Sudan on Wednesday expelled a Norwegian diplomat, the foreign ministry said, after Oslo told a Sudanese diplomat to leave the previous day over suspicions he was spying on refugees from the African country. The diplomatic spat risks damaging the two countries’ ties – Norway is one of the few Western countries to enjoy normal relations with Sudan, advising Khartoum on how to improve the performance of its oil industry. Sudan’s foreign ministry said it had summoned the Norwegian ambassador in Khartoum to inform him of the expulsion. It did not name the diplomat.
“The foreign ministry told the Norwegian ambassador it hoped the incident would not harm bilateral ties,” the ministry said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Norway expelled a Sudanese diplomat it said had received information from a 38-year old Sudanese man it had arrested earlier for spying on refugees.

The Sudanese ambassador in Norway, Onoor Ahmed, denied his country was involved in such spying, national broadcaster NRK reported.

Most Western countries shun President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and other senior Sudanese officials who were indicted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in the western Darfur region.

Sudan’s relations with Germany were strained last month after the German embassy in Khartoum was stormed and torched in protests against a film insulting the Prophet Mohammad.

Germany has since called off a conference meant to drum up investment for Sudan and South Sudan, which had been scheduled to take place this month in Berlin.

Israeli intelligence services advised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release dozens of Palestinians detained before the Oslo Accords, Israeli media reported Wednesday. The Hebrew-language daily Maariv reported that security services advised Netanyahu that the prisoners detained before 1993 did not pose a security risk to Israel. Some 123 Palestinians have been detained in Israel for over 20 years. According to the report, US Secretary of State John Kerry unsuccessfully pressured Netanyahu to release some of the detainees during talks earlier this week.On Sunday, President Mahmoud Abbas told Kerry that releasing prisoners was a “top priority” for resuming talks with Israel.
“President Abbas made a passionate argument to me about the prisoners and I think the government of Israel has a full understanding of the potency of that issue,” Kerry said.

Maariv reported that Netanyahu’s office denied reports prisoners would be released before negotiations resumed.

(maannews)

The head of Norway’s security policy has warned that many asylum-seekers who are granted refuge in the country are under threat by their country’s secret service. “We do not know the scope of this due to the high volume of unreported numbers. However, we experience that the scope of refugee espionage has increased along with the number of refugees that come to Norway,” Trond Hugubakken was quoted as saying in an interview with Oslo’s daily Vårt Land.
According to the newspaper report, officials in Norway say they are monitoring the situation and investigating reports of refugees who are being kept under surveillance in Norway by agents from their home countries.
Short of naming specific countries, the report said certain states involved in refugee espionage have recently tightened the rules for freedom of speech in their own country. The goal of these states is to silence the critics of authoritarian regimes.

In a recent interview with the Norway Post, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, a Norwegian-Iranian human rights activist and the head of the Oslo-based organisation Iran Human Rights, said:

“We have several examples of Iran’s secret services approaching family members of refugees who have criticised the regime here in Norway.”

(neuroe)

A new vessel, specially designed for intelligence services and surveillance, has arrived in Norway. The hull of the vessel arrived in Ålesund in Møre and Romsdal County this last weekend. High-tech equipment will be installed before the ship is ready for use. “This vessel is built for the northern areas, and its tasks will be to monitor all activity up there, both civil and military, so that the Norwegian government can get as complete a picture as possible of what is going on,” says chief of the Intelligence Services, Kjell Grandhagen.The ship, which has not been named yet, will be staffed with personnel from the Norwegian Intelligence Services. However, no exact names and what they will be doing will be revealed to the public.
Grandhagen explains that most of Norwegian Intelligence is about monitoring what goes on. “There may be events somewhere else in the world that involve some of the superpowers that are located in our area, and that will have consequences in our area although we are in no way part of that conflict,” he says.

Norway’s current intelligence service vessel, “Marjata,” has been in use for almost 20 years, and Parliament decided that it was to time to have a new one made. The hull of the ship that arrived in Ålesund on Sunday was built in Romania and towed to Norway.

(NRK/norwaypost)

Norwegian Police Security Service ( PST ) has decided to send a number of Iranian student back to Iran as they feared that the students may use their education for nuclear program by the Iranian regime. The decision was taken based on the UN resolution that obliges Norway to prevent the Iranians to learn about technology that can be used in nuclear applications. The concern appeared in the threat assessment for 2013 which was published recently, Norwegian media reported.PST believes that in 2012 was a sharp increase in visa applications from Iranians to Norway for work, research and studies in areas that have what they call “multipurpose use”.
PST believes the increase is because the UN has tightened control over exports to Iran.

