Chinese police in the city of Harbin in the northeast of the country accused the US National Security Agency (NSA) of launching “advanced” cyber attacks during the winter Asian games in February, aiming at essential industries.
Police added three alleged NSA agents to a wanted list and also accused the University of California and Virginia Tech of involvement in the attacks after investigating, according to a report by the Xinhua state news agency on Tuesday (15).
The report did not specify how the two American universities were involved.
However, the report contained a considerable amount of details about cyber attacks and supposed individuals involved, and comes at a time when the world’s two largest economies deepened in one that has already generated travel alerts to Chinese tourists to the US and interrupted the importation of American films to China.
“The US National Security Agency (NSA) has launched cyber attacks against important sectors, such as energy, transportation, water conservation, communications and national defense research institutions in Heilongjiang province,” said the report, citing the Harbin City Department of Public Security.
The US embassy in China did not immediately respond to an email order sent by email.
The attacks had “the intention to sabotage China’s critical information infrastructure, cause social disorders and steal important confidential information,” he added.
Xinhua said NSA operations occurred during the winter Olympics and were “suspected of activating specific preinstalled backdoors” on Microsoft Windows operating systems on specific Heilongjiang devices.
Three individuals named “repeatedly performed cyber attacks on China’s critical information infrastructure and participated in cyber attacks on Huawei and other companies,” he added.
Those supported by the Chinese state of launching attacks against their critical infrastructure and government agencies.
Last month, which attacked the US Defense Intelligence Agency, the US Department of Commerce, and the Foreign Ministries of Taiwan, South Korea, India and Indonesia.
Beijing denies any involvement in cyber espionage abroad.
After years being accused by Western governments of cyber attacks and industrial espionage, in the last two years several organizations and Chinese government agencies have accused the United States and its similarly behavioral allies.
In December, China claimed to have identified and dealt with two US cyber attacks against Chinese technology companies to “steal trade secrets” since May 2023, but has not revealed the name of the agency involved.
