Chinese Cyber ​​Attack Explained: Who Is Behind the Hacking Campaign Against the US and UK? | hacking

The United States and Britain have imposed sanctions on individuals and groups they say targeted Chinese politicians, journalists and critics in a wide-ranging cyberespionage campaign said to have been run by agencies under China's Ministry of National Security.

Some of the attacks had been previously reported, but the scale of the operation was revealed on Monday. New Zealand on Tuesday blamed state-sponsored Chinese hackers for a 2021 cyberattack that infiltrated sensitive government computer systems.

Who is behind the cyber attack?

Both the UK and the US point the finger at a hacking group known within the cybersecurity community as Advanced Persistant Threat 31 (APT 31).

Western intelligence experts use the APT naming convention to identify hacking groups with ties to foreign governments. According to Mandiant, an American cybersecurity company and a Google subsidiary, there are more than 40 APT groups, of which more than 20 are suspected to be run by China.

APT 31, also known as Zirconium, Violet Typhoon, Judgment Panda, and Altaire, is operated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security in Wuhan, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The group has been accused of high-profile attacks in the past. In 2020, Google and Microsoft warned that the group had targeted the personal emails of campaign staffers working for Joe Biden.

The British government said the incident was also linked to a hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software that compromised tens of thousands of computers around the world in 2021.

The Biden administration has blamed China for the massive 2021 hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software. Photo: Andy Wong/AP

New Zealand said in a statement on Tuesday that a separate Chinese government-backed group, APT 40, was behind the attack that compromised computers connected to the parliament's network.

According to Mandiant, APT 40 is a Chinese cyber espionage group that typically targets strategically important countries in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Who was targeted?

The US and UK claim the hacking campaign targeted a wide range of individuals as well as strategically important companies and government officials.

The UK government planned two malicious cyber campaigns targeting democratic institutions and members of parliament.

As part of the first campaign, China reportedly accessed the personal information of about 40 million voters held by the National Election Commission. According to the government, attacks that occurred between late 2021 and October 2022 had no impact on electoral processes or election registration.

The second campaign appears to be more targeted. British intelligence said it was highly likely that APT 31 was carrying out reconnaissance activities targeting members of the British Parliament. The politicians targeted in the hacking attempt were all prominent critics of China. British intelligence said none of their accounts had been compromised.

In a statement Monday, the U.S. Justice Department described a 14-year global campaign that appears to be much larger in scale. Among the identified targets include political dissidents, critics of China, U.S. government officials, political candidates and U.S. companies.

Altogether, thousands of people were targeted, and the Department of Justice confirmed that some of the activities successfully compromised email accounts, cloud storage accounts, and phone call records. Some of the surveillance of email accounts lasted for years, he added.

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith has said Britain must take the necessary steps to protect itself from Chinese cyberattacks. Photo: Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images

Critics of the Chinese government and supporters of Chinese dissidents appear to have been common targets for hackers.

The United States alleges that in 2021, APT 31 targeted the email accounts of several foreign government officials who were members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance for China (IPAC), which aims to counter threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party. Among them were EU and British politicians.

And in response to the 2019 Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, APT 31 reportedly stepped up targeted attacks against activists and journalists associated with the movement.

New Zealand said some data about the parliamentary legal office and parliamentary services was collected during the cyberattack, but none was deemed sensitive or strategic.

How did the attack occur?

The UK and US allege that APT 31 used phishing techniques to access sensitive information, sending emails to victims containing links to steal personal information.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said more than 10,000 emails were sent as part of the campaign, allegedly from media outlets, Chinese politicians and critics.

According to the United States, phishing emails contain hidden tracking links. When a victim opens that email, information such as the recipient's location, device, and IP is sent to a server controlled by the hacker. APT 31 then used this information to enable more targeted hacking, including compromising recipients' home routers and other electronic devices.

What was their goal?

Monaco said the goal of the operation was to crack down on critics of the Chinese regime, damage government institutions and steal trade secrets.

The United States said APT 31 targeted dozens of companies operating in economically important regions of the country. This includes companies in the defence, communications and manufacturing sectors.

These activities have clearly compromised economic plans, intellectual property, and trade secrets.

Senior White House officials and the spouses of U.S. senators were also targeted, as were campaign staffers from both major U.S. political parties. Despite the group targeting Biden's 2020 election campaign, the Justice Department report said the hack did not further the Chinese government's efforts to influence the election.

What are your future plans?

Tensions over issues related to cyber espionage have been rising between China and the United States for some time, with Western intelligence agencies increasingly sounding the alarm about hacking activities backed by the Chinese government.

In the UK, the government has been criticized for being too slow in responding to cyber attacks that occurred between 2021 and 2022.

Ipac managing director Luke de Pulford said the government seemed somewhat reluctant to say that China had actually done this.

Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith, who was targeted in the hacking campaign, described the UK's response as being like an elephant giving birth to a mouse, saying we must now enter a new era of relations with China and treat the modern Chinese Communist Party as follows: He added that he does. In reality, it's not the way we want it to be.

China denied claims that it or its affiliates were responsible for the attack.

China has always resolutely opposed all forms of cyberattacks in accordance with the law, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the UK said, adding that China does not encourage, support or tolerate cyberattacks.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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