Czech President Petr Pavel
told the Financial Times on June 20 that China and Russia are “equal in terms of cyber threat,” adding that the country has “seen cyberattacks coming from both directions and almost at the same level.”
The government of Czechia, formerly the Czech Republic, was recently targeted by a hacker group allegedly linked to the Chinese Communist Party’s security services.
In the same article, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said that Chinese attackers were scanning unclassified documents related to Asian affairs.
Czech authorities
said on May 28 that a cyberattack on the foreign ministry’s unclassified network was carried out by APT31, a hacking group linked to China’s Ministry of State Security that has allegedly been conducting the cyberespionage campaign since 2022.
APT31, also known as Advanced Persistent Threat 31, Zirconium, or Judgment Panda, is a group of Chinese state-sponsored intelligence officers, contract hackers, and support staff who “conduct malicious cyber operations” on behalf of the regime’s state security department in China’s Hubei province,
according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
U.S. officials have accused the group of engaging in a
cyber espionage campaign that has targeted foreign officials, academics, journalists, and companies.
EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas,
said in a May 28 statement that the EU member states have been experiencing a rise in malicious cyber activities originating from China in recent years.
Kallas expressed strong condemnation over malicious cyber activities, saying that they go against “the United Nations framework of responsible state behaviour in cyberspace.”
“We call upon all states, including China, to refrain from such behaviour, to respect international law and to adhere to the UN norms and principles, including those related to critical infrastructure,” Kallas said.
On March 25, 2024, the
United States and the
UK imposed sanctions on a China-based company and individuals linked to APT31.
European leaders have also
attributed recent waves of incidents across Europe, including bomb scares, arson, ransomware attacks, satellite disruptions, and suspected mass-casualty attempts, to Russia.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk suggested that there was Russian involvement in a suspected arson that destroyed Warsaw’s largest shopping center earlier in 2024.
The Czech Republic’s National Cyber and Information Security Agency in
May accused Russian hackers of being behind a series of attacks targeting logistics and technology companies involved in foreign aid to Ukraine.
The Russian military intelligence service (GRU), Russia’s largest foreign intelligence agency, allegedly uses a hacking entity called APT28, also known as
Fancy Bear, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
In April, France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs
revealed the name and location of a GRU unit that allegedly contributes to APT28 called Unit 20728.
Czechia is one of Taiwan’s closest allies in the West.
The Czech delegation, its largest to ever visit the self-ruled island, was led by Speaker of Parliament Marketa Pekarova Adamova, who referred to Taiwan as a close partner of the European nation.
The two countries share the same values and principles, “the most important of which are freedom, democracy, and human rights, ensuring that we resist other external pressures,” Adamova said during her meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen at the time.
Pavel, a retired general and former senior NATO commander, held a telephone call with Tsai a few days after his election victory in January 2023.
The two leaders stressed their countries’ shared values of freedom, democracy, and human rights during their 15-minute call, their offices said at the time.
Reuters and Dorothy Li contributed to this report.
