On April 9, the Chinese police accused the US National Security Agency (NSA) of cyberattacking the Asian Winter Games, referring to the incident as proof of the need for a fierce China cybersecurity strategy.
The NSA has been accused by Harbin city authorities in northeast China of launching sophisticated cyberattacks on vital infrastructure during the 2024 Asian Winter Games.
According to the state-controlled Xinhua News Agency, theUS cyberattacks on China during the Asia Winter Games were directed at energy, transportation, communications, and national defense institutions in Heilongjiang province where Harbin is located.
The police said that the US vs China cyber warfare is now targeted at destabilizing the country’s online world to “cause social disorder,” and steal confidential data. The report, “US National Security Agency’s Cyber Attacks against China: A Joint Investigation Report” also claimed that the attacks exploited “pre-installed backdoors” in Microsoft Windows systems to attack devices during the Winter Games.
Three US citizens were named and featured as wanted people in connection with the alleged attacks. In parallel, two American universities, the University of California and Virginia Tech, were also named as playing a part, though no information regarding what part they played was released.
Details Emerge on Alleged Us Cyberattack on China
China accuses US of hacking came amid heightened tensions between the world’s two largest economies, already embroiled in an escalating trade war that has seen the US issue travel advisories and China halt imports of US movies. While the US has consistently accused Chinese state-sponsored hackers of targeting US infrastructure, Beijing has become increasingly pushing the spotlight back to Washington.
The Harbin city public security bureau explained the NSA’s activities were part of a broader campaign, citing earlier US cyber intelligence operations on Chinese companies like Huawei and suggesting long-standing efforts to breach China cybersecurity strategy.
“The operations had the purpose of weakening China’s critical information infrastructure,” the bureau stated in the report, stating they were carried out with a level of coordination that was of great concern.
This is not the first time Beijing has responded to allegations of cyber-spying, as last month, China cybersecurity strategy officials also identified US offensive cyber operations on China players as responsible for conducting attacks to pilfer trade secrets from domestic technology companies.
To date, the US Embassy in Beijing has not released any comment on the new accusations. However, the charges reflect how cybersecurity has become a key area of contention in the ongoing geopolitics rivalry, with both countries accusing one another of more and more sophisticated China’s cybersecurity law warfare.
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