Category Archives: People’s Liberation Army

Accused Chinese hackers abandon techniques after U.S. indictments

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U.S. indictments against individual Chinese soldiers accused of hacking various American targets have deterred those military personnel from conducting the same kinds of hacks again, according to the co-founder of a firm known for investigating nation-state activity. Digital infrastructure associated with alleged hackers charged in 2014, 2017 and 2018 essentially evaporated when charges in each case were made public, said Dmitri Alperovitch, who co-founded CrowdStrike, during a keynote speech Wednesday during the RSA security conference in San Francisco. Each of the groups — known as APT 1, APT 3, or Buyosec, and APT 10, respectively — has been associated with Chinese intelligence services or the People’s Liberation Army. “Everything associated with them disappeared,” Alperovitch said during a conversation with reporters after the presentation. He cautioned that, while other Chinese groups largely have remained active, the specific groups named in the indictments “vanished” in a way that was “remarkable.” Some of […]

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Equifax indictment shows Chinese hackers can’t hide, DOJ official says

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Chinese hackers took pains to cover their fingerprints in allegedly hacking credit monitoring agency Equifax in 2017, but a senior Department of Justice official says an indictment unsealed earlier this month shows the smokescreen didn’t work. “They’re always going to try to make our job harder,” John Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security, said Monday at San Francisco CyberTalks presented by CyberScoop. “And they’re also going to try to give themselves a basis to deny what it is I think that we’re proving in these cases.” The charges against four officials in China’s People’s Liberation Army for allegedly stealing data on some 145 million Americans from Equifax show just how determined the hackers were in infiltrating a U.S. company (China’s foreign ministry rejected the allegations). The hackers routed their internet traffic through servers in nearly 20 countries, wiping the computer logs along the way in a bid to […]

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Cybersecurity firm Area 1 defends pointing finger at China over European cables hack

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Chinese military hackers have used a persistent phishing campaign to steal thousands of European diplomatic cables on sensitive topics ranging from counterterrorism to technology exports, cybersecurity researchers charged Wednesday. The years-long operation targeted over 100 organizations, including the United Nations and the AFL-CIO, according to Area 1, a California-based cybersecurity company. The China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was behind the effort, Area 1 said. The company did not list detailed forensic evidence linking the hack to the PLA, drawing criticism from other researchers as to why an attribution was made. But Area 1 defended its work, telling CyberScoop it had plenty of evidence of China’s role in the breach. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations. European Union officials said Wednesday that they were investigating the breach. In an interview with CyberScoop, Area 1 co-founder Blake Darché said the company had […]

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DOJ indictment spotlights China’s civilian intel agency – and its hacker recruits

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In unsealing charges Tuesday against 10 Chinese nationals, the Department of Justice showed its focus is on China’s civilian intelligence agency, which analysts say has become Beijing’s preferred arm for conducting economic espionage. The agency, the Ministry of State Security, is more professional and technical in its hacking operations than China’s People Liberation Army, according to CrowdStrike co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch. “We have seen [the MSS], over the years, break into [corporate] organizations,” Alperovitch said Tuesday at an event hosted by The New York Times. “They were always better technically than the PLA.” After a landmark 2015 agreement between the United States and China not to steal intellectual property, Chinese activity in that vein tapered off for about a year, according to Alperovitch. Now, he said, it is back in full force. “[W]e’re seeing, on a weekly basis, intrusions into U.S. and other Western companies from Chinese actors,” with the MSS […]

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NSA official: Bloomberg story created a frenzied, fruitless search for supporting evidence

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A news report claiming a compromise of U.S. companies’ supply chains by Chinese spies has triggered a thorough search in government and industry for evidence of the breach that has so far turned up nothing, according to a senior National Security Agency official, who expressed concern that the search was a distraction and potentially a waste of resources. “I have grave concerns about where this has taken us,” Rob Joyce said Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “I worry that we’re chasing shadows right now.” The story in question is an explosive, anonymously-sourced report published last week by Bloomberg Businessweek. The report alleges Chinese intelligence agents placed malicious microchips on server motherboards supplied by Super Micro Computing Inc., setting up a backdoor to some 30 companies, including Apple and Amazon Web Services. While supply-chain threats emanating from China are certainly a concern, Joyce said, “what I can’t find are any ties to […]

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DHS, Apple push back on Bloomberg supply chain story

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U.S. and British security agencies have backed statements by Apple and Amazon Web Services disputing an explosive news report claiming that Chinese intelligence agents planted malicious computer chips in equipment used by the tech giants. “[A]t this time we have no reason to doubt the statements from the companies named in the story,” the Department Homeland Security said on Saturday. That echoed a Friday statement from Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre, which said the agency had “no reason to doubt the detailed assessments made by AWS and Apple.” The blockbuster story from Bloomberg Businessweek claims that Chinese spies placed the tiny chips on server motherboards supplied by Super Micro Computing Inc., setting up a backdoor to some 30 companies, including Apple and AWS. Such a compromise would represent an espionage operation of staggering proportions. Apple, AWS, and Supermicro all responded with vigorous, detailed denials of key elements of the story. “At […]

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DOJ official: Whether they’re extradited or not, indicting foreign hackers is important

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Even if foreign government hackers never see the inside of a U.S. courtroom, bringing criminal charges against them is still a key prong in American deterrence policy, a top Department of Justice official said Thursday. “Imagine a world … in which there are no criminal charges” and the private sector is left to levy the allegations themselves, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Hickey said at the CyberNext conference in Washington, D.C. “What message does that send to a foreign hacker or the government he works for?” In a series of cases in which nation-state hackers charged by DOJ remain at large, “all of those charges served a greater purpose” beyond apprehending the alleged perpetrators, Hickey said. The indictments have enabled other U.S. responses such as sanctions as well as joining with allies to call out state-sponsored hacking, he said. Hickey spoke hours after the DOJ announced criminal charges against seven Russian military intelligence officers […]

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U.S. poised to deny China Mobile access to American market due to spying fears

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On Monday, the Trump administration moved to block a large Chinese telecommunications company from entering the U.S. market, recommending that its application be rejected on national security grounds. China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator, had sought to move into the U.S. cell phone and communication services space. In 2011, the company filed an application to U.S. regulators at the Federal Communications Commission for a license to do business in the United States. In a statement released Monday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should deny China Mobile’s application. “After significant engagement with China Mobile, concerns about increased risks to US law enforcement and national security interests were unable to be resolved,” David Redl, the assistant secretary for communications and information at the Commerce Department, said in NTIA’s statement. The NTIA is an arm of the Commerce Department that advises the White House […]

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