The Czech government on Wednesday condemned China for a cyberattack on its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during which thousands of uncategorized emails were compromised.
Czech authorities stated that the Chinese state-sponsored hacker group Advanced Persistent Threat 31 (APT31) had been targeting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2022 – the year in which the Czech Republic held the presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) – and that the group managed to read uncategorized email correspondence between embassies and EU institutions.
Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said he would immediately summon the Chinese ambassador to present him with the findings of the investigation and warn that this incident would damage the bilateral relations between the two countries.
“With today’s action, we have exposed China, which has long been acting with the goal of undermining our resilience and democracy. Through cyberattacks, information manipulation, and propaganda, China is interfering in our society – and we must stand against it,” Lipavsky declared.
This is the first time that the Czech government attributes a state-sponsored cyberattack to a specific country.
The investigation was conducted by Czech security and intelligence services: the Security Information Service, Military Intelligence Service, Office for Foreign Relations and Information, and the National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NUKIB), and the authorities have gained a high degree of confidence regarding the identity of the attackers.
APT31, according to data from the United States (U.S.) Department of Justice operates under the auspices of China’s Ministry of State Security from the city of Wuhan.
This group had previously been accused of high-profile attacks, including the hacking of personal emails of members of then-U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020. In 2024, the United Kingdom (UK) and the U.S. imposed sanctions on individuals connected with APT31.
The alleged Chinese hacking provoked outrage in Brussels, among senior EU officials, and at NATO headquarters.
“The EU and its member states, together with international partners, express solidarity with the Czech Republic regarding the malicious cyber campaign that was directed at its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We call on all states, including China, to refrain from such behavior, to respect international law, and to adhere to United Nations (UN) norms and principles, including those related to critical infrastructure,” stated the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas.
NATO also responded to the matter.
“Cyber threats persistently seek to destabilize the Alliance. We are determined in our efforts to detect and counter significant, continuous, and increasingly intense threats in the cyber domain, including threats to our democratic systems and critical infrastructure. We are committed to further strengthening our capabilities and resilience, and to using all available tools to deter, defend against, and combat all forms of cyber threats, and to support one another,” NATO said in a statement on Wednesday, Klix.ba writes
