U.S. and British officials have taken significant actions, filing charges, imposing sanctions, and accusing China of conducting an extensive cyberespionage campaign. This operation allegedly affected millions of individuals, including lawmakers, academics, journalists, and companies, including defense contractors.
Referred to as “Advanced Persistent Threat 31” or “APT31,” the hacking group has been identified as an arm of China’s Ministry of State Security, according to authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. The list of targets includes White House staffers, U.S. senators, British parliamentarians, and government officials worldwide critical of Beijing, along with defense contractors, dissidents, and security companies.
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Lisa Monaco stated that the primary objective of this global hacking operation was to stifle critics of the Chinese regime, compromise government institutions, and steal trade secrets.
An indictment unsealed on Monday charges seven alleged Chinese hackers, with U.S. prosecutors revealing that the hacking led to confirmed or potential compromises of work accounts, personal emails, online storage, and telephone call records belonging to millions of Americans. Meanwhile, officials in London accused APT31 of targeting British lawmakers critical of China and another group of Chinese spies for hacking Britain’s electoral watchdog, compromising data of millions in the UK.
Chinese diplomats in Britain and the U.S. dismissed the allegations as unfounded, with the Chinese Embassy in London labeling the charges as “completely fabricated and malicious slanders.”
As part of their response, both Britain and the U.S. imposed sanctions on a firm identified as a Ministry of State Security front company linked to the hacking activity.