Chinese hackers targeted Uighurs living in the United States, the Facebook security team found

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“They targeted activists, journalists and dissidents among Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, China, who live mainly abroad in Turkey, Kazakhstan, the United States and other countries,” Facebook said in a post on Wednesday. detailed his conclusions about the cyber espionage campaign.

Hackers infected target electronic devices with malware “to allow surveillance” Facebook (FB) said. In some cases, hackers have compromised or identified popular news sites among Uighurs to secretly install spy software.

“This group used fake Facebook accounts to create fictitious people posing as journalists, students, human rights lawyers or members of the Uyghur community to build trust with the people they targeted and trick them into clicking malicious links, ”the company said.

In January, the United States officially established that China was committing genocide and crimes against humanity against Uighur Muslims and ethnic and religious minority groups living in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. (The Chinese government has denied this claim, calling it a lie.)

The US State Department has previously estimated that up to 2 million Uighurs, as well as members of other Muslim minority groups, have been detained in internment camps in the region.

Facebook did not directly blame the Beijing government, but said the hackers “had the hallmarks of a well-resourced and persistent operation.” (Hackers linked to the Chinese government have previously broken into iPhone and Android devices to target Uighurs.)

The hacking groups identified as behind the latest campaign are known in the cybersecurity industry as “Evil Eye” and “Earth Empusa” and have been implicated in previous espionage campaigns, according to Facebook.

The Facebook announcement comes a day before CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears in front of Congress, along with Twitter and Google chiefs. Zuckerberg is expected to be asked about the role his platform could have played in fueling the January 6 riot in the US Chapter, among other issues.

Facebook and other social media platforms have been widely criticized for allowing Russian trolls to present themselves as Americans online before the 2016 election. Since then, Facebook has publicly called on some governments and other entities it finds using. and the platform for harmful purposes.

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