Espionage in Parliament: “Why wasn’t China called to account sooner?”

MP Samuel Cogolati (Ecolo) is surprised that our country is only now reprimanding China for the espionage of several MPs. “Our country was notified by the FBI as early as 2022.” The De Croo cabinet denies this.

On Wednesday it was announced that MPs Els Van Hoof (CD&V) and Samuel Cogolati (Ecolo) have fallen prey to APT 31, a Chinese hacking group with ties to the Chinese Ministry of State Security. Van Hoof and Cogolati are chairman and vice-chairman respectively of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Relations. Together they also sit on the international parliamentary association Ipac, which works on human rights in China.

Perhaps because of these roles, they were the target of a massive cyber espionage campaign in 2021. This was evident from research by the American FBI. Like many other politicians, academics and journalists, they received a phishing email.

By clicking on this, the Chinese obtained information about the devices used and the network, according to the FBI. The Chinese are said not to have had access to the politicians’ e-mail accounts, but there is a fear that the whereabouts of those targeted can be tracked via the IP address.

Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib (MR) responded to the cyber espionage on Thursday by summoning the charge d’affaires of the Chinese embassy in our country.

Previous cyber attacks

Lahbib and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) nevertheless receive criticism from their own majority banks. “I learn from the information from the FBI that our country has already been informed in 2022,” Cogolati told The standard. “Why is there only now a response?”

The Lahbib cabinet points out that the Chinese ambassador was already summoned in July 2022. This happened after cyber attacks on the FPS Home Affairs and Defense at the end of 2021. However, at that time there were no campaigns aimed at MPs.

Cogolati accuses De Croo of denying in parliament in April last year that any other parliamentarians had been targeted, after the Ecolo member had probably become the target of a cyber attack from China. The Center For Cybersecurity Belgium had already sent him a warning about APT31. It now appears that Cogolati was not the only victim of the hacking.

The De Croo cabinet briefly stated: “Our cabinet does not have the information to which Mr Cogolati refers.”