Digital threats from East Asia increase in breadth and effectiveness
Contents
Sophistication, scope, and scale:
Digital threats from East
Asia increase in breadth and
effectiveness
September
2023
August 8, 2023
Microsoft Threat Intelligence
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01100001 01101110 01100100
00100000 01001110 01101111
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September 2023
Microsoft Threat Intelligence
Table of contents
3 Introduction
4
Chinese cyber operations
6
Chinese influence operations
6
CCP social media operations increase effective
audience engagement
10
Chinese IO expands global reach in several campaigns
15 North Korean cyber operations
17 Looking ahead
2
September 2023
Introduction
Several emerging trends illustrate a quickly changing threat landscape across East Asia,
with China conducting both widespread cyber and influence operations (IO), and North Korean
cyber threat actors demonstrating increased sophistication.
First, Chinese state-affiliated cyber threat
groups have shown particular focus on the
South China Sea region, directing cyber
espionage at governments and other
critical entities that ring this maritime
area. Meanwhile, China’s targeting of
the US defense sector and probing of US
infrastructure signals attempts to gain
competitive advantages for China’s foreign
relations and strategic military aims.
voters. Separately, China’s state-affiliated
multilingual social media …
Digital threats from East
Asia increase in breadth and
effectiveness
September
2023
August 8, 2023
Microsoft Threat Intelligence
01010100 01110010 01100101
01101110 01100100 01110011
00100000 01100110 01110010
01101111 01101101 00100000
01000011 01101000 01101001
01101110 01100001 00100000
01100001 01101110 01100100
00100000 01001110 01101111
01110010 01110100 01101000
00100000 01001011 01101111
01110010 01100101 01100001
00100000
September 2023
Microsoft Threat Intelligence
Table of contents
3 Introduction
4
Chinese cyber operations
6
Chinese influence operations
6
CCP social media operations increase effective
audience engagement
10
Chinese IO expands global reach in several campaigns
15 North Korean cyber operations
17 Looking ahead
2
September 2023
Introduction
Several emerging trends illustrate a quickly changing threat landscape across East Asia,
with China conducting both widespread cyber and influence operations (IO), and North Korean
cyber threat actors demonstrating increased sophistication.
First, Chinese state-affiliated cyber threat
groups have shown particular focus on the
South China Sea region, directing cyber
espionage at governments and other
critical entities that ring this maritime
area. Meanwhile, China’s targeting of
the US defense sector and probing of US
infrastructure signals attempts to gain
competitive advantages for China’s foreign
relations and strategic military aims.
voters. Separately, China’s state-affiliated
multilingual social media …