Hundreds of Uyghur activists, journalists and dissidents living abroad have been targeted by Chinese hackers, who trick and spy on them through Facebook and other sites and mobile applications, the silicon giant has revealed. Valley, Wednesday March 24.
"We see clear links with the companies and the geographical locations of this activity, but we cannot formally prove who is behind this operation," Nathaniel Gleicher, the head of safety regulations, told a press conference. from Facebook, which did not blame the Chinese regime.
Hackers tricked their victims into clicking on tricky links and websites that infected their computers or smartphones with spyware, according to the California-based company.
"A long-term operation, with substantial resources"
"This activity has all the hallmarks of a long-term operation, with substantial resources, which hides the people in charge," added Nathaniel Gleicher in a press release.
According to its cybersecurity team, the maneuvers of hackers mainly take place outside Facebook, on legitimate but compromised news sites or through bogus applications that may be of interest to this persecuted Muslim minority in China, such as dictionaries. , prayer apps, etc.
This is the so-called "watering hole" technique, which involves infecting a place where people go without being suspicious.
On the social network, hackers pose as journalists, human rights defenders or members of the community in order to create relationships of trust and lure them into the trap.
These tactics allow spies to gain access to information, cameras and microphones on their victims' phones.
The targeted Uyghurs come from Xinjiang, China, and live in Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan, Syria, Turkey, the United States and other countries.
“Even though a small number of users are affected, less than 500 globally in this case, the impact can be severe, you can imagine the surveillance being put in place,” commented Nathaniel Gleicher.
Facebook says it has blocked the sharing of trapped domain names on its platform, removed group accounts and warned the people concerned.
The company also shared information with other social networks.
The hacker groups are known as "Earth Empusa", "Poison Carp" or "Evil Eye".
The United States and several European countries recently toughened their tone against China, which they accuse of having interned hundreds of thousands of Uyghur Muslims and inflicting "sterilizations and forced labor" on them.
Beijing categorically denies.
With AFP
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