Security News > 2020 > May > Report: Chinese-linked hacking group has been infiltrating APAC governments for years
Security firm Check Point has found evidence that a Chinese government-linked hacking group has been infiltrating and gathering information on governments from around the Asia-Pacific region for more than five years.
The group, known as Naikon Advanced Persistent Threat was first discovered in 2015, and after a report went public that named one of its members the group went silent.
Now, in 2020, research from Check Point suggests the group has remained active, and has been found targeting governments in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, and Brunei.
"Our investigation started when we observed a malicious email sent from a government embassy in APAC to the Australian government, named The Indians Way.doc. This RTF file, which was infected with the 'RoyalRoad' exploit builder, drops a loader named intel.wll into the target PC's Word startup folder," Check Point said in the report.
While the attack may not appear to be targeting governments outside the APAC region, examples like these should serve as warnings to other governments and private organizations worried about cybersecurity threats.