Belgian parliamentarian Cocolati is the target of a Chinese cyber attack

Belgium Member of Parliament Samuel Cocolati (Ecolo) became the target of a cyber attack. The Center for Cyber ​​Security Belgium (CCB) suspects that Chinese hacker group APT31 is behind the attack. The MP says he will not be intimidated and will continue his work.

Belgian media, including VRT news And Data News. Cocolati’s party, the French Green Party, Confirms the story.

Chinese hacker group APT31 is responsible for the attack

Media reports suggest that the Chinese government has had Samuel Gogolati in its sights for some time. The MP was added to the Chinese sanctions list after raising questions about the mistreatment of Uyghurs. He introduced a resolution condemning the persecution of a Chinese minority group in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. He described the behavior as “crimes against humanity”.

This angered the Chinese Communist Party. He would have ordered state hackers to digitally attack critics. They then sent an e-mail to a member of the Belgian parliament, stating that they had information about human rights abuses in China. In fact, it is a rogue email designed to extract as much confidential or sensitive information as possible.

CCB suspects that Chinese hacker group APT31 is behind the attack. The group is known for digitally attacking critics of the Chinese regime. They use tracking pixels to collect as much data as possible from users.

Being a target is nothing compared to the persecution of millions of Uyghurs

Coccolati says in a statement that he will not give up. “If you think that the Chinese Communist Party is threatening us, it is wrong. We will continue our protest until the camps of shame are closed. “Being a target of cyber-espionage is nothing compared to the persecution suffered by millions of Uyghurs, Tibetans and pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong,” said the MP.

Coccolati is asking the government to provide more clarity on the number of Chinese cyberattacks on Belgium. “Hackers don’t break into our servers for fun. Behind this lies a mechanism organized against human rights defenders and on behalf of the Chinese regime. There should be complete clarity on the duration, nature and victims of the cyber attacks against Belgium.

‘Cyber ​​attacks must go unpunished’

The Ecolo MP wants the government to investigate whether sensitive or classified data was sent to Beijing. He also wants the government to take responsibility for China’s behavior. “Cyber ​​attacks cannot go unpunished. If Belgium has solid evidence of a cyber attack on a government agency, this malicious act must be condemned through diplomatic channels.

Finally, he calls for strengthening the cyber security of federal institutions and citizens and protecting the most vulnerable citizens in Belgium.

Dutch political parties and politicians are also targets of cyber attacks

This is not the first time Belgium has come under a cyber attack. In May 2021, hackers attacked Belnet, a computer network used for research purposes. Due to the DDoS attack, government services, educational institutions and about two hundred companies were temporarily unable to use the Internet.

Political parties and even politicians are becoming targets of cyber attacks in our country. At the beginning of 2021, PvdA and party member Kati Piri were hit by DDoS attacks for two weeks. According to the party, it was a targeted DDoS attack. Biri suspects Turkish hackers are behind the attack. “This appears to be an attack on my support for democrats in Turkey and my call for the release of political prisoners such as Selahtin Demirtas and Osman Gavala,” the social democrat said.

Late last year, BVV was the target of a ‘massive cyber attack’. The party’s website received a lot of traffic from abroad. As a result, the site was unavailable for several hours. Party leader Geert Wilders said most of the traffic came from Israel, Russia, the US, Ukraine and the UK.

Anton Mouse
Author of the book

Privacy and Security Editor

Political scientist, historian, web editor, copywriter: Anton is at home in many markets. He uses his writing skills for VPNgids.nl to inform readers about the latest developments in the field of Internet security and privacy.