“We also identified evidence suggesting that TAG-16 shares custom capabilities with the (China’s) People’s Liberation Army-linked activity group RedFoxtrot,” the group said. Much of that campaign was attributed to a group being tracked under the temporary identifier of Threat Activity Group 16, or TAG-16, Insikt Group said. “Additional victims during the same period include organizations in Indonesia and Thailand.”

“Throughout 2021, Insikt Group tracked a persistent cyber espionage campaign targeting the prime minister’s offices, military entities, and government departments of rival South China Sea claimants Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines,” the company said.

Also targeted were Myanmar, the Philippines, Laos, Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia.Īll countries were notified in October of the findings, though it is thought that at least some of the activity is ongoing, the company said. Of the cyber intrusions it tracked, Insikt Group said Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam were the top three targeted countries. In the past, Chinese authorities have consistently denied any form of state-sponsored hacking, instead saying China itself is a major target of cyberattacks. “We believe this activity is highly likely to be a state actor as the observed long term targeted intrusions into high value government and political targets is consistent with cyberespionage activity, coupled with identified technical links to known Chinese state-sponsored activity,” the company told The Associated Press.Ĭhina’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations. The targeting also aligns with the political and economic goals of the Chinese government, bolstering the suspicion it is state-sponsored, Insikt said. Those custom tools are not publicly available and are used by multiple groups believed to be Chinese state-sponsored, the group said.

Insikt said it determined that the high-profile military and government organizations in Southeast Asia had been compromised over the last nine months by hackers using custom malware families such as FunnyDream and Chinoxy. Specific targets included the Thai prime minister’s office and the Thai army, the Indonesian and Philippine navies, Vietnam’s national assembly and the central office of its Communist Party, and Malaysia’s Ministry of Defense, according to the Insikt Group, the threat research division of Massachusetts-based Recorded Future. BANGKOK (AP) - Chinese hackers, likely state-sponsored, have been broadly targeting government and private-sector organizations across Southeast Asia, including those closely involved with Beijing on infrastructure development projects, according to a report released Wednesday by a U.S.-based private cybersecurity company.

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