China Vows To Increase IT Security Due To Potential US Hacking

Normally, when people think about the arms races going on in the world today, they tend to focus on the advancements made on traditional forms of weapons. However, in these modern times of innovation, it seems that countries around the globe are also competing when it comes to creating the latest and greatest forms of technology. International IT professionals may be interested to know that some nations are extremely defensive of their developments, going to great lengths to ensure that they are safe from prying eyes. For example, China has recently announced that due to its officials’ heightened suspicions of the U.S., its tech teams will be upping the ante in terms of data security measures.Even though the NSA made headline after headline a few months ago, some of that publicity pertaining to American IT espionage fell by the wayside. However, talk of how the U.S. is still possibly hacking into other nations’ databases has started once again.NSA taps into HuaweiAccording to Computerworld, reports have recently been released claiming that the NSA has managed to infiltrate the network of Huawei Technologies. These reports suggest that this U.S. government agency sifted through communications within this Chinese firm, using the information retrieved to familiarize itself with equipment that the company has in the works.In light of these claims, the NSA refused to comment on this specific situation, as it is a matter of foreign intelligence operations. Essentially, though, the defense organization explained that if it is investigating certain activities elsewhere in the world, it is with good reason.”NSA’s activities are focused and specifically deployed against – and only against – valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements,” NSA representatives wrote in an email to IDG News Service, according to Computerworld.Because the statement made by NSA officials is ambiguous and noncommittal, the Chinese company is not sure of the actions it should take. That being said, if the U.S. government did, in fact, use cyberespionage to intercept confidential information, Huawei has stated that it will take a stand and oppose this kind of behavior.”If the actions in the report are true, Huawei condemns such activities that invaded and infiltrated into our internal corporate network and monitored our communications,” the company wrote in an email, as cited by Computerworld.China takes a strong stanceRegardless of whatever moves that Huawei may make as further developments unfold, the Chinese government has already sprung into action. Computerworld explained that the country’s Ministry of National Defense views this latest NSA incident as an indication that China as a whole needs to increase its IT security measures.”We will take effective measures to strengthen our work on Internet security,” said Geng Yansheng, defense ministry spokesman, according to the source.Thus far, nothing is really clear on either party’s end. On the one hand, U.S. officials refuse to comment on these reports, and a number of people do not understand why NSA would be interested in hacking into this enterprise’s server. It has been said that the U.S. has been looking into Huawei to see if it could dig up dirt that would connect the company with the Chinese military. Ironically enough, the agency has supposedly been mining for evidence that the business has been supplying the nation’s government with technological tools that would allow it to spy on other countries around the globe. Last year, American authorities came across evidence revealing that a unit of the Chinese military was responsible for a whole slew of cyberattacks. Since this discovery, the U.S. could have been pursuing this lead to find out more intelligence.With regards to China, the Asian nation has not presented any proof that would show that the NSA has actually had its nose in this organization’s network. Despite having any spec of tangible evidence, the nation has deemed the U.S. hypocritical and is now on a mission to make its IT ironclad.Adding to all of the mystery surrounding this incident, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense has not hinted at the types of measures that it expects to implement so that it can keep foreign hackers at bay. It has, though, founded a focused committee that will solely deal with information technology protection, as the president has deemed this a matter of national security.