Chinese Hackers Posing As the UN Human Rights Council Are Attacking Uyghurs (technologyreview.com) 91
Chinese-speaking hackers are masquerading as the United Nations in ongoing cyber-attacks against Uyghurs, according to the cybersecurity firms Check Point and Kaspersky. MIT Technology Review reports: Researchers identified an attack in which hackers posing as the UN Human Rights Council send a document detailing human rights violations to Uyghur individuals. It is in fact a malicious Microsoft Word file that, once downloaded, fetches malware: the likely goal, say the two companies, is to trick high-profile Uyghurs inside China and Pakistan into opening a back door to their computers. "We believe that these cyber-attacks are motivated by espionage, with the endgame of the operation being the installation of a back door into the computers of high-profile targets in the Uyghur community," said Lotem Finkelstein, head of threat intelligence at Check Point, in a statement. "The attacks are designed to fingerprint infected devices, including all of [their] running programs. From what we can tell, these attacks are ongoing, and new infrastructure is being created for what look like future attacks."
In addition to pretending to be from the United Nations, the hackers also built a fake and malicious website for a human rights organization called the "Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation," according to the report. The group's fake website offers grants -- but in fact, anybody who attempts to apply for a grant is prompted to download a false "security scanner" that is in fact a back door into the target's computer, the researchers explained. "The attackers behind these cyber-attacks send malicious documents under the guise of the United Nations and fake human rights foundations to their targets, tricking them into installing a backdoor to the Microsoft Windows software running on their computers," the researchers wrote. This allows the attackers to collect basic information they seek from the victim's computer, as well as running more malware on the machine with the potential to do more damage. The researchers say they haven't yet seen all the capabilities of this malware. The researchers weren't able to determine an exact known hacking group, but the code in these attacks "was found to be identical to code found on multiple Chinese-language hacking forums and may have been copied directly from there," the report notes.
In addition to pretending to be from the United Nations, the hackers also built a fake and malicious website for a human rights organization called the "Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation," according to the report. The group's fake website offers grants -- but in fact, anybody who attempts to apply for a grant is prompted to download a false "security scanner" that is in fact a back door into the target's computer, the researchers explained. "The attackers behind these cyber-attacks send malicious documents under the guise of the United Nations and fake human rights foundations to their targets, tricking them into installing a backdoor to the Microsoft Windows software running on their computers," the researchers wrote. This allows the attackers to collect basic information they seek from the victim's computer, as well as running more malware on the machine with the potential to do more damage. The researchers say they haven't yet seen all the capabilities of this malware. The researchers weren't able to determine an exact known hacking group, but the code in these attacks "was found to be identical to code found on multiple Chinese-language hacking forums and may have been copied directly from there," the report notes.
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A magician will wave his hand or do something obviously distracting to keep observer from seeing what's really happening.
Like your comment.
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China is putting people in camps because of their race. That's pretty evil.
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China is putting people in camps because of their race. That's pretty evil.
You misspelt religion.
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Whataboutism.
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Since when was whataboutism not a valid argument, especially when trying to point out hypocrisy? The US is even worse. They spent billions of dollars per day for 20 years, bombing the fuck out of Muslims that they didn't care for, and now suddenly they care about the plight about Muslims in China, while ignoring Muslims in every other region of the world.
In other words, this isn't about some humanitarian mission. It's just about geopolitics and geoeconomics short and simple. Nothing more than political
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And which dictators exactly has the US worked with that killed millions of their own people? I can't think of any Socialist dictators the US has worked with, and only Socialists and the Ottoman Empire (who we fought in WWI) have, as best I can recall, reached that million-murder-milestone.
And let's not discount the sharp difference between the necessities of international relations in the Hobbesean landscape
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I just gave you one Saddam, his death squads and the war he started against Iran killed millions.
If you want a more recent example look at the misery the Taliban caused in Afhganistan for over 10 years. Not exactly America's proudest moment.
How about the recent and on going conflict in Yemen...
What was the name of the dictator in Chile...
Re: America (Score:1)
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Ever heard of Saddam ? or was he ok because he wasnt a socialist just a blood thirsty murdering arsehole ?
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If you don't understand why whataboutism is not an argument, you failed critical thinking class, or just shilling. A fact is a fact, regardless of who says it. A mass murderer can assert something, and an ad hominem against them doesn't affect the veracity of what they have stated.
Where does the US even factor in this topic anyway?
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There is a difference between killings as a matter of foreign policy and killings or imprisonment of one's own citizens (Muslim or otherwise).
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Since you're basically changing the subject. (I know you know that, but I'm playing along for the benefit of younger readers.)
