China denies claims of infiltrating US critical infrastructure

China has denied claims  a state-sponsored hacking group has infiltrated critical American infrastructure.

Made jointly by the US government and Microsoft in May 2023, the allegations state that Volt Typhoon, a state-sponsored hacking group in China, installed surveillance malware in ‘critical’ systems on the island of Guam and other locations in the United States. Allegedly, that gave the group access to those systems for the last five years.

In February 2024, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the NSA, and the FBI issued an advisory warning to critical infrastructure organizations regarding state-sponsored cyber actors from China, claiming that they “are seeking to pre-position themselves on IT networks for disruptive or destructive cyberattacks.”

The joint claims from the American agencies stated that Volt Typhoon had infiltrated the US Department of Energy, US Environmental Protection Agency, as well as various government agencies in Australia, the UK, Canada, and New Zealand. Instead of attacking any of these targets, Volt Typhoon is allegedly ‘pre-positioning’ itself for potential future attacks.

The fact that government agencies were targeted suggests that the plan would be to disrupt critical infrastructure, or so the reports claim. The US government believes that the goal is exacerbating “potential geopolitical tensions and/or military conflicts.”

Now, China has denied such allegations, with the nation’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (NCVERC) describing the claims as a “political farce” orchestrated by US officials in a new report seen by Bloomberg.

The report is also said to have cited more than 50 cybersecurity experts who added their voices to China’s claims that there isn’t sufficient evidence linking Volt Typhoon to the Chinese government.

In return, the NCVERC has made claims in response that the United States is using “cyber warfare forces” to gather intelligence and infiltrate international networks, alleging that the US is using a tool known as Marble that can use Chinese and Russian code to implicate the respective countries in the actions.

This is the last in a long line of technology-based spats between China and other world powers, with China being accused of hacking the UK Ministry of Defence and a separate hired hacker scandal earlier this year.

Featured image: Midjourney

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