- The City of Harbin claims that three NSA agents and two universities participated in attacks on the country’s critical infrastructure
- The attacks would have taken place during Asian winter games
- They included the execution of preinstalled “preinstalled” malicious software
Chinese authorities have accused the US National Security Agency (NSA) and a pair of American universities, of leading cyber attacks on the country’s critical infrastructure.
A report from the Harbin City Public Security Bureau said that three NSA agents were involved, as well as the University of California and Virginia Tech, in the attacks, which took place during the Asian winter games in February 2025
“The American National Security Agency (NSA) has launched cyber attacks against important industries such as energy, transport, water conservation, communications and national defense research institutions in the province of Heilongjiang,” said the report.
Social disorder
Harbin is located in northeast China, in the province of Heilongjiang, which borders Russia. It is on the southern shore of the Songhua river, making it an important regional center near the Russian Far East and part of the coldest region of China.
The goal of the attacks was to sabotage the critical information infrastructure of China, it was also explained, “provoking a social disorder and the theft of important confidential information”.
There was no detail on the agents, nor how universities were involved in the attacks.
Acrturbing, they “have repeatedly carried out the cyber attacks against the critical information infrastructure of China and participated in cyber attacks against Huawei and other companies”.
The report indicates that the campaign included the activation of “specific preinstalled relief terminals” in Microsoft Windows installed on certain devices in Heilongjiang.
Cybersecurity researchers often warn against actors of the threat sponsored by the Chinese state leading cyber-spying campaigns, malicious software attacks and other forms of cybercrime against critical infrastructure in the West. However, China still denies any involvement in these activities and rather accuses the United States of being the greatest cyberbully in the world.
In fact, on an occasion, he said that Volt Typhoon, a group known by the Chinese state was, in fact, an asset of the CIA.
Via Msn
