On November 22nd, the top US telecommunications representatives and National Security officials held a meeting in the White House. The main topic thereof was the Chinese cyber-espionage campaign.
The campaign has great meaning for the sector, seeing as its targets have become the most prominent American political figures, such as newly elected President Donald Trump and vice president JD Vance. Apart from this, according to the US, China-affiliated hackers accessed data meant for American law enforcement via cyber-attacks on telecom companies.
During the meeting, telecom representatives advised the government on the ways it could ensure protection against such attacks. Additionally, the sides exchanged intelligence on these topics.
According to the FBI, the number of victims of the campaign is fewer than 150, although they believe that the damage was spread to many more people through these victims via text messages and calls.
China denies accusations of this cyber-espionage campaign. Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry speaker made a statement before the above-mentioned meeting took place. On November 14th, he underlined that „[China has] no interest in interfering in other countries’ internal affairs through cyberspace and oppose[s] spreading China-related disinformation out of a political agenda“. State-affiliated media platform Global Times talks about the experts, who „revealed that the US deliberately fabricates evidence of cyberattacks to tarnish China’s image“. To prove this point, they use factors such as the anonymity of the sources and lack of substantive arguments.
