by Daniel Croft 07 December 2022
Amnesty International has said that it has been targeted by a China-sponsored cyber attack.
The breach was first detected by the human rights organisation on 5 October, when hackers attempted to search for data specific to China, Hong Kong and several high-profile Chinese activists.
The organisation was left offline for a period of almost three weeks, during which time it hired cyber security experts from Secureworks to investigate the breach.
Findings indicate the work of an advanced persistent threat group (APT), which Secureworks called “a threat group, sponsored or tasked by the Chinese state”, due to the searches involved, the lack of monetisation attempt, the sophistication of the attack and the tools used, which are known to be used by Chinese state-sponsored hackers.
“This assessment is based on the nature of the targeted information, as well as the observed tools and behaviours, which are consistent with those associated with Chinese cyber espionage threat groups,” said the Amnesty International Canada release.