WASHINGTON (AP) – Hackers linked to the Chinese government have launched a wide-ranging state-sponsored operation targeting U.S. government officials, journalists, businesses, pro-democracy activists and British election watchdogs, the United States says. and British authorities on Monday announced a series of criminal charges. accusations and sanctions.
Officials said the goal of the campaign, which began in 2010, was to harass critics of the Chinese government, steal trade secrets from U.S. companies, and spy on and track high-ranking politicians. there were. Western officials revealed the operation, carried out by a group of hackers known as APT31, in a new election-year wake-up call for a country long seen as having advanced espionage capabilities. It rang.
The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted seven hackers, all of whom are believed to reside in China. In a related announcement, the British government announced that a front company and two defendants have been arrested in connection with a data breach that may have given China access to information about tens of millions of British voters held by the Electoral Commission. imposed sanctions.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement: “The Department of Justice is committed to protecting against the Chinese government, which threatens Americans who serve its people, silences dissidents protected by U.S. law, and steals from U.S. businesses. “This incident serves as a reminder of the Chinese government's intent to target and intimidate its critics.”
As part of a cyber intrusion campaign, hackers targeted more than 10,000 emails around the world that purported to be from prominent journalists but actually contained malicious code, prosecutors said. Sent to. Once the email was opened, tracking software was installed, allowing the hacker to learn the victim's location, IP address, and even the device they used to receive the email.
The hackers also used that tracking to target home routers and other devices “including U.S. government officials, politicians, and campaign staff for both major U.S. political parties,” the indictment says.
Targets include employees of multiple government agencies, including the White House, Treasury Department, and Commerce Department, senators from both parties, spouses of senior Justice Department officials, political strategists, and politicians from around the world who are critical of the Chinese government. was included. , including members of democracy advocacy groups.
The Justice Department said the hackers also began targeting email accounts of senior presidential campaign officials in May 2020, months before the general election.
Also, cybersecurity company Proofpoint It was later pointed out on the blog.hackers focused their phishing efforts on Washington-based journalists, including White House correspondents, shortly before the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Following the UK's announcement of sanctions last august A “hostile actor” accessed the server around 2021 to 2022.
At the time, the watchdog said the data included the names and addresses of registered voters. However, he said much of the information is already in the public domain.
The Foreign Office said on Monday that the hacking of the electoral register “does not affect the electoral process, does not affect the rights or access of any individual to the democratic process, and does not affect electoral registration. No,” he said.
British cybersecurity officials also said that APT31 hackers “conducted reconnaissance operations” against British MPs critical of the Chinese government in 2021. It also said there have been no cases of British parliamentary accounts being successfully compromised.
Three MPs, including former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, told reporters on Monday: “We have been subject to harassment, impersonation and attempted hacking from China for some time now.” Smith said, in one example, a hacker impersonating him emailed his contacts using a fake email address.
APT31 has been accused before Targeting the US presidential election campaign and information systems parliament of finlandamong others.
British Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said the British government would summon the Chinese ambassador to account for his actions.
Before the announcement, China's Foreign Ministry said countries should make claims based on evidence instead of “slandering” other countries without basing them on facts.
Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said, “Cybersecurity issues should not be politicized.” “We hope all parties will stop spreading false information, behave responsibly, and work together to maintain peace and security in cyberspace.”
The Chinese embassy also accused the United States of “jumping to unwarranted conclusions and making baseless accusations against China” without valid evidence.
“This is highly irresponsible and a complete distortion of the facts,” the embassy said in a statement. “China firmly opposes this.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said China was “behaving increasingly assertively abroad” and reiterated that it was the “biggest state-based threat to our economic security”.
He declined to provide further details, but said: “It's right to take steps to protect ourselves. That's what we're doing.”
For years, U.S. authorities have brought extensive criminal cases against hackers with ties to the Chinese government. They also expressed concerns about Beijing's influence operations and the possibility of Beijing interfering in the president's politics.
a Intelligence Assessment 2021 China ultimately found that it did not interfere with either side during the 2020 election and “considered but did not deploy” influence operations aimed at influencing the outcome. U.S. officials say Beijing prioritizes a stable relationship with the United States, and that either election result is favorable enough to risk a “backlash” if it is caught on charges of meddling. states that he has not thought about it.
The Justice Department said the indictment released Monday does not change its conclusions, noting there is no allegation that the hack was designed to further the Chinese government's influence operations against the United States.
Still, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the Justice Department's top national security official, said in a statement: Approaching the 2024 election cycle. ”
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Hui reported from London. Associated Press writers Frank Bajak in Boston, Didi Tan in Washington, and Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.