According PST Norway is an attractive country, partly because several other European countries have made restrictions for Iranian applicants for research and study.

There should be restrictions here in Norway too, simply to avoid the problem, says PST.

(NCR)

A Czech suspected of being Counter intelligence service Official suffering from “amnesia”, found in a snowdrift in Oslo last December, has began regaining fragments of memory after speaking with his family over the phone. It has come to light that the man, who has gone under the name of John Smith since his rescue, worked for the Czech Interior Ministry. With every turn, the mystery surrounding a 36-year-old calling himself john Smith has deepened, ago it was not ever clear he was Czech, although he understood the language, along with Slovak, Russian and Polish.Since, he has been identified by his family after his photo was officially posted and at the weekend he reportedly spoke with them for three hours, helping him regain some fragments of lost memories.
But satisfactory answers are not likely to be revealed for some time, the big questions include why he may have been to Oslo, Perhaps the most intriguing development were reports that John Smith was employed by the Czech police or the Interior Ministry, told by his father that he had been “WORKING ON SOMETHING BIG” at the time of his alleged abduction. There was the possibility “HE HAD SECURITY CLEARANCE AND ACCESS TO SENSITIVE INFORMATION”. The country’s interior minister, Milan Chovanec, briefly addressed the question on Sunday:

“we are looking into the question of whether he worked for the police or the Czech Interior Ministry. Certainly it is something that requires out attention and we are taking it very seriously. I cannot rule out he worked either for the police or for the ministry and will tell the public when we know more.”

Interior Ministry spokesman Pavel Novak told to media that the “ministry cannot provide any details because information on a person´s employment is a personal data and is protected.”

According to Sunday information by the Norwegian public television NRK, the man starts remembering his past life, which has also been thanks to his phone call with the parents on Saturday. In it he was told that he worked for the “Czech police as a consultant” in the past.

His father will only travel to Norway to meet with his son. In any case, As for the victim’s chances of additional recovery from amnesia? Specialists say much will depend on the nature of the injury but that some memories should slowly come back, although the process can take anywhere from weeks to years. A leading Czech neurologist has pointed out the loss of episodic memory ie. autobiographical knowledge suggested damage to the right frontal lobe but understandably could not make a precise diagnosis without information from MRIs and other tests conducted. In any event, the case is in the hands of Norwegian investigators and the Czech police – who, even were they so inclined – cannot reveal more during an ongoing investigation. It will be some time yet before the public learns more about the true identity of John Smith.

By Nadarajah Sethurupan

Back in the 1950s, there were reportedly many sightings of UFOs in the skies over Norway. Finally an explanation has been given, over 60 years later. The CIA decided to let Norway know that it was their fault, via Twitter of all things. Their tweet read: “Do you remember the reports of unusual activity in the sky in the 50’s? That was us.” They apparently then went on to explain that all the sightings of mysterious flying crafts, traveling at high speed with flashing lights, were actually test flights of secret US military planes.They reckon they were top secret U2 spy planes, flying at altitudes of 18,000 meters. This would be way above most normal passenger planes and other military aircraft.
They stated that when the sun set below the horizon, the top secret planes were still high enough to reflect the sun’s rays. Other pilots then saw them as bright, silvery objects in the night sky.
The CIA reckon that this information was kept secret during the Cold War period to stop the Soviets finding out about US military intentions.

However, apparently not everyone is convinced by this latest explanation. According to the Daily Mail, one UFO expert, Nigel Watson, the author of the UFO Investigations Manual, told them:

“As early as 1962 a US engineer called Leon Davidson warned ufologists that the CIA was feeding them with false information to sustain the idea that UFOs were interplanetary vehicles.”

“In July 1952 there was a wave of UFO sightings over Washington DC that hit the newspaper headlines and led the CIA to convene a panel of experts to review the subject.”

“This was headed by Dr. Howard P. Robertson and after four days they concluded that most sightings were caused by misidentification and a mild form of mass-hysteria.”

