A massive data leak from a Chinese cybersecurity firm has offered a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Beijing-linked hackers. Analysts say the leak is a treasure-trove of intel into the day-to-day operations of China’s hacking programme, which the FBI says is the biggest of any country.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Government agencies of China’s neighbours, including Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Cambodia, Mongolia and Vietnam, had websites or email servers compromised, the leak revealed.
I-Soon staff also boasted in leaked chats that they secured access to telecom service providers in Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Thailand and Malaysia, among others.
Judging from the leaks, most of I-Soon’s customers were provincial or local police departments – as well as province-level state security agencies responsible for protecting the Communist party from perceived threats to its rule.
In their chats, I-Soon staffers told colleagues their main focuses were making “trojan horses” – malware disguised as legitimate software that allows hackers access to private data – and building databases of personal information.
Employees’ chats are full of complaints about office politics, lack of basic tech expertise, poor pay and management, and the challenges the company faced in securing clients.
And in another leaked chat, a staffer complained to their colleague that their boss had recently bought a car worth over 1m yuan ($139,000) instead of giving their team a pay rise.
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