Among the apparent targets of tools provided by the impacted company, I-Soon, are ethnicities and dissidents in parts of China that have seen significant anti-government protests like Hong Kong or Xinjiang.

Chinese police are investigating an unauthorized and highly unusual online dump of documents from a private security contractor linked to the nation’s top policing agency and other parts of its government — a trove that catalogs apparent hacking activity and tools to spy on both Chinese and foreigners.

Among the apparent targets of tools provided by the impacted company, I-Soon: ethnicities and dissidents in parts of China that have seen significant anti-government protests, such as Hong Kong or the heavily Muslim region of Xinjiang in China’s far west.

The dump of scores of documents late last week and subsequent investigation were confirmed by two employees of I-Soon, known as Anxun in Mandarin, which has ties to the powerful Ministry of Public Security. The dump, which analysts consider highly significant even if it does not reveal any especially novel or potent tools, includes hundreds of pages of contracts, marketing presentations, product manuals, and client and employee lists.

  • Flying Squid
    -3•9 months ago

    Those famous branches of a nation’s government, Google and Meta.

    The nation of Narnia.

    • @[email protected]English
      1•9 months ago

      If you are trying to imply that Google of all companies is NOT an arm of the US government, I’m sorry to say but you are so wrong.

      Google was founded by CIA venture capital money. They’ve had massive contracts with the US government since they began.

      • Flying Squid
        -2•9 months ago

        I’m sorry…

        You think Larry Page, Scott Hassan and Sergey Brin worked for the CIA while also completing their degrees at Stanford and because of that they started one of multiple competing search engines with some diabolical plan to use internet voodoo to kill all the competition? If the CIA has those sort of magical powers, we’re doomed.

        Also, having massive government contracts doesn’t mean you’re an arm of the government.

        Kraft has massive government contracts. You know, the cheese people?

        Also- a big difference between Google and the Chinese Government? No one is forced to use Google and there are plenty of alternatives you can use without getting in any sort of legal jeopardy.

          • Flying Squid
            -1•9 months ago

            And I love how you try to imply that having massive government defense and intelligence contracts means absolutely nothing.

            When did I imply any such thing? Do you think the only two options are ‘exactly the same level of government surveillance as China’ or ‘absolutely nothing?’

            Again- you do not have to use Google. Ever. No one is forcing you to use Google. It is not a requirement. The Chinese Government makes laws and has the power of life and death over its citizens.

            Do you really not understand the difference?

            As far as the article you provided, the author of it is a conspiracy-monger.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nafeez_Ahmed#Controversies

            It makes absolutely no sense for the CIA to have made Google because when Google was created, it was assumed either Yahoo or Lycos would gain supremacy. So, again, unless they used some sort of internet voodoo to be able to see the future and know Google would win over those two, it’s a nonsensical conspiracy theory.

            • @[email protected]English
              -1•9 months ago

              Yeah no, the spectrum of surveillance is “US private and government intelligence agencies <- the rest of the five eyes -> nothing”. It’s not a dichotomy, it’s a spectrum.

              And that Wikipedia (🤮) article basically has way stronger arguments FOR Ahmed than against him lol not sure what you thought that did. Just because he has a “controversies” section? Did you even read it?

              • Flying Squid
                0•9 months ago

                Yeah no, the spectrum of surveillance is “US private and government intelligence agencies <- the rest of the five eyes -> nothing”.

                I’m sorry… are you now claiming that China has no government surveillance at all?

                • @[email protected]English
                  0•9 months ago

                  No I’d put them around the middle or a bit more towards the left. I don’t know where you got that I said that lol

                  • Flying Squid
                    0•9 months ago

                    I got it from where you said:

                    the spectrum of surveillance is US private and government intelligence agencies <- the rest of the five eyes -> nothing

                    The five eyes are Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

                    In other words…

                    The spectrum of surveillance (according to you) is “US private and government intelligence agencies <- Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom -> nothing”

                    The only place I can see China fitting in to what you said is “nothing” since it isn’t any of the five countries that you have counted.