TAO, the NSA's Secret Cell, Spying on the World for 15 Years

At the beginning of the year, the security company Mandiant revealed the existence of a Chinese hacker cybergang, Unit 61398. Its report revealed how the hackers had infiltrated American businesses and services in order to access confidential documents.

In response to these solidly backed up accusations, Chinese authorities took the opportunity to remind us that the U.S. had been doing the exact same thing for years.

A few months later, the vice chairman of the Internet Society of China, Huang Chengqing, went on to denounce the Americans’ hypocrisy and declared that Beijing was in possession of “mountains of data” that proved repeated attacks by the U.S. on Chinese infrastructure. In the hubbub that followed the revelations concerning the surveillance program PRISM, this piece of information went by almost unnoticed: An article in Foreign Policy reveals that a secret National Security Agency group entitled Tailored Access Operations has been hacking China for 15 years.

Singapore, Japan, Switzerland All Targeted

If the existence and mission of this group were already known, Matthew M. Aid, intelligence historian and author of the article, has, with the help of anonymous diplomatic and military sources, exposed the extent of its power.

What was once an open secret is now a declared fact: The TAO, a branch of the National Security Agency, has been operating for 15 years and has successfully penetrated Chinese computers and telecommunications systems, cracked access codes and stolen information.

The methods they have used are not very original; they are the very same ones that allowed the Chinese to infiltrate American systems — except that the U.S. initiated hostilities several years before its rival.

Furthermore, China is apparently not the only nation targeted by the group. According to British analyst Glenmore Trenear-Harvey, Israel, Singapore, Japan, Switzerland and the U.K. may also have been secretly hacked by American services.

Collect, Spy, Prepare for Cyberwar

Yet the principal mission of the group, whose headquarters at Fort Meade already counted 600 civil and military persons six years ago, is to detect the Chinese systems’ weak spots and targets for a cyberattack, if so directed by the president.

It would seem that another goal of the TAO is to collect information on foreign terrorist groups: any spy activity against the U.S., proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction, and recent political, military and economic developments around the world.

Forces Trying To Take Control

Spying being carried out between nations in cyberspace is, of course, nothing new. Indeed, in France the last white paper outlining defense strategy hailed cyberspace as a “field of confrontation in itself.”

But these last six months have brought to the public an insight into the power that mastery of digital technology and telecommunications bestows on businesses and governments.

Since Edward Snowden’s revelations — and he promises even more very soon — people from all sides have been raising their voices to incite fellow citizens to regain control of the Internet. The words of Internet founder Tim Berners-Lee in particular spring to mind, as he recently warned against those forces that are attempting to “take control” and that threaten the “very foundations of a democratic society.”