Beijing accused of global cyber espionage. Several Western countries have claimed that hacker groups presented as supported by the Chinese state are waging a campaign against figures critical of China, democratic institutions and companies in various sensitive sectors.
The United States claims that China-backed hacking operations are the largest in the world. Beijing has always denied being involved, describing the allegations against it as "unfounded", while pointing in return to the numerous cases of cyber espionage attributed to Washington.
Infiltration of computer systems of rival nations
According to Washington, Beijing represents “the largest, most active and ongoing cyberespionage threat” to the American government and private sector.
In recent years, its hackers have become increasingly capable of infiltrating the computer systems of rival nations, for example with the aim of recovering secret commercial information, Western researchers and intelligence officials say.
According to the United States government and press reports, Chinese spies have managed to infiltrate the systems of the American Department of Energy and suppliers to the sector, but also to telecommunications firms and universities .
In Congress, Benjamin Jensen, member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), assured that Beijing had been involved in 90 cyberespionage operations in the 21st century, or 30% more than Russia.
A “prolific” hacking operation for fourteen years
On Monday, the US Department of Justice announced that it had indicted seven Chinese people for a “prolific global computer hacking operation” over 14 years, aimed at contributing to Beijing’s “economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives”.
A group of hackers called APT31 is at the origin of this “cyber espionage program” which would be managed by the powerful Ministry of Security of the Chinese State from the city of Wuhan, according to Washington.
They allegedly sent more than 10,000 malicious emails to companies, politicians, election candidates and journalists based in the United States and abroad, detailed Deputy Justice Minister Lisa Monaco.
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Which could have compromised the security of email addresses, cloud accounts and telephone IDs of “millions” of Americans.
Britain said the same group had targeted its Electoral Commission and parliamentarians critical of Beijing.
New Zealand, one of the most pro-China countries on the Western side, accused another group linked to Beijing, APT40, of having hacked in 2021 the computer system of the Parliament office in charge of the development and of the publication of laws.
The role played by the Chinese company I-Soon
The allegations made this week follow a massive data leak disclosed in February by a Chinese cybersecurity company, I-Soon. According to experts, this breach proves that I-Soon is capable of entering the systems of foreign governments, social media accounts and personal computers.
According to SentinelLabs and Malwarebytes, two cybersecurity firms, the incident shows that hackers from I-Soon, a private company that sought public contracts with the Chinese state, jeopardized the computer security of more than one ten governments.
I-Soon also infiltrated “democratic organizations” in Hong Kong, universities and NATO, researchers say.
This large-scale leak reveals that Chinese cyber espionage has “reached maturity,” analysts at SentinelLabs say.
Attack on infrastructure
In October, the intelligence chiefs of the Five Eyes – an alliance between the Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, British and American services – met for the first time. The agenda: China.
Beijing's targets are changing, according to specialists. For example, Microsoft detected an attack by the Volt Typhoon group against key US communications infrastructure in May, pointing to hackers linked to China.
In November, the tech giant said Volt Typhoon was seeking to refine its methods by notably starting to target universities.
American authorities have declared that they have removed malware introduced by hackers from this group into routers in the United States.
Matthew Brazil, member of the Jamestown Foundation and former American diplomat, interviewed by AFP, then described a very sophisticated campaign which could have been carried out by a "contractor specializing in cyberintrusion".
For Beijing, Washington is the “biggest hacking empire”
For its part, the United States has long had its own intelligence techniques against China, with espionage techniques, interception and a network of informants.
Washington's operations in this information war, such as cyberespionage or hacking, are well documented.
China recalls these examples as soon as attention turns to it, accusing Washington of being the "largest hacking empire in the world."
And the Chinese government flatly rejects any accusation of participation in hacking campaigns against foreign entities, calling Microsoft's alert report in May "extremely unprofessional."
With AFP
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