Written by Dongwoo K.and Alex K. (KIS‘22)
━━April 4th, 2021━━
As technological capabilities have continued to develop, a recent side effect that has become a prevalent concern is cyber attacks. A cyber attack is simply when an individual accesses unauthorized computer networks to proceed with illegal acts such as spying, exposing and more. A recent example of this ethical issue that has gained some spotlight is the report that the Chinese government had been using the telecoms network to spy on Uyghurs tourists.
The Uyghurs group, as a whole, is a minority group constituted of Muslims who have situated themselves in areas such as Beijing and Turkey. Due to their cultural and religious background, they were deemed as a threat to the Chinese government. The hackers were identified as a group of Chinese hackers famous for their targeting of high-value individuals such as politicians and military personnel. However, this news garnered larger concern when it was reported that the Chinese hackers were affiliated with the Chinese government. These series of cyberattacks were mostly catalyzed by the group’s hatred for the religious background of the Uyghurs people, who China deemed a threat to their government.
While China has denied all claims about their allegations, it was proven that China was indeed using telecom networks to hack into electronic devices when employees at Google found that thousands of iPhones were infected with an unknown virus. When Google tracked down the identity of the people who were in possession of these iPhones, they found that a large portion of the iPhones was in possession of the Uyghurs people. This further supported the allegations that the Chinese government was spying on the Uyghurs people as this unknown virus was seemed to be targeted towards the Uyghurs people and other Muslim minority groups.
As the use of technology has now been implemented into all aspects of our livelihood, a cyber attack on personal security could become an infringement on everything from personal information to daily activities. This presents a wide variety of ethical issues as the act of using the internet to spy on others is now the equivalent to crimes such as physical robbery as everything that was once possessed physically is now on the web. Furthermore, not only will cyberattacks allow hackers to spy on individuals, but it also allows them to threaten individuals by exposing different files, recordings, pictures, and documents that were previously saved onto the individual’s electronic device. Therefore, it is now of the utmost importance for governments of different countries to improve cybersecurity for all individuals.
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Credits:
Stubbs, Jack. “China Hacked Asian Telcos to Spy on Uighur Travelers: Sources.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 5 Sept. 2019, www.reuters.com/article/us-china-cyber-uighurs-idUSKCN1VQ1A5.
Mozur, Paul, and Nicole Perlroth. “China's Software Stalked Uighurs Earlier and More Widely, Researchers Learn.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 July 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/technology/china-uighurs-hackers-malware-hackers-smartphones.html.
Simhony, Limor. “Could Cyberattacks Stop the Cultural Genocide in Xinjiang?” Foreign Policy, 16 Oct. 2020, foreignpolicy.com/2020/10/16/could-cyberattacks-stop-cultural-genocide-xinjiang-china-uighur-internment-camp/.
O'Sullivan, D. (2021, March 26). Chinese hackers TARGETED UYGHURS living in US, Facebook security team finds. Retrieved April 04, 2021, from https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/24/tech/uyghurs-hacking/index.html
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