Microsoft’s cybersecurity has detected a China-backed attack on U.S. communications infrastructure. The attack was targeted primarily in the U.S territory of Guam, a Pacific ocean island that is central to a potential U.S. response to Chinese aggression against Taiwan.
Microsoft published its analysis of the attack on its security blog earlier this week, identifying the culprits as Volt Typhoon, a state-sponsored hacking group in China.
Attempting to unravel Volt Typhoon’s goal, Microsoft stated its belief that the objective was to disrupt U.S. communications to the Pacific region.
“Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that this Volt Typhoon campaign is pursuing development of capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises,” wrote the company.
“The affected organizations span the communications, manufacturing, utility, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology, and education sectors. Observed behavior suggests that the threat actor intends to perform espionage and maintain access without being detected for as long as possible.”
In a joint bulletin, agencies for the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing community of the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand advised companies on how to respond to the attack.
The government of China, meanwhile, denies any involvement. In a statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning accused the Five Eyes nations of spreading “disinformation.”
“It’s widely known that the Five Eyes (an intelligence alliance between the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) is the world’s biggest intelligence association and the NSA the world’s biggest hacking group,” said Ning. “It is ironic that the Five Eyes jointly released a report filled with disinformation.”
“This has been a collective disinformation campaign launched by the US through the Five Eyes to serve its geopolitical agenda.”
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.