FireEye Study Claims State Sponsored Chinese Hackers Are Targeting Cryptocurrency Firms

As per an all new report published by cybersecurity company FireEye around a week back, government funded Chinese hackers have been messing with a number of crypto and video game related enterprises globally.

The study claims that the attacks are targeting industries in a way that is compliant with China's various Five-Year economic development plans.

The hackers are also being used to source data prior to company mergers, large financial acquisitions and political events.

Some of the industries that have been targeted till date include the healthcare sector, mass media, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, travel services, education, video games and cryptocurrencies.

FireEye’s research team claims that a Chinese espionage agency called the APT41 sent out a number of infected emails to a blockchain gaming startup last year. Not only that, they also reportedly carried out an operation against a local cryptocurrency exchange during June 2018.

To back up its claims, the folks over at FireEye claim to have discovered a number of code overlaps between the viruses used by APT41 to target a U.S.-based game development studio and the malware used to disrupt various supply chain firms back in 2017/2018.