“Regarding the latest “revelation” that the U2 aircraft caused a majority of UFO sightings is nothing new, and some have noted that it is significant that they should bring this to light on World UFO Day on 2 July.”

“It is also noteworthy that they mention the U2 caused UFO sightings over Norway in the late 1950s, yet this does not explain a multitude of sightings over Norway and Denmark during the Nato ‘Operation Mainbrace’ exercises in 1952 before the U2 was built.” So there you go. “Beam me up Scotty!”

Norwegian Intelligence Service (PST) wants to obtain permission to monitor all Norwegians’ online activities. Ministry of Justice keeps the door open for the proposal. PST-chief Alana Bjørnland wants to give security permission to monitor all Norwegians’ activity on the internet by using so-called big data technologies. Minister of Justice and Public Security, Anders Anundsen is positive about the PST chief’s desire to strengthen national security.- It is important that PST has the necessary tools to fulfill its security mission, says Anundsen to Klassekampen.
He said the government is now working to assess what kind of rules is required for PST to process personal data, as well as methods and legalities of storing huge data.

On the other hand, Liberals (Venstre) and Socialist Left Party (SV) oppose to the proposal, while Labor Party (Ap) is skeptical.

Also Progress Party deputy Per Sandberg said no by suggesting the legistlation will lead to more monitoring of innocent people.

(tnp)

Fake mobile base stations, which can be used for eavesdropping or spying, have been discovered near Norway’s parliament and within the executive government quarter in central Oslo, Aftenposten news outlet revealed in its two-month independent investigation. Whoever is behind this suspicious activity, they are able to intercept calls, monitor everything taking place in downtown Oslo and track movements in the vicinity of government offices, Aftenposten stressed.
The news outlet established the presence of the fake stations in cooperation with two companies equipped with devices able to detect the spying machines.
“What we see is a form of intelligence gathering on Norwegian soil. There are very few who have the authority to use such equipment in Norway,” a security company representative who helped with the investigation was quoted as saying by the publication.

Norwegian police and security agencies that have the authority to use this equipment denied having anything to do with the fake base stations, the publication reported.

Aftenposten submitted the results of its investigation to Norway’s National Security Authority (NSM) on Thursday.

“The results of Aftenposten’s investigation allow us to conduct our own more focused investigation. We have launched it on Friday,” NSM director of operations, Hans Christian Pretorius, was quoted by the newspaper.

Earlier this year, a US defense and law enforcement technology company discovered 19 fake mobile base stations operating in the country, and upwards of 2,600 such stations were seized in China as part of a nationwide crackdown of illegal telecommunications equipment.

The cost of fake mobile base stations is estimated at anywhere from $67,000 to $271,000. These monitoring stations are not allowed to be sold to private individuals in North Atlantic Treaty Organization member-states.

Much of the alleged illegal surveillance equipment in the Oslo area, discovered by the newspaper Aftenposten just before Christmas, has now been turned off, the newspaper reports. Aftenposten reported in mid-December that it had located a number of fake base stations for mobile phones, which were allegedly used to monitor mobile phone traffic in the Oslo area. The newspaper wrote that it had registered a number of so-called IMSI – catchers operating near key official buildings in Oslo, such as the Parliament (Stortinget), the Prime Minister’s residence and other key political buildings and financial central.
The paper writes Monday that new tests show that most of the equipment has now been turned off, but that in a few places the equipment is still in operation.
These units are small eavesdropping devices which are used to intercept and record mobile phone traffic and tracking the movements of mobile phone users, and are usually undetectable for the ordinary cell phone user.

There are so far no indications of who may have deployed the alleged eavesdropping devices, but speculations range from criminal organisations to foreign powers.

(Aftenposten/NRK)

Norwegian journalists and experts in the field of telecommunications security believe that telephones of embassies of Russia and France in the Norwegian capital of Oslo could be tapped. According to Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, diplomatic missions of the United Kingdom, Venezuela and Finland are also located in the area, where wiretapping equipment was used. With the help of special equipment, Norwegian reporters detected numerous signs of so-called IMSI-interceptors near the buildings of the parliament, office and personal residence of the prime minister of Norway, embassies of the USA and Israel, the building of the Central Bank of Norway, as well as near the offices of several large law firms and financial institutions.After the publication of the controversial material, the equipment that Aftenposten employees used stopped catching signals proving the presence of wiretapping devices.

