The Belgian MP Corati was attacked by hackers, and the Belgian government named the Chinese government as a link to the attack.

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(Reuters file photo)

[Compiler Guan Shuping/Comprehensive Report] The British "Financial Times" reported on the 1st that the Belgian government's cyber security agency is investigating the hacking case of MP Samuel Cogolati, and believes that the case is a group of Chinese government-backed hackers. Hackers do.

The Belgian government named the Chinese government as a link to the attack, underscoring the growing willingness of European governments to challenge China over cyberattacks.

The Belgian government revealed last month that the target of a cyber attack in January 2021 was MP Korati, who was drafting a resolution warning China of "crimes against humanity" against Uyghur Muslims.

The Belgian Cyber ​​Security Center (CCB) has been informed that the spear-phishing attack was most likely carried out by a Chinese state-backed actor called APT31, according to a letter seen by the Financial Times.

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Belgian government information security agencies are willing to name hackers associated with the Chinese government and point out specific attacks. At a time when European security agencies are increasingly abandoning past hesitation and publicly naming China for suspected incidents.

Christopher Ahlberg, co-founder of US cyber-intelligence firm Recorded Future, said such malicious activity by groups linked to China has "turned to Europe" in recent years, but countries are concerned about damaging their economies. relations, and generally refuses to publicly blame China for the attacks, "a pretty courageous move for a small country like Belgium".

Korati received an email from a fake news organization claiming to have material on human rights violations in China.

"We have reason to believe that this series of emails was written by APT31, a China-linked threat actor that has previously demonstrated an intent to target those critical of the CCP's actions," the CCB letter said.

One source linked APT31 to the attack, the CCB told the Financial Times, but the CCB could not confirm the extent of its involvement with full confidence.

Kollati confirmed that he had received the CCB warning, saying that his main goal now is to "fully expose the extent of my country's cyber attacks on our country."

The Chinese embassy in Belgium has yet to respond to the incident referred to in the CCB letter.

Belgium was also hit by a large-scale cyber attack in May 2021, which paralyzed more than 200 government and academic institutions. At that time, Congress was forced to postpone a hearing with Uyghur victims.