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Hyping-up of “Chinese hacker infiltration” irresponsible – Chinese Embassy
Kaieteur News – The Chinese Embassy in Guyana on Tuesday called the hyping-up of an alleged “Chinese hacker Infiltration” of Guyana government irresponsible.
The embassy’s response came hours after the National Data Management Authority’s (NDMA’s) released statement saying that there has been no successful infiltration of the Government of Guyana’s network system. “China opposes and fights all forms of hacking in accordance with the law”, the embassy stated while adding “…we reject any irresponsible hyping-up of so-called “Chinese hacker infiltration.”
In the statement, the embassy continued that cyber security is a common challenge for countries including China and Guyana. “China, as always, will collaborate with Guyana to safeguard cybersecurity through bilateral dialogue, law enforcement cooperation and other means”, the embassy said.
Chinese Ambassador to Guyana, Guo Haiyan
On Thursday last a cyber security firm, ESET said that its researchers have discovered a Cyberepionage attack against a government entity in Guyana by hackers that could be Chinese.
The company that the attack detected is a spearphishing campaign. A spearphishing campaign basically means that the hackers infiltrated the government’s network systems by sending fraudulent emails to the targeted entity, inducing it to reveal personal information.
The NDMA, however, said that it has conducted a probe and it was found that the cybersecurity firm exaggerated the threat in their “exposé.” Extensive investigation reportedly done by the agency to determine the validity of the ESET report, revealed that there were attempts to infiltrate all failed.
“The security systems employed intercepted this attempt and nullified its effects,” the agency noted.
NDMA’s General Manager, Christopher Deen added that some 442 malware attacks at government agencies were detected and mitigated by his agency during the first quarter of 2023. While no evidence of infiltration had been found, NDMA is still continuing its investigation and said that it has contacted the cybersecurity firm “to gather additional information, verify the data shared, and ascertain its source”.
“To date, NDMA is still awaiting the cybersecurity firm’s response”, NDMA said. The Slovak company’s failure to respond has caused the government to question the motive behind publishing the report. “Cybersecurity professionals have access to sensitive information including personal data and proprietary information. Disclosing sensitive information without stakeholder consultation can be detrimental,” NDMA explained.
The Guyana government now wants to know: “How is the cybersecurity firm benefitting from publishing and making claims based on medium confidence” and linking this spear-phishing campaign to other local events without evidence-based proof?” “The singling-out of this particular incident also raises questions, as it is not conventional practice to disclose consumer-specific information without the customer’s explicit permission,” NDMA added.
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