China Condemns Cyber Attack on Wuhan Science Center
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning expressed Beijing's condemnation of a cyber attack on the Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center, stating that measures will be taken to safeguard the country's cybersecurity.
Mao further criticized the United States for employing "typical double standard and political manipulation" in its accusations against China for orchestrating similar attacks.
She said Washington's actions politicize and weaponize the issue, hampering international efforts to address cybersecurity, which is a common challenge for all nations.
According to the Global Times, preliminary findings from the investigation point towards a government-backed effort from the US being responsible for the attack, targeting the earthquake monitoring center of the Wuhan Municipal Emergency Management Bureau.
The police in Wuhan reported that hacking organizations and criminals with foreign government backgrounds are suspected to be behind the attack and have initiated an investigation into the matter.
The China Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) and Internet security company 360 found evidence indicating that foreign organizations attacked the network at the front-end station of the Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center.
In response to the attack, the earthquake monitoring center promptly sealed the relevant network equipment and reported the situation to the public security organ for further investigation, reserving the right to pursue the case.
The Wuhan Municipal Public Security Bureau emphasized the serious threat such attacks pose to national security and announced the initiation of an investigation by the Jianghan branch of the Wuhan Municipal Public Security Bureau.
Notably, the Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center is not the first state unit to be targeted by foreign hacker groups, following China's Northwestern Polytechnical University, which faced a similar attack in June of the previous year.
After the university attack, CVERC and 360 collaborated to form a technical team, conducting a comprehensive analysis that revealed hundreds of thousands of malicious cyber attacks targeting Chinese objectives, allegedly mounted by the US National Security Agency-affiliated Tailored Access Operations.
