UK and US sanction Chinese entities for ‘malicious cyber activity’ against British MPs and Pentagon contractors
- Activity triggering first UK sanctions against China in three years also allegedly gathered data on millions of British voters
- US says China hackers have targeted victims in ‘most vital critical infrastructure sectors, including the defence industrial base’
Britain has slapped its first sanctions on Chinese state-affiliated entities in three years, a move made in response to alleged “malicious cyber activity” directed at members of parliament.
The United States simultaneously joined the move, announcing alleged hacking of victims in the country’s defence industrial base, and more broadly the “confirmed and potential compromise of work and personal email accounts, cloud storage accounts and telephone call records belonging to millions of Americans”.
British intelligence services accused China’s state-affiliated APT31 of “conducting reconnaissance activity” against a group of lawmakers who were “prominent in calling out the malign activity of China” in 2021, the government said on Monday.
In response, two individuals and one company linked to APT31 have been hit with asset freezes and travel bans.
The US said the attacks are “directly endangering US national security”. A statement from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) named the company as Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company Limited.
The company was described as a “Ministry of State Security front company that has served as cover for multiple malicious cyber operations”.
The individuals named were Zhao Guangzong and Ni Gaobin, who OFAC said are afilliated with the company. Separately, the US Justice Department announced its indictment of Zhao, Ni and five Chinese nationals for APT31 activities “in furtherance of [China’s] economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives”.
