Chinese hackers were targeting Uyghurs living in the US, a Facebook security team found

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“They targeted activists, journalists and dissidents among Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities from Xinjiang in China living mainly 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 infected hackers target electronic devices with malware “to enable surveillance,” Facebook (Fb) said. In some cases, the news websites hacked or hacked by Uyghurs to secretly install spying software are very popular.

“This group used fake Facebook accounts to create fake personalities standing as journalists, students, human rights advocates or members of the Uyghur community to build trust with their target and trying people. to click on malicious links, “the company said.

Some of the Facebook findings benefited from a search by FireEye, a cybersecurity company, Facebook said.

In January, the United States officially declared that China is committing racism and crimes against humanity against Uyghur Muslims and minority ethnic and religious groups living in the northwestern region. Xinjiang. (The Chinese government has denied this allegation, saying it was a lie.)

The U.S. State Department has previously estimated that as many as 2 million Uyghurs, in addition to members of other Muslim minorities, are being held in internment camps in the region.

Facebook did not directly blame the government in Beijing but said the signs of the hackers were “persistent, well-resourced activity. ”(Hackers linked to the Chinese government previously hacked iPhones and Android devices to target Uyghurs.)

The hockey groups identified as the backbone of the latest initiative in the cybersecurity industry are known as “Evil Eye” and “Earth Empusa” and have been involved in spying campaigns in the past, according to Facebook.

The news at Facebook comes a day before CEO Mark Zuckerberg is to appear before Congress, along with Twitter and Google leaders. Zuckerberg is expected to be asked about the potential role of his platform in inciting a January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, among other issues.

Facebook and other social media platforms have been widely criticized for allowing Russian trolls to become online Americans in the run-up to the 2016 election. Since then, Facebook has found some governments and other organizations to find it. publicly using its platform for nefarious purposes.

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