The trove shows how Chinese security services promote rivalry between private hacking companies, spurring them to target foreign governments and institutions.
A trove of leaked documents from a Chinese state-linked hacking group shows that Beijing’s intelligence and military groups are carrying out large-scale, systematic cyber intrusions against foreign governments, companies and infrastructure — exploiting what the hackers claim are vulnerabilities in software systems from companies including Microsoft, Apple and Google.
The documents come from iSoon, also known as Auxun, a Chinese firm headquartered in Shanghai that sells third-party hacking and dataowned enterprises. Most of the targets were in Asia, though iSoon received requests for hacks further afield. Chat logs included in the leak describe selling unspecified data related to NATO in 2022. It’s not clear whether the data was collected from publicly available sources or extracted in a hack. NATO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China’s model of mixing state support with a profit incentive has created a large network of actors competing to exploit vulnerabilities and grow their businesses. The scale and persistence of their attacks are headaches for American technology giants like X, Microsoft and Apple, which are now locked in a constant race to outsmart the hackers.
But the iSoon files contain complaints from disgruntled employees over poor pay and workload. Many hackers work for less than $1,000 a month, surprisingly low pay even in China, said Adam Kozy, a former FBI analyst who is writing a book on Chinese hacking.The leaks hint at infighting and dissatisfaction in the network of patriotic Chinese hackers, despite the long-standing collaboration between groups.
ISoon’s product manuals also advertise a $25,000 service for a “remote access” control system to obtain Apple iOS smartphone data from a target, including “basic mobile phone information, GPS positioning, mobile phone contacts” and “environment recording.”
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