A report jointly released by China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre (CVERC) and Chinese cybersecurity company 360 revealed that the US’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been responsible for plotting “color revolutions” around the world.
Color Revolutions
According to the report, the CIA has overthrown or attempted to overthrow at least 50 legitimate international governments. Of these, the agency has recognised only seven such instances.
The report highlights that, among many other examples, US meddling has been evidenced in the 2014 “Color Revolution” in Ukraine, the 2014 “Sunflower Revolution” in the self-governing island of Taiwan, the 2007 “Saffron Revolution” in Myanmar, and the 2009 “Green Revolution” in Iran.
It argues that the rapid development of the internet since the early 21st century offered the CIA a “new opportunity” for international infiltration activities, making it easy to convert institutions or individuals anywhere in the world into “puppet agents.”
Since 2015, CIA massively has taken advantage of 0-day vulnerabilities in its global cyberattacks, setting up "zombie botnets" & "stepping stones" globally to launch attacks on network servers, terminals, exchangers & routers, and a huge amount of industrial control equipment.
— Li Jingjing 李菁菁 (@Jingjing_Li) May 5, 2023
CIA Tools
The report outlines five different methods commonly used by the CIA:
- Encrypted network communication services to help protesters in Middle Eastern countries keep in touch and avoid being tracked and arrested.
- Offline communication services to ensure that anti-government personnel can continue to stay connected with the outside world when the internet is disconnected.
- On-site command tools for rallies and parades based on the internet and wireless communications.
- Developing a software called “Riot,” which supports independent broadband network, provides variable WiFi network, does not rely on any traditional physical access method, or need telephone, cable or satellite connection, and easily evades government monitoring.
- Developing the “anti-censorship” information system.
The report further claimed that the CIA possessed several information-stealing tools that allow it and the US National Security Agency to jointly attack the same victim, share cyberattack weapons with each other, or provide relevant technical or human support.
For example:
— Li Jingjing 李菁菁 (@Jingjing_Li) May 5, 2023
CIA divulged users' secrets through smart TVs with their attack toolkit, Weeping Angel, developed by the Embedded Devices Branch.
The toolkit can make TVs "pretend" to be switched off but in fact, they are still overhearing.
Chinese Government Response
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning commented on the report on Thursday, saying that “the international community needs to stay on high alert against these moves.”
“The large number of real cases in China and other countries disclosed by the report once again testifies to the CIA’s cyber-attack activities around the world over the years,” she said.
She called on the US to respond to international concerns and “stop using cyber weapons to carry out espionage and cyber-attacks around the world.”