China’s top spy agency warn public, old devices, idle servers being used by foreign networks for espionage

Beijing: China's anti-espionage agency has cautioned the public that foreign spy agencies have been using idle or discarded network devices belonging to Chinese firms, including servers and cameras, to launch cyberattacks and steal China's national secrets.

The Ministry of State Security (MSS), posting on the Chinese messaging app WeChat on Friday, said it has noticed the trend in recent years and cited a case where a foreign spy agency had taken control of a Chinese firm's server that remained in the company's computer room even though it was no longer in use.

The server was then used to launch a spy attack, the ministry said in the article, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

The MSS said that in another case, a camera monitoring platform was attacked, with analysis showing that the platform's server held the usernames and passwords for many users' cameras. The system had not been maintained or updated for a long time, leading to a high risk of data leaks, the article said.

"Chinese citizens and organisations are required to work with national security agencies to prevent and investigate cyber espionage activities," it said.

"They should strengthen their knowledge on cybersecurity, increase awareness and build a safety network," it said.

The ministry said that if a spy agency took control of the platform, it could manipulate its cameras and use them to steal secrets.

Meanwhile, network ports could also be controlled by overseas agencies to log onto servers and launch attacks.

The MSS cautioned that as China's network equipment was upgraded, the risks pertaining to idle equipment also increased and that units with access to top secrets should better manage this equipment and better train staff to carry out periodic checks and prevent the risk of leaks.

China itself faces allegations from the US and several other countries of periodic cyberattacks from the state-backed networks.

Beijing, however, denies saying that it firmly opposes any form of cyber-attacks and accuses Washington of ganging up with allies to launch such attacks against China.

The MSS has been warning the public through its social platform saying that foreign spy agencies have been using people to penetrate firms and steal secrets, or turn Chinese citizens against their government.

It said foreign spies had posed as internet dates or academic consultants or launched photography projects, recruited college students for "high-paying part-time jobs" and sent emails that could hack private mailboxes.

In its posts in the past, the MSS named the British Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its accusations against foreign agencies. In all other cases, it simply used the descriptions "some country" and a “foreign spy agency," the Post report said.

Previously, it said it had cracked a major espionage case involving a married Chinese couple who worked for the government while passing information to MI6. It also accused the CIA of being behind a handful of espionage cases, such as turning a worker in a Chinese state-run arms company to spy for them.