How he turned China into an award-winning iPhone hack against Uighurs
In March 2017, a group of hackers from China arrived in Vancouver with a goal: to find hidden weaknesses within the world’s most popular technologies.
Google’s Chrome browser, Microsoft’s Windows operating system, and Apple’s iPhones all intersected. But no one broke the law. These were some of the people who took part in Pwn2Own, one of the most prestigious hacking competitions in the world.
It was the 10th anniversary for Pwn2Own, a competition that attracts elite computer pirates from around the world with the lure of big prizes if they manage to exploit undiscovered software vulnerabilities, known as “zero days”. Once a bug is found, the details are left to the participating companies to give them time to fix it. Meanwhile, the hacker gets away with the economic reward and the right to be proud forever.
How China Used Award-Winning iPhone Hack to Spy on Uyghur Muslims Detailed in Report
On 5/6/21 at 2:21 PM EDT
The report, published Thursday by
MIT
Technology Review, detailed how the government was able to successfully tap into the phones of Uyghur Muslims in 2018 using a sophisticated technique.
The U.S. government and several large technology companies have known for years that China has been targeting the ethnic minority through an aggressive campaign that attacks social media, phones and other technologies. The campaign has also targeted journalists and impersonated Uyghur news media.
In the country s Xinjiang region, China has placed more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities into detainment camps, where they force people to work against their will. The Chinese have been accused of committing systemic abuse and rape. In January, the U.S. government declared that China s actions against the Uyghurs are genocide.