The Chinese government says allegations that it orchestrated the recent security breach in U.S. government computer systems as groundless. (Photo : Reuters)
On Thursday, U.S. officials said that hackers working for the Chinese military are believed to have hacked into U.S. government computers at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in December, potentially compromising the data of about four million current and former federal employees.
The OPM handles employee records and security clearances of workers employed by the U.S. federal government.
"We've seen a lot of similar reports and accusations recently, but are they scientific?" Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular news briefing on Friday. "We wish the United States would not be full of suspicions, catching wind and shadows, but rather have a larger measure of trust and cooperation."
Hong also added that cyberhacking attacks are anonymous and transnational, making it hard to track the source.
"It's irresponsible and unscientific to make groundless accusations without deep investigation and research," he said.
The hack was the largest breach of federal employee data in recent years, and the second major attack of the same agency blamed on Chinese government in less than a year, according to the Washington Post.
Qin An, director of the China Institute of Cyberspace Strategy, said that the U.S. government is too eager to jump to conclusions by pointing fingers at China.
Stealing personal information is low-level hacking and the U.S. accusation that the Chinese government is behind the hack lacks evidence, said Qin.
Qin added that China's computer systems are also susceptible to hacking, noting in particular the recent breach in the country's social security system, and that both the U.S. and Chinese governments should instead join hands to face the challenges of cybercrime.
The U.S. government has repeatedly accused the Chinese government of being behind hacker attacks on its networks, to which China repeatedly denies.
Several U.S. states are currently investigating a cyberattack on Anthem Inc., the second largest health insurer in the U.S., in February, with insider sources saying that the attack is being examined for possible ties to China.
John Hultquist of Dallas-based iSight Partners told Reuters that the latest attack on OPM and Anthem appears to have been the work of hackers working on behalf of a state, not those focused on cybercrime.
"This is usually done by criminals, but based on their behavior, we believe these are espionage actors," Hultquist said, adding that the hackers may be gathering personally identifiable information for more elaborate, finely tuned attacks in the future.
The OPM detected malicious activity affecting its information systems in April, and the Department of Homeland Security said it concluded at the beginning of May that the agency's data had been compromised.
The breach hit OPM's IT systems and its data stored at the Department of the Interior's data center, a shared service center for federal agencies, a DHS official said on condition of anonymity.
In a statement, the FBI said that it is investigating the incident and aims to bring to account those responsible for the attack.
