Hackers based in China’s Tsinghua University were trying to get details before and after the delegation’s visit, a newly released report says
Hackers operating from an elite Chinese university probed American companies and government departments for espionage opportunities following a US trade delegation visit to China earlier this year, security researchers told Reuters.
Cybersecurity firm Recorded Future said the group used computers at China’s Tsinghua University to target US energy and communications companies, as well as the Alaskan state government, in the weeks before and after Alaska’s trade mission to China. Led by Governor Bill Walker, representatives of companies and economic development agencies spent a week in China in May.
Organizations involved in the trade mission were subject to focused attention from Chinese hackers, underscoring the tensions around an escalating tit-for-tat trade war between Washington and Beijing. China was Alaska’s largest foreign trading partner in 2017, with over US $1.32 billion in exports.
Recorded Future said in a report released on Thursday that the websites of Alaskan internet service providers and government offices were closely inspected in May by university computers searching for security flaws, which can be used by hackers to break into normally locked and confidential systems.
The Alaskan government was again scanned for software vulnerabilities in June, just 24 hours after Walker said he would raise concerns in Washington about the economic damage caused by the US-China trade dispute.
A Tsinghua University official, reached by telephone, said the allegations were false. “This is baseless.
