New Zealand joins U.S. and U.K. in China hacking allegations

Hackers linked to the Chinese government launched a state-sponsored operation that targeted New Zealand’s Parliament in 2021, the country’s security minister said Tuesday.

New Zealand’s allegation came a day after American and British authorities announced a set of criminal charges and sanctions against seven hackers, all believed to be living in China, who targeted U.S. officials, journalists, corporations and prodemocracy activists, as well as the U.K.’s election watchdog.

“The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” said Judith Collins, the defence minister responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau.

Collins said the agency had also established links between a state-sponsored entity linked to China and malicious cyber activity targeting parliamentary entities in New Zealand.

The bureau’s National Cyber Security Centre “completed a robust technical assessment” following a compromise of the Parliamentary Counsel Office and the Parliamentary Service in 2021, and has attributed this activity to a PRC [China] statesponsored group known as APT40,” Collins said.

“Fortunately, in this instance, the NCSC worked with the impacted organizations to contain the activity and remove the actor shortly after they were able to access the network.”

Collins said New Zealand would not follow the U.S. and U.K. in sanctioning China because New Zealand does not have a law allowing such penalties, nor were there plans to introduce legislation.