Judith Collins says New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in condemning Chinese government-backed “malicious cyber activity”, and revealed a similar breach occurred here in 2021.
The minister responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) issued a statement shortly after 9am this morning, saying “the use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable”.
Collins says the Parliamentary Counsel Office and the Parliamentary Service were compromised in 2021, and following a “robust technical assessment”, the GCSB blamed a group designated APT40.
APT40 is a cyberespionage group based in Haikou in China’s Hanan Province, and reports to the Ministry of Security in China.
It is considered an “advanced persistent threat” (APT) and has been known by at least eight other names.
In 2021, the same year it allegedly breached New Zealand’s parliamentary network, the US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against four APT40 cyber actors for illegal computer network exploitation.
Minister Collins says the 2021 breach was quickly contained and removed soon after it gained access to the network.
“We commend the impacted organisations for acting decisively to mitigate the impact, and for the measures they have taken since the incident to harden their cyber defences and strengthen the resilience of their networks.”
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) Embassy in New Zealand has been contacted for comment.
More to come