A new report by Microsoft says China’s capability to launch cyberattacks has been boosted by a 2021 law that required companies to report security vulnerabilities, as researchers with the Atlantic Council had found a decrease this year in vulnerabilities, according to The Register, which said the Microsoft 2022 Digital Defense Report says the law may have enabled Beijing to “weaponize” some of the reported vulnerabilities.
Microsoft said China-backed actors were “particularly proficient” in finding and developing ‘zero-day exploits’, which are cyberattacks that occur when a hacker releases malware to exploit a software vulnerability before the software developer has patched the flaw, the report said. It noted that China had stepped up its espionage and information stealing attacks to counter US moves to increase its influence in Southeast Asia, while using malware on Solomon Islands government systems and malicious code in Papua New Guinea’s telecom networks.
Read the full report: The Register.
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