i-SOON Operations: A View from Kazakhstan

Leak shows Kazakhstan’s cyber-vulnerability and its importance to China as economic partner and haven for Uyghurs

The massive February 16 2024 leak of materials from Chinese information security company i-SOON showed the company had compromised and stolen data from entities worldwide. The materials included charts with personal data on subscribers of several telecommunications companies in the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan. This oil- and mineral-rich country, formerly part of the Soviet Union and flanked by Russia and China, has pursued a multivector foreign policy, nurturing good relations with a variety of countries. Current president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a former diplomat, reportedly speaks fluent Chinese, Russian, French and English, in addition to the Kazakh language (https://online.zakon[.]kz/Document/?doc_id=30100479). His family has discreet business ties to Russia. Kazakhstan is a key transit country for Chinese exports to Europe. The Kazakh ethnic group, culturally Turkic, extends on both sides of the border with China and shares the Muslim religion and cultural similarities wit…