cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/35510976
The Czech Republic has accused China of being “responsible” for cyberattacks against a a communication network of its Foreign Ministry, officials said on Wednesday.
The Foreign Ministry in Prague said the malicious activities started in 2022 and targeted the country’s critical infrastructure, adding it believed the Advanced Persistent Threat 31, or APT31, hacking group, which is associated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security, was behind the campaign.
It was not immediately clear what specific information were seized or what damage was caused by the attacks. The Czech ministry said a new communication system has already been put in place.
Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said in a separate statement that his ministry summoned China’s ambassador to Prague to make it clear to Beijing “that such activities have serious impacts on mutual relations.”
“The government of the Czech Republic strongly condemns this malicious cyber campaign against its critical infrastructure,” the statement said. “Such behavior undermines the credibility of the People’s Republic of China and contradicts its public declarations.”
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NATO and the European Union also condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with the Czechs.
“We observe with increasing concern the growing pattern of malicious cyber activities stemming from the People’s Republic of China,” NATO said.
“This attack is an unacceptable breach of international norms,” Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said. “The EU will not tolerate hostile cyber actions.”
“We will raise them with our Chinese counterparts as well,” she went on according to Euronews. “We definitely remain ready to impose costs for these kinds of attacks.”
Kallas did not specify which sort of sanctions could be introduced, simply noting they would be designed on a “case-by-case” basis as the bloc did in the past. Under EU rules, approving sanctions requires the unanimity of all member states, a threshold that is often hard to meet due to disparate views and strategies inside the room.