China: After reporting yesterday that European aerospace company Airbus suffered yet another attack, new reports state that Chinese-based threat actors may be behind the attack. China has already denied the claim and the Chinese Foreign Ministry and China’s official cyber regulator have denied commenting on the situation. Just last year, prosecutors in the US stated in a court filing that they believe Chinese-based attackers were responsible for stealing information in regard to a jet engine–which in court documents had a very similar description to one that was created by GE Safran and CFM Jet engines, a major supplier to Airbus as well as Boeing. It appears that the four attacks targeting Airbus in the past 12 months were an effort to gain access to information about A400M military transport aircraft and the A350 plane.
Analyst Notes
China has always had a track record of carrying out espionage attacks against foreign entities, and with the release of their newest plane that was designed to rival Airbus and Boeing, it is probable that Chinese-backed nation-state actors have been infiltrating these companies to steal trade secrets and perfect their rival plane.
