U.S. and UK Accuse China of Extensive Cyberespionage Campaign
The United States and the United Kingdom have jointly accused China of a massive cyberespionage campaign that targeted millions of individuals and organizations worldwide. The accusations, made on Monday, allege that the hacking group known as Advanced Persistent Threat 31 (APT31), operated by China's Ministry of State Security, engaged in a decade-long campaign of espionage.
The targets of the hacking campaign included lawmakers, academics, journalists, defense contractors, and even the spouses of senior U.S. officials and lawmakers. The aim of the operation, according to U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, was to "repress critics of the Chinese regime, compromise government institutions, and steal trade secrets."
The indictment unsealed on Monday against seven alleged Chinese hackers claims that the hacking resulted in the compromise of work accounts, personal emails, online storage, and telephone call records belonging to millions of Americans. British officials also accused APT31 of hacking British lawmakers critical of China and said that a second group of Chinese spies was behind the hack of Britain's electoral watchdog.
Both the U.S. and the UK have imposed sanctions on a firm they say is a Ministry of State Security front company tied to the hacking activity. The U.S. Treasury Department also sanctioned two Chinese nationals.
China has denied the allegations, calling them "completely fabricated and malicious slanders." The Chinese Embassy in London dismissed the charges as "unwarranted."
The accusations come amid rising tensions between Beijing and Washington over issues relating to cyberespionage. Western intelligence agencies have increasingly sounded the alarm on alleged Chinese state-backed hacking activity. China has also begun to call out alleged Western hacking operations.
The indictment lists numerous unnamed victims around the globe who had been targeted, including staffers working for a U.S. presidential campaign in 2020 and an American firm known for public opinion research in 2018.
Experts believe that political organizations are targeted by APT31 to gather geopolitical intelligence. As John Hultquist, chief analyst for U.S. cybersecurity intelligence firm Mandiant, stated, "Politicians, parties and elections organizations are rich sources of intelligence that offer collectors everything from rare geopolitical insights to enormous troves of data.