Australia, New Zealand, and Allies Say China Behind Malicious Cyber Activity

CYBERWAR: The Chinese Communist Party has been developing cyberwarfare capabilities since the late 1990s. Beijing has been accused of by U.S and its allies of hiring hackers to regularly carry out cyber-espionage against Western governments and businesses. Courtesy of U.S. Department of Defence

Australia and New Zealand (NZ) have joined the United States in attributing malicious cyber activity to China’s Ministry of State Security and said they are deeply disturbed by Beijing using criminal contract hackers to back its state-run cyberattacks against targets worldwide.

In media releases issued late Monday night, both the Australian and New Zealand governments called out the Chinese regime for its exploitation of vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Exchange software, which affected thousands of computers and networks worldwide, including in Australia and New Zealand.