Western intelligence agencies and Microsoft have revealed a Chinese hacking group that has spied on a large number of critical infrastructure institutions in the United States, ranging from telecommunications to transportation hubs. Microsoft noted that the espionage targeted Guam, which hosts several strategic U.S. military bases, and mitigating the effects of this attack may pose a difficult challenge. Analysts have classified these attacks as one of the largest known cyber-espionage operations against American critical infrastructure.
In response, the Chinese government denied the accusations of spying on Western infrastructure, describing the joint warning issued by the United States and its allies as a "collective disinformation campaign." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated that the warnings issued by the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand aim to promote their intelligence alliance known as the "Five Eyes," and accused Washington of being responsible for the hacking, labeling it as "the empire of hacking." This response from China follows a series of warnings issued by the Five Eyes alliance countries and U.S. company Microsoft regarding activities of a Chinese hacking group known as "Volt Typhoon."
