China rips US over sanctions in hacking incidents targeting infrastructure

China slammed the U.S. on Monday for sanctioning a Beijing-based cybersecurity firm allegedly behind a botnet targeting American infrastructure, accusing Washington of “using the issue of cybersecurity to vilify and smear China.” 

“On the so-called issue of cyberattacks, China has made clear our position more than once,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a press conference. “China has all along firmly opposed hacking and fights it in accordance with law.” 

“For quite some time, the U.S. has been trumpeting so-called ‘Chinese hacking’ and even using it to impose illegal and unilateral sanctions on China,” he added. “China firmly rejects this and will do what is necessary to safeguard our lawful rights and interests.” 

The U.S. announced sanctions Friday on the Chinese cyber company Integrity Technology Group.

Hackers associated with the firm are accused of targeting multiple U.S. and foreign corporations, universities, telecommunication firms, government and media organizations as part of an operation referred to a “Flax Typhoon,” according to the State Department. 

The Justice Department initially announced a court-authorized operation to disrupt the botnet, or network of compromised devices, run by Integrity Tech in September.  

The botnet consists of more than 260,000 devices across six continents, according to a joint advisory from the FBI, Cyber National Mission Force and National Security Agency (NSA). 

In a statement to The Hill last week, the Chinese embassy suggested the sanctions were part an effort to “smear” other countries and accused the U.S. of being an “initiator and master of cyber attacks.”   

“The U.S. has drawn conclusions without effective evidence, made groundless accusations and smears against China, and imposed sanctions on Chinese entities, which is extremely irresponsible and purely confusing right and wrong,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said.