The cyberattacks were specifically attributed by the US federal government to state-sponsored forces backed by the Chinese government.
From 2011 to 2013, Chinese state-sponsored hackers successfully breached 13 US natural gas pipeline operators, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
The CISA advisory said “The US government identified and tracked 23 US natural gas pipeline operators targeted from 2011 to 2013 in this spearphishing and intrusion campaign,”
“Thirteen were confirmed compromises, three were near misses, and eight had an unknown depth of intrusion.”
The US federal government has directly ascribed the attacks to state-sponsored forces backed by the Chinese government, according to the security agency.
The advisory said “The US government has attributed this activity to Chinese state-sponsored actors. CISA and the FBI assess that these actors were specifically targeting US pipeline infrastructure for the purpose of holding US pipeline infrastructure at risk,”
The attacks were eventually meant to help China build cyberattack capabilities against US pipelines in order to physically damage pipes or impair pipeline operations, according to US security agencies.
This comes just a day after the US and its allies accused China of orchestrating extensive cyber-extortion attempts. According to US security services — Chinese state-sponsored cyber activities, including ransomware attacks, pose a significant threat to the cyberspace assets of the United States and its allies.
According to a Joint CyberSecurity Advisory (CSA) released on Monday, state-backed cyber actors aggressively target political, economic, military, educational, and Critical Infrastructure (CI) to steal sensitive data, emerging key technologies, intellectual property, and Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
The European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and NATO have all joined the in exposing and criticising China’s Ministry of State Security’s malicious cyber activities.
Meanwhile, China has disputed charges that the Microsoft Exchange hack and other “malicious cyber activities” were carried out by actors related to its government.