China’s national cybersecurity response centre said on Wednesday that since May 2023, the agency has identified and resolved two incidents of US cyber attacks against Chinese tech firms to “steal trade secrets”, reported Reuters on Dec 18.
China National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Centre of China (CNCERT/CC) said in a statement published on its website that the two suspected cyber attacks were carried out on an advanced materials design and research unit, and a large-scale high-tech company focused on intelligent energy and digital information.
CNCERT/CC said the hacks led to the theft of “a large amount of trade secrets” in both incidents.
The cybersecurity agency said the Chinese firms were “suspected of being attacked by a US intelligence agency” without naming the attacking agency.
CNCERT/CC introduced itself as a non-governmental technical centre that serves as China’s “national computer emergency” with the aim of preventing and detecting cybersecurity threats to the country.
After years of being accused by Western governments of cyberattacks and industrial espionage, in the past two years several Chinese organisations and government organisations have accused the US and its allies of similar behaviour.
In March 2022, CNCERT/CC said China faced a wave of cyberattacks, mostly from the US origin with a few from other countries such as Germany and the Netherlands. These attacks reportedly took control of computers in China and used them to carry out cyberattacks on Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
