On February 23 of this year, Ukrainian websites were attacked by hackers allegedly linked to China. As a representative of Western intelligence told the BBC channel, the cybercriminals’ target was espionage.
Hackers attacked a number of Ukrainian government and commercial organizations, including organizations related to nuclear energy. Some Western officials believe that the incident was much larger and affected systems in Russia, Belarus and Poland.
Allegedly, the attacks were more amateurish and “noisy” than usual, as if the hackers were not particularly worried about their secrecy. In addition, unlike the usual behavior of Chinese cybercriminals, hackers began their campaign with Western infrastructure.
Chinese attackers could take advantage of the military conflict on the territory of Ukraine to spy not only on Ukraine, but also on Russia, Belarus and other countries. The criminals wanted to carry out their operations under a “false flag”, trying to redirect suspicions to Western governments.