China accuses the US of cyberattacks

China accuses the United States of conducting tens of thousands of cyberattacks on its country, including cyberespionage campaigns.

The Government of Beijing accused the United States of launching tens of thousands of cyberattacks on China. The attacks aimed at stealing sensitive data from government entities and universities.

In the past, the US Government has accused China of cyberattacks against US organizations and private businesses, but Bejing always denied the claims.

On Monday, the Chinese National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) published a report, which was co-authored by the private Chinese cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360, that accuses the US National Security Agency (NSA) of conducting “tens of thousands of malicious attacks on network targets in China in recent years”.

The attacks were orchestrated by the NSA’s Tailored Access Operations (TAO) elite hacker unit that in one case compromised the Northwestern Polytechnical University in the city of Xi’an and stole over 140 gigabytes of high-value data.

The university focuses on aeronautical and space research, the US hackers were able to compromise the network of the university and take “control of tens of thousands of network devices” including servers, routers and network switches.”

The attackers exploited zero-day flaws impacting the SunOS operating system, they gained access to “core technical data” including passwords and the operations of key network devices.

According to the CVERC report, NSA TAO was supported by other hacking groups in Europe and South Asia.

“[the intrusion] seriously endangers China’s national security and users’ personal data security”. Said the foreign ministry in Beijing. “We ask the US to provide an explanation and urge them to stop immediately this illegal move,” Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, said at a regular press conference.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, China)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.