Our Great Trade Friend China Does a Bit of Hacking on the Side! By James Reed

     It is good to have friends, especially in trade and business, friends to do things for you, or too you, like hack your computers. Something to do, to keep busy during lock down, instead of the doodles that google suggests each day:
  https://amp.abc.net.au/article/12227940

“The first West Australian Premier Mark McGowan knew of an attempted cyber attack against his office, reportedly originating from China, was through a news article in the New York Times.
Key points:

•    The New York Times reported an email cyber attack on the WA Premier's office
•    Hacking group Naikon is alleged to have embedded malware in an email
•    Cyber experts say it's hard to tell whether China was behind the attack

The article, published on Friday, said an Israeli software company had detected a sophisticated form of malware, called Aria-body, in an email sent to the Premier's office in January by the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra.
The company, Check Point Software Technologies, claimed hackers from the Chinese-linked Naikon group infiltrated the computer of a diplomat, found a draft email, completed it and concealed the malware within an attached document before sending it. A WA Government spokesman has since clarified the intended recipient was an employee in the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC), but the email was blocked by a security system. "This demonstrates the department has good protections in place, consistent with industry best practice," he said. "The incident was reviewed by the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the department's email security system. No further action was necessary. "Thousands of malicious emails are blocked by the email security system every week."

Opposition calls for inquiry
But the State Opposition was not satisfied with the Government's response and has called for a full and independent review of the incident. Liberal frontbencher Zak Kirkup said the data of hundreds of thousands of West Australians could have been compromised, labelling the Premier's lack of knowledge of the attack "unacceptable".

     We simply do not know the true extent of China’s hacking, since operations like this are the failed ones, but the successful ones just go under the radar.