The government in Harbin, a north-eastern Chinese city, blamed the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) for masterminding sophisticated cyber break-ins in the Asian Winter Games in February, which were aimed at critical industries like energy, communication, and defence research.
As reported by state media agency Xinhua, three suspected NSA agents have been put on a wanted list by local police and asserted that probes have implicated the University of California and Virginia Tech in the online breaches. Specifics regarding the involvement of the universities were not provided.
The report characterized the cyberattacks as efforts to destabilize China's key information systems, cause social unrest, and obtain sensitive intelligence. Officials stated that the NSA used pre-installed vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows systems in Heilongjiang province to carry out the attacks.
The suspects are also alleged to have been targeting Chinese infrastructure repeatedly and involved in hacking campaigns against leading technology companies, such as Huawei. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing has not commented on the allegations.
The allegations come as the U.S. and China have raised tensions between the two countries, such as existing trade disputes, travel alerts for Chinese nationals, and halting the importation of U.S. films into China.
