Indeed. In fact AIUI there are Israeli companies that will provide phone hacking software to various regimes for a price. Maybe MI5 should try to get a group discount?

[hidetheelephants]

A bit vague, lots of innuendo but little in the way of specifics; it's not exactly news that mobiles can be unsecure, we've had the interminable phone hacking trials and inquiries literally about that. Is this about idiots using personal phones in an insecure manner or secure govt phones(I'm assuming such things exist) being compromised? The article offers no information; if the latter then it's alarming and newsworthy, if the former then it's alarming but much less newsworthy as we already know these boobs were governing by whatsapp throughout the plague.

[Carl_VivaEspana]

Reds under the bed, nothing to see here.

It's all a big misunderstanding the Chinese state were just ensuring the latest software patches were loaded incase the Russians tried to hack the phones instead.

Streaming audio is still fine from ten downing Street.....

Carry on comrade.

(sic).

[Digga]

We what was, until now, one of the two the main political parties was openly funded - ably aided by Beijing Barry Gardiner - and fluffed by China. The you have the Tory twisters like Cameron who saw China as a lucrative source of business deals for friends, families and assorted cronies.

The Chinese play the long game, everyone in British politics is only thinking in terms of their own lifetime, legacy and finances.

[isaldiri]

FredericRobinson said:

The Snowden files showed the Americans were in their allies phones years ago, it s be amazing in the Chinese weren t too

More to the point, as if the UK and everyone else isn't trying to hack into Chinese communications. If they didn't do so it's merely because they failed to. It's all just part of the merry game everyone plays anyway. The faux outrage from the telegraph is expected I suppose but it doesn't make it any less dumb.

[Digga]

isaldiri said:

FredericRobinson said:

The Snowden files showed the Americans were in their allies phones years ago, it s be amazing in the Chinese weren t too

More to the point, as if the UK and everyone else isn't trying to hack into Chinese communications. If they didn't do so it's merely because they failed to. It's all just part of the merry game everyone plays anyway. The faux outrage from the telegraph is expected I suppose but it doesn't make it any less dumb.

For some reason, my mind leaps to the (very wrong but funny) 'City Wok' episode of South Park.

[ARH]

isaldiri said:

FredericRobinson said:

The Snowden files showed the Americans were in their allies phones years ago, it s be amazing in the Chinese weren t too

More to the point, as if the UK and everyone else isn't trying to hack into Chinese communications. If they didn't do so it's merely because they failed to. It's all just part of the merry game everyone plays anyway. The faux outrage from the telegraph is expected I suppose but it doesn't make it any less dumb.

This is exactly what I thought, if we weren't hacking into their systems we wouldn't have known they were hacking into ours. Its been like this forever.

[borcy]

Doesn't help some in gov don't/won't use the phones they should and prefer to use their own phones. It would make it much harder for people to access info they shouldn't have access to.

[768]

Doesn't say if it's personal phones or government issued ones, does it? I wonder how they managed to get to so many if was personal ones.

Peter Kyle said:

(I...) became very, very aware that there was a cybersecurity challenge that our country faced that I simply wasn’t aware of before becoming secretary of state

How did you think a dullard like you became secretary of state.

[Mr Whippy]

But a real Cold War would be too costly, never mind a hot war.

So we instead have passive aggressive wars

[redback911]

FredericRobinson said:

The Snowden files showed the Americans were in their allies phones years ago, it s be amazing in the Chinese weren t too

Yup, exactly.

The Danish Intelligence Service helped the NSA spy on various European leaders including Chancellor Merkel, see "Operation Dunhammer". The US also had access to communication devices for other officials from Germany, France, Sweden and Norway.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57302806

Maybe aside from its Five Eyes partners, it is safe to assume the NSA is actively monitoring electronic communications within the leadership of most major countries. It likely has, and continues to develop, the capability to compromise any system it can reach. And when a US administration judges its domestic, foreign, or trade interests to be at stake, it will ignore legal and diplomatic constraints without hesitation.

Certain Governments go out of their way to make things even easier for US, Russian and Chinese hacking. The Conservatives used personal devices and WhatsApp groups against the official advice of British Intelligence for years, Liz Truss’s personal phone was hacked while she was Foreign Secretary, which include disclosure of sensitive messages regarding the Ukraine war.

[rodericb]

Well it looks like the French government is doing its bit - they're going to move away from MS Teams and Zoon in favour of a local video conferencing app called Visio. It's part of some ongoing "EU stack" initiative to move away from non-sovereign hardware and software.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/4122979/fren...

I vaguely remember Zoom having some sort of Chinese thing - the servers were in China or something? And that it evaded Windows controls on installing software.

[hidetheelephants]

768 said:

Doesn't say if it's personal phones or government issued ones, does it? I wonder how they managed to get to so many if was personal ones.

Peter Kyle said:

(I...) became very, very aware that there was a cybersecurity challenge that our country faced that I simply wasn t aware of before becoming secretary of state

How did you think a dullard like you became secretary of state.

Wonder no longer. Between the stupidity and the hubris there's fertile ground for old-fashioned social engineering, which compromises even state-of-the-art cybersecurity because the operators are priapic walking egos.

[768]

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, you'll never guess where they've decided to go.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8p2re7gj5o

[tangerine_sedge]

hidetheelephants said:

Wonder no longer. Between the stupidity and the hubris there's fertile ground for old-fashioned social engineering, which compromises even state-of-the-art cybersecurity because the operators are priapic walking egos.

This encapsulates the problem nicely. It's not that secure devices are hacked, it's that the idiots using them not only leave the door unlocked, but often leave the door wide open with the key still left in the lock.