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The United States, the European Union (EU), NATO and five other countries on Monday accused Chinese-backed hackers of being behind the global cyberattack last March against Microsoft, a senior US official told the press.
It is a gesture that could have great
geopolitical consequences
and with which Washington wants to expose the role of China in recent large-scale cyberattacks.
According to the aforementioned official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the US and its allies have come to the conclusion that they can attribute the global cyberattack to Beijing with "a high level of confidence", the highest level used by intelligence agencies.
Microsoft had previously accused Beijing-backed hackers of
illegally
accessing email accounts on its Exchange Server business service;
but neither the EU, nor NATO, nor the US had yet singled out China because they were waiting for more information.
What they discovered was that the Ministry of Public Security, China's main intelligence and police body,
externally "hires"
criminal
hackers
with the aim of perpetrating attacks around the world, the official said.
Extortion and robbery
Among other things, the operations of these hackers include extortion, theft of digital currencies such as bitcoins and even attacks with which they ask for rewards for their own personal gain.
In some cases, the source claimed, cybercriminals attacked
private banks
with a "ransomware" program that seized computers with confidential information and then demanded a reward of millions of dollars to free them.
Aiming to expose China on the world stage, US intelligence agencies will reveal
50 tactics,
techniques and procedures commonly used by Chinese hackers on
Monday
, as well as offering advice on how to deal with that threat.
First conviction of the Alliance
The US official assured that the US and its allies "will hold China to account" but did not reveal what kind of actions they plan to take.
The condemnation of Beijing is
significant
because it includes a large number of countries and organizations: the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, NATO and the EU.
It is the first time that the Atlantic Alliance condemns cyber attacks from China, the official stressed.
As published in 'The Wall Street Journal' in March, the cyberattack could have affected some
250,000
computer
systems
around the world.
The European Banking Authority, the Norwegian Parliament and the Chilean Financial Market Commission were also victims of the attack.
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