Microsoft has warned that China and North Korea are perfecting their cyberattack capabilities and also claims to have detected an increase in the Asian giant’s “influence” through “state-sponsored propaganda,” according to a cybersecurity report by the American company.
Specifically, Microsoft claims to have noticed an increase in the influence of China, which, according to its analysis, is perfecting its cyber capabilities to automatically generate images using generative artificial intelligence and, among other things, to impersonate American voters around the world and create “controversies” for racial, economic, and ideological reasons.
“Network users tend to share this type of sophisticated content more frequently than other approaches previously used, which are much simpler and therefore have a greater impact,” the company emphasized.
In this regard, the North American company has also noted that China has managed to “increase its influence through state-sponsored propaganda” and estimates that this has allowed it to influence at least 103 million people around the world.
According to Microsoft, this increase in influence would have occurred, for example, through the 230 employees of Chinese state media posing as “influencers” on Western social networks or with the strategy of “softening” the country’s image with “seemingly harmless” ones. Lifestyle content.”
“In any case, Microsoft has not observed China combining cyberattacks and influence operations, unlike Iran and Russia, which regularly engage in hacking and information theft campaigns,” the company clarified.
The report also indicates that cyber threat groups linked to the Chinese state are focused on the South China Sea area and are carrying out targeted attacks on governments and institutions in the region, including Taiwan.
“They also target the U.S. defense sector and critical infrastructure, which Microsoft views as a search for competitive advantages to strengthen its strategic military objectives,” the document continues.
In this sense, Microsoft claims to have “successfully blocked” a campaign by the Chinese group Storm-0558 to access the email accounts of Microsoft customers from 25 organizations, including government entities in the United States and the European Union.
In fact, the company believes this activity was “probably” conducted “for espionage purposes.”
As for North Korea, while Microsoft emphasizes in its report that it “does not have the same leverage as China,” it does represent a “cyber threat that must be considered,” particularly with regard to intelligence collection and cryptocurrency theft.
“Several threats from North Korea have targeted the maritime and shipbuilding sectors, indicating that this is a high-priority area for the North Korean government,” the document emphasizes.
Likewise, the analysis shows that numerous groups in the country have recently targeted both the Russian government and the defense industry, a country they supply with support materials in the war with Ukraine.
