Announcing the charges, the department said the case revealed China’s “vast illegal hacking operation”, which targeted sensitive data from American journalists, academics and companies as well as government officials.
New Zealand’s government said it had raised concerns on Tuesday with Beijing about its involvement in a state-sponsored cyber hack on its parliament in 2021, which was uncovered by the country’s intelligence services.
Washington announced that it had sanctioned the Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company Limited (Wuhan XRZ), which it said was a “front company” for the Chinese ministry of state security and had served as cover for multiple malicious cyber operations.
Zhao Guangzong and Ni Gaobin, two Chinese nationals affiliated with Wuhan XRZ, were also designated for their roles in “malicious cyber operations” that were responsible for “directly endangering US national security”.
‘Sophisticated hacking techniques’
The Department of Justice said APT31 was part of a “cyber espionage programme run by the ministry of state security’s Hubei state security department, located in the city of Wuhan”, and that the seven defendants targeted “networks, email accounts, cloud storage accounts and telephone call records, with some surveillance of compromised email accounts lasting many years”.
The group operated by sending more than 10,000 malicious emails to targets, purporting to be from prominent news outlets or journalists. They contained hidden tracking links that, once opened, would reveal the target’s location, IP address and devices to the hackers.
Once the targets had opened the emails, the group used “sophisticated hacking techniques” to gain access to personal data, the department said.
Foreign Office officials said the majority of MPs and peers who were spied on by Beijing were “prominent in calling out the malign activity of China”.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, said Parliament’s security department “identified and successfully mitigated” the cyber attacks “before any accounts could be compromised”.
On Monday, it emerged that Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, has called in Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, for a dressing down over the attacks.
The NCSC will publish new guidance for organisations involved in co-ordinating elections, such as local authorities, which will advise officials on how they can step up the protection of their electoral management systems against cyber hacks.
Earlier on Monday, Sir Iain said China critics would not be “bullied into silence” as he compared the West’s approach toward Beijing with 1930s appeasement.
Britain has been “too passive” towards China’s overseas influence and has “turned a blind eye” to its malign activities, the former Conservative leader said.
He spoke at a press conference in Westminster alongside Tim Loughton, a former minister, and Stewart McDonald, a Scottish National Party MP.
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