Chinese Hackers

[kyonides]

Chinese Hackers

Here I'll expose as many attempts the Chinese Army personnel or hackers have had to steal data and money or render some system useless. The intention is to let people become aware of this sad reality and the need to keep their PC's secure at all times.

Disclaimer

Any Chinese national or Taiwanese that has no ties to China's People's Liberation Army should not feel alluded here.

Blaster

According to court papers, the original Blaster was created after security researchers from the Chinese group Xfocus reverse engineered the original Microsoft patch that allowed for execution of the attack.

Link to the archived version of the original report


Titan Rain

It was a cyberattack orchestrated by the People's Liberation Army Unit 61398 that started harassing US and UK computer systems between 2003 and 2006. It is an event that forced several governments, including Russia, to take cybersecurity dead serious ever since.

Articles handling the Titan Rain event
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Rain
http://content.time.com/time/nation/arti...71,00.html
https://cyware.com/news/remembering-oper...n-c54ad3e4

Marriot Hotels - The largest hacking of hotel guest information
In 2017, Marriott Hotels experienced a much larger data breach exposing 500 million guests. That attack was linked to Chinese state-sponsored hackers.

"The F-35 Jet Hack"

Chinese jet shows off U.S. technology - February 2019
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201...f-us-tech/
The article sports a photo of a Chinese jet that seems to show off American technology being incorporated to its J-20 jet design.

APT41 and Its Bronze Atlas

Since January 2020 Chinese contractors took advantage of recently disclosed flaws in software developed by Cisco, Citrix and other companies in an attempt to break into scores of companies' networks in the United States, Canada, Britain, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and more than a dozen other countries. Their attacks do not discriminate any sector of the economy, including manufacturers, media companies, healthcare organizations and nonprofits among others.

US Cybersecurity Experts See Recent Spike in Chinese Digital Espionage
https://www.voanews.com/usa/us-cybersecu...-espionage

Pirate Panda

Suspected Chinese hackers are behind a phishing campaign apparently aimed at collecting data about Vietnamese government officials amid an ongoing territorial dispute between the two nations, according to new findings.

A hacking group known as Pirate Panda, which has possible ties to the Chinese government, is trying to trick Vietnamese government officials into clicking on malicious Microsoft Excel documents attached to emails purportedly detailing festivities for Vietnamese holidays, according to research the threat intelligence firm Anomali shared with CyberScoop.

Source: Tiny islands are at the heart of an uncovered Chinese phishing campaign
https://www.cyberscoop.com/south-china-s...g-vietnam/

[KDC]

I never heard of "Operation Titan Rain". I should probably look that up one day.

[kyonides]

"The F-35 Jet Hack"

Chinese jet shows off U.S. technology - February 2019
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201...f-us-tech/
The article sports a photo of a Chinese jet that seems to show off American technology being incorporated to its J-20 jet design.

That hack could be a result of previous Chinese attempts at stealing American data and technology at all costs.

[kyonides]

APT41 and Its Bronze Atlas

Since January 2020 Chinese contractors took advantage of recently disclosed flaws in software developed by Cisco, Citrix and other companies in an attempt to break into scores of companies' networks in the United States, Canada, Britain, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and more than a dozen other countries. Their attacks do not discriminate any sector of the economy, including manufacturers, media companies, healthcare organizations and nonprofits among others.

US Cybersecurity Experts See Recent Spike in Chinese Digital Espionage
https://www.voanews.com/usa/us-cybersecu...-espionage

[kyonides]

Pirate Panda

If you ever thought China respected its neighbors, except for the obvious exception Taiwan, you better it twice, guys!

Suspected Chinese hackers are behind a phishing campaign apparently aimed at collecting data about Vietnamese government officials amid an ongoing territorial dispute between the two nations, according to new findings.

A hacking group known as Pirate Panda, which has possible ties to the Chinese government, is trying to trick Vietnamese government officials into clicking on malicious Microsoft Excel documents attached to emails purportedly detailing festivities for Vietnamese holidays, according to research the threat intelligence firm Anomali shared with CyberScoop.

Tiny islands are at the heart of an uncovered Chinese phishing campaign
https://www.cyberscoop.com/south-china-s...g-vietnam/

[kyonides]

I think some Wulfo will hate to read the next article...

US accuses China of hacking coronavirus research

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52656656

The FBI said it had seen hacking attempts on US groups researching vaccines, treatments and testing.
...
The cyber-thieves had "been observed attempting to identify and illicitly obtain valuable intellectual property and public health data" on treating the coronavirus, the statement added.

