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The Internet Security Technology

The US-China Battle Over the Internet Goes Under the Sea (wired.com) 72

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Last week, Washington strongly objected to a new project from Facebook and Google. It's too risky and offers "unprecedented opportunities" for Chinese government espionage, the Justice Department declared. The project, however, wasn't about online speech or contact tracing, but concerned an issue that would seem far less politically charged: building an undersea internet cable from the United States to Hong Kong. From a report: On June 17, Team Telecom -- the executive branch group charged with reviewing foreign telecoms for security risks (and recently in the news for escalating and apparently insufficient inspections) -- recommended the Federal Communications Commission stop the Hong Kong connection. It may seem odd for American officials to fret over undersea cable networks; rarely does your chosen crime show's protagonist kick a door in because someone is laying telecommunications fiber.

But geopolitical influence-projection on the internet isn't just about hacking other countries' intelligence databases. While not nearly as flashy, the development and maintenance of undersea cables, the landing points anchoring them above ground, and other physical internet infrastructure are a growing arm of cyber statecraft and source of security risk. This cable is just one element in a broader geopolitical contest. Facebook and Google joined the project, dubbed the Pacific Light Cable Network, back in 2016. Teaming up with New Jersey-based telecom TE SubCom and Pacific Light Data Communication Company, a Hong Kong subsidiary of the Chinese firm Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group, the US giants jumped on a project already months underway: building a massive undersea internet cable -- the submarine-depth metal tubes hauling internet traffic from one land mass to another -- connecting the US, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

To the US government, the Taiwan and Philippines part was up to scratch. Undersea cables have visible benefits, such as bolstering digital connections between regions and facilitating all forms of communication that follow. And for this 8,000-mile-long fiber-optic snake, connecting dispersed areas of the world was exactly the point. The stakeholders wrote as much in a December 2017 filing to the US government, noting this would be the first undersea cable moving internet traffic directly between Hong Kong and the United States, at speeds of 120 terabytes per second. But the government had security worries about the Chinese-owned Hong Kong subsidiary behind the effort, as well as the proposed line to Hong Kong itself. Google, Facebook, and their partners had already laid thousands of miles of cable and spent millions of dollars last August when word broke of the Justice Department's opposition to the project. Officials thought Beijing could physically access the cable for espionage -- in this case by capturing internet traffic.
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The US-China Battle Over the Internet Goes Under the Sea More

The US-China Battle Over the Internet Goes Under the Sea

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  • So (Score:4, Insightful)

    by OverlordQ ( 264228 ) on Thursday June 25, 2020 @10:41AM (#60226592) Journal

    could physically access the cable for espionage -- in this case by capturing internet traffic.

    So, Room 641A?

    • Come on now! When our government does it, we're protecting the world for freedom! When their government does it, it's communist hoards coming to rape your grandma.

    • physical access to a physical cable ?
      that IS unprecedented, next thing you know they got access to radio waves =lol , or maybe ... google and stuff and "the internet" to spy on
      i think it states clearly "The US-China Battle" , i dont see why i should be part of it

  • Do as we say, but not as we do (Score:5, Informative)

    by nicolaiplum ( 169077 ) on Thursday June 25, 2020 @10:45AM (#60226610)

    "Officials thought Beijing could physically access the cable for espionage -- in this case by capturing internet traffic."

    Like the NSA did for years: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/0... [nytimes.com]
    and others do across the world: https://www.theatlantic.com/in... [theatlantic.com]

    Hypocrites.

    • Every country does everything they can get away with to every other country and does their best to stop the same being done to them.

      Sheesh. This isn't a school play ground. This is big boy pants wearing international affairs and power politics.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        If it were then the White House would have shut the fuck up and just tapped the line the same way they do all the others (we've been doing it since the 1970s). This is just grandstanding for the election.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        In this case Hong Kong is a part of China. So an indirect cable to Hong Kong via China, is more secure than a cable going direct to Hong Kong which is a part of China. I think the USA is setting up the Hong Kong to be a dead King Kong, ding dong. Hong Kong is screwed no longer the gateway to China, there is no need for the USA and UK to pile on and make it even worse. Once other Cities in mainland China and especially Hainan started catching up and overtaking Hong Kong it was over for Hong Kong, way over de

    • Well, you do know it is kind of us vs them....

      • No, it's idiots in our goverment vs. them. You're typing on your pile of chinese electronics to get here ya know....

        NSA is the biggest threat and offender anyway. As Pogo cartoon character said "we has met the enemy and they is us."

    • If it's something that your enemies would do regardless of your moral/ethical stance on it, and it would cause harm to you when they do it, is it still hypocracy for you to do it as well, as an act of self-defense? Asking for a friend.

      Spying has been a Thing since before there was such a concept as 'nations'. They do it to us, we do it to them, and allies even do it to their allies; is it any more morally or ethically bad than, say, jaywalking or pickpocketing at this point? Asking for a friend.

    • Naw, this is more like a bike thief telling you not to trust certain kinds of locks because they're easier to hack. No hypocrisy here - the fact that it's a bike thief telling you this actually gives the warning more credibility.. And sharing the information about what's easier to hack actually does society some good.

      If you really want to be paranoid about it, you could claim the U.S. is issuing the warning because it feels its capability to hack undersea cables is about the same as or worse than China's

      • As long as we're allowed meaningful encryption I don't care who hacks the cables.

