Chinese intelligence hacked Norwegian software firm Visma to steal client secrets, investigators say
- The alleged attack was part of a global effort by China’s Ministry of State Security to steal intellectual property and company secrets, say security experts
- The claims came after Norway’s police intelligence agency accused Beijing of stealing information via technology provided by telecom tech giant Huawei
Hackers working on behalf of Chinese intelligence breached the network of Norwegian software firm Visma to steal secrets from its clients, cybersecurity researchers said, in what a company executive described as a potentially catastrophic attack.
The attack was part of what Western countries said in December was a global hacking campaign by China’s Ministry of State Security to steal intellectual property and corporate secrets, according to investigators at cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.
China’s Ministry of State Security has no publicly available contacts. The foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment, but Beijing has repeatedly denied any involvement in cyber-enabled spying.
Visma took the decision to talk publicly about the breach to raise industry awareness about the hacking campaign, which is known as Cloudhopper and targets technology service and software providers to reach their clients.
The revelations on Tuesday came after the Norwegian police intelligence agency PST, in its annual security evaluation, accused the Chinese government of stealing information from Norway’s cyber domain through technology provided by Chinese telecom tech giant Huawei. The Chinese embassy in Oslo called the claims “ridiculous”.
