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A group of seven French lawmakers targeted by cyberattacks attributed to Chinese hackers have called for a judicial investigation by the authorities.
The move, announced the day Xi Jinping kicked off a two-day state visit to France, comes after the U.S. Department of Justice issued an indictment in March saying that Chinese hackers with links to its national spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, in 2021 targeted “every European Union member” of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a coalition of lawmakers critical of Beijing.
Unlike the U.S., the U.K. and New Zealand, who formally accused China, the French authorities have shied away from pointing the finger at Beijing.
“We cannot allow such a campaign of cyberattacks against the elected representatives of the French people to go unanswered,” said French Senator Olivier Cadic at a press briefing on Monday.
The lawmakers, all current or former members of IPAC, include Constance Le Grip (Renaissance), Isabelle Florennes (Modem) and former minister André Vallini.
They want to push the French government to formally attribute the attack to APT31 — a hacking crew with links to the Chinese state. French security services traditionally refrain from attributing cyberattacks.
“There is an urgent need to raise awareness and protect members of parliament against the risks of cyberattacks,” Le Grip said.
The group also called for a judicial probe for foreign interference to be opened as well as sanctions to be imposed on members of APT31.
The hackers in 2021 sent “more than 1,000 emails to more than 400 unique accounts of individuals associated with IPAC” to try to gather data on members’ internet activities and digital devices, the U.S. indictment said.
Some of the confirmed targets of the attack included former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, British Minister for Europe Nusrat Ghani and Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský.
