China on Wednesday, February 7, condemned
“malicious”
and
“baseless”
hacking accusations from the Netherlands, after the discovery of spyware targeting the Dutch army.
Dutch intelligence services reported Tuesday the discovery of spyware in a computer network used by the Dutch army.
The Netherlands has accused a Chinese government entity of being behind the hack.
The Chinese government
“has always firmly opposed all forms of cyberattack and fights against them in accordance with the law”
, assured the Chinese embassy in the Netherlands in a press release.
“We do not allow any country or individual to use Chinese infrastructure to engage in such illicit activities
,” insisted the embassy on the social network WeChat, castigating the
“malicious speculation”
of the Netherlands.
Dutch intelligence services say the spyware blamed on China exploited a known vulnerability in systems provided by cybersecurity company Fortinet.
A network of cyberpirates neutralized by the United States
These assertions come after the announcement last week by the United States of the neutralization of a network of cyberhackers acting on behalf of China, according to Washington.
The group active since 2021 was, according to the American authorities, capable of paralyzing sectors such as communications, transport or even the American government in the United States.
China regularly condemns these types of accusations, saying itself is the victim of numerous cyberattacks by the United States.
Beijing, which regularly points out the substantial technical and surveillance resources available to the Americans, accuses the United States of being
“the largest computer hacking empire in the world”
.