Inside the West’s failed fight against China’s ‘Cloud Hopper’ hackers

FILE PHOTO: Photographs of Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong, members of a hacking group in China, appear on a U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) poster provided by the FBI, December 21, 2018. To match Special Report CHINA-CYBER/CLOUDHOPPER Federal Bureau of Investigation/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY.

LONDON: Hacked by suspected Chinese cyber spies five times from 2014 to 2017, security staff at Swedish telecoms equipment giant Ericsson had taken to naming their response efforts after different types of wine. 

Pinot Noir began in September 2016. After successfully repelling a wave of attacks a year earlier, Ericsson discovered the intruders were back. And this time, the company’s cybersecurity team could see exactly how they got in: through a connection to information-technology services supplier Hewlett Packard Enterprise.