Google Disrupts Chinese-linked Hacking Group Gallium

Google disrupted a Chinese-linked hacking group, Gallium, that breached organizations across 42 countries. The group used Google Sheets for surveillance. Google terminated several Cloud projects, disabled infrastructure, and stopped account access related to the group. Gallium had previously breached government and telecom entities.

Google successfully disrupted a hacking group linked to China, known as Gallium, which had infiltrated 53 organizations across 42 countries, according to a statement shared with Reuters. The group, or UNC2814, reportedly had a long history of penetrating governments and telecommunications firms.

As part of their efforts to halt Gallium's operations, Google, along with undisclosed partners, shut down Google Cloud ventures helmed by the group and dismantled their online infrastructure. The group used Google Sheets strategically to blend into regular network traffic, avoiding immediate detection—a tactic unrelated to compromising Google's products.

In more recent findings, Gallium's reach extended to at least 22 additional countries. Charley Snyder from Google Threat Intelligence revealed that the group typically instated a backdoor called "GRIDTIDE" on targeted systems, collecting extensive personal data. China responded, emphasizing their opposition to hacking and called for international dialogue on cybersecurity.

(With inputs from agencies.)