The US and the EU want to increase diplomatic pressure on the Chinese government. That is why they have forged an international alliance against cyberattacks from China. Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain are also on board.
Cyberattacks have increased massively in recent years. Countries such as Russia and China are increasingly coming under the spotlight. At the heart of the matter are two areas: On the one hand, the focus is on economic damage. On the other hand, the national security of the affected states is at stake.
The most recent example is the Pegasus Project, for which an international consortium of journalists analyzed 50,000 telephone numbers. The NDR, WDR, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit, among others, were involved in the research.
Together with the non-profit organization Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, as well as other international media, they have uncovered the systematic spying on journalists, politicians and opposition figures.
International alliance against cyber attacks
Therefore, since July 19, 2021, there is now an alliance between the US and the EU against cyberattacks from China. Also involved are NATO, Japan, as well as the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The cyberattacks are “a major threat to the economic and national security of the United States and its allies,” a senior U.S. government official announced Sunday evening.
This, he said, is why allies are uniting “against China’s malicious cyber activities.”
What can such an alliance accomplish?
The goal of the alliance is to “improve and increase information sharing on cyber threats and network defenses,” the official shares.
The U.S. and our allies and partners are not ruling out further action to hold the People’s Republic of China accountable.
Specific penalties, however, have not yet been announced.
Washington blames China
Hacking attacks cost the U.S. “billions of dollars in lost intellectual property, sensitive information, ransom payments and protective measures,” the White House announced Monday.
Now, for the first time, the U.S. government has officially blamed China for the March 2021 attack on Microsoft. It said the hack was “very likely” directed by the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
The European Council, however, does not go that far. The attack was carried out from Chinese territory, but there is no mention of a connection to the Ministry of State Security.
The U.S. now wants to indict four suspected hackers from the Ministry of State Security, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The list of charges includes theft of trade secrets and research findings on the Ebola vaccine.
