China refutes "irresponsible" accusation of cyber-attacks

Source: Xinhua | 04-23-2009 22:06

BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday said that it was irresponsible to allege on that cyber-attacks originated in China without thorough investigation.

"We have reiterated many times our policies of firmly opposing and severely cracking down on all crimes that damage the Internet, including hacking," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular press conference.

Jiang's remarks came in response to a question saying that the U.S. government planned to create a new military command focusing on Pentagon computer networks and offensive capabilities in cyber warfare. The plan was reported to protect its networks from attacks by hackers.

According to some media reports, the attacks seemed to have originated in China, although it was difficult to determine the origin because of the ease of hiding identities online.

"It is rather irresponsible to easily affirm or allege, even without thorough investigation, that cyber-attacks originated in China," Jiang said.