The U.S. and its allies accuse China of engaging in global cyber hacking activities Reuters

Authors: Steve Holland and David Shepardson

Washington (Reuters)-On Monday, the United States and a coalition of allies accused China’s Ministry of National Security of launching a global cyber hacking campaign, especially the large-scale attack on Microsoft (NASDAQ:) disclosed earlier this year Blame it on the hacker working on behalf of Beijing.

A fact sheet released by the White House on Monday morning showed that the United States, along with NATO, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Canada, opened up new areas of tension with China to quell these allegations.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Brinken said: “The U.S. and other countries in the world are holding the People’s Republic of China responsible for its irresponsible, destructive, and destabilizing behavior in cyberspace, which poses a major threat to our economy and national security.” Said in a statement on Monday.

Also on Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that four Chinese citizens have been charged with global hacking activities against dozens of companies, universities, and government agencies in the U.S. and abroad from 2011 to 2018. The focus of these activities is to have a major impact on Chinese companies. Benefits of information and businesses.

A month ago, the leaders of the Group of Seven and NATO agreed with President Joe Biden at the summits held in Cornwall and Brussels in the United Kingdom, accusing China of posing a systemic challenge to the world order.

Brinken said that the government officially blamed cyber actors “affiliated” with the Ministry of State Security of China for the intrusion that exploited the Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerability disclosed in March.

He cited the prosecution of three security officials and hackers as examples of how the United States will impose the consequences.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chinese officials have previously stated that China is also a victim of hacker attacks and opposes all forms of cyber attacks.

A senior government official said that US federal agencies, including the National Security Council, the FBI, and the National Security Agency, will outline more than 50 technologies and procedures that “actors supported by the Chinese government” use to target US networks.

The 31-page U.S. cybersecurity bulletin seen by Reuters stated that Chinese government-funded cyber actors will continue to scan the target network for critical and high-level vulnerabilities within a few days after the vulnerability is publicly disclosed.

US officials said they were surprised by the scope and scale of the hacking attacks attributed to China and the use of “criminal contract hacking” by China.

“The Ministry of National Security (MSS) of China has cultivated an ecosystem of criminal contract hackers who carry out state-sponsored activities and cybercrimes for their own economic interests,” Brinken said.

In recent months, the United States has accused Russian cyber hackers of launching a series of ransomware attacks in the United States, focusing their attention on Russia.

In a statement on Monday, US officials formally accused the Chinese government of “highly trusting” the use of Microsoft email services to attack US companies and government agencies for hacking. Microsoft has accused China of being responsible.

This operation specifically takes advantage of the weaknesses of the Microsoft Exchange program, a common e-mail software. Cybersecurity experts were shocked by the scale and number of incidents, with thousands of potential American victims.

Senior officials in the Biden administration stated that the United States has raised concerns about Chinese cyber activities to senior Chinese officials. “We do not rule out taking further action to hold China accountable,” the official said.

The United States and China have disputes over trade, China’s military buildup, the suppression of Hong Kong’s democratic activists, the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and the aggression in the South China Sea.

On Friday, the Biden administration issued an advisory report warning US companies of the risks faced by their operations and activities in Hong Kong after China implemented a new national security law in Hong Kong last year.