Wild story from @HowellONeill here: "One of China’s elite hacked an iPhone, and won public acclaim and a large amount of money for doing so. Virtually overnight, Chinese intelligence used it as a weapon against a besieged minority ethnic group..." https://t.co/4nDvP8pezU

— Matt Rosoff (@MattRosoff) May 6, 2021

"One of China’s elite hacked an iPhone, and won public acclaim and a large amount of money for doing so. Virtually overnight, Chinese intelligence used it as a weapon against a besieged minority ethnic group"

Great reporting by @HowellONeill https://t.co/4hfdgKaFCe

— hakan (@hatr) May 6, 2021

Great reporting from @HowellONeill indicating Chinese Gov co-option of defensive security research(ers) for use in hacking/espionage campaigns. Also, US Govt warned Apple about Chinese Gov iPhone hacking (!!) https://t.co/jaV1zLsXv7

— Bill Marczak (@billmarczak) May 6, 2021

"What their deep dive omitted, however, were the identities of the victims and the attackers: Uyghur Muslims and the Chinese government." https://t.co/DtMASwTENy

— Mark Bergen (@mhbergen) May 6, 2021

A researcher in China hacked an iPhone and won a large amount of money for doing so. Then the government used his work to spy on Uyghurs before Apple could fix the issue. Great story by @HowellONeill. https://t.co/Brmzu6Wb3H

— Runa Sandvik (@runasand) May 6, 2021

Impressive deep dive. I've no doubt that iOS 0days were used against the Uyghurs but linking it to a competition as the only way for the government to get access to 0days seems naive. https://t.co/moo9tiLazL

— Matt Suiche (@msuiche) May 6, 2021

Some deep dive analysis on an exploit found in the wild, but publicly attributed to an exploit contest. Lots of info on chinas commercial cyber defence contractors as well

How China turned a prize-winning iPhone hack against the Uyghurs https://t.co/j0ykwQna2x

— thaddeus e. grugq (@thegrugq) May 6, 2021

I'm filing this under "ethical arguments in favor of full disclosure" https://t.co/kDMAxynrEb

— Rabbit (@ra6bit) May 6, 2021

On the exploit being used against Uighurs and the one made by the specific researcher being the same, I was previously told by source in exploit industry that even the code comments were the same. It was the same exploit, not a coincidence https://t.co/BmZ736k1cw

— Joseph Cox (@josephfcox) May 6, 2021

-China bans researchers from Pwn2Own
-Starts their own Tianfu Cup
-iPhone 0day wins
-It’s used to spy on Uyghurs
-US intelligence identified the attack and told Apple

Incredible deep-dive into how China used a hacking competition to create tools to enable genocide. https://t.co/zh4OkOLKdI

— Selena (@selenalarson) May 6, 2021

A Chinese tech giant set up a hacking competition in China. The winner involved an iPhone hack, which was kept secret. Chinese intelligence then used that insight to spy on Uyghur Muslims. https://t.co/yOBMSmQrLI pic.twitter.com/1q4jUhhyEK

— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) May 6, 2021

Such an interesting story illustrating how the repressive regime in China is using domestic cyber talent. @HowellONeill has been consistently reporting high quality stories that provide unique context behind the cyber news cycle. ? https://t.co/oblzH7eFfP

— Yoshi (@ChicagoCyber) May 6, 2021

Chinese hackers used to win big intl competitions, but Chinese govt banned them from going to keep them to itself. A Chinese tech giant then set up a hacking competition in China. That winning exploit is then used by Chinese intelligence against Uyghurs. https://t.co/QQTYoItnT7

— Maya Wang 王松莲 (@wang_maya) May 6, 2021

Apart from the horrid takeaway, another side-lesson is how well China is leveraging tech contests and competitions to find talent and use technologies without necessarily adopting them institutionally https://t.co/vzIZfmrMZZ

— Akin Unver (@AkinUnver) May 6, 2021

When we did Driven2pwn in UAE, I had to set up a makeshift SCIF-lite to keep exploits out of anyone’s hands except the researcher & the target vendor to avoid leaks, even from the multinational judges.
It was in defense of the Internet & to keep hacking contests from being banned https://t.co/4rZVprAyOU

— Katie Moussouris (she/her) is fully vaccinated (@k8em0) May 6, 2021

This strikes me as strange because it’s not like the chinese government can’t write their own exploits... https://t.co/ogTACILGbL

— Charlie Miller (@0xcharlie) May 6, 2021

A Chinese tech giant set up a hacking competition in China. The winner involved an iPhone hack, which was kept secret. Chinese intelligence then used that insight to spy on Uyghur Muslims. https://t.co/yOBMSmQrLI pic.twitter.com/1q4jUhhyEK

— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) May 6, 2021

How China turned a prize-winning iPhone hack against the Uyghurs https://t.co/5imXH7UfOh

— NCSC (@NCSCgov) May 6, 2021

Wow. A Chinese researcher hacked an iPhone as part of a competition to win $200,000. Virtually overnight, Chinese intelligence used it as a weapon against the Uyghurs, striking before Apple could fix the problem. https://t.co/sffz3kghLn

— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) May 6, 2021

How China turned a prize-winning iPhone hack against the Uyghurs - MIT Technology Review https://t.co/rw1jnzzI9Y

— Jeffrey Levin (@jilevin) May 6, 2021

New: How China turned a prize-winning iPhone hack against the Uyghurs https://t.co/RgRDVdFW30

— Patrick Howell O'Neill (@HowellONeill) May 6, 2021

China's Right of First Refusal policy on zero-days discovered by its own Chinese hackers were used against Uighurs, and more recently are popping up in zero day attacks in the U.S. via Microsoft Exchange, Pulse VPNs etc. Great tic toc here by @HowellONeill https://t.co/VijeGpObMO

— Nicole Perlroth (@nicoleperlroth) May 6, 2021

A researcher at ?? cybersecurity giant Qihoo 360 hacked an iPhone in Nov 2018. Chinese intelligence used it as a weapon against the Uyghurs right away, before Apple could fix it in Jan 2019. It’s a brazen act performed in broad daylight.

via @Byron_Wanhttps://t.co/C4mpCzgjOD

— CCP-China Watch (@CCP_China_Watch) May 6, 2021

https://t.co/GqJ7ZYxT8Q

The #TianfuCup shows that #Beijing wants to find new ways to exploit technology in order to torment both #Uyghurs and its own citizens. The sad thing is that they can only find success through the failures of western technology, not their own innovation.

— Abdulhakim Idris (@AHakimIdris) May 6, 2021

"The incident is stark. One of China’s elite hacked an iPhone, and won public acclaim and a large amount of money for doing so. Virtually overnight, Chinese intelligence used it as a weapon against a besieged minority ethnic group" https://t.co/vHeFjGtDeh

— Chris Bing (@Bing_Chris) May 6, 2021

How on-shoring 0day competitions likely created an exploit supply chain for Chinese security services https://t.co/p891wqM3fQ

— Nate Beach-Westmoreland (@NateBeachW) May 6, 2021

How China turned a prize-winning iPhone hack against the Uyghurs https://t.co/YjsMSrjPMU @HowellONeill

— profdeibert (@RonDeibert) May 6, 2021

China secretly used an award-winning iPhone hack to spy on Uyghur Muslims - 9to5Mac https://t.co/zzlTZ90zk9

— Uyghur Fighter (@uyghur_fighter) May 6, 2021