Indian Hackers Targeted China’s Defence And Military Departments

(This was originally posted in Swarajya)

India hackers targeted China’s defence and military departments, among other state-owned establishments, Global Times, a jingoistic subsidiary of the Chinse Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, has said. “mhackers from India behind the attempts to launch attacks on China’s defense and military units as well as state-owned enterprises,” according to the Global Times report, which is based on the findings of Antiy Labs, a “leading anti-virus company” in China.

The vice chief engineer of Antiy Labs has said that the company has detected “phishing activities” since March, the report says. This activity, it adds, was “mainly targeted the country’s government, defense and military units, as well as state-owned enterprises in China, Pakistan, and Nepal.” “The hackers disguise themselves as government or military personnel and deliver emails with phishing attachments or embedded links to targets luring them to visit the websites created by them and collect the account password for intelligence gathering,” Li told Global Times.

The Global Times says the anti-virus company has found that the organisation behind the attacks on Chinese defence departments is from India and its activities can be traced back to as early as April 2019. “By far, more than 100 phishing counterfeit websites have been found by Antiy Labs, some of which target major universities, state-owned enterprises and key organs of the government in China. Others target the military, defense, and diplomatic circles in South Asia, including Pakistan and Nepal,” the report adds.