Cybersecurity firm, Crowdstrike, says that UK think tanks are being repeatedly targeted by Chinese hacking groups. Crowdstrike says that beginning in April 2017, it saw repeated targeting of British think tanks specialising in international security and defense issues.
The firm said it has investigated the breaches and attributes these attacks to groups they call “Panda,” which Crowdstrike said are China-based and linked to the Chinese state.
Crowdstrike was reportedly called in by some of the think tanks to investigate the attacks, help in clean-up, and protect their security. According to a report by BBC, not all attacks were successful.
The company also said that in 2017, Chinese cyber activity increased all over the world, targets including universities, law firms, technology companies across the world.
According to Dmitri Alperovitch, Crowdstrike’s co-founder and CTO, think tanks that work on Chinese policy were targeted “very aggressively” in an attempt to steal reports and information relating to connections with the government.
He said that this was because they believe the think tanks are influential in US and UK, saying "they believe that they may have access to information which is not public.”
According to Alperovitch, the hackers would persist and try to get back in even after they had been kicked out.
The firm said it has investigated the breaches and attributes these attacks to groups they call “Panda,” which Crowdstrike said are China-based and linked to the Chinese state.
Crowdstrike was reportedly called in by some of the think tanks to investigate the attacks, help in clean-up, and protect their security. According to a report by BBC, not all attacks were successful.
The company also said that in 2017, Chinese cyber activity increased all over the world, targets including universities, law firms, technology companies across the world.
According to Dmitri Alperovitch, Crowdstrike’s co-founder and CTO, think tanks that work on Chinese policy were targeted “very aggressively” in an attempt to steal reports and information relating to connections with the government.
He said that this was because they believe the think tanks are influential in US and UK, saying "they believe that they may have access to information which is not public.”
According to Alperovitch, the hackers would persist and try to get back in even after they had been kicked out.