By Zhou Ningnan
On May 4, National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (VERC) and 360 Security Technology Inc. in China jointly released the "'Empire of Hacking': The US Central Intelligence Agency - Part I" to disclose how US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has long conducting worldwide cyber disruption, attack, surveillance and other actions by relying on its cyberspace technology advantages. These notorious records are proof of the globally harmful cyberspace hegemony intention of the US.
The stated objective of the CIA is to penetrate and monitor the international community for cyberspace hegemony. It had established the Engineering Development Group (EDG) and other research organizations for long-term extensive cyberattack weapon study. According to secret documents disclosed by WikiLeaks in 2017, although these cyberattack weapons named "Vault7" represent only the tip of the iceberg, their complete system and huge devastating power will enable attacks upon all mainstream operating systems and network devices and penetration into almost all internet and Internet of Things (IoT) assets in the global sphere.
CIA has been consistently launching indiscriminate attacks and carrying out bullying activities in cyberspace. "Vault7" cyberattack weapons have been deployed in Europe, Southeast Asia and other regions, and have a long track record back to 2011 for attacks upon key infrastructure, aerospace, scientific research institutions, petroleum and petrochemical industry, large internet companies, government agencies and other crucial departments in other countries. These state-secret stealing activities have grievously damaged the sovereignty of all other nations in the world. The CIA also conducted 24-hour uninterrupted monitoring on the network activities and data of the victims, which seriously infringed on the privacy and other individual rights of global network users. The US is the verifiable largest "Empire of Hacking" in the world.
A key purpose of the CIA's cyberspace hegemony actions is to manipulate the network and promote regime subversion activities. In fact, the CIA had frequently taken advantage of cyber tactics to subvert legitimate foreign regimes and give support to pro-American governments, forcing other countries to "change flags" in a hegemonic way. According to statistics, the CIA had succeeded or attempted to overturn at least 50 legitimate foreign governments in the past decades.
The CIA had earlier launched "color revolutions" in Iran, Tunisia, Egypt and other countries and provided conveniences for foreign reactionaries to elude local legal government regulations by resorting to so-called anonymity network technologies. Since the anonymity network tool still relies on the local legal government to provide local internet access service, the CIA further switches to "Riot" and other tools that can enable independent network functions and has plotted and implemented numerous "color revolutions" in the world by taking these opportunities.
The long cyberspace hegemony pursuit of the US is the very root cause of present global insecurity and disorder challenges in this field. The country is the riotous repeated offender of launching global cyberattacks and spreading false information. It confuses right and wrong in global cyberspace rulemaking, whitewashes its own military ambitions in cyberspace, and makes global cyberspace stick in security dilemma and governance deficit. Its cyberspace hegemony moves are morally deficient and practically unfeasible, which will lead to an insecure and unfair network environment. This type of global public nuisance has to be changed irreconcilably.
China advocates establishing peaceful, secure, open, cooperative and orderly cyberspace governance rules, and building a community with a shared future in cyberspace together, so as to strengthen mutual trust and security in this sphere. This is the right path for long-term cyberspace peace and stability for the international community. The whole society should unequivocally oppose cyber hegemony, accelerate the establishment of universally applicable international cyberspace rules, and jointly facilitate global cyberspace security, prosperity and development.
(The author is an assistant research fellow of Institute of Sci-Tech and Cyber Security Studies, China Institute of Contemporary International Relations)
