- Over 570 documents from a Chinese state-backed hacking group were uploaded to Github last week.
- They mentioned targets in at least 20 countries and territories, The Washington Post reported.
- The leaks come after multiple warnings by officials on the scales of China’s hacking operations.
A trove of leaked Chinese hacking documents might have given the world a glimpse of how widespread and effective China’s hacking operations could be.
Over 570 files and documents were posted to the developer platform GitHub last week, per The Washington Post. The documents, which track hacking activity across multiple countries, belong to ISoon, a private security contractor with ties to China’s Ministry of Public Security, according to the Post’s report on Wednesday.
“We have every reason to believe this is the authentic data of a contractor supporting global and domestic cyber espionage operations out of China,” a cybersecurity expert, John Hultquist, told the Post
On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that Chinese police are investigating the leak, citing two unnamed ISoon employees it spoke to. The employees told AP that the documents belonged to the group.
The leaked files mentioned targets ranging from government agencies to businesses such as telecommunications firms in at least 20 foreign countries and territories including the UK, India, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia, the Post reported.
The hackers had claimed to be able to exploit vulnerabilities in software made by companies including Microsoft and Google, per the Post. (The Post said that Microsoft didn't respond to a request for comment and that Google said the documents didn't mention specific vulnerabilities in its software.)
While the Post's report didn't mention any US targets, the files align with repeated warnings from security officials and experts on China's hacking operations.
FBI chief Christopher Wray told "60 Minutes" in October that China, per his assessment, is running "the biggest hacking program in the world."
China, Wray said, had "stolen more of our personal and corporate data than every nation, big or small, combined."
And when it comes to tackling the threat posed by Chinese hackers, Wray said the FBI finds themselves outnumbered.
"If each one of the FBI's cyber agents and intelligence analysts focused exclusively on the China threat, China's hackers would still outnumber FBI cyber personnel by at least 50 to 1," Wray told lawmakers last month.
Representatives for China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.