U.S. and British officials on Monday announced criminal charges and punitive sanctions against a Chinese state-sponsored hacker group accused of victimizing millions of people in both countries over the past 14 years.
Prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York named The defendants are Ni Gaobin, Weng Ming, Cheng Fent, Peng Yaowen, Sun Xiaohui, Xiong Wang, and Zhao Guangzong. All are Chinese nationals working for China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) and part of a cyber threat group called APT31 (also known as Zirconium).
APT31 became Active Around 2010, it engaged in a wide range of illegal activities, usually related to geopolitical events of interest to the Chinese government. For example, APT31’s malicious activity spiked during Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests.
To date, the group has sent out over 10,000 malicious emails, targeting victims on multiple continents. Targets included government officials and their employees, defense contractors, reporters, academics, and Chinese political dissidents.
Many of the viral emails sent by Chinese hackers to Western politicians were designed to look like legitimate messages from journalists. According to the US indictment, APT31 compromised thousands of government and corporate email and storage accounts and gained unauthorized access to the records of millions of Americans.
The U.S. Treasury on Monday authorized Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (Wuhan XRZ) is a front company operated by MSS to cover the activities of APT31 hackers.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday that the Department of Justice is committed to protecting the Chinese government’s efforts to intimidate Americans who serve the public, silence dissidents protected by U.S. law, and steal from American businesses. We do not condone these efforts.”
“These allegations bring to a close a massive illegal hacking operation in China that targets sensitive data of U.S. elected officials, journalists, and academics. Valuable information from American companies. And politics inside and outside the U.S. “Their evil plans victimized thousands of people and groups around the world and lasted more than a decade,” said Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
“These defendants are part of a Chinese government-sponsored hacking group that has targeted U.S. businesses and political officials for intrusions for more than a decade as part of a larger, more malicious global campaign. These charges are another example of hostile actions taken by China to attack not only American businesses and infrastructure, but also the security of our nation,” said James Smith, FBI Assistant Director in the New York Field Office. .
In the United Kingdom, APT31 carried out a major cyberattack, stealing the voter registration data of tens of millions of British citizens and attempting to hack the email accounts of members of parliament. The hackers appear to have taken no action on the stolen voter registration data, raising suspicions that the hack was merely a dry run to test the defenses of Britain’s electoral system. .
“This is the latest in a clear pattern of hostile activity originating from China. Part of our defense is to condemn this action,” Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said on Monday.
left wing new york times (New York Times) contrasting The aggressive and unified response by U.S. and British officials on Monday to the Obama administration’s extreme reluctance to name China as the culprit in the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). hack The incident, which occurred in 2015 and is also known as “Cyber Pearl Harbor,” is perhaps the most damaging data breach in the short history of the Internet.
“Now, however, the United States is becoming increasingly public about the dangers. Cabinet secretaries and intelligence chiefs have begun testifying publicly before Congress about an operation called Bolt Typhoon, which threatens to disrupt critical systems. It has been plaguing President Biden and his staff for more than a year as they try to wipe out the Chinese code.” new york times I got it. Bolt Typhoon is also thought to be the work of APT31.
China whipped outside On Tuesday, he slammed both the US and UK governments, angrily denying the APT31 indictment as “fake news” and “political manipulation”.
“We call on the US and UK to stop politicizing cybersecurity issues. Stop vilifying China and stop imposing unilateral sanctions on China. Stop it,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian raged on Tuesday.
“The Chinese side has already provided technical explanations and responses to the APT 31-related information submitted by the UK side, and it has become clear that the evidence provided by the UK is insufficient,” Lin argued. .
