China: NSA hacked Northwestern Polytechnical University

China: NSA hacked Northwestern Polytechnical University

Peking, 16.9.2022

The Chinese government is accusing the U.S. of attacking Northwestern Polytechnical University in June 2022.A specific division of the NSA, called the Office of Tailored Access Operations, was responsible for the intrusion, the Chinese claim. The hacking campaign allegedly involved tens of thousands of cyberattacks.

The NSA may have stolen up to 140 GB of data by exploiting multiple zero-day vulnerabilities. The threat vectors through which the intrusion may have occurred are open Trojan and DDoS attacks.

The hacking war between the two major powers has been going on for several years. China has conducted multiple hacking campaigns against U.S. organizations. In Operation Aurora, Chinese threat actors targeted Yahoo, Morgan Stanley, Symantec and other companies to steal data.

Researchers and government officials have alleged that China interfered in the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management was hacked by China-backed threat actors in 2015, with the data of more than 20 million people stolen.