Singapore says Chinese-backed hacking is targeting its four major mobile phone companies

Singapore’s government has accused China’s notorious cyber-espionage group of targeting four top telecommunications companies as part of a months-long conspiracy.

In word on MondaySingapore has confirmed for the first time that hackers, identified as UNC3886, targeted the country’s telecommunications infrastructure, including its major companies: Singtel, StarHub, M1, and Simba Telecom. The government has previously said it was responding to an unknown attack on its most important infrastructure.

Although the intruders were able to breach and exploit other systems, they did not disrupt operations or gain access to personal information, said K. Shanmugam, the country’s national security coordination minister.

Google cybersecurity unit Mandiant already connected UNC3886 as an espionage group probably working on behalf of China. The Chinese government is known to engage in cyber-espionage on a regular basis, as well prepositioning for disruptive attacks before the invasion of Taiwan which Beijing has always denied, on Reuters.

UNC3886 is known for its exploits The dangers of zero day in routers, firewalls, and virtual environments, where cybersecurity tools designed to detect malware cannot reach. The hacking team has done it focuses on the defense, technology, and telecom industries across the US and Asia-Pacific region.

Regarding the attack on Singapore’s top telcos, Shanmugam said hackers used sophisticated tools, such as rootkits, to gain long-term persistence from their systems.

“At one point, he was able to find a few ways to access complex systems but not go far enough to disrupt operations,” according to the government’s statement.

Per Reuters, the telcos said in a joint statement that the company regularly faces denial of service and other crimes. “We take extensive security measures to protect our network and quickly remediate any issues when they are discovered,” he said.

The attack on Singapore’s telcos follows similar but very different attacks on hundreds of telecom companies around the world in recent years, including. in the United States. Several governments have joined forces attack this to a Chinese-backed group called Salt Typhoon.

Singapore said the attack by UNC3886 “did not cause the same damage as other cyber attacks,” referring to the Salt Typhoon earthquakes.