China

China is backing a mobile operating system designed to offer a state-approved alternative to foreign platforms.

Dubbed China Operating System (COS), the platform is set to launch first on handheld devices, with a possible expansion to other platforms.

According to reports from tech blog Engadget China, COS was designed by developers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences along with private firms. The OS is said to be based on some flavor of the open-source kernel Linux, and is hoped to compete against Android and iOS in the mobile space.

The evad3rs hacking team has released a long-awaited jailbreak for Apple devices running iOS 7, but the release generated a backlash over its bundling of a Chinese app store instead of the more popular Cydia app directory.

 Apple officially announced its agreement with China Mobile today. The world's largest carrier and most significant remaining mobile operator to not sell iPhones will begin taking preregistrations on December 25 and bring iPhone 5s and 5c models to retail stores for sale on January 17.

While previously hinted at by a series of leaks and promotions, the partnership is now official, according to a press release issued by Apple. The announcement described the deal as a "multi-year agreement."

An Android botnet found in South Korea that steals text messages may be one of the largest and most advanced mobile malware operations discovered, according to security vendor FireEye.

The botnet, which FireEye called “MisoSMS,” was used in 64 spyware campaigns, stealing text messages from phones in Korea and forwarding them to email accounts accessed by hackers in both China and South Korea.

In August, as members of the G20 were preparing to meet to discuss exactly what could be done to address Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons attack in Syria, a mysterious group of Chinese hackers spied on the computers of five European foreign ministers, using the G20 summit as bait to hack them.

The cyber espionage operation was narrowly targeted and used phishing emails with malicious attachments that had titles referring to the Syrian crisis, such as "US_military_options_in_Syria," according to computer security firm FireEye, which uncovered the campaign.

David Cameron has challenged the Chinese leadership to do more to open up on the highly sensitive area of cyber-security amid fears in the EU and the US that Beijing is responsible for the world's most aggressive online attacks. The prime minister asked Li Keqiang, the Chinese premier, to agree to a formal dialogue on cyber-security, which he described as an "issue of mutual concern". Li said Beijing was prepared to discuss the issue.

Wanting to gather more information on China, the US National Security Agency (NSA) approached the Japanese government in 2011 to allow it to tap the international fibre-optic cables that traverse the country and carry much of the traffic across East Asia.

Citing a lack of legal framework and personnel, the Japanese government rejected the NSA requests to provide communication data, including internet activity and phone calls, sources told The Japan Times over the weekend.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has claimed he taught a course in “cyber-counterintelligence” against China and has access to data on every active operation mounted against the People’s Republic by the US spy agency.

In a lengthy interview with the New York Times, Snowden revealed more about his time at the National Security Agency and addressed US government concerns that Russian or Chinese spies may have compromised the classified documents he pilfered before fleeing to Hong Kong.

Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, put a question to an audience Gartner's Symposium ITxpo here on Monday. "Raise [your] hand if you're sure the Chinese are not inside your corporate network."

Many of the 8,500 attendees were in the hall to hear the question, but only five hands were raised. "Congratulations," Schmidt said from the stage.

An elite freelance hacking team in China appears to be behind a recent security breach of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, three U.S. security firms said, offering a new glimpse into the capabilities of Chinese hackers.

The attack has caused particular concern within the security community because it pointed out a hole in one of the most-used pieces of software in the world. Microsoft’s Web browser comes standard on machines running its Windows operating system.