China on Thursday accused the United States and four of its Western allies of engaging in a "disinformation campaign" after the release of a report that claims Beijing sponsored a cyberattack against their interests.
"This is a report that has serious flaws and is extremely unprofessional," Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said during a press conference.
“It is clear that this is a collective disinformation campaign by the countries of the Five Eyes coalition, launched by the United States for geopolitical purposes,” she continued.
The "Five Eyes" alliance is an intelligence collaboration network that includes Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand - countries that mostly have disputes with China, to varying degrees.
In a joint notice, authorities in those states warned of "a 'malicious activity group' associated with "a state-sponsored cyber actor from the People's Republic of China, also known as Volt Typhoon. ".
It is claimed that hackers have quietly infiltrated American "critical infrastructure".
"As everyone knows, the Five Eyes Alliance is the world's largest intelligence organization and the (US) National Security Agency (NSA) is the world's largest hacking organization," Mao Ning said.
"The fact that they're teaming up to publish such a misinformation report is in itself ironic."
The NSA, often denounced by Beijing, was made famous by one of its former computer scientists, the American Edward Snowden, who revealed the existence of an American system for the global surveillance of communications and in particular the Internet.
In a separate press release, the American group Microsoft assured that Volt Typhoon had been active since mid-2021 and that it had targeted, among other things, essential infrastructure on the island of Guam, which hosts a major American military base in the 'Pacific Ocean.
The campaign risks "disrupting critical communications infrastructure between the United States and the Asian region during future crises," Microsoft warned.
05/25/2023 10:28:09 - Beijing (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
