The U.S. Justice Department indicted seven Chinese state-sponsored hackers, charging them for running a 14-year-long campaign that worked to discredit voices from politicians to business owners while bolstering pro-CCP voices. The UK moved to sanction the hackers and the company they worked for, accusing them and their company of hacking into accounts of UK parliamentarians and their electoral commission system.
Attorney General Merrick Garland stated, “The Justice Department will not tolerate efforts by the Chinese government to intimidate Americans who serve the public, silence the dissidents who are protected by American laws, or steal from American businesses. This case serves as a reminder of the ends to which the Chinese government is willing to go to target and intimidate its critics, including launching malicious cyber operations aimed at threatening the national security of the United States and our allies.”
Excerpt from www.washingtonpost.com
The British government joined the Biden administration on Monday in sanctioning the hackers and company for targeting parliamentarians and U.K. electoral commission systems between 2021 and 2022. The government also summoned the Chinese ambassador to Britain, officials in London said.
The two allies are seeking to send a strong message to Beijing that malicious cyber activities that endanger national security and seek to repress dissidents abroad are unacceptable and violate international norms, U.S. and British officials said.