Cyber Security is a real concern for each telecom provider these days, as the services they bring (from communication to money transactions) can be used for a government, an official, an organization, or a militant group to survey or know political interests of one’s public. But it becomes a threat to privacy and defense when the information of an entity accessible to a threat actor, a hacker or an attacker. We know the cybercrime is rising fast, and a similar case we brought to you in which hackers overcame a dozen international telecom providers to steal data.
Some suspected Chinese hackers have infiltrated into at least 10 network providers to gain access to private data of some targeted people. The affected network providers are surprisingly from overseas regions including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
The hackers attacked for an alleged campaign is known as ‘Operating Soft Cell’ targeted 20 military officials, dissidents, spies, and law enforcement tied to China. The info comes from The Wall Street Journal, citing for security concerns with officials, the source excuses for revealing the impacted telecom companies and entities names.
A Chinese threat actor group, APT10 is allegedly involved in hacking, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The other countries Australia, Japan, and the UK are also accusing China of attempting to hack their official’s accounts and local companies.
Cybereason Chief Executive Lior Div from the US, which first detected the threat, gave a briefing on how the suspected Beijing offensives attacked and stole call records, texts, location, log-in credentials, accounts, and credit card details. This would help them to create a window of an individual’s daily life circle or routine for tracking.
Mr. Div stood surprised on persistent hacking overseas companies and tracking targeted persons. It had never happened in history before. Mr. Div claimed China for espionage is itself support APT10 intelligence team. However, China declined such a claim. Mr. Div gave relevant evidence to officials and reported all the IP addresses, protocols, and domain servers are directing from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Mr. Div told the hackers first used ‘Spear Phishing’ to infiltrate into a network, they stole log-in credentials and access the servers, and then they create admin accounts and use VPNs to disguise as employee, now they obtain data records, location and call logs, and in the final step they have a scenario to track a person.
The Cybereason is investigating. We don’t know how long it would take to complete but hopefully soon. Beware of giving any personal details on the net, and make assure your telecom service provider is safe and reliable.