Earlier, Justice Minister of the Kingdom Anders Anundsen said that Norwegian law enforcement agencies could not be involved in such a large-scale surveillance program.

Omer Altiparmak, the former head of the Turkish intelligence department of the National Police Department, has claimed that Adem Uzun, a senior member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) responsible for the organization’s foreign affairs, leaked audio recordings that revealed secret talks took place between Turkish intelligence officials and members of the PKK in Oslo in 2010.
Altiparmak, who went to İzmir on Saturday to support 24 police officers who were detained on Jan. 27 on charges of illegal wiretapping, claimed that it was Uzun who recorded the secret talks with a bugging device and then leaked them to the media. He also said some negotiations are being conducted although they are illegal in Turkey, claiming: “There are some negotiations about the constitutional order. Some negotiations are under way with the PKK about an autonomous Kurdish administration [within Turkey] in the presence of an adjudicator state.” Altiparmak also said these negotiations are unlawful and against the Constitution.
Sharing some details about the 2010 secret Oslo talks between representatives of the Turkish state and senior PKK members, Altiparmak said: “If you remember, one of the attendees at the Oslo meetings was Sabri Ok. He is the man who recently said, ‘The Turkish police and soldiers should withdraw from Kurdistan.’ He was sitting on one side of the desk [at the Oslo talks]. On the other side of the desk was Adem Uzun, a PKK man responsible for [the PKK’s] foreign affairs. Unfortunately, you can call it a lack of experience or something else, this PKK man called Adem Uzun recorded all the talks with a bugging device and released them on the Internet sites of the PKK. Someone attempted to blame the police for the leak.”

Uzun was taken into custody by French police on Oct. 8, 2012 and then arrested by the court on Oct. 10, along with two other PKK members.

Uzun, who is believed to have played a key role in providing logistical support to the PKK in Europe, and three other PKK members were first taken into custody in France on June 12, 2012 as part of an investigation that was launched by French police looking into the illegal and financial activities of the PKK in France.

Altiparmak went on to claim that a large-scale investigation of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) was launched on the order of former Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2009.

The KCK, an umbrella organization that includes the PKK, was accused of attempting to establish an alternative system of governance. Most of the accused faced charges of membership in and/or aiding and abetting a terrorist group.

The Oslo talks refer to meetings between some senior PKK operatives and National Intelligence Organization (MIT) officials in order to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem.

In September 2011, an almost 50-minute-long recording revealed for the first time the secret talks held in Oslo in 2010 between representatives of the Turkish government and members of the PKK after Hakan Fidan was appointed the new undersecretary of MIT, replacing Emre Taner.

At the time, the development was interpreted as an attempt to influence Turkish public opinion against the government, which was trying to employ new methods to peacefully resolve the Kurdish question, which has existed since the first years of the Turkish Republic.

Senior PKK operative Murat Karayılan had said in an interview in June 2012 that the groundwork for the Oslo talks was prepared by the United Kingdom and that they made the audio recordings but denied having leaked the recordings and documents of the Oslo talks.

In 2013 Ocalan called for a “historic” ceasefire, telling his fighters to lay down their arms and withdraw from Turkish soil, after many months of secret negotiations with the Turkish government.

Since it was established in 1984 the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state, but now limited its demands to to establish an autonomous Kurdish region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds, who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 75-million population but have long been denied basic political and cultural rights, its goal to political autonomy. A large Turkey’s Kurdish community openly sympathise with PKK rebels.

Police Security Service director Benedicte Bjørnland believes that Russia and China espionage services pose the greatest danger to Norway. “The two states which Norway has no security policy cooperation with, and that also have the largest intelligence capacity by far, are Russia and China. Of these, we consider Russian intelligence to possess the greatest potential for damaging Norwegian interests.
The most serious intelligence activities in 2015 will be directed against Norway’s ability to protect the country and political decision-making,” she says.
Ms Bjørnland makes her comments in the PST’s Annual Threat Assessment release. Security personnel say they expect the negative threat situation to continue this year.

Iran is expected to continue to be “the main player behind illegal procurement activities to support the production of weapons of mass destruction,” says the PST’s Benedicte Bjørnland.

The director also views Islamist extremism as a threat, both at home and abroad.

“There are active extreme Islamist groups in Norway that attract new followers and recruit foreign fighters. Norway is an enemy for several of these. Norwegian military participation against ISIL and al-Qaeda (AQ) will help to reinforce this enemy image,” Ms Bjørnland comments.

