Chinese hackers behind ‘reckless’ attack on Microsoft Exchange earlier this year, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says
CHINESE hackers were behind the "reckless" cyber attack on Microsoft Exchange servers earlier this year, the Foreign Secretary has said.
Dominic Raab confirmed today that Chinese state-backed actors were responsible for the malicious attacks that took place in January.
"The cyber attack on Microsoft Exchange Server by Chinese state-backed groups was a reckless but familiar pattern of behaviour," Mr Raab said.
";The Chinese Government must end this systematic cyber sabotage and can expect to be held account if it does not."
The Government is blaming the Chinese Ministry of State Security for using criminal contract hackers.
In January hackers targeted companies with demands for millions of pounds.
According to the , the attack was done to enable "large-scale espionage" including stealing people's identifiable information and intellectual property.
Credible evidence has led UK officials to understand that China continues to engage in similiar cyber attacks.
The Chinese government has continued to ignore calls to end its "reckless campaign", the Foreign Office said.
Today the Biden administration joined the UK in blaming China for the Microsoft hack that compromised tens of thousands of computers around the world.
A senior White House official told reporters today that the hackers associated with the Ministry of State Security carried out the ransomware attack.
The European Union also blamed China for what it said were malicious cyber activities.
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Government institutions and political organisations in the EU and its 27 member states were targeted by the hackers.
The Microsoft Exchange hack was first identified in January and was rapidly attributed to Chinese cyberspies.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, asked about the Microsoft hack, has previously said that China firmly opposes and combats cyber attacks and cyber theft in all forms and cautioned that attribution of cyberattacks should be based on evidence and not groundless accusations.