Amnesty International Canada hit by Chinese hackers

Amnesty International Canada has disclosed having been compromised by Chinese state-sponsored threat actors in October, disrupting the human rights organization for almost three weeks, The Associated Press reports. Such an attack was attributed to Chinese hackers after Amnesty International Canada's systems were found to contain searches regarding China and Hong Kong, as well as Chinese activists, said Amnesty International Canada Secretary General Ketty Nivyabandi. Chinese state-backed hackers were also believed by Secureworks to be behind the attack due to the sophistication and tools involved in the attack. "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," said Nivyabandi. Chinese hackers were previously reported by Recorded Future to be targeting Amnesty and the International Federation for Human Rights with credential harvesting attacks.