Chinese officials said last week that a foreign intelligence agency hacked several of its airlines in 2020 and stole passenger travel records:
The hacking campaign was disclosed last week by officials from the Ministry of State Security, China’s civilian intelligence, security, and secret police agency. The hacking campaign was discovered after one of China’s airlines reported a security breach to MSS officials in January 2020. Investigators said they linked the hacks to a custom trojan that the attackers used to exfiltrate passenger details and other data from this first target. A subsequent investigation found other airlines compromised in the same way. “After an in-depth investigation, it was confirmed that the attacks were carefully planned and secretly carried out by an overseas spy intelligence agency,” the MSS said in a press release distributed via state news channels last Monday. The MSS did not formally attribute the attack to any foreign agency or country.
It’s interesting to see China on the receiving end of a hack after being accused of trying to hack into anything and everything. But the thing that makes me think is the fact that the Chinese didn’t tie this to anyone. That makes this whole thing a bit suspect to me. Surely if they knew who did it, they would just say so. Thus I am not sure why they have to gain by not calling someone out unless it was a close ally or something like that. In any case, this will be interesting to watch to see if they change course and start pointing fingers at a country or intelligence agency.
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This entry was posted on November 8, 2021 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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China Says A Foreign Spy Agency Hacked Its Airlines And Stole Passenger Records
Chinese officials said last week that a foreign intelligence agency hacked several of its airlines in 2020 and stole passenger travel records:
The hacking campaign was disclosed last week by officials from the Ministry of State Security, China’s civilian intelligence, security, and secret police agency. The hacking campaign was discovered after one of China’s airlines reported a security breach to MSS officials in January 2020. Investigators said they linked the hacks to a custom trojan that the attackers used to exfiltrate passenger details and other data from this first target. A subsequent investigation found other airlines compromised in the same way. “After an in-depth investigation, it was confirmed that the attacks were carefully planned and secretly carried out by an overseas spy intelligence agency,” the MSS said in a press release distributed via state news channels last Monday. The MSS did not formally attribute the attack to any foreign agency or country.
It’s interesting to see China on the receiving end of a hack after being accused of trying to hack into anything and everything. But the thing that makes me think is the fact that the Chinese didn’t tie this to anyone. That makes this whole thing a bit suspect to me. Surely if they knew who did it, they would just say so. Thus I am not sure why they have to gain by not calling someone out unless it was a close ally or something like that. In any case, this will be interesting to watch to see if they change course and start pointing fingers at a country or intelligence agency.
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This entry was posted on November 8, 2021 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.