Chinese embassy in Netherlands rejects ‘groundless’ Dutch hacking claims
- Dutch government accused Chinese hackers of conducting a spying campaign against the Netherlands
- The Chinese embassy said China opposes ‘any malicious speculations and groundless accusations’
Chinese state-backed cyber spies gained access to a Dutch military network last year, Dutch intelligence agencies said on Tuesday, calling it part of a trend of Chinese political espionage against the Netherlands and its allies.
The Chinese embassy in the Netherlands on Wednesday condemned the “groundless accusations”.
It is the first time the Netherlands has publicly attributed cyber espionage to China, as national security tensions grow between the two countries.
“It is important to ensure that espionage activities of this nature committed by China become public knowledge since this will help to increase international resilience to this type of cyber espionage,” Dutch Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren said.
The agencies, known by their Dutch acronyms MIVD and AIVD, said the hackers had placed malicious software, or malware, that cloaked its own activity inside an armed forces network used by 50 people for unclassified research.
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“MIVD & AIVD emphasise that this incident does not stand on its own, but is part of a wider trend of Chinese political espionage against the Netherlands and its allies,” they said in their report.