HONG KONG, June 20. /ITAR-TASS reporter Alexander Zyuzin /. An investigation into allegations of former CIA employee Edward Snowden that U.S. intelligence has been carrying out cyber attacks against local websites for a long time has begun in Hong Kong. This was reported by Hong Kong police.
Experts conduct 24/7 monitoring of the main traffic exchange center, created and governed by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, as confirmed by the Secretary of Safety of Hong Kong administration Lai Tung Kwok. According to him, no signs of hacking activities have been found yet.
South China Morning Post paper cites Chinese experts who believe that it is practically impossible to track and prevent methods of unauthorized access to information, used by CIA. From their words, the Americans use electronic surveillance methods bypassing the normal functions, through the so called “back doors” that can be found in network hardware for its debugging.
“Manufacturers insert in that equipment certain special functions, the access to which is not documented and usually requires a password or a key,” explained one of local experts in computer security. “U.S. intelligence agencies allegedly apply pressure on manufacturers to get a description of these functions and access codes “.
“Thus, they don’t have to hack anything and the very fact of them accessing the system is very hard to track since it’s done bypassing the normal functions,” the programmer commented on the situation.
The whistleblower of top-secret program of electronic surveillance of U.S. intelligence Edward Snowden that has taken refuge in Hong Kong has recently made allegations that American cyber intelligence has been illegally collecting computer information in Hong Kong and Mainland China for a long time. He passed to local newspaper South China Morning Post the corresponding proofs: the list of IP addresses of computers that have been under hacker attacks from the U.S. in the recent four years.
Currently Snowden remains in this Special Administrative Region of China that has the right of extended autonomy. His exact location remains unknown. Between the United States and Hong Kong a bilateral agreement on extradition is in force. Hong Kong authorities have hinted that Snowden will have to follow the law and procedures established here. According to some reports, the 29-year-old American is seeking opportunities for political asylum in Iceland.
“The case of Snowden is very complex,” said the Secretary for Security of Hong Kong. In this regard, he asked the public to bear with the fact that local authorities may not disclose or discuss the details related to his stay.