China Accuse US Of Launching "Advanced" Cyber Attacks (Image @Pixabay)
Beijing China: China accused US National Security Agency (NSA) of launching “advanced” cyberattacks targeting essential industries during the Asian Winter Games in February. Chinese police in the northeastern city of Harbin added three alleged NSA agents to a wanted list. It also accused the University of California and Virginia Tech for being involved in the attacks after carrying out investigations, as per report by state news agency Xinhua.
The Xinhua identified NSA agents as Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling and Stephen W. Johnson. The three were also found to have “repeatedly carried out cyber attacks on China’s critical information infrastructure and participated in cyber attacks on Huawei and other enterprises”, said the report. However, there were no clarification on how the two American universities were involved.
The attacks targeted information systems such as the Asian Winter Games registration system and stored “sensitive information about the identities of relevant personnel of the event”, said the report.
The US Embassy in China did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from the news agency.
Also Read: Trump Slaps 125% Tariff On China, Temporarily Eases Trade Pressure On Others
The new allegations come as China, and US, world’s two largest economies, stepped up on the highway to a trade war that has already spurred travel warnings for Chinese tourists going to the US and halted imports of US films into China.
“The US National Security Agency (NSA) launched cyber attacks against important industries such as energy, transportation, water conservancy, communications, and national defence research institutions in Heilongjiang province,” Xinhua said, citing the Harbin city public security bureau. It also added that the attacks had “the intention of sabotaging China’s critical information infrastructure, causing social disorder, and stealing important confidential information.”
As per the report, the NSA operations took place during the Winter Games and were “suspected of activating specific pre-installed backdoors” in Microsoft Windows operating systems on specific devices in Heilongjiang. For covering up its footprints, the NSA purchased IP addresses in different countries and “anonymously” rented a large number of network servers including in Europe and Asia.
It said NSA intended to use cyberattacks to steal the personal data of participating athletes, and added that the cyber attacks reached a peak from the first ice hockey game on February 3.
Also Read: From 84% To 125%: China’s Tit-For-Tat To Increasing Tariffs On US Goods
Washington has repeatedly accused China of state-backed hackers launching attacks against its critical infrastructure and government bodies of US. Last month, US announced indictments against a slew of alleged Chinese hackers who targeted the US Defense Intelligence Agency, the US Department of Commerce, and the foreign ministries of Taiwan, South Korea, India, and Indonesia.
Beijing repeatedly denied all involvement in overseas cyber espionage. After being at the receiving end of West’s pointing of cyberattacks and industrial espionage, Chinese organisations and government organs have accused the United States and its allies of similar behaviour in the past two years. In December last year, Beijing said it found and dealt with two US cyber attacks on Chinese tech firms to “steal trade secrets” since May 2023, but did not name the agency involved.
