Malaysia Targeted by Of Chinese Hackers, Claims US-Based Cybersecurity Firm

The Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs offices of Malaysia and other SEA countries were targeted.
(Credit: Stiven Sanchez/Unsplash)

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According to a US-based cybersecurity firm, Recorded Future, Chinese hackers have targeted military and civilian organisations in several South East Asian countries including Malaysia, in just this year alone.

Over the past nine months, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam has been the top three targets for these hackers said Insikt Group, the threat research arm of Recorded Future.

They added that the hackers have countries like the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand in their sights as well.

In a report, Insikt said they have identified a series of intrusion campaigns that support key strategic aims of the Chinese government. Its objective includes gathering intelligence on countries that have engaged in the South China Sea territory disputes.

The hackers are also said to have been targeting countries that are in projects like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government.

The hackers have focused their attacks on the Malaysian and Thai Prime Ministers’ offices, the Indonesian and Malaysian Foreign Affairs Ministries, and their respective militaries.

READ MORE: Sensitive TLDM Documents Hacked & Leaked On Dark Web

Insikt added that they have identified more than 400 servers in SEA that are communicating with networks that are likely linked to Chinese state-sponsored hackers. However they don’t know what specific data that these hackers may have obtain.

They attributed the attacks to China backed group called Threat Activity Group 16 (TAG-16) and has evidence to believe the group shares capabilities with the People’s Liberation Army-linked activity group RedFoxtrot.

(Credit: Florian Olivo/Unsplash).

Insikt says that it has warned the affected nations back in October. However, Chinese officials brushed off the claims stating it is just disinformation to mislead the international community and create friction between the countries in question.

This is not the first time Chinese officials have dismissed claims by the US-based firm. Back in September it was believed that a Chinese state-sponsored hackers were behind the Indian national identification base breach.

They also denied responsibility for the Lao National Committee for Special Economic Zones and the National Enterprise Database attack back in May of this year.

The scale and scope of China’s cyber espionage programme remains unrivalled, exemplified by the large number of distinct actors with operational taskings within specific geographic regions.

Insikt Group.

In an online briefing yesterday, the Vietnamese foreign affairs spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang did not address the specifics of the report, however she stated the Vietnamese government are always paying close attention to this and has issued guidelines, policies and security measures to ensure their data is safe.

She then added that the country will be in standby to assist and cooperate with the international community in the matter.

In a statement to Bloomberg, Filipino Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzo said he did not know of any recent cyberattacks on the country’s navy and would task intelligence officials to look into the matter.

However, other countries mentioned in the report have yet to respond.

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