China warns foreign hackers are infiltrating ‘hundreds’ of business and government networks – Technologist

It did not identify the hacking group’s name or location.

US moves against cybersecurity ‘risk’ posed by China-made port infrastructure

Beijing has expanded efforts in cybersecurity compliance in recent years amid a perceived increase in attacks by foreign agencies.

The WeChat post cited an example of a typical attack in which a “hi-tech enterprise” was blackmailed after its infosystem and data were encrypted and controlled by the foreign hacking group, interrupting daily operations.

It said hackers often used phishing emails, targeted software loopholes and injected code to gain access to a victim’s device. The ministry urged people and organisations to report any attacks or ransom threats to national security authorities.

The ministry said earlier this week on WeChat that foreign forces had increased efforts to spy on and collect information from Chinese “information infrastructure”, creating “real threats” to national security.

It stressed that authorities have the right to “freeze assets or [impose] other sanctions” if foreign individuals or organisations “attack, invade, interfere, or damage” the country’s critical information infrastructure.

Chinese security agencies tell students studying abroad to beware of spy risk

China enacted the Cybersecurity Law in 2016 to establish a framework for cyberspace sovereignty and to govern the storage and transfer of personal information and important data by network operators.

It later implemented the Data Security Law in 2021 to further regulate the ways that data should be managed and processed.

The country has intensified its monitoring of small and medium-sized enterprises to implement technical safety measures. It is also preparing to expand the severity and scope of penalties for data protection violations under the Cybersecurity Law this year.

China has expanded counter-espionage efforts in recent years, including expanding the scope of its anti-espionage law last year to cover cyberattacks. Beijing has increasingly warned of intelligence threats from overseas and accused the US of hacking networks like Huawei’s.

But China has also been accused of breaching foreign government networks and planting malware in US infrastructure networks – an accusation it has consistently denied.