The US has taken the unusual step taking a shot at China over the hacking of Microsoft. This March, Microsoft reported that at least 30,000 customers were affected by a hack that allowed outsiders to access the firm’s email and calendar service through a software loophole previously unknown to the company. Volexity, the cybersecurity firm that first discovered the Exchange breach, and Microsoft concluded the attacks originated from China and appeared to be state-sponsored.
This has now led to the U.S. Justice Department charging four Chinese citizens from China’s secretive ministry of state security who are alleged to have hacked into the computer networks of dozens of companies, universities and government entities. China denies this:
“The U.S. ganged up with its allies and launched an unwarranted accusation against China on cybersecurity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Tuesday at a regular press briefing in Beijing. “It is purely a smear and suppression out of political motives. China will never accept this.”
But this is likely the beginning according to Director of Enterprise Security at Darktrace, David Masson:
“We have entered a new era of cyber-threat – attacks are increasing in speed, sophistication, and scale with malicious software like ransomware being able to encrypt an organization’s entire digital infrastructure in seconds. Even more alarmingly, geopolitical tensions are being played out in cyber battles with organizations getting caught in the crossfire.
Although it is difficult to attribute these attacks to any single nation-state, our government should take every opportunity to pressure cyber-criminals and grow international condemnation in the hopes of resetting the current state of unchecked nation and non-nation state cyber-aggression targeting countries globally. This lack of a unified strong and significant international response only further emboldens nation-state driven or sponsored cyber-attacks against the private sector and government institutions.
Canada can lead the way in putting every nation state and cybercriminal group, whether state-sponsored, supported, or simply sheltered, on notice that cyber-attacks will not only be taken extremely seriously, but that there could be a high cost where those responsible are held accountable through all levers of national power.
The priority must be protecting Canadian businesses and institutions from cyber-attacks that pose a threat to both economic and national security.”
Hopefully Canadian businesses, if not all businesses take heed of this warning.