Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it had blocked a group of hackers in China who used the platform to target Uighurs living abroad with links to malware that would infect their devices and enable surveillance.
The social media company said the hackers, known as Earth Empusa or Evil Eye in the security industry, targeted activists, journalists and dissidents who were predominantly Uighurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group facing persecution in China.Facebook said there were less than 500 targets, who were largely from the Xinjiang region but were primarily living abroad in countries including Turkey, Kazakhstan, the United States, Syria, Australia and Canada.
"This activity had the hallmarks of a well-resourced and persistent operation, while obfuscating who's behind it," Facebook cybersecurity investigators said in a blog post. Facebook said its investigation found two Chinese companies, Beijing Best United Technology Co Ltd and Dalian 9Rush Technology Co Ltd had developed the Android tooling deployed by the group.