Czech FM summons Chinese ambassador over cyberattack
China’s ambassador to the Czech Republic was summoned on Wednesday over a cyberattack that targeted Prague’s foreign ministry, Czech officials said.The Czech foreign ministry said an extensive investigation of the attack “led to a high degree of certainty about the responsible actor”, naming it as China-linked group APT31.“I summoned the Chinese ambassador to make clear that such hostile actions have serious consequences for our bilateral relations,” foreign minister Jan Lipavsky said on X.The foreign ministry said in a statement the attack started in 2022 and targeted “one of the unclassified networks” of the ministry.“The malicious activity… was perpetrated by the cyberespionage actor APT31 that is publicly associated with the (Chinese) Ministry of State Security,” the ministry added, citing its investigation.“We call on the People’s Republic of China to… refrain from such attacks and to take all appropriate measures to address this situation,” said the ministry.Lipavsky said that “we detected the attackers during the intrusion”.The Czech Security Information Office (BIS) singled out China as a threat to security in its 2024 annual report.“The Chinese embassy logically focuses on gaining information about the Czech political scene,” the BIS said.
