Microsoft seizes websites used by state-backed Chinese hacking group
- Meanwhile, Russian state hackers behind the SolarWinds campaign have continued infiltrating US and allied government agencies, a report says
- The dual announcements, though unrelated, highlight the unrelenting drumbeat of digital spying by top US geopolitical rivals
Microsoft announced on Monday that it had disrupted the cyberspying of a state-backed Chinese hacking group by seizing websites it used to gather intelligence from foreign ministries, think tanks and human rights organisations in the US and 28 other countries, the vast majority in Latin America.
The company said a Virginia federal court had granted its request last Thursday to seize 42 web domains that the Chinese hacking group, which it calls Nickel but which is also known as APT15 and Vixen Panda, were using to access targets typically aligned with China’s geopolitical interests.
It said in a blog that “a key piece of the infrastructure the group has been relying on” in its latest wave of infiltrations was removed.
Meanwhile, a leading cybersecurity firm reported on Monday that the elite Russian state hackers behind last year’s massive SolarWinds cyberespionage campaign hardly eased up this year, managing plenty of infiltrations of US and allied government agencies and foreign policy think tanks with consummate craft and stealth.
The dual announcements, though unrelated, highlight the unrelenting drumbeat of digital spying by its top US geopolitical rivals, whose cyber-intrusion skill set is matched only by that of the United States.