Amnesty International blames China for cyber attack on NGO's Canada branch

Human rights organisation Amnesty International has accused the Chinese government of sponsoring a cyber attack against it.

Amnesty's Canadian wing claimed that the hack attack left the organisation offline for almost 3 weeks. Amnesty said that the breach was first detected on 5 October 2022, and the searches were specifically related to China, Hong Kong, and some Chinese activists.

US cybersecurity firm Secureworks said that "a threat group sponsored or tasked by the Chinese state" was the likely perpetrator.

Beijing didn't immediately respond to the charges.

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"As an organization advocating for human rights globally, we are very aware that we may be the target of state-sponsored attempts to disrupt or surveil our work. These will not intimidate us and the security and privacy of our activists, staff, donors, and stakeholders remain our utmost priority," Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, said.

In August, the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future listed Amnesty and the International Federation for Human Rights among organizations that Chinese hackers were targeting through password-stealing schemes designed to harvest credentials.

(With PTI inputs)