China Says Several Macau Government Websites Were Hacked

• Chinese state media announced that numerous Macau government websites were hacked.
• Apparently, a criminal investigation was launched to determine the scope and nature of the attack.
• The activities of public security police, fire services, and security forces were reportedly halted.

Several websites of Macau government entities have been hacked, bringing their activities to a halt, as reported by Reuters. Macau's Special Administrative Region police allegedly launched a criminal investigation to discover the source and scope of the cyberattack.

According to security officials of the Macau Special Administrative Region's government, the cyberattack affected the websites of the public security police, the fire services department, the security forces services bureau, and the office of the secretary for security.

Authorities and telecom operators worked together to restore the impacted services as soon as possible, as per CCTV's report. The report also mentions that officials believe the cyberintrusion’s origin is from overseas. No other details were released regarding this security incident.

In recent news, a phishing campaign targeted Chinese citizens by embedding QR codes in false official documents, impersonating the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China. The campaign invoked identity verification and authentication processes to obtain users’ bank card details and passwords. 

Things also go the other way around. Recently, cybersecurity researchers discovered new threat activities involving malware backed by the Chinese state, targeting a government agency in Southeast Asia for cyber espionage as the threat actors tried to access intelligence documents. 

The campaign, which they named 'Crimson Palace,' has precursors dating back to early 2022. MDR also discovered previously unreported malware and improved variants of already reported ones.

Also, a few Chinese state-sponsored cyberespionage groups have been in the news lately, with one of them intensifying its activities that focus on government, academic, technology, and diplomatic organizations in Taiwan.