Czech Republic: Hacker attack on the Ministry Alerts NATO and EU
A suspected Chinese hacker attack against the Foreign Ministry in the Czech Republic NATO and the EU. In a joint explanation of the 32 NATO countries it says that the increasing malicious is observed with growing concern Cyber activitiesthe one from the People’s Republic of China go out and be determined to fight them. At the same time, the EU announced that it is ready to take further measures if necessary. Sanctions had also included this in the past.
According to official information, the attack against the Foreign Ministry of the NATO and EU state has already started in 2022. According to information from the Czech news portal Seznamzpravy.cz, China was presumably able to read emails by Czech diplomats for years. According to previous investigations, the cyberspionage group APT31 (Advanced Persistent Threat 31), which is assigned to the Ministry of State Security of the People’s Republic of China, is to be behind the attack on the communication network of the Foreign Ministry.
Kallas: unacceptable violation of international standards
According to the official information, the Czech domestic, foreign and military secret services and the National Authority for Cyber and Information Security were involved in the comprehensive investigations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that the infiltrated communication network was not used for the exchange of information classified as a secret.
Hospitals in Luxembourg defy hacker attacks – still
The EU had initially imposed sanctions against Hacker from China in 2020. At that time, alleged members of the Chinese hacker group APT10 were affected, who are said to have attacked IT service providers all over the world in a campaign called « Cloud Hopper ».
The EU foreign representative Kaja Kallas now explained to the attack on the Foreign Ministry in Prague in social networks: « Today, the EU is responsible for an actor supported by the Chinese state for a malignant cyber campaign against the Czech Republic. » This is a clear and unacceptable violation of international norms.
