China Raises Hacking Charges Against US

China accused a U.S. spy agency of hacking a government-backed university with aeronautics and space research programs, Bloomberg reports.
The National Security Agency's Office of Tailored Access Operations attacked the Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi'an, China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center said.
The NSA conducted over 10,000 "vicious" cyberattacks on Chinese targets in recent years, collecting over 140 GB of data of "great value," it said.
The NSA and State Department have refused to comment.
U.S. and China have been at loggerheads over cyberspying.
In July, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned Western companies against China's aims to "ransack" their intellectual property so it can eventually dominate critical industries.
An Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst acknowledged an uptick in specific Chinese accusations of U.S. cyberattacks and urged the U.S. to respond with precise details of Chinese actors engaged in spying.
Recently, China has started directly accusing the U.S. of cyberattacks and naming targets to increase public awareness and regain the diplomatic initiative, per a cyber expert. In contrast, the U.S. escalated its investments in espionage and surveillance on China and Russia.
A former Europe station chief for the U.S. intelligence agency CIA acknowledged that the "Chinese intelligence operatives are on a par with the Russians."
China is already well known for advanced cyber attacks, like the 2021 Microsoft Corp MSFT hack, which compromised 30,000 organizations globally. Hackers linked to the Chinese government exploited a recently discovered vulnerability in Microsoft Office.
President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan earmarked $20 billion to counter cyber attacks.
Photo by mohamed hassan via Pxhere

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