More unsettling was the Chinese hacking group behind the extraction and redeployment of the NSA’s exploits. The group, code-named Legion Amber, was based in Guangzhou, an ancient city in southern China, but even the agency struggled to make sense of their ties to the state. Legion Amber’s “operators appear to be private or contract hackers, but little is known about their affiliation,” one classified NSA assessment concluded. “However, their heavy targeting of Five Eyes and global government and industrial entities suggests they are operating on behalf of elements of the Chinese government.”
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