New Zealand Warns Of Impending Mass Hacking Operation

New Zealand’s national cyber security agency (NCSC-NZ)  is warning about a mass hacking operation underway and perpetrated by the Chinese state-sponsored Salt Typhoon hacking group. This operation is similar in scope to the recent attack on US telecoms services, which succeeded in listening  to telephone conversations, intercepting text messages and stealing user data.

The NCSC-NZ has published its advisory following detailed consultation with US cyber security agencies, following their recent warning that  Salt Typhoon has penetrated leading telecoms and broadband operation across the USA.

"This advisory details the best protection against a People’s Republic of China… that has compromised networks of major global telecommunications providers... New Zealand organisations operate similar networks to our international partners so we encourage New Zealand telecommunications and other organisations with on-premises enterprise equipment to apply the best practices outlined in this guide."

The US exploit has resulted has generated a high level of concern following classified briefings to the US President Joe Biden and Senators by the security agencies. An unnamed US  official told reporters that, "We do not believe it's every cell phone in the country, but we believe it's potentially a large number of individuals that the Chinese government was focused on." 

The leading US mobile operator Verizon said it became aware several weeks ago that a "highly sophisticated" attack had got into its networks. According to  US Senator Rick Scott, who attended the Presidential briefing, "They have not told us why they didn't catch it; what they could have done to prevent it,"

The NCSC-NZ  advisory is the latest of several such warnings  about cyber attacks against New Zealand's infrastructure and institutions which  the government has blamed on  China.

NCSC-NZ   |   GCSB   |   RNZ   |   CISA   |   New Zealand Govt.   |    Washington Post   

Image: Astrid Querubin

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