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When it's used EVERY SINGLE TIME a story about China comes up and is refuted by AC commenters.
Re:America (Score:5, Insightful)
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You smell like fresh Astroturf.
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Who gives a shit if K did report this, thats nothing compared to the trillions america sent over to china.
Re: America (Score:1)
China would be nothing if it wasnt for American greed like Europe in building them up.
"American greed" - you're not trying very hard, are you.
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What an odd argument. It's not as though the CCP would clean up its act were the United States to stop supporting Saudi Arabia (or any other conservative Muslim country).
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Re: America (Score:1)
have caused more pain across tens if not hundreds of millions of women
Pretty sure that women are a concept you're unfamiliar with, considered your bosses aborted 'em all.
;)
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Strange that you assume that I forget anything. It's an article about China. Try to stay on-topic? If you want to bitch about the United States, submit your own story.
(not that I submitted this story; I didn't)
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You are no different to the chinese gov, always an excuse to ignore the basic truth
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That isn't the point at all.
The point is that any time something bad about China comes up, the usual circle-jerk of China apologists shows up, using various tactics to distract people from what China is doing. I mean really, Saudi Arabia?
Let's ignore China's treatment of the Uighurs because . . . Saudi Arabia?
Maybe if you could point out circumstances where the United States also rounded up its own domestic Muslims and put them in forced labor camps by the hundreds of thousands under the false pretense of
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Not by the americans they arent. Feel free to show me where any of these articles have made mention of the US and what the Saudis do and support. Then again America was making business with Hitler while he was doing what we all know he did.
Re: America (Score:1)
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Lets pretend that is true, that doesnt change the fact the US did sell them weapons for over 50 years. They arent exactly running low on bullet or ropes to hang women.
Back door is not the "end game" (Score:1, Insightful)
I wish the liberal media would stop trying to paint the Chinese genocide of Uyghurs as a "hacking operation." The end game is the extermination of all non-communist ethnic groups in China. Full stop.
But... cheap goods... so the rest of the world turns a completely blind eye.
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This did not deserve to be modded down.
Re:Back door is not the "end game" (Score:5, Informative)
This did not deserve to be modded down.
Yes it did. It was a partisan attack on the so-called liberal media for reporting accurately what some AV spokesman had said.
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Please turn in your mod points. You have no clue how the system works.
I think we're seeing here exactly how the system works.
Re: Back door is not the "end game" (Score:1)
Back door is not the "end game"
Don't tell the Greeks that.
I've figured out progressives. (Score:2)
I've figured out that, as far as the progressives in the media are concerned, racism only happens when white people do it.
If your ancestry isn't European, then the situation is complicated...
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Oh, and in a different nation. The NSA and MI5 are foreign intelligence agencies, meaning they spy on people in other countries. The Uighurs are Chinese citizen
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There tends to be a difference between "Muslim suspects" and "All Uighurs".
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Yes, and also look at how just how little "association" and cause of suspect is needed in CCP standards.
Look at how CCP terrorizes mothers of victims of Tienanmen Massacre. They regularly are deemed potential of acts of "inciting subversion of state power" for slightest of things and many a times gov pre-emptively had police to put them on "house-arrest" them around the 4th of June as they are deemed risks to attend their son's / daughter's memorial.
If you're Uighur and have a family member that's deeme
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Depends on what they bomb.
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They've already been bombing stuff. This whole thing started with Xinjiang independence activists attacking railway stations and threatening to bomb cities during major holidays. They were largely ignored before that. The US just has an attitude that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Remember they were fine with Bin Laden and co. as well as long as it wasn't US interests they were bombing.
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They're already fighting in Syria. I'm sure you can find something about the Turkistan Islamic Party somewhere on the internet.
Re:Good thing ... (Score:4, Insightful)
The last guy talked a good game when it came to China, but then completely failed to follow through. This guy doesn't even talk a good game, and will also do nothing. But the results will be identical.
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The last guy talked a good game when it came to China, but then completely failed to follow through. This guy doesn't even talk a good game, and will also do nothing. But the results will be identical.
So ... your taunt is "ha! my guy doesn't even claim to want what I want!"?
Re: Good thing ... (Score:2)
Yes, because honesty matters.
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Why do I have to be taunting?
I feel bad for the uiggers. (Score:1)
Free Tibet (Score:1)
You have to laugh. (Score:2)
China wants a homogeneous society (Score:2)
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China wants a homogeneous society. It is easier to manage. There is a saying in China "the nail that sticks up gets hammered".
Is this supposed to make it okay?
Germany wanted a homogenous society in the 30's. They used similar methods to what China does now, only less sophisticated.