Why are we suddenly hearing about China hacking us?
Parliament network breached in China-led cyberattack, Judith Collins reveals
The government does not plan to launch sanctions against China after confirming a cyberattack targeted two Parliamentary agencies in 2021.
But Foreign Minister Winston Peters said concerns had been conveyed directly to the Chinese government, with senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade asked to speak with China’s Ambassador.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand rejected what they called “groundless and irresponsible accusations” that China was behind the malicious cyber activity.
In a statement, they said they had “lodged serious démarches to New Zealand’s relevant authorities” and expressed “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition”.
“We have never, nor will we in the future, interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, including New Zealand,” the statement said.
“Accusing China of foreign interference is completely barking up the wrong tree.
“We hope the New Zealand side can practice the letter and spirit of its longstanding and proud independent foreign policy, independently making judgments and decisions in its best interests rather than blindly following other’s words and actions at the expense of New Zealand’s own credibility and interests.”
But the spy agencies’ minister Judith Collins said New Zealand’s Parliamentary Service and Parliamentary Counsel Office were targeted in a China-linked 2021 cyberattack.
Her office clarified the malicious activity was contained and the actor behind it was removed shortly after accessing the networks.
Could it be that we are suddenly hearing about this 3 year old hack because last week the Spooks got caught hiding spying equipment for the NSA (probably), and all of a sudden our top spooks are on the Telly reminding everyone they saved us and how terribly important they are.
We are helping bomb the Houthis for threatening shipping lanes, but giving China a slap on the wrist for attempting to hack us?
Can we please all thank National and their Farmer mates for putting all our cows in one Beijing Paddock and placing us all in a position where China can hack us and get away with it because we are so beholden to our Chinese Economic overlords now!
One narrative is that we have incompetent clowns running the Intelligence Apparatus.
Another narrative however suggests an organisation that pretends to be incompetent and bungling when in fact there is a terrible glint of Deep State fascism at play…
Reports indicate that this operation commenced in the period 2008 to 2013 while John Key was Prime Minister of New Zealand and he may or may not have had knowledge of it. The whole operation was designed so that responsibility could not be traced to the senior officials in the GCSB or any minister of government, though that does not mean that they were all in ignorance as they claim. In fact it is a virtual certainty that they had informally been made aware, and chose to retain the benefit of (barely) plausible deniability. However the circumstances are not specifically linked to John Key problem or the National Party government.
Move forward to 2017 and we have the “Security Chiefs memo” to Jacinda Ardern (not covered in the New Zealand media but leaked to the “Financial Times” of London) which set to dictate the foreign and certain domestic policies of the new government.
This amounted to a policy coup by the SIS, GCSB and Military Intelligence which met with astonishing success.
Then in 2022 the SIS managed to place its former head Rebecca Kitteridge at the Head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
So in the space of six years the SIS has managed to put itself in the driver’s seat of the New Zealand political system. That is an impressive achievement which is rather an odds with the “Penthouse and a pie” image cultivated by a section of the left. I don’t know of any other western “democracy” where the security services have achieved such a degree of influence and control over the political system
…Geoff Fisher from The Republican is right, the manner in which the SIS and GCSB have manoeuvred themselves into positions of power inside the Civilian Democracy of NZ is astounding.
Who is running then agenda here and why are we hearing about a 3 year old hack right after the GCSB were caught deceiving the Political representatives of NZ and allowing a foreign Nation to use our platforms illegally for illegal abuses of power.
The mask is a bungling agency that doesn’t do paper trails, the reality is something far more sinister.
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My thoughts also, I don’t think that the Chinese are sweet & innocent however as you mention we are happy to allow another country to spy using our resources so why should it be any surprise if they have their own methods to find out what is happening. The news media overall are treating the possible Chinese action as far more threatening to us than the use of the GCSB by another nation which seems naive at best & possibly even sinister if it suggests who controls the media.
Why indeed. Maybe now you need to know, so have been told.
It was probably American intelligence doing the hacking, whistleblowers have already revealed the extent to which they spy on everyone including world leaders and governments.
First. Let me apologise to, and for, my comment re LGBTQ+ re brian tamaki post which I can’t find now which is part of the reason why I’m here and now.
LGBTQ+ people. I’m sorry for calling you idiots in my broadest sense of stupidity. You, are not idiots. You’re instead wonderfully colourful and incredibly brave and an essential ingredient in today’s increasingly bleak miseries and tedious brain farts of hateful groups of arrogant arse holes like fucking tamaki and his adoring minions to the invisible, unknowable, indefinable and therefore almost certainly non existent hate-merchant, flying, smite-spirits as popularly depicted wearing beards and table cloths.
I apologise for my brain fart. Further more, as an angry old white farmer I think your nuanced presence on our beautiful Planet makes the beautiful Planet all the more wondrous.
Now to business …
Emperor Xi has a grand vision for a new world order.
And it looks suspiciously similar to the inside of a concentration camp.
do elucidate bruce…….
Judith Collins’s wet dream would be rooting around in the GCSB. Sinister game players.
Pathetic bullshitters.
Well lets not forget also that Mrs “pay it back double” Collins is now Minister of Defence, Minister Responsible for the GCSB, Minister Responsible for the NZSIS, Minister for Science, Innovation & Technology, Minister for Space, Minister for Digitising Government!
Good grief, an incredibly dodgy old bag features with such power and international political links. Time for New Zealanders to pay more attention to politics perhaps.
Tiger, Google Chucky and get images… there’s our Judy. Real doppelganger. Except less psycho.
they ALL have their greasey fingers in the back of your laptop who is responseable for any particular incident is irrelevant they are all at it.
I was employed in telecommunications and IT before the Internet. Been there done that.
When some idiot from GCSB claims “China hacked us” I’d say maybe they did. Prove it. Could have been anybody. Just conjecture.