TORONTO: Amnesty International Canada announced Monday that it had been the target of a cyberattack sponsored by China.

The human rights organization said it discovered the breach on October 5 and immediately hired forensic investigators and cybersecurity experts to look into it.

Amnesty International Canada Secretary General Ketty Nivyabandi stated that the searches in their systems were specifically and solely related to China and Hong Kong, as well as a few prominent Chinese activists. The organization was taken offline for nearly three weeks as a result of the hack.

According to Secureworks, there was no attempt to monetize the access, and the attack was likely carried out by a "threat group sponsored or tasked by the Chinese state" due to the nature of the searches, the level of sophistication, and the use of tools unique to China-sponsored actors.

In light of this, Nivyabandi urged activists and journalists to update their cybersecurity protocols.

"As a global human rights organization, we are acutely aware that we may be the target of state-sponsored efforts to disrupt or surveil our work."

These will not deter us, and the safety and privacy of our activists, staff, donors, and stakeholders remain our top priorities," Nivyabandi stated.

Amnesty International is one of the organizations that helps human rights activists and journalists who are being watched by state actors. This includes confirming cases of activists' and journalists' cell phones being infected with Pegasus spyware, which converts them into real-time listening devices as well as copies of their contents.

Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights were among the organizations targeted by Chinese hackers in August, according to the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. That was especially troubling given the Chinese government's "reported human rights violations against Uyghurs, Tibetans, and other ethnic and religious minority groups."

According to expert estimates, Amnesty International has raised concerns about a Chinese internment camp system that has taken in a million or more Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. The camps have been closed, according to China, which describes them as vocational training and education centres to combat extremism. The government has never stated publicly how many people have passed through them.

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa did not respond immediately to a message seeking comment.