https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/06/us/politics/china-hacking-cyber.html
By Nicole Perlroth, David E. Sanger and Scott Shane
The New York Times
May 6, 2019
Chinese intelligence agents acquired National Security Agency hacking tools and
repurposed them in 2016 to attack American allies and private companies in
Europe and Asia, a leading cybersecurity firm has discovered. The episode is
the latest evidence that the United States has lost control of key parts of its
cybersecurity arsenal.
Based on the timing of the attacks and clues in the computer code, researchers
with the firm Symantec believe the Chinese did not steal the code but captured
it from an N.S.A. attack on their own computers — like a gunslinger who grabs
an enemy’s rifle and starts blasting away.
The Chinese action shows how proliferating cyberconflict is creating a digital
wild West with few rules or certainties, and how difficult it is for the United
States to keep track of the malware it uses to break into foreign networks and
attack adversaries’ infrastructure.
The losses have touched off a debate within the intelligence community over
whether the United States should continue to develop some of the world’s most
high-tech, stealthy cyberweapons if it is unable to keep them under lock and
key.
[...]
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