China under attack for alleged 2021 cyberattack on German mapping agency

Admin I Wednesday, July 31, 2024

 

BERLIN – Three years after a serious cyberattack on the German Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG), the German government said on Wednesday that Chinese hackers, backed by their government, were behind the attack.

“Today we know that state-controlled Chinese cyberactors infiltrated the BKG network for espionage purposes,” said a spokesman for the Foreign Office in Berlin. The Chinese ambassador had been summoned on the basis of these findings.

The German government “strongly condemns the cyberattack by state-controlled Chinese actors,” said the spokesman.

The German government came to its conclusions “on the basis of a thorough technical analysis,” the spokesman said.

The BKG is responsible for providing data about topography and cartography. Geodesy is the science of measuring and representing the geometry, gravity and spatial orientation of the Earth.

The information is needed, for example, when providing online directions to drivers.

Outdated or inaccurate information could result in a car landing in a field or a river, according to information from the BKG’s website.

The agency’s information is used by critical infrastructure facilities, such as energy suppliers, waterworks and transport companies.

The hackers had used so-called obfuscation networks, according to Maximilian Kall, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

This is when hackers use devices in private households and companies to conceal their tracks for an attack.