“People inside and outside the known extreme Islamist groups as well as many without foreign war experience sympathise with ISIL and AQ. Calls by ISIL and AQ for retaliation and terrorist incidents in Western countries could influence individuals to carry out acts of violence in Norway.”

“Increased activity in certain local Extreme-Right groups is expected. This is mainly due the influence of Right-Wing extremists abroad. Preventive countermeasures by police and other local stakeholders are essential to prevent the emergence of large organised milieus,” states Ms Bjørnland.

Norway’s Aftenposten has revealed that police broke the law in order to eavesdrop on mobile phones. The newspaper reports that the countrys’ Police Security Service (PST) established a network of fake mobile phone base stations across Oslo in 2014 without duly informing the country’s telecoms authority. The phone bases allowed authorities to intercept nearby mobile phone calls made nearby.Fake base stations were reportedly set up outside Norway’s parliament, government headquarters and the residence of the prime minister without prior permission from the National Communications Authority, as stipulated in a 2013 law.
Einar Lunde, the director in charge of networks at Nkom, told the newspaper that in 2014 the authority received just one notification that a base station had been set up.

“For the entire of 2014, we received just one notification that mobile regulated zones had been introduced,” he said.

(neurope)

Oslo is home to two infamous gangs whose members are mainly Pakistani Norwegians. They are known as the A gang and B gang or A-Gjengen and B-Gjengen. According to an article in Pakistan’s Daily Times, both gangs are run by criminals within Oslo’s immigrant Pakistani community.In 2006, tension between the Pakistani-dominated gang Young Guns and B-Gjengen led to an open gun battle in broad daylight at Oslo’s popular Aker Brygge Complex on the waterfront. Many key gang members were arrested and others fled the country.
Tension remains high between Oslo’s rival gangs. Police are worried about more armed battles breaking out at any time, reports the daily.

The article, which is written by Fawad Kaiser, a professor of psychiatry in the United Kingdom, also noted that Oslo’s gang culture is becoming more complex and that battles are motivated by revenge, drugs and turf wars.

“The Pakistan youth are known for their gangs and indulgence in crime,” writes Kaiser, who is of Pakistani origin. “A few years ago, the Norwegian police uncovered a house outside Oslo where Arshad Mahmood, a Norwegian Pakistani, held and tortured members of a competing Morocco/Dutch gang, competing in the narcotics trade. He has now been deported under a new Norwegian criminal law. He was described as the purported leader of Oslo’s so-called A-gang.”

In 2008, Norway launched International Operation Nemesis, which targeted Pakistani gangs based in Oslo. The results of this operation, according to Kaiser, showed how host country social control institutions came into conflict with immigrant value systems to inflict shame on the ‘honour’ of immigrant criminals who have violated their own cultural/religious code.

Kaiser also noted that some Norwegian citizens of Pakistani origin are involved in criminal cases such as family feuds and property disputes in Pakistan.

“Since a number of these Norwegian citizens come from Gujrat, a modern crime scene unit was established with the help of the government of Norway to help the Gujrat police,” he writes. “Through the first phase of the programme, police officials, particularly in Gujrat, were involved in the training and capacity building of police officials on investigating crime scenes for better reporting but, unfortunately, vested political interests in Pakistan conveniently hampered this programme. There remains an urgent need to develop a mechanism to address criminal cases that are traced back to Pakistan.”

In closing, Kaiser calls on Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to “seriously consider tackling this challenge of security, which remains a huge concern for the international community and our national prestige”.

An Iraqi man with links to the Iranian regime’s Quds Force who was recently detained in Jordan as part of a major anti-terrorism operation had previously spied on Iranian refugees in Norway, the Norwegian security services have announced.Jordan’s security forces thwarted a major terrorist plot by the Iranian regime’s Quds Force, a judicial source in Amman said on Monday. Large quantities of explosives were seized in the operation which took place in April.
Local reports identified the suspect as Khalid Kazem al-Rubaie, 49, who holds dual Iraqi-Norwegian citizenship.

The accused was planning to carry out a ‘terrorist operation’ on Jordanian soil, according to the Jordanian daily Al-Rai. Following his arrest large quantities of explosives were found in his possession in northern Jordan.

