E’ oramai cosa nota che l’Intelligence cinese nutra un interesse specifico per i think tank anglosassoni (e non solo).
Nel corso degli ultimi due anni, infatti, più volte è diventata di dominio pubblico la notizia della scoperta di attività di cyber-espionage condotte dal territorio cinese ai danni di grosse strutture di ricerca occidentali. Il motivo è ovvio: i think tank costituiscono oramai dei notevoli assett informativi che, soprattutto nel mondo anglosassone, svolgono un importante ruolo di raccolta ed elaborazione di informazioni strategiche e di produzione di conoscenza utile per il decisore. Penetrare nelle reti di comunicazione digitale di grossi think tank permette inoltre di avere spesso accesso a contatti governativi di alto livello con i quali gli esperti dei think tank collaborano.
Due giorni fa il Washington Post ha rivelato l’esistenza di un gruppo di hackers, presumibilmente cinesi secondo il report di CrowdStrike, la società che ha scoperto l’attività, il quale, denominato “Deep Panda”, avrebbe “attenzionato” alcuni think tank ed esperti americani specializzati in Medio-Oriente:
The group behind the breaches, called “DEEP PANDA” by security researchers, appears to be affiliated with the Chinese government, says Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer of the firm CrowdStrike. The company, which works with a number of think tanks on a pro bono basis, declined to name which ones have been breached.
Alperovitch said the firm noticed a “radical” shift in DEEP PANDA’s focus on June 18, the same day witnesses reported that Sunni extremists seized Iraq’s largest oil refinery. The Chinese group has typically focused on senior individuals at think tanks who follow Asia, said Alperovitch. But last month, it suddenly began targeting people with ties to Iraq and Middle East issues.
This latest breach follows a pattern identified by experts of Chinese cyberspies targeting major Washington institutions, including think tanks and law firms. It’s rarely clear why Chinese cyberspies hack specific American targets, but experts say there are a few clues to why the DEEP PANDA group may have been interested in Middle East experts at think tanks.
China’s need for natural resources has skyrocketed along with its economic profile, and the country has increasingly turned to the Middle East to fuel its energy needs. China surpassed the U.S. as the world’s largest net importer of petroleum and other liquid fuels last September, according to the US Energy Information Administration. In Iraq, China is a major oil investor. […]Experts say Chinese interest in U.S. think tanks is part of a larger information gathering strategy aimed at understanding how Washington works. Chinese officials often assume that think tanks and news outlets are being influenced by the U.S. government as their Chinese counterparts are by Beijing, these experts say.
