• China pandemic responds to accusations against Wuhan: "The virus came from a laboratory ... from the US"

  • Interview Joseph Wu, Taiwan Foreign Minister: "The possibility of war with China is real"

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.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • China

  • USA

  • NATO

  • Microsoft

  • Japan

  • New Zealand

  • Canada

  • Australia

  • UK

LibyaFrom the rebellion against Gaddafi and the intervention of NATO to the war of all against all

MILAGROMari Cruz: "In the end you don't know if you are imagining it or it really happened. Maybe we have mentalized it"

The World Wide OpenAmy Webb: "If Artificial Intelligence advances as it has done now, in 50 years we will be more servants than citizens"

See links of interest

  • Last News

  • Olympic Games

  • Work calendar

  • Home THE WORLD TODAY

  • Data journalism

  • The race of the British Formula 1 Grand Prix, live