BfV Accuses APT 27 Hacking Group Of Targeting Pharmaceutical And Tech Companies In Germany

JAKARTA - The Chinese hacker group known as APT 27, accused by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Wednesday, January 26, began targeting attacks on German companies in the pharmaceutical and technology sectors. The group has also long been suspected of carrying out attacks on Western government institutions.

Apart from stealing trade secret data and intellectual property, hackers may also try to penetrate customer and service provider networks. They even infiltrated several companies at once, the BfV said in a circular to the companies, quoted by Reuters.

In its annual constitutional protection report from 2019, the BfV has pointed out that the group's acronym APT 27 is an alias for a Chinese hacker group also known as "Panda Envoys," which are believed to target foreign embassies and key sectors.

Last year, the United States and its allies accused China of carrying out a cyber-espionage campaign. China has denied the accusations. This accusation by the US also made relations between the two countries heat up.

Meanwhile, Germany itself has not disclosed their allegations against APT 27, as a group sponsored by the Chinese government. However, these accusations inevitably contribute to heating up the atmosphere in China and the West regarding data hacking.