Google intercepts Chinese-affiliated hacker groups from carrying out international cyber attacks

 

These Chinese-linked hackers attacked 53 organizations globally across 42 countries in cyberattacks.

According to the company's findings, which were exclusively shared with Reuters, the hacking gang, known by the names UNC2814 and "Gallium," has a history of infiltrating government agencies and telecom firms dating back over ten years. 

According to John Hultquist, head analyst at Google Threat Intelligence Group, "this was a vast surveillance apparatus used to spy on people and organizations throughout the world." 

In addition to terminating Google Cloud projects under the hacking organization's control, Google and its unidentified partners also identified and disabled the internet infrastructure the group was utilizing and blocked the accounts it used to access Google Sheets, which it utilized to conduct its targeting and data theft operations. .

The group was able to avoid detection and blend in with regular network traffic by using Google Sheets, which did not affect any Google products.

Charlie Snyder, senior manager of Google Threat Intelligence Group, refused to name the hacked organizations, but said that in one instance, the gang had set up a backdoor, Google called "GRIDTIDE" on a system that had voter IDs, national ID numbers, dates of birth, places of birth, and full names. 

According to the corporation, the targeting aligns with attempts to identify and monitor specific targets. 

Similar campaigns have been used to monitor SMS messages, exfiltrate call data records, and even use the telco's legal intercept capabilities to monitor specific individuals."

Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy says "Cybersecurity is a common challenge faced by all countries and should be addressed through dialogue and cooperation,"  

China adamantly condemns attempts to utilize cyber security issues to disparage or vilify China. while also continuously opposing and combating hacking activities in compliance with the law. 

Google stated that the behavior is different from another well-known Chinese hacking incident that was centered on telecommunications and was known as "Salt Typhoon." Hundreds of American groups and well-known American politicians were the targets of that campaign, which the U.S. government has connected to China.