China has responded with fierce protest to allegations by the United States that it has stolen masses of secret data in large-scale hacker attacks. The allegations of the American authorities were „out of thin air“ and a „deliberate defamation,“ said the Chinese Foreign Office on Friday. The Chinese government has never stolen business secrets or supported anyone.
Foreign Minister Hua Chunying was quoted as saying that this was a „serious burden“ on their relationship. China has officially protested. Washington had to „rectify misconduct immediately.“
Massive data stolen?
The US government accused Beijing on Thursday of mass stealing of government and corporate data in at least 12 countries, including Germany. For example, the Chinese hackers were able to gain access to at least 45 US government agencies and large technology companies.
Hundreds of gigabytes of sensitive data had been stolen, it said. The attacks were over years, probably in the period between 2006 and 2018. The hackers had placed malicious software and fished data. The US Department of Justice has also filed charges against two Chinese who are members of a group of hackers known in the scene as APT10 (Advanced Persistent Threat 10). They worked for a company that cooperates with the Chinese Ministry of National Security.