The Norwegian security force PST (Politiets sikkerhetstjeneste) said on Tuesday that it had al-Rubaie under surveillance for spying on Iranian refugees living in Norway.

The Norwegian daily Dagbladet wrote that al-Rubaie previously lived in Iran and his family have been living there for the past 30 years.

The Jordanian State Security Court on Monday began a military tribunal, headed by military judge Colonel Mohammad al-Afif, in the case of al-Rubaie who stands accused of being in possession of highly explosive materials and preparing for a terrorist operation in Jordan.

The Al-Rai daily quoted an informed source as saying that 45 kilograms of highly explosive substances was found in al-Rubaie’s possession at a house in the Saqreh Osfur district of Jerash, northern Jordan.

The source said that this was the biggest confiscation of explosive materials in the country in the past 10 years.

The Quds Force is the extra-territorial branch of the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Two Iranian PhD students have sued the Norwegian government after being expelled from the country on suspicion of gathering information that could aid Iran’s nuclear program. Hamideh Kaffash and Shanin Akbarnejad both enrolled at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in the autumn of 2014.Both were pursuing PhDs in metallurgy, planning to spend 3 years in the city of Trondheim.
But 6 months into their studies, a letter from the Norwegian immigration authorities asked them to pack their bags and return to Iran within days, the Fars news agency reported on Saturday.

Kaffash says her studies were directed at protecting the environment.

The two students have said they believe Norwegian government is making decisions based either on misunderstandings or misjudging them based on nationality alone.

General Lieutenant Morten Haga Lunde, chief of Norwegian intelligence service E-tjenesten, has publicly accused hackers affiliated with the Chinese government of conducting cyber-espionage against Norway-based firms to steal sensitive data and military state secrets.The statements were first reported by Norwegian TV station TV2 as Lunde was showcasing his agencies annual intelligence report – a detailed analysis undertaken by the defence department that highlights key cyber-threats and emerging concerns.
“The digital space is an arena where the big powers actively pursuing their objectives. Russia and China [are] emerging as the most active players behind networked intelligence operations directed against Norway,” the report revealed. “Both nations have high skills and show a high degree of assertiveness in its approach to Norwegian goals. They are now implementing persistent networked intelligence operations against Norwegian interests.”

While not mentioning the firms compromised or what technology was stolen by hackers, Lunde added: “The Norwegian technology industry is where we primarily see China [infiltrate the] Norwegian network to capture information that they can use in their own technological development.” He added that military state secrets have been exploited and are now being implemented into Chinese military weaponry.

While Chinese state hackers have long been suspected of infiltrating foreign countries in order to steal sensitive data, these rare accusations from a high-ranking official are believed to be the first case of this Nato government pointing the finger directly at Beijing. While many cyber-security firms are involved with tracking threats thought to be linked with Chinese state-sponsored hackers, most stop short of claiming the government is responsible for the attacks.

The US government has, in the past, indicated that it believes China regularly infiltrates networks to steal secrets. Indeed, the two nations were involved in a cyber peace-treaty last year forced by rising tensions resulting from the hack at the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Now, according to Norway’s defence minister, Ine Eriksen Søreide, the rapid changes of the cyber landscape mean it is difficult to predict what threats are likely to emerge. “The ripple effects of a changing world have long since reached us here at home. We live in a very uncertain time,” she warned. “The stability we have been accustomed to, we can no longer take for granted. Violent extremism knows no boundaries and ideologies cannot be stopped at passport controls,” she said.

Meanwhile, in an interview with SC Magazine, Snorre Fagerland, a senior researcher at the Oslo-based security firm Blue Coat, said research indicates that Chinese hackers have been active for “quite a long time”. However, he noted that proper attribution remains difficult to determine with absolute certainty.

“Chinese hackers have traditionally been negligent or indifferent to operational security. They can hack and then blog about it – [this was] more prevalent five years back,” he said. “Now they are getting better, but they still make mistakes, like when they were more careless, and some of the attribution comes from this. You can go back and look at their history, the technology, what they have done before, and even though they are quite good now, they will often do things they did back then.”

Most recently, an insider exposed the long-rumoured database project of the Chinese government set up to collate the slew of data compromised from cyberattacks into one searchable system. The source, who spoke out on condition of anonymity, claimed the Chinese government brought in a small group of “independent software developers” from the US to work alongside China’s security services to build and implement the project in 2013.