        This warning only makes sense if the feds get what they want, legally mandated backdoors into all of our crypto systems.

    • As far as I know, we don't arrest people for speaking out against the Government. Nor send them to concentration camps for their religious beliefs.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        You might ask the guys in Guantanamo about that last claim.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        As far as I know, we don't arrest people for speaking out against the Government. Nor send them to concentration camps for their religious beliefs.

        How about you let Snowden and the other leakers know all is forgiven...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

        As far as I know, we don't arrest people for speaking out against the Government. Nor send them to concentration camps for their religious beliefs.

        Mostly because we don't listen to you [slashdot.org]. But you're hoping for it to be true deep in your heart, aren't you?

        • So, you're a lawyer (supposedly), who's been arrested and convicted for speaking out against the Government? I know people were arrested and are being charged for property damage, physical assault, or other actual tangible actions. But speech? Can you point to it? If not - STFU.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

            If not - STFU.

            No. I'll take advantage of your claim that I can't be arrested (HAH! As if!) and convicted (you can beat the rap, but not the ride) for speaking out against the Government, and assume that it extends to speaking out against your nonsense too.

    • But they are knowledgable hypocrites. I'm not saying I support what they are doing, but they probably know better than anyone what can be done and are potentially guarding against it happening to them.

    • I guess you have the government confused with your parents.

    • Perhaps the government's real concern is that internet traffic might bypass the NSA's (and other cooperating western governments) points of interception?

  • What is the difference between spying at the Hong Kong terminal and spying at the last mile or any/every data center in-between? This sounds more like some sort of petty posturing against China. China has access to Chinese data regardless of where they tap in.

    • I guess it's about internet traffic of South-East Asia. They may route through Hong Kong to America. Laying new cables to Taiwan may be safer when China flex its muscle and cut the internet of Hong Kong.

  • If a big org wants to snoop the 'net, is using sneaky submarines the best way to go about it? It seems to me there would be easier and stealthier penetration points on land.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Z80a ( 971949 )

      The ends of the cables are not submarine.
      One goes in the NSA box, the other goes in the CCP box.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by tragedy ( 27079 )

        That was the exact point of the post you replied to. It's easier to just tap in on land when you control one of the ends. China controls the end in Hong Kong, as well as all of the other connections between China and the rest of the world. So what's the point of worrying about the cable? Of course it's going to be tapped.

  • Physical vs Virtual Access (Score:3)

    by mikeebbbd ( 3690969 ) on Thursday June 25, 2020 @11:02AM (#60226692)

    Yes, physical access to the cable (terminal) makes certain types of eavesdropping easier. So should we worry about the US end? And why aren't we doing end-to-end encryption anyway? Even https?

    The Chinese are very proficient at virtual access anyway. Ever hear of BGP hacks, among other things? Those don't depend on having a cable terminal in their territory (which Hong Kong is).

    • We should be doing end-to-end encryption, but it's also possible to do encryption at the transponder level as well. The new 600G platforms based on the Acacia Pico 1200G DSP all support OTN encryption using GCM AES-256. https://csrc.nist.gov/projects... [nist.gov]

    • Right, great call. Exactly the same. You are correct.

      If you worried about the US government having access to your communication system, do not create an endpoint for an undersea communication cable in the US. Doing so would give the US access. Only site a cable there if your government is on friendly enough terms with the US government that wouldn't perceive any danger or risk in creating a US endpoint for your network.

      The US does see a risk in having an endpoint in Hong Kong, because we're not on friendly

  • Google, Facebook, and their partners had already laid thousands of miles of cable and spent millions of dollars last August when word broke of the Justice Department's opposition to the project.

    Thousands of miles and millions of dollars and only then does the Trump administration find fault with the project because nobody there is capable of sitting through an intelligence briefing without zoning out pulling their lip down with their finger and rolling their eyes back out of boredom. That must be annoying enough to drive the people financing and planning that project to chair throwing.

    • I'm confused, did China seize control of the Hong Kong justice system in 2017 and promise to start prosecuting Hong Kong citizens in mainland courts? No? Not until within the last month? Then fuck off.

  • The US-China Battle Over the Internet Goes Under the Sea

    Damn, there a Little Mermaid joke in there somewhere, but I can't quite see it.

  • If the Senate GOP gets their way the Internet will become nigh-unto irrelevant anyway, as any bored script-kiddie will be able to spy on anything at any time, it'll be so easy. At that point only a fool would use the Internet for anything at all.
  • If the US gov was not so against true encryption, snooping would be much less of a problem.

  • If you have anything worth intercepting transmitted without good encryption,you are doing intelligence wrong.

  • Kind of a pointless article unless the Atlantic Council is trying to gin up support for global trade and neoliberal policies.

  • I guess with a corporate partner like Dr. Peng Telecom (& Media Group), it's gotta be good.

  • of sabre-rattling foreign policy. Just delay the project til next year.
  • 960Tbps only 4,.% away from 1 Pbps, well that shuld be bandith enugh for the next few years, well maybe it will at lest help even if most of it will be dedicated to Facebook aws at al, removing all the DC to DC traffic of the public internet will free up capacity for other stuff

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
      that was supposed yo be 4.2% , sigh the typos uou don't spot until it's to late, where is the edit button Slashdot almost everyone else has that fuction (alltho it is quite well hidden in some places), it's 2020 come on, on the supject of beeing late to the party, where are your AAAA records?
  • So, do you think the US is NOT already spying?

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