Microsoft on Thursday revealed that it had detected a campaign by China-backed hackers targeting civilian and government infrastructure in the US and its territory of Guam. The report was quickly confirmed by Western intelligence agencies. Some have said the campaign could be part of efforts to delay a US or other allied response to a possible Chinese attack against Taiwan.
The campaign was discovered following the detection of mysterious computer code in telecommunications systems in Guam and elsewhere in the US. The discovery prompted Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK to issue cybersecurity alerts against similar campaigns targeting their systems.