World News | US warns Chinese hackers against ‘critical’ infrastructure

washington [US]May 27 (ANI): The United States, its Western allies and Microsoft say state-sponsored Chinese hackers have infiltrated critical U.S. infrastructure networks, Standard Media reported, while warning that similar attacks could occur globally.

Microsoft highlighted Guam, a U.S. Pacific territory with a key military outpost, as one of its targets, but said “malicious” activity had also been detected elsewhere in the U.S.

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Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization across media platforms, with businesses in newspaper print, television, radio broadcasting and digital and online services. Standard Group is recognized as Kenya’s leading multimedia company with key influence in matters of national and international interest.

It said the covert attack by a Chinese-sponsored actor known as “Typhoon Volt” since mid-2021 has enabled long-term espionage and may be aimed at hindering the United States in the event of conflict in the region.

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“Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that Operation Volt is seeking to develop capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and the Asian region during future crises,” the statement said.

“Affected organizations in this campaign span the communications, manufacturing, utilities, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology and education sectors,” the statement further read.

Microsoft’s announcement coincided with warnings from authorities in the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom that the hacking could occur around the world, Standard Media reported.

“This activity impacted the networks of U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, and the authors believe attackers could apply the same techniques to these and other sectors globally,” they said.

The U.S. and its allies say the campaigns involve “living off the land” tactics, using built-in networking tools to integrate with ordinary Windows systems.

It warned that the hack could include seemingly “benign” legitimate system administration commands.

Microsoft said the Volt Typhoon attack attempted to blend into normal network activity by routing traffic through infected small office and home office network devices, including routers, firewalls, and VPN hardware, Microsoft said, Standard Media reported.

“They have also been observed using customized versions of open source tools,” Microsoft said.

Microsoft and security agencies have released guidelines for organizations trying to detect and counter the hack.

Easterly, director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said that China has been stealing intellectual property and data around the world for many years.

“Today’s advisory, issued with our U.S. and international partners, reflects how China is using highly sophisticated means to target our nation’s critical infrastructure,” Easterly said.

China did not immediately respond to the allegations. But it has frequently denied conducting state-sponsored cyberattacks, Standard Media reported.

China, in turn, frequently accuses the United States of engaging in cyber espionage. (Arnie)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)