Pierluigi Paganini
December 20, 2018
The New York Times revealed that alleged Chinese state-sponsored hackers accessed thousands of sensitive EU diplomatic cables from the EU’s diplomatic missions around the world.
The hackers carried out spear-phishing attacks aimed at EU officials in Cyprus to gain access to the diplomatic communications network.
Many of the cables are weekly reports from missions around the world, detailing conversations with leaders and officials.
The content of the cables shows concerns about how to handle the politics of US President Donald Trump as well as how to manage diplomatic relationships with China, Russia, and Iran.
“The leak, discovered by cybersecurity firm Area 1, recalls the publication by Wikileaks of a vast haul of US State Department cables in 2010, though in the EU case the trove is much smaller and consists of less secret communications, the NYT reported.” reported the AFP press.
One of the cables included info on a
meeting with
Chinese President Xi Jinping that was disappointed for
Trump’s trade tactics. Another cable is related to the EU’s diplomatic mission
in Moscow and describes the summit in Helsinki in July between Trump
and Russian President Vladimir Putin as “successful”.
There are detailed reports on the crisis in Ukraine, including a warning issued in February related to the deployment of Russian nuclear warheads in Crimea.
According to Area 1, the techniques, tactics, and procedures observed in the attacks aimed at EU Diplomatic Cables were similar to the ones associated with China-linked APT groups.
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(SecurityAffairs – Diplomatic Cables, hacking)
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