US Cyber spying, disinformation campaign targets its ally, PH

THE National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) and the National Engineering Laboratory for Computer Virus Prevention Technology of China announced that the “Volt Typhoon” attributed to China is actually a “false flag operation” by the US and its allies in the ‘Five Eyes’ (the 5 intelligence agencies of US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) and the Philippines is among their targets.

In the Philippines, these false flag cyber-espionage and attack operations by the US are mixed into the wild story of Chinese spy networks woven around the investigation of POGO operations. These operations are also masked behind the fairy tales of POGO workers with PLA uniforms, which the PNP found to be mere novelty clothing, the claim of ex-senator Panfilo Lacson about 3,000 PLA men entering the country as POGO workers and eventually, an Al Jazeera concocted spy report centered on a Chinese criminal in Thailand awaiting extradition to China.

The elaborate James Bondish narrative is the continuation of the strategic series of U.S. cognitive warfare operations targeting Filipinos. I believe this is the “second phase” following the “strategy of tension” created by ex-USAF Col. Raymond Powell thru the so-called “assertive transparency” that seeks to provoke a confrontation with China’s Coast Guard in the South China Sea.

This, after Powell’s info war campaign against China has fizzled out as it faced a blank wall today. It is noticeable that the US now shifted to the “spy network” tale using the POGO investigations to weave its own ‘James Bond’ tale.

The U.S. started this new phase in the first quarter of 2024 with reports from local and international legacy and digital media alleging about cyber spying and disinformation with China as the source.

A January report entitled “What Is Volt Typhoon, the alleged China-backed hacking group?” from Rappler alleged that “a pervasive Chinese hacking group dubbed ‘Volt Typhoon’ has been disrupted by a US government operation….”

Another was Reuter’s “Philippine wards off cyber-attacks from China-based hackers” reporting break-in attempts into Department of Information (DICT), National Coast Watch and even the personal website of President Bongbong Marcos, although none of the allegations were ever followed up or proven to be true at all.

The cyber-peril to Filipinos is from the US grooming the public’s mind to accept their fate as the “Ukraine of Asia.”

In April, the internet site, ‘Dark Reading’ reported, “Philippines Pummeled by Mix of Cyberattacks & Misinfo Tied to China,” further alleging “…a four-fold (325 percent) increase in … malicious cyber-espionage activity targeting the Philippines in the first quarter of 2024.”

These stories, published but never substantiated, were just allowed to sink into the public mind without conclusive findings. Congressional hearings, meanwhile, ended with no legislation and moved on to the next “red herring.”

The Philippines is the only remaining country after World War II where the CIA make and unmake presidents, stage and un-stage coups, a center of US political and espionage operations in Asia.

With its local proxies, the US installed Ramon Magsaysay, deposed Marcos Sr. and Joseph E. Estrada, coopted Bongbong Marcos and is preventing the triumph of the Duterte “independent foreign policy” legacy. Hence, all the operations to discredit the Dutertes and China.

The Philippines is the most logical target for U.S. cyberattacks and disinformation using its control of all the cyber gateways to the Philippines, the predominance of US hardware and software with their built-in backdoors to the US intelligence community and the abundance or proxies to do US biddings.

The cyber-peril to Filipinos is from the US grooming the public’s mind to accept their fate as the “Ukraine of Asia.”