Commentary: U.S. poses gravest threat to global cybersecurity

Photo taken on Feb. 21, 2022 shows the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

The United States should drop its stealthy cyberespionage and vicious cyber suppression immediately, stop oppressing other countries in the name of "national security," and take a professional, responsible and cooperative attitude towards cybersecurity.

BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The United States is proven once more to be the top empire of hackers in the world and the gravest threat to global cybersecurity.

A recent report by information security media anzerclub.com revealed that the United States has been working with its "Five Eyes" allies and a few European countries to conduct secret data stealing operations worldwide, and that Washington has commanded U.S. Internet companies to develop weapons to attack Chinese telecom equipment. Those acts have again laid bare America's dirty motive to perpetuate its cyber hegemony.

For those politicians in Washington, to control global networks for good and facilitate its own cyber espionage activities require America's absolute technological primacy in the world, and brook no technological advances achieved by other countries. Therefore, it has been ruthlessly churning out slanders against foreign telecom and tech companies, touting the concept of "national security," and abusing its state power to bring down certain outperforming foreign enterprises.

Perhaps one of the most vital pieces of evidence is Washington's fanatic witch-hunt against China. In recent years, the White House has been not only closely monitoring and blatantly suppressing Chinese telecom and tech companies, but also forcing other countries to block Chinese technologies, so as to gratify its own technological bullying and protectionist impulses.

A woman listens to a debate at Huawei Cyber Security Transparency Centre in Brussels, Belgium, Jan. 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)

For example, Washington has repeatedly oppressed and sanctioned Huawei under the cloak of "national security." But its trumped-up charges against the leading Chinese 5G equipment provider have crumbled in the face of facts.

There has never been a single cybersecurity incident involving Huawei products, nor a single tapping or surveillance operation. And not a single country has produced evidence of any backdoor in Huawei products.

A 2019 report by German daily Der Tagesspiegel said that after years of review, the British government, Germany's Federal Office for Information Security and the European Commission have all failed to find any backdoor in Huawei, but instead have found 10 backdoors in U.S. networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. since 2013.

Der Tagesspiegel was not the only one bringing to light America's dirty work of cyber stealing, spying and surveillance. U.S. media coverage showed that starting from the 1970s and by utilizing its control over Crypto AG, a Swiss company that sold encryption devices, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has stolen confidential information from more than 120 countries by decrypting messages sent through Crypto AG devices.

In his book "The Chip Trap," Marc Lassus, key founder of French smart card producer Gemplus, has chosen to speak out and reveal how the U.S. security services persecuted him and seized control of his tech firm to collect information and eavesdrop on the rest of the world.

The exposure of U.S. cyber espionage activities from PRISM over Equation Group to ECHELON, as well as the revelation that U.S. spy agencies run a 24/7 surveillance of cellphones and computers worldwide and have even eavesdropped on leaders of U.S. allies for years, have all pointed to nothing but the modus operandi of a hacker state.

Besides, to further exploit the Internet in its unremitting pursuit of global hegemony, the United States has been obsessed with the militarization of cyberspace and weaponization of network technologies.

All those wicked acts, which flagrantly violate international law and the basic norms of international relations, have prompted outrage in the international community, including among U.S. allies. For instance, both French President Emmanuel Macron and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel have called Washington's eavesdropping activities "unacceptable."

What is done by night, appears by day. The United States should wake up to that, drop its stealthy cyberespionage and vicious cyber suppression immediately, stop oppressing other countries in the name of "national security," and take a professional, responsible and cooperative attitude towards cybersecurity.