A group of hackers, dubbed “Flax Typhoon” and based in China, carried out a cyberattack on dozens of government agencies and key factories in Taiwan for espionage purposes, according to the information and software company “Microsoft”.
“Microsoft” said that the “Flax Typhoon” group has been active since mid-2021 and “has targeted government and educational agencies, strategic factories, as well as information technology organizations in Taiwan,” stressing that it is “headquartered in China.”
Taipei accuses Beijing of spying on it by means of cyber attacks on government networks. China considers Taiwan part of its territory and insists that it be returned.
The operations recorded by Microsoft indicate the intent of the hackers to “spy and maintain access to the data of a wide range of companies for as long as possible.”
However, Microsoft did not see the “Flax Typhoon” move to the stage of implementing the “ultimate objectives” of the espionage campaign.
The American group pointed to other “victims” of the “Flax Typhoon” group, not only in Taiwan, but also in Southeast Asia, North America and Africa.
The giant company reported in July that hackers seeking intelligence had breached the email accounts of some US government agencies, while the Washington Post at the time quoted US officials as saying that State Department mail was among those hacked.
The attack was attributed to the “Storm-0558” group, which specializes in “espionage and data theft”.
