Hackers with fake news websites targeted Politicians

According to a top US security company, hackers created a fake news website to harvest data from Australian journalists, government officials, and others.

The targets of the hacker received emails claiming to be from Australian news outlets, which linked them to a malicious website. The website is populated with stolen news articles, and this would install malicious code on their device. Proofpoint, the security company, had confidence that the hackers were aligned with the Chinese government. 

Proofpoint threat detection and research vice-president Sherrod DeGrippo said that their company takes attribution very seriously, and they do not release it unless they are very confident. The security company added that a big part of the attribution comes from the fact that the US Department of Justice agrees with the released data and attribution.

According to Proofpoint, the hackers were part of a group in which four members were already charged by the US in 2021. It was when the National Cyber Security Centre in the UK said it was "almost certain" they were linked to the Chinese government. The NCSC claimed that the group has been active since 2013 and is an espionage-motivated China-based threat actor. This group targets various organizations in response to political events in the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on the South China Sea.