China’s Xinhua News Agency claims cyberattacks also targeted Ukraine and Belarus
Hackers operating predominantly from American soil have been taking control of computers in China, using them to carry out cyberattacks against targets in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday.
The news outlet claims that China’s internet authority began detecting such malicious activity in late February. According to the report, the country’s internet has been under “constant” attack from abroad ever since.
The news agency, citing officials, revealed that the majority of cyberattacks had been traced back to the US, with 10 such addresses in New York State alone. Chinese computers have reportedly also been targeted from Germany, the Netherlands, and several other countries.
According to figures cited in the Chinese media, some 87% of all cyberattacks carried out via computers in China had Russia as their prime target.
The article reassured readers that China’s internet authority has been responding to cyber breaches “to the maximum extent and in a timely manner.”
Since Russia launched its military campaign against Ukraine on February 24, the country’s government websites as well as those belonging to some major commercial banks, companies and media, including RT, have been the target of multiple cyberattacks.
In late February, Anonymous, an international group of hackers, declared a cyber war on Vladimir Putin’s government.
Meanwhile, US media ran reports on Tuesday, claiming that an unnamed Chinese government-backed hacking group had attacked local government agencies in half a dozen US states over the past 10 months. Reports citing American cybersecurity firm Mandiant alleged the Chinese hackers’ prime objective was information-gathering.
CNN also claimed that an advisory by the FBI and US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to state governments had supposedly named “health, transportation, labor (including unemployment benefit systems), higher education, agriculture, and court networks and systems” among the areas targeted.
Commenting on the reports, China’s embassy in Washington, DC, insisted that Beijing “firmly oppose[s] and combat[s] cyberattacks of any kind,” dismissing the allegations of China’s involvement in the breaches as “groundless.”
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