APT3 is a sophisticated attack group that has been attributed to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS). [1] FireEye first reported about APT3 in 2010, and various researchers have followed attacks attributed to this group as recently as 2017. [3][5]

In 2017, a researcher wrote about links between APT3, Boyusec, and Chinese MSS. Boyusec is a cybersecurity contractor for MSS which was reported as also having ties to Huawei Technologies. [14][15] Before 2015, APT3 targeted industries based in the US and UK to steal “intellectual property and other confidential information worth stealing.” These attacks shifted targets to Hong Kong during 2015, and “increased significantly in March 2016.” [3]