Security: Microsoft Exchange impaired and exploited by hackers in Chinese territory. Borrel (EU), “irresponsible, harmful behaviour”

“Harmful IT activities have significantly hit our economy, security, democracy and society in general” and “they have been carried out from Chinese territory”. This is written in a statement made by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, who today reported the “impairing and exploitation of the Microsoft Exchange server” to grant access until today “to a significant number of hackers”, an “irresponsible, harmful behaviour” that “resulted in risks for security and remarkable economic loss”, as well as “repercussions and systemic effects on our security, economy and society in general”. Such attacks have been committed by Advanced Persistent Threat 40 and Advanced Persistent Threat 31, hackers that worked “from Chinese territory for stealing intellectual property and for espionage”. Because of this, the EU is asking China to adhere to the rules that have been approved by the United Nations, not to allow such activities to be carried out from its territory any more, and to take “all the appropriate, available and feasible measures to detect, investigate and deal with the situation”. On its part, the EU will keep working for “a responsible governmental behaviour” both within the EU and within the United Nations, and will also strengthen its cooperation across the EU and beyond, through “a greater exchange of information and continuous diplomatic efforts” to be more prepared in terms of IT resilience, incident management, and software and supply chain security.
Valentina Bombelli