Microsoft released its Digital Defense Report of 2022, in which it clearly specified that China was targeting smaller nations with intense digital attacks to gather intelligence via cyber espionage. Its actual aim behind this activity is to internationally strengthen the nation’s stand both economically and to attain an utmost position in military influence.
Most of the companies that are being targeted were established and operating in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East, along with Oceania. Namibia, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago were also the nations that were being targeted by Chinese military intelligence.
Exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities, phishing, malware attacks, and exploring and exploiting unpatched software issues were being employed by the hacking groups funded by the Xi Jinping led nation.
In the 114-page report released by the windows operating system developing giant, it was concluded that the cyber exploitation tactics were also being employed to create political and economic instability in smaller nations, thus forcing them to seek alms from developed nations of west. The next move was to intensify the tactics so much that it puts a strain on foreign relations with associate countries and thus leading to a rift one day.
As China is said to expand its business ties with more countries in near future, via Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the intensity of attacks will increase in proportion to the strengthening bilateral economic relations and that can lead to more chaos in the cyberspace.
Information sharing, creating awareness among staff and public and deploying proactive security solutions is the only option to mitigate the disguised cyber risks, says Microsoft.
