A phishing attack targeting Chinese officials working on the country’s coronavirus response has been linked to a hacker group with ties to Vietnam’s government, according to a report from cybersecurity company FireEye.
The digital defence venture alleged that hacking group APT32 had attempted to access the personal and professional email addresses of staff at China’s Ministry of Emergency Management and the government of Wuhan.
APT32 allegedly sent Chinese officials phishing emails with tracking links that would report back to the hackers once clicked as it would indicate that they would be susceptible to malware attacks.
“While targeting of East Asia is consistent with the activity we’ve previously reported on APT32, this incident, and other publicly reported intrusions, are part of a global increase in cyber espionage related to the crisis, carried out by states desperately seeking solutions and nonpublic information,” the researchers said.
FireEye argued that the attacks came as the COVID-19 crisis has caused a lot of distrust and uncertainty between governments, which has motivated “intelligence collection on a scale that rivals armed conflict.”
And these attacks might not be the last one. “Until this crisis ends, we anticipate related cyber espionage will continue to intensify globally,” said FireEye in the report.
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