European Union and NATO countries on Wednesday expressed their solidarity with the Czech Republic after an alleged Chinese cyberattack targeted the Foreign Ministry in Prague.
The Czech Republic has determined that the attack was perpetrated by a group of hackers called the Advanced Persistent Threat 31 (APT31) which is associated with the Ministry of State Security of China, the EU statement read.
According to the Czech Foreign Ministry, the attack took place in 2022.
“In recent years, malicious cyber activities linked to this country and targeting the EU and its member states have increased,” the EU’s 27 members wrote.
The EU strongly condemned cyberattacks and called on China to refrain from such behaviour.
“The European Union reaffirms its strong commitment to prevent, deter and respond to malicious behaviour in cyberspace and stands ready to take further action when necessary,” the statement said.
“We strongly condemn malicious cyber activities intended to undermine our national security, democratic institutions and critical infrastructure,” a separate statement by the 32-member defence alliance NATO read.
“The malicious cyber activity targeting the Czech Republic underscores that cyberspace is contested at all times. We observe with increasing concern the growing pattern of malicious cyber activities stemming from the People’s Republic of China,” it continued.
“We remain committed to expose and counter the substantial, continuous and increasing cyber threat, including to our democratic systems and critical infrastructure,” NATO allies said.
“We are determined to further improve our capabilities and resilience and to employ the necessary capabilities in order to deter, defend against and counter the full spectrum of cyber threats to support each other.”