An unauthorized online cache of more than 500 documents that was recently leaked has allegedly revealed that the Chinese government has been working with hackers to surveil foreign countries.
The documents, posted anonymously on the developer website, Github, include gathered information about foreign countries including Australia, Vietnam, UK, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, and India.
The hackers suspected to be working for the Chinese government are supposedly from the private Chinese hacking contractor known as I-Soon. I-Soon is a company composed of hackers that have been accused of offering their hacking skills to individuals looking to spy on targets. These targets, shown on the documents, range from users on the platform X, to government officials.
This recent leak of information has given the public much more insight into the growing market of hacking operations in China, and the relationship between the Chinese government and hackers. It is suspected that Chinese state agents are some of the largest customers of I-Soon, and are responsible for supporting and paying for the information about foreign targets.
Additionally, I-Soon has been known to have public relationships with China’s Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of State Security, People’s Liberation Army, and more. The company is also known to provide cybersecurity training across China.
“We have every reason to believe this is the authentic data of a contractor supporting global and domestic cyber espionage operations out of China. This leak is narrow, but it is deep. We rarely get such unfettered access to the inner workings of any intelligence operation. We are working hard to learn as much as we can and put it to good use,” John Hultquist, the chief analyst for Mandant Intelligence in Google Cloud, said.
The leaked documents are composed of all sorts of online files, including chat logs, lists of contracts, marketing presentations, employee lists, NATO’s military alliance, academic institutions, and more. Although the information seems random and could have been easily made up, multiple United States cybersecurity experts have publicly stated that they believe the information to be authentic, which has raised alarms for many governments, and companies.
“I feel like this topic should be more mainstream, I’ve barely heard anything about what this hacking organization has been doing. It’s terrifying that something like this, that could easily become much more relevant, has hardly been mentioned,” NHS freshman Lexi Young said.
According to the documents, I-Soon has stated that they have the ability to hack into multiple U.S companies including Microsoft and Apple. I-Soon has also shown consistent interest in social media platforms such as X and Facebook, as the Chinese government is not in control of the platforms- allowing there to be dissidents.
As of February 2024, I-Soon has not released a statement about the documents, or said when they will release a statement.
What this leak of information means to America and other countries has not been determined, but instead has opened many possibilities. The documents confirmed that despite the US government’s efforts, China has evaded many of America’s attempts to repress their considerable hacking capabilities.
“I think that the people behind this should get in some sort of trouble for doing this. It doesn’t seem like it should even be allowed for a government to spy on other governments online,” NHS freshman Sierra Marx said.
Although this leak came as a surprise to many, the US government and multiple other governments are taking advantage of this rare opportunity to have a better understanding of the normally disclosed information pertaining to the Chinese government.