‘US behind cyber attacks on China’

US hackers are the main culprits behind the massive wave of cyber attacks against military websites in China, Chinese authorities say.

The Chinese Defense Ministry said Thursday that the US is responsible for launching nearly two-thirds of cyber attacks against two military sites.

“The Defense Ministry and China Military Online websites were hacked from overseas on average 144,000 times a month in 2012,” said Geng Yansheng, a spokesperson for the Defense Ministry.

The spokesperson said the attacks have “risen steadily in recent years,” though he did not cite any specific US entities involved in the attack.

This comes as a US security company said last week that a Chinese military unit hacked into major US firms including congressional offices, think tanks, law firms, news organizations, contractors, human rights groups, and foreign embassies.

Meanwhile, China has since denied US claims, with Yansheng saying “at present, China’s military has no cyber warfare units.”

He went on to say that US officials must “explain and clarify” recent US media reports about Washington performing “pre-emptive” cyber attacks and increasing its online warfare capability.

Last week, Scott Borg, CEO of US Cyber Consequences Unit and an advisor to the American government said the US considers both China and Russia as a threat in the cyber world, taking into consideration the fact that “Russia is best at military espionage and operations…and China’s main focus is stealing technology.”

The US is widely regarded as one of the initiators of cyber warfare and is known to have launched cyber attacks on other nations, including the Islamic Republic of Iran.