Free Republic

Every year ahead of the June 4 commemoration of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Chinese government tightens online censorship to suppress domestic discussion of the event. Critics, dissidents and international groups anticipate an uptick in cyber activity ranging from emails with malicious links to network attacks in the days and weeks leading up to the anniversary.Much of this cyber activity by Beijing is done covertly. But a recent restructuring of China’s cyberforce and a document leak exposing the activities of Chinese tech firm i-Soon have shed some light on how Beijing goes about the business of hacking.As a China expert...

A trove of leaked documents from a Chinese state-linked hacking group shows that Beijing’s intelligence and military groups are attempting large-scale, systematic cyber intrusions against foreign governments, companies and infrastructure — with hackers of one company claiming to be able to target users of Microsoft, Apple and Google. The cache — containing more than 570 files, images and chat logs — offers an unprecedented look inside the operations of one of the firms that Chinese government agencies hire for on-demand, mass data-collecting operations. The files — posted to GitHub last week and deemed credible by cybersecurity experts, although the source...

The leaked documents supposedly discuss spyware developed by I-Soon, a Chinese infosec company, that’s targeting social media platforms, telecommunications companies, and other organizations worldwide. Researchers suspect the operations are orchestrated by the Chinese government. Unknown individuals allegedly leaked a trove of Chinese government documents on GitHub. The documents reveal how China conducts offensive cyber operations with spyware developed by I-Soon, Taiwanese threat intelligence researcher Azaka Sekai claims. While several researchers have analyzed the supposedly leaked documents, no official confirmation of their veracity exists as of the writing of this article. We have reached out to I-Soon but did not receive...