The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium reported multiple cyber-attacks by Chinese state-backed groups targeting the country’s defense and sovereignty. The foreign minister of Belgium has recently confirmed the attacks by saying, “Belgium exposes malicious cyber activities that significantly affected our sovereignty, democracy, security and society at large by targeting the FPS Interior and the Belgian Defence.”
They added that cyber attacks are being conducted with the help of Chinese Advanced Persistent Threats by gaining access into the system being undetected by the organization’s network. They said, “Belgium assesses these malicious cyber activities to have been undertaken by Chinese Advanced Persistent Threats (APT).”
The United Nations members have urged the Chinese authorities to take strict action against the malicious activity originating from their country. The Belgian government has segregated the threat groups which are associated with the cyber attack, such as APT27, APT30, APT31, and another threat group with multiple names like Gallium, Softcell, and UNSC 2814.
The ministry said, “We have detected malicious cyber activities that targeted the FPS Interior. These activities can be linked to the hacker groups known as Advanced Persistent Threat 27, Advanced Persistent Threat 30, Advanced Persistent Threat 31…..We have detected malicious cyber activities that targeted the Belgian Defence. These activities can be linked to the hacker groups known as UNSC 2814/GALLIUM/SOFTCELL.”
However, the Chinese Embassy in Belgium has denied the accusations claiming a lack of evidence by saying, “t is extremely unserious and irresponsible of the Belgian side to issue a statement about the so-called ‘malicious cyberattacks’ by Chinese hackers without any evidence.” They further added, “On the one hand, the Belgian side refuses to provide the factual basis and, on the other hand, it makes groundless accusations and deliberately denigrates and smears China.”
