[Photo/He Wei Studio]

The intricate landscape of cyber espionage has been brought to light in an increasingly interconnected yet fragmented digital world. In their third comprehensive report, China's cybersecurity agencies have unveiled detailed findings about surveillance and disinformation campaigns conducted by the United States and its "Five Eyes" partners. 

In May 2023, the United States and its "Five Eyes" allies released an advisory, claiming that a hacker group they labeled "Volt Typhoon" had launched espionage activities targeting U.S. critical infrastructure, and the organization was endorsed by the Chinese government.

Following this allegation, the CVERC (China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center) conducted a thorough attribution analysis, which demonstrated that the "Volt Typhoon" narrative was strategically constructed by the United States to safeguard its unauthorized global surveillance operations and protect various stakeholders' political and economic interests.

Technical investigations have uncovered top-secret NSA documents revealing the extent of U.S. global surveillance operations. Leveraging its technological and geographical advantages, the U.S. has established control over critical internet "nodes," including major undersea cables in the Atlantic and Pacific.

Seven national-level full-traffic monitoring stations have been set up, closely collaborating with the UK's National Cyber Security Centre. These operations enable indiscriminate monitoring of global internet users by intercepting, analyzing, and extracting data from optical cable transmissions.

Through sophisticated extraction, aggregation, restoration, decoding, and decryption processes, they can access voice, text, video communications, and even user information. The primary beneficiaries of this intelligence gathering are U.S. military and intelligence agencies, as well as their partners in the "Five Eyes" alliance.

The far-reaching implications of this surveillance infrastructure not only highlight America's commanding position in global digital communications but also trigger widespread concerns regarding privacy and data security standards.

According to the report, U.S. intelligence agencies have established a global internet surveillance network, generating a large amount of high-value intelligence. This has enabled the country to consistently stay ahead of the curve in diplomacy, military affairs, economics, and science and technology.

Such an extensive surveillance program requires a substantial annual budget, and with the explosive growth of internet data, the demand for funding is bound to rise. This is one of the main reasons the U.S. government, in collaboration with its intelligence agencies, devised and promoted the "Volt Typhoon" narrative, said the report.

The report concluded by urging cybersecurity firms and research institutes to prioritize advancing threat prevention technologies and delivering high-quality products and services to users, emphasizing that such efforts are crucial for fostering a more secure and sustainable internet ecosystem.

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