China's Cyberwarfare Attacks

"APT 40 almost certainly consists of elements of the Hainan State Security Department's regional MSS office."

"This group's cyber activities targeted critical research in Canada's defence, ocean technologies and biopharmaceutical sectors in separate malicious cyber campaigns in 2017 and 2018."

Global Affairs Canada

"Responsible states do not indiscriminately compromise global network security nor knowingly harbour cyber criminals -- let alone sponsor or collaborate with them."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau, speaks during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik, Iceland, Wednesday, May 19, 2021, on the sidelines of the Arctic Council Ministerial summit. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP)

 

Global Affairs Canada (Department of Foreign Affairs) has finally, publicly, named China's Ministry of State Security as the state actor responsible for organizing and orchestrating an extensive hack on Microsoft email software earlier in the year. Canada, its allies and their intelligence agencies have a high degree of confidence in charging the state intelligence agency of involvement in the attack. Canada also linked a regional office within the Ministry of State Security which had targeted Canada's defence, biopharmaceutical and oceanic technology sectors in a 2017 series of attacks extending into 2018.

Puzzlingly, with this knowledge and the ongoing warning by Canada's own intelligence agencies against China's cyber attacks, official Canada still made allowances for China and continued permitting Beijing to interfere with Canada's internal affairs, from harassing Chinese-Canadians to persuading Canadian universities to sign on to Chinese cultural programs financed by Beijing and buying out critical Canadian resource companies.. Leaving Canadian scientists working out of universities and official governmental scientific arms to sign contracts with and cooperate with Chinese research institutes and scientists.

Canada appears finally to have surrendered its fascination with China's vast outreach and the wealth that can be gained in free trade agreements with the trade behemoth and the urgency of Canadian corporations to invest in China including production and sharing of trade secrets for the promise of access to its vast market and the profit to be made therein. The massive hack of Microsoft email where over 400,000 servers were infiltrated, causing widespread shutdowns forced on government and corporate operations led to Canada and its allies casting aside kid gloves.

Microsoft referred to the company involved in the attack as a state-backed hacking group it referred to as Hafnium, involved in attempts to steal information from defence contractors, law firms and infectious disease experts. Canada, the U.K. European Union, Japan, Australia New Zealand and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, joined by the United States all contributed to statements blaming China's MSS agency for the worldwide-cyber attacks. 

 

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security is urging organizations to protect businesses that use the Microsoft Exchange server because of a massive hack aimed at stealing data. CBC

 

Global Affairs Canada identified the Microsoft attack as having likely been the work of the Advanced Persistent Threat Group 40 (APT40), representing a group with direct ties to the People's Republic of China, described as a "highly sophisticated" network, able to achieve "sustained, covert access to Canadian and allied networks beyond the compromising of Microsoft exchange servers". A 2018 strategic cyber-attack by China attempted to secure data from myriads of foreign governments at which time a similar communication was aired.

The United States, in joining forces with the other nations impacted by China's hacking has committed to instituting remedial steps to counter the hostile cyber activities. Foreign Minister Dominic Raab of the United Kingdom spoke of "irresponsible cyber activity emanating from China", even as Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne spoke of "serious concerns about malicious cyber activities by China's Ministry of State Security."

Four Chinese nationals with links to the Ministry of State Security's campaign to hack into computer systems of dozens of companies, universities and government entities in the U.S. and abroad between 2011 and 2018, were charged in the U.S. Monday, the indictment alleging the hackers targeted Ebola vaccine research among other areas. Competition with China, according to President Biden, appears one of the defining challenges of the century for the U.S.

 

Western governments said on Monday they are highly confident that hackers under the control of China’s Ministry of State Security breached the security of Microsoft Exchange, affecting 400,000 e-mail servers worldwide.   Steven Senne/The Associated Press

When the Biden administration decided to leave in place the former Trump administration's tariffs, the Chinese were taken by surprise, as well as being infuriated when the U.S. threw its support for an Australian demand on the world community through the United Nations, to have the World Health Organization conduct a deep review of how the COVID-19 pandemic began, and whether a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan might have been involved in the release of a deadly virus.

Canada's Communications Security Establishment issued over 2,500 foreign intelligence reports in 2020 to "alert and inform" officials from 28 departments and agencies of attempted cyber attacks. It was hard put to provide aid to the Government of Canada or its critical infrastructure partners no fewer than on 2,206 occasions, including 84 incidents "affecting Canada's health sector", last year. "Espionage and foreign interference activity at levels not seen since the Cold War", was identified in a separate study by CSIS, involving for the most part Chinese and Russian-backed actors.

Joe Biden and Chinese president Xi Jinping were all smiles in this file photo from when they met in 2013. President Biden now blames Chinese interests for a massive hack of the Microsoft Exchange server earlier this year. (Lintao Zhang/Reuters)