In Singapore, three citizens of China who were working for an international cybercrime group have been arrested. Files linked to the activities of several foreign departments were found on their laptops, including correspondence between employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development of Kazakhstan.
According to ORDA, citing the Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times, those detained were Liu Yuqi, Huang Qinzheng and Yan Peijian. According to Singaporean law enforcement, the three men arrived in the country in September last year to collect personal data and attempt to hack government resources.
After the arrest, the police carried out a technical examination of the devices. On the laptop of 33-year-old Liu Yuqi, confidential official correspondence between employees of Kazakh state bodies was found. The nature and content of the correspondence have not been disclosed. Kazakh state bodies have not officially commented on the information that has emerged.
Furthermore, hundreds of malicious tools were found on the suspects' devices, including RAT programs for remote access and PlugX, a well-known type of malware previously linked to groups acting in the interests of certain state structures.
On Yan's laptop, correspondence discussing vulnerabilities on the websites of state institutions in Australia, Argentina and Vietnam was identified. Documents containing personal and payment data of clients of a Philippine energy company were found on Huang's device.
In the end, a court in Singapore sentenced each of those detained to two years and five months' imprisonment. The sentence has come into legal force.