Categories: World

Chinese hackers launch another cyberattack on Middle Eastern countries

<p>
China hacked dozens of public and private sector groups in Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other countries, international cybersecurity company FireEye said on Tuesday.<br />
<br />
The massive cyber attack appears to be yet another of China's long-term spying strategy in technology and business competition, rather than a desire to harm countries or businesses.<br />
<br />
The cybersecurity agency said that Beijing uses its cyber tools to spy on a wide range of Middle Eastern countries while doing business with them.<br />
<br />
The goal seems to have been to gain intelligence into achieving better negotiation outcomes in terms of pricing by viewing internal email discussions and assessments.<br />
<br />
Chinese hackers were also searching for access key technological developments.<br />
<br />
The attack is linked to cyber exploitation of holes in Microsoft’s SharePoint, announced by the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) in 2019. However, many Israeli entities began to repel the attacks once the SharePoint vulnerability was detected but that did not deter the Chinese from spying on Israel.<br />
<br />
The latest cyber attack by Chinese hackers follows similar attempts on the US and multiple European and Asian nations in July.<br />
<br />
Chinese hacking and cyber-syping can be more dangerous than is believed in. They even have the power to sow discord among nations.<br />
<br />
A separate news report carried by MIT Technology Review says that when hackers broke into Israeli government and technology companies in 2019 and 2020, the initial clues led to Iran.<br />
<br />
"But after further examination of the evidence—and information gathered from other cyber-espionage cases across the Middle East—analysts realized it was not an Iranian operation. Instead, it was conducted by Chinese operatives posing as a team of hackers from Tehran.<br />
<br />
The hackers successfully targeted the Israeli government, technology companies, and telecommunication firms—and by deploying false flags, it appears, they hoped to mislead analysts into believing the attackers were from Israel’s regional nemesis".<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/08/10/1031622/chinese-hackers-false-flag-iran-israel-fireeye/"><em>MIT Technology Review</em> says </a>that American cybersecurity firm FireEye, working in collaboration with the Israeli military, exposed the Chinese gameplan.<br />
<br />
The investigators also found that hacker UNC215 had carried out similar operations numerous times against Israeli government institutions, IT providers and telecommunications entities. It has often dropped misleading clues like using the Farsi language, minimising evidence and hiding infrastructure used to break into Israeli networks.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/tech-news/.premium-chinese-cyberattack-targeted-dozens-of-israeli-public-and-private-organizations-1.10102531">Israeli website <em>Haaretz </em>says </a>that China never admits to its culpability in cyber attacks and instead launches a counter blame on the US. It says: "However, tolerance for Chinese cyber attacks has declined globally as the country’s popularity has plummeted following its handling of the coronavirus crisis, Hong Kong, issues in the South China Sea and accusations of war crimes in its treatment of the Muslim Uyghurs in China".</p>

IN Bureau

Recent Posts

India spent $14 tn on investments since Independence, more than half of it spent in last 10 yrs: Report

India's economic growth story has witnessed a remarkable surge in investment spending, with over half…

31 minutes ago

India should be branded as a ‘Responsible Capitalist’ nation: Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has called for branding India as a "Responsible Capitalist" nation, emphasizing…

1 hour ago

Taiwan reports hike in Chinese military activity

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defence (MND) reported Chinese military activity on Saturday and detected 25…

2 hours ago

VINBAX 2024: Vietnam-India bilateral army exercise concludes at Kaushalya Dam

The fifth edition of the historic Indo-Vietnam Joint Field Training Exercise, VINBAX-2024, successfully concluded its…

18 hours ago

India-Russia strengthen defence ties at 22nd Working Group meeting on military technical cooperation

The 22nd meeting of the India-Russia Working Group on Military technical cooperation and defence industry…

18 hours ago

“I want to have strong representation of India at World Nuclear Exhibition 2025”: Sylvie Bermann

Sylvie Bermann, President of the World Nuclear Exhibition expressed confidence in India's nuclear supply chain…

20 hours ago