Amnesty International in Hong Kong ‘targeted by state-sponsored hackers’
- Cyberattack was consistent with those carried out by hostile groups linked to the Chinese government, London-based human rights organisation says
The Hong Kong branch of London-based human rights group Amnesty International has said it was targeted by state-sponsored hackers in a cyberattack “consistent with those carried out by hostile groups linked to the Chinese government”.
Security monitoring tools had found suspicious activity on the organisation’s local IT systems in March, Amnesty said in a statement on Thursday night.
Cybersecurity experts had been deployed to safeguard the systems and launch an investigation, the group said. The attacks were carried out using tools and techniques associated with several hacking groups specialising in advanced persistent threats (APT), according to Amnesty. An APT is an attack in which intruders establish an illicit, long-term presence on a network to mine sensitive data, usually on behalf of a state.
“Cyber forensic experts were able to establish links between the infrastructure used in this attack and previously reported APT campaigns associated with the Chinese government,” the non-governmental rights advocacy group said.
A spokeswoman said supporters’ names, Hong Kong identity card numbers and personal contacts were among the information compromised. But no financial information such as credit card numbers or bank account details were lost.