China rejects US hacking allegations

Beijing: China’s Defence Ministry on Wednesday denounced as “groundless” the accusation by a US security firm that a secretive PLA unit is engaged in sophisticated cyber espionage around the world, saying the allegation lacked technical proof and legal basis.

“US cyber security firm Mandiant’s report is groundless both in facts and legal basis,” Geng Yansheng, spokesman with the Chinese Ministry of Defence, told reporters at a media briefing. China’s armed forces had never backed any hacking activities, he said.
To address criticism from foreign statesmen and media outlets about Chinese hacking, the Chinese side would like to resolve the issues through joint law enforcement and consultations with other countries, he said. According to the spokesman, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security has assisted more than 50 countries and regions in investigating some 1,100 cases of cyber crime since 2004. China has established bilateral law enforcement cooperation with over 30 nations and regions, including the United States, Britain, Germany and Russia, he said.

Lodging one-sided media accusations will not help solve problems, but only jeopardize existing cooperation, he said. Asked whether China took up allegations of cyber attacks from US with Washington Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei told a media briefing that China maintained communication on the relevant issue and called for international cooperation to deal with it.

Jin Canrong, an American studies expert with Renmin University, said the real motive behind the US hacking accusation is to seek an upper hand in Sino-US relations. It signalled that the US is looking for fresh topics to criticize China in an effort to achieve dominance, Jin told Xinhua. “Our analysis has led us to conclude that APT1 (Advanced Persistent Threat) is likely government-sponsored and one of the most persistent of China’s cyber threat actors. We believe that APT1 is able to wage such a long-running and extensive cyber espionage campaign in large part because it receives direct government support,” said the executive summary of the 60-page report.

Mandiant said it believes the group behind the hacking is Unit 61398, within a wing of the People’s Liberation Army. It said it has observed hacking attempts against nearly 150 victims over seven years. Hundreds of terabytes of data were involved, it said. A series of cyber attacks on America’s most high-profile media outlets, reported earlier this month by The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, as well as on Twitter and others, have revived concerns over Chinese hackers. The New York Times said hackers stole corporate passwords and accessed the personal computers of 53 employees after the newspaper published a report on the family fortune of China’s Premier Wen Jiabao.
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