China is known for strictly controlling and monitoring its people, but it seems that China not only likes to monitor its nation but also other nations.
A massive data leak from a Chinese-only website has surfaced on the Internet. Zhenhua Data Information Technology Co. was snooping on 2.4 million people around the world, among which were 10,000 prominent Indian citizens.
Zhenhua has been systematically collecting critical information on its targets. The company provides data to the Chinese military, the Chinese government, and commercial clients.
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Zhenhua Data Leak
The files containing data from the Chinese firm were sent to American academic Christopher Balding, who worked at China’s Peking University in Shenzhen. The data in the files were corrupted, so Balding shared the data with cybersecurity company Internet 2.0 for recovery and analysis of the data.
Among 2.4 million of the leaked data, around 25,000 records have been recovered so far.
Zhenhua collected data from 52,000 Americans, 35,000 Australians, 10,000 Indians, 9,700 Brits, 5,000 Canadians, 2,100 Indonesians, 1,400 Malaysians and 138 people from Papua New Guinea.
The Chinese firm had been collecting and compiling the publicly available data by monitoring the digital footprint of people across their social media platforms. Not only this, but the firm was also collecting information from papers, news sources, bidding documents, forums, patents, and even positions of recruitment.
How Can The Leaked Data Affect India
With an already sensitive situation at LAC (Line of Actual Control) in Eastern Ladakh, this data leak forces us to ponder over the extent to which China can go to keep tabs on us.
The list of people who were being monitored by Zhenhua includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his wife Jashodaben, President Ram Nath Kovid, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Comptroller and Auditor General G C Murmu, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul & Priyanka Gandhi, Ratan Tata, and Sachin Tendulkar.
Zhenhua’s Overseas Key Information Database (OKIDB) collected the personal information of the target by keeping track of their friends and family members and by analysis of their social media accounts, including posts and comments. They even used artificial intelligence tools to monitor their geographical information.
This granular information is already public but a record of this information can be put together for a bigger tactical plan against India.
According to India TV, the website is no longer accessible, so it has probably been removed. However, it clearly shows that the depth of Chinese surveillance cannot be underestimated.
Image credits: Google Images
Source: The Indian Express, Economic Times, India Tv + More
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This post is tagged under: china, china spy us, Chinese company, China spy 10000 Indians, china spy Narendra Modi, Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi, Zhenhua, Chinese spying company, china monitoring nations, china monitoring India, surveillance, chinese surveillance of indians, tracking PM modi, narendra modi tracking, privacy, data leak
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