Chinese hackers targeted Uyghur activists and journalists living in the United States in an attempt to spy on them, an investigation by security staff at Facebook has found.
“They targeted activists, journalists and dissidents among Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities from Xinjiang in China primarily living abroad in Turkey, Kazakhstan, the United States and other countries,” Facebook said in a post Wednesday detailing its findings about the cyber espionage campaign.
The hackers infected targets’ electronic devices with malware “to enable surveillance,” Facebook said. In some cases, the hackers compromised or impersonated news websites popular among Uyghurs to secretly install spying software.
