US spy bureau NSA ‘hacked Huawei HQ’: China confirms Snowden leak
Chinese state security ministry report acknowledges cyberattacks detailed in internal papers revealed by former contractorThe report accuses the NSA of ‘repeated, systematic attacks’ on the telecoms giant and other targets in China and other countriesUS-China relationsWilliam ZhengPublished: 3:02pm, 20 Sep, 2023Why you can trust SCMP
A state security ministry report published on Wednesday said the NSA, through its Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO) “repeatedly carried out systematic and platform-based attacks” on China in an attempt to steal its “important data resources”.
“In 2009, the [TAO] began to hack servers at Huawei headquarters and continued to monitor them,” said the report, which was published on the ministry’s official social media platform.
The TAO is the NSA’s cyberwarfare intelligence-gathering unit, now called Computer Network Operations. In 2013, Snowden – a former NSA contractor – released internal documents showing the agency’s targets included Huawei’s sealed headquarters in Shenzhen.