New Zealand government claims it also suffered attacks from Chinese hacking groups

China and New Zealand
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

New Zealand has joined the UK in accusing China of sponsoring hacking groups in their attempts to steal sensitive information from western nations.

The country's government has pointed the finger at a group tracked as APT40, which has been linked to a breach of the Parliamentary Counsel Office and the Parliamentary Service in 2021, around the same time that the UK suffered a similar attack.

The United States has charged several people linked to a hacking operation that has been ongoing for 14 years and may have affected millions of Americans.

Western condemnation of Beijing-backed hacking scandals

In an announcement of the attack suffered by the New Zealand parliamentary organizations, attorney-general and minister of defense Judith Collins said that the security services had “completed a robust technical assessment following a compromise of the Parliamentary Counsel Office and the Parliamentary Service in 2021, and has attributed this activity to a PRC state-sponsored group known as APT40.”

Collins continued, stating that New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) and National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), “worked with the impacted organizations to contain the activity and remove the actor shortly after they were able to access the network.”

Australia backed up New Zealand’s criticism of China’s involvement in a number of cyberattacks that have targeted western national security, with home affairs minister Claire O’Neill and foreign minister Penny Wong sharing their “serious concerns about malicious cyber activities by China state-backed actors targeting UK democratic institutions and parliamentarians.”

Speaking on the recent spate of accusations against Beijing’s sponsorship of hacking attempts, Don Smith, VP Threat Intelligence, Secureworks Counter Threat Unit (CTU), said, “Chinese state-sponsored cyber espionage is not a new threat. The UK and the US have been calling out these covert operations for several years now. The purpose of cyber espionage from China’s point of view, is to access information that will advance the People’s Republic of China agenda.”

“Over the past couple of years, tired of having their operations rumbled and publicly outed, the Chinese have placed a growing emphasis on stealthy tradecraft in cyber espionage attacks. This is a change in MO from its previous ‘smash and grab’ reputation but it is viewed by the Chinese as a necessary evolution to one, make it harder to get caught and two, make it nearly impossible to attribute an attack to them,” Smith continued.

“Specifically, this has manifested itself in four key areas: Obfuscated networks; Living on the Edge; Living off the Land and Living in the Cloud. Combined these tactics make identification of malicious activity harder, but more importantly make attribution more complicated."

Via The Register

More from TechRadar Pro

Benedict Collins
Staff Writer (Security)

Benedict has been writing about security issues for over 7 years, first focusing on geopolitics and international relations while at the University of Buckingham. During this time he studied BA Politics with Journalism, for which he received a second-class honours (upper division), then continuing his studies at a postgraduate level, achieving a distinction in MA Security, Intelligence and Diplomacy. Upon joining TechRadar Pro as a Staff Writer, Benedict transitioned his focus towards cybersecurity, exploring state-sponsored threat actors, malware, social engineering, and national security. Benedict is also an expert on B2B security products, including firewalls, antivirus, endpoint security, and password management.

Read more
China
US Treasury declares ‘major incident’ after apparent state-sponsored Chinese hack
cyber security
Japan says Chinese hackers have launched hundreds of attacks against targets in the country
China
Chinese hackers develop effective new hacking technique to go after business networks
An illustration of a silhouetted thief in motion running while carrying a stolen fingerprint
The 5 worst cyberattacks of 2024
An American flag flying outside the US Capitol building against a blue sky
More alleged Chinese intrusions into the US Treasury revealed
China
Chinese hackers who targeted key US infrastructure charged by Justice Department
Latest in Pro
Isometric demonstrating multi-factor authentication using a mobile device.
NCSC gets influencers to sing the praises of 2FA
Sam Altman and OpenAI
OpenAI is upping its bug bounty rewards as security worries rise
Context Windows
Why are AI context windows important?
BERT
What is BERT, and why should we care?
A person holding out their hand with a digital AI symbol.
AI is booming — but are businesses seeing real impact?
A stylized depiction of a padlocked WiFi symbol sitting in the centre of an interlocking vault.
Dangerous new CoffeeLoader malware executes on your GPU to get past security tools
Latest in News
Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con up-close from app store
Nintendo's new app gave us another look at the Switch 2, and there's something different with the Joy-Con
cheap Nintendo Switch game deals sales
Nintendo didn't anticipate that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was 'going to be the juggernaut' for the Nintendo Switch when it was ported to the console, according to former employees
Three angles of the Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4 laptop above a desk
Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M4) review roundup – should you buy Apple's new lightweight laptop?
Witchbrook
Witchbrook, the life-sim I've been waiting years for, finally has a release window and it's sooner than you think
Amazon Echo Smart Speaker
Amazon is experimenting with renaming Echo speakers to Alexa speakers, and it's about time
Shigeru Miyamoto presents Nintendo Today app
Nintendo Today smartphone app is out now on iOS and Android devices – and here's what it does