"The Defense Ministry and China Military Online websites havefaced a serious threat from hacking attacks since they wereestablished, and the number of hacks has risen steadily in recentyears," ministry spokesperson Geng Yansheng said Thursday.
"According to the IP addresses, the Defense Ministry andChina Military Online websites were, in 2012, hacked on averagefrom overseas 144,000 times a month, of which attacks from the USaccounted for 62.9 percent," he added.
The Chinese official also said that the US has been unhelpful inefforts at international cooperation against hacking: "We hopethat the US side can explain and clarify this."
Earlier this month, US security firm Mandiant said that theChinese military were likely behind a large number of hackingattacks against US targets. Mandiant claimed that theShanghai-based Unit 61398 of the People’s Liberation Army was thedriving force behind the hacking; China has denied theallegations.
The war of words comes as the US ramps up its cybersecurityand cyber-attackcapabilities. Earlier, numerous US officials claimed thatChinese hackers were a major threat to both national security andUS commercial interests.
Some experts believe the US is exploiting the rhetoric of Chinaas a cyber-threat as part of its mounting rivalry with theascendant Asian nation.
"I think what we’re looking at is part of this Obama pivot tofocus on China and to paint China as a new military threat to theworld,” geopolitical analyst William Engdahl told RT. “It’sa demonization of China.”
So far, the only public case of cyber-weapons being used forgeopolitical ends is the alleged attack by American and Israelihackers on an Iranian uranium enrichment facility. While neithernation has officially acknowledged using the Stuxnetvirus to damage centrifuges at the Natanz plant, the so-called‘Olympic Games’ operation was widely reported by internationalmedia, citing anonymous government sources.
