14 DAY TRIAL // Security researchers from FireEye say they’ve found evidence that Chinese hackers breached the systems of five European ministries just before the G20 Summit that took place in September in Russia. The countries have not been named, but experts say they’re all members of the European Union.
According to Reuters, the hackers sent out emails regarding the crisis in Syria to employees of the targeted ministries. The malicious messages carried files named something like “US_military_options_in_Syria.”
The fact that the messages referenced Syria isn’t surprising, considering that the country was the center of discussions during the summit.
Just before the summit, the hackers moved to another server. That’s when FireEye researchers lost access to their activities. However, experts believe the cybercriminals were just about to steal information regarding G20.
FireEye is confident that the hackers are from China – a group which they’ve been monitoring for quite some time called “Ke3chang.” However, experts say there’s no evidence that they’re connected in any way to the Chinese government.