[ISN] Chinese experts slam U.S. hacking accusations

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90883/8122948.html

(Xinhua)
February 06, 2013

BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese experts on Tuesday refuted latest 
accusations from the U.S. side linking Chinese authorities to alleged hacking 
activities.

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal last week claimed that they had 
detected cyber attacks from China-based hackers, while China had been regularly 
labeled a major origin for cyber threats to the United States. This was 
promptly rejected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"The accusations are unreasonable and irresponsible," said prof. Zhou Shijian, 
a senior researcher with the Center for US-China Relations of Tsinghua 
University in Beijing.

Zhou noted that it is still hard to locate the ultimate source of hacking 
activities due to the transnational and the anonymous nature of cyber-attacks.

In addition, Zhou stressed that he found no reason for the Chinese government 
to support such activities, citing an official report that the country has 
become the biggest victim of Internet hacking.

A total of 12,513 Chinese websites including 1,167 governmental ones detected 
cyber attacks from April to December in 2011, according to a 2012 report issued 
by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Center of 
China (CNCERT/CC), the country's primary computer security monitoring network,

The report noted that 11,851 overseas IPs were involved in the attacks, while 
28.1 percent of the overseas hacking attackers were from the United States.

Prof. Liu Deliang, director of the Beijing-based Asia-Pacific Institute for 
Cyber-Law Studies, also found the accusations groundless "both in legal basis 
and logics."

Even if the attacking origins were in China, it could be results of individual 
behaviors, said Liu.

"In the end, the accusation is nothing more than an excuse for the United 
States to wage wars on network security, and also for its trade protectionism, 
economic and foreign sanctions purposes."

The accusation also demonstrated the intent of the United States to seek 
"hegemony" in cyber space, said Liu.


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