After the Unite States mustered an unusually broad coalition of countries – NATO EU, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan- to publicly accuse China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) on Monday of hiring hackers to carry out cyberattacks against multiple countries, China dismissed the accusations today as unwarranted, The Hill writes.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian blamed the US and its allies on Tuesday for making unwarranted accusations against Chinese cybersecurity, calling them politically motivated a smear and suppression China will never accept.
At the same time, Zhao lobbied accusations against the US, saying that in the last 11 years there have been multiple cyberattacks toward China that severely compromised national and economic security, warning that China will take measures to safeguard its interests.
US intelligence agencies NSA, CISA, and the FBI released on 19 July a joint advisory accusing China of malicious cyber activities.
According to the assessment made by NSA, CISA and FBI, the Chinese state-sponsored malicious cyber activity is a major threat to US and Allied cyberspace assets since it aggressively targets US political, economic, military, educational, and critical infrastructure (CI) personnel and organizations.
The assessment also exposed more than 50 tactics hackers affiliated with Beijing allegedly used to target US and allied networks, adding that these “actors” often take effort to mask their activities.
The US its allies also claim that MSS- affiliated hackers were involved in the cyberattacks on the Microsoft Exchange email software and data breaches earlier this year with the US charging four Chinese nationals accused of compromising tens of thousands of organizations.
China has also lodged solemn representation to New Zealand via its embassy in Wellington after Andrew Little, the New Zealand minister responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau, accused Beijing on July 19 of sponsoring cyberattacks.
The statement issued by the Embassy calls Liitle’s accusations totally groundless and irresponsible, urging New Zealand side to abandon the Cold War mentality and to act professionally when dealing with cyber incidents rather than manipulating political issues under the pretext of cyber security.
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