Every month, a special group in Norway comes under hacker attack

China’s minority groups abroad are frequently subjected to hacking attempts, and the most recent came from Facebook. Stage Reports They said on their website that they had stopped trying to spy on Uyghurs living outside China.

Facebook is not alone. Google frequently sends alerts to China’s minority groups abroad. One of them is the Norwegian Uyghur Committee.

Upch! The authorities of a country are trying to get your password. “

This sentence will always be at the top of the group’s email address, and they will receive such emails as well.

– Hacking efforts have increased in recent years. Adiljan Abdurihim tells TV2 that it will take some time to get information from Gmail that hackers are trying to take our password. He is the secretary of the committee.

It was unknowingly hacked

Norwegian Uyghur group criticizes Chinese authorities for harassing and repressing Uyghurs in Xinjiang province.

According to Abdurrihim, China is behind these attacks.

He says the attacks are a kind of attempt to intimidate and force deported Uyghurs. Moreover, China is trying to warn Uighurs that family members abroad may be punished for their actions.

– Hacker attacks are carried out to gather more information, gain more access to those who are already mapped, or obtain information that could be misused, he says.

Abdurrihim says they have many concerns from the Uyghurs in Norway.

– Clicking on a link is harmful, and we fear that many will be hacked, often without even knowing it, he says.

Uses two phones

Abdurihim says the Norwegian Uyghur Committee recommends calling its members two-factor authentication and contacting experts to receive training on how to protect themselves in the digital world.

– We know that many Uyghurs, for example, use two mobile phones. One of them is only used for Chinese applications, he says.

Abdurrihm said they had reported the hacking attempt to the BST and informed the BST of the various methods used by Chinese authorities against them.

Once a month

Uyghurs are not the only group under attack in Norway.

The Norwegian-Tibetan group is receiving similar warnings from Google that hackers backed by the authorities of another country are trying to steal their passwords.

Meredith Lind Jodalan is the group’s general manager, and tells TV2 that they are used to living with hacking attempts.

– We get news like this once a month. We know it happens a lot to everyone, but they take it personally, he says.

The phone call came from BST

Prior to the outbreak, exiled politicians visited the Tibetan government regularly, and in connection with these visits, they experienced several instances of computer attacks.

– In connection with one of the visits of the exiled Tibetan government, our email was hacked, he says.

Then came a phone call from the BST to the Norwegian-Tibet Committee, which heard a crowd.

– They told us that we were under surveillance and probably came from China, so our email was hacked.

Website hacked

The committee’s website has also been hacked. According to Jodel, this is an advanced computer attack.

– Many links were hacked and those who had to click on links came to unpleasant places like pornographic websites, he says.

Jodalan says they now have a habit of changing passwords and choosing encrypted sites to communicate with.

He says they have no evidence that the attacks came from China, but that they are of Chinese descent.

The vice president also said the attacks could mean a threat.

– We do not experience it being targeted, but it is a kind of threat: “We know about you, we know what you are doing” Remember. This is a big problem because it’s more than embarrassing, he adds.

Expect more functionality

Martin Bernson is a senior consultant at BST. Computer attacks happen all the time, but he tells TV2 that they have no chance to comment on what the BSD does with the tips they receive.

– All the information we receive is recorded in BST. We evaluate tips. But Bernson says it’s not always easy for commentators to comment on what can or can’t be done.

He says the BSD cannot comment on individual cases or the status of Uyghurs, but he does talk about the difficulties in finding answers to cases such as the refugee precedent.

– In the field we call refugees pioneers, there are many countries in Norway that engage in persecution or persecution of individuals or ethnic groups. The answer to those problems is often very difficult. The BST contains data within Norway, and the refugee precursor often takes place across country borders.

I National threat threat assessment of BST 2021 It says threats to the digital space will continue this year.

– The assessment says that the digital threat from state actors is serious and there is no indication that it will be reduced.

The journalist in the background of the article, Aizun Yazisi, is a Turkish journalist deported to Norway. He is affiliated with TV2’s Foreign Office.