the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand accuse China of computer attacks against their institutions

All three countries have named the APT31 and APT40 hacker groups responsible for attacks on their institutions. Beijing denounces “malicious slander”.

A common front rarely seen against Beijing. The governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand formally accused China of being behind several large-scale cyberattacks against their political institutions, in a series of statements on Monday March 25 and Tuesday March 26.

The US Department of Justice announced that it had indicted seven Chinese people for “prolific global hacking operation” for fourteen years, to contribute to the “economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives” from Beijing. This operation required the sending of more than 10,000 emails targeting companies, politicians, electoral candidates and journalists based in the United States and abroad, the ministry said in a press release.

According to Washington, a group of pirates called APT31 is behind this “cyber espionage program”, which was allegedly managed by China’s powerful Ministry of State Security from the city of Wuhan. The hackers gained access to “email accounts, cloud storage accounts and phone call recordings”said the US Department of Justice.

Designating China, an “important step”

Shortly afterwards, British Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told Parliament in London that “actors affiliated with the Chinese state” had committed “two malicious cyber actions” in 2020 and 2021, against parliamentarians critical of Beijing and against the United Kingdom Electoral Commission. These “Attempts to interfere in UK democracy have been unsuccessful” and will have no impact on the next elections, but the Chinese ambassador will be summoned and two members of the APT31 organization will be subject to sanctions, specifies Oliver Dowden.

For its part, New Zealand accused a group linked to Beijing of having hacked in 2021 the computer system of the Parliament office responsible for developing and publishing laws. New Zealand’s cybersecurity agency has linked a group known as APT40, “supported by the state” Chinese, and a cyberattack against Parliament services, declared the Minister of Defense on Tuesday. The attack was repelled and the group was incapacitated, she assured.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon admitted to the press that attributing the cyberattack to China was a “not important”, likely to put a damper on good relations with the country’s main trading partner. Wellington expressed his protests to the Chinese ambassador in the country, said the head of New Zealand diplomacy, Winston Peters.

In response, the Chinese embassy in Great Britain denounced accusations “totally unfounded” And “malicious slander”. The Chinese embassy in Wellington, for its part, rejected “categorically these baseless and irresponsible accusations”sharing his “strong discontent”.