The allegation extends reporting that China analyzed stolen U.S. personal data to identify CIA operatives: the claimed role for Alibaba and Baidu is the processing layer behind that intelligence effort, not merely the acquisition of data stolen-data analysis aimed at identifying CIA operatives.
It also arrives amid accounts that U.S. intelligence agencies had struggled to keep pace with China’s hacking efforts difficulty responding to China’s hacking campaign. The significance is the reported linkage between major commercial technology companies and state intelligence analysis.
First-order effects
Alibaba and Baidu are placed under sharper U.S. official scrutiny as alleged processors of stolen U.S. data for Chinese spy agencies.
U.S. intelligence officials must treat the alleged data-processing capacity of Chinese technology companies as part of the operational threat, alongside the underlying intrusions.
Second-order effects
The allegations strengthen the case for U.S. technology and intelligence responses that address data analysis and infrastructure, rather than focusing only on preventing theft.
Chinese technology companies with international commercial ties face a more difficult separation between their business identities and perceived state-security roles.
Third-order effects
The reporting points to a security model in which commercially developed data-processing capacity can be integrated into state intelligence work, making corporate technology ecosystems a lasting part of geopolitical risk assessments.
If this pattern persists, intelligence competition will increasingly turn on the ability to combine stolen data with large-scale analysis, not solely on access to the data itself.
The trend: Commercial technology infrastructure is becoming a strategic intelligence asset as states pair data collection with large-scale analytical capacity.
NEW: China's tech giants process data for Beijing's intelligence services, say U.S. officials. The final installment of a @ForeignPolicy series on the U.S.-China data wars. https://foreignpolicy.com/...
NEW SCOOP from @zachsdorfman: China's Ministry of State Security has demanded that private Chinese companies, including Baidu and Alibaba, help them process stolen U.S. data, such as from the OPM hack, U.S. intelligence officials believe. https://foreignpolicy.com/...
“Imagine on any given day, if NSA and CIA are collecting information... give it to Google... and say, ‘... We want all these analytics; get it back to us next week.’ That's what they do.” Part 3 👀 from @zachsdorfman: https://foreignpolicy.com/...
“Just imagine on any given day, if NSA and CIA are collecting information, say, on the [Chinese military], and we could bring back seven, eight, 10, 15 petabytes of data, give it to Google or Amazon or Microsoft, and say, 'Hey, we want all these analytics,” said one official.
When U.S. officials investigated what the Chinese knew about American citizens, it was not a pretty picture. By co-opting Chinese companies' data-processing capabilities, Beijing's spy agencies can quickly find nuggets of intelligence value. [2/5] https://foreignpolicy.com/... ht…
Zach writes, “In what amounts to intelligence tasking, China's spy services order private Chinese companies with big-data analytics capabilities to process massive sets of information that have intelligence value, according to current and former officials.”
It's hard to overestimate the significance of this intelligence assessment. There has been speculation that Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent might have ties to China's security state. In fact, they work directly with them and for them—because they have to. According to US intel.
For many years, the CIA had penetrated China's bureaucracy and even military and intelligence by generous bribing. Then in 2012, China hacked huge data - OPM - and learned how the US spy operation works. Fascinating story... https://foreignpolicy.com/...
Excellent piece on how online data hacks by China against the US led to Beijing being able to identify CIA spies working in Africa and Europe. Important highlighting the movement between cyber data hacks and real world implications on intelligence. https://foreignpolicy.com/...
.@DHSgov says China uses TCL TVs, the number 1 selling TV brand on @Amazon, to spy on American citizens and exfil data from their home networks. https://www.dhs.gov/...