A cyber espionage campaign that is allegedly backed by China has been probing on governments and businesses in Southeast Asia as well as India went undetected for the last ten years, Internet security company FireEye said on Monday.
FireEye said that the hackers, deemed as APT30, have been systematically stealing rather "sensitive information" since 2005, targeting governments, corporations and journalists with interest in China.
A statement by FireEye said: "Based on APT30's confirmed targets and their intended victims, the group's interests appear to concentrate on Southeast Asia regional political, economic and military issues, disputed territories and topics related to the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party."
It said that the campaign is different from other hacking outfits mostly in its scale and longevity, leading researchers to believe that it must be state-sponsored, since the focus of the group's interests point to China, Hindustan Times reported.
As the statement released by FireEye's regional headquarters in Singapore said: "Such a sustained, planned development effort, coupled with the group's regional targets and mission, lead us to believe that this activity is state-sponsored -- most likely by the Chinese government."
There was no immediate response from China, however, Beijing has always denied the accusations regarding cyber espionage.
FireEye said that over the past 10 years, the cyber espionage group has consistently developed and refined its tools in order to carry out its operations.
Bryce Boland, FireEye's chief technology officer for the Asia Pacific, mentioned in a blog post that the region has some of the highest levels of targeted cyber-attacks worldwide and many of these go undetected, DNA India reported.
He said that APT30 has managed to operate successfully while they remained undetected at the same time for many years and has not even had to change their strategy, which is a clear sign that their victims do not realize it happening.
The security company said that the espionage group expresses a distinct interest in organizations and governments associated with ASEAN, particularly so around the time of official ASEAN meetings, where issues such as the South China Sea dispute as well as international trade are discussed.
FireEye said that the espionage group's data gathering tools suggest that it is most likely trying to compromise ASEAN members or associates to steal information that would provide insight into a targeted region's politics and economics.