It mentions Chinese built the Shenyang J-31 jet after US authorities noticed they had hacked their systems in order to access some data concerning the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet.

Bill Evanina, director of the US National Counterintelligence and Security Centre, has said China's theft of US intellectual property amounts to about $400bn a year.

This is CyberScoop's report on the topic...
https://www.cyberscoop.com/coronavirus-v...g-dhs-fbi/

This would not be the first time that Chinese hackers have been mobilized in Beijing’s response to a public health threat. Faced with a surging cancer rate in China, hackers have repeatedly targeted organizations conducting cancer research, according to cybersecurity company FireEye.

As you can see, China doesn't care about the rest of the world. If they've got a motive to steal data, be it or some cancer, they'll just grab it one way or the other.

[kyonides]

Taiwan suggests China’s Winnti group
is behind ransomware attack on state oil company

https://www.cyberscoop.com/cpc-ransomwar...wan-china/

Taiwanese authorities have suggested that Chinese hackers were behind a ransomware attack against Taiwan’s state oil company, an aggressive assault on one of the island nation’s strategic assets.
Data left behind in the attack, such as a configuration file and domain name, point to the involvement of a group known as Winnti, or something “closely related” to it, Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice said in a statement Friday. Winnti is a broad collection of hackers that cybersecurity researchers have linked with the Chinese government.

So far they could only confirm they prevented Taiwanese customers from purchasing gas at the stations.

Taiwanese gotta be terribly for they have experienced other attacks against energy and technology firms in the last few weeks. Remember come back asking for a ransom.

[kyonides]

Australia accuses China of cyber attacks
targeting the government and several of its businesses

https://www.cyberscoop.com/australia-cyb...-morrison/

First it was the Prime Mi ister and then other officials that ended up revealing what was no actual secret. China has been targeting Australian public institutions and several businesses including defense contractors. There aren't many sophisticated state-based cyber actors as they called them and we already know very well that China has become some sort of enemy of Australia. Recall the they when the Australian authorities demanded a serious and impartial investigation on coronavirus origins? Well, Chinese politicians have not forgiving them for those accusations.

Those hackers at China's service exploit unpatched software vulnerabilities in Microsoft SharePoint software, and a flaw in Citrix technology, revealed back in 2019.

Australian intelligence agencies determined last year that China’s Ministry of State Security was behind a hack on Australia’s national parliament and three largest political parties prior to a general election.

Here's Reuters report on that event full of malware.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-austr...SKBN1W00VF

It's not even the first time Chinese agents perform a cyberattack against Australian companies and institutions and still, they wanna make us believe it's US spreading mere disinformation. Right...

[kyonides]

US Charges Chinese Guys of Hacking Coronavirus Research Related Assets

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53493028

They even named the culprits! They're the former electrical engineering students Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi.
US authorities explained they are private hackers but they have been hired by the Chinese Ministry of State Security as well.

They previously stole "hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of trade secrets, intellectual property, and other valuable business information" beginning in 2009, prosecutors alleged.
According to the indictment, the hackers were able to infiltrate a British artificial intelligence firm, a Spanish defense contractor, and a Australian solar energy company.

The list of countries affected by their illegal activities consists of USA (States of Massachusetts and Maryland), Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

And nope, this does not even look like it's gonna end anytime soon according to the FBI. Actually, China is keeping them quite busy as of late.

[kyonides]

Chinese Hackers Attack Catholic Mail Servers

https://www.cyberscoop.com/chinese-hacke...ns-church/
They carefully imitate official Vatican mails to fool its workers and religious people. They want them to open the mails and get their systems infected. All of this started last May, CyberScoop stated.
By the way, this hacking group appears to be called Mustang Panda.
Nope, Wulfo, it's not a Pandaren Brewmaster.
Some people dubbed them RedDelta instead.
First they attacked Tibetans, then Muslim Uighurs and now Christian Catholics. What's next, China? Baptists and Methodists by any chance?

The attacks come just as the Vatican prepares to negotiate the operations of the Catholic Church in China come September, and the intrusion attempts could reflect Chinese authorities’ interests in monitoring the Vatican’s position on the discussion.

Couldn't they just ask the Vatican about their position like normal people!?

European Union sanctions several Cyber Criminals
https://www.cyberscoop.com/eu-sanctions-...rth-korea/

Yeap, that includes China as well!