24 June 2024

China Targets US With Hacking Contests

Hugh Cameron

China's spy agencies are using talent competitions to recruit young hackers for cyberattacks on the US.

The revelation comes in a new report that has shed fresh light on the secretive state's "hack for hire" programme, which the authors said was "unlike anything we have ever seen."

Cyber experts have called on the government and big business to do more in the wake of the report from ETH Zurich's Center for Security Studies, which revealed how China is weaponizing the brains of its young technophiles.

Beijing has banned homegrown talent from competing in international hacking, in which contestants compete to exploit vulnerabilities in widely used software for cash prizes, and created its own events, the report said.

Chinese hackers are now forced to compete in government-sanctioned domestic events, giving spy agencies a pipeline of knowledge and manpower that can be exploited for use against the U.S. and its allies.

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