USA accuses China of hacking

The US government reports a large-scale hacker attack on several American telecommunications companies. Dozens of other countries are also affected. The White House accuses China of being behind the attack.

The White House has accused China of a large-scale hacker attack on several US telecommunications companies and dozens of other countries. Through the actions, officials in Beijing gained access to private text messages and telephone conversations of an as yet unknown number of US citizens, said Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger. Accordingly, at least eight telecommunications companies in the USA are said to be affected.

Even more companies affected?

White House officials warned that the number of American companies and countries affected could rise. The US government assumes that hackers could also have accessed messages from high-ranking US government members and well-known politicians, Neuberger explained in a call with reporters.

However, the White House does not assume that confidential information was disclosed. President Joe Biden has been informed of the findings. The priority for the White House is that the federal government does everything it can to get to the bottom of it.

China denies hacker attack

Just this week, the FBI and the US Agency for Cyber ​​and Infrastructure Security issued guidelines to help curb hacker activity and prevent future cases of cyber espionage.

In response to the guidelines, the Chinese embassy in Washington denied being responsible for a hacker attack. Rather, the United States should stop carrying out its own cyberattacks on other countries and refrain from using the issue to tarnish China's reputation, said embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu. The Chinese Embassy did not initially respond to requests for comment on the latest allegations from the White House.