Chinese hackers have used fake Facebook accounts and websites of imposters to try to break into the computers and smartphones of Uighur Muslims, the social network said on Wednesday.
The company said the secret and sophisticated operation targeted sworn activists, journalists and dissidents in China’s Xinjiang region, as well as people living in Turkey, Kazakhstan, the United States, Syria, Australia, Canada and other nations.
Hackers tried to gain access to computers and phones by creating fake Facebook accounts for alleged journalists and activists, as well as fake websites and applications designed to lure an Uighur audience. In some cases, hackers have created similar websites almost identical to legitimate news sites, popular among Uighurs.
Accounts and sites contained malicious links. If the target clicked on one, their computer or smartphone would be infected with software that allows the network to spy on the target’s device.
The software could obtain information, including the victim’s location, keystrokes and contacts, according to FireEye, a cybersecurity firm that worked on the investigation.
In total, less than 500 people were targeted by hackers in 2019 and 2020, Facebook said. The company said it discovered the network during its routine security activity and disabled fictitious accounts and notified people whose devices could have been compromised. Most of the hackers’ activities took place on non-Facebook sites and platforms.
“They tried to build these people, build trust in the community and use them as a way to trick people into clicking on these links to expose their devices,” said Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy.
The Facebook investigation has found links between hackers and two Chinese-based technology companies, but there are no direct links to the Chinese government, which has been criticized for harsh treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang. FireEye, however, said in a statement that “we believe that this operation was carried out in support” of the Chinese government.
China has imprisoned more than 1 million people, including Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups, in a vast network of concentration camps, according to US officials and human rights groups. People have been subjected to torture, sterilization and political indoctrination, in addition to forced labor, as part of an assimilation campaign in a region whose inhabitants are ethnically and culturally different from the Han Chinese majority.