Western governments struggle to coordinate response to Chinese hacking
Chinese hacking attempts are not isolated events. Rather, they constitute the ecosystem in which all western governments must navigate their relationships with Beijing.
In a report published on 27 March, Google said China “continues to lead the way for government-backed exploitation”. #APT31 alone has been linked to hacks in France, Finland and of Microsoft, while New Zealand said this week that another well-known Chinese hacking outfit, #APT40, attacked its parliament in 2021 (the Chinese embassy in New Zealand denied the allegations).
A recent leak of data from the Chinese cybersecurity firm #iSoon revealed the extent to which China’s hackers for hire compete for government contracts,
sometimes hoovering up data from foreign agencies "on spec" with the hope of selling it to the highest bidder.
In the case of APT31, the US Department of Justice alleges that the hacking operation was💥 directly run by a provincial department of China’s ministry of state security.💥
But in general, said Mei #Danowski, a China cybersecurity expert and author of the "Natto Thoughts" newsletter,
🔸nearly every cybersecurity firm in China 🔸would have some sort of contract with government clients.
With a cybersecurity industry worth an estimated $13bn, that is a lot of potential hackers.
That leaves western governments struggling to coordinate an effective response to hacks or hacking attempts.
In many cases, the Chinese government has #plausible#deniability about responsibility, and it is not always clear what the impact of data breaches are.
Audrye #Wong, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California, said that while #Russian-based hacks oftene “sow discord and chaos”, #China was “more cautious” and “still very much cares about shaping perceptions of China and the Chinese Communist party”.
Many western international security experts refer to the maxim that while Russia may be the storm, China is climate change.