The extensive data leak from a Chinese cybersecurity company- Explained

A Chinese cybersecurity company has witnessed the loss of large amounts of data online recently. The data was all about the company's communications and contracts with the Chinese government with regard to gathering essential digital data within the country and abroad. These included countries like the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Nigeria, and India. 

I-Soon, a company based in Shanghai is considered as one of the top private contractors that actually aid the government of China to hold its intelligence-gathering and other surveillance acts. 

About 190 megabytes of data was posted on the software and on the platform GitHub last week. Now, the important question is, what data exactly has been leaked?

The information that is shared on the code-sharing platform GitHub consists of images, emails, documents, and conversations. The documents do not actually consist of the actual data secured. Rather, they consist of information regarding the targets of the surveillance. They also consist of information about the contracts that were given to I-Soon.
As per a report, one spreadsheet consisted of the names of over 80 overseas targets that the hackers of I-Soon have breached successfully. 

The targets included dissidents and ethnicities in various parts of China that have witnessed anti-government protests, like Hong Kong. 

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The source of this leaked information

As per the Chief Threat Analyst of the Mandiant cybersecurity division of Google, John Hulquist, the leaked information could come from a rival intelligence service. Other possible sources of this leaked information could be a rival contractor or an insider who is not satisfied.
As per the analyst, the sponsors of the company I-Soon are likely to be the Ministry of State Security of China. This is the state intelligence and security agency. Other sponsor could be the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the Chinese military.

A bit about I-Soon

The company calls itself as one that is "deeply involved in the field of cyberspace security". It calls itself as a "digital intelligence solution service provider".

It was in the year 2010 when the company was founded. The headquarters of the company is situated in Shanghai. The company has offices in Beijing, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Sichuan.
The company says that the business scope of I-Soon encompasses about 32 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. 

The website of I-Soon was almost offline for a few days. However, the website included the names of its clients previously. Its clients included the 11 provincial level security bureaus, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, and 40 municipal public